Written by: Pierrick Colinet
Art by: Elsa Charretier
Publisher: IDW
The Infinite Loop’s premise isn’t anything revolutionary. It doesn’t bring anything new to the science-fiction genre, and many of its ideas feel familiar to stories I’ve encountered before in various mediums; however, there wasn’t a moment whilst reading issue one of The Infinite Loop that I felt I was being fed a lackluster story laced with overused tropes and ideas.
The Infinite Loop follows Teddy, a woman existing in a world where time travel isn’t just a possibility but a reality, and it is her job to maintain the correct paths of humanity’s existence in a history that has always been compartmentalized of fixed points. Teddy and her hopeless colleague Ulysses are fighting a time war with some kind of terrorist outfit known as the Paradox Forgers. By the end of the issue, not much is known about them. At least one of their approaches to terrorism involves living anomalies as opposed to inanimate objects, but for the start of a new story, we aren’t really aware of what this means or the impact it has on the Teddy’s journey.
There are some really nice touches to how the story is told: The Infinite Loop throws in a couple of directional quizzes that made me quite happy as I’d never seen something like that in a comic before. Of course, the ‘choose-your-own-outcome’ of the quiz has no bearing on the story, but regardless, I still liked it. It’s interesting and creative.
The tone of the story is rather light and fun, which is easy to absorb, yet it doesn’t last through the whole issue. In fact, there was a realization that truly made me gasp in awe: The real charm of The Infinite Loop isn’t in the story but in Teddy and Ulysses’ dialogue. There is a moment when Teddy shows a brief glimpse of her cynicism and how her adventures in time have left her void of love and hope in other people and even herself. After various examples of the horrors Teddy has seen while time traveling, ranging from lovers being murdered, mutilated and tortured to love existing in times where homosexuality and interracial relationships weren’t tolerated (even bringing up the point that in some circles, it isn’t still), she utters a line that bears a haunting truth, albeit a bleak way to look upon humanity’s greatest gift: “Love has always been the first pretext to hate each other, to exterminate.” This was where the comic really grabbed me. The Infinite Loop #1 is more than a comic about time travel. It’s about the acceptance of love, irrespective of whomever is involved.
When Teddy encounters a girl on the final pages, we notice that there is an instant connection between the two and everything that Teddy has come to believe (whether she does believe in the abandonment of love or not) seems to be forgotten, and that feeling of love at first sight is 100% prevalent in Elsa Charretier’s beautifully simplistic final page. Elsa is a talented artist. The nuances she shows in her panels are wonderful, from the repetition of the pastel-like palette of colours and the lack of descriptive detail makes the artwork easier on the eye—repetitive in a good way and clearer to follow. There is never a drastic change of colour, and the shading is basic, but I believe that is Elsa’s intention. It is abundantly clear that she can draw one hell-of-a picture but, she chooses minimalism over embellishment.
Overall, The Infinite Loop is an obvious story with a big heart. It challenges the reader to think about love in all its forms and allows us to contemplate our own relationships. The one question I asked myself at the end was: Is Teddy’s ostensibly obvious relationship with this mysterious girl enough to keep the reader hooked? I believe it is.
