TIME MASTERS 1990 mini #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 of 8 Review.

RATING: 3.4 out of 5 points:
     This series came out over 20 years ago, but I still enjoyed the story, and the art brought the panels in the series to life. A really great job by the art team.  BUT be warned the character of Rip Hunter has been retroactively revised (retcon), since these issues were published, and also, the story doesn't have a set ending.  

Full review with some SPOILERS

    This series was introduced a couple of years after Batman:The Cult, and ten years before Joker's Last Laugh, so it came out at a time when gritty comics where "the thing".  Mature and Edgy are coined words for a lot of series that came out during this same time period .  The evidence of it, in this series, is as simple as Rip Hunter's typical costume being left out of the series, and replaced with jeans and a t-shirt.  The mature nature of a tragedy striking within the team, and one of the members committing murder, are also present, giving the story a hard edge.

       In Time Masters, a organization called the Illuminati, is trying to sabotage  Rip Hunter's lab,  to keep him from developing a third method of time travel.  He has already discovered two methods of time travel, but these can only be used for one trip and only once per person.  Rip discovers a even bigger plot, by the Illuminati, to take domination over the world.  He starts collecting a rag tag team to help with his goal to stop the Illuminati.  Since he has already used the two time travel methods himself, he cannot travel in time, at least not until a third method of time travel is discovered. So...he sends out his crew, one at a time, to different points in time to intercept the Illuminati.
They seem to be thwarted at every turn, wasting  each members chance at time travel. 

    The head of the Illuminati is supposedly a  mystery, but how many DC characters do you know have black woolly hair and beard, oh ....and hairy knuckles and a ring with the letter "V" on it.  Don't forget that this organization was plotting world domination over centuries and.... centuries.   BUT.... I'm not complaining, I'm really not, because he is one of my favorite bad guys.

     In fact, this series has a wealth of cameos. Sometimes the cameos made the story campy.  At other times it is the best part of the series.  Cave Carson takes a major roll in helping the team with his hideout and wealth.  To be honest , I have not heard of any of his crew itself anywhere else, but ...one of my favorite characters was Bonnie. Her first couple of panels may give you the impression that she's a tramp, but she is about the only team member that has common sense, and she has a very independent frame...of mind. She doesn't blindly follow orders.  

 The list of cameos include:

Dr. Magnus

Booster Gold

The Justice League International

Superman

Tex Hex

Cave Carson

Tomahawk

Viking Prince

Nabu

Animal Man

Green Lantern Hal Jordan

Lord Arian(Ari'ahn)-Older

Vandal Savage

  

      As far as gaining insight into other current series by reading this one, it would be a waste of time. There wasn't any extra information on time travel in the DC Universe.  It didn't mention time cubed or hypertime, or any time travel techno babble.  It did show Rip trying to rebuild his time sphere but he couldn't use it until he found the third method of time travel.

     The series contains background information on why  Rip Hunter wants to time travel ,but this has been retconned.    In Geoff Johns version, Rip's name is only an alias, and he is Booster Gold's son from the future.

There is a surprise ending, of which I really like.  The ideal of it happening  in the DC universe  continuity would be interesting, but it also has been reconned.

I generally try not to spoil the endings of current series, but since this series is over 20 yrs old, and you can't go to your local comic book store to pick it up, I'll spoil.
BUT Please wait if you do plan to pick it up.

MAJOR SPOILER OF ENDING

Rip Hunter travels(the third method) to prehistoric times, in a attempt to kill Vandal Savage before he becomes immortal.  In this storyline, Vandal becomes immortal from being exposed to radiation from a meteor.
Rip shoots Vandal, then proceeds to beat him to death with a rock.  Dripping in blood, he looks up, to see a boy in the bushes who was watching.  This boy turns out to be Vandal Savage(Jr).  In this tribe, the sons take the fathers names after their death.
So...in this version Rip Hunter, in a sense, creates Vandal Savage by killing his father in front of him.(trippy but I liked it.) Also ....Rip Hunter finally sees the folly of trying to change time at the major points of history.
Rip can't bring himself to kill the boy before the meteor hits.
Not only that.... but Rip is stuck in time in the prehistoric age, so not really ending the story, at least not for me.

DON'T forget that this is RETCONNED

TIME MASTERS:

Issue 1: Time Won't Let Me

Issue 2: No Time to Live

Issue 3: Time has come Today

Issue 4: Time is on My Side

Issue 5: Good Times...Bad Times!

Issue 6: Tme Waits for No One

Issue 7: Long Time Coming

Issue 8: Time Loves a Hero

Writers: Bob Wayne & Lewis Shiner

Pencils: Art Thibert

Inks: Jose Marzan, Jr

Colors: Adrienne Roy

Editor: Robert Greenberger

Publisher:DC Comics

1990