I can’t help but feel like I’m in the minority here, but since it was announced, I’ve been looking forward to Time Masters: Vanishing Point much more than Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne despite the fact that they are focusing a lot of the same material, albeit from a different perspective. I think this is largely because of the more recognizable cast, but also because of the involvement of Dan Jurgens on both story and art. Something about Jurgens has always appealed to me, especially his art, though I do have to say I haven’t been following him on Booster Gold for the most part. Due to all these reasons, I enjoyed the first issue of Vanishing Point quite a bit.
This issue mainly follows the narration of Rip Hunter as he travels through time with Superman, Hal Jordan, and Booster Gold looking for Batman. Rip himself doesn’t have all that unique a voice, he mainly comes off as a gruff loner that you’ve probably seen a million times, but he is still highly enjoyable in the way his character is bounced such huge personalities as Superman and Hal. It’s really just a lot of fun to see a man that has no powers at all, stand up to them like it’s no big deal. It’s also always obvious that he is clearly the smartest guy in the room and a few steps ahead of everyone. Things like this are what make his scenes easily the best in the issue. We also get some glimpses of Supernova and Goldstar dealing with other time traveling threats, though Supernova seemed a little…off to me. Whether this is just me or a plot I don’t know. Overall, it’s a lot of fun though. The end wasn’t as exciting to me as it seemed to want to be, but the plot could still go literally anywhere.
The highlight of the issue for me here was easily the art though. As I said before, I really like Dan Jurgens artwork and the finishes from Norm Rapmund only enhances this. I’m not sure if it was Jurgens improving his own art of Rapmund’s help, but each picture is very crisp and everyone looks suitably heroic. Characters that supposed to to look Silver Age-esque manage to pull this off without seemingly out of place too, which is a plus. Detail can vary quite a bit and some panels definitely look more rushed than others, but it’s mostly a good looking issue.
It wasn’t perfect, but I was definitely pleased with Time Masters: Vanishing Point #1. This issue read very quickly and yet, it didn’t really feel like too much actually happened. For some reason, it just didn’t seem like the story went too far from when it started, but it has a lot of room to grow. I’m curious to see if this series ever intersects with The Return of Bruce Wayne and if they ever end up covering similar ground. So long as the focus stays largely on Rip with the other heroes and things ramp up a bit, this has the potential to be an extremely fun story, but if it doesn’t I’m worried it will fall a little flat. At least the art should stay nice though.
Overall: 7.7/10
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