Timeless has become an annual tradition for Marvel. This one-shot comic book released at the end the last few years has set the tone for the year to come. Now going into 2025 the Timeless one-shot has been renamed Timeslide to better fit its two cover leads in Cable and Bishop. We already know that 2025 will be dominated by the One World Under Doom. While that Doctor Doom led event will be dominating the majority of 2025 there are still plenty of other things we could see happen. What those events and crossovers could be is something that we should get a glimpse at in Timeslide. Let’s see how things go with the 2024 edition of Timeslide.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Steve Fox
Artist: Ivan Fiorelli
Colorist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
TIMESLIDE #1 SOLICITATION
“WHAT IS THE FATE OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE? An X-Man from the future arrives in the present with a dire warning: One of mutantkind’s most hyper-advanced foes is eating his way through time, trying to stop the X-Gene from ever evolving in the first place.
Only two X-Men can stop this chronal predator from achieving his goal — if they can tolerate working together long enough. Join BISHOP and CABLE on a trip through futures past, present and beyond. Your first look at the most unforgettable stories of 2025 begins here!” – Marvel Comics
REVIEW
If there is one thing that Timeslide drives home it is the importance of mutants to the Marvel Universe. That is unsurprising as now that Marvel has once again put creative effort into their mutant population, other than decimating the population, the X-Men quickly reclaimed their spot as one of the top sellers in the industry. With that Timeslide showcases how important X-Men’s history is and will be to the Marvel Universe in 2025.
The story of Timeslide itself is largely revisiting important points to the X-Men franchise. There is certainly some sense of danger to Vacuna’s presence, a villain created by generations of members from the Children of the Vault. Vacuna power set is not all that different from Morlun. The only difference is rather than hunting Spider-Man Family members, Vacuna time travels to absorb important moments in X-Men history. The fact that Vacuna is a mindless villain made it so it was nothing more than the power set it was given.
Because of all that Timeslide is carried by the chemistry Bishop and Cable share. Steve Fox leans into that chemistry 100%. It is a chemistry that is not a bad thing to lean on give how Bishop and Cable have always complimented each other’s personalities. Focusing on their sibling-esque dynamic while effectively working as a duo at least help carry the action.
That chemistry helped make the predictable result of Vacuna ultimately being captured by the duo and a future version of Tempus more bearable. There wasn’t even a big twist other than possible damage to the X-Men history. But even the threat of the X-Men’s history being altered isn’t all that new. That is something always expected when it comes to time traveling X-Men stories. What could have been done to create a twist to this story is ultimately where Steve Fox and Ivan Fiorelli as the creative team was a level they could not meet.
This in turn led to Timeslide, like its previous Timeless counterparts, being nothing more than a promotional piece to what is to come in 2025 for the Marvel Universe. It is a minimal bar they just barely meet. Because ultimately the glimpses we do get of the future or possible alteration are nothing more than character close ups. Nothing about these character close ups are different from what we’ve seen from Marvel before or already know are getting in 2025.
The only thing we get that is substantial is a list of possible stortlines we are like to get in 2025. A big list of names written out is the least exciting way to tease readers. Even eyebrow raising names like Ultimate Incursion comes across as tame because it is part of a large bullet point list. This is where Fiorelli should been given a chance to draw one panel, no matter how small, action that could expected from these events.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Timeslide is ultimately a get the job done comic book. The adventure Bishop and Cable are sent on is ultimately predictable without a major twist. The only thing really accomplished is teasing out the names of storylines expected in 2025. Even then this teaser is presented in the most boring way possible. You can most certainly not worry about having missed out on something if you did not read this comic book.
Story Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10
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