“Great Scott! This Is Heavy!”: A Back To The Future Comics Retrospective (Part 2)

Hello, my friends.  I implore you all to come with me since something has to be done about the dozens of stories, adventures and perils that’ve taken place past the initial trilogy of films and many years away from the animated realm.  As such, let’s load up Mr. Fusion with as much random objects as we can to power up the Time Circuits while making as many other parts of preparation as possible.  From there, I welcome you all back to another entry of…

Last time, we looked at Bob Gale and Robert Zemekis’ signature franchise by looking at a batch of comics that were connected to the animated series.  After its final episode aired on December 26, 1992, the franchise mainly laid low for the next 13 years aside from a few home video re-releases of the trilogy, a 2010 strategy card game and even an episodic graphic video game from the same year called “Back To The Future: The Game”.  Once 2015 rolled around however, the series would end up celebrating its 30th anniversary in a variety of ways from a special theatrical rerelease of the trilogy on October 21, 2015, to various other kinds of promotions on the same day due to it being the date that McFly, Brown, Parker and Einstein venture to at the start of “Part II”.

At the 2015 edition of San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that a new comic book series would be released by IDW Publishing.  Originally intended to be a four-issue mini-series, it wound up running for 25 issues as it ran from October 2015 to October 2017.  For the initial run, Gale would be sharing writing duties with John Barber and Erik Burnham.  As for the kind of chronological crises that await our main men and their loved ones, let’s go full steam ahead at 88 miles per hour in order to see what awaits us within this initial assortment of “Untold Tales & Alternate Timelines”.

We open on our initial story called “When Marty Met Emmett” where the good doctor is in 1885 and working within his lab before he’s met upon by his wife Clara Clayton-Brown and their sons Jules & Verne.  He tells his kids that he’s been attempting to one day go back into the future before he ultimately decides to open up to them about his past.  He mentions how the spot of land that lies before them will one day become the initial home of the Brown Family (formerly known as the Von Brauns) located at 1640 Riverside Drive, specifically in 1915.  He then mentions the time that he came up with the Flux Capacitor after slipping off of his toilet and hitting his head on his sink before bringing up that he would develop “certain interests of an inventological bent” before the family house burned to the ground in 1962 with its cause ultimately being ruled “undetermined” yet the unattached garage (or auxiliary structure) would be unaffected.  The majority of the property would get sold off to some land developers in the 1970s while Emmett would maintain sole possession of said building.  We then shift to Lyon Estates on October 2, 1982, where Marty is playing guitar within his family’s garage before he’s suddenly met upon by Douglas J. Needles and a pair of his goons.  He tells McFly that he wants to borrow an interocitor tube from his speaker as he needs it for his amp since his band called the Tabascos have a gig this night and he blew out his own tube “by rockin’ too hard”.  Marty says that he’ll let him rent it for five dollars, but Needles says that he’ll pay him the next day after he returns it.  McFly stops him and orders to pay up now, but their confrontation causes Douglas to drop the tube before it shatters on the ground.  Despite that, Needles forces Marty to get him a new tube by four o’clock or else he’ll get beaten up.  McFly says that he doesn’t have the money before Needles’ right-hand lady simply tells him to steal some.  When Marty refuses to do so, Douglas simply calls him chicken and gets him to comply with their demands before they head out.

We then shift to a short time later where McFly tries to purchase a new interocitor tube, but the store he’s at is completely sold out of them.  He then asks the clerk who purchased their supply to which it’s revealed to be “E.L.B. Enterprises”, to which the attendant even provides him with the address.  Marty realizes that Doc Brown lives there before he asks the clerk if he’s ever met the guy, to which the employee says that Emmett mail ordered them before warning him that the man is “a real nut case”.  Eventually, McFly arrives at the good doctor’s base of operations where he approaches a barb wired fence along with a keypad before an automated message warns him not “to push the button a second time”.  He does so anyway and gets an electric shock for his cause as the message mentions that if he pushes his luck again, then it’ll dish out an even stronger charge.  Fortunately, Marty to able to recognize a hint from the automated system telling him that the shock was “not to foresee” as he punches 1-2-4-2 and gains access to the building.  After he realizes that no one’s home, he looks through a locked window and sees an interocitor tube inside.  After he thinks better of smashing the window, he then looks around the compound before finding a key hidden on the opposite side of the “Know Entry” sign.

After unlocking the padlock, he manages to climb in through the window only to accidentally set off an elaborate trap which results in him getting caught in a net.  Fortunately, he’s able to properly aim his skateboard at the proper control panel in order for it to press the reset button and free himself.  Just before he can recover and grab an interocitor tube, he’s suddenly met up by Einstein who pounces onto him before giving him kisses.  Afterwards, Emmett emerges and tells him that he’s passed his “test” before they properly introduce each other.  The good doctor thinks that McFly is here to become his new lab assistant, yet Marty admits that he only came by to get some interocitor tubes and that he wouldn’t have attempted to rob him if he had just answered his door.  Emmett apologizes and says that while his reclusiveness has caused some complicated problems, he still values his much-needed solidarity in order to get work done.  He then tells Marty that this entire “human experiment” was actually his way of presenting him with a job offer and that it would require him to run errands, procure supplies & do some inventory work.  From there, McFly accepts the new gig and even offers to immediately start right away following an errand, even mentioning that he’s happy enough just to know the eccentric doctor.  Emmett then makes him promise to never tell anyone about what they’ll be doing here and that he only needed a box of interocitor tubes for his “Static-O-Matic Electric Hair Chair”.  Afterwards, he mentions that he dumped all of those tubes in the trash can outside as Marty realizes that he could’ve saved himself a lot of trouble yet is still pleased with how things turned out.

We then shift to the center of Hill Valley just shy of 4pm as McFly presents Needles with an interocitor tube before mentioning that he “stole” it from Doc Brown as Douglas walks off in puzzled shock.  From there, the narrative ends with Emmett finishing up his story to his family as he discovers that Verne had fallen asleep in his arms while mentioning that he has “all the time in the world” to tell his tales.

We then begin the book’s second narrative (“Looking For A Few Good Scientists”) in 1943 at the California Institute of Technology as a young Emmett Brown (who works there as a teacher) barges into the main administrator’s office and tells Robert Millikan that he’s aware of how lots of geniuses that came out of this school have been secretly shuffled off to what he believes is “a top-secret think tank” that’s meant to provide effort for America’s involvement in World War II.  Specifically, Emmett is miffed that he didn’t get to join his intellectual colleagues given his own major credentials.  Robert then tells him that his name did pop up on something that was deemed “highly classified”, yet there’s a huge reason why he wasn’t recruited into it despite being fully qualified.  Specifically, the hiring process would require him to be interviewed by the likes of “military brass”, “bureaucrats” & “psychologists” at his own place and that the appearance of his own apartment would turn them off.

Fortunately, the good doctor says that he can solve this problem before we shift to him being interviewed by a pair of government figures who find his humble abode “impeccable” despite his colleagues calling him chaotic and that his “disciplined mind” is the kind of trait that they’re after.  One of the guys notices that he has a book about needlework as Emmett says that it’s the kind of thing that helps him reach the necessary breakthroughs before they conclude the interview.  Just then, they notice his mail on the floor as it’s revealed that the good doctor is borrowing the Gomez’ house for this ploy much to the officials’ unaware state.  Later, Emmett is out on the street as he refuses to believe that he blew his opportunity to join this higher cause before he returns to his actual apartment and discovers that the lights are already on as he discovers that the same government officials are waiting for him there and that they’re accompanied by the famous theoretical physicist himself: J. Robert Oppenheimer.  They explain that they were aware that Brown was using his landlady’s house for their interview and that while Millikan can get too strict towards “cleanliness and discipline”, they’re interesting in hiring “unconventional minds” from those who see the world in a different way than those who limit themselves to “normal methods of problem solving”.  In particular, they want him to join them on the Manhattan Project as the book closes with Emmett celebrating the occasion by getting some ominous-looking gelatin from his refrigerator for them eat.

Issue 2 opens with a story called “The Doc Who Never Was” as we kick things off in late 19th Century Hill Valley where Marshall James Strickland is riding in to check up on some reported situation being caused by the good doctor (who also worked in this time period as a blacksmith).  It turns out that Emmett has hired some workers to help him lay down some railroad tracks for the sake of an experiment.  Strickland doesn’t see how it makes sense given that there’s no train involved in this, yet the good doctor begins to tells his sons about a time that he “changed the future”, yet doesn’t remember it.  From there, we shift to the original Brown household on October 24, 1962 as Emmett had various TVs on that were covering the ongoing Cuban Missile Crisis.  Even since he helped Marty return to his time period, he’s been working hard to perfect his Flux Capacitor yet he was starting to run out of money.  Just then, his dog named Copernicus senses some approaching company as it turns out to be a retired general named Groves alongside Cl. Lomax who works for the Defense Department.  When asked why he has multiple TVs (which wasn’t common back then), Emmett simply says that he got an idea from a “friend”.  He then asks them why they’ve come here, to which Groves tells him that they’re looking to prevent their conflict with Cuba from escalating out of control and that they’re familiar with his “flight of fancy” over in Los Alamos.  Cl. Lomax then says that the U.S. Government will give him a huge payout if he’s able to make a time machine for them which stuns Emmett before his narration to his sons mentions that he always knew that he would pull this off due to his interaction with his eventual friend.  Because he had already sunk his family fortune into this endeavor, he saw this payout as a financial relief as he decides to show the government officials his experimental prototype which he calls the Temporal Field Capacitor.

Using a pair of synchronized stopwatches along with a pair of lit candles, he places one of the watches and a single candle inside his machine before the good doctor mentions that his invention doesn’t allow for time travel throughout the entire time stream and is only limited within the framework of the object’s own existence.  While he shows this as a proof of concept, he hopes for them to get a proper result once they reach a 90-second limit.  Once his machine reaches said restraint, he then reveals that both the stopwatch and candle inside the machine has vanished into time.  While Cl. Lomax isn’t initially impressed, Groves is still willing to give the good doctor a chance.  Emmett then mentions that his invention is only running on a quarter of a jigowatt for this trial run before it proceeds to present the initial stopwatch and candle that’re now 90 seconds behind the unaffected ones.  However, Cl. Lomax isn’t entirely convinced as he reminds the good doctor that the device is supposed to help them change the past since traveling into the future won’t remotely help them out.  Emmett then tells him that his machine is a prototype and that he’s tried to send objects into the past, yet even a few minutes creates a build-up of flux energy.  As such, he fears that any attempt to travel great distances will cause the capacitor to overheat and cause an electrical fire.  With his machine being a prototype, he hopes that he’ll be able to get it perfected with the right kind of resources.  Groves assures him that he’ll receive the proper funding before telling Cl. Lomax that they’ll be heading towards vast possibilities.

Later that night, the mere thought was enough to keep Emmett up since he was hoping that this would be used to prevent nuclear war along with letting him maintain his constant research.  Suddenly, he and Copernicus hear a loud noise from downstairs as they go check it out which turns out to be the DeLorean before a worried Marty emerges within his radioactive protection suit.  Despite him speaking in Russian, both of them didn’t hesitate to help their friend out as they hoped into the time machine and traveled to May 8, 1982.  Upon arrival, Emmett discovers that Hill Valley as descended into chaos.  With armed soldiers clashing against gladiators over at the Twin Pines Mall, the good doctor narrates about how this was “a future of time travel running amok” as both America and the Soviet Union would wind up clashing against each other within a time travel-based arms race.  Emmett then sees some atomic bombs descending from the sky before telling his friend that they have to get of here, only to discover that McFly has vanished with only his clothes staying behind.  Fortunately, it turns out that the good doctor was having a nightmare as he shares his good fortune with Copernicus before telling his pet that he can’t share this potentially harmful technology with the U.S. Government.

He then remembers that Groves is aware that his machine is present within his residence before he gets an idea as he feverishly works within his fireproof laboratory before placing an object into the device and operates it.  From there, he proceeds to vanish to existence before it’s then revealed that he sent a lit candle back several months in order to burn down his house.  With the home being closed off since then, Groves and Lomax approach a figure who turns out to be Goldie Wilson who’s running for the local spot of District 3 Representative.  The officials ask him if he knows what happened to the mansion as well as its owner, to which Goldie says that Emmett has become reclusive and that he’s burned his house down in a scheme to get insurance money.  This is enough to convince them to not engage him in any kind of partnership as they proceed to head out with all three men unaware of the good doctor hiding out within his garage.  From there, Emmett concludes his tale before his sons ask him how he remembers all of this to which their dad says that he left himself a note before Clara tells him that their kids aren’t able to fully grasp the precise “intricacy of the space-time continuum” quite yet.  As such, the story ends with the good doctor saying that it’s still vital that their children get exposed to this at a young age since it’ll help them lay tracks for the future.

We then move into our backup tale (“Science Project”) as we begin within Doc Brown’s workshop in September 1984 where Marty looks through a box of past inventions for something he can use.  Just as he comes across a pair of glasses that’re used to help its jittery user get eyedrops, Emmett comes in and mentions that he wasn’t expecting him to be here today.  McFly explains that he has to turn in a science experiment at school tomorrow, yet he got too busy with band practice to deal with that.  While the good doctor says that he won’t help him work on said experiment, he does allow his friend to look around and see if there’s anything in his lab that can help him.  Marty then looks inside a storage closet where he’s stunned by the statue of the Roman God Neptune inside as Emmett explains that he acquired that to use within a giant fish tank that he ultimately never built.

McFly then comes across various inventions while the good doctor is disentangling a wire from a metal rod.  Just then, the anti-snooze alarm clock startles Einstein as the dog jumps to Emmett and causes him to drop the rod onto a giant battery meant for his electric hoe.  They then discover that it’s become a magnet since it’s attracting several small metal objects before Marty is allowed to borrow said items.  Shortly after McFly takes his leave, the story ends with the good doctor getting a phone call from an intended seller as Doc Brown is going to purchase the man’s DeLorean.

Issue 3 kicks off with a narrative called “In Search Of Calvin Marty Klein” as we open with Emmett working on his eventual Time Train before he’s confronted by Clara who tells him that their children (along with him) weren’t coming to her when she called for them.  He then tells Jules & Verne that they have to listen to their mother since they need someone to look after them before he decides to tell them a tale that’s about “a couple of other kids”.  From there, we shift into his narrative which takes place on November 22, 1958 as the good doctor is at his house and was working on his Temporal Field Capacitor which would ultimately become the Flux Capacitor with his dog Copernicus assisting him by providing him with the proper tools.  Suddenly, they hear a knock at the door as they soon discover that it’s an enraged George Douglas McFly who demands to talk to “Calvin”.  Emmett tries to explain that his “nephew” and his family moved away following the fateful Enchantment Under The Sea dance, yet George wants to know where he went and why he hasn’t returned to visit.  Brown then says that “Calvin” had gone off to college before wondering why McFly isn’t there as well, to which he mentions that he can’t go back there since his relationship with Lorraine Baines has hit a wall as he fears that she’s no longer interested in him.  Emmett is shocked by this revelation since he heard that they had previously planned to get married, to which George confirms that they were supposed to tie the knot in 1960 yet the college experience has allowed Lorraine to make some new discoveries.  He goes on to explains that he’s been doing good for himself getting several of his short stories published in the Science Fiction Club Magazine, yet he needs some good advice from “Calvin” yet again since he feels like it’s his only hope.  Brown tells him to stay put before he narrates about this “chilling realization” in that this had the potential to cause this budding couple to split up and ultimately cause Marty to not exist.  As such, he reaches his laboratory in order to get his Brain Wave Analyzer & use it on Lorraine in order to get into her mind and get to the bottom of this.  Just then, he hears a knock on his door as he assumes that George has come to check up on him.

However, it turns out to be Lorraine herself as she also wants to talk to Marty since she feels like he’s the only one who could help stop George from ignoring her.  She elaborates by saying that her boyfriend has become so consumed by his science fiction writing that he’s forgotten how to live up to what she saw as his “best feature”.  Specifically, it was being able for him to “laugh at himself”.  Emmett then realizes that things were adding up before he recalls the time that he initially met Marty a few years ago.  After helping McFly get the DeLorean back to his workshop, he gets to work on making the necessary repairs while asking him what he knows about his dad.  Marty says that his father lets others push him around which causes him to not fulfill his own dreams of writing his own science fiction stories.  We then shift back to 1958 where Emmett narrates about McFly’s actions helping his eventual dad become more assertive, even though he’s now become “a self-important jerk” at this point.  Brown returns to George with a technological alternative to Marty in the form of a radio receiver where he’ll help him from afar yet provide the necessary way for him to talk to his girlfriend.

Lorraine then starts to peak inside before Copernicus spots her as Emmett tells McFly to stay still as his narration mentions that he can’t let her see the inner workings of his plan.  She mentions that she heard Brown talk to someone before she assumes that he was conversing with Marty while Emmett takes her back to his workshop.  While she asks the good doctor why he’s not letting Marty see her, George makes his way to said building and overhears her talking with someone before he bursts in and mistakenly assumes that Brown is taking Lorraine away from him.  Fortunately, Copernicus trips McFly up and causes him to land on the Static-O-Matic Hair Chair before it starts up.

After it shuts down, George’s hair has been caused to stand up on its ends which causes him and Lorraine to laugh at this silly moment and ultimately allow them to get back together.  From there, Emmett ends his story with Clara contributing to the Time Train repairs while also agreeing with her husband in that things need to be allowed to take their course.  Jules mentions that it still didn’t prove that he and Verne should be left alone, to which their mother reminds them that nothing is perfect.  Afterwards, the narrative ends with the boys getting escorted to their rooms for bedtime as she tells her kids to mind their mother.  The good doctor then mentions that he learned that lesson the hard way, yet that’s for another time.

We then come across a backup tale called “Jurassic Biff” as we now focus on Biff from the year 2015 who secretly sees Marty and Emmett overhearing the former’s intention to bring a copy of Gray’s Sports Almanac back to his time period in order to make some money off of some easy bets.  Afterwards, he acquired the discarded book before he eventually stole the DeLorean.  After making his way into the sky, he tries to learn how to properly operate it before he just hits the time circuits console with his cane.  He then suddenly travels through time before he then discovers that he’s hovering above some ocean water.  Not only that, but the aforementioned console became slightly damaged as a result of his hit before he also discovers that the trip mostly drained the time circuits’ energy.  As such, he’s forced to land within some dense forest in order to look for anything to feed into Mr. Fusion.  Just then, he hears some rustling before he’s met upon by a raptor as he realizes that he went further back than when he wanted to.

He then prepares to engage the creature, yet it simply grabs the sports almanac and runs off with it.  Biff then follows after it in the time machine before he catches up and smacks it on the head with his cane which actually causes the dinosaur to get knocked out.  After retrieving the book and even stuffing the raptor’s cut off tail into Mr. Fusion, the story ends with him entering his intended date into the time circuits as he proceeds to make his way to 1955 in order to give the periodical to his past self.

Issue 4 then closes out the initial story string with a tale called “Peer Pressure” as we open with Emmett making his way to his lab before he gets stopped by Clara who tells him to look for her lesson book there since she can’t find it.  He then reaches his lab where the fully built Time Train is located and where he’s about to put the finishing touches on its Flux Capacitor.  Suddenly, he’s met upon by Jules & Verne as they wonder why they’re hiding this from their mother.  He says that even though she wants to time travel with him, she’s only existed in the 19th Century her whole life and that he also sees time travel as an abstract thing that they would have to deal with.  He then mentions that this isn’t the first time that he had to keep something a secret from those that he cared for as his boys realize that he’s going to tell them about another venture that he went on.

From there, we shift to November 26, 1984 while he mentions in his narration that his tale is about a lesson that he didn’t learn about until much later.  He then says that while Marty had worked with him for a few years up to that point and that he was able to implicitly trust his friend, it didn’t meant that he told everything to McFly.  We then shift over to Marty as he gets done with high school for the day before he then bumps into Jennifer.  From there, Needles and his goons drive up as he tells Parker to hop in since she deserves to be with “someone special” even though he already has a young lady accompanying him as she proceeds to slap his face before they proceed to head out.  Afterwards, McFly fails to notice what Jennifer was just talking about as she also takes her leave.  Over at his workshop, Emmett is working on his DeLorean that he had purchased a few months earlier before Einstein warns of some approaching company to which he manages to cover his eventual time machine up in time.  Afterwards, Marty enters and proceeds to talk to him about his current problem with Parker and that Needles has an edge an advantage due to him already having his own vehicle.  As such, he wishes that he had a similar confidence level as Douglas before Brown assures him that he shouldn’t be concerned what others think about him since it’s worked out for him.  Unbeknownst to him, McFly begins to suspect that he’s hiding something that he’s working on.  We then shift to the next day where Marty spent his entire school day avoiding Jennifer before he went to a local 7-Eleven in order to take his anger out via the video game known as Wild Gunman.  Just then, he’s met upon by Parker as he tries to tell her something.

However, Needles barges in as he continues to belittle him for not having his own girlfriend or even having his own vehicle.  After Douglas takes his leave, she then wonders what kind of beef exists between those two guys before McFly furiously says that he has to go.  Later, he hides waits outside of Emmett’s workshop and waits for both him & Einstein to head out in order to learn about the good doctor’s “secret automobile”.  Once he gets his chance, Marty sneaks his way inside while Brown narrates about how his friend possible thought that this would be his way of impressing Jennifer.  Fortunately, McFly ultimately decides to not go through with it and take his leave.  However, he’s then met upon by Needles and his group who were able to take advantage of Marty accidentally leaving the front door open for them so that he can take a look at what the good doctor has underneath the sheet.  McFly orders him to back off, yet Douglas responds by punching him.  Fortunately, Emmett and Einstein have returned as this provides enough of a distraction by Marty to activate an elaborate trap which ultimately results in Needles getting a trash bin full of red paint dumped onto before he and his goons head out.  Brown then asks his friend what he’s doing here as McFly admits to being a jerk and that he understands if their partnership gets terminated as a result of this.  Emmett admits that he’s aware of the painful trials of youth and that while his friend has his own “thoughts & feelings” apart from this workspace, he wants Marty to respect him enough to be allowed his own secrets.  Brown then says that he doesn’t have to be like him and that he shouldn’t keep his feelings towards Parker hidden inside.

Ultimately, McFly decides to take a chance and ask Jennifer out on a date to which she agrees to as it resulted in his friend becoming happier as a result.  Emmett then narrates about how he didn’t need human companionship since he had Einstein and was above the romantic “nonsense” before he eventually came across Clara it all made sense to him, thus bringing his tale to a close.  Just then, Clara had overheard him while also mentioning that he stinks at keeping secrets and that he’s “a terrible liar”.  From there, the story ends with her telling her husband that she would gladly her husband anywhere and that seeing his “world of tomorrow” is her greatest dream.  She then wonders when they’ll be going back which brings a smile to Brown’s face.

We then move on to the backup story called “Emmett Brown Visits The Future” where the good doctor makes an audio log covering his initial visit to a version of the year 2015.  After he dropped off Marty at his house following his friend’s first film adventure, he proceeded to travel to August 8 before he decided to venture into town in order to see how Hill Valley would change over three decades.  He soon comes across a car expo that’s completely focused on cars from the 1980s as he proceeds to include his vehicle in the event and even wins the grand prize of a coupon towards a hover conversion.  This would spark Emmett’s interest into checking out what this future has in store as he sees the various changes within Hill Valley before he comes across a Mr. Fusion Power Convertor that would help him solve his car’s electrical issues and he proceeds to purchase it.  However, he doesn’t have the money that he needs to hover convert his DeLorean.  Despite having expired credit cards, he had some silver dollars in his possession that his family had collected over the years.

Despite their age however, they didn’t add up to much in financial value as he continues to wonder how he’ll be able to get the hover conversion cash that he would need.  He then comes across a vintage thrift store called “From The Past” where he discovers several items from his time being sold for far-more affordable prices before he makes his way to the library and learns about a technological tool called the internet.  From there, he uses it to determine the going value of various metals before coming across something even greater in financial worth as he decides to travel back to April 18, 1938 where he hides the DeLorean behind a billboard and leaves Einstein to guard it while he heads into town.  After making his Hill Valley-based purchase, he then travels back to 2015 and returned to the pawn shop where it’s revealed that he was able to trade in a mint copy of Action Comics #1 for $2.5 million.  And so, the comic ends with Brown using his future wealth to finally get his time machine a key hover conversion.

From there, we conclude the series’ opening stretch with this fifth issue.  Unlike the initial four books which each contained two tales per periodical, this one has a singular story to tell.  As such, let us proceed into “Clara’s Story”.

We open on June 12, 1893 with the Brown family inside the newly-created Time Train as Emmett and company are about to give this vehicle its official launch.  Clara then asks her husband if he has enough tracks in order to reach the necessary speed, to which the good doctor says that he’s refined his Presto Logs to line up with the tracks that will be built in the 1950s and will still be used in 1985 so that they can get Einstein who will have only be missing its master for a few hours from its perspective.  Once they pick up his dog, they’ll travel into the future in order to hover-convert their locomotive.  With Clara getting excited about their upcoming chronological journey, they proceed to get going while Marshall Strickland and his son observe them from afar.  As the family is getting up to speed, she then narrates about how she needs to explain why she’s feeling this ecstatic at this point.  From there, we transition back to October 25, 1855 when Clara was born in New Jersey to a “mild & introspective” father named Daniel and “a rough businesswoman” mother named Martha Clayton.  Clara would inherit her mom’s bold behavior (which included climbing up a drainpipe) before she began to develop her lifelong interest at the age of 11, which was when she got sick from Diphtheria and was forced to stay bed-stricken as a result.  Fortunately, her dad would provide her with a telescope which allowed her to view the world outside of her bedroom window.  When night fell, its allowed her to gaze out into the star-filled skies which fueled her curiosity.  That personal passion would be further fueled when he became familiar by the literary works of Jules Verne, especially the book known as “From The Earth To The Moon”.  While she grew up reading through the author’s various works and firmly believed in being truthful, society around her fell into superficiality and even tamed her mother’s “wild nature”.  In addition, her dad tried to set his child up with “young men from good families” yet they all didn’t last.  From there, she became a schoolteacher to young children.

Eventually, her father passed away in 1879 while her mother followed suit in 1884 with Clara being left with a modest inheritance and a New Jersey-based house.  Not only, but she also gained her dad’s “meekness & introspection” along with her mom’s disregard towards conforming to the gender roles of the day.  Then on one fateful night, she was reading another Jules Verne book within the solitude of her home before she gets met upon by various versions of herself from “a life unlived”.  As such, she gets inspired to leave her East Coast life behind and head out West.  She manages to hear about an open teaching position out in Hill Valley as he takes a train towards her new job.  Eventually, she would meet Emmett who saved her from plummeting into a ravine after her horses were spooked by a snake.  While she didn’t initially believe that he was from the future, she would ultimately discover this and catch up to both him & Marty while they were attempting to use a train to push the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour and return to their time period.  She also realizes that Brown was her “kindred soul” who also shared her thirst for knowledge before he ultimately saves her again and they would go on to spend the next several years within the ever-developing Hill Valley.  His career as a blacksmith allowed them to make some money while also helping him maintain his constant scientific pursuits while she wondered if she her own interests would be encouraged within his society if she was born in his time period instead.

As they share a nighttime viewing session from their front porch, he assures her that he’s content with his present position in life.  She then mentions how he doesn’t seem to have an ever-continuing interest with “space and time” before she just asks him what happened to it.  From there, he explains how he ventured to 2015 in order to see how mankind had grown over the years.  He then came across a newspaper that mentioned Marty’s son winding up in jail and how it would ultimately bring lasting damage to his family.  Despite being aware of the potential danger of changing the outcome of chronological events, he decided that none of it had happened yet from his perspective.  As such, he traveled back to 1985 and brings both Marty & Jennifer into the future (which would become the opening act of “Part II”).  He then mentions that whenever a given situation has loads of variables, it has a greater potential of one having less control over it.  While Marty Jr. was ultimately spared from going to prison as a result of “a life-altering mistake”, it led to his time travel secret being discovered and used without his knowledge.

As a result of elder Biff getting the sports almanac and stealing the time machine in order to give the periodical to his 1955 self, our main group would ultimately return to their time period and discover that it’s being changed for the worse with Hill Valley becoming “a hellish slum” with a fully-rich Tannen in complete control.   Emmett then narrates about how he initially thought that the Time Circuits were misaligned and that they wound up in a dystopian future yet after he broke into a closed down library, he discovered in the newspaper archives that the timeline was altered as he learned about Biff’s financial rise to power along with the fact that his alternate 1985 self was committed into a mental asylum.  For that latter revelation, he decided to get to the bottom of this as he visited the institution under the guise of his former family named Von Braun and asks the receptionist to visit “Emmett” since he was a distant cousin.  He ultimately manages to bribe his way into a five-minute session before he asks his alternate self about the particular surrounding his own history.  He then mentions that he found evidence of Tannen causing this alternate history to be formed by heading back into time before he then realizes that based on the past newspapers, Brown was committed before he had a chance to finish his time machine before our main version wonders how this world could exist without time travel since Biff would have to obtain knowledge about the future.  He then a horrifying realization that a time paradox has been created as a result and as a result of the space-time continuum attempting to fix itself, he’ll end up getting erased from existence along with the DeLorean and all of the history that was affected as a result of it.  Unfortunately, he’s not able to get any insight from his alternate self since he was lobotomized.  From there, Emmett takes his leave while his narration mentions that he and Marty were safe for now due to them being in a timeline bubble yet it would ultimately burst and the world would feel the full wrath of the resulting temporal feedback.  From there, the rest of the events of “Part II” played out as our main duo returned to 1955 and Marty managed to retrieve the sports almanac from Biff before incinerating it.  Brown then narrates about how the temptation to travel through time for one’s own needs were too tempting for anyone to succumb to before the fateful lightning bolt struck the time machine while he was inside it and he wound up in January 1885 as a result along with it being no longer able to fly.  From there, he saw this him as being free from the horrid temptation along with him having a second chance to live within a heavenly setting as he concludes his tale by mentioning that living in this era with her is perfection to him.

Clara then tells him that she’s pregnant as this news made him even more happy before we shift to her narration about how despite them having a pair of boys along with her husband sharing his adventures with them, she still had a longing to join her man on his time traveling ventures as well as bringing their children with them.  Emmett would notice this yearning look on her face before he decides to take him to his adjacent workshop while also mentioning that despite him enjoying the family life that they’ve built together, he still misses his dog Einstein as well as his friend Marty.  He assures her that he has no intention of leaving his family behind and that he wants to bring them along before he then reveals that he had brought the train into his massive shed with the intention of turning it into a time machine, which proceeds to excite her.  We then shift back to the Time Train’s initial test as Clara narrates about how she vows to no longer keep any piece of herself secret from her husband every again.  As for the test itself, the train is able to get up to 88 miles per hour but it’s not able to make the time jump before running out of tracks and it ends up crashing as a result.  Fortunately, the Brown family was able to emerge unscathed as Emmett wonders about what went wrong while Clara assures him that everyone makes mistakes and that they’ll be able to learn what to do next time.  He then has some doubts as he mentions that McFly would be able to look after Einstein and that they he’s already happy in his current setting, yet she tells him that she’s eager to see the future since it’s been her dream.  He then realizes that it’s actually their shared family dream before he wonders what kind of repairs will be needed in order for them to pull this off before she spots a man riding on a serpollet steam tricycle that was imported from France.  From there, the comic ends with Emmett learning from the guy that he’s gone as fast at 18 miles per hour on it before she assures her husband that it’s a start as she narrates about how the future will arrive to them once they put their minds to it.

We now move away from the initial format of the first five issues to the series’ first major storyline called “Continuum Conundrum”, which takes place over Issues #6 through #11.  As for the first major adventure that our main group will find themselves in past the movie trilogy and outside the animated series, let’s speed on his to find out.

We open with a groggy Marty being met upon by his mother Lorraine who wakes him up as we then learn that this takes place on March 3, 1986.  He then comes across his older siblings named Dave and Linda who’ve stopped by to have some breakfast before he goes to work while she is about to begin her college tenure with the ultimate intention of her opening her own beauty salon.  As Marty is about to head out, Dave tells him that he has to decide what he wants to do since the future will arrive before he knows it.  McFly then comes across Biff who’s washing his truck before asking him if he ever feels like the best part of his life has passed him by, to which Tannen says that he does every day.  Later, he completely walks his way to school before Needles and his goons see him before Douglas’ cohorts tell him to pay McFly back for what he did to him.  From there, Needles decides to taunt Marty about him not showing up in his truck before McFly’s cold shoulder approach manages to make him back off.

However, Marty is then confronted by Jennifer who’s angry with him for not picking her up.  He says that he didn’t feeling like driving, to which she finds that hard to believe since she brings up that he’s had a love of being behind the wheel of said vehicle since he was in ninth grade.  He then says that it’s not exciting to him anymore before she tells him that he has to move on from Doc Brown, to which he yells out that she doesn’t have a single idea as to where he’s gone to and what he saw.  The class bell then rings as Parker begins to head out while mentioning that he’s not sure what it’s actually like.  Marty tries to remind her that she was there and that she’s the only whom he can talk about what’s happened, yet she says that there’s times where she can’t be sure if he’s making things up before she heads out.  From there, he talks about his 1885-based showdown against Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen and how he managed to defeat him without ever firing a single bullet.  It’s then revealed that he’s been sharing this experience with children at the playground before their respective parents head out with their kids while looking at him like he’s a weird person.  He eventually makes his way home and decides to go to bed early, despite it being dinner.  This makes his parents concerned for him since their youngest sibling has been in a funk ever since Emmett “moved away” since despite George’s opinion of him being “a bad influence”, Lorraine does remind her husband he helped them before she wonders if their kid requires some therapy.  Unbeknownst to them, Marty says that he’s in need of a sign that the good doctor is out there somewhere.

We then shift to the next day at school as he’s in the middle of his history class before the teacher is met upon by a guy who has a message that dates back to the Old West and that it’s intended to be given to McFly who’s at “the highest attainable level of education prior to university, on the first Monday of March, 1986”.  As such, he receives that letter and reads it before he gets stunned by what’s been written for him.  Over at lunch, Jennifer is talking with her friends named Tiffany and Michelle just as Marty comes in and takes Parker off to this side in order to show her Clara’s letter from 1893.  In particular, she mentions that her husband has disappeared into the future and that she’s asking McFly to help her find him.  As they eventually head out in his truck, she wonders why this is happening since they last saw the Brown family six months ago (a.k.a. the final scene in “Part III”).  Marty tells her that time travel is complicated and that they’re not sure if it was sent before or after they arrived in 1985.  As such, he’s not sure if it was after since that would mean that the good doctor needs his help or before since he fears that the space-time continuum will be in danger if he does nothing.  They ultimately arrive at Emmett’s lab, only to find nothing existing there anymore.  Jennifer then reminds him that he never saw it being built, to which McFly realizes that the good doctor must have a second laboratory.  In order for them to find it, they make their way to the civic records office which is run by the mayor’s son named Goldie Wilson, Jr., yet he’s not able to find anything.  He then says that he’s been working his whole life in order to become Hill Valley’s mayor someday, to which Parker asks him if there’s anything else he can think of since Emmett has been a good friend to Marty and that he’s felt lost ever since the good doctor left as she reminds Wilson Jr. of what it’s like when their work takes somebody away from him.  This strikes a good chord with Goldie as he then asks if their friend could’ve used an alternate name, to which they realize that Emmett’s family used to be known as Von Braun.

As such, they arrive at the secondary lab which is guarded by a locked barb-wired fence as McFly explains that the good doctor was always paranoid.  She then reminds him that he stole from Plutonium from some Libyans before she asks her boyfriend to hurry things up since she feels like someone’s following them.  Fortunately, he’s able to punch in the correct code on the keypad in order for the main gate to get opened before she then gives him a boost towards a barred window that he’s able to unlock.  He then opens it up and climbs inside before he open the garage door in order to let her into the “seriously secret lab”.

He then comes across another DeLorean, yet notices that it doesn’t have its Flux Capacitor.  Before they attempt to thoroughly investigate the building, he proceeds to write a notice of when they came here and placing it in a container just in case Emmett does turn up.  Suddenly, they hear a loud crash as she grabs a pipe to use in defense.  Just then, a guy in a diving suit approaches them before getting caught in a net.  He then takes off his helmet and reveals that he’s Emmett before Part 1 ends with him wondering where & when he’s at, along with who our young man is.

Part 2 begins with Marty reintroducing himself and his girlfriend to the good doctor, yet Brown says that he’s never seen them before.  As such, McFly has a private conversation with Jennifer as she asks him if this is the same Emmett from before.  Marty then says that maybe this version hasn’t met them yet, to which she wonders if this guy could be from another universe.  As such, they decide to test this as McFly asks Emmett what the current year is to which the good doctor isn’t able to recall that detail.  Marty is then convinced that the man is truly Brown before he and Jennifer proceed to free him from the trap.  Afterwards, McFly asks him why he came here and where he got the diving suit.

The good doctor then recalls “the men in black” coming after him, so he got into “the car” in order to flee from them.  From there, he tried to return to where he came from yet it was “different” and that he can’t remember anything.  Marty assures him that they’ll figure this out together before they hear the cops approaching as he assumes that they accidentally tripped some kind of alarm.  Instead of trying to bolt for McFly’s truck, they all instead drive out in the DeLorean (which doesn’t have any plates on it) as Marty gets it to reach 88 miles per hour before Parker tells him to slow down.  Brown then notices that the police aren’t chasing after them anymore before McFly gets excited on the fact that they were able to outrun the cops.  Jennifer then asks him why he’s okay with this, especially since she questions him why it felt “right” to him.

Later, night has fallen as all three of them manage to return to Marty’s neighborhood before he assures Parker that she parked his truck on the side of the street and that it won’t get impounded.  From there, they sneak their way inside the McFly house while they overhear George and Lorraine being concerned with their youngest son.  As for our central group, Marty brings them to his father’s closet in order to provide Emmett with some proper clothes.  However, the good doctor carelessly removes his suit which noisily hits the floor and gets the parents to notice.  George goes to investigate, only to find no one there since our main group managed to flee in time.  With Brown now wearing proper clothes, he suddenly realizes that they have to get his dog Einstein.  McFly assures him that he already got his pet six months ago before Jennifer also mentions that it’s with Clara.  Emmett then wonders who she is, to which Marty assures him that they’ll find his dog and figure it out.  Parker then scolds her boyfriend for being too happy about this situation since both the good doctor and his pet are potentially in danger, to which he assures her that he knows what he’s doing before he has them calmly think this through and realizes that their present version of Brown is either from shortly after he got his rejuvenation procedure or he’s actually from the 1950s.  Jennifer then reminds him that Emmett knew where his secret lab is and that he recalls crashing a “car” along the way.  McFly then asks the good doctor where he crashed before he guides them towards the intersection where he did so.  They then spot a notice from the Lee Brothers Towing & Repair Service upon a stop sign that’s been run over as Marty is worried that the cops would hunt them down if they showed up, yet Parker says that the cops will assume that it’s an abandoned car and that she’ll take care of their situation.

From there, they reach the service’s scrapyard and learn from the employee that it’ll cost them $300, especially since a potential buyer has shown interest in said vehicle.  Despite Jennifer’s “way with people” not working here as well as our group not having the money that they need, the employee gives them until the end of his shift at midnight to give him this payment.  With none of them having anything of value to exchange for some quick cash, Marty says that he’s not going to let a barb-wired fence prevent them from saving the space-time continuum.  We then shift to a different part of the yard as Parker is worried that this plan won’t work, yet McFly assures her that he and Brown used to do this kind of stuff a lot.  Just then, Emmett asks him why he thought that he was in trouble as he recalls Marty’s note left to him back in his workshop.  Our youngsters become ecstatic over how the good doctor’s memory is coming along and that he also recalled Marty’s name.  Just as McFly is about to climb over the fence, Emmett spots an incoming vehicle as our group is forced to hide within the bushes.  As the vehicle approaches, Marty recognizes the music that’s coming out of it and is then able to realize who it is based on their taste for the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Needles.

Thankfully, his arrival has opened up the main gate and allows our central group to sneak their way inside in order to find Brown’s car despite them not necessarily knowing what it looks like given the ambiguous time period that he’s come from.  Fortunately, McFly remembers the employee mentioning that Emmett’s car was hooked up to the tow truck as they discover that Brown’s vehicle comes from the 1890s.  With the entire timeline in trouble, he then says that Emmett’s arrival in said automobile probably means that he couldn’t get the train to work as a time machine.  Jennifer then wonders how that’s possible since they saw the train along with Clara and “the boys” before Brown begins to worriedly wonder where his sons are.  Marty assures him that they’ll find them while he struggles to get Emmett’s vehicle free, yet Parker wants them to “borrow” the tow truck so that they can get the automobile unhooked in peace before they return the truck in the morning.  Ultimately, McFly agrees to her plan while he wonders if their present Brown comes from a time before he and Clara had kids.  Just then, Douglas drives up to him and demands for a drag race rematch.  Fortunately, Marty is able to not fly off the handle just because he was called a chicken.  However, Needles threatens to smash up the car that’s attached to the tow truck.  McFly then says to come get him, despite Jennifer warning her boyfriend that history will be in grave peril if anything bad happens to Emmett’s car.  However, Marty simply tells her to get the good doctor out of here before he speeds off as Part 2 ends with Douglas pursuing him.

Part 3 opens on August 13, 1893 as the good doctor shows off the steam time car to his family before explaining that he’s going to travel into the future in order to acquire some much-needed parts to finally make the Time Train operational.  As he mentions that he’s taken the Time Circuits and Flux Capacitor from said locomotive, Clara asks him if this steam car is safe.  Despite her concerns, Emmett says that it isn’t and that it’ll probably fall apart after a single use due to the stresses of the space-time continuum along with the temperature variation causing havoc upon the cast-iron frame.  His sons then tell him not to proceed with this, yet he assures his kids that the diving suit will protect him from the timestream’s strains.  From there, he preps the vehicle to drive down a steep hill in order to reach the necessary speed.  Clara is then concerned that he’ll crash into a tree, to which he assures her he’ll have plenty of room to work with.  After his family give him one last embrace, he promises to return to this exact moment once he completes his assignment.  From there, he boards his steam time car before he notices a note from his wife on it sharing her love to him.  Afterwards, he proceeds to drive down the hill while constantly gaining speed.  He eventually gets to 88 miles per hour and travels into the future, but Clara and her sons are ultimately left waiting a long time for him to return.  From there, she decides to write a letter to “a friend” in order to finally get some help.

We then shift ahead to March 4, 1986 as Needles chases after McFly while saying that he’ll race him for the vehicle that’s attached to the tow truck.  Marty refuses to give into his offer, so Douglas decides to ram into said automobile and destroy it.  During this pursuit, McFly tells Parker to get the good doctor out of here as they proceed to do so.  As for Marty, he manages to slow Needles down by getting a stack of wrecked cars to fall onto Douglas’ truck.  While Jennifer and Emmett manage to get back inside the DeLorean, Marty drives the tow truck out of the yard before he catches up to them.  However, Douglas is still in hot pursuit as he begins to hit the steam car with his truck.

Just then, its parachute opens up and causes the tow truck to slow up before ultimately bringing it to a complete stop into a bush.  Needles then shares his admiration towards McFly’s ability to steal a car prior to being met upon by Jennifer in the DeLorean who spooks him out and causes him to crash into a delivery truck containing eggs.

Marty then assures his friends that he’s okay before Brown checks up on Douglas and finds him unharmed followed by Parker giving her boyfriend a kiss as a sign of her appreciation towards his safe being.  McFly then mentions how Needles lost to both him and his “girlfriend” before it causes Emmett to become worried for his own.  Marty then notices some kind of balloon inside the steam vehicle, yet Parker spots the driver whose delivery truck was rammed into by Needles approaching as they manage to stuff the brake parachute away, attach the vehicle onto the DeLorean and head out.  As McFly mentions how dropping the good doctor off isn’t an option for them at this time, Jennifer thinks that he intends to selfishly keep Brown in order to keep going on time traveling adventures at the cost of keeping him separated from his family, yet Marty assures her that they can’t return Emmett to his kin while he’s still in his memory-stricken state along with him not having completed his originally intended mission.  Brown then asks about his wife and if she’s worried for him as McFly gives him the letter before they ultimately arrive at the Lone Pine Mall’s parking lot.

Parker then wonders why they’re at this location, to which Marty says that it’s out of the way and gives them some much-needed privacy.  He then checks out the steam car’s time circuits and discovers that Emmett came from the year 2035.  However, the steam car isn’t in the best shape since it’s barely keeping itself together and it won’t be able to reach the necessary time traveling speed by itself.  Jennifer then wonders if they can pull it with the DeLorean, yet he says that it’ll cause the steam car to fall apart.  She then suggests for them to install the Flux Capacitor onto the DeLorean, yet he doesn’t know how to do so since he didn’t initially build it.  Parker then wonders if it uses loads of electricity before Brown ultimately mentions that he solved that issue with a frictionless dynamo.  He elaborates by mentioning that the hoverboard provided him with some “rudimentary hover technology” in order for him to extrapolate the means to store multiples of 1.21 jigawatts.  McFly is then thrilled by this restoration of memory before Emmett sees Clara’s note and says that he must return to the past.  Sadly, he’s not able to recall how he initially installed the Flux Capacitor into a DeLorean before Jennifer wonders why the steam car’s parachute is connected to some “time stuff”.  Brown sees it as a kind of “escape pod” as Marty then realizes that the deployed parachute would allow the balloon to help its occupant get to safety alongside the Flux Capacitor.  Parker then wonders if he wouldn’t want the parachute after it went up before Emmett presents a demonstration where the balloon would carry the occupant half a mile into the air.  Afterwards, it would release its occupant and send the individual into a free fall before the attached Flux Capacitor would active once the being hits 88 miles per hour after four or five seconds.  In said time frame, the user would activate the parachute and safely drift back down.  As such, all of those items would work together as a time-parachute.  Meanwhile, the diving suit would protect him from the rigorous time stream and help him return home.  However, Jennifer tells him that he’s just starting to get his memory restored and that they can’t send him back through the space-time continuum by himself.  Fortunately, McFly is able to find a radiation suit inside the DeLorean and says that the good doctor has to finish his initial mission.  As such, Part 3 ends with him saying that they’re going to head into the future again.

Part 4 begins with our group having prepped a balloon that will carry our properly-suited duo into the sky.  Parker then asks her boyfriend if he’ll be able to return since he’s set the Time Circuits to two minutes from now and will immediately return from the future to which he says it’ll happen.  From there, she cuts the line and causes our two men to ascend into the air.  Eventually, they’ve managed to reach the necessary height above the surface before they free themselves from the balloon and begin their steep plummet.  Fortunately for them, the process works as they manage to travel into the future as Parker sees this from the ground.  Shortly afterwards, she spots an incoming truck and assumes that Needles has caught up as she decides to hop into the DeLorean and flee.  However, she gets blinded by the mystery being before she hopes for her boyfriend to succeed in his mission.

Meanwhile, Marty & Brown arrive in Hill Valley on September 16, 2035 as the former opens up the parachute just before they crash through the glass ceiling of the Lone Pine Fli-Drome as they learn that the mall was replaced by this arena and that everyone does their shopping on “the net”.  After freeing himself and McFly from their parachute, Emmett grabs onto a patron’s fli-blades in order for them to safely hover towards the ground.  After they discover that they’re in the middle of a hover roller derby session called “Fli-Derb”, one of the players mistakes them for terrorists and proceeds to call the police on them.  Marty manages to take one of the participants’ hoverboards in order for him and Brown to make their escape before it snaps in half and they land outside.  After viewing what this futuristic Hill Valley looks like, they proceed to go change into their regular clothes and hide out in a restaurant called “Bistro Twenty/15”.

As they hang out, Emmett says that he remembers bits & pieces about this future and that his memory is coming back to him.  Just then, they’re met upon by a waiter who talks in bizarre 2010s lingo while asking for their order.  After McFly orders a soda, Brown mentions how something isn’t feeling right and that he wants to get to his lab which is only a few blocks away.  However, Marty wants to take in this future since he doesn’t get to experience this a whole lot especially since it helps him feel alive and made him feel like he was doing something helpful.

Just as Emmett mentions that he’s felt something else, he spots an officer complaining about the slowness of his order (after only two minutes, by the way) as McFly discovers that he’s Griff Tannen.  The official then approaches Brown and tells him that he’s under arrest, but not for the arena-based incident.  Instead, it’s for a small list of other crimes.  Just then, he spots Marty’s radiation suit and realizes that they’re the ones who’re the supposed domestic terrorists.  McFly tries to attack him with the hoverboard to no avail, yet Emmett manages to stuff the radiation helmet over his head to distract them long enough for them to run for it.  They try to use the individual hoverboard in order to flee towards Brown’s lab, but Griff is able to catch up in his hovering car and order them to stop.  Fortunately, they use a synthetic fertilizer truck to help them elude the official despite the good doctor hitting his head in the process.

Our main men ultimately manage to reach the secret lab before Emmett finally restores his own memory.  Unfortunately, Part 4 ends with Griff managing to reach their location.  Not only that, but he intends to literally turn up the heat and flush them out.

Part 5 opens with the corrupt officer preparing to burn the lab down, yet the device thankfully has a safety function that tells him that he isn’t authorized to use it.  As such, it informs him that he and the “tactical flame device” will shut down until the commissioner shows up to override it.  Tannen says that it can’t do this to him, yet the device gives him a shock for this insubordination.  Meanwhile, Marty sees this from inside and is stunned by what’s just happened.  Brown then explains that police flamethrowers aren’t standard since they come with an administrative shut-off system and that Griff will be staying put until he’s allowed to finally bring the heat.  Now that his friend has his memories restored, McFly asks him to explain what exactly is happening.  While he gets to work on installing the Time Circuits onto the Hoverboard, Emmett brings up the moment in 1893 when he used the Time Train’s Flux Capacitor on his steam car in order to return to 2015 and get the necessary tech that would finally help his locomotive travel through time.

After he sped down a steep hill and built up enough speed to make the time jump, he ended up hitting a guy shortly after his entry.  Afterwards, he hid the vehicle and makes his way to his secret lab in order to acquire his identifications while taking in the futuristic sights.  As he makes his way into the center of town, he realizes that he’s not in 2015 as his ” crude time circuits” caused him to overshoot his intended time period.

Back in 2035, he accidentally bumps into a woman who gets offended due to him talking to her “without scanning first”.  Afterwards, he’s met upon by a V-Caster named Aiden (who has a computer network link installed in his head, by the way) and proceeds to ask him where he can get some hover technology.  His narration then informs Marty that this future has gotten much faster in the two decades since their initial future visit and that flying cars are even called Gliders.  Eventually, he makes his way to his secret lab in order to surround himself with his past inventions.  Just then, he comes across McFly’s message about his wife being worried for him.

As such, he changes into his 2015 outfit before heading out to the bank in order to reach his supply of copies of Action Comics #1 that’re in his safety deposit box and are under his guise of Dr. Leroy Brown.  Following an optical and thumbprint scan however, he gets captured by an armored guard due to the Buccal Scanner detecting something off about him.  As such, he gets taken to a holding room by the official who turns out to be Griff.  Just as Tannen is about to arrest the good doctor, the safety features chime in and reminds him that he’s been previously warned on many past occasions.  However, it turns out that he’s been previously reprimand for several past bribes as he gets punished with an electric shock.  Fortunately, this gave Emmett his chance to escape.  With him being pursued by a pair of bank guards, he accidentally bumps into a woman who winds up get flown a good distance within a green energy sphere called Bounce.  As such, Brown takes a guy in order to form a Bounce sphere around themselves and flee.

However, the man casts him out as he lands in the middle of town.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, all of the citizens have been made aware of him being seen as a criminal.  He manages to stay low as much as he can while Griff manages to get a lock onto his location due to the good doctor’s clothes being tagged.  Brown then returns to his steam car in order to try to escape to 2015 and get the proper hover technology before using the time balloon to return to 1893.  He ultimately returns to his steam car and puts his diving suit back on before he’s then approached by Griff who’s in a high-tech armored vehicle and proceeds to zap him with an Impulse Blaster which is meant to disable implemented electronics.  However, it also had a side-effect of scrambling his mind.  Just as Tannen is about to fire it a second time, the safety feature tells him that he’s not authorized to fire it again as he quickly agrees to comply in order to not get shocked again.  As for Emmett, his mind was feeling scrambled but he was able to remember a date from the note along with him being able to access his chronometer as he manages to get up to speed and escape.

From there, he would meet up with his longtime friend and Parker within his secret lab via his vestigial memory as he mentions that he couldn’t initially speak and when he could, he couldn’t recall who he was or what was going on.  We then return to our present set of events as Marty asks his comrade if their next time machine will work.  Unfortunately, Brown tells him that their hoverboard (which is called a gliderboard) is broken.  As if things couldn’t get any worse for them, Griff is able to access the safety override and gain an authoritative apology before Part 5 ends with him bursting into the lab in order to finally unleash his fury onto them.

Part 6 begins with Tannen firing away despite being told that he’s not allowed to override an officer shutdown and that the commissioner is on his way to discipline him.  As they take cover, Emmett tells his longtime friend to not blame himself since he was in trouble and that he came to him for help while McFly admits that he wanted to take part in another adventure with him.  Brown assures him that every single day is an adventure and that life is about having people you love before he compliments his friend for always being there for him.  Just as Griff is about to bear down on them, Emmett smacks him with a device in order to give himself and his pal some breathing space.  Marty then notices a specific machine and asks the good doctor about it, to which Brown says that its the second version of his Temporal Field Generator which is a prototype chronal displacement device that can only work within the time frame that it’s activated in.  He also says that it’s highly dangerous since it “nearly destroyed the fabric of reality”.  As for why it’s already feeling hot, he mentions that it’s “a byproduct of electrical current”.  Fortunately, McFly recalls turning the exact device on back in 1986 before he asks the good doctor if it has enough power for them to get back home.  Emmett says that it can, but they only have a single suit that protects them from the rigors of time travel.  As such, only one of them can make the trip.  Thankfully, Marty has finally wrapped his head around thinking fourth dimensionally as he reminds Brown that he still has a set of Time Circuits and a Flux Capacitor while Jennifer has access to the DeLorean that’s capable of traveling through time.  During all of this, Hill Valley Police Commissioner Wilson is overseeing Officer Tannen’s rampage via the camera on his weapon before she tells a fellow oversight official to cut off all access to said camera since they have a rogue cop on their hands that they must deal with.  Meanwhile, Brown manages to put his diving suit on before he tells his friend that he’ll make a quick stop in 2015 in order to get a Mr. Fusion device and then, he’ll resume his time trek to 1986.  After he manages to get Griff out of his hair by hitting him with a flaming object, McFly manages to press the main power button in order to send the good doctor on his chronological way.

We then transition back to the moment in 1986 when Parker is suddenly met upon a figure inside of a truck and she instantly assumes that it’s Needles, yet she fortunately discovers that it’s Emmett who arrives with everything he needs in order to make the DeLorean able to time travel.  As he begins his hours-long tinkering process, he mentions that the chronometer on the Temporal Field Generator Mark II only records in hours and that he’ll have to make “an estimation” while she begins to tell him what her boyfriend has been up to.

Back in 2035, Marty is in dire straights with Tannen looming large over him.  Fortunately, he gets subdued by his fellow officers before McFly is met upon by Commissioner Wilson and properly arrests her corrupt cop.  Shortly after Griff gets shoved into a Police Glider, Marty gets told by Wilson that he’s still in trouble for “attacking the Fli-Derb” yet she assures him that he’ll only get a Sage Implant along with a “Level One Personality Rewiring” and that Officer Tannen received it prior to joining the police force.  Unfortunately, its continued ineffectiveness rears its ugly head again as Griff somehow broke out of his containment and takes control of a Police Glider in order to ram Marty.  Just then, the DeLorean pops in containing both Parker and Brown with the former actually being behind the wheel.  After she accidentally smacks the commissioner away with the door, Marty soon learns that his girlfriend is staying in the driver’s seat.

Shortly after they speed off, the police proceeds to chase after them as McFly says that they can get to 2015 in order to help hover-convert the time machine.  However, Emmett tells him that Jennifer has informed him about what’s going on and that they’re taking him home.  Marty then asks the good doctor why he didn’t get the hovertech while he also went to get Mr. Fusion, to which Brown says he couldn’t fit it into the T.F.C. and that he wants to get back to his time period in order to be with his family again.  As they approach a massive crowd of people, Emmett tells them to get out of the way before they all recognize him as one of the guys that had previously crossed paths with the good doctor and got “bounced” by him.  McFly then asks his comrade about that, to which Brown says that the man has a suit that contains some “hover technology projection” which is a force field that makes its user impervious to damage and allows them to bounce before mentioning how apparently everyone has them in 2035.  With Tannen bearing down on our main group, Marty gets an idea as he tells Parker to go faster.  As such, she drives towards the patrons with their H.T.P.’s sending them into the air and into Griff’s path.  His Police Glider activates its automatic brakes in order to avoid some potentially further harm towards the civilians, yet Tannen orders for them to be disengaged.  Fortunately, our group is able to escape through time while Griff ends up crashing into the Sewer Reclamation Project and gets covered in manure before Wilson proceeds to arrest him again.

Meanwhile, our main group arrive at Hill Valley on March 5, 1986 before they make it back to the McFly family house as both Marty and Jennifer get dropped off there.  Despite Emmett offering his friend to come along with him on another time travel adventure in order to make him happy, McFly assures him that he’s good before he asks the good doctor how they can keep in touch.  Brown then presents his comrade with a set of canisters and that he can place a note into one of them before leaving it within his secret lab, to which he’ll retrieve it in the future and then show up to be there for him.  Afterwards, he thanks his youthful allies for their help before taking his chronological leave.  From there, they proceed to walk off in order for them to retrieve his truck before he mentions how happy he is that he’s taking time to be with his girlfriend and that she actually saved him, to which she also adds that she ran Needles off the road.  She then learns that the version of Doc Brown that they were interacting with was the version before they ultimately saw him within the Time Train for the first time.  In addition to them making sure that things worked out, they’re then certain that he stopped in 2015 first in order to get some hovertech before he finally traveled back to his family in the late 19th Century and used said tech in order to finally perfect his Time Train.  She then tells her boyfriend that Brown wanted to make sure that they got to him before they did anything else.  From there, they arrive at her house as she offers for them to check out a new Clint Eastwood movie tomorrow as he accepts before they share a kiss.  Meanwhile on August 14, 1893, Clara narrates about how she left a note with instructions inside her schoolhouse in the hope that it’ll help bring her husband back to her and their sons.  Suddenly, they’re met upon by Einstein who playfully pounces onto her before they’re presented with the joyful sight of Emmett finally returning.  She then asks him why he didn’t return to the point in time that he immediately left in, to which he says that she wouldn’t have left her note for his longtime friend and thus rescue him, thus creating a time paradox.  Not to mention, he also had to pick up his dog.  Back to the McFly household on March 5, 1986, the storyline ends with Marty entering his house as his parents scold him for coming in late.  He then tells his folks that he misses them before giving them a hug and assures them that not only did he actually have a good day, but he’s also especially “looking forward to tomorrow”.

For our next narrative string, Issues #12-17 will see our leading youngster discovering that his past isn’t properly lining up with the known string of events throughout the timeline.  As such, he’ll need to personally set things right as we delve into a tale called “Who Is Marty McFly?”.

We open on our initial chapter (“How Needles Got Here”) on March 4, 1986, as Douglas himself is still in a catatonic state after what happened to him in the previous story arc.  A pair of police officers are able to remove him from his crashed truck before one of them mentions how the young guy has a lengthy rap sheet, though mainly containing petty bullying incidents.  From there, Needles gets placed into the back of their car before his anger for McFly begins to boil over him.  Over at the police station, he tells them of what’s just happened.  However, the officials tell him that both Marty & Jennifer are both at their respective homes, the junkyard employee named Wally Dorf has never heard of him, the DeLorean was unable to be discovered, and a delivery guy called them claiming that he saw an old car “with a parachute”.  Not to mention, they found a flask in Douglas’ glovebox and determine his testimony to be inadmissible.  The cop then tells him to take a hard look at himself before questioning him how he got here as we then transition back to October 8, 1979, where “Dougie” had just moved into town from Bakersfield with his mother and is being introduced to his elementary school classmates.  The teacher named Mrs. Montgomery then tells Marty that he’ll be in charge of showing Needles around today before their individual introduction to each other includes a somewhat-sick Douglas throwing up onto him.  After they wash the vomit off in the restroom, McFly tells him that it’s okay for him to be nervous due to him being a new student here.  Needles then notices the remaining stain on Marty’s pants and says that it looks like he peed himself as he laughs it up and points it out to other students before he and McFly make their way back to class.

Once school is done for the day, Douglas meets up with him and says that the whole peed pants thing was a joke before Marty tells him to not take any stress out on him and that he’s heading home.  Needles then says that he didn’t want to make a bad first impression and that he’s worried his classmates will never let him live it down since that’s what happened back at his prior school, to which McFly feels bad for him and decides to continue showing him around town.  They then make their way to the local music store as Marty tells him that he’s been practicing his guitar-playing skills for a while and that even though he’s currently playing the acoustic version, he’s saving up his money to some day own an electric one.  For now, he solely stops by to purchase strings and picks among other things.  He then offers to take him to the mall, yet Douglas says that he just remembered something that he has to do and that he must return home.  We then cut to the next school day as McFly notices a crowd of students gathered around Needles who has bought the guitar that he’s been saving for up for, yet Douglas isn’t able to properly work the electric instrument and causes the group to immediately disperse.  McFly tells him that he needs to also have an amp with the electric guitar before asking him why he purchased that instrument, to which Douglas says that he’s “inspired” him.

Later on, Marty is practicing with his bandmates and is frustrated at Needles for his recent action.  Just as he calms down and is about to begin practicing a song alongside the group, Douglas rides in on a skateboard and says that he’s been looking for them since he wants to invite them.  The band soon discover that he has his own practice studio over at his house that he got from his divorced parents as the entire band excluding McFly become ecstatic by the notion of them being allowed to play there.  As all four guys jam out, Needles then suggests for them to change their band name from “The Pinheads”.  Marty tries to tell him that he needs to spend more time playing with them before deciding that they should change their group name, but Douglas instead gets an idea and runs out.

McFly then proceeds to follow after him and says that they’re never going to get better as a unit if they don’t practice together and even offers to teach him some chords despite being intimidated by the fact that the rest of the group has been at this for a longer amount of time.  Instead, Needles says that they need to blow off some steam as he grabs some eggs from the refrigerator before they head outside and he proceeds to skateboard in front of an oncoming truck.  It’s then revealed that he’s going to throw some eggs at Brown’s laboratory.  Marty opposes this idea since he only sees the good doctor as eccentric as he and the rest of the band are about to head out, yet Douglas is able to strike a nerve onto our main man by calling him a chicken before he throws an egg at the building’s window and smashes it.  Suddenly, the intruder alarm goes off as he tries to flee as Emmett warns him that the “constabulary” have been notified.  As if on cue, Needles runs into a waiting officer and gets caught by him.

Later, McFly returns to his home where he’s met upon by his parents and his older brother David as Lorraine tells him that he’s returned late.  Marty says that he was with the new kid Doug and that he & his friends lost track of time over at his practice space, to which George realizes that he’s been with the same boy who moved into Riverdale Estates a month ago and that his son has been hanging out with him a lot.  As such, he mentions that he’s unsure about that kid before Lorraine says that she knows the boy’s mother and her harrowing backstory where she got pregnant in high school and has now gone through three divorces.  As for her now living within said housing complex, Lorraine assumes that she’s gotten married again.  Afterwards, George says that he has a “sixth sense” when it comes to determining whether a child is bad and that he doesn’t want his youngest son to spend loads of time with “Doug”.  We then shift over to a lunch period where Marty’s bandmates tell a young Jennifer and her friends about what went down over at Brown’s laboratory as McFly overhears all of this just as he arrives.  He says that Douglas isn’t an idiot since he’s just trying to fit in, yet his bespectacled bandmate named Paul reminds him of the kid’s wealthy living space.  Marty then reminds the group that Needles’ parents are divorced and that he’s not sure if they entirely love their kid, to which Paul says that Douglas is no longer allowed to be around them.  From there, he wants McFly to go tell him that he’s not in the band anymore and that they’re staying as “The Pinheads”.  Unbeknownst to him however, Needles overheard them from afar and calls Marty a coward for running away and letting someone else deal with a situation.  He then chastises the rest of the Pinheads and tells them that they’ll never go anywhere before saying that he’s starting his own band.  Afterwards, Douglas proceeds to unveil his permanent hair style and that he only wants to be called Needles.  McFly tries to calmly talk to him about what he’s just overheard, yet Douglas tells him that he was the only one who was ever kind to him and that those bandmates only putted up with him since he had immediate access to his musical gear.  Marty says that he wasn’t sure if he had the gumption to properly kick him out of the group, to which Needles tells him that he’s cowardly to do any dirty work himself as he repeatedly calls him a chicken.

We then shift back to March 4, 1986 as Douglas is informed that his family was already called, yet his mother is currently out of town and don’t have any idea where his father is located.  As he gets released, the cop tells him to make it count since someone would care if he spent the night in prison.  And so, the prelude ends with Needles calling up McFly and tells him that he better watch out once he gets out of jail.

From there, the actual storyline begins with the Pinheads practicing their song.  Just then, Paul notices how weird a part of Marty’s lyrics feel to which McFly says that it was inspired by their camping trip when Bobby joined.  However, a fellow bandmate tells him that he’s not remembering it since they didn’t take a bus to said venture and that it occurred after he got his truck.  Paul even adds that he saved up his money for said vehicle throughout the summer while his dad covered the remaining payment before telling him to “make it cooler” if he’s going to make things up.  Later, Marty meets up with Jennifer at the local diner which she works at as she tells him to simply write what he knows, yet he says that it’s part of the problem since he doesn’t seem to know anything anymore.  She then tells him that he can write a song about how they initially met, yet she’s shocked when he says that it occurred during “that time” when Needles was bullying him.  He says that he was just making sure before he asks her about the time that he met their parents, to which she says that it was the summer prior to him getting his truck and that they all went out for dinner with his parents & sister.  Afterwards, he assures him that he’s not depressed but is simply confused.

Later, he returns home and looks over various photos and family videos in order to remind himself of what he does & doesn’t remember.  Just then, his dad comes in as Marty asks him how much of his life does he actually recall especially since wasn’t always observing & reporting due to him ultimately becoming a college professor along with writing his own book.  George says that he’s still a writer and that he’s always liked to write, but his son wonders if he had never developed his confidence.  After he admits that he’s somewhat nervous, he then asks his dad if he seems different as if he was “another person”.  George tells him that it’s okay to feel that way since it’s all about being confident before he tells informs his son that he used to “a wimp” as Marty pretends to be mildly surprised by this.

From there, they decide to go for a walk as George talks about the time that he finally retaliated against Biff with one swift punch before he began to win Lorraine’s caring respect.  After a brief discussion about how things would’ve turned out had George didn’t finally stand up to Tannen, they admit that they don’t have these kinds of discussions like they used to.  They do recall that they used to repeatedly visit a particular lake when Marty was a kid and that our young man doesn’t remember as to why they stopped coming here.  George then asks his youngest son if everything is alright between him and his friends along with Parker, to which Marty says that he is and that he mainly wanted to ask him about writing.  Specifically, he asks his father what he would make of the past if it somehow changed all of a sudden and whether or not he would still be the person that he is.  George tells his kid about the belief of some people who think that time is equivalent to a flowing river and then through a skipping rock, he says that making a change will cause some kind of impact yet it won’t impact the regular chronological flow.  Marty then asks him if there was some kind of branching off, to which George says that it could be since lines can start together before splitting off into different directions.  In their discussion, they mention how choosing one slide will have one end up within “a completely different place” while trying to reverse course to go on the other path may result in things not connecting anymore despite being used to.  Marty then starts getting to predestination before George decides to have him talk with a priest named Father O’Flatherty.  He then asks Marty if he has a moral quandary before our youngster says that it’s not like that and that he’s wondering if there’s such a thing as fate.  Specifically, he asks if it was possible to go back into the past and altered something yet came out the same person.  O’Faltherty says there’s no “re-dos” and that “second-guessing the divine plan” along with avoiding the consequences of your actions is blasphemous.

We then shift to the next day back at the McFly home as Marty looks over his bag of canisters that he can use to place notes in and leave at Emmett’s lab if he ever needs help.  Just then, Lorraine tells him that it’s time for school as he gets dressed and heads out without them.  Later, he’s in his truck with Jennifer as he mentions how he feels like how he’s either the same Marty while “everything else changed” or else his girlfriend had a version of him yet he himself isn’t the same guy.  She initially believes that he’s making up his present problems before suggesting that he does the time trick of leaving a noted-filled canister within the secret lab and have Emmett show up to set things straight.  However, McFly is worried that the good doctor wouldn’t understand and that he’s also not sure if both Brown and Parker didn’t believe him that something was wrong.  She then assures her boyfriend that she does believe him, but she doesn’t entirely understand.  As such, he drives out to the Lone Pine Mall and begins his claim by saying that it was initially known as the Twin Pines Mall when he was growing up yet his trip back to 1955 had him running over one of the dual pine trees.  He then brings up Eastwood Ravine and how it was originally called Clayton Ravine since Emmett’s wife Clara had originally lost her life by falling into it.  However, he & Brown saved her life while the former called himself Clint Eastwood before he then decides that it ultimately doesn’t matter.  Even though both he and Emmett remember the changes, it didn’t greatly change anyone else as the chronological river is constantly flowing.  He then brings up the night that he went back to 1955 and says that he saw Brown get initially gunned down by Libyans before he escaped into the past.  After he eventually got back to his time period, he ultimately ran to the mall’s sign and once again saw Emmett get shot before seeing “a Marty” get into the DeLorean and venture back into time.  He then says that it was that particular variant of himself whose father was always a college professor and met the good doctor at the Lone Pine Mall, but wonders where that version went since he didn’t change the past.  McFly then believes that it was this version of himself that his girlfriend grew up with and fell for along with being the guy whom Emmett hired.  Jennifer then says that he’s that version of Marty before sharing a kiss with him and says that it’s all the proof she needs since she knows that he’s the same McFly.  She then says that the version of Marty who vanished is simply “some weird time thing”.

Later, they return to the good doctor’s secret lab as they hear its burglar alarm going off and that a pair of cops have arrived onto the scene.  They then approach the officers who recognize Marty “from the Needles thing” and inform our youngsters that someone has set the alarm off.  As the cops mention how every phone call to this lab results in them getting a “weird answer machine”, McFly manages to deactivate the alarm before letting them in.  Jennifer assures the officials that this is a messy workshop before she and Marty tell them to not shut off a particular machine.  Just then, McFly finds a canister with a responding message inside of it as Part 1 ends with “a friend in time” telling him that they need to talk.

Part 2 opens on April 14, 1986 with Marty going about his day at school while the note looms large over him.  Once the day is done, he meets up with Parker and says that he doesn’t know where to begin with the fact that somebody somewhere is after him.  She says that it’s not necessarily about him, yet he asks why there was a message for him.   She mentions that Brown is travelling across the timestream and it’s possible that he’s made some enemies along the way before a snow cone gets tossed at McFly by Needles who’s still serving his suspension from school.  Douglas then mentions that someone is using him to get to Marty before Jennifer embarrasses him in front of his cohorts by mentioning that she was the one who drove him off the road which causes him to take his leave.  Even though they’re now aware that Needles isn’t after him, McFly says that he doesn’t have any other enemies and that they must use the time canister method to contact Emmett and see if one of his enemies is truly waiting in the shadows to strike.  Just then, they’re met upon by an elderly man named Professor Marcus Irving and that he’s the “friend in time” who wrote him the letter before mentioning that they should find a private place to talk.  From there, the two guys decide to chat in Marty’s truck before Marcus tells him that he’s experienced with “time travel’s unfortunate conditions”.  He then mentions that Temporal Displacement is his specialty and that he understand McFly’s worries of his memories not lining up with everyone else’s.  During their discussion, they’ve been out driving before they arrive at a self-storage facility just as night has fallen.  Irving is able to understand that because Marty and the good doctor changed some things, our young man is troubled towards the existence of himself from this current reality.  From there, he explains that time is an “immutable structure” while a “Chronal Displacement Device” can provide a solution and that humanity is carried down the “river of time” with all of their efforts “swallowed by history’s maw”.

Afterwards, he open a storage unit and reveals his modified Yugo that’s not quite ready to time travel.  He then tells McFly that he comes from a parallel reality and that by getting his assistance, he can help the young lad save his own existence before time is able to self correct “its little flaw”.  Because Marcus understands his reluctance to trust a stranger, he mentions how he’s missing his own life before he proceeds to share his backstory.  He explains that in 1962, it was stolen from him by a proposition from General Groves and Colonel Lomax.  After they and the world managed to barely avoid “atomic annihilation”, the two high-end officials wanted a safety net put into place and in particular, they wanted it to be time travel with him being their most capable researcher.  Over the next several years, he worked away before he ultimately tried to figure out how much extensive power it would take to pull it off.  As more time passes, his parents would pass away and he ultimately lost touch with his sisters at some point around the Mount St. Helens eruption.  However, success was getting closer to him since only a single piece was preventing him from accomplishing his goal.  After two decades of work however, his superiors finally got fed up with the lack of anything getting produced after all that time.  They told him that his budget was being reallocated to the Strategic Defense Initiative, yet he knew that they would abuse time travel if they did have it.  From there, he did his own investigation before he discovered that he wasn’t the officials’ first choice to work on the project and that it was actually Brown himself.  However, the good doctor turned their offer down before this agitated Marcus to no end.  As such, he made off with his “research” in order to go after “this one-time would-be time traveler” and find this “piece” that had eluded him in his work.  He then assures Marty that he wasn’t going to take it and that he simply wanted to share his research with Emmett.  He would then take his lifelong project to the good doctor’s main lab only to find out that he wasn’t there.  While he did ask around town and was repeatedly told that no one had seen him for a while, they were aware that McFly was his guitar-playing assistant.  From there, he made his way to Marty’s house only to see him and his girlfriend dropped off from their recent venture before Brown vanished in his time machine.  Over the next several weeks, he would proceed with some “cloak and dagger” stakeouts in order to learn “who and what” he was dealing with.  He would then do some digging at the Hall of Records and discovered the good doctor’s secret secondary lab.  He would then arrive and look around the place before coming across the device that allowed McFly to communicate with Emmett through time.  Following “a quick trip to the store”, he made the note that Marty would recently come across and tripped the building’s alarm in order to make sure that he received it.  With his story complete, he then tells McFly that it won’t be long before he completely vanishes.  With Marty being rightfully shocked by how this would be the way that time would correct itself, Irving tells him that he came from the initial timeline to a point in the past which is where he changed history.  Afterwards, he returned to the changed timeline that already had its own version of the young McFly and that eventually, time will reinsert the actual Marty.  Our young man then asks him why Emmett never told him this, to which Marcus says that it was a different version of the good doctor who’s friends with the other version of McFly.  From there, he tells our main man to not take too long in making a decision.

Later, he’s back at his house and looks over a picture of his girlfriend before she suddenly begins to vanish from it.  Not only that, but he discovers that he’s beginning to get erased as well.  Just then, he’s approached by a figure in a radiation suit who reveals himself to be the other Marty and proceeds to scold him for taking his life away from him.  The vanishing McFly tries to tells him that he got their parents together, yet the other Marty says this was always the way it was before calling him a mistake and that he comes from a timeline that ultimately “didn’t work”.  Suddenly, Brown comes in and tells the other McFly how good it is to have him back.  As for the initial Marty, they just stand back and watch him vanish while Emmett tells his McFly that the alternate one is “an aberration” and “a bubble in the timestream” that’s ready to pop.  Fortunately, this whole scene was just a nightmare as Marty wakes up screaming before his dad comes in to check up on him.  Our young man then hugs his father and says that he doesn’t want to lose him after all they’ve been through before mentioning that he would do anything to keep it that way.  Later on, he writes a note to the good doctor asking for his help and that they should meet at this secret lab as soon as he gets it while also providing him with the exact date and time for him to go to.

After sending the loaded canister on its way, he then meets up with Irving and tells him that he’s not sure if this will work or even if he’ll show up alone or with his family and even which time machine of theirs they’ll appear in.  The professor then says that he’ll ultimately take a peek at the Flux Capacitor, but he needs to hide for now.  From there, Emmett arrives in the DeLorean and being mostly bandaged before asking his friend what his present emergency is.  Despite some initial hesitation, McFly manages to tell him that he’s going to vanish since he’s not sure if he’s the real version.  He then mentions about someone who lived his entire life in the timeline that his dad became a college professor is actually the real version of himself, yet Brown tells him that he was expecting this since he’s concerned about the exact same thing and that they’re the only two individuals who can ever fully understand this.  He then says that they both remember versions of times that either never happened or ever will happen before telling his comrade that even though he doesn’t share his memory holes, he’s well aware of there being other timelines that he never experienced.  From there, he brings up the version of himself where there was a Twin Pines Mall and was ultimately gunned down and that it bothers him as both a scientist & as a human being.  Marty then expresses his relief from all of this before he then mentions Professor Marcus Irving and that he was the one who convinced our young man to contact him.  However, Brown is already aware of him and that they must hurry.  During their dash, he explains that he’s heard of Marcus via his reputation and as a “temporal researcher” who doesn’t have a sense of knowing what’s right and what’s wrong.  Not only that, but he describes Irving’s science as “specious” before assuming that he has an ulterior motive.  From there, they arrive at the DeLorean and discover that it’s had its tires stolen.

Afterwards, Part 2 ends with several Martys suddenly attacking our main one with the good doctor unaware of it as he says that he expected treachery from the devious professor yet it’s still something that they can overcome.  Before he attempts to head out and find their new foe, he’s equally unaware of the various hands that now loom over him.

Part 3 begins with Emmett hearing McFly’s muffles before he finally sees the several Martys and realizes that the timestream is turning in on itself.  Despite his attempt to reason with the multiple versions of his longtime friend, the opposing McFlys attack him before the genuine being tells him to run since it’s all his fault that this is happening.  Brown refuses to flee and tries to intervene, but is unable to do so in time as his Marty and most of the opposing ones vanish before he’s then confronted by a blue-shirted McFly.  As such, he’s forced to flee in his time machine.

Meanwhile, the genuine Marty is taken by two versions of himself into a storage unit and locked in with them.  Back with Emmett, he’s attempting to locate his specific McFly while continuously pondering over his friend’s worries while he’s unaware of the opposing Marty that’s hanging off the side of the DeLorean for dear life.  As the figure slowly climbs up, Brown wonders if Marcus had collected all of the various McFlys from different timelines as well as the possibility of parallel realities coexisting and not just a singular timeline that’s overwriting itself.  He then realizes that if the timeline has become unstable, then the entire multiverse is also in peril.  Just then, the opposing Marty has climbed up and attempts to get in only to be temporarily blocked by a locked door.  Back in the storage unit, the actual McFly tells his two alternate selves that he understands why they’re after him as he admits that he made this happen by going back to the past and ultimately changed their worlds.  He then tells one of his similar beings that he saw him go back to 1955 shortly after he got back to 1985 himself and had wondered where he went, yet he now knows.  Meanwhile, Emmett notices the bluecoat Marty on the time coils and decides to let him in since he never wants to see his friend hurt.  From there, Brown asks him what exactly has brought him to this reality.

Back within the storage unit, the actual McFly continues his confession by saying that he went back in time because of some trigger-happy terrorists.  Because of his time-traveling venture and changes to the past, he feels like he took their lives away when he came back.  Afterwards, he asks his dual duplicates who they are.  He then notices that one of them as a stiff hand as the genuine Marty tells him that it would make it hard to play guitar and ultimately throw their initial dreams away before settling for a regular job.  Our main McFly realizes that this is the version that did get in a street race with Douglas and broke his hand once he crashed into another car and thus, could never play guitar ever again.  Despite how this construction should no longer exist, he still is as the main Marty still blames himself for why they want him out of the way and that he even admits that it would be better if he simply faded away.  Meanwhile, Emmett gets attacked by the bluecoat McFly and ends up getting caught between trying to fend him off & keeping the time machine stable in the air.  The struggle continues for a while before Brown ends up ripping off the figure’s face and discovers that he’s not the genuine Marty.

Back with the actual McFly, he realizes that if his dual selves are still here then he didn’t erase them himself and that all of them have the right to exist.  He then tells his dual selves that they shouldn’t be out to get each other and that they can work together to set things right in order for all of them to properly get to their rightful timelines, yet they continue to not respond to him.  Suddenly, the DeLorean smashes its way in before Emmett emerges with a futuristic stun gun and fires at the other Martys as McFly learns that they’re actually robots.  Brown tells his friend that Irving played him for a fool yet was unaware that the time machine is able to fly before they decide to leave the two faux figures in the unit while the good doctor mentions that the one that tried to attack him fell out.  Just as our heroes head out, two beings arrive with one of them being a robot as it uses its inhuman strength to rip the storage door open.  Marcus then notices that only two of his three Marty-Bots are present and that they’ll be able to track where the other one is at while mentioning  that the “Quarry” should help them shed some light on their situation.

Meanwhile, our main men return to the spot where the other automated figure landed but is now nowhere to be seen.  Emmett even mentions that he used the robot’s circuits in order to locate its remaining mechanized comrades in order to ultimately find his friend, yet he had to ditch the being when he struggled for too long after he ripped off the false figure’s face.  McFly then realizes that there aren’t any other timelines and Marcus duped him into thinking that there were, to which Brown tells him that his memories really don’t match reality and that Irving only used him to get to the Flux Capacitor.  Suddenly, Marty hears Needles calling out to him only to turn around and not see him.  He and Emmett soon discover that Douglas is going after the bluecoat fake before he & his goons soon find out that it’s a robot.  McFly then tells him to use his stun gun again, yet Brown admits that he left it in the car.  From there, the robot begins to assault Needles’ friends before Part 3 ends with the automaton picking him up and declaring that it must eliminate all witnesses.

Part 4 opens with Douglas still being oblivious that the mechanized being that’s strangling him isn’t Marty as his female cohort tries to smack the metallic figure on the head with a trash can lid, only for it to not affect the figure before shoving her away and knocking her out cold with a concussion.  While McFly still sees this overall situation as his fault, Emmett says that those robots were most likely made in the future and that he doubts that anybody would program them to murder anyone from the past without causing disastrous repercussions to the timeline.  Marty then says that Irving has to be behind this since him having a time machine would allow him to “galivant” all over history.  Brown then asks his friend for an electromagnet before the robot threatens Needles with a sharp needle from its finger.  While Emmett goes to get his time machine, McFly proceeds to engage the automaton.  It then throws Douglas off to the side before it redirects its attention towards capturing Marty.  Just then, Brown returns with the DeLorean under its remote override but his personal struggle to get something out of his shoe provided enough of a distraction to get him injected by the robot and cause him to wind up unconscious.  McFly then thinks that the automaton killed his friend before he reengages the mechanized fiend, only to discover that it’s powered down.

Afterwards, Marcus comes in and assures him that Emmett was simply knocked out by a mild dose of a serum before Marty calls him out for being tricked.  As Irving sprays a certain chemical called a Memory Cloud onto Needles and his cohorts in order to ensure that they don’t remember this incident, he explains that he needed Brown’s Flux Capacitor while also exaggerating about this false situation.  From there, he and his mysterious cohort proceed to capture our main men along with their time machine as they take off within their enforced van.  During the ride, McFly demands to know where the robots came from yet Marcus deflects his response by mentioning that his mechanized minions returned the Flux Capacitor to the DeLorean along with giving it new tires suited for time travel while also being impressed with it having a hover conversion.  Marty then asks him where they’re going and why he’s changing things if he got what he wanted, to which Irving says that they’re going to his lab and that he has no intention of changing the past despite admitting that he exaggerated the dangers of complicating the time stream a bit.  They ultimately arrive at the location of his lab which is currently a natural travel site.  Brown wearily overhears all of this and says that the guy is looking to change the future as Marcus calls him a loose end that’s been allowed to exist for too long.  While he says that his activities have been a secret, it’s still possible that our main men will find him and tear down his “entire world”.  With him being aware that our primary duo could go back in time and prevent him from doing crucial research when he was young, he ultimately decided to do something about it before his van and the DeLorean proceed to time travel.

The van ultimately arrives on January 8, 19654 BC (within the Pleistocene Era, which is 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) before Irving mentions that their time machine is in 1997 and that he’ll be going there in a bit before he shoves our primary duo out of the vehicle and leaves them trapped in the past.  Afterwards, Emmett snaps out of his weary state before mentioning that he needed the corrupt professor to underestimate him in order to have him fall into his trap.  McFly gets furious over how hopeless their situation is before he decides that this is what they deserve after bringing Marcus into his position of manipulating the timestream, along with their initial changing of history and who Marty originally was.  Just then, Brown pushed him into the water and joined him there due to a sabretooth tiger looming over them.  Not only that, but the beast followed them into the water and manages to scratch McFly’s face.  Fortunately, Emmett is able to use some wrappings from his mummy outfit (combined with his visits to the Rejuvenation Clinics in the future) in order to help him and Marty escape.

After they get back onto dry land, Brown promises that they’ll live long enough to make sure that Irving isn’t able to take credit for their work.  Just then, his plan begins to take fruition as the familiar van reappears in front of them and Marcus allows them to get in.  Irving then notices the scratch on McFly’s face before he has his robot treat his wound since if it was left untreated, either he or Emmett could’ve had a virus or bacteria that would’ve taken out one of the prehistoric creatures prematurely.

From there, they time travel their way into his secret lab in 1997 (specifically September 27) as our main duo check out his various Flux Capacitors that were made in the future.  From there, they realize that his plan isn’t to change the past but to alter the future.  Afterwards, the professor takes them to meet his “friends”.  As they make their way up a particular building, Marty asks him how he knows a lot about him since his various robots look so much like him, to which Marcus simply says that he found his photos on the internet as even Emmett has heard about it.  He then asks Irving where they’re being taken to as well as the kind of friends that he has, to which Marcus admits that he doesn’t have any friends since he primarily lives in his bedroom and secret lab since he never knew that they would ever look for him.  From there, he reveals his various Robo-McFlys and Robo-Browns inside his penthouse before Part 4 ends with him leaving the genuine articles with them in order for those automatons to bump them off.

Part 5 begins with their various robotic selves converging onto our main men before Emmett manages to finally get a small remote override out of his shoe.  He then says that he couldn’t mention it to Marty before since he was rendered unconscious as he activates it, which proceeds to summon the DeLorean up to him before it smashes its way inside and smacks the opposing robots away.  Brown mentions that he’s placed a Recall Mechanism in his time machine which allows it to hone in on the controller before he and his friend hop inside in order to escape while Irving tries to head back up to his penthouse.

Back in the DeLorean, McFly says that they need to return to 1986 in order for them to stop Marcus from stealing the Flux Capacitor.  However, Emmett says that the professor is expecting them to act without any kind of consideration despite Marty arguing that he was lied and intimidated into helping him out.  Brown then counterargues with the fact that what Irving told his friend had some basis in reality or possibility.  He then mentions that there can be other timelines along with a delay in time that’s overwriting itself before helping McFly remember that when he accidentally prevented his parents from initially meeting each other in 1955, it took a week before he started to get erased from existence.  As such, they have to make sure that whatever action they take will instantly take affect and that they can’t afford to get into a constant Reverse Time Race with Marcus in order to keep constantly go further into the past to negate each other.  Shortly after Irving returns to his robot-filled penthouse, Emmett tells his friend that they have to learn as much about this future as possible before Marty mentions that he saw a display case containing several Flux Capacitors within the secret lab.  From there, they use the time machine to disable the outside elevator before they ultimately make their way down there where they discover loads of devices originally from the future that he’s reverse engineered as his own and released under his company known as MAI-Tech.  While Irving hangs onto his primary Marty-Bot in order for them to make their way back to the secret lab, McFly says that he can potentially learn about himself over the next decade in order to make sure that he’s the real version of himself.  Brown then reminds him that the future isn’t written as well as all of those future objects and that anything they do face-to-face will just be altered by Marcus.  He also reminds Marty that anything he did ensures that his friend wouldn’t be encumbered by his action and that the future is the ultimate culmination of potential.  As such, it would be highly consequential if they knew it and they would wind up like Marcus.  McFly argues that they’re different from him since they look out for each other while Irving’s all alone before a robot girl begins to act very complementary for Marcus.  Afterwards, Marty reminds Emmett about how his own memories don’t seem to match up with other people’s histories and that he thought that his comrade was the only one who knew about what he was going through.  He then says that Marcus has also been through this since he built his headquarters miles away from anything and that between his secret lab & his penthouse, he doesn’t have any friends.  As such, this loneliness was what drove him to find the young lad in the first place.

Just then, Irving finally makes it to the entrance of his secret lab before our main duo fly out in the DeLorean as he decides to follow after them in his Time Car in order to finally take them down.  From there, we shift to April 15, 1986 where a younger version of Marcus has just stolen the Flux Capacitor and is in his own time machine vehicle before he decides to hide out from our central guys by buying some land for cheap that’s also in an out-of-the-way location.  Just then, they’re met upon our primary pair before a brief chase ensues.

Eventually, the younger version of Irving gets between our heroes and his future self before the elder Marcus tells his robots to secure his youthful self along with smiting anyone that gets in their way.  The younger Marcus admits that he lied to Marty before the genuine young man confronts him and says that it gets worse since he became a bad person due to him stealing the good doctor’s Flux Capacitor.  The young Irving then says that he spent his life building a time machine before the government shut that down, to which McFly tells him that he’s lived his life under several people telling him what to do only to trap himself once he finally got free.  With the robots bearing down along with some innocent civilians caught in the potential danger, Brown responds by ramming his time machine into the opposing Time Car.  The youthful Marcus then mentions that it isn’t villainy that drives him, but the “pursuit of accomplishment”.  While the robots are swarming over him, Marty tells him that it’s the choices they make that turns them into who they are.  He then asks the professor what makes him, to which the youthful Irving feels guilty and admits that he doesn’t want to be alone anymore.  As such, he saves some civilians from an opposing robot by smashing it with a Flux Capacitor.  With him making amends with the woman and her child that he just protected, his corrupt older self admires the better man that his past self is becoming before he gets erased from existence along with his Time Car and robots.

While the youthful Marcus strikes up a conversation with the woman named Gabriela Sanchez and her niece named Maria, Emmett assures his friend that they’re still around, yet they’re stuck in this version of 1986 until the DeLorean can get repaired.  Back with Irving, he gets assured from Gabriela that he hasn’t wasted his life and that life happens with the things that they do.  Afterwards, McFly tells her that he and Brown are his friends before Marcus adds onto the fact that they came to him at a crucial point to remind him that they can change their future every day just by living.  Just then, Needles & his goons come in and ask Marty what’s just happened yet he’s too exhausted to try and explain the seemingly unexplainable of what has occurred.  Eventually, both sides go their separate ways before we cut to the diner with all three guys as McFly explains what all of them have recently went through to Parker.  While Emmett knows that he’s several days away from his time machine getting fixed, Marcus ends up having a date with Gabriela.  Jennifer then wonders what Irving will do with his life before Brown hopes that he returns his time car to the authorities since it has an “unlicensed nuclear reactor” attached to it.  From there, the storyline ends with our main young man saying that the professor will figure it out and that he’s come up with an idea for his newest song.

We now get to the series’ penultimate narrative as Issues #18-21 would focus on a lesser-known member of the McFly family and finally explore how that member ultimately found themselves behind bars.  As for what that horrid crime was along with how this will affect our main men, let’s head into the criminal institution for a story arc called “Hard Time”.

We open our standalone chapter called “Stowaway To The Future” on April 19, 1986, with a reformed Irving helping the good doctor fix the DeLorean inside the main lab.  With Marcus admitting that Gabriela is the first “lady friend” that he’s ever had and that he’s supposed to meet up with her this afternoon, he thankfully informed her that he was helping out his “new friend” and that she was fine with him being a little late for their eventual get-together.  However, Emmett says that he doesn’t find that to be true from his own experience before he shares a past encounter of his.  We then shift to September 7, 1893 (though accidentally published as 11893, whoops) where he’s back in his late 19th Century home following his amnesia-fueled venture in “Continuum Conundrum” and is attempting to get the Time Train fully operational.  Specifically, he’s attempting to hover-convert the locomotive in order for it to get up to speed and travel through time.  Just then, Verne comes in and lassos his father before asking to play with him, yet the good doctor declines due to his work.  He then tells his youngest child to be more self-reliant before asking him why he can’t play with his older brother, to which Verne says Jules “makes stuff boring” and that his dad asking been working for week without making much significant progress.  Not only that, but Clara wants to talk to him as Emmett proceeds to meet up with his wife before she presents him with an anniversary gift since they’ve now been married for eight years.  However, he completely forgot about it before she tells him that she understands since he’s been busy and that “it’s not important”.  He then narrates about how throughout his whole spectrum of experience between life and time travel, he’s aware that when women say that particular phrase, it’s actually the complete opposite.  As such, he panics and says that he’ll get her gift before he dashes for the DeLorean while being completely unaware that Verne is inside it and now hiding inside the vehicle.  From there, the good doctor proceeds to time travel his way towards the future.  During the trip, Emmett narrates about how he would never let his wife down and that him forgetting an important date would solely stem from his dedication towards getting the Time Train working.  As such, he vows to complete the locomotive’s hover conversion in the name of love before he arrives in Hill Valley on October 27, 2017, as he preps for his arrival by changing into some era-appropriate clothes before he looks forward to buying some hover equipment along with his wife’s anniversary gift before returning to the exact point in time that he originally left.

Back in the present time, Irving calls him out for risking the space-time continuum and reality itself just because he forgot his own anniversary.  Brown then says that he’s still a man and that history has constantly shown that love is capable of affecting anyone’s values and ultimately change the course of human events.  Not only that, but he reminds Marcus that he previously attempted to steal his work for his own glory and ego boost instead of just doing “a simple conversion”.  From there, Emmett returns to his story where he visits Goldie Wilson III in order to get some hover conversion parts for his train.  Unbeknownst to him, Verne was hiding out in the DeLorean and also worried about being caught by his dad.  From there, the good doctor makes his purchase before he and Goldie proceed to place the parts inside and (unbeknownst to them) on top of the youngest child.  Afterwards, Wilson then gives him some free chocolate while also mentioning that because it’s the Halloween season, several local stores are also handing out free candy which Verne overhears and gets excited about.  From there, Brown is allowed to leave his car at the business while he goes to buy his wife an anniversary gift before Verne sneaks into the center of town where some Halloween festivities are going on.  While he begins to collect some free candy just by wearing his regular 19th Century clothes, Emmett makes his way past the Holomax Theater and notices that a remake of the initial adaptation of George McFly’s book called “A Match Made In Space” is playing there.  Back with Verne, he gets caught up in the thrill of getting free candy before he suddenly finds himself lost within the massive crowd and can’t find his way back to the time machine or even where his father is.

Meanwhile, Griff’s goons have come up with a plan for them to steal some money in order to help pay for their main man’s bail and have the Halloween festivities work in their favor.  Whitey explains that they have two sets of masks and that they’ll wear one while swipe some drugs from the “steroid store” and switch their masks when they flee.  Once they get their however, the store’s guard denies them access since they don’t have their own trick-or-treating kid.  Just then, the lady of the group named Spike notices Verne trying to reunite with his dad over at the Lost & Found.  They manage to take advantage of this situation as they swoop in to claim him while telling the attendant that they know his father before they head out with the young boy in order for them to go “get some real special candy”.  Meanwhile, Emmett has just purchased his wife’s anniversary gift from the Blast From The Past antique store as he returns to his car.  Just then, he notices some of his clothes ruffled before he then spots some footprints heading away from his DeLorean.

Back in the present, Irving assumes that his friend went back in time in order to witness his initial arrival before observing his youngest son’s wanderings.  Fortunately, Brown says that he didn’t do that since he would’ve broken the biggest rule of time travel known as “the law of unintended consequences”.  Specifically, he would’ve caused a Duplication Paradox since two versions of himself would’ve co-existed within the same plane.  Not to mention, there’s the risk of unnecessary time travel would endanger his time machine as well as harm any innocent bystanders or animals.  From there, he resumes his tale as Griff’s goons take Verne inside the drug store in order to rob the place of its steroids with the werewolf-dressed Data ramming into the guard and disorient him.  In addition, Spike threatens to harm Verne if she and her cohorts don’t get their way.  Fortunately, the young lad uses his lasso to trip up Data and Whitey.  Just as Spike is about to retaliate on him, the guard recovers and shoots her with his stun gun.  As night has fallen, Emmett is still looking for his kid before he discovers that Verne is being appreciated by the citizens for his help in stopping Griff’s goons as the good doctor reaches his child before praising him for what he’s ultimately done.

Later, the two of them proceed to return to their family on September 7, 1893 at the moment that they initially left.  Jules then gets jealous of his sibling having candy and demands to have some before Emmett finally presents Clara with her anniversary gift which turns out to be a Jules Verne book called “”Lighthouse At The End Of The World” (which was published in 1905).  Afterwards, he then opens up his own anniversary as he discovers that it’s a note pad with his initials as well as a pen before she says that it’ll help him make notes and help him remember important dates, which includes their anniversary.  Brown then concludes his tale by telling Marcus to go see Gabriela right now.  Irving then tells him that his advice is about finding “appropriate rationalizations for questionable activities” before Emmett admits that they’re “all guilty” of said crime every once in a while.  And so, the comic ends with Marcus telling him that he’s right and that head out to meet up with his girlfriend.

From there, the featured storyline itself begins with “Prisoner 1418” having finished his jail sentence and has now been released.  Over at the McFly house, George and Lorraine are about to head out in order to pick him up.  Just then, Marty confronts his parents over the fact that he’s being forced to share his room with the newly-released man.  George assures him that it’s only until he’s able to get back onto his feet while Lorraine says that he doesn’t have anywhere else to go since their grandparents also don’t have the necessary room within their apartment along with the fact that they already have a rocky relationship with him.  George then tells Marty that he’s also jealous that he and his older brother David have to also share a bedroom together.  Afterwards, the parents are starting to leave before they’re met upon by Biff who tells them that he’s finished working on their front lawn tree.  George then tells him to help Marty move his belongings into David’s room since they’re going to have a guest stay over.  As they proceed with their task, Marty tells Tannen that he doesn’t understand why his mother cared so much about this guy even though it didn’t matter all that much and that he wasn’t worth knowing.  However, Dave tells his younger brother that he used to enjoy hanging out with this uncle when he was younger before Biff learns that it’s Joey McFly that’s now out of prison and is about to stay with them for a while.

Linda then asks him why he cares about this, to which Tannen says that he’s known her parents since high school and that he does his best to keep up with what’s going on within the McFly family as much as he can.  Marty then interjects and asks why he used to love hanging out with their criminal uncle, to which David says that Joey was a constant troublemaker except for when he hung out with Marty before Linda mentions that he was their uncle’s favorite person.   Dave also adds that the two of them became connected to each other due to his own immaturity before Marty asks why their uncle be immature since he was 15 years older, yet he remembers how Joey was always there to catch him from some kind of high place.  Linda then asks her sibling how their uncle even wound up in jail in the first place, to which Marty remembers a moment from kindergarten where he bags to his fellow classmates about his uncle getting caught for stealing a million dollar.  Just then, his teacher comes in and tells him that that’s not what happened yet the fact that his family member is now in prison is nothing to be proud of.  Marty then wonders how “Jailbird Joey” went from being his favorite uncle to a criminal before David tells him that it’s something he should think about, but not right now since he has to get to school.  However, Marty wants to learn why their uncle went to prison in the first place even though Linda says that it’s “nothing interesting”.  He then asks her why he doesn’t recall what said crime was, to which she says that she was only six and that she wants to hang out at the mall for a while before she goes to beauty class.  Dave then tells his younger brother that he still has one more year of high school left before he can do whatever he wants all day, yet Marty decides that he has to “ask somebody something”.

From there, he proceeds to ask various members of Joey’s family with the main consensus being that he was mainly a problematic person with some sense of good buried within him.  He then asks Officers Reese & Foley, but they didn’t pay too much attention to him.  With Principal Stanford S. Strickland, he always saw Joey as a slacker and felt like the world always owed him something.  He then comes across Jennifer’s mother named Betty who tells him that Joey was slightly before her time and that she did know him or Lorraine all that well.  While Marty’s there, his girlfriend comes across him and asks why he’s hanging out with her mom before he tells her that he’s just “looking for answers”.  Jennifer then implores into why her boyfriend is doing this, to which he says that his Uncle Joey is moving in to his parents’ place for a while and specifically into his room.  As such, he has a bad feeling about his released relative.  She then tells him that he’s just jealous that he got kicked out of his room before the conversation shifts over to her room as he tells her that his older brother reminded him that he and his uncle were good pals before he threw everything away.  However, he can’t recall what exactly he did in order to land himself in jail.  She then tells him to simply go back in time to witness it, yet he knows that it’s a bad idea and that it’s not even an emergency.  She then suggests a more logical idea by the notion that it had to have been written down and thus, the library could help him out.  Sadly, he doesn’t want to spend all day looking through multiple newspapers as they both head out to Brown’s laboratory.  She then wonders what he’s up to since he doesn’t want to go to the library yet the DeLorean is still getting repaired, to which he says that the good doctor is practically a personified library who can give them a good idea.  From there, they spot Emmett and Irving hard at work upon the signature time machine before Parker brings up how “a convicted felon” will be sleeping in McFly’s bed.  Marty elaborates by saying that his Uncle Joey was in prison ever since he was a kid and that he doesn’t recall was his relative even did to wind up in jail.  Nowadays, he’ll be staying over at his parents house.  The good doctor is then shocked by this turn of events before he then tells his friend to stay away from his uncle.

As such, Marty and Jennifer wind up going to the library in order to extensively look over newspapers from 1972.  She then comes across a possible match that mentions Joseph Baines being arrested on June 24 for breaking into Mrs. Ellsworth’s house and stealing $85,000 that was ultimately never recovered.  Joey is then quoted in saying that he never had the money and that he refused to identify any of his accomplices, yet Marty finds it odd that his uncle robbed someone that he’s never heard of.  Later that night, he drops his girlfriend off at her house before he then admits how he’s disappointed after finally learning about his uncle’s crime since it was ultimately money-related and far less that what he thought, especially since he thought that it was something major enough for him to not betray his mother’s trust towards her troubled sibling.  They then share a kiss before Parker tells him to get some rest before he ultimately returns to his house and finds that no one’s home.  Just then, he discovers a package that’s meant for his uncle as he takes it inside and mentions that the good doctor told him to stay out of his relative’s business, yet he decides to look inside and discovers that it’s a somewhat-torn painting with a note that says “Together we can find the loot”.  Just then, he’s hears some people approaching as he hides the item before Part 1 ends with Joey entering alongside George & Lorraine before he reunites with his nephew.

Part 2 opens at night with Marty sleeping on the floor of David’s bedroom and is unable to sleep due to his older brother’s loud snores.  Just then, he hears some mild noise and goes to check on it as he discovers his uncle doing some late-night workout.  We then shift to the next day where the whole extended family has gathered to celebrate Joey’s release from prison, yet not everyone is excited for this moment as his older brother Toby tells him that the McFlys have “an impressionable kid” that could become his accomplice.  From there, the two of them get into an argument as Joey says that it was never proven that he worked with anyone before Toby tells him that he could’ve had a reduced sentence if he told the police who worked with him on said heist while Joey says that he’ll never rat out any of his cohorts.  Marty’s uncle named Milton then chimes in and mentions to his nephew that Joey was only 18 years old when he wound up in prison before our main man says that he won’t wind up like his newly-released uncle.  Joey then expresses how betrayed he feels from his nephew before Marty says that he doesn’t know what he’s remotely doing in his parents’ house given his past crime.  He then tells his uncle that he’s let his own parents (Sam & Stella) down along with letting him down while also causing some emotional grief to his own sister Lorraine.  She then steps in and tries to cool some tension by offering the whole family some cake, yet Joey says that he doesn’t feel wanted by his folks anymore as he storms out.  Marty then apologizes to his mother due to him not getting enough sleep last night , yet Lorraine is still stunned by her youngest son’s newfound disapproval of her maligned brother.  Her sister named Sally tells her that she’s always defended Joey before Toby adds the fact that she’s “too soft-hearted”.  Lorraine then says that when people do bad things and make mistakes, they should learn from the experience in order to become better people before adding that none of them were there to see what really happened.

This ultimately inspires Marty to head over to Emmett’s lab in order to talk to him and to also get a good night’s sleep.  Upon his arrival, he discovers that only Marcus is present there and that the good doctor is out trying to acquire a Carbonic Actuator for the DeLorean.  McFly then says that he wanted Brown to tell him how not every situation can get fixed through time travel before Irving says that he himself is a good reason why every problem is capable of being solved.  Because Marty and Emmett have done a lot to help him out, Marcus is willing to return the favor before asking the young lad what he was going to impart onto the good doctor.  McFly says that his family got into a fight with his Uncle Joey and that it’s inspired him “to go back to before he went to jail”.  He then says that his relative was imprisoned by robbing Mrs. Ellsworth’s house back in 1972 and has only now just gotten his release.  Nowadays, Marty isn’t entirely sure that his uncle deserved his harsh punishment before Irving mentions how he was ultimately able to change for the better after he met McFly and Brown and that he’s capable of becoming a better person.  He then tells Marty that he owes him everything for helping him become a more noble man and that he’s willing to help him learn if there’s more to his maligned uncle.  McFly then says that he’ll talk to his relative in the morning in order to “make everything right”, but he’s utterly exhausted and winds up falling asleep.

He then wakes up and discovers that he and Marcus are somehow inside the time machine as the latter is taking him back to 1972 since he found the arrest date within his uncle’s notes and that they could somehow find a way to save his relative.  Marty then mentions how he thought that the DeLorean wasn’t working, to which Irving says that it’s actually functioning while Emmett is “dragging his feet” as he believes that the good doctor is actually nervous of finally taking his family through time aboard the Time Train.  From there, they proceed to travel back to June 23, 1972 as they barrel right towards an oncoming hippie van.  Fortunately, McFly is able to turn on the car’s hover system before swerving out of the way.  From there, Marty takes over driving before he lands the time machine on top of a parking garage.  Marcus is then freaking out over the fact that many people saw a car that hasn’t been created yet and that they should head back to their time period.  However, McFly wants to look over Mrs. Ellsworth’s house in order to finally see what happened in the robbery.  Irving tries to warn him since he also exists in this year as a young child before also mentioning that they’re not too far from 1955 for anyone in Hill Valley to remotely recognize his teenage self.  As such, he wants our young man to stay put and guard the DeLorean yet Marty says that the parking garage closed at 5pm and it’s why he chose to land there.  From there, he threatens to tell Brown that Marcus “borrowed” his time machine if he doesn’t get to see over the Ellsworth house.

Later, they proceed to stake the place out.  Despite Irving’s objection, McFly considers knocking on the front door since he’s never met the woman at any point in his life along with the fact that Marcus has spent the decade along within his lab and that he might not know what people talk about in this year or any other.  However, Irving doesn’t want a chronal anomaly to pop up as he tells Marty to stay in hiding before threatening to tell on him if he doesn’t behave himself.  He then knocks on the front door before he discovers that it’s already occupied by a younger Emmett.  From there, Marcus pretends to be a physics encyclopedia salesman before it’s then revealed that not only is Brown not alone in the house, but the woman inside is his mother.  Marcus tries to excuse himself, but Emmett takes him inside since he’s interested in purchasing some physics books and wants to get his mom out of the way before he does so.

Once inside, Irving then discovers that Brown is helping his mother move into her new home.  Marcus then cautiously asks her what helped her decide to move into Hill Valley before she tells him that she’s Mrs. Ellsworth and that her husband had recently passed away.  Emmett rebuts by saying that his dad died many years ago and that his mother got remarried, yet Mrs. Ellsworth brings up that her second husband Carlton also wound up deceased.  Brown then mentions that he’ll be buying some physics encyclopedias before his mother criticizes his decision along with his choice of facial hair.  Mrs. Ellsworth then tells Irving that her son is trying to invent a time machine before Marty (who’s been overhearing all of this from outside their window) causes a flower pot that he’s been standing on to cave as they all hear it from inside.  McFly manages to flee in time before Marcus follows suit on the excuse of him searching for some of the encyclopedias that he intends to sell.  Afterwards, the two guys meet up with each other as Irving wonders about the potential harm that will come his way now that a younger version of the good doctor has seen him.  Marty assures him that “probably nothing” will occur before they both decide to just head back to their time period and never mention this to Brown.  Once they get to the roof however, Part 2 ends with them discovering that the DeLorean is gone.

Part 3 begins with McFly thinking that someone from this time period has actually stolen the time machine before Marcus says that he may have actually inadvertently convinced Brown to not invent time travel.  He then mentions how he had started building his own Time Displacement Device at this time and with him now having the knowledge of Emmett’s signature machine, he thinks that he can build them a new time machine so that they can ultimately get back home.  However, Marty says that Emmett had to swipe some plutonium in order to make it work before he reminds Irving that his own machine had never worked.  Afterwards, McFly calms down in order to properly think things through since he’s been in a similar situation before which ultimately saw him change the future.  Marcus then asks him what went down when he previously did this, to which Marty says that he nearly erased his own existence and that he saw his fingers literally begin to fade away.  This doesn’t sit well with Irving, yet McFly looks at his own hand and notices that he’s not fading away and assumes that someone just stole the DeLorean.  Unlike the 2015 version of Biff, the thief wouldn’t know that it’s also a time machine and would’ve just seen it fly.  He also adds that even if they tried to make it airborne, then they wouldn’t know how to do so since Marcus himself isn’t able to do so and he’s been working on the vehicle for several weeks.  From there, Irving reveals that he’s brought walkie-talkies in order for them to split up and check all possibilities.  Despite the professor being hesitant of proceeding with this plan, Marty tells him that have to know what their current problem is in order for them to know how to solve it.  He then says that he’ll look around his town for the car since he’s more familiar with the setting before they check back in at midnight.  From there, he also brings up that Brown would’ve brought up that they’ve somehow crossed paths between 1955 and 1985 so it’s best that he’s unaware that his young friend would ultimately know Marcus.  Irving then asks him if during his initial early 1980s encounter the good doctor would’ve known that he previously saw him back in 1955, to which McFly says that he’s already gone down that road via Marcus’ Marty-Bots and that thinking too hard “makes you nuts”, which is why he needs to stay away from Emmett.  Marcus then tries to tell him that it’s too late for them to get to “someone’s house”, yet Marty says that it’s only 8 o’clock on a Friday and that Brown won’t be at his mother’s house.

From there, Irving arrives at the good doctor’s personal lab and discovers him working on a machine that’s creating some kind of anti-gravity field with his dog Galileo as his test subject.  However, Emmett overhears him before asking him how he discovered where he was to which Marcus tells him that he’s aware of who he is.  Brown then asks him who he thinks he is, which causes Irving to think that he’s erased the good doctor’s memories.  Fortunately, the good doctor assures him that he’s done no such thing before asking him why he would remotely believe that his own memories were ever altered.  Marcus manages to say that it was a figure of speech before mentioning that he’s heard of him from his work on the Manhattan Project.  Afterwards, he says that actually isn’t selling physics encyclopedias before falsely claiming that he’s actually writing his own physics encyclopedia and that Brown’s name kept coming up in his research.  He then says that this endeavor would allow him to meet a scientific legend before Emmett shows him around his lab while showing off his various inventions.  Irving then notices a specific machine, yet Emmett doesn’t want to delve into it before he asks him for his name.

Meanwhile, McFly walks his way through town and notices various things in the main square.  Eventually, he reaches his grandparents’ house before he climbs up a tree in order to spy in on what’s going on.  He soon spots his younger self playing with Joey before his mother comes in.  To his surprise where she’s constantly claims to have defended her brother, she actually gets into an argument with him and causes him to leave.  As he looks on within the branches, Marty mentions how he actually remembers this and that his uncle said something mean before thinking that he never saw him again.  His tearful kid self tries to follow after him before Joey tells him that he has to be tough and careful due to there being “bad drivers” out in the world, all the while our main Marty slips and nearly falls out of the tree though he thankfully hangs onto the limb for dear life.  Lorraine then tells her brother that he’s a good person, yet he’s hanging out with a bad group that’re made him steal some “car stuff” which got him arrested.  Joey says that nobody forces him to do anything, to which she then tells her to share who his cohorts are.  However, he refuses to do so since she’ll rightfully call the cops on them before she tells him that he’s only trying to impress people who don’t care about him.  From there, Joey tells his young nephew to listen to his mother before taking his leave.  Afterwards, Lorraine tells her parents and brother that Joey has ran off as Sam says that her brother “has to wreak things” at every visit.  While she says that it isn’t his fault, George expresses his disliking of him by saying that Joey is “no good” and that he has a sixth sense towards discovering this kind of thing.  During all of this, our main Marty finally falls out of the tree and out of the family’s sight.  As for George, he offers to drive around town to look for Joey before Lorraine says that she needs to know who he’s been hanging out with and find out how seriously bad this is, especially since her brother is 18 and would be old enough to be sentenced to jail.

As George drives out, our main McFly manages to dive out of the way before we then shift over to Marcus who pretends to not know his name as he attempts to take his leave.  However, Brown closes the garage door and assumes that he’s working for Col. Lomax & the scheming U.S. Government.  Irving then nervously confesses to it before telling him to forget that he asked him.  Back with Marty, he secretly follows his uncle while assuming that he’s part of a car-robbing ring and that the DeLorean has been taken by said cabal.  However, Joey manages to give him the slip before confronting him and demanding to know who he is.  Our main man says that he’s a friend to both George and Lorraine, yet Joey doesn’t buy it since they’re actually the same age and he wonders why a young “high school kid” would ever hang out with adults.  Our main McFly then claims to have heard some yelling while he was driving by, so he stopped to make sure that everything was okay as he saw the guy with his kid nephew and just wanted to confirm that all was well with the youngster.  Our primary youth then mentions that he saw him being a nice guy to the kid and decided to follow him in order to learn what led to the shouting match in order to help smooth things out, since he personally has “a history with the McFlys” and he worries about that family.  Joey then asks him how he knows his name, to which Marty simply says that Lorraine and George told him, just like how they told him of their youngest child and how “he set fire to the carpet”.  Joey gets a laugh out of it since he never knew about it before they spot a car passing by with George inside it, causing our main McFly to recognize him and hide.  However, this gets Joey suspicious as he confronts our central youth about his action.  Marty says that he knew that he wants the guy to find him, yet Joey doesn’t buy as he begins to drag our primary protagonist to the person whom he thinks sent him.  Suddenly, they get confronted by a particular person as Joey thinks that our main McFly was their spy.

From there, the storyline ends with the reveal that he was working with Biff and his familiar cohorts named 3-D, Match & Skinhead before Tannen tells our young man that he seems to have known him and demands to know his name.

From there, this takes us to the end of this series as Issues #22-25 sees everything from the prior story arc coming to a head.  With the longtime fiend & his regular band of goons towering over a flawed uncle along with our main young man and an impending robbery upon the eccentric scientist’s mother looming large, let’s find out how things can get even more harrowing within the final four-part tale called “Time Served”.

We open with Marcus having just fled from Emmett and is just about to contact Marty on his walkie-talkie.  Just then, he’s approached by George who’s too distracted with trying to locate her sister’s troubled brother before they fortunately manage to evade each other in the nick of time.  He then gets out of his car and berates Irving for being out at this hour of the night before he then asks him if he’s seen an 18-year-old who’s “running around looking for trouble”.  Marcus says that he hasn’t before he asks McFly if he’s seen “a silver car resembling a Hollywood spacecraft”, to which George says that he hasn’t before telling him to stay safe.  As he starts to get back into his car, he then sees a flyer for Tannen Auto Detailing and makes a realization before driving off.

Meanwhile, Marty is being forced by Biff to reveal his name, to which he tells the towering Tannen that he’s confused him with somebody else.  He then says that he’s only here to check up on Joey before he tries to excuse himself in order to search for a car, yet the troubled uncle mentions that the young lad claims to be friends with George yet “ran for it” when the elder McFly came by.  As such, Biff finally recognizes where he’s seen our main youth as he says that he saw a similar-looking kid back when he was in high school.  He then demands to know the name of that guy before Skinhead sees a similarity to “the sailor kid with the life preserver”, even though 3-D doesn’t see it.  Tannen then finally recalls the name of Calvin Klein and how the young man just disappeared following the fateful school dance.  Marty then comes up with an excuse and says that Calvin is his dad and that he’s the reason why his father left town since his mother got pregnant and they fled to avoid it becoming a huge scandal.  Tannen then shoves him over since he blames “Calvin” for getting him covered in manure along with rightfully losing Lorraine to “a nerd”.  Just then. Marcus contacts McFly on his walkie-talking and asks him if he’s found their car as Marty says that his “dad” trying to contact him.  However, Biff takes the device away and takes advantage of Irving’s naïve state by pretending to be his youthful comrade as he says that he hasn’t had any luck in finding “Dorian”.  As he makes way through the protest-filled center of town, Marcus shares his recent encounter with Brown.  Afterwards, Tannen tells him that stay put and that he’ll get him.

From there, Irving does notice his friend’s “unusual” behavior combined with him not being able to locate their time machine.  Just then, a overhearing hippie offers to help him out by driving him around within his “roomy” bus.  Marcus then asks him how he recovered his bus after it vanished while he was eating breakfast at Lou’s Café, to which the hippie says that he wound up bumming rides for several months before he eventually discovered it at his mother’s house since he completely forgot that he walked to the diner.  The man then says that it’s possible that the vehicle was towed and that he’s willing to show him where the “jail for cars” is at since it’s only a few blocks away.  Irving happily accepts his help as he assumes that the parking garage was closed when the car was parked there and thus, the owners had it towed it away.  As such, he climbs into the van before the hippie suddenly announces to his fellow free spirits that they’re going on a road trip.  Back with our main McFly, he gets dragged by Match & Skinhead into a car as Biff says that they’re going to find out who he is and what he’s doing since it’s reminding him of something.  Afterwards, he tells his “wife” that he’s going out before he, 3-D and Joey get into the vehicle.  As they’re about to head out, Tannen tells Marty that he and his “C.B. Radio Buddy” are connected to the missing Brown Fortune.  Just then, they’re confronted by George as he says to Biff that “Lorraine’s little brother” ran away and that he’s somehow mixed up in all of this.  Tannen denies this and says that he hasn’t seen “Joseph” in several weeks, yet he says that he’ll bring him home himself.  Afterwards, George heads out before 3-D and Skinhead remind him that his current job of car detailing should eventually take off and that he won’t have to solely rely on working for McFly.  Joey then mentions how he didn’t need anyone, especially since he didn’t stand up to George as easily as he used to.  Biff says that he didn’t want him catching on to what they were going to do before they finally proceed to head out.  Back with Marcus, he nervously rides around with the hippies before they ultimately reach the impound yard.  From there, the head hippie tells him that he can simply climb over the fence in order to search for his missing car while the portly professor isn’t looking forward to doing so.

Back at his laboratory, Emmett continues to work on his machine called the Auxiliary Leyden Oscillator before his dog Galileo reminds him that his home-based encounter with “Professor Martin” is what’s bothering him and that something about it isn’t entirely adding up.  From there, he calls up his mother and says that he’s concerned about the man they recently met possibly being “friends with those weirdos”.  He then asks her if she’s seen anything unusual since he left the house, to which she says that she hasn’t.  As such, he tells her to lock the door before he decides to take matters into his own hands.  Back over with Biff and company, Marty learns from Joey that they’re going to make them show what he’s here for.  McFly then asks about the “Brown Fortune” before 3-D mentions that the widow is trying to get remarried, but her son is suspicious towards her suitor.  As such, she’s hidden a large amount of money and that they’re looking forward to swiping it before she gets hitched to a guy who’ll help her get even richer before she forgets about said cash.  Match then brings up how his cousin knew a man whose own brother worked at the bank and has informed him that said money never went back into her account.  They don’t suspect that the good doctor has it since his house burned down while they falsely assume that he did said incident to collect some insurance money, to which he then asks where the cash could be if he’s “short” on it.  Tannen says that it’s back in Hill Valley within the mother’s belongings or as he calls it, “Dorian Ellsworth’s Stuff”.  Marty says that it’s not even her name before Biff asks him why his partner mentioned Dorian, to which he says that he was looking for a certain car.  McFly then asks him why any of this matters, to which Tannen says that the hidden cigar box contains $85,000.  Just as Marty asks Joey how he wound up with these guys, they arrive in front of the Hill Valley courthouse only for McFly’s comrade to be nowhere in sight.

Back at the junk yard, Irving spots what he thinks is the DeLorean before he makes his way over the fence.  Suddenly, the police arrive as Marcus falls in and runs for the car only to discover that it’s not the time machine.  Back over to McFly, Tannen decides to press on before they arrive at Mrs. Ellsworth’s house.  He then tells Marty & Joey to break into the house and find the cigar box before the latter gets told that he has to do this if wants to join their gang.  Unbeknownst to them however, Part 1 ends with Brown and Galileo waiting inside with his machine at the ready.

Part 2 begins with Marcus getting caught by a cop, yet the hippies respond by collectively climbing onto the fence as their combined weight causes it to collapse.  Fortunately, this distraction allowed Irving the time he needed to escape.  Meanwhile at Mrs. Ellsworth’s home, McFly and his uncle are about to break into the place before Marty suggests that they both attempt to flee.  However, Joey isn’t willing to let this opportunity to be a part of Biff’s group go by.  McFly then ask him why he wants to impress Tannen, to which Joey says that he doesn’t belong within a “safe 1970s suburban world”.  He then says that as the sixth sibling of the Baines family, he’s wanted some space to call his own.  After he initially met Biff and his gang due to them already knowing him via his sister back in high school, Joey says that it felt like he was “hanging out with guys from another decade”.  Then came one fateful moment where Tannen wanted an engine mount for his Deville and was impressed with Joey’s ability to swipe one from their local auto shop (a.k.a. Western Auto) without getting caught.  As such, Biff tells him to go steal some more parts.  However, Joey would up getting captured by the law and wound up in juvenile detention for several weeks since he tried to shoplift from the same shop again.  Tannen would eventually ask him why he didn’t mention him as the person who put him up to it since it would’ve gotten him released from his sentence, yet Joey’s refusal to rat anyone else started there since “that’s not how gangsters or cowboys or pirates play it”.  He then concludes his backstory by saying that he makes his own choices before asking our main youth what he can call him, to which Marty decides to call himself Kevin as they begin with their break-in.

Back at the junkyard, the cops search for Irving while they’re unaware that he’s hiding out within a wrecked car.  Just then, Marcus is met upon by the main hippie who tells him to follow his lead as they sneak out to the van while asking him where he would like to go to.  Irving then tries to contact McFly on his walkie-talkie and says that he thought that the DeLorean was located in a specific place but ultimately wasn’t, yet he’s still unaware that it’s actually Biff on the other end who tries to find out why “Dorian” is so important to find.  During all of this, he and his goons are ignorant of a certain Emmett overseeing them.  Back at Mrs. Ellsworth’s house, Marty is able to calm a barking Galileo down in time so that he and Joey can progress further into the home all-the-while nearly waking up this time period’s Brown along with his mother.

Once they reach the study, Joey tells McFly that the money is supposed to be in a cigar box even though he’s busy stealing other things.  While his uncle says that it’s to make it look like they didn’t plan what they were taking, Marty then spots the familiar painting before he gets his own self-conscient angel & devil moment as his self-looking devil tells him that he can’t go through with this and that he has to stop his uncle from destroying his life.  As for the Marcus-looking angel, he says that he doesn’t have a choice since he can’t change his past.  McFly Devil then brings up how his real world self has changed history before, to which the Irving Angel says that he didn’t make those changes on purpose and that this moment isn’t the time to change that.  Marty Devil says that he has a chance to stop his uncle from falling into Biff’s lure towards a life of crime, yet Marcus Angel mentions that he came here to learn about how Joey wound up in prison to begin with and not to prevent it before reminding him that if he does do so, then there won’t be any reason for this trip through time to occur.  The actual Marty then mentions that him not going back at all would leave no one for his uncle to commit this robbery, to which the Irving Angel says that it’ll create a time paradox that will put the space-time continuum at risk.  Back in reality, McFly talks to himself about how the painting gets stolen before vowing to come up with a way to help his uncle.  From there, Joey manages to find the cigar box before he also takes several other items and places them in a bag before he begins to head out.  Just then, he accidentally hits the good doctor’s invention and gets caught in its field as it causes Galileo to bark away and alert Emmett.

Meanwhile, Marcus has the hippie drive him to various past places in the hope of reuniting with his comrade.  However, he has no luck at either the parking garage, the Baines house or even Brown’s laboratory with the last one being odd to Irving since he claims that the good doctor didn’t show him any indication that his evening would consume of anything outside of science.  Just then, he has a realization as they proceed to drive on.  Back over at Mrs. Ellsworth’s home, Joey is still caught in an anti-gravity field that’s emitting from Emmett’s machine.  Marty is able to depower the invention by accidentally running into the cord in order to yank it out of its outlet.  However, it still has enough power within itself to keep Joey hovering it as McFly has to carry it out with his uncle still hovering onto it.  The chase makes its way throughout the house before the device finally runs out of juice within Mrs. Ellsworth’s bedroom and Joey ends up falling onto her.  From there, they proceed to bail from the house while also giving Brown his Inertial Buoyancy Displacement Convector back.

Despite Joey noticing Marty hiding his face, they manage to jump from the roof before Emmett tells his mom to call the cops.  She assures him that she did just that the moment Galileo began incessantly barking, to which Brown says that the thieves won’t get too far.  Later, the two of them return to Biff & his goons as Joey brings up that they were noticed and that the police are on their way.  While Tannen does find it odd that “Martin” is actually called “Kevin”, he ultimately allows him to keep the painting before demanding to know who has the cigar box.  McFly then asks him if he has a getaway car, to which Biff says he does but decides to exclude him while only allowing Joey to get away with him and his cohorts.  The flawed uncle argues that “Kevin” saved him and even stayed with him throughout before reminding Tannen that they would all get to join his gang, yet Marty says that they’re liars.  Shortly after Joey says that “Kevin” should be allowed to stay with them, they’re suddenly met upon by the hippie van as Marcus tells “Martin” to get in and that it’s beyond their scope to tweak history.  With the police bearing down on them, both parties decide to flee.  However, Joey tells McFly that the cops will just come after them.  As such, he’s willing to stay and take the rap for it despite Marty’s objection.  Shortly after Irving, McFly and the hippie speed away, the police catch up and arrest Joey for breaking & entering along with a probable cause of possession.  They then proceed to search him before coming across the cigar box, only for them to find out that nothing is in it.  From there, Part 2 ends with the good doctor telling the officers that the guy wasn’t operating alone and that he had an accomplice before Joey begins to get taken away.

Part 3 opens with George pulling up to the scene of his brother-in-law getting arrested by the police as Joey wants him to tell his sister that he’s sorry.  Afterwards, McFly is met upon by Emmett as the former learns that the robbed house belongs to the good doctor’s mother while the latter learns that the captured man is George’s wife’s brother.  Mrs. Ellsworth then says that Joey robbed her along with her money, yet an officer tells her that they only found her cigar box on him and that it was empty.  George then asks for this whole situation to be forgotten since he sees Joey as a kid, yet Mrs. Ellsworth and Brown mention that he still had an accomplice and had handed her “money” off to his fellow convict.  George still asks Emmett to help since it would be emotionally hard for Lorraine, yet Brown says that it’s out of his control even if he wanted to provide assistance since Joey was still caught with a bag of his mother’s belongings.  George then brings up the invention that captured his brother-in-law, to which Emmett tells him that the guy still broke in before his mother says that some time behind bars will do some good for the perp before a defeated McFly begins to head out while wondering how he’s going to break this sudden development to his wife.

Over with Marty, he, Marcus and the hippie are miles away from the scene before he says that they have to go back.  Irving tells him that his uncle “burgled a house” and that he was simply “along for the ride”, yet McFly says that it’s complicated since he previously spent the prior 14 years blaming him for letting his mother down.  However, now his uncle is going to jail all because he didn’t turn his accomplice/eventual nephew in.  Marcus tries to focus his attention on the fact that the DeLorean is still missing, either by it actually being stolen or that Marty’s involvement in the robbery somehow dissuaded the good doctor from ultimately building his time machine.  McFly immediately disproves the latter by reminding him that they lost the car before they stole the money when suddenly, Biff comes over the walkie-talkie and tells them that they do have the swiped cash which makes Irving realize that he wasn’t talking to Marty over the device for all of that time.  McFly then says that his walkie-talkie was taken from him before Tannen says that he’s coming for them.  From there, Marty and Marcus see Biff approaching them in his car along with his goons.  McFly then tells the hippie that the pursing fiends believe that they stole their money, to which the guy proceeds to get into a car chase in order to try and lose their pursuers.  The pursuit eventually makes its way into an alley where the van gets pinned into a dead end before Tannen pops out and demands for the money.  Irving then wonders why Joey doesn’t have the stolen cash, to which Marty says that he initially didn’t when they left 1986 yet he saw his uncle take the cigar box.  As such, it’s either Joey or Biff who has it before he leaps out of the van and kicks Tannen in the chest while telling the professor to run away.  However, Biff’s goons were able to get out of the car in time and surround them before Tannen begins to attack McFly.

Marty is able to duck out of the way, yet Marcus ends up on the receiving end of Biff’s fist.  Irving then shows the stolen painting and says that it’s all that they’ve stolen, yet Tannen forces it out of his grasp (which causes it to rip) and says that he’s not interested in it.  McFly then asks him why he thinks that Joey doesn’t have the stolen money, to which Biff explains that 3-D has staked out the house before they picked him up and that he heard the police tell “Dorian” Ellsworth that the cigar box was empty (with our youth telling him that the woman isn’t Dorian).  3-D then says that he and his fellow cohorts have searched the van and found nothing before he and Skinhead proceed to search Marty and Marcus, to which the former then asks Tannen where the money is at if neither he nor Joey have it.  Biff then tells him that he has until noon the next day to retrieve it or else he’ll relentlessly hunt him down before he and his cohorts head out.  Later, McFly & Irving manage to hide within a nearby bush while they hear George & Lorraine’s conversation after the latter hears about her brother getting arrested.  She asks him what he expected Emmett to do to prevent this, to which he says that he could’ve done something to help Joey from going to jail.  She then brings up that as much as she cares about her younger brother, he ultimately brought this onto himself when he ran off and began hanging out with the wrong crowd.

They eventually take their leave while being watched from afar by a certain man before Marty admits that he wondered how his mother would take the news and says that she either took it pretty well or is hiding her true emotions.  With only six hours to go until Tannen comes after them for the money, McFly wonders what they’re going to do since the stolen cash is still missing as is their time machine.  He then mentions that the painting with its ripped face that he stole will ultimately get sent to his house by Biff before Marcus pulls out the ripped parchment as the two of them get into a brief discussion about how said painting showed up at the McFly house prior to them heading out on their time traveling venture.  Just then, they discover a map on the back of said parchment before they wonder why a map that potentially leads to where the stolen money is hidden was on the back of a random painting.  Suddenly, they get told that he put it there after he buried the cash before it’s revealed to be the main 1986 version of Doc Brown.  Marty then asks him how he buried the money and how he managed to get here, to which Emmett presents the remote that originally helped them reach Future-Marcus’ Corporate Headquarters.  He then explains how following their adventure against the evil future version of Professor Irving, he made some modifications to the DeLorean which included enhancing its recall capabilities to also have “nonlinear chronology”.  Specifically, he used the remote control to bring his time machine back to their present time period once he came back to his lab and initially discovered that it was missing.  Because he noticed that Marcus was gone along with McFly’s truck being parked right outside, he saw the date that it had returned from before he time traveled there and began to search throughout the area.  Thanks to Marty having already mentioned that he grew an interest into his troubled uncle, he was able to guess their whereabouts before bringing up his disappointment in both of his comrades.  From there, they proceed to return to their time period (specifically May 10, 1986) before Brown angrily tells both of them to go home, despite their lingering concerns.

Marty & Marcus head out in McFly’s truck as they ultimately arrive at the former’s house since the former says that the the painting (and thus, the rest of the map) is hiding out behind his sofa and that he wants to know where it’s leading to before they go to bed.  He also mentions that Tannen may have sent the painting to his home in order to force Joey into joining up with him again in order to find the loot and that he owes his uncle to prevent him from making another big mistake along with aligning himself with Biff again.  McFly then mentions that this is the same night as the family reunion over at his grandparents’ place and that Joey had stormed off, so he doesn’t know if he’s even presently here.  Shortly after Irving mentions that he thought he heard something, Marty retrieves the painting before they put both parts of it together in order for the map to be fully formed.  However, Part 3 ends with them being confronted by Tannen and Joey as they’ve wound up joining forces once again.

Part 4 begins within June 24, 1972 as Joey refuses to reveal the identities of his accomplices despite the police willing to make a deal with him.  We then shift to May 10, 1986 following the ill-fated Homecoming Party where he’s stormed out and is telling himself that he shouldn’t have expected much since he’s been living with his choice for the majority of his life.  Eventually, he notices that Biff was trying to follow him before he slips out of sight and gets the drop on him.  Joey then says that he’s done with him since he was left to rot before Tannen then reveals that he dropped off a “map”.

We then catch up to the present events as both men have forced Marty and Marcus into their venture into finding the hidden money with their fully-restored map and within McFly’s truck.  Joey mentions that it’s “barely accurate”, yet the basic landscape should allow them to figure this all out before Biff mentions how fortunate they were that Irving had the missing piece on him.  Marty then says that he’s Emmett’s friend before fibbing about him having an old painting within the various items that he gave him from his lab.  Tannen then wants to know how Brown managed to get the painting since he remembers taking it from “a kid” back in 1972, yet he ultimately dismisses it as he describes the youngster as a “professional criminal” who took them “all in” before running off to leave Joey in the lurch.  He then says that “the kid” had a dozen aliases and told him that he had the money and would turn it in, but ultimately vanished.  The guys ultimately arrive at a specific spot within the woods before Biff forces McFly and Irving to join Joey into digging for the money while he stands watch.  Marty then asks what they’ll plan to do once they manage to find the cash, especially since his parents will be looking for them.  Joey assures him that he won’t be hurt, but that he’s still a part of this whole situation since he did steal the painting with the map (which he was informed of by Tannen) and that he’s interested in knowing what’s buried as much as he does.

Eventually, Marcus is able to dig it up before Biff pushes him off to the side and gets the box out of the ground.  Suddenly, Joey charges in and punches him in the gut which ends up giving McFly and Irving the chance they need to escape with the surprisingly-light package.  Tannen notices this, yet Joey continues to wail away on him for a bit before telling his nephew to come back.  Marty and Marcus would make their way into the trees as the former mentions that he used to grow up within these woods before elaborating that his dad brought him out here a few times.  Just then, they reach an unstable cliff just as Joey catches up and tells him to watch his step.  McFly warns his uncle to not threaten him since he encouraged him to jump off of various things, yet Joey reminds him that he was always there to catch him and that constantly watching out for his nephew was what got him in this mess.

He then proceeds to explain that the “master criminal” that Biff talked about was actually just a kid named Kevin and even mentions that he looked a lot like his nephew (unaware that they’re the same person).  Joey then also brings up that he nearly got the guy in trouble who was only looking out for him on account of George & Lorraine, yet he would ultimately find himself with the Ellsworth robbery due to Tannen even though they could’ve ran from it.  He then made Kevin go through with it due to his willingness to not leave him alone while he was determined to carry this mission out.  In the end, he went to jail since he still committed the crime and didn’t rat anyone out since it would’ve gotten Kevin in trouble.  Nowadays, he hopes that the guy is doing okay especially since he never had the heart to ask George or Lorraine what he was up to.  Marty assures him that he’s doing great before asking him what all of this is about since he dragged him and Irving into the woods, to which he says that not only does he see Tannen as an oaf, but he was furious following the Welcome Home Party even though Lorraine’s constant writing to him helped him feel supportive.  However, things didn’t work out when he was finally released from prison especially when he saw his nephew get mad at him which is what ultimately set him off.  Afterwards, Biff came along and mentioned a map that he dropped off at the McFly house before he ultimately realized that his nephew got to the package first.  By joining forces with Biff, he assumed that they would brace him into giving them the map (even with the missing chunk) which would allow him to find the missing money.  Joey then says that it took him until his adult years to finally realize that Tannen didn’t excel at problem-solving and that he didn’t expect his own nephew to have the missing part of the map, to which Marty says that his curious nature saw him take said piece to his professor friend.  From there, Joey mentions that he wants to set things right by giving the stolen money back its rightful owner.  Because Mrs. Ellsworth has passed away, he’s going to give it to her son in order to set things right.  Suddenly, Biff pops up and charges right at him which causes McFly and Marcus to fall off the cliff while also taking the box.  Joey then angrily struggles with him before they ultimately discover that there wasn’t any money in it at all, but instead the Inertial Buoyancy Displacement Convector as Tannen decides to swipe it instead only for him to activate and get trapped within its energetic field.  Afterwards, Joey says that he’s getting his lantern in order to find his nephew along with his friend.  Fortunately, they were saved by Emmett and his DeLorean since he followed them after returning to his lab and rightly assumed that they wouldn’t immediately stay out of trouble.  After they safely land, Marty tells the good doctor that he’s unaware why he buried the money and that Joey wants to return it to him.  Brown informs him that he dug the cash up decades ago since he wouldn’t leave it out in the woods.

McFly then wants to know what’s going on, to which Emmett explains that his mother became distrustful towards financial institutions following the Stock Market crash of 1929.  Following his father’s passing, she kept some easily accessible emergency cash that she would hide in the house yet he would also know where she kept it.  Once she began seeing a suitor, he became suspicious and concerned.  As such, he “borrowed” her $85,000 and placed it inside a cookie tin before burying it within the forest while also making a map on the back of a portrait that his father originally commissioned.  However, he didn’t know that his mother’s suitor would ultimately be J.C. Ellsworth whose financially-wealthy family essentially made them the West Coast version of the Rockefellers.  J.C. would pretend to be poor in order to make sure that Mrs. Ellsworth wouldn’t be marrying him for his money, yet the $85,000 would no longer become relevant to her well-being.  He would ultimately use said cash in order to properly finance his scientific endeavor towards making his own time machine before he concludes his explanation by saying that Joey ultimately got his wish to return the cash to Brown’s family.  McFly is then stunned that the good doctor essentially “stole” the money since his uncle went to jail to protect him from a crime that he ultimately didn’t commit.  Irving then breaks up this conversation by pointing out a bright light coming from the top of a cliff, to which Emmett says that it’s a key component that he needs to complete his Time Train and that it’s something that he forgot about until they managed to dig it up.  He then explains that after the map was swiped back in 1972, he assumed that Joey had an accomplice that was still on the loose.  As such, he buried another box with “a little present” for the guy with a X marking said spot.  Meanwhile, Biff is still trapped within Brown’s invention as he asks Joey for some help in getting him out of his predicament before promising to help him locate his nephew along with “his fat pal” despite them falling off a cliff.  However, the flawed Baines then swears that if he can’t find them, then he’s taking his nephew’s truck in order to bring the cops here and that they’ll both confess to kidnapping.  Fortunately, Marty returns alongside his comrades before he hugs his relieved uncle.  Joey then approaches Brown and tells him that he wanted to make things right, to which the good doctor assures him that his nephew informed him of this and that he forgives him.  Afterwards, Emmett frees Tannen from his device as it’s then revealed that its energetic output not only eradicated all of his hair but his clothes as well as Joey tells him that he’ll be walking back home with only a lantern before he and the rest of our main men hop into McFly’s truck in order to head out.

We then shift to the morning of May 12 where Joey is about to take his leave as he thanks his sister Lorraine for giving him a place to briefly stay at and that he’s fine despite the awkward moments from his visit.  Marty assures him that he doesn’t really have to go, yet Joey says that he wants to have a fresh start and that he’ll get that within New York City.  From there, his youngest nephew gives him one last hug before he starts to head out.  He’s then met upon by his parents Sam & Stella who’re glad to know that he’s putting his life back on track and that they hope he returns for Thanksgiving since it hasn’t been the same without him, to which they proceed to share one last hug.  Later at Emmett’s lab, Marty apologizes for his recent time traveling venture.  Fortunately, Brown assures him that his “ill-advised adventure” has unintentionally helped him find a solution to his “recent labors”.  From there, he packs up his Inertial Buoyancy Displacement Convector into the DeLorean in order to finally travel back to his family.  McFly then asks him why he needs to take said device with him, to which the good doctor explains that it can be used as a workaround towards boosting the Time Train’s hover-converted tech before Marcus mentions that it will allow the locomotive to fly.  Jennifer then asks him if he’s actually going to travel through time inside of it before Marty reminds him that he was previously warned about the dangers of said endeavor, to which Emmett says that it’s Unsupervised Time Travel that he wants all of them to avoid and that he’ll bring Clara along to supervise him.  He then tells Irving that he’s allowed to use his lab as long as he doesn’t touch anything before reminding McFly and Parker to leave him a note if they need his help and that he’ll periodically check in.  From there, he takes his chronological leave before the good professor also heads out in order to get to his date with Gabriela.  Jennifer then wonders why she’s never gone on any of his adventures, to which Marty assures her that his recent outing didn’t really qualify as such to him.  As they head out in his truck, she expresses her confidence in them seeing Brown again before he mentions how happy he is in that their elderly friend got what he always wanted which is an opportunity “to do what he loves, with the people he loves”.  From there, the series ends on September 9, 1893, as Emmett has finally perfected the Time Train.  With the entire family (including Einstein) on board, the Brown Family proceeds to head out to embark on their futuristic journey.

Overall, this was a fascinating expansion into a familiar world filled with well-developed extensions onto various elements while a few weren’t as handled as well as they could have.  Starting off with the initial batch of the series’ first five comics (a.k.a. “Untold Tales & Alternate Timelines”), they fill in some background details that the films didn’t have the time or the space to address.  From Needles being the main reason that Marty would meet & begin his long-standing friendship with Emmett and showing several key events from Brown’s three-decade quest to build his signature time machine to expanding on some areas that occurred off-screen yet adds some flavor to what came before such as the good doctor becoming a satellite friend to both George & Lorraine, providing a reason why the time circuits’ semi-malfunctions came about following Older Biff’s selfish side-quest, explaining how the good doctor would get the idea to hover convert his time machine before eventually returning to 1985 in order to set up the initial event of “Part II” to even finally fleshing out Clara’s backstory, these provided some added depth to the long-standing movies and mainly felt natural in its execution.  Not to mention, the series’ inaugural story would begin to set Douglas up as an antagonist for this series since we only saw him in a single scene from both of the cinematic sequels.  The initial anthology-based format comes with various artwork for the individual stories and the most part, they’re all well-presented and visually nice as they allow the events of their tales to coherently shine throughout the various proceedings.  Even though “Science Project” is arguably the weakest story out of this initial batch since it can be seen as a filler entry and is more about solving a school situation that Marty lazily put himself in (along with its art work being a bit too exaggerated), all five issues succeed in giving a good start to a series that wasn’t planned to last as long as it did yet ultimately provided its fan base with extra adventures that allowed them to delve deeper into an already-enjoyable world.  Moving on to “Continuum Conundrum”, we have a six-part venture that basically serves as the closest thing to a Part IV that we’ll ever get aside from Telltale Games’ “Back To The Future: The Game” since this is basically the time that we catch up on our main characters following the trilogy’s conclusion, specifically less than five months following the end of “Part III”.  With Marty feeling somewhat meandering due to being in his regular school life and with Brown living his married life in the late 19th Century, it comes as a surprise to him and Jennifer when the good doctor shows up in a diving suit and with a sudden lack of his memories.  With this excursion not only allowing McFly to be the lead figure for this loopy adventure while also growing past his complacent state in order to push forward with his own existence, we finally have a situation that permits Parker to join him & the good doctor for once since she was mainly left on the sidelines in all three films and she gets nicely utilized throughout the six-part journey, even when our main men do travel to 2035.  It also brings back Griff who was already a highly-energetic brute and makes him into an actual police officer where the ever-flawed functions within the force allows him to act with a bully-esque authority.  Sure, he does have some oversight looming over him, yet it takes an already imposing figure and turns him into even more of a futuristic challenge for our duo to deal with.  However, I did notice a narrative lapse that occurred after he was initially arrested by his fellow officers.  After all, we go from him being placed in the back of a police vehicle to him suddenly freed from his handcuffs and trying to commit vehicular assault with no explanation as to how he went Point A to C in that sequence and that B is completely missing.  As for how Emmett lost his memories before he slowly gets them back, the way that the former happens felt a bit off due to the Buccal Scanner and the fact that the excessive use of visiting Rejuvenation Clinics is the reason  that he’s been caught is comical, yet still felt off and didn’t entirely sit right with how it was executed.  Other than those gripes, Griff and his Impulse Blaster felt like a good excuse to explain how the good doctor got his sudden amnesia before he ultimately escaped to 1986 and reunited with our youthful & budding couple.  In terms of how he ultimately gets his memories back over the course of the story, the proceed is nicely spaced out and felt natural once he starts to recall certain aspects of what he’s supposed to have within his mind palace.  Just like how Marty & Jennifer feel in the story when those moments happen, it also comes with emotional relief and some positively energizing surge since it gives our protagonists the added boost that they need to complete their mission.  In the end, all of these elements came together to make this initial storyline as gripping, thrilling and progressive as it possibly can.  Backed by good pacing, solid artwork and timely revelations, this helps the series gain some narrative momentum and makes the franchise’s initial continuation feel as smooth as ever.  We now get to the middle arc known as “Who Is Marty McFly?” as the prelude issue (“How Needles Got Here”) delves into Douglas’ backstory and how he knows our main youthful man.  It makes an interesting case to make him McFly’s former childhood friend whose own actions slowly rubs the wrong way onto others.  Eventually, the events of the comic along with him already feeling like an outsider due to him having moved from one part of California to another causes him to become alienated from Marty and his friends.  McFly does try his best to make Needles feel welcome, yet Douglas’ try-hard approach to various situations ultimately makes him falsely see Marty as someone who would turn his back on him at the most crucial moment and thus, he feels the need to torment & bully Marty in order to fill an internal void that he thinks is there and is in constant need of being fed.  As such, it makes the reasons for why he would pester McFly into doing bad things within the cinematic sequels despite his own sparse appearances have some added depth.  With that well-handled standalone story out of the way, let’s talk about the actual narrative that it leads into (“Who Is Marty McFly?”).  It has an interesting concept in that Marty is living in a world where only he & Emmett remember their changes to the timeline and it’s causing them to wonder if they’ve taken over the lives of a prior version of themselves.  With the former surrounded within his unsure state, it’s allowing an original character who has ties to the latter to take advantage of his uncertain situation in order to manipulate him into becoming a pawn within his grand revenge scheme.  Not to mention, this personal attack plan felt fresh since it’s not the typical bloody vengeance journey that so many of these usually become.  With Marcus trying and failing to provide government officials with their own time traveling method before learning that he wasn’t their first choice to work on this, he ultimately focuses his revenge onto Brown and even gets to the good doctor by taking advantage of his friendship to McFly.  Irving’s own mechanized armada of Marty-Bots (and Emmett-Bots) allows the tale to show off his intellectual & mechanical genius while delivering a silliness that not only fits wonderfully within both comics and the franchise itself but balances it out with a fairly serious presence to make them enough of an opposition towards our dual protagonists.  As for how Marcus was handled in his initial outing here, he gets a pretty good foundation since he’s sacrificed so much of his life in order to help the government have their own time travel method only for it to never come to fruition along with him losing all personal connections to other people which starts with his family.  With his own scheme, intellect and robot army alongside him, he provides a strong challenge to our main men throughout the proceedings.  Ultimately, the way that he ends up becoming a good guy during the climax was decently executed and fine for what it was.  McFly reminding the younger Marcus how he potentially wound up as a devious figure and that we all have a choice as to how we live our lives along with ultimately shaping our future is wholesome & good-natured, which helps the youthful Irving make a pivotal decision that puts him on a better path in life.  The smaller & personal scale of this confrontation fits the situation while also giving Irving someone who can help ground him and provide some badly needed interactions made for a settling conclusion to this story arc.  As such, it made for a highly progressive entry within this series, and it took some well-handled risks in order to make this narrative stand out amongst the fanbase.  As for the last standalone story within this line (“Stowaway To The Future”), it highlights the perils that the good doctor ultimately found himself in during his longtime attempt to get the Time Train fully operational.  It wound up causing two problems that would be created out of Brown’s intense focus on his ultimate endeavor in that he neglected to spend some play time with Verne and that he forgot about his own wedding anniversary.  Because he became so focused on fixing that latter while he still has his long-term project looming over him, he decides that a trip to the future would help him fix two problems in one sitting even though he’s unaware that his youngest son had accidentally stowed away.  Ultimately, Verne’s involvement in this tale allows Griff’s goons to have their moment to shine.  It seems that since they were only pawns to their leader, they wound up with a less-harsher punishment while Griff was sentenced to a longer jail term when their 2015 antic saw them accidentally causing some damage to the courthouse.  As such, their scheme to steal drugs (and maybe resell them in order to pay off Griff’s bail after two years, despite that never being explicitly stated here) allows them to take advantage of Verne’s naïve innocence yet also begin the setup for their own downfall.  This issue allows the youngest Brown family member to get some spotlight attention and away from both his older brother along with outside the animated series that allowed the siblings to have their own featured ventures.  Sure, he didn’t intend on going on this adventure and was only inspired to walk around the center of town due to all of the free candy that was being given out for Halloween.  Not to mention, there isn’t really any kind of major development on his part aside from a display of his lassoing skills ultimately giving a good assist into stopping Griff’s goons.  Despite that, it still ends an a comforting note as both he and his father get rewarded for their own contributions in a feel-good tale that’s paced well, nicely written and drawn with enough care to make the events of said narrative shine.  Moving on to the three-part tale known as “Hard Time”, it addresses a minor element that’s only briefly mentioned in the initial film which is how Uncle Joey Baines wound up in prison to begin with.  Despite the flawed figure having served a 14-year jail sentence and is finally out of prison, Lorraine is the only one within the extended McFly and Baines families to still have some semblance of hopeful love towards him as everyone else see him as someone who’s not worth the time of day given how he’s partially thrown his life away.  Despite Marty sharing similar levels of care towards him during his younger days that his mother constantly has throughout his entire existence, he also winds up souring on him once he learns about his uncle’s crime via the library’s archival newspapers.  Through his explanation to Marcus, the reformed professor unexpectedly provides him with an opportunity to fully learn about Joey’s crime especially since a torn painting provides a hint of his uncle’s prior scheme.  The reveal that Mrs. Ellsworth is actually Emmett’s mother does feel convenient at first, yet it’s something that can make sense given that any mention of his own parents never came up either in the movie trilogy or even the animated series (the latter of which made the effort to give our two main men their own middle names).  Unfortunately, this opportunity to learn any new details from this initial encounter with Brown’s mom doesn’t really happen aside from her being married multiple times and most likely inheriting her late husbands’ fortunes which would explain how the good doctor got the financial space to eventually bring his time machine to life.  Once the DeLorean winds up missing, it ultimately leads to some key setup for the final story arc.  The minor one would be Irving discovering a particular invention that Emmett is working on that will come into play later on, while the major thread has Marty coming across his troubled uncle before an attempt to cover his tracks gets partially foiled by George’s drive-by search and causes him to get mixed up with the hooligans that Joey has associated himself with.  Just like the discovery of Mrs. Ellsworth as Brown’s mother, the reveal that the flawed uncle is working with Biff and his 1950s cohorts does feel initially convenient.  Upon some further thought, the films never actually revealed when within the three-decade span of Tannen getting his dance-based comeuppance and our ultimate 1980s setting that he ended up becoming a bit-more nicer as a result of McFly’s initial cinematic interference.  As such, it can stand to reason for Biff to not have fully let his bully-fueled ways be entirely extinguished as of yet.  While one can wonder why this doesn’t just have some kind of resolution onto itself since it ultimately serves to lay the foundation for the series’ last story arc, it does provide some decent thrills throughout, consistent pacing and revelations that’re opportunistic yet still fit pretty well for the tale at hand.  Finally, we have our concluding storyline with “Time Served”.  For a good portion of this narrative, Marty is stuck within Biff’s control while he also learns his uncle’s ultimate motivation for why he acts the way he is along with how he crossed paths with Tannen & his cohorts.  The interactions between uncle and nephew is the strongest element from this last story string as it finally fleshes out a previously unseen character (aside from his 1955 baby self) and provides some dimension in order for fans to learn about this flawed, yet caring person through the young McFly’s eyes.  While Marcus’ interactions with a hippie (who actually briefly appeared in the prior storyline before becoming far-more prominent here) did make for some humorous moments and proved to be an important supporting player during our heroes’ brief stay in 1972, it was a bit contrived that he doesn’t realize that he’s actually not talking to Marty over a walkie-talkie.  Unless his voice somehow sounds somewhat similar to Biff especially over this particular communicative device and the good doctor never bothered to introduce him to it during their downtime, it’s a little unbelievable that Irving would be so easily duped into thinking that he was actually talking into Tannen.  Once mainline Emmett shows up to reveal that he recalled his DeLorean and our main group returns to 1986, the climactic encounter that ultimately comes out of it was fairly tense when Joey’s change-of-heart gets revealed and that he desires to return the swiped cash back to Brown.  Despite the good doctor having already done so way ahead of schedule, this act of forgiveness along with the rediscovery of the Auxiliary Leyden Oscillator (which becomes the final key component for his chronal-based locomotive) in said climax pairs itself wonderfully with Joey looking to build something worthwhile for himself with his second chance.  As for mid-1980s Biff becoming a villain towards the end here, it can seem odd for Bob and company to do this since one would assume that George McFly finally standing up to him in 1955 would ultimately lead to him becoming mellower over time.  If we recall the opening scene to “Part II”, his past villainy does seem to start popping up once he accidentally sees the time machine fly up and disappear which ultimately culminates in his actions once he eventually gets his hands on Gray’s Sports Almanac.  By that logic, it would make some sense for his past levels of his scumbag-fueled personality would always be there to a certain extent.  Either way, his ultimate comeuppance felt right at home with the franchise’s signature level of comedic light-heartedness that’s balanced with the proper PG-rated edge.  Given where our main characters are left off at the end of this series, both Marty & Marcus are in stable personal lives where they also get to have wholesome relationships with their respective ladies.  As for Emmett and his fellow Brown family members, their Time Train is all set to go and they’re finally ready to embark on their own trek across the time stream.  As for what they’ll find themselves in, that’s another story and another review for another time.

Now, I’m aware that IDW Publishing had also released four mini-series during and after the mainline string of comics.  However, the lengthy preparations between watching the theatrical trilogy & the animated series along with the amount of work that came from the franchise’s comic-based contributions via Harvey Comics and this series consumed an overwhelming amount of time.  While I wish that I could’ve included them in this retrospective, I do plan on covering them in their own individual review articles so that they’ll each have their own rooms to breathe.  As such, allow me to conclude with the fact that this franchise has left a wonderful impact on popular culture.  Even though Bob Gale has already gone on record saying that he never wants a fourth film to ever happen as long as he and Robert Zemeckis are alive (which is something I respect, especially since too much time has passed since Part III), other media avenues such as video games and especially comics have allowed this familiar world to expand beyond what was covered within its cinematic adventures.  With memorable characters, thrilling moments, and emotionally gripping twists & turns, this has all the legs it