COMEBACK by Ed Brisson Michael Walsh is fast-paced action-packed time travel story; a thriller, with time travel as its central mechanic.
Mark and Seth are agents for the illegal agency Reconnect – for an inflated price, they’ll go back in time to save people from their untimely demise. But the FBI have noticed the anomalies they’ve created, and are on the hunt – which coincides with the spectacular failure of their most recent mission, and the decision by their employers to burn the whole operation to the ground to protect themselves.
It’s a convoluted plot, but writer Brisson keeps the narrative on the straight-and-narrow by avoiding soliloquies about time travel technology, and the dangers of it, and instead keeps the focus on the two main characters, the rocket-fast plot; there’s no time for monologues, there’s a story to tell, dammit!
Although the plot flits back and forth between past and present, and there’s no subtle change in colour palette to mark the transition, we’re never questioning which timeline we’re viewing – and when we do, it’s intentional, and for the sake of a dramatic reveal.
Walsh is the perfect artist for a project like this; his pencils are rough and gritty, but his storytelling ability is superb. His work would be perfect for a crime comic, but just as suitable for a street-level sci-fi comic.
COMEBACK is a short, but very sweet, thrill-ride. While there is room for deeper character exploration, maybe the elongation of certain moments, it’s great seeing a creative team tell the story they want to tell, then pull away; always leave the reader wanting more, they say. To that, I ask: when do we get a sequel?
Simon McDonald 