Ivar, Timewalker 5

Dr. Neela Sethi, the inventor of time travel has been captured by her evil future-self (because…time travel) and imprisoned at the end of the time! To save her from the threat of her own future self, all hope now lies in the hands of Ivar! But even he can’t save us alone…

What happens when history’s most jaded time traveller puts together the best team he can find to save time itself? A combination of his estranged family, including his immortal brothers, his inter-dimensional enemies and a Bloodshot Nanite with one heck of an attitude problem! And that’s just the start of history’s most unexpected saviours.

Writer:

Fred Van Lente

Artist:

Francis Portela

Editor:

Tom Brennan

The start of a new arc in the ongoing series, #5 of Ivar, Timewalker takes some time to gather itself before going onwards. Though this doesn't necessarily make for a great jumping on point for new readers, it does allow for the series to catch its breath and refresh a story that was threatening to become stale.

The issue divides itself almost perfectly into two mini stories, one focusing on Neela encountering her future and the other on Ivar collecting allies to 'rescue' her. This boils the characters back to their core element; Neela being an inquisitive person, still open to manipulation by those trusts and Ivar being, well, one of those people. Even if he is a charming one.

The story around all of this seeks to reinforce the key statement of Ivar's, that time cannot be changed once certain events are set in motion without serious consequences and that all actions have unintended consequences. We see the results of that in the future, where future Neela's actions have destroyed everything but herself and those she controls in the quest to ensure her creation in the first place.

It's nice to have a new artist on the book and in my opinion, trading Clayton Henry for Francis Portela was a significant boost for the series art wise. Even just the small things like minor background details and textures look better this issue and characters themselves look more vibrant. Ivar himself finally looks like a slick bastard for the first time in the series too. From the slightly arrogant smirk that's always on his face, to the way that his body language seems to shift slightly depending on who he needs to manipulate, it's nice to see his image finally matches the one his actions had been creating in my head!

The only small complaint I would have about the issue is that the Neela part of the issue felt more like an afterthought, included to allow for some heavy exposition dumping rather than further her actual storyline, which spins its wheels completely this issue. It's a minor thing, but even the artwork here feels less sure of itself than later on in the issue when the same time period is included. Perhaps both Van Lente and Portela were getting a feel for that era and those characters, but it's just noticeable that the second half of the issue seems to be tighter script and art wise.

A solid issue overall and a great refresher for the series. Here's hoping, with Portela bringing a fresh take to the creative team of the book, it can go onto new heights.

Cover image courtesy of Valiant Entertainment

Ivar, Timewalker is available from Valiant.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.