Review - Zoe: Out of Time #2

"So, whaddaya say, kid? Wanna make a record?"

Huey Lewis sang about traveling back in time, but his version involved a DeLorean and hoverboards. In Zoe: Out of Time #2, all the main character gets is a device created by her father and the destination of her music crush in 1990. Both stories manage to get weird in a hurry.

The issue is written by J. Michalski and Alexander Lagos, illustrated by Derlis Santacruz, colored by Oren Kramek and lettered by Antonio Rojo.

Zoe Black is from the year 2050, but somehow she's made her way to 1990, courtesy of her father's prototype time travel device the Kronos Traveller. It's there that she meets Trent Darrow, her musician crush and frontman of the Rebel Lions. The Lions are given the opportunity of a lifetime courtesy of Bobby Ventura. Ventura will prove the old stereotype of the shady businessman right though and even takes an eye to Zoe.

Michalski and Lagos are stepping up the intrigue in the second issue, using Zoe as the catalyst. Her appearance in 1990 is starting to be noted by those around her--specifically, members of the Rebel Lions and Bobby who worry about her influence on Trent. The time travel aspect is played down to an extent in this issue; instead, the writers decided to focus on Zoe playing the part of Yoko Ono. Her role in changing history is sort of put on hold a little bit in the issue, but she's being poised to make an impact down the road.

The art by Santacruz is appropriate for the story itself. Panel layouts are fairly straightforward and there are some club scenes that have an appropriate haze overlaying the action. Characters are illustrated with a wide range of emotions and really help show the story moving along. There's even some action panels with Trent laying the smack down that are effective at conveying the action to the reader.

Time travel stories are always difficult to pull off and so far the second issue proves why. There's a lot of set-up that has to go into weaving a tale of time travel and the butterfly effect. The creative team are taking their time to establish Zoe as anachronostic and whether or not she fulfills her place in history (and the future) remains to be seen. The second issue felt a lot more like an issue about a band on the verge rather than time travel, but--again--it's likely to set up the remainder of the series.

Zoe: Out of Time #2 should be available soon.