Review by Leroy Douresseaux

Time Bomb is a new science fiction comic book created and written by Jimmy Palmiotti andJustin Gray (Jonah Hex, Power Girl) and drawn by Paul Gulacy.  It is a tale of time travel, Nazis, and an apocalyptic virus.

Time Bomb #1 opens in the year 2012.  Beneath the streets of modern-day Berlin, archeologists stumble upon and then accidentally activate the Omega Bomb, Hitler’s ultimate doomsday weapon designed to wipe out the human race.  The N.W.O., a mysterious global entity, sends a quartet of specialists back through time to the day before the bomb was discovered to stop the bomb from ever going off.

Well, that was the plan.  The specialists actually end up in the heart of Germany, in the midst of World War II.  Now, they have to take on the Nazis to stop the bomb from ever being built.

THE LOWDOWN:  Simply put, this first issue of Time Bomb is a riveting read – from the first page to the last.  Its intriguing plot skirts the razor’s edge between suspense and mystery and in-your-face thrills.  Paul Gulacy’s art combines graphic beauty and potent, compelling storytelling.  After over 30 years in the business, Gulacy is still better than most of the hot, young comic book artists because Gulacy’s art never offers empty calories.  He is the real deal, and so is Time Bomb.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for Inception-like thrills should try Time Bomb.

A

Click on the image below to go to this article. 

by Bill Sherman

A slick if somewhat nonsensical sci-fi actioner, Time Bomb (Radical Comics) opens on the discovery of an underground Nazi city with a missile that amazingly launches after all these years (kinda like the fantastically resilient cigarette lighter in Wall-E) when its trigger is tripped by agents of the ironically(?) named New World Order investigating it. Said missile proves to have a virulent virus so aggressive “it makes Ebola look like a runny nose.” Unchecked, it will wipe out most of the planet within 72 hours. What to do? Sent a quartet of agents back in time to prevent the missile from being launched, of course.

Our foursome is a fairly standard grouping: quarrelsome newly divorced couple, sociopathic licensed-to-killer, NWO agent whose disdain for the regs is typified by his refusal to obey the no smoking signs in the office. As drawn by seasoned comics pro Paul Gulacy, they’re an attractive bunch for all their familiarity, though. Scripters Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (Jonah Hex) treat their “mature readers” confection with gobs of ruthless violence — when the missile launches we can see it decimate much of Berlin, while the panels of bubo-laden plague victims are all suitably icky. Who’s responsible for this bioengineered chaos is a mystery at the end of the first of this three-ish mini-series, but I’m betting the original vanished scientist responsible for the creating the time traveling tech is somehow connected to the underground city’s anachronistic gadgetry.

On the basis of its opener, Time Bomb looks to be a decent little popcorn comic book mini-series. Just try not to get some of that fake butter crap on the pages when you’re reading it, okay?

To read more from Blog Critic, click on the link below.

by Bill Sherman

A slick if somewhat nonsensical sci-fi actioner, Time Bomb (Radical Comics) opens on the discovery of an underground Nazi city with a missile that amazingly launches after all these years (kinda like the fantastically resilient cigarette lighter in Wall-E) when its trigger is tripped by agents of the ironically(?) named New World Order investigating it. Said missile proves to have a virulent virus so aggressive “it makes Ebola look like a runny nose.” Unchecked, it will wipe out most of the planet within 72 hours. What to do? Sent a quartet of agents back in time to prevent the missile from being launched, of course.

Our foursome is a fairly standard grouping: quarrelsome newly divorced couple, sociopathic licensed-to-killer, NWO agent whose disdain for the regs is typified by his refusal to obey the no smoking signs in the office. As drawn by seasoned comics pro Paul Gulacy, they’re an attractive bunch for all their familiarity, though. Scripters Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (Jonah Hex) treat their “mature readers” confection with gobs of ruthless violence — when the missile launches we can see it decimate much of Berlin, while the panels of bubo-laden plague victims are all suitably icky. Who’s responsible for this bioengineered chaos is a mystery at the end of the first of this three-ish mini-series, but I’m betting the original vanished scientist responsible for the creating the time traveling tech is somehow connected to the underground city’s anachronistic gadgetry.

On the basis of its opener, Time Bomb looks to be a decent little popcorn comic book mini-series. Just try not to get some of that fake butter crap on the pages when you’re reading it, okay?

To read more from Blog Critic, click on the link below.

 Check it out at the 48 second mark. During the interview with Nerd Society president Franco Te, you’ll see a rather large Time Bomb #1 to the left, behind a Joker figurine. Thanks very much for the book plug, guys.

TIME BOMB #1

Radical Comics

Review by Ambush Bug

This is the type of comic book a comic fan jaded by the same old same old longs for. A mash-up of sci fi and the DIRTY DOZEN with heavy helpings of the coolest aspects of both. A Doomsday device is uncovered in an abandoned Berlin bunker unleashing a bomb containing a plague that will kill the entire planet in 72 hours. An abandoned military project involving time travel seems to be the only hope. Trouble is, the tech is tricky and when a military team is assembled to take out the bomb before it was discovered, they soon realize that they’ve been zapped to the heart of WWII. Written by uber-scribes Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray, this story only teases with just enough sci fi to be fun without over explaining or lingering on things like paradoxes. Once the team is shot into the past, it’s pure action movie with a team of crusty pros with modern weapons facing down Nazis. This book is pure gold and far and above one of the best comics Radical has ever produced. To top it all off, the crisp and distinctive style of Paul Gulacy brings Palmiotti and Gray’s words to life. Just fantastic comic booking going on in this issue and I can’t wait for issue #2.

Click the image below to see the review.

TIME BOMB #1

Radical Comics

Review by Ambush Bug

This is the type of comic book a comic fan jaded by the same old same old longs for. A mash-up of sci fi and the DIRTY DOZEN with heavy helpings of the coolest aspects of both. A Doomsday device is uncovered in an abandoned Berlin bunker unleashing a bomb containing a plague that will kill the entire planet in 72 hours. An abandoned military project involving time travel seems to be the only hope. Trouble is, the tech is tricky and when a military team is assembled to take out the bomb before it was discovered, they soon realize that they’ve been zapped to the heart of WWII. Written by uber-scribes Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray, this story only teases with just enough sci fi to be fun without over explaining or lingering on things like paradoxes. Once the team is shot into the past, it’s pure action movie with a team of crusty pros with modern weapons facing down Nazis. This book is pure gold and far and above one of the best comics Radical has ever produced. To top it all off, the crisp and distinctive style of Paul Gulacy brings Palmiotti and Gray’s words to life. Just fantastic comic booking going on in this issue and I can’t wait for issue #2.

Click the image below to see the review.

TIME BOMB #1

Radical Comics

Review by Ambush Bug

This is the type of comic book a comic fan jaded by the same old same old longs for. A mash-up of sci fi and the DIRTY DOZEN with heavy helpings of the coolest aspects of both. A Doomsday device is uncovered in an abandoned Berlin bunker unleashing a bomb containing a plague that will kill the entire planet in 72 hours. An abandoned military project involving time travel seems to be the only hope. Trouble is, the tech is tricky and when a military team is assembled to take out the bomb before it was discovered, they soon realize that they’ve been zapped to the heart of WWII. Written by uber-scribes Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray, this story only teases with just enough sci fi to be fun without over explaining or lingering on things like paradoxes. Once the team is shot into the past, it’s pure action movie with a team of crusty pros with modern weapons facing down Nazis. This book is pure gold and far and above one of the best comics Radical has ever produced. To top it all off, the crisp and distinctive style of Paul Gulacy brings Palmiotti and Gray’s words to life. Just fantastic comic booking going on in this issue and I can’t wait for issue #2.

Click the image below to see the review.

 Featuring a Time Bomb interview with Jimmy Palmiotti & Paul Gulacy, a special Exile interview with creators Keith Arem and Adam Lawson and closing with an interview with Radical’s Barry Levine.

Click the image below to have a listen.

 Featuring a Time Bomb interview with Jimmy Palmiotti & Paul Gulacy, a special Exile interview with creators Keith Arem and Adam Lawson and closing with an interview with Radical’s Barry Levine.

Click the image below to have a listen.

 Featuring a Time Bomb interview with Jimmy Palmiotti & Paul Gulacy, a special Exile interview with creators Keith Arem and Adam Lawson and closing with an interview with Radical’s Barry Levine.

Click the image below to have a listen.

Time Bomb#1 (Published by Radical; Review by Lan Pitts): Talk about genuine creativity here. Essentially, in the future, an underground city was discovered in Berlin where a hand-selected members of the Third Reich were going to stay, while a missile was activated and spread the mother of all viruses. Well, of course nothing goes according to plan, but I guess if the Nazis had it their way, better late than never I suppose. So, the missile is accidentally launched and the virus is spread and will destroy all life in an estimated three days. The solution? Go back in time to warn the government about the missile and the threat. What actually happens is that the small time-traveling team is sent back too far and they are now in WWII during the Nazi regime. Fully equipped to the T with modern day weaponry. So the question is, will they pull a Sam Beckett and change history for the better? It brings up a lot of questions, and I'm a sucker for a good time travel story. With fifty-four pages and NO ads, this book just can't be beat. If you know anything about Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, you know they make a dynamite team. Paul Gulacy's art is exquisite, adding to the serious tone for the book with proper inking that gives it the action movie feel. Rain Beredo's color also mesh well with what's going on, using lots of dark colors. Time Bomb is a fine example of compelling story telling and I would easily recommend this to anybody looking for something a bit out of the ordinary. It is for a more mature reader, but nothing to the degree of say anything out of the Vertigo line. If you're a fan of history, twist-ory, time travel and adventure, give this mini-series a shot.

To read more reviews from Landroid's Basement, click the image below.

Time Bomb#1 (Published by Radical; Review by Lan Pitts): Talk about genuine creativity here. Essentially, in the future, an underground city was discovered in Berlin where a hand-selected members of the Third Reich were going to stay, while a missile was activated and spread the mother of all viruses. Well, of course nothing goes according to plan, but I guess if the Nazis had it their way, better late than never I suppose. So, the missile is accidentally launched and the virus is spread and will destroy all life in an estimated three days. The solution? Go back in time to warn the government about the missile and the threat. What actually happens is that the small time-traveling team is sent back too far and they are now in WWII during the Nazi regime. Fully equipped to the T with modern day weaponry. So the question is, will they pull a Sam Beckett and change history for the better? It brings up a lot of questions, and I'm a sucker for a good time travel story. With fifty-four pages and NO ads, this book just can't be beat. If you know anything about Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, you know they make a dynamite team. Paul Gulacy's art is exquisite, adding to the serious tone for the book with proper inking that gives it the action movie feel. Rain Beredo's color also mesh well with what's going on, using lots of dark colors. Time Bomb is a fine example of compelling story telling and I would easily recommend this to anybody looking for something a bit out of the ordinary. It is for a more mature reader, but nothing to the degree of say anything out of the Vertigo line. If you're a fan of history, twist-ory, time travel and adventure, give this mini-series a shot.

To read more reviews from Landroid's Basement, click the image below.

