Comic Book Review: Time Bomb #3 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Paul Gulacy

Radical Comics’ three-ish mini-series, Time Bomb, shot to its explosive finale this month: as in the first two issues, scripters Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray slather on the r-rated violence and language, even providing a phallic joke that caught this reader off guard. The violent sci-fi war actioner concerns a quarrelsome quartet (is there any other kind in these stories?) that is sent back in time to prevent the unintentional launching of a Nazi missile loaded with a particularly virulent bio-weapon. The still experimental time traveling procedure is intended to send our heroes to a day before the missile is discovered, but instead they go all the way back to Nazi Germany where, naturally, they decide to try and nip the whole project in the bud.

As the third issue opens, part of our group has been captured by the Nazis alongside a shapely British agent, while the rest of the crew try and figure out a way to break into the underground city where both the missile and their imprisoned comrade are housed. There’s an inevitable interrogation sequence, a scene where one of the group has to hold off an army all by himself, a guest appearance by Der Fuhrer hisself plus a bit where the distaff member of the group becomes a knife-wielding naked super-being for all of fifteen seconds. Artist Paul Gulacy pulls the latter sequence off with his usual slick élan, even if the gimmick does seem to have come out of nowhere.

That insufficiently set-up credulity strainer aside, Time Bomb proves an
agreeable read. If I don’t see it being turned into a moviehouse feature, I bet it’d make for a pleasurable Syfy Channel teleflick. They’ll have to ratchet down some of the language, of course.