ponch22's review
3.0
The Untold Tales and Alternate Timelines series gets a little better in issue #4.
The first half, "Peer Pressure," has the worst art in the series so far (one wonders if the artist has ever seen human faces before). The story is decent, describing how Marty & Jennifer started dating in 1984. Needles once again plays a role, some how... The actual details felt very strange (like why Needles, who has a girlfriend, is even talking to Jennifer and Marty—does he hate Marty so much he just wants to mess up his personal life or does he want to cheat on his girlfriend with Jennifer?) Plus, it's hard to know for sure, but it seems like Marty was trying to steal a car to impress Jen despite not having a license. And Needles was apparently tailing Marty in order to steal the stolen car. All very strange... especially since Needles was afraid Doc Brown was radioactive just a few years earlier...
The second half, "Emmett Brown Visits the Future" tells the story of Doc's first visit to 2015 immediately after the first movie. It gives the background to how the DeLorean got its hover-conversion, how it got its Mr Fusion, and how Doc was able to pay for it all. This is probably the most interesting 7-page filler so far (despite its cheesy, meta-reasoning behind Doc's method of paying for it all).
It seems Untold Tales and Alternate Timelines uses the 1890s setting of Doc telling his sons stories only when it feels like it—"Jurassic Biff" in issue #3 was a one-off not narrated by Doc (how could he have known about those ridiculous events?) and "Emmett Brown Visits the Future" is also sans-narrator for some reason. I don't understand why they'd use that conceit intermittently (especially when a lot of the connections between his 1890-life and the story he's telling are pretty weak).
The first half, "Peer Pressure," has the worst art in the series so far (one wonders if the artist has ever seen human faces before). The story is decent, describing how Marty & Jennifer started dating in 1984. Needles once again plays a role, some how... The actual details felt very strange (like why Needles, who has a girlfriend, is even talking to Jennifer and Marty—does he hate Marty so much he just wants to mess up his personal life or does he want to cheat on his girlfriend with Jennifer?) Plus, it's hard to know for sure, but it seems like Marty was trying to steal a car to impress Jen despite not having a license. And Needles was apparently tailing Marty in order to steal the stolen car. All very strange... especially since Needles was afraid Doc Brown was radioactive just a few years earlier...
The second half, "Emmett Brown Visits the Future" tells the story of Doc's first visit to 2015 immediately after the first movie. It gives the background to how the DeLorean got its hover-conversion, how it got its Mr Fusion, and how Doc was able to pay for it all. This is probably the most interesting 7-page filler so far (despite its cheesy, meta-reasoning behind Doc's method of paying for it all).
It seems Untold Tales and Alternate Timelines uses the 1890s setting of Doc telling his sons stories only when it feels like it—"Jurassic Biff" in issue #3 was a one-off not narrated by Doc (how could he have known about those ridiculous events?) and "Emmett Brown Visits the Future" is also sans-narrator for some reason. I don't understand why they'd use that conceit intermittently (especially when a lot of the connections between his 1890-life and the story he's telling are pretty weak).
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