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"I'm Doyle MacKlinton. Captain, U.S. Space Cavalry, retired. I'm not sure what year it is. The last date I remember is August 9, 2098. That's Anno Domini, folks."
Time Jump War is a comic book published over three issues by Apple Comics in 1989. It was written by Chuck Dixon and illustrated in black and white by Enrique Villagran. Although the comic is now out of print, a colorized digital version is available at Arktoons under the title The Stranded
.
Captain Doyle "Doy" MacKlinton leads a crew of late 21st century space marines on a mission to defeat an invading alien force. He and his co-pilot, Lt. Veronica "Ronnie" Killy, are forced to jettison, and wind up crash-landing on stone-age Earth. A local tribe of cave people, excited by the weapons of the "sky gods", welcomes them into their village, despite their Language Barrier.
Yet Doy and Ronnie are not the only visitors from the future; the aliens have found their way there as well.
This work provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Laser-toting space marine Ronnie and spear-wielding cave girl Lin Korah both fit the bill.
- Always Save the Girl: On a hunt with the tribe, Doy has Ronnie escort a protesting Lin away from a rampaging mammoth. Later, Doy and Ronnie hold Lin back from the caveman assault on the aliens. This means both Doy and Lin survive to continue her tribe's line.
- Attack Hello: Lin greets the new "sky god" Doy by braining him with a rock as he's waking up, and dragging him to a cave. And stripping him.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Doy and Lin, when surrounded by a tribe of aggressive ape-men.
- Cassandra Truth: Lin tells her tribe about "twin fires" (Doy and Ronnie's escape pods) falling from the sky. The witch doctor rejects it for no other reason than they should have appeared to her instead. Even Lin's own father is convinced Lin is demon-possessed, and the tribe banishes her.
- Chekhov's Gag: When Doy is about to brief the space troops, Ronnie jokingly warns him not to use any big words. On prehistoric Earth, Doy's lecture about the aliens gets too technical to hold the cave people's attention, and Ronnie has to step in.
- Double-Meaning Title: One webcomic installment is entitled "Got His Back". Doy is ambushed by an alien. Lin has followed Doy, and saves him by impaling the monster in the back.
- Fling a Light into the Future: Doy writes his story as a warning about the invading aliens.
- God Guise: Lin regards the newcomers as "sky gods" and introduces them to her village as such. It doesn't take Ronnie long to figure this out...nor for her and Doy to realise that the true objects of the villagers' worship are their powerful weapons.
- It's All My Fault: Doy feels responsible for leading the aliens to prehistoric Earth.
- Kill It with Fire: The war party comes across a village of slaughtered ape-men. One corpse hosts an alien larva, so Doy orders the village burned down.
- Language Barrier: Doy and Ronnie pick up a few of the villagers' words here and there, but mainly communicate through actions and inflections.
- Leeroy Jenkins: The spear-wielding cave people launch a full-frontal assault on the aliens who massacre them.
- Soon afterwards, Doy launches a grenade towards the aliens out of pure frustration, risking collapsing the cave ceiling on himself, Ronnie and Lin.
- Nubile Savage: Lin. Skimpy clothing showing her flawless skin, bones in her clean and slightly unkempt hair, perfect teeth...even lipstick.
- The Squadette: Ronnie is the only apparent woman on Doy's space mission.
- Tempting Fate: Doy, especially in the future scenes.Doy: Why'd I have to be so damned wrong all the time?
- This Means Warpaint: Lin wears a warpaint mask at first, but washes it off when she sees Ronnie without any. Later, she puts her "warface" back on, and exhorts the rest of the tribe to do the same, in preparation for their fight with the aliens.
- Time-Travel Romance: Between late 21st century space marine Doy and prehistoric cavegirl Lin.Ronnie: Go for it, Romeo.
- Tomboy: Ronnie, The Squadette with a gender-blending nickname and Boyish Short Hair.
- Trapped in the Past: As the title suggests, Doy and Ronnie are stuck in the stone age, as are the aliens they fought in the future.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Trying to convince a skeptical Doy that they're on prehistoric Earth, Ronnie's impatience leads her to grab his lapel and shake her fist at him. She soon finds Lin's spear pointed at her face, much to Doy's amusement. Lin later follows Doy to the aliens' base and rescues him by spearing an alien.
