Time Breakers
Encyclopedia
Time Breakers, is a five-issue comic book
limited series
published in 1997
under the short-lived DC Comics
imprint
, Helix
. It was written by Rachel Pollack
and illustrated by Chris Weston
.
Time Breakers narrates the exploits of a self-recruited team of time travel
lers dedicated to the creation of time paradox
es in the belief that this is the only method to prevent the destruction of time itself. Contrary to the performance of most other Helix titles, Time Breakers gained a loyal readership yet the overall poor sales figures of the Helix line dissuaded DC from renewing the title for an additional series.
living a comfortable but tedious existence married to Phillip, her doctor husband. Three strangely dressed personages appear to her in the wood one day and confer upon her a rare disk capable of altering probability waves through the power of thought alone. Following a series of misadventures over the next several years, Angela rids herself of Phillip and embarks upon a career as a Paris
ian jewel thief. When a heist goes awry she is rescued and transported out of time itself by the same motley garbed crew she encountered previously, including a woman she identifies as a future version of herself.
Angela finds herself in Paradox Pond the sanctuary and headquarters of her saviours, a disparate group which call themselves Time Breakers and include Leo Kharshovsky her future soul-mate. It is explained to Angela that the raison d'être of the Breakers is to unite various episodes in history through deliberate acts of paradox which thereby strengthen life and the very nature of reality. Indeed all members of the team have been recruited from random periods of human history
through acts of paradoxical intervention orchestrated by elder versions of themselves.
Opposed to the Breakers are the Heroes of Knowledge or Knowers, whose actions in resisting paradox foment the destruction of time and the release of all souls from 'the prison of life'. This destruction manifests itself in the form of a time storm which has been sweeping from the far future backwards in time eradicating all history back as far as the twenty first century and which is shortly to converge on the present.
As the story arc proceeds, the Breakers seek to influence various incidents in human history such as the collaboration in Cambridge
in the early part of the twentieth century between Srinivasa Ramanujan
and GH Hardy and to keep one step ahead of the Knowers. The narrative concludes with the implementation of a meta-paradox which gives meaning to the origins of the two factions of time travellers and simultaneously both destroys yet preserves the continuity of history itself.
as a literary device. Rather than to challenge the logic behind the traditional time travel paradoxes, a ground which had been comprehensively covered by the likes of Heinlein
and others, she seeks to show that a robust self-perpetuating paradox can give meaning to the structure of the universe itself. She therefore sought to compose a narrative where the creation rather than the prevention of paradox would be the goal of the leading protagonists.
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
limited series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
published in 1997
1997 in comics
-January:*Avengers #3 - Marvel Comics*Captain America #3 - Marvel Comics*Fantastic Four #3 - Marvel Comics*Iron Man #3 - Marvel Comics-February:...
under the short-lived DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
, Helix
Helix (comics)
Helix was a short-lived, science fiction and science fantasy imprint of DC Comics, launched in 1996 and discontinued in 1998. Helix was a short-lived, science fiction and science fantasy imprint of DC Comics, launched in 1996 and discontinued in 1998. Helix was a short-lived, science fiction and...
. It was written by Rachel Pollack
Rachel Pollack
Rachel Pollack is an American science fiction author, comic book writer, and expert on divinatory tarot...
and illustrated by Chris Weston
Chris Weston
Chris Weston is a British comics artist who has worked both in the US and UK comics industries.-Biography:Weston was born in January, 1969 in Rinteln, Germany, and lived in various countries as a child...
.
Time Breakers narrates the exploits of a self-recruited team of time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
lers dedicated to the creation of time paradox
Paradox
Similar to Circular reasoning, A paradox is a seemingly true statement or group of statements that lead to a contradiction or a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition...
es in the belief that this is the only method to prevent the destruction of time itself. Contrary to the performance of most other Helix titles, Time Breakers gained a loyal readership yet the overall poor sales figures of the Helix line dissuaded DC from renewing the title for an additional series.
Plot synopsis
In the late 1950s, Angela Attenborough is a young bored housewifeHousewife
Housewife is a term used to describe a married woman with household responsibilities who is not employed outside the home. Merriam Webster describes a housewife as a married woman who is in charge of her household...
living a comfortable but tedious existence married to Phillip, her doctor husband. Three strangely dressed personages appear to her in the wood one day and confer upon her a rare disk capable of altering probability waves through the power of thought alone. Following a series of misadventures over the next several years, Angela rids herself of Phillip and embarks upon a career as a Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian jewel thief. When a heist goes awry she is rescued and transported out of time itself by the same motley garbed crew she encountered previously, including a woman she identifies as a future version of herself.
Angela finds herself in Paradox Pond the sanctuary and headquarters of her saviours, a disparate group which call themselves Time Breakers and include Leo Kharshovsky her future soul-mate. It is explained to Angela that the raison d'être of the Breakers is to unite various episodes in history through deliberate acts of paradox which thereby strengthen life and the very nature of reality. Indeed all members of the team have been recruited from random periods of human history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
through acts of paradoxical intervention orchestrated by elder versions of themselves.
Opposed to the Breakers are the Heroes of Knowledge or Knowers, whose actions in resisting paradox foment the destruction of time and the release of all souls from 'the prison of life'. This destruction manifests itself in the form of a time storm which has been sweeping from the far future backwards in time eradicating all history back as far as the twenty first century and which is shortly to converge on the present.
As the story arc proceeds, the Breakers seek to influence various incidents in human history such as the collaboration in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
in the early part of the twentieth century between Srinivasa Ramanujan
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Srīnivāsa Aiyangār Rāmānujan FRS, better known as Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan was a Indian mathematician and autodidact who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, made extraordinary contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions...
and GH Hardy and to keep one step ahead of the Knowers. The narrative concludes with the implementation of a meta-paradox which gives meaning to the origins of the two factions of time travellers and simultaneously both destroys yet preserves the continuity of history itself.
Themes
In her introduction to the title Pollack stated that her motivation in writing the series was to exploit a new angle on the time travel clichéCliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
as a literary device. Rather than to challenge the logic behind the traditional time travel paradoxes, a ground which had been comprehensively covered by the likes of Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
and others, she seeks to show that a robust self-perpetuating paradox can give meaning to the structure of the universe itself. She therefore sought to compose a narrative where the creation rather than the prevention of paradox would be the goal of the leading protagonists.