Time Corps #1

By Nate Wunderman, Neal Yamamoto, Ken Watanabe, Josephine Roberts, Ron Fontes, Justin Fontes

“Time to revise history.”

Writer and creator Nate Wunderman jumps into the world of time-travel with issue #1 of Time Corps. When it becomes apparent that someone is traveling around through time to change history, it’s time to put together a team to stop him. Wunderman and a bevy of collaborators use this issue to give us an idea as to how these teams are assembled as he sets up the new world of his comic. The process of acquiring the team is pretty cool, so we won’t get into much detail in that regard (you should read this and see for yourself), but something Wunderman does well with this story is jump us around to various time periods, while for the most part keeping up with dialect from each one (something amplified by letterers Ron and Justin Fontes).

On the artwork side of this issue is Neal Yamamoto on inks and breakdowns, Ken Watanabe on pencils, Josephine Roberts on colors, with Ron and Justin Fontes on letters. Watanabe does a great job of creating the various locations we visit throughout this issue, his art amplified by both Yamamoto and Roberts. One of the locations we see is Chichen Itza, 995 A.D as we’re placed right into the middle of a ballgame, one where the captain of the losing team is sacrificed. Throughout this look into the past we get a lot of great action shots by the artists of this series. One of the best shots comes when we see the opposing teams staring each other down before the start of the game (the captains of either side have a bit of a grudge with each other…). Each team is given different bright colors to wear as they fight for the ball throughout the panels as the game begins, one team wearing bright red and yellow, the other with purple and blue. The page starts the action and even gives a look at the crowd at the bottom of it, the bulk of the game taking place in this one action loaded page.

Something else done well in this issue is the lettering by Ron and Justin Fontes. When traveling back to different eras we get a different style of text for various characters. Something done when we reach a character who speaks Russian, rather than mention the text is being translated, is we see the letters becoming jumbled – some appearing backward or with slashes in them. This play on the letters gives the impression that you’re translating the words as reading them, something unique and fun they decided to add to the reading experience of the issue.

Issue #1 of Time Corps gives us a look into a few different time periods and introduces an array of different characters, each with their own personal struggles to deal with. Writer Nate Wunderman does a great job constructing the story with enough suspense to keep you on your toes. We’re given a problem right from the get-go that needs fixing, but are kept in the dark as to who the real hero really is. The artists on this issue are given a lot of different scenarios to play around with, even giving us the chance to see some people from history you might recognize.