Short Version
The joy ride comes to an end, but most definitely not how you’d imagine. Unfortunately the third issue isn’t quite as powerful as the rest of the series.
Long Version
With a bit of a delay it seems the third issue of Time Bomb has arrived and it’s a solid ending to the series. If you need a refresher Jack was discovered by the Nazi’s and with his cover blown he is shot in the chest. Fortunately, for Jack one of his devices catches the bullet and saves his life. It also lands him in a holding cell in the underground complex where the Nazi’s are developing their disease that will erase humanity from the planet. The beautiful blonde that exposed Jack turns out to be an English spy and is sharing the holding cell with him.
The rest of the team charges forward with the plans to blow up the complex and hopefully save Jack in the process. They manage to reach the ground floor of the complex and even find Jack. Unfortunately, Jack is being tortured by the missing Dr. Page. You may remember him from the first issue as the Doctor that created the time travel device, but was then lost on the first experiment. Page has gone back into time to help Hitler win the war, one way or another. After discovering Dr. Page is alive the team is forced to come up with new game plan in order to stop the future catastrophe.
The third issue is full of action and future tech. Palmiotti and Gray pull out all the strings when it comes to creating futuristic military tech. From the guns to the “death in a pill” the ideas presented to the reader are fantastic yet believable in the situation that they’ve created.
The story is good and very solid, but it feels rushed or even cut too short. Also the ending is left too much to the reader’s imagination with only a few lines of explanation. Again, this feels in part due to the shortness of the third issue. Overall, it was still very enjoyable and a worthy conclusion to the mini-series. Obviously if you haven’t read the first two issues then at this point it would be better to pick up the trade, but by doing so you will be giving yourself a much better reading experience.
Story – 8.0
Plot – 7.5
Characters – 8.5
Art – 8.0
Overall – 8.0
Interested in the series as a whole? Check out the review for the first and second issue.
