Review: Chrononauts #4

I stand by my review for the first issue. It was a good issue that took a different approach to time travel and I was looking forward to seeing where it would go. Then I read the second issue and wanted off the ride, but I kept going because fuck it, it’s only four issues. This issue and subsequently the entire series teaches us that there are no consequences to a Mark Millar time traveling story. And that’s the thing about time travel, it has to have consequences. If you change history you change everything so the fact that there are no consequences and you can basically be an unlikeable fuckhead as long as you have a big heart and can fix all your mistakes in the end then it’s okay. Right?

That’s this issue in a nut shell. Corbin is stupidly left for dead and he instead escapes and goes to find the rogue suit of a dead man so he can save his friend. After that Danny tells him they have to fix everything they fucked up which they don’t bother explaining how they do that exactly, but it happens.

Chrononauts-#4-1Then the thing that I sadly predicted after reading the first issue happened… he fixes his own life by being in two places at once so that there’s no paradox of him creating a time machine… but that’s the only paradox the story worries about. Then cue the overly happy ending, minus Danny’s ridiculously slapstick ending and that’s a four issue series not worth reading.

I was hopeful about this series. I haven’t read or enjoyed Mark Millar’s stories for about a decade now and this one is just another for the pile. With this series he’s officially become a creator I will not read anymore because he’s just producing Hollywood scripts and not very good ones at that. Now granted I’m glad that he is finally moving away from being all doom and gloom, but when you just go with the mega super happy ending that makes everyone smile and cheer then you’re clearly out of your fucking element.

Sean Gordon Murphy is still the biggest waste of this series. He’s never given the chance to be a visual storyteller, instead he’s reduced to illustrating scenes to make the reader pop. I still think that Millar just asked him if he could illustrate a bunch of random shit that he wanted to personally see.

“Can you draw some Samurai’s on a tank?”

“Sure, but what does that add to the story?”

“…possible merchandising?”

“Are you asking or telling?”

“…both?”

I have no idea if that’s what happened, but that’s how it looks to me as an outside party. Sure Murphy can illustrate like a motherfucker, but if I wanted to see him illustrate a bunch of random shit I would just ask him on Twitter or DeviantART or better yet… a "how to book." It just comes across as a waste of his talent. When Fox picks it up for a movie deal I hope he gets a good chunk so he can take on riskier projects that challenge him artistically.

If you don’t get it, then I really despise this issue and series. Because the ending makes everything else worth it in the end. I can’t just read the first issue over and over and be happy because it’s not the complete story and the complete story is just a poorly written movie script in which our characters have no conscious and zero consequences. For the cost of this series you could go see an actual movie so I would recommend that instead. Also it may be a double-sized issue hence the price of six bucks, but it still reads like a twenty-two page issue.


Score: 2/5


Chrononauts #4 Writer: Mark Millar Artist: Sean Gordon Murphy Publisher: Image Comics Price: $5.99 Release Date: 6/10/15 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital