Marvel’s annual preview of the next year comes in the form of Timeslide #1. Out this week to get Marvel Comics fans hyped for 2025, the issue weaves in past X-Men-related plots while establishing a literal list of storylines to be expected in the new year. Crafted by writer Steve Foxe and artist Ivan Fiorelli, this preview of things to come effectively pulls off a time travel conundrum of a tale while wrapping up a loose end or two from past storylines.
Timeslide #1 opens with Bishop on the hunt for Emplate. An iconic mutant villain of the ’90s, the opening opens up Bishop’s point of view nicely via captions while setting up the fact that he has no idea what he’s in for. That’s because Tempus shows up to pull him into a time-jumping adventure that cleverly ties into key moments of the past.
The long and the short of this issue’s main mission has to do with the Children of the Vault. Spinning out of Deniz Camp’s miniseries, we learn that humans with excellent evolution skills have created a being that can literally eat key moments in time, erasing them from ever happening. Who better to take on this mission than Cable and Bishop, the very same mutants who stopped the Children of the Vault the first time, Tempus argues.
So begins a mission that is fun for readers as Bishop and Cable must go to key familiar and not-so-familiar moments in time for tasty morsels of comic goodness. Key scenes with the Dark Phoenix, Weapon X, and even the new mutant Bronze pull off the wacky nature of time travel in the Marvel Universe.
The villain’s open-mouth look is pretty gross!
Credit: Marvel
The one-shot story feels satisfying here, thanks to the villain adequately raising the stakes, looking pretty cool, and Cable and Bishop connecting with each other’s hard-won pasts. They effectively bond while saving the timeline.
If you’re wondering about teases, they’re mostly good, with a literal list being the more interesting compared to visual shards of the future being shown. The latter doesn’t quit work since most of the shards are things we know from current stories or from solicitations. The list, however, allows your imagination to run wild, pondering what the Ultimate Incursion could be or how “Where is Spider-Man” could fit in 2025.
As far as art, if you’re familiar with Fiorelli’s art in Fantastic Four this past year, you’ll know his style is very clean, and he is great at character acting. He has to pull off a few iconic moments and classic character looks and keeps the big guns Bishop and Cable carry around looking functional but also ridiculous for future reasons. Again, the visual teases don’t really work, but that’s more due to them not really telling us much we don’t already know or could have guessed.
Timeslide #1 is an effective and entertaining preview of Marvel’s 2025, blending a nostalgic look at iconic moments with bold new concepts for the year ahead. Steve Foxe and Ivan Fiorelli craft a satisfying one-shot that raises the stakes with a compelling villain while spotlighting the chemistry between Bishop and Cable. Though the visual teases of future stories feel underwhelming, the issue excels at getting fans excited for what’s to come in the Marvel Universe.
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