IDW’s Earthdivers Explores A Wild Alternate History
If you could go back in time, would you risk changing anything, even if it could potentially make the world a better place? For most time-travel stories, the answer to that is a loud NO, as altering one event in one miniscule manner usually results in trouble for the protagonist. But then you have the group of post-apocalyptic survivors at the center of Earthdivers, an upcoming sci-fi comic from IDW. The Earth is destroyed at the time in which they live, so they have nothing to lose and they’re changing as much as possible!
What are they gonna do first? Prevent the invention of nukes? Further. Shoot baby Hitler? Further. They’re going all the way back to 1492 to stab Christopher Columbus! (They have Indigenous blood; they bear a personal grudge.)
As radical as this is, killing Columbus probably wouldn’t change much about the future. Colonization Fever was rampant in the 15th and 16th centuries, and if it wasn’t him it would’ve been someone else. You’d have to convince MILLIONS of Europeans that they can’t steal someone else’s land just because they have better weapons. Or you could just kill them all, like Chris, but then are you really any better?
Author Stephen Graham Jones makes it clear, though, that this is an ongoing series with no immediate ending, so…the Earthdivers are going to be committing a lot of assassinations before their future gets anywhere close to fixed.
The art in Earthdivers is being created by Davide Gianfelice (Ghosted, Daredevil: Reborn), with colors by Joana Lafuente and lettering by Steve Wands. The first issue, subtitled “KILL COLUMBUS” so you know what you’re getting, will be released in October.
cmoneyspinner
June 22, 2022 @ 6:27 pm
[I]If you could go back in time, would you risk changing anything, even if it could potentially make the world a better place?[/I] The answer to your question is YES!! However, since I can not do such a thing in real life, I’m glad there are time-travel movies and TV shows. Although I will admit, as an alternative historical event, I never would have thought to kill Columbus. Sounds interesting.