Story Title: Divine Time, Part IV of IV
Reviewer: Paul Sebert
Writer: Roberto Aguiire-Sacasa
Pencils: Jim Muniz
Inks: Derek Fridolfs
Coloring: Brian Reber & Sotocolor’s A. Crossley
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Warren Simons
Publisher: The Mighty Marvel Publishing Group
Seriously, if there’s one thing that comic publishers need to put a moratorium on its gratuitous character deaths. If I get to name two things, my other choice would be time travel stories. I swear in the last two years I’ve read some 60 time-travel stories, about half of which were written by Geoff Johns.
The latest arc of Marvel Knights 4 is yet another time travel yarn in which Ramades, the evil son of future time traveler Kang has come from ancient Egypt to conquer the present. He does this by sending Reed Richards, Sue Storm, and Ben Grimm to an even more ancient version of Egypt, while Johnny Storm is trapped in an alternate future ruled by Doctor Doom. Thankfully they escape with the help of a future version of Valeria, and Reed’s time traveling father Nathaniel who was also trapped in the past. Meanwhile in the present day Franklin Richards and H.E.R.B.I.E the robot may have discovered the secret to defeating Ramades while the Time Variance Authority watches on.
See it’s all easy to understand.
Ouch… Ouch… Ouch… Now my head hurts. Honest Sacasa is a shoe-in for this year’s
“Christopher Priest Award For Excellence in Convolution.”
Anyway what this issue basically boils down to is a huge slugfest between the FF and Ramades having a huge slugfest in the streets of Los Vegas. Thanks to Ramades time-altering Eriol-esc staff, our villain is able to do all kinds of nifty tricks. In one sequence he holds off the FF by summoning Nazis, Mummies, and those velociraptors Gert’s parents from Runaways liked so much.
The fight scene is stunning thanks to Jim Muniz’s art and Sacasa’s dialog is, as always, smart and snappy. I liked seeing the book take a more action-packed story arc that it’s usually more down to earth approach for a change, and the manner in which Ramades is defeated us is so over the top I was unable to help but smile.
That said, I am still trying to make heads or tails the story arch that predated it. There are these questions inherent with the time travel genre that always gives me headaches. Like did Ramades know Doom ruled the future Johnny got sent to? And if so was he willing to accept the fact that Doom was inevitably going to usurp control from him? And what if Iron Lad who is in fact Kang dies in the pages of Young Avengers? Does this mean Ramades never existed and thus this arc never happened?
