Advance Review: ‘Time Before Time’ #27 Builds Toward The Series’ Climax
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
Readers will accept straightforward stories if they are told in a compelling way, which is precisely what happens in this issue. Strong writing, high stakes and characters we’ve come to care about make this a page-turner.
Overall
8.5/10When it comes to time travel, things can get confusing. In Time Before Time, with multiple characters in multiple era all at once, storylines can occasionally be downright incomprehensible without frequent rereading.
That’s what makes this issue – and the series’ final story arc – stand out. It tells an interesting tale in a straightforward way, even with people and robots skipping through time.
At its core, issue #27 is a setup and chase story. Nadia has been doing the masked vigilante thing against the mob-like Syndicate – running around through tie to sabotage their operations. The Syndicate has set a trap for her, one it knows she cannot resist. Ditto with her friends in another era, Tatsuo and the robot Kevin. So the pair race through time to stop her from being captured or worse.
Writers Rory McConville and Declan Shalvey tell a simple story here, but it’s done in a way that sucks the reader in. The tension builds throughout the issue as the trap is laid, sprung and then resolved. It’s a cat-and-mouse game, though who is playing which role isn’t clear until the last page. And with the series ending in two issues, the stakes have never been higher.
The writers also go out of their way to remind us that Tatuso, whom Nadia believes is dead, is still suffering from radiation sickness. There is no cure, just a treatment provided by the Syndicate, which Tatsuo has recently escaped from. Again, McConville and Shavley know how to play with readers’ emotions.
Illustrator Geoffo, whose artwork is a bit of an acquired taste, gives his best effort in this issue, though the final fight scene is slightly confusing. Colorist Chris O’Halloran does a nice job of changing up his mood of each time period – one bright, shiny and optimistic while the period with the trap is set is dark and foreboding.
The creative team has its work cut out for it if it’s going to wrap up the story in the next two issues. But if this chapter is any indication, getting there will be more than half the fun.
Time Before Time #27 will be available for purchase on Wednesday.
