When I was a kid, I was fascinated by a television show called Voyagers! (not to be confused with the similarly named Star Trek series). If memory serves, it was about a boy and his adventurer pal travelling through time, righting wrongs and fixing the timestream, before Scott Bakula and Quantum Leap came along. I loved that show, but it didn't last long... only one season. Forever Maelstrom reminds me a little of that show, but perhaps with adulthood, my interest in campy time-travel adventure has waned.
Forever Maelstrom is a university professor with an odd name, but his name is the least of his oddities. He travels through time as easily as you or I cross the street, and he chit-chats with the most famous figures in history just as we would talk on the phone with our families. His friend -- and endentured servant -- is a talking wolf, and his deadliest enemy is an Elvis-obsessed, armored super-villain who yearns to rule over all existence... and he's about to succeed.
The first thing about the visual side of this book that struck me was the title character's look. It's rather... dull. A white T-shirt and khaki shorts? The armored villain, Praetor, at least boasts a more dynamic appearance, but the design, by comic-book standards, is rather generic. The group of hippie kids with whom Forever hooks up in the latter part of the book are reminiscent of the late Jack Kirby's Forever People in design.
Chaykin and Tischman present us with a comedy/adventure premise. The first half of the book plays up the former aspect, and the latter delves into the adventure. Overall, though, it seems as though the writers are trying to offer up as quirky a sci-fi romp as possible... so much so that it seems unnecessarily and gratuitously quirky. Forever is hanging out with some of the most brilliant minds the world has ever seen, and teaches a class that's beyond most. But I don't really get a sense of intelligence from him. He's a buffoon, and the same can be said of the writers' interpretation of noted historical figures as well. It's as though they're trying to offer up a brainy version of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, but they came up short.
Despite my misgivings, I have to admit there's a great deal of potential in the premise, and even in some of the humor. The book also reminds me -- both conceptually and visually -- of another DC Universe time-travel book: Chronos. That one didn't last too long, though, and it was much stronger out of the gate than Forever Maelstrom.
