The crash of a 1941 World War II plane in a 21st-century Kansas field sets off a chain of
plots and subplots involving the pilot, a mother on the run, a precotious young boy, a
government agency, and multiple jumps through a time rift.
— Michael Main
Smoke billows into a bright blue sky scarred by a rip in the heavens—what we’ll come
to know as. . . The Rift
DEBUT
The Rift, 4 pts. (Red 5 Comics, January–April 2017).
VARIANTS
Debut. The Rift, 4 pts. (Red 5 Comics, January–April 2017).
Single Naive Timeline: Mary Ann and the agency do good for 10-year-old Jacob, but it’s uncertain whether that was what always happened in a static timeline or whether they somehow changed Jacob’s childhood from a different timeline.
Time Travel Methods
Time Rifts: A seismic tremor caused by what you came through. A rime rift.
Object Meets Self with Bizaare Consequences: When you jumped forward in time, you brought matter from the past into the present. Matter that already exists here. Two copies of the exact same atom in the same time and place. It’s a paradox. Nature abhors that. You are a living paradox, Mr. Cole.
Time Itself Has an Agenda: What if this whole thing is the universe giving us a chance to make things right for him—
From above Rangoon, Burma, 24 December 1941 ⋙ to above Route 24, near Wichita, Kansas, circa 2017. Note: Cole flies through the rift. Issue #1 says Christmas, but it’s pinned down to December 24 in #2.
From an unspecified location, on a Friday in 1962 or 1963 ⋙ to San Francisco Bay, circa 2017, less than two days after the first jump. Round trip. Note: Jacob, a 10-year-old boy.
From near a Tumwater farm, 1981 ⋙ to near Tumwater, Washington, circa 2017, a short time after Jacob returned to the 1960s. Round trip. Note: Lee McKendrick came from 1981, and he seemed to return with Jim, but it was too confusing for me to follow.
From near Tumwater, 1981 ⋙ to near Tumwater, Washington, circa 2017, a short time after Jacob returned to the 1960s. Note: It's less clear how Cole’s granddaughter, Bella, and the white rabbit got to 2017, but they appeared to be there briefly before going to some place where she’ll be at peace.
From an unspecified time and location after 2017 at an unknown time ⋙ to a dumpster in Ohio, circa 2007. Note: After Mary Ann gave birth to Elijah, somehow he traveled through a rift to 2007, where an unknowning Mary Ann found him.
From an unspecified time and location at an unknown time ⋙ to Roswell, New Mexico, 1947. Note: The epilogue reveals at least one other trip through time in a plane [?] with the seal of the president of the United States.
Smoke billows into a bright blue sky scarred by a rip in the heavens—what we’ll come
to know as . . . The Rift
Separate Parts