Title: Timebreakers: Conclusion
Published By: Marvel Comics
Writer: Tony Bedard
Artist: Mizuki Sakakibara
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Colorist: JC
Cover Artist: Jim Calafiore
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Once upon a time, Judd Winnick used to write for Marvel Comics. His main contribution was a little title that was part WHAT IF?!, part SLIDERS, and part QUANTUM LEAP. A team of mutants were bounded about the multiverse to fix problems as dictated to them by the Timebroker.
It’s unknown whether it was Bedard’s sole idea to take this concept and unravel it, or if Winnick had this idea all along, but here we are – 65 issues from it’s inception, and Exiles is about to take a drastic turn into … well.. err… we don’t know yet.
STORY!
Revealed to us over the Timebreaker storyline, the entire leaping process was in fact a bunch of bugs who have been trying to fix mistakes that they made on their own. Near the beginning of Bedard’s run, the megapowered Hyperion caused our Exiles nothing but grief, and yet again – here he was.
Hyperion had taken control of the Nexus (He is here.. we call him Iain Burnside) and had been directing the Exiles around. They couldn’t defeat Hyperion again, and in fact, seemed to be completely done for.. until the bugs woke up the most amazing X-Man ever… Beak! Yeah, I groaned too. Beak was fated to help them, so he summoned up two more good guy Hyperions and the fight waged on.
The battle was fought with each character getting their shining moment. Not everyone survives, and the final defeat of evil-Hyperion is pretty damned interesting. I will even go as far as to say that the uses of powers, both bad and good guys, was exceptionally well thought out. Even though, with all good things… there was a problem.
My problem came here, at the end of the book – quite literally the last page – where Beak tells the other two Hyperions that he doesn’t want them to control the Nexus of Realities, he’ll do it. That’s fine, it’s a dramatic sacrifice. Moments after they leave Beak says he didn’t mean it.
He lied to them.. and now we’re completely confused as to what’s going to go on next. Meh.
ART!
Sakakibara does not hold a candle to the standard team of McKenna and Calafiore. I don’t mind her, and her art isn’t bad at all – I just love the other team. Knowing that Pelletier is taking the next arc also makes me cry a little inside.
Either way, the art is fine – no qualms.
OVERALL!
So next month, the book doesn’t so much relaunch, but redefines itself. I guess that makes sense with a book that has been mostly strong for 65 issues. So, I would have been fine if the Hyperii had taken over, or if Beak took over, or if we found out that the Time Broker was a real entity (that would have been my REAL preference).
I just didn’t feel excitement for next month’s issue.. maybe that’s because I know that Beak is back. Ech.
Oh well, 23 pages of a great comic and one bad page isn’t so bad… is it?
