Despite her minimal involvement in the Back to the Future trilogy, we never really know how Jennifer came to be a force in Marty’s life. Obviously she’s a character that is always in his mind, even when he’s not around her. In IDW’s Back to the Future #4, we finally get to figure out how these two came to be. Taking up the first half of the comic, the lead up to the coupling of Marty and Jennifer showcases McFly lacking the confidence to make things happen with his future girlfriend. He feels so unsure about himself that we see him go to Doc for help. Doc, of course, speaks mostly scientific about women, but towards the end of the section in question, Emmett lends insight into how Marty can overcome his problems and court Jennifer in language only Doc would use.
Despite having some really dreadful artwork, the story survives because of how interesting the dialogue is. Needles (a thorn in Marty’s side) involvement makes it a bit cartoony, but the words passed between Marty and Doc showcase why these two are friends in a very true light. In addition, Marty’s nature of feeling “uncool” is not out of the ordinary, especially given his family before going back in time. It was an interesting aspect to see and have it play out, especially from a personal level. Honestly, this was probably my favorite tale that the comic has done thus far.
The second half focuses on Doc heading into the future…or well, our actual past. Anyway, Emmett arrives in 2015 looking to make some upgrades to his car. He is shocked to find that the year he’s in seems to enjoy nostalgia, a very factual observation. He enters a car contest to win a prize, and realizes that since items from the past are worth big bucks in the future, decides to make the best of it in order to bring the DeLorean up to hover conversion standards. Mr. Fusion also gets time to shine in this portion as well.
These two stories make up a memorable issue that I had a wonderful time reading. Back to the Future #4 is definitely worth picking up for information detailing what happened behind the scenes in the movies the comic is based on, especially if you want to connect the dots in the territory of unanswered questions.
Rating: 9.5/10
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Logan J. Fowler is a senior writer and video game editor on Pop-Break.com. He contributes his thoughts every week for Trailer Tuesday and ABC’s The Goldbergs.” Logan’s “kid at heart” nature has led to his discussion about pop culture that many geeks love to talk about, including superheroes, Super Mario Bros., Pixar, and Muppets, among other things. In addition, one of his first pieces for the site, “Top Ten Comic Book Movies,” was picked as a “Freshly Pressed” piece by WordPress and remains one of the site’s most well-read articles. Many of Logan’s friends have said that he moonlights as Spider-Man but this is so not true. Wait, are those police sirens I’m hearing?! Gotta go! -thwipp-
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