The Accelerators #1 (Blue Juice Comics)

Rating:  4/5 – Mmmmmmmm (time) donuts

The Accelerators is the first ongoing series from a new publisher, Blue Juice Comics.  The publisher formed in 2012 and is the comic book publishing arm of Blue Juice Films, Inc.  I have to be honest, I had not heard of either the book or the publisher so I was intrigued.  I pride myself on thorough examinations of the Previews catalog and keeping up with the smaller publishers out there and here I was at my LCS staring at proof that something had slipped by me.  After quickly flipping through the book I stop about two pages in when I saw a conquistador fighting a redcoat in an arena. I was sold.

The Accelerators #1 is written by R.F.I. Porto with pencils and inks by Gavin P. Smith; Tim Yates handles the colors.  The book starts off in the aforementioned arena pitting historical figures against each other in a Roman coliseum style one-on-one battle then quickly shifts 76 years into the past when a glowing blue orb appears similar to those in the Terminator movies.   We are fortunate that a nude Arnold does not materialize from this one. Instead a confused female, Lex, in a white lab coat appears and tries to make sense of the situation.  A newspaper tells us that it is 1970, 5 years into the future for Lex.   A moment later a man in an Army uniform arrives via the same means as Lex.  As soon as he appears Lex uses a device in her hand to disappear 8 more years into the future.

The time travel race begins as Lex and her pursuer, Bertram, continue to jump into the future.  Lex inadvertently jumps with someone near her and they are now along for the ride.  Throughout the journey we find out that Lex and Bertram are in possession of Trans-Temporal Toroidal Field Generators which they refer to as donuts.  They are only able to jump into the future, not back in time. That is just one of the interesting spins that the creative team has added to this time travel story.

When a writer uses time travel as a plot device I think a sense of place is important. Feeling like the characters (and you) are there in that time period is integral and the creative team does a good job of imparting that sense on the reader.  This book has solid hooks for a number one issue and leaves you with many unanswered questions.

I enjoyed The Accelerators #1 and will be on the lookout for the next issue (set for July 17^th.)  If this is truly the first foray into comics for Porto (as his bio mentions) and Blue Juice Comics then I am excited to see what else they have in store for comic book fans.  Anyone interested in something different from the norm, fans of sci-fi/time travel stories or even people looking for historical figures beating each other up (have I mentioned there is a conquistador fighting a redcoat?) should give this a try and put Blue Juice Comics on their radar.

Also available as a digital download on Comixology here:
http://www.comixology.com/The-Accelerators-1/digital-comic/MAR130908

Reviewed by: Jeff Bouchard – jeff@comicspectrum.com
https://comicspectrum.com/ Covering the full spectrum of comics culture