 Conducted by iFanboy.com, Jimmy Palmiotti and Paul Gulacy discuss their newest miniseries, Time Bomb from Radical Publishing.

http://revision3.com/ifanboy/sandiego2010part2#seek=800:1111

 Conducted by iFanboy.com, Jimmy Palmiotti and Paul Gulacy discuss their newest miniseries, Time Bomb from Radical Publishing.

http://revision3.com/ifanboy/sandiego2010part2#seek=800:1111

Reviews by Christina "RogueNurse" Weber

It really is bizarre for a small name company to release so many titles in one week, but Radical Studios has done just that.  These reviews are of only Radical releases that came out this week.  All other comics will be in their own review in the next few days.  I have to say that I was epically impressed with these titles, especially since it’s abnormal to see so much good stuff all at once from one of the smaller companies.  Props to you, Radical!

After Dark #1 of 3: For something that was created by a famous actor I have to say that I’m sincerely impressed!  After Dark was created by Wesley Snipes (yes, THE Wesley Snipes) and Antione Fuqua, and written by Peter Milligan.  It takes place in a distant future that’s been polluted so badly there is very little sunlight and only large cities are able to stay alight for longer than 3 hours or so.  Solar City is the place the story starts; a city corrupted by crime, drugs, and civil unrest causing frequent rioting.  The main character is a guy named Omar who can “read the sky” and apparently detect weather patterns and directions that only a select few, called Bedouins, can accomplish.  He, along with a handful of both military and civilian troops, are hired to find Angel, who assumedly can fix the world and bring back the light, but no one has seen her in over a decade and no one’s even sure if she’s still alive.  The key on this adventure will be keeping themselves alive while searching for Angel in the dark world they all live in.  I’m liking this so far, both for the story and the art.  Jeff Nentrup does a great job creating both people and environments to draw you into the story.  It’s $4.99, but since you get 52 pages of story it’s not a bad deal.

Driver of the Dead #1 of 3: Oh wow…just…freekin’ wow!  This is effin’ awesome!  Alright, you’ve gotta try to follow me here because the description may sound a little confusing at first, but it’s totally worth it.  First off, props to John Heffernan who wrote the thing and Leonardo Manco for the brilliant art.  The story starts out in Shreveport, Louisiana where healer Moses Freeman is on his way to…well…heal a young boy who’s gone sick.  Turns out that he’s been the victim of an angry Hoodoo witch who’s somehow gotten him possessed.  Fear not, though, because Moses will save the day!  Until he dies.  But this is where the whole “Driver of the Dead” comes into play.  Apparently ol’ Moses was ready for the day he capped off and had instructions to call Alabaster Graves specifically to chauffeur his body to a proper burial.  Mr. Graves is the driver, if you hadn’t guessed, who specializes in driving bodies which die from a mystical death, be that vampirism, Hoodoo, magic, or what have you.  He also meets his share of mystical shenanigans during his treks.  Oh man, this is really good stuff.  If you’re a fan of any type of horror comics then you need to be picking this up for sure.  I’m a wuss when it comes to horror and I even enjoyed it!  Thoroughly!!  And I’m really looking forward to the next issue!  $4.99.

Hotwire #1 of 3: “Alice Hotwire, Metro Police Detective Exorcist.”  Interesting way to be introduced to a character, and incredibly effective apparently.  This is the  second installment using Detective Hotwire, the first was in Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead.  Alice has been on hiatus from the force for 6 months after burning her arm off, and now that she’s spent that time lounging about playing video games and hanging with the ghost of her ex-boyfriend, she’s ready to get back to work.  If I were to describe this to someone who’s reading it for the first time, I’d say that it’s futuristic Ghostbusters on crack with Alice leading the charge.  She’s the smart one on the team, though, while most of the others seem to be grunts with guns.  This Steve Pugh/Warren Ellis book is yet another hit for Radical that I’m going to keep reading.  $3.50.

Ryder on the Storm – Premiere: This pulpy little number is another $1.00 release.  For only a buck you can’t really go wrong, and that holds true for this issue.  David Hine is the brains behind this one, and his title character, Ryder, is a private investigator who’s just been called in by girl who’s boyfriend just killed himself.  11 drill holes through the head is certainly a unique way to go.  There’s not a lot of meat to this one yet, but I’m sure following issues will fix that.  As I said before, you can’t really go wrong when it’s only $1.00.

Time Bomb #1: This is the one on I’ve really been looking forward to because it’s written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, two of my favorite writers on the market.  The story here is set in 2012.  After the collapse of a subway tunnel in Berlin causes the discovery of a secret Nazi bunker, all kinds of government geeks cone in to investigate.  Unfortunately, their sneaky little investigating causes the launch of an old Nazi bio-missile that releases a virus over the city and starts rapidly spreading across the globe.  The only hope for the world is for a team of specialists to go back in time and stop the launch from happening.  But time travel, you say?  Two years from now?  That’s preposterous!  Well, it was until our dear President Obama decided to refund the research!  I guess government is good for something after all.  This is yet another winner that I’m going to be keeping my eyes on.  It’s another $4.99, but it’s also 51 pages of story that are well worth reading.

Reviews by Christina "RogueNurse" Weber

It really is bizarre for a small name company to release so many titles in one week, but Radical Studios has done just that.  These reviews are of only Radical releases that came out this week.  All other comics will be in their own review in the next few days.  I have to say that I was epically impressed with these titles, especially since it’s abnormal to see so much good stuff all at once from one of the smaller companies.  Props to you, Radical!

After Dark #1 of 3: For something that was created by a famous actor I have to say that I’m sincerely impressed!  After Dark was created by Wesley Snipes (yes, THE Wesley Snipes) and Antione Fuqua, and written by Peter Milligan.  It takes place in a distant future that’s been polluted so badly there is very little sunlight and only large cities are able to stay alight for longer than 3 hours or so.  Solar City is the place the story starts; a city corrupted by crime, drugs, and civil unrest causing frequent rioting.  The main character is a guy named Omar who can “read the sky” and apparently detect weather patterns and directions that only a select few, called Bedouins, can accomplish.  He, along with a handful of both military and civilian troops, are hired to find Angel, who assumedly can fix the world and bring back the light, but no one has seen her in over a decade and no one’s even sure if she’s still alive.  The key on this adventure will be keeping themselves alive while searching for Angel in the dark world they all live in.  I’m liking this so far, both for the story and the art.  Jeff Nentrup does a great job creating both people and environments to draw you into the story.  It’s $4.99, but since you get 52 pages of story it’s not a bad deal.

Driver of the Dead #1 of 3: Oh wow…just…freekin’ wow!  This is effin’ awesome!  Alright, you’ve gotta try to follow me here because the description may sound a little confusing at first, but it’s totally worth it.  First off, props to John Heffernan who wrote the thing and Leonardo Manco for the brilliant art.  The story starts out in Shreveport, Louisiana where healer Moses Freeman is on his way to…well…heal a young boy who’s gone sick.  Turns out that he’s been the victim of an angry Hoodoo witch who’s somehow gotten him possessed.  Fear not, though, because Moses will save the day!  Until he dies.  But this is where the whole “Driver of the Dead” comes into play.  Apparently ol’ Moses was ready for the day he capped off and had instructions to call Alabaster Graves specifically to chauffeur his body to a proper burial.  Mr. Graves is the driver, if you hadn’t guessed, who specializes in driving bodies which die from a mystical death, be that vampirism, Hoodoo, magic, or what have you.  He also meets his share of mystical shenanigans during his treks.  Oh man, this is really good stuff.  If you’re a fan of any type of horror comics then you need to be picking this up for sure.  I’m a wuss when it comes to horror and I even enjoyed it!  Thoroughly!!  And I’m really looking forward to the next issue!  $4.99.

Hotwire #1 of 3: “Alice Hotwire, Metro Police Detective Exorcist.”  Interesting way to be introduced to a character, and incredibly effective apparently.  This is the  second installment using Detective Hotwire, the first was in Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead.  Alice has been on hiatus from the force for 6 months after burning her arm off, and now that she’s spent that time lounging about playing video games and hanging with the ghost of her ex-boyfriend, she’s ready to get back to work.  If I were to describe this to someone who’s reading it for the first time, I’d say that it’s futuristic Ghostbusters on crack with Alice leading the charge.  She’s the smart one on the team, though, while most of the others seem to be grunts with guns.  This Steve Pugh/Warren Ellis book is yet another hit for Radical that I’m going to keep reading.  $3.50.

Ryder on the Storm – Premiere: This pulpy little number is another $1.00 release.  For only a buck you can’t really go wrong, and that holds true for this issue.  David Hine is the brains behind this one, and his title character, Ryder, is a private investigator who’s just been called in by girl who’s boyfriend just killed himself.  11 drill holes through the head is certainly a unique way to go.  There’s not a lot of meat to this one yet, but I’m sure following issues will fix that.  As I said before, you can’t really go wrong when it’s only $1.00.

Time Bomb #1: This is the one on I’ve really been looking forward to because it’s written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, two of my favorite writers on the market.  The story here is set in 2012.  After the collapse of a subway tunnel in Berlin causes the discovery of a secret Nazi bunker, all kinds of government geeks cone in to investigate.  Unfortunately, their sneaky little investigating causes the launch of an old Nazi bio-missile that releases a virus over the city and starts rapidly spreading across the globe.  The only hope for the world is for a team of specialists to go back in time and stop the launch from happening.  But time travel, you say?  Two years from now?  That’s preposterous!  Well, it was until our dear President Obama decided to refund the research!  I guess government is good for something after all.  This is yet another winner that I’m going to be keeping my eyes on.  It’s another $4.99, but it’s also 51 pages of story that are well worth reading.

by Andy Liegl

Not too far away was the Radical Publishing booth where the very affable Jimmy Palmiotti was signing for his new book which came out this week, Time Bomb. Unfortunately, The Movie Lady and I didn’t have anything for him to sign. We still wanted to meet him though since his recent Power Girl run with Amanda Conner (whom he’s engaged to) ranks amongst The Movie Lady’s favorites of any comic book. I like it a lot too and was sad to see it come to an end. We told him that the recent two issues which followed their departure on the title were nothing like what he and Amanda did with the book, and he seemed as dissatisfied about it as we were. He mentioned that it felt like DC didn’t care about their run, and just made it obsolete like it had never even existed. Shame on you DC. The Conner/Palmiotti run on Power Girl are arguably the best 12 issues that character has ever appeared in.

Click the image below to read the full article.

Review by Stephen Schleicher

NAZIS. WHY’D IT HAVE TO BE NAZIS?

In 2012, the New World Order is called in to investigate a sink hole in Berlin, Germany. The team discovers a Nazi bunker and small city that has been buried since the closing days of World War II. It gets stranger as the team discovers a missile silo, where they accidentally trigger the launch of an Omega bomb that explodes over Berlin. Turns out the Nazis developed the virus of all virii that they planned on launching to destroy all humans on the surface, while 1,000 of the hand picked Reich waited out the devastation below ground. The Nazis are long gone, but the virus still lives and begins killing people left and right,very similar to the way the world crumbled in Stephen King’s The Last Stand.

The New World Order estimates that it will take 72 hours for the plague virus to wipe out every man, woman, and child on the planet, and their only chance to save the human race is to send a team of four highly trained experts back in time to stop the bomb from going off. It’s all highly experimental, and prone to going all wrong, but it is the only hope to save everyone.

I’ve become a fan of Palmiotti and Gray over the last two years, and they do an excellent job of developing a story that is set in a world where their rules make sense, and the characters work in that environment. A bulk of this issue is filled with information on how time travel works, and there is some character development as readers are introduced to the four main characters, giving us hints of what makes them tick and how they interact with one another. We don’t learn everything about their pasts, and at least one of the team members could be the loose canon if things get too intense – which it does.

Instead of sending the team (three men, one woman) back a few days to warn the NWO officials of the threat, the time bomb flings the group back to height of Nazi rule, right outside a concentration camp. The team is fully equipped with modern weapons, and while it looks like they aren’t going to be returning to their present anytime soon, they take it upon themselves to liberate the prisoners – timeline be damned. It’s certainly something that will catch a reader by surprise if they hadn’t read the solicitations, and it is a nice twist to what should be a straightforward mission.

ART

Even in this first issue (#1 of 3) there is a fair amount of blood and violence as people’s bodies decompose and melt due to the virus. There are also some sexy moments between one of the team members and his soon to be dead lady of the evening. It’s not too much to rate a Mature only rating, but the art does tease and hint at the sexy and the horrifying throughout.

As far as the character drawing goes, everything looks fine overall, but there are few times where necks are too elongated and three-quarter profile faces are slightly askew. Other than that, the composition and page layout is fine. There are a couple of things that do bother me during the destruction of Berlin. When the buildings collapse, they fall through the ground as solid blocks and there is no indication that they are crumbling. The other relates to a few perspective errors when looking at rooms from vantage points higher than the height of the average human.

BOTTOM LINE: WORTH IT

If this story had been picked up by DC, it could easily have been a way to relaunch Challengers of the Unknown into the spotlight. For Radical Publishing, this a great title and one that is worth picking up if you like impossible missions, time travel, and a group of heroes fighting Nazis. It’s a little slow to start, but once it gets going, it moves. As a three-issue mini-series, you aren’t going to out a lot of time, effort, or money, and I’m giving Time Bomb #1 4 out of 5 Stars.

Review by Stephen Schleicher

NAZIS. WHY’D IT HAVE TO BE NAZIS?

In 2012, the New World Order is called in to investigate a sink hole in Berlin, Germany. The team discovers a Nazi bunker and small city that has been buried since the closing days of World War II. It gets stranger as the team discovers a missile silo, where they accidentally trigger the launch of an Omega bomb that explodes over Berlin. Turns out the Nazis developed the virus of all virii that they planned on launching to destroy all humans on the surface, while 1,000 of the hand picked Reich waited out the devastation below ground. The Nazis are long gone, but the virus still lives and begins killing people left and right,very similar to the way the world crumbled in Stephen King’s The Last Stand.

The New World Order estimates that it will take 72 hours for the plague virus to wipe out every man, woman, and child on the planet, and their only chance to save the human race is to send a team of four highly trained experts back in time to stop the bomb from going off. It’s all highly experimental, and prone to going all wrong, but it is the only hope to save everyone.

I’ve become a fan of Palmiotti and Gray over the last two years, and they do an excellent job of developing a story that is set in a world where their rules make sense, and the characters work in that environment. A bulk of this issue is filled with information on how time travel works, and there is some character development as readers are introduced to the four main characters, giving us hints of what makes them tick and how they interact with one another. We don’t learn everything about their pasts, and at least one of the team members could be the loose canon if things get too intense – which it does.

Instead of sending the team (three men, one woman) back a few days to warn the NWO officials of the threat, the time bomb flings the group back to height of Nazi rule, right outside a concentration camp. The team is fully equipped with modern weapons, and while it looks like they aren’t going to be returning to their present anytime soon, they take it upon themselves to liberate the prisoners – timeline be damned. It’s certainly something that will catch a reader by surprise if they hadn’t read the solicitations, and it is a nice twist to what should be a straightforward mission.

ART

Even in this first issue (#1 of 3) there is a fair amount of blood and violence as people’s bodies decompose and melt due to the virus. There are also some sexy moments between one of the team members and his soon to be dead lady of the evening. It’s not too much to rate a Mature only rating, but the art does tease and hint at the sexy and the horrifying throughout.

As far as the character drawing goes, everything looks fine overall, but there are few times where necks are too elongated and three-quarter profile faces are slightly askew. Other than that, the composition and page layout is fine. There are a couple of things that do bother me during the destruction of Berlin. When the buildings collapse, they fall through the ground as solid blocks and there is no indication that they are crumbling. The other relates to a few perspective errors when looking at rooms from vantage points higher than the height of the average human.

BOTTOM LINE: WORTH IT

If this story had been picked up by DC, it could easily have been a way to relaunch Challengers of the Unknown into the spotlight. For Radical Publishing, this a great title and one that is worth picking up if you like impossible missions, time travel, and a group of heroes fighting Nazis. It’s a little slow to start, but once it gets going, it moves. As a three-issue mini-series, you aren’t going to out a lot of time, effort, or money, and I’m giving Time Bomb #1 4 out of 5 Stars.

Review by Brett Schenker

Time Bomb, is not a “deep comic” but boy is it entertaining.  The first issue comes off as a fantastic cheesy blockbuster movie, one that’s highly entertaining and you can’t take too seriously.  This is the type of comic you’d love to spend a Sunday afternoon at the theater watching with popcorn dripping with butter.  Published by Radical Publishing the series is from Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray with art from Paul Gulacy and color by Rain Beredo.

From Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (Jonah Hex), with interior illustrations from multi-award winning industry veteran Paul Gulacy!

When a hidden city is discovered beneath the streets of Berlin, Hitler’s ultimate doomsday weapon – an Omega bomb designed to wipe out the human race – is accidentally activated. Now, crews of specialists with state-of-the-art weapons and equipment must travel back in time to stop the bomb from going off. However, they soon discover that, rather than going back in time as intended, they’ve been sent back into the heart of Hitler’s Germany.

The series is full of the things you’d expect from a blockbuster.  The troubled heroes, the big mystery, and the crazy action to save the day.  This is Armageddon with time travel (and no Aerosmith soundtrack).  The build up is an interesting mystery and I have to say fairly unique and fun.  You know the action the heroes take will somehow wrap around to the mysteries of the beginning of the comic.

The characters are pretty cookie cutter and dialogue is nothing dramatic, but the series as a whole is over the top popcorn fun.  The comic is a Michael Bay film in comic form, in a good way.  It’s mindless fun, and perfect for to kick back and read in a summer afternoon.

Plot: This is a comic book you read for the fun of it.  Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray have put together a fun read.  The characters are pretty cheesy with all sorts of baggage and dialogue matching that, it’s all in good fun though.  This isn’t a comic you have to think to hard about or an emotional/cathartic ride, it’s plain fun.  As I said before, this is a summer popcorn blockbuster in comic form.  Rating: 7.75

Art: Paul Gulacy and color by Rain Beredo are a good combo when it comes to the art and color.  It’s nice to look at definitely has a few panels you linger on to check out.  Overall very solid work.  Rating: 7.5

Overall: Time Bomb is a popcorn comic book.  Three issues and you’re out with a big “save the human race” plot that involves time travel.  It’s over the top and fun to read.  Palmiotti and Gray are known for putting together quality work and this is no exception.  Overall rating: 7.75

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Brett Schenker

Time Bomb, is not a “deep comic” but boy is it entertaining.  The first issue comes off as a fantastic cheesy blockbuster movie, one that’s highly entertaining and you can’t take too seriously.  This is the type of comic you’d love to spend a Sunday afternoon at the theater watching with popcorn dripping with butter.  Published by Radical Publishing the series is from Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray with art from Paul Gulacy and color by Rain Beredo.

From Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (Jonah Hex), with interior illustrations from multi-award winning industry veteran Paul Gulacy!

When a hidden city is discovered beneath the streets of Berlin, Hitler’s ultimate doomsday weapon – an Omega bomb designed to wipe out the human race – is accidentally activated. Now, crews of specialists with state-of-the-art weapons and equipment must travel back in time to stop the bomb from going off. However, they soon discover that, rather than going back in time as intended, they’ve been sent back into the heart of Hitler’s Germany.

The series is full of the things you’d expect from a blockbuster.  The troubled heroes, the big mystery, and the crazy action to save the day.  This is Armageddon with time travel (and no Aerosmith soundtrack).  The build up is an interesting mystery and I have to say fairly unique and fun.  You know the action the heroes take will somehow wrap around to the mysteries of the beginning of the comic.

The characters are pretty cookie cutter and dialogue is nothing dramatic, but the series as a whole is over the top popcorn fun.  The comic is a Michael Bay film in comic form, in a good way.  It’s mindless fun, and perfect for to kick back and read in a summer afternoon.

Plot: This is a comic book you read for the fun of it.  Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray have put together a fun read.  The characters are pretty cheesy with all sorts of baggage and dialogue matching that, it’s all in good fun though.  This isn’t a comic you have to think to hard about or an emotional/cathartic ride, it’s plain fun.  As I said before, this is a summer popcorn blockbuster in comic form.  Rating: 7.75

Art: Paul Gulacy and color by Rain Beredo are a good combo when it comes to the art and color.  It’s nice to look at definitely has a few panels you linger on to check out.  Overall very solid work.  Rating: 7.5

Overall: Time Bomb is a popcorn comic book.  Three issues and you’re out with a big “save the human race” plot that involves time travel.  It’s over the top and fun to read.  Palmiotti and Gray are known for putting together quality work and this is no exception.  Overall rating: 7.75

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Sebastian Piccione

Palmiotti and Gray have proven there is no genre they can't write. In fact, there's almost no genre left out of this espionage-action-mystery-science-fiction-WWII-thriller.

When, in the near future (next year) a German construction crew stumbles (literally) upon a secret underground city/fall-out shelter from WWII the pros are called in. And when the pros accidentally launch Hitler's derelict Omega Bomb, the pros call in some specialists. These guys are going to be sent back in time to stop the launch...but end up overshooting to WWII Germany!
Fun!

Fast paced and well thought out, this book makes for one cinematic read. To me, it had that vibe of a BBC sci-fi series and Quentin Tarrantino’s INGLORIOUS BASTARDS. Which means it was a lot of fun, folks! And, the legendary Paul Gulacy's art gave it just the right look and tone, bringing me back to his James Bond series in the 90s.

This bang-up first issue gets us rolling, and does a great job of introducing us to the characters as it sets the stage for what promises to be a fantastic (in the original sense of the word) and surprising series.

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Sebastian Piccione

Palmiotti and Gray have proven there is no genre they can't write. In fact, there's almost no genre left out of this espionage-action-mystery-science-fiction-WWII-thriller.

When, in the near future (next year) a German construction crew stumbles (literally) upon a secret underground city/fall-out shelter from WWII the pros are called in. And when the pros accidentally launch Hitler's derelict Omega Bomb, the pros call in some specialists. These guys are going to be sent back in time to stop the launch...but end up overshooting to WWII Germany!
Fun!

Fast paced and well thought out, this book makes for one cinematic read. To me, it had that vibe of a BBC sci-fi series and Quentin Tarrantino’s INGLORIOUS BASTARDS. Which means it was a lot of fun, folks! And, the legendary Paul Gulacy's art gave it just the right look and tone, bringing me back to his James Bond series in the 90s.

This bang-up first issue gets us rolling, and does a great job of introducing us to the characters as it sets the stage for what promises to be a fantastic (in the original sense of the word) and surprising series.

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Patrick Garone

Radical’s new mini-series, Time Bomb, begins with a great cold open that would not have be out of place on an episode of The X-Files or Fringe. In modern Germany, a construction project stumbles upon a huge buried chamber which houses a Nazi fortress complete with a advanced missile armed with a biological weapon. Once this weapon is unleashed on the world, the government sends a team back in time to avoid the catastrophe but the team is instead hurled back to the 1940′s.

I am a sucker for time travel stories Time Bomb features a taught, intriguing story that looks like it is going to have some fun with paradoxes and alternate realities. Interestingly, the first timeline introduced, is noticeably different from our own and features a monolithic NWO global government. Perhaps the events in the subsequent issues will result in “our” timeline. In any case, it is an interesting place to start the story and one should probably read Time Bomb with a keen eye. The characters, however, leave a little to be desired: a team of hardened professionals that we have seen countless times before.

The art is crisp and clean and gives a slick TV-crime-procedural kind of feel, which helps ground the a story that features Nazi weapons of mass destruction and time travel.

I highly recommend Time Bomb for it’s solid story telling and interesting premise. In issue one, it begins doling out the mystery and offers the possibility of lots of interesting twists and turns in its tale of people lost in the past.

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Patrick Garone

Radical’s new mini-series, Time Bomb, begins with a great cold open that would not have be out of place on an episode of The X-Files or Fringe. In modern Germany, a construction project stumbles upon a huge buried chamber which houses a Nazi fortress complete with a advanced missile armed with a biological weapon. Once this weapon is unleashed on the world, the government sends a team back in time to avoid the catastrophe but the team is instead hurled back to the 1940′s.

I am a sucker for time travel stories Time Bomb features a taught, intriguing story that looks like it is going to have some fun with paradoxes and alternate realities. Interestingly, the first timeline introduced, is noticeably different from our own and features a monolithic NWO global government. Perhaps the events in the subsequent issues will result in “our” timeline. In any case, it is an interesting place to start the story and one should probably read Time Bomb with a keen eye. The characters, however, leave a little to be desired: a team of hardened professionals that we have seen countless times before.

The art is crisp and clean and gives a slick TV-crime-procedural kind of feel, which helps ground the a story that features Nazi weapons of mass destruction and time travel.

I highly recommend Time Bomb for it’s solid story telling and interesting premise. In issue one, it begins doling out the mystery and offers the possibility of lots of interesting twists and turns in its tale of people lost in the past.

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Eli Katz

Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray have consistently impressed me with their work on JONAH HEX. In an era of decompression and huge, multi-chapter stories, they write sharp, stand-alone issues in a genre -- the Western -- which hasn't been popular in comics since the 1950s. Now, with the opening issue of their new, three-part miniseries, TIME BOMB, they have impressed me yet again. Here, they team up with legendary artist Paul Gulacy to put together a wild, action-packed thriller that features some very creepy sci-fi elements. Think MISSION IMPOSSIBLE with a big, scary dose of THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

TIME BOMB #1 begins with workers in Berlin discovering a long-forgotten Nazi bunker and then accidentally setting off a missile in the underground chamber. The missile explodes directly above the city, releasing a deadly virus that makes Ebola look like the common cold. Within minutes, the virus kills everyone in Berlin and then begins to spread quickly across the globe. There is no known cure and no way to contain the deadly cloud before it kills everyone left unprotected on the surface. Officials in the New World Order, a top military organization, decide that they have only one option available: to send a small team of Special Ops back into the recent past, and have them warn the workers not to open the Nazi bunker.

There's just one hitch: the time-traveling technology, known as the Time Bomb, is still in the experimental stage and scientists aren't quite sure how to set the travel coordinates. The team could end up anywhere in the world, at any point in the past, if they survive the trip at all. As luck would have it, the team does end up near Berlin, but they have traveled much further in time than expected: to the middle of the Second World War. And so instead of preventing a worldwide plague outbreak, they find themselves battling Nazis.

Now, most time-travel stories face a fundamental problem: the time travelers cannot really intervene in the past without the risk of altering the course of history forever. This limitation often leads to many boring and ultimately illogical scenes, where characters stand by and watch as some past tragedy unfolds in the hope that their noninterference will keep the present unchanged. These scenes are boring because we've seen them countless times before. And they're illogical because, by simply traveling back in time and doing even the most mundane acts, the time jumpers are interrupting the sequence of past events and thus potentially causing major changes to the present and future.

But Palmiotti and Gray do a great job of getting around this problem. When one of the Special Ops scolds a fellow teammate for killing a Nazi and potentially screwing up the future, the teammate replies, "Change the time continuum? Are you fucking high? Last I checked the world was majorly fucked and about to end. How in the hell could us killing anyone at this point make the world in worse shape when we left?" This is not only fun dialogue, but also sound logic. If you're coming from a doomed world, it's hard to imagine screwing things up even worse than they are already. It's refreshing finally to see characters in a comic being rational about time travel and realizing that they have no control over events once they've left their own era.

If there is one flaw in this book, it's that the team of Special Ops is made up of flat, almost faceless characters. Each operative is given a brief, one- or two-page intro, but the main thing we learn from these pages is that most of the members are oversexed, unhesitant killers. Imagine three James Bonds, minus the tuxedos, plus a very tough woman. Palmiotti and Gray try to add tension between two of the teammates, and thus another level of drama to the story, by having the tough female member be the recently divorced wife of one of the James Bond-types. But this tension comes across as forced and unrealistic. In the face of Armageddon, would military commanders put such a delicate mission in the hands of a warring ex-couple? My guess is probably not. But this subplot is the only flaw in this otherwise top-notch book and is, at most, a minor distraction. After all, TIME BOMB is about pulse-racing action and cool sci-fi concepts, such as doomsday devices and time machines. It's not trying to tell a factually accurate military story.

Paul Gulacy, who first made a name for himself in the 1970s on Marvel’s MASTER OF KUNG FU, does an outstanding job here on art. He has always drawn characters with a high degree of realism, and his style is perfect for this kind of book. Yes, the story is a high-concept, sci-fi adventure, but it's still firmly rooted in the real world. The threats in this comic, from the Nazi death camps to the virus outbreak, are all too real, and so the illustrations need to look as serious as the subject matter they depict. Gulacy makes everything look very authentic, and yet he’s able to inject enough drama into his panels so that all the scenes, even ones with heavy dialogue, flow quickly. This is some of his best work to date. It has the energy of his early work, but with much greater polish.

TIME BOMB #1 is a superb opening issue. It wastes no time setting up the basic plot, introducing the main characters, and getting on with the fun of global cataclysm. This is one of the better comics to come out this year, and easily the best book that Radical has published.

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Eli Katz

Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray have consistently impressed me with their work on JONAH HEX. In an era of decompression and huge, multi-chapter stories, they write sharp, stand-alone issues in a genre -- the Western -- which hasn't been popular in comics since the 1950s. Now, with the opening issue of their new, three-part miniseries, TIME BOMB, they have impressed me yet again. Here, they team up with legendary artist Paul Gulacy to put together a wild, action-packed thriller that features some very creepy sci-fi elements. Think MISSION IMPOSSIBLE with a big, scary dose of THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

TIME BOMB #1 begins with workers in Berlin discovering a long-forgotten Nazi bunker and then accidentally setting off a missile in the underground chamber. The missile explodes directly above the city, releasing a deadly virus that makes Ebola look like the common cold. Within minutes, the virus kills everyone in Berlin and then begins to spread quickly across the globe. There is no known cure and no way to contain the deadly cloud before it kills everyone left unprotected on the surface. Officials in the New World Order, a top military organization, decide that they have only one option available: to send a small team of Special Ops back into the recent past, and have them warn the workers not to open the Nazi bunker.

There's just one hitch: the time-traveling technology, known as the Time Bomb, is still in the experimental stage and scientists aren't quite sure how to set the travel coordinates. The team could end up anywhere in the world, at any point in the past, if they survive the trip at all. As luck would have it, the team does end up near Berlin, but they have traveled much further in time than expected: to the middle of the Second World War. And so instead of preventing a worldwide plague outbreak, they find themselves battling Nazis.

Now, most time-travel stories face a fundamental problem: the time travelers cannot really intervene in the past without the risk of altering the course of history forever. This limitation often leads to many boring and ultimately illogical scenes, where characters stand by and watch as some past tragedy unfolds in the hope that their noninterference will keep the present unchanged. These scenes are boring because we've seen them countless times before. And they're illogical because, by simply traveling back in time and doing even the most mundane acts, the time jumpers are interrupting the sequence of past events and thus potentially causing major changes to the present and future.

But Palmiotti and Gray do a great job of getting around this problem. When one of the Special Ops scolds a fellow teammate for killing a Nazi and potentially screwing up the future, the teammate replies, "Change the time continuum? Are you fucking high? Last I checked the world was majorly fucked and about to end. How in the hell could us killing anyone at this point make the world in worse shape when we left?" This is not only fun dialogue, but also sound logic. If you're coming from a doomed world, it's hard to imagine screwing things up even worse than they are already. It's refreshing finally to see characters in a comic being rational about time travel and realizing that they have no control over events once they've left their own era.

If there is one flaw in this book, it's that the team of Special Ops is made up of flat, almost faceless characters. Each operative is given a brief, one- or two-page intro, but the main thing we learn from these pages is that most of the members are oversexed, unhesitant killers. Imagine three James Bonds, minus the tuxedos, plus a very tough woman. Palmiotti and Gray try to add tension between two of the teammates, and thus another level of drama to the story, by having the tough female member be the recently divorced wife of one of the James Bond-types. But this tension comes across as forced and unrealistic. In the face of Armageddon, would military commanders put such a delicate mission in the hands of a warring ex-couple? My guess is probably not. But this subplot is the only flaw in this otherwise top-notch book and is, at most, a minor distraction. After all, TIME BOMB is about pulse-racing action and cool sci-fi concepts, such as doomsday devices and time machines. It's not trying to tell a factually accurate military story.

Paul Gulacy, who first made a name for himself in the 1970s on Marvel’s MASTER OF KUNG FU, does an outstanding job here on art. He has always drawn characters with a high degree of realism, and his style is perfect for this kind of book. Yes, the story is a high-concept, sci-fi adventure, but it's still firmly rooted in the real world. The threats in this comic, from the Nazi death camps to the virus outbreak, are all too real, and so the illustrations need to look as serious as the subject matter they depict. Gulacy makes everything look very authentic, and yet he’s able to inject enough drama into his panels so that all the scenes, even ones with heavy dialogue, flow quickly. This is some of his best work to date. It has the energy of his early work, but with much greater polish.

TIME BOMB #1 is a superb opening issue. It wastes no time setting up the basic plot, introducing the main characters, and getting on with the fun of global cataclysm. This is one of the better comics to come out this year, and easily the best book that Radical has published.

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Matman

There is a reason we talk about Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray all the time on the Secret Identity Podcast! Because they’re the best writers in comics! Unfortunately, with such a high threshold of work there is the waiting for the book that doesn’t quite measure up. Unfortunately for Jimmy and Justin, their latest book ‘Time Bomb’ ups that threshold again!

Time Bomb # 1 (from Radical Comics) is a story that reads like a cool 1980’s action movie! In Berlin, workers have accidentally uncovered a secret city about a mile below the surface. As the team goes in, they find it was built by the Nazi’s as a last stand during the closing days of the war. But this underground fortress was not just meant to just be a shelter, but as a launching point for a particularly nasty virus that can’t be stopped. Bad news is the weapon has been triggered and goes off, destroying Berlin and spreading. The only way to stop it is to go back 24 hours in time and stop this before it happens. Problem is, instead of going back to yesterday they end up going back to World War II.

As great as this story is, it’s the characters that Palmiotti and Gray have created that drive this story. The assembled team (a recently divorced couple, a know-it-all leader and a cold blooded killer) has zero chance of getting along, let alone surviving this mission. As we are introduced to the team we see they are not good people at all. But that is always good for a story.

The art is provided by veteran Paul Gulacy who is a great choice. In Time Bomb he does everything right; action scenes, the beautiful women and exotic locals, Paul is doing some of the best work of his career.

Now what can we say about Radical Comics.  Not only do they publish books that no one else would, but they provide unsurpassed quality and value. For $4.99 you get almost 60 pages of story and art, printed on great paper. And, they smell good too.

If my words don’t motivate you to get it, just open up a copy and see for yourself. My only complaint was a monkey was harmed making this comic book. If not hurt, than completely stressed out!

Matman Rating: 5 out of 5 deserved kicks to the crotch

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Matman

There is a reason we talk about Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray all the time on the Secret Identity Podcast! Because they’re the best writers in comics! Unfortunately, with such a high threshold of work there is the waiting for the book that doesn’t quite measure up. Unfortunately for Jimmy and Justin, their latest book ‘Time Bomb’ ups that threshold again!

Time Bomb # 1 (from Radical Comics) is a story that reads like a cool 1980’s action movie! In Berlin, workers have accidentally uncovered a secret city about a mile below the surface. As the team goes in, they find it was built by the Nazi’s as a last stand during the closing days of the war. But this underground fortress was not just meant to just be a shelter, but as a launching point for a particularly nasty virus that can’t be stopped. Bad news is the weapon has been triggered and goes off, destroying Berlin and spreading. The only way to stop it is to go back 24 hours in time and stop this before it happens. Problem is, instead of going back to yesterday they end up going back to World War II.

As great as this story is, it’s the characters that Palmiotti and Gray have created that drive this story. The assembled team (a recently divorced couple, a know-it-all leader and a cold blooded killer) has zero chance of getting along, let alone surviving this mission. As we are introduced to the team we see they are not good people at all. But that is always good for a story.

The art is provided by veteran Paul Gulacy who is a great choice. In Time Bomb he does everything right; action scenes, the beautiful women and exotic locals, Paul is doing some of the best work of his career.

Now what can we say about Radical Comics.  Not only do they publish books that no one else would, but they provide unsurpassed quality and value. For $4.99 you get almost 60 pages of story and art, printed on great paper. And, they smell good too.

If my words don’t motivate you to get it, just open up a copy and see for yourself. My only complaint was a monkey was harmed making this comic book. If not hurt, than completely stressed out!

Matman Rating: 5 out of 5 deserved kicks to the crotch

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Noel Bartocci

Imagine an underground Nazi base, untouched for decades and filled with advanced technology, far beyond the means of the Third Reich. Stumbling upon this find could (and does) threaten the existence of the human race. The only thing left to do is travel back in time before it's found and warn the powers that be not to trigger a particular chain of events. Funny thing about time travel though is it's not an exact science. Our four highly trained heroes are sent back a little farther than expected. They traveled a lot farther, in fact. Their only chance is to stop this disaster at the start... in Nazi occupied Germany during World War II.

So sets up writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray's science fiction spy thriller, Time Bomb. The two are known for their ability to work within the confines of any genre and have decided to mix a few for this newest project. Best known for their critical success on runs of Jonah Hex and Power Girl, two wildly different books tonally, Palmiotti and Gray bring their collective chops to this "historical" action piece.

The first third of this over sized, prestige format book largely concerns itself with the discovery of an underground Nazi city in the middle of Europe, interlaced with scenes introducing the team members that will eventually be charged with the world's salvation. It's effective, fast, and sets up all the information economically. These three men and one woman are given very specific broad strokes, telling the audience exactly what we need to know. There's already an inherent drama in the pairing of these people that the eventual placement of them in such an extreme situation is loaded with possibilities.

Taking a large part in elevating this story beyond a genre are the beautiful pencils by journeyed comic book artist, Paul Gulacy. His storytelling and panel layouts are top notch, added to the epic scale of this particular tale. These characters are acting. He's wonderfully able to capture the wide range of human emotion in even the nameless of a crowd. Nowhere is it more evident than in a prolonged, dialogue free section of the book depicting destruction and mass hysteria all over Europe. It's beautiful in its chaos, destruction, and eventual desperation. This sequence sets the stakes quite high while also delivering an emotional resonance to this disaster.

Issue one's main concern is to establish this far-fetched plot and bring you into its alternate world with a level of realism and style. It does so in spades, ending on a fun cliffhanger that sets up our heroes to fight off a horde of Nazi soldiers. With the mechanics of time travel and sci-fi techno-babble out of the way, all we have left is the mission. It's a fun place to be and, judging from this first issue, will result in grand action and adventure.

Few things are better than stories about a man out of time. So many possibilities are in store when dealing with timelines and what if scenarios. If the wrap up to this epic adventure is as competent and well paced as the opener, then fans of the medium are in for a treat. This is the kind of story that can only be told in comic books; something that I'm sure isn't lost on the creators. They revel in it, in fact, and deliver a top-notch package.

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Noel Bartocci

Imagine an underground Nazi base, untouched for decades and filled with advanced technology, far beyond the means of the Third Reich. Stumbling upon this find could (and does) threaten the existence of the human race. The only thing left to do is travel back in time before it's found and warn the powers that be not to trigger a particular chain of events. Funny thing about time travel though is it's not an exact science. Our four highly trained heroes are sent back a little farther than expected. They traveled a lot farther, in fact. Their only chance is to stop this disaster at the start... in Nazi occupied Germany during World War II.

So sets up writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray's science fiction spy thriller, Time Bomb. The two are known for their ability to work within the confines of any genre and have decided to mix a few for this newest project. Best known for their critical success on runs of Jonah Hex and Power Girl, two wildly different books tonally, Palmiotti and Gray bring their collective chops to this "historical" action piece.

The first third of this over sized, prestige format book largely concerns itself with the discovery of an underground Nazi city in the middle of Europe, interlaced with scenes introducing the team members that will eventually be charged with the world's salvation. It's effective, fast, and sets up all the information economically. These three men and one woman are given very specific broad strokes, telling the audience exactly what we need to know. There's already an inherent drama in the pairing of these people that the eventual placement of them in such an extreme situation is loaded with possibilities.

Taking a large part in elevating this story beyond a genre are the beautiful pencils by journeyed comic book artist, Paul Gulacy. His storytelling and panel layouts are top notch, added to the epic scale of this particular tale. These characters are acting. He's wonderfully able to capture the wide range of human emotion in even the nameless of a crowd. Nowhere is it more evident than in a prolonged, dialogue free section of the book depicting destruction and mass hysteria all over Europe. It's beautiful in its chaos, destruction, and eventual desperation. This sequence sets the stakes quite high while also delivering an emotional resonance to this disaster.

Issue one's main concern is to establish this far-fetched plot and bring you into its alternate world with a level of realism and style. It does so in spades, ending on a fun cliffhanger that sets up our heroes to fight off a horde of Nazi soldiers. With the mechanics of time travel and sci-fi techno-babble out of the way, all we have left is the mission. It's a fun place to be and, judging from this first issue, will result in grand action and adventure.

Few things are better than stories about a man out of time. So many possibilities are in store when dealing with timelines and what if scenarios. If the wrap up to this epic adventure is as competent and well paced as the opener, then fans of the medium are in for a treat. This is the kind of story that can only be told in comic books; something that I'm sure isn't lost on the creators. They revel in it, in fact, and deliver a top-notch package.

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Samuel Salama Cohen and Thom Young

Samuel Salama Cohen:

The premise of Time Bomb seems to be based on the commonly heard quote: what would you do if you had the chance to kill Hitler when he was still in his teens, when he was a nobody?

Would you dare to kill him, saving millions of lives, while ending his and changing the course of history?

Actually, the book borrows different cliches of science fiction and super-spy stories in order to create a dramatic and apocalyptic tale of its own.

The story starts in 2012, a fateful year according to some civilizations, in which all the planets will supposedly align, bringing complete destruction to our little planet Earth.

In that near future there is a global agency (S.H.I.EL.D. reminiscences, anyone?) called N.W.O. (New World Order), with agents spread all around the world. Even in Berlin, where special agent Werner Platz finds an underground Nazi base, containing not just enough food for a few people to live there for a while, but also a missile that launches to the sky of the German capital, exploding and starting the beginning of the end--and this is where the cliche mix really starts.

First, we had spies working for a global organization, then an old Nazi bunker that suddenly poses a great menace, but with the missile's explosion, readers get another classic cliche: a deadly, contagious airborne virus. Even after killing everyone who is infected with it, the virus keeps traveling spreading . . . just like pollution.

The world has 72 hours before everyone who remains on Earth's surface dies. The definitive Nazi weapon to cleanse the Earth has been unleashed 70 years after WWII. To prevent the disaster, N.W.O. uses Professor David Page's Time Bomb to send four agents into the past to save the present. Of course, the writers remind us of the golden rule of time travel: no altering the past!!

Because hey, any change in the past, any interaction could have disastrous consequences.

But what if the moment of arrival was WWII and the place a Nazi Death Camp? What should these four agents do? By the looks of it, they are not going to walk away.

This first issue is interesting, mature, and a bit crazy at times, as it drinks from classic horror and apocalyptic scenarios to create its own.

Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray know how to exploit Paul Gulacy's style, and Rain Beredo provides realistic colors. Thus, the final product is an action movie that could very well be the next Hollywood summer blockbuster.

This issue devoted much time to character introductions and all types of chaos, so I bet the next one will see a lot of shooting and many Nazis dying (which is always a fun ride) because (and I almost forgot to mention it) the four agents, the good guys, are armed to the teeth.

Hell of a ride, I tell you.
 

Thom Young:

As I was editing Sam's review of Time Bomb #1, I struggled with what to cut so as to not spoil the story for those who have not yet read the issue. Ultimately, I found I couldn't cut Sam's spoilers without eliminating his point.

Sam is absolutely right; Time Bomb #1 is a string of various science fiction elements that most of us have all seen before. Some of them are so pervasive that they do indeed deserve to be called cliches. Yet, as I was reading the 51 pages of story in this first issue, I didn't focus on how many times I've seen these elements before.

Until I was editing Sam's review, I didn't think about how many of these elements have become somewhat trite--well, except for the cliched notion of four people on the team of adventurers. The idea of four adventurers is a cliche that undoubtedly pre-dates Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four and Challengers of the Unknown.

Instead of thinking about how many of the elements in Time Bomb I've seen in other science fiction stories over the years, I simply enjoyed these bits that took me back to the types of science fiction scenarios that thrilled me when I was a kid--when all of these elements were fresh because they were new to me. They could have been just as trite when I was a kid (though they weren't, because I'm old and they really were fresh ideas back then), but it wouldn't have mattered because they would have still been new to me at the time.

So, yeah, this story is a string of concepts that have become common in science fiction over the past 50 years, which is why part of me was just enjoying this comic from a position akin to nostalgia--though Time Bomb is by no means a nostalgic comic book.

While Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray's story may be a stringing together of various science fiction elements that fans of the form have seen several times, the writers do a commendable job in pulling these bits together in an entertaining story. My only real disappointment is the obvious plot point in which the development of the Omega Bomb requires the use of the Time Bomb--thus setting up a sort of time loop.

If the Time Bomb wasn't ever used, then the Omega Bomb would never be developed, but since the Omega Bomb was developed (and deployed) the Time Bomb must be used. Yet, if the Time Bomb wasn't ever used. . . .

As for the illustrations, I've had a love-hate relationship with Paul Gulacy's work ever since I first saw it in an advanced copy Don McGregor's Sabre comic novel in July of 1978 (a month before it was officially released). Gulacy has a unique style that has influenced a number of contemporary comic book illustrators. In a way, Gulacy is the godfather of the house style of Avatar Press--though Time Bomb is not published by Avatar; it's published by Radical.

The work in Time Bomb is distinctively Gulacy, which means the characters have a stiffness to them and they tend to have little expression in their faces (which is the part of Gulacy's work I've always had a problem with). The stiffness and lack of expression is undoubtedly due to the fact that Gulacy continues to draw faces based on celebrity photographs that have been published in magazines (where showing an expressionless facade in public is the norm).

Thirty-two years ago, the look of the title character of Sabre was clearly based on the legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Here, the appearance of one of the Time Bomb agents, Christian, seems likely to be based on contemporary hip-hop artist Ludacris.

While the stiffness and the lack of facial expressions are present as hallmarks of Gulacy's style, there is also a flatness to his work here that makes it not as good as his best efforts from 30 years ago. Still, his style is well-suited for secret agents and science fiction, and I'll take a lesser effort by Gulacy over the best efforts by most contemporary comic book illustrators.

To read both full reviews, click on the image below.

Review by Samuel Salama Cohen and Thom Young

Samuel Salama Cohen:

The premise of Time Bomb seems to be based on the commonly heard quote: what would you do if you had the chance to kill Hitler when he was still in his teens, when he was a nobody?

Would you dare to kill him, saving millions of lives, while ending his and changing the course of history?

Actually, the book borrows different cliches of science fiction and super-spy stories in order to create a dramatic and apocalyptic tale of its own.

The story starts in 2012, a fateful year according to some civilizations, in which all the planets will supposedly align, bringing complete destruction to our little planet Earth.

In that near future there is a global agency (S.H.I.EL.D. reminiscences, anyone?) called N.W.O. (New World Order), with agents spread all around the world. Even in Berlin, where special agent Werner Platz finds an underground Nazi base, containing not just enough food for a few people to live there for a while, but also a missile that launches to the sky of the German capital, exploding and starting the beginning of the end--and this is where the cliche mix really starts.

First, we had spies working for a global organization, then an old Nazi bunker that suddenly poses a great menace, but with the missile's explosion, readers get another classic cliche: a deadly, contagious airborne virus. Even after killing everyone who is infected with it, the virus keeps traveling spreading . . . just like pollution.

The world has 72 hours before everyone who remains on Earth's surface dies. The definitive Nazi weapon to cleanse the Earth has been unleashed 70 years after WWII. To prevent the disaster, N.W.O. uses Professor David Page's Time Bomb to send four agents into the past to save the present. Of course, the writers remind us of the golden rule of time travel: no altering the past!!

Because hey, any change in the past, any interaction could have disastrous consequences.

But what if the moment of arrival was WWII and the place a Nazi Death Camp? What should these four agents do? By the looks of it, they are not going to walk away.

This first issue is interesting, mature, and a bit crazy at times, as it drinks from classic horror and apocalyptic scenarios to create its own.

Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray know how to exploit Paul Gulacy's style, and Rain Beredo provides realistic colors. Thus, the final product is an action movie that could very well be the next Hollywood summer blockbuster.

This issue devoted much time to character introductions and all types of chaos, so I bet the next one will see a lot of shooting and many Nazis dying (which is always a fun ride) because (and I almost forgot to mention it) the four agents, the good guys, are armed to the teeth.

Hell of a ride, I tell you.
 

Thom Young:

As I was editing Sam's review of Time Bomb #1, I struggled with what to cut so as to not spoil the story for those who have not yet read the issue. Ultimately, I found I couldn't cut Sam's spoilers without eliminating his point.

Sam is absolutely right; Time Bomb #1 is a string of various science fiction elements that most of us have all seen before. Some of them are so pervasive that they do indeed deserve to be called cliches. Yet, as I was reading the 51 pages of story in this first issue, I didn't focus on how many times I've seen these elements before.

Until I was editing Sam's review, I didn't think about how many of these elements have become somewhat trite--well, except for the cliched notion of four people on the team of adventurers. The idea of four adventurers is a cliche that undoubtedly pre-dates Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four and Challengers of the Unknown.

Instead of thinking about how many of the elements in Time Bomb I've seen in other science fiction stories over the years, I simply enjoyed these bits that took me back to the types of science fiction scenarios that thrilled me when I was a kid--when all of these elements were fresh because they were new to me. They could have been just as trite when I was a kid (though they weren't, because I'm old and they really were fresh ideas back then), but it wouldn't have mattered because they would have still been new to me at the time.

So, yeah, this story is a string of concepts that have become common in science fiction over the past 50 years, which is why part of me was just enjoying this comic from a position akin to nostalgia--though Time Bomb is by no means a nostalgic comic book.

While Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray's story may be a stringing together of various science fiction elements that fans of the form have seen several times, the writers do a commendable job in pulling these bits together in an entertaining story. My only real disappointment is the obvious plot point in which the development of the Omega Bomb requires the use of the Time Bomb--thus setting up a sort of time loop.

If the Time Bomb wasn't ever used, then the Omega Bomb would never be developed, but since the Omega Bomb was developed (and deployed) the Time Bomb must be used. Yet, if the Time Bomb wasn't ever used. . . .

As for the illustrations, I've had a love-hate relationship with Paul Gulacy's work ever since I first saw it in an advanced copy Don McGregor's Sabre comic novel in July of 1978 (a month before it was officially released). Gulacy has a unique style that has influenced a number of contemporary comic book illustrators. In a way, Gulacy is the godfather of the house style of Avatar Press--though Time Bomb is not published by Avatar; it's published by Radical.

The work in Time Bomb is distinctively Gulacy, which means the characters have a stiffness to them and they tend to have little expression in their faces (which is the part of Gulacy's work I've always had a problem with). The stiffness and lack of expression is undoubtedly due to the fact that Gulacy continues to draw faces based on celebrity photographs that have been published in magazines (where showing an expressionless facade in public is the norm).

Thirty-two years ago, the look of the title character of Sabre was clearly based on the legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Here, the appearance of one of the Time Bomb agents, Christian, seems likely to be based on contemporary hip-hop artist Ludacris.

While the stiffness and the lack of facial expressions are present as hallmarks of Gulacy's style, there is also a flatness to his work here that makes it not as good as his best efforts from 30 years ago. Still, his style is well-suited for secret agents and science fiction, and I'll take a lesser effort by Gulacy over the best efforts by most contemporary comic book illustrators.

To read both full reviews, click on the image below.

From the Comic Attack website

Time Bomb #1 (Radical)
Andy: A team discovers a secret Nazi facility and accidentally sets off a doomsday device. Now they have to travel back in time to prevent themselves from doing so…only they went too far back in time to WWII!! AWESOME!!

To read more chirping reviews for the week, click on the image below.

From the Comic Attack website

Time Bomb #1 (Radical)
Andy: A team discovers a secret Nazi facility and accidentally sets off a doomsday device. Now they have to travel back in time to prevent themselves from doing so…only they went too far back in time to WWII!! AWESOME!!

To read more chirping reviews for the week, click on the image below.

Review by Jill Rayburn

What do you get when you cross time travel, a mysterious bomb, a top black ops team and Nazis? You get the newest three-issue limited run series from Radical Publishing, “Time Bomb.”

Underneath Berlin, a secret Nazi facility from World War II is discovered in 2012. During the investigation, a bomb is triggered that apparently has a deadly, bioengineered virus as the payload. The virus was designed not just to end the war, but to destroy all life on Earth, leaving only the hand-picked Nazis located in an underground bunker to remake the world in their image.

As the United States prepares for the virus to spread from Europe to North America, a team of four special operatives is chosen to attempt to avert the disaster before it even starts. Using the “time bomb,” the team will be sent back in time in the hopes of convincing the proper authorities of not just their identity and that they are telling the truth, but of the catastrophe that will happen if the future unfolds in the same way as it did previously. The “time bomb” experiments were shut down before being completed, and the only human to be sent back in time never returned. Given the choice of certain death in the present or potential success in the past, the team agrees to the mission.

Naturally, the team is reminded of the importance of not altering the timeline any more than is needed to avert the disaster. They are told not to use lethal force unless absolutely necessary, as they may accidentally kill someone of major importance, perhaps their own ancestors.

As with any good story of this type, things don't go as planned or as hoped. Instead of arriving a few days or even a few years before the discovery of the bomb, the team is flung back into WWII itself, landing near a POW camp, and a team member is forced to kill in self defense within minutes of their arrival. They are still trying to save the future, but the mission has changed drastically as the team has arrived before the end of the war, and years before the contact information they have will be valid. They will have to find another way to change the future and save the world, while staying alive in Nazi Germany.

Created and written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, this story is great. It combines science-fiction, mystery and action into a compelling story that keeps readers gripped from page to page, and certainly has us looking forward to what will happen in the next issue. Palmiotti and Gray also gave us some background information on the team members, but not so much as to bog it down with unnecessary details.

Artist Paul Gulacy did an excellent job, with wonderful realism to the images. I particularly liked the way he portrayed the fear on the faces of those who discovered the bomb, and those affected by its detonation. Another positive thing is the way appropriate colors and backgrounds were used to illustrate the different settings.

I highly recommend “Time Bomb” to anyone who enjoys historical science-fiction and the other elements found in this story. The story and the art fit together perfectly, and if this first issue is any indication, this series will be a major hit.

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Jill Rayburn

What do you get when you cross time travel, a mysterious bomb, a top black ops team and Nazis? You get the newest three-issue limited run series from Radical Publishing, “Time Bomb.”

Underneath Berlin, a secret Nazi facility from World War II is discovered in 2012. During the investigation, a bomb is triggered that apparently has a deadly, bioengineered virus as the payload. The virus was designed not just to end the war, but to destroy all life on Earth, leaving only the hand-picked Nazis located in an underground bunker to remake the world in their image.

As the United States prepares for the virus to spread from Europe to North America, a team of four special operatives is chosen to attempt to avert the disaster before it even starts. Using the “time bomb,” the team will be sent back in time in the hopes of convincing the proper authorities of not just their identity and that they are telling the truth, but of the catastrophe that will happen if the future unfolds in the same way as it did previously. The “time bomb” experiments were shut down before being completed, and the only human to be sent back in time never returned. Given the choice of certain death in the present or potential success in the past, the team agrees to the mission.

Naturally, the team is reminded of the importance of not altering the timeline any more than is needed to avert the disaster. They are told not to use lethal force unless absolutely necessary, as they may accidentally kill someone of major importance, perhaps their own ancestors.

As with any good story of this type, things don't go as planned or as hoped. Instead of arriving a few days or even a few years before the discovery of the bomb, the team is flung back into WWII itself, landing near a POW camp, and a team member is forced to kill in self defense within minutes of their arrival. They are still trying to save the future, but the mission has changed drastically as the team has arrived before the end of the war, and years before the contact information they have will be valid. They will have to find another way to change the future and save the world, while staying alive in Nazi Germany.

Created and written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, this story is great. It combines science-fiction, mystery and action into a compelling story that keeps readers gripped from page to page, and certainly has us looking forward to what will happen in the next issue. Palmiotti and Gray also gave us some background information on the team members, but not so much as to bog it down with unnecessary details.

Artist Paul Gulacy did an excellent job, with wonderful realism to the images. I particularly liked the way he portrayed the fear on the faces of those who discovered the bomb, and those affected by its detonation. Another positive thing is the way appropriate colors and backgrounds were used to illustrate the different settings.

I highly recommend “Time Bomb” to anyone who enjoys historical science-fiction and the other elements found in this story. The story and the art fit together perfectly, and if this first issue is any indication, this series will be a major hit.

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Andrea Speed

This comic feels like an action film from the get go, but that’s not a knock against it. If anything, it gives you the feeling the film is just around the corner. And why not?

In the year 2012, a group uncovers, deep underground, a huge Nazi city, with some unusual technological advances beyond their capabilities. Opening a bunker, they trigger the launch of a missile bearing an Omega symbol, and they can’t stop it or shoot it out of the air before it explodes. Shortly afterwords, people fall ill and die, and it spread rapidly. Turns out, there was a surprisingly advanced biological weapon in the form of a virus aboard the missile, and it looks to destroy the entire population of the world in about three days, save for those who could get to hermetically sealed bunkers.

Into this horror show of an apocalypse enters a government agency called N.W.O. (New World Order, not the rap group N***** With Attitude … although wouldn’t that have been awesome?) and it seems they have an experimental program that might help. It’s a literal “time bomb” - it will send people back to a specific point in time. But it’s very experimental, far from perfect, and the triggering mechanism is a “mid-sized” atomic bomb. None of this is terribly comforting to the crack group of specialists assembled to go back and warn the dig team not to enter the bunker. They’re kitted up with weapons, video proof of their story, and back story, and then strapped to the bomb.

It works, but not perfectly. They’re thrown back in time too far, back into World War Two Germany, just outside a concentration camp. They still have their mission, although it’s obviously changed, and a technological advantage over the Nazis of this era. What will they do? I bet you can guess.

Still, despite the slow start and moments of great exposition dumps, this is a cracking story and pretty fun. Also, for its price, you get a lot of comic. It’s almost the size of a small graphic novel.

The art by Gulacy is as pretty as can be. My only complaint is a penchant for swan necks and big faces that seem a bit too elongated at times, but that’s an aesthetic choice. You can live with it; it’s not overly distracting most of the time. The coloring is crisp and quite beautiful.

If you can buy only one Nazi time travel comic this week, this is the one you want to pick up.

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Review by Andrea Speed

This comic feels like an action film from the get go, but that’s not a knock against it. If anything, it gives you the feeling the film is just around the corner. And why not?

In the year 2012, a group uncovers, deep underground, a huge Nazi city, with some unusual technological advances beyond their capabilities. Opening a bunker, they trigger the launch of a missile bearing an Omega symbol, and they can’t stop it or shoot it out of the air before it explodes. Shortly afterwords, people fall ill and die, and it spread rapidly. Turns out, there was a surprisingly advanced biological weapon in the form of a virus aboard the missile, and it looks to destroy the entire population of the world in about three days, save for those who could get to hermetically sealed bunkers.

Into this horror show of an apocalypse enters a government agency called N.W.O. (New World Order, not the rap group N***** With Attitude … although wouldn’t that have been awesome?) and it seems they have an experimental program that might help. It’s a literal “time bomb” - it will send people back to a specific point in time. But it’s very experimental, far from perfect, and the triggering mechanism is a “mid-sized” atomic bomb. None of this is terribly comforting to the crack group of specialists assembled to go back and warn the dig team not to enter the bunker. They’re kitted up with weapons, video proof of their story, and back story, and then strapped to the bomb.

It works, but not perfectly. They’re thrown back in time too far, back into World War Two Germany, just outside a concentration camp. They still have their mission, although it’s obviously changed, and a technological advantage over the Nazis of this era. What will they do? I bet you can guess.

Still, despite the slow start and moments of great exposition dumps, this is a cracking story and pretty fun. Also, for its price, you get a lot of comic. It’s almost the size of a small graphic novel.

The art by Gulacy is as pretty as can be. My only complaint is a penchant for swan necks and big faces that seem a bit too elongated at times, but that’s an aesthetic choice. You can live with it; it’s not overly distracting most of the time. The coloring is crisp and quite beautiful.

If you can buy only one Nazi time travel comic this week, this is the one you want to pick up.

To read the full review, click on the image below.

Time Bomb#1 (Published by Radical; Review by Lan Pitts): Talk about genuine creativity here. Essentially, in the future, an underground city was discovered in Berlin where a hand-selected members of the Third Reich were going to stay, while a missile was activated and spread the mother of all viruses. Well, of course nothing goes according to plan, but I guess if the Nazis had it their way, better late than never I suppose. So, the missile is accidentally launched and the virus is spread and will destroy all life in an estimated three days. The solution? Go back in time to warn the government about the missile and the threat. What actually happens is that the small time-traveling team is sent back too far and they are now in WWII during the Nazi regime. Fully equipped to the T with modern day weaponry. So the question is, will they pull a Sam Beckett and change history for the better? It brings up a lot of questions, and I'm a sucker for a good time travel story. With fifty-four pages and NO ads, this book just can't be beat. If you know anything about Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, you know they make a dynamite team. Paul Gulacy's art is exquisite, adding to the serious tone for the book with proper inking that gives it the action movie feel. Rain Beredo's color also mesh well with what's going on, using lots of dark colors. Time Bomb is a fine example of compelling story telling and I would easily recommend this to anybody looking for something a bit out of the ordinary. It is for a more mature reader, but nothing to the degree of say anything out of the Vertigo line. If you're a fan of history, twist-ory, time travel and adventure, give this mini-series a shot.

To check out Newsarama's Rapid Fire Reviews on Time Bomb and more click on the image below

Time Bomb#1 (Published by Radical; Review by Lan Pitts): Talk about genuine creativity here. Essentially, in the future, an underground city was discovered in Berlin where a hand-selected members of the Third Reich were going to stay, while a missile was activated and spread the mother of all viruses. Well, of course nothing goes according to plan, but I guess if the Nazis had it their way, better late than never I suppose. So, the missile is accidentally launched and the virus is spread and will destroy all life in an estimated three days. The solution? Go back in time to warn the government about the missile and the threat. What actually happens is that the small time-traveling team is sent back too far and they are now in WWII during the Nazi regime. Fully equipped to the T with modern day weaponry. So the question is, will they pull a Sam Beckett and change history for the better? It brings up a lot of questions, and I'm a sucker for a good time travel story. With fifty-four pages and NO ads, this book just can't be beat. If you know anything about Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, you know they make a dynamite team. Paul Gulacy's art is exquisite, adding to the serious tone for the book with proper inking that gives it the action movie feel. Rain Beredo's color also mesh well with what's going on, using lots of dark colors. Time Bomb is a fine example of compelling story telling and I would easily recommend this to anybody looking for something a bit out of the ordinary. It is for a more mature reader, but nothing to the degree of say anything out of the Vertigo line. If you're a fan of history, twist-ory, time travel and adventure, give this mini-series a shot.

To check out Newsarama's Rapid Fire Reviews on Time Bomb and more click on the image below

To read more of Ryan's reviews of the week click on the image below

To read more of Ryan's reviews of the week click on the image below

 Texas based retailers, Dragon's Lair Comics and Fantasy recently reviewed Time Bomb #1 from Radical Publishing. Below is part of the review given by Alan M Rogers.

"Time Bomb is one of those series that gives comic readers a little bit of wish fulfillment without sacrificing plot. Jimmy Palmiotti really delivers in this book, showing his years of skill with careful character development interwoven with plot movement. He combines the off-the-cuff one-line wit popular with adventure TV these days with the snapshot nature of comic panels, marrying the two styles of writing with a signature flair.

The art team on this book must have been reading my mind, because when I read the synopsis for this book in Previews, I figured there was no way the kind of hyper-realized, blur-edged art Radical’s become known for in books such as Caliber: First Cannon of Justice (which, if you haven’t read, you really should), Shrapnel and the critically acclaimed Hotwire could carry this tale. But the art on Time Bomb is just right. It’s very classic in style, but the attention to detail is fantastic. That detail is such a good fit with Palmiotti’s skilled writing that you can almost see the story move as you read it.

There are some fairly mature themes in Time Bomb, but instead of being garish of examples of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll used to advertise and sell the books, those themes are used to help the reader identify with the characters as people instead of super secret special agents. For the most part, this works well, but I wouldn’t recommend you let your young teenager read this without you reading it first.

Time Bomb is what a lot of comics strive to be: a good story, with unexpected twists and turns, a lot of gratuitous fun for the reader and characters you can cheer for. At 56 pages for $4.99, it’s worth picking up and adding to your pull."

To read the full review click the image below

By Alan M Rogers 

After the Omega Bomb of Nazi Germany is accidentally launched, giving the human race 72 hours to live, four specialists are sent back in time to prevent the disaster. Unfortunately, instead of getting send back two dys, our heroes find themselves 67 years in the past, landing right in the middle of a German POW camp.

As the four time-displaced heroes hurry to ground zero, they take careful steps not to alter the past. However, their presence has alerted a sinister and evil enemy to their mission, the creator of the Omega Bomb himself, Axel Von Metzger, The Butcher!

Everyone I know – comic book reader or not – loves to imagine the world is a more mysterious place than they think it is. Everyone wants there to be places we haven’t found. Everyone wants a little magic, a lost civilization or a corner of the planet with ancient, unexplained ruins.

Scratch most people a bit, and you’ll find folk who secretly hope for conspiracy theories and secret technologies and science fiction fantasies brought to life, because there is a part of everyone that hates the idea that our world is explained, defined and quantified.

Most people are still afraid of the boogeyman; the nameless figure in the dark, the unexplainable bad guy who could turn out to be a mad scientist out to steal your body parts for a horrific experiment or the creepy clown serial killer.

Or a Nazi.

Radical Publishing’s Time Bomb is a simple story on the surface, but it really does plumb some of deeper fears and longings that almost everyone I’ve ever known has possessed.

The year is 2012 (in which the world may or may not be supposed to end) and there is an accident in Berlin that uncovers a hermetically sealed underground Nazi compound. A (possibly) shadowy organization called the New World Order is sent in to investigate.

Nazis are the best bad guys, because they really were bad guys, and so much about what went on behind the scenes in Hitler’s government is still a relative unknown, especially by the average citizen.

Usually, the Nazi’s loose. Intrepid archeologists, adventurers and plucky young heroes defeat the Nazis in magnificent displays of derring do.

Honestly? When I saw the first panel with the Nazi compound, that’s what I expected.

A few pages later, I was actually surprised. How often do Nazis win decades after their defeat and destruction? How many times in pulpy comics do you see a Nazi contingency plan succeed?

It’s a rare enough occurrence that I never suspected it might happen.

The next thing I know, there’s a Nazi super-virus that kills humans but not animals, hints that the Nazi compound had modern technology and four super secret special agents are travelling back in time to save the world.

Among our super secret special agents, we have a femme fatale (Peggy) who had only just signed divorce papers from Christian – another member of our intrepid team. And any girl who signs her divorce papers wearing a string bikini in a hotel lobby is okay in my book.

There’s Ken, who we are first introduced to in Venice, Italy where ice-cold and silk smooth, he seduces and kills a beautiful woman. His only request when told he’s going back in time? That he gets to bring a lot of guns. He is the most disciplined of the four.

And there’s Jack. He’s the class clown and juvenile delinquent; he’s late to meetings, smokes in the command center and has no respect for authority. He’s also the first of the super secret special agents we’re introduced to, which may or may not mean anything.

After some mandatory team bonding (Literally. Tom Krueger, The Guy In Charge, tells them to), the super secret special agents climb inside a Time Bomb. Again, literal. Using some undefined property of quantum physics, an atomic bomb will blow them backwards through time. The trick?

Time Bombs are relatively untested and the only test subject to return from a trip through time was a monkey who needed therapy and valium afterwards.

Time travel is not exactly unfamiliar territory for me. I’ve been reading comics since Superman died and I’ve been reading/watching science fiction for longer than that. Usually, when people go back in time, they have to worry about changing the past so they don’t destroy the future.

Except…our super secret special agents bring up a good point. The world is already going to be destroyed by the Nazi super-virus, so they have a bit more latitude.

And who hasn’t wanted to shoot a Nazi?

Time Bomb is one of those series that gives comic readers a little bit of wish fulfillment without sacrificing plot. Jimmy Palmiotti really delivers in this book, showing his years of skill with careful character development interwoven with plot movement. He combines the off-the-cuff one-line wit popular with adventure TV these days with the snapshot nature of comic panels, marrying the two styles of writing with a signature flair.

The art team on this book must have been reading my mind, because when I read the synopsis for this book in Previews, I figured there was no way the kind of hyper-realized, blur-edged art Radical’s become known for in books such as Caliber: First Cannon of Justice (which, if you haven’t read, you really should), Shrapnel and the critically acclaimed Hotwire could carry this tale. But the art on Time Bomb is just right. It’s very classic in style, but the attention to detail is fantastic. That detail is such a good fit with Palmiotti’s skilled writing that you can almost see the story move as you read it.

There’s no confusion on who’s speaking, no blurred letters you have to squint at to make out and no characters you have to look at just so to make sure you know who’s doing what and speaking where.

There are some fairly mature themes in Time Bomb, but instead of being garish of examples of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll used to advertise and sell the books, those themes are used to help the reader identify with the characters as people instead of super secret special agents. For the most part, this works well, but I wouldn’t recommend you let your young teenager read this without you reading it first.

Time Bomb is what a lot of comics strive to be: a good story, with unexpected twists and turns, a lot of gratuitous fun for the reader and characters you can cheer for. At 56 pages for $4.99, it’s worth picking up and adding to your pull.

dlair.net/2010/07/31/review-time-bomb-1/

Beneath the streets of modern day Berlin, archeologists accidently activate a left-over weapon from the last days of World War II. Known as the Omega Bomb, it was Adolf Hitler’s ultimate doomsday weapon, a device designed to wipe out the human race. A group of specialists equipped with state-of-the-art weapons and equipment must travel one day back through time to stop the bomb from ever going off. However, they accidentally are thrown into the midst of a war-torn Germany. Against that backdrop, the team must race to save humanity and themselves.

Time Bomb, the new, three-part graphic novel from Radical Publishing, teams up writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (Jonah Hex, Power Girl) with artist Paul Gulacy (Master of Kung-Fu, Six From Sirius). Time Bomb #1 is is listed in the May 2010 edition of Previews from Diamond Comic Distributors, and it’s set to go on sale in July 2010. The 56-page comic will retail for $4.99.

Scoop talked with Jimmy Palmiotti about the project.

Scoop: How did you come up with this story?
Jimmy Palmiotti (JP): When I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn, my parents would rent a bungalow for the summer in Rockland County, what we considered the “country.” We were there for two months at a time. Every Saturday night would be movie night and they would have a 16mm projector that would show movies for the kids and adults against a big white wall that was the back of the pool area. They only owned a dozen films and one of my all time favorites was Where Eagles Dare, a movie based on an Alistair MacLean story made in 1969 starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Ingrid Pitt and Mary Ure. Allied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where Nazi’s are holding an America general hostage.

This movie was the bomb for me and I just loved the general idea of the film and when I was older, worked a concept around a different type of story and had that in my head for years. When Justin and I started working together, I told him all about this idea and we sat on it for years, till the right publisher, Radical Comics, came around, loved it and gave us everything we wanted to put it together into this three-volume, 50 page [per issue] graphic novel format.

Scoop: The story and scope sounds epic-sized, but one of the things we’ve generally enjoyed about your work is the characters. Do we get to know any of them in Time Bomb or are they pretty much swept along by the whirlwind of events?
JP: Why would anyone care to read a book that is just about events in a row? Getting to know the crew is really the heart of the book and caring for them along the way makes the action and excitement even more meaningful. Everything we do is character driven and Time Bomb is no exception..

Read the full interview at ComicScoop.com

Hey folks, Professor Challenger here. Radical Comics’ TIME BOMB involves time travel, a doomsday weapon threat, and Hitler. While reading through the treatment I was struck by some thematic similarities to sci-fi as varied as Bradbury's SOUND OF THUNDER and episodes of STAR TREK with a healthy dash of Crichtonesque plotting. The comic book treatment itself seemed to me quite film-like in the way the story unfolds and utilizing the very cinematic art style of the great Paul Gulacy gives me the feeling that it is going to look very cinematic as well. What inspired the two of you to develop this story in the first place?

JIMMY PALMIOTTI (JP): Every summer when I was a kid, my parents would rent a bungalow in upstate New York [Rockland county…upstate for a kid from Brooklyn] to keep us off the streets of the city. We would be up there full time for a few months and the place consisted of around 50 bungalows with families in it, a day camp and a big pool, tennis courts, etc. Something for mom and the kids to do while dad was out working and paying for it. Anyway, the place was called JOY ACRES and each Saturday night they would project 35mm films on the back wall of the pool area -- cartoons for the kids and movies for the adults. Each year, these movies were on heavy rotation and one of my favorites was a film called “WHERE EAGLES DARE” …it stared Clint Eastwood, Richard Burton and a few of the Hammer films girls and it was about the allies going undercover to infiltrate a German castle under Hitler’s rule. This film stuck with me forever and then one morning I had the idea of how cool if someone from this day and age had to go back in time…with today’s technology…and cause some trouble during World War Two. Honestly, most ideas start this very way. Enter Justin and a lot of talking and maneuvering of characters and time lines and we came up with this idea that is 50 times more elaborate than what we had before. Honestly, this story has all the right elements to keep a reader glued to the book and yes, it’s cinematic because most of the things we do are. Coming from an art background, everything I imagine has an image in my head already…so much so I actually sketch a lot of the elements when coming up with an idea right on the printed page. I can usually see it all clearly in my head and with TIME BOMB, I saw artwork that was drawn by one of my favorite artists, Paul Gulacy. Simple as that.

JUSTIN GRAY (JG): Absolutely the cinematic feel comes into the story from every angle, Paul’s art, the size and scope of the tale and its influences. I think at the heart of every time travel story is the human desire to go back and change things – that’s why the stories often rely on the trappings of, if we change one thing, the world might not be the same. The truth is we have no idea what happens if you could change the past and that’s one of the things that are so exciting about it creatively.
PROF: In comics, which is a collaborative medium, it is unusual to find co-writers who consistently work together like Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. How does this process work for you? Do you work out the overall story together and one of you tackles the actual script, do you alternate pages, does one of you handle plot and structure and the other handle most of the dialogue...can you shed a little light on the mystique of the Palmiotti/Gray writing team?

JP: This is an easy one…first, because we are best friends…and any kind of work is made easier when you work with someone you like. We tend to think alike and then think completely opposite of each other, which also helps in the work. The key is not to bring an ego to the table and always understand that getting the best story we can tell is always the main objective. We work together on an idea, break the story down into pages and go from there. Think of it like a game of tennis; we volley the idea back and forth til we are both happy with it.

JG: We often force each other to look at a concept from different angles. By doing that certain things are uncovered; clichés can either be playfully embraced or avoided. The physical act of writing generally depends either the grasp one of us has on the material or the availability in our schedule. That first draft stage is pure thought and loose structure, generally a lump of raw ideas that have to be shaved down to the tightest draft possible. Although we’re both highly competitive we tend to turn that nature against ourselves. We strive to get better with every story and every script. There’s a mutual respect and lack of ego when approaching each other’s work. That holds true for a high concept idea or a line of dialogue. It just clicks because we’re so close and have been working together for over a decade in some form or another.
PROF: What degree of historical accuracy are you going for when incorporating the sci-fi elements? Did you do a good bit of research in that area or just focus on your story and rework history however best suited your story?

JP: A little bit of both. We researched the year and month and weather and so on, but in the end, the story and the characters lead us through the book and it’s more important to follow them. Because this is a huge story, one that deals with fantastic elements, we try to ground the little details in reality best we can at the same time. A lot of the actual research beyond the story is the look, and Paul Gulacy nailed it beautifully. He was the right man, and the only man in my eyes, for this story.

JG: With a story like this you need just enough real world structure and historical accuracy to hold up the more fantastic elements and science fiction. By now everyone on the planet understands what amounts to a Nazi genre and as Tarantino showed recently you can bend and flex the genre in interesting ways that are both exciting and believable.

Read the full interview @ AintItCoolNews.com