Review: Time Travel Goes Awry In ‘The Circus’

We all know the dangers of time travel from decades of sci-fi stories, but that won’t stop people from trying it out. The risk is worth the reward. Such is the case with The Circus, a graphic novel that threatens to break the space-time continuum with its adventures.

Kora works for Pearlman Rizzer, the man who created the time drive, enabling her to travel through time to retrieve some mysterious artifacts. He’s basically like Steve Jobs mixed with Jeff Bezos. When things go horribly wrong on her last mission, Kora scrambles to pick up the pieces and find her way home.
Writer Joseph Browder introduces some pretty cool ideas in The Circus. The way Rizzer’s organization works allows for it to operate in such a way that should preserve humanity’s greatest treasures while not destroying the timeline. “Should” is the key word there.

Unfortunately, there’s quite a lot of information to sift through and this can be rather exposition-heavy at times. There’s a lot to digest and this often feels like a history lesson. This kills the story’s momentum as we have to take the time to go through all of these explanations. There are new ones waiting after every story beat too, which disrupts the overall flow.
Letterer Ian Sharman has the unenviable job of working this massive amount of dialogue into the page without disrupting the artwork. He manages to keep this moving, guiding us through each conversation, although there are a lot of balloons on the page. That is obviously not his fault.

Juan Manuel Almiron’s artwork fits the tone the story is reaching for. There’s a mix of sleek costumes and bombastic action, coupled with out-of-this-world technology and a heaping helping of adventure. While the mood is spot on, the forms leave something to be desired. They look unpolished, like they need one more pass or some solid inks to tighten them up. The people often appear flat, like paper dolls assembled on the page.
The Circus has all the makings of a sci-fi thriller, however the pieces don’t come together. There are some great ideas introduced, but the story is crushed under the weight of all the details.
The Circus from Markosia Enterprises is currently available at your local comic shop or digitally through ComiXology and Amazon Kindle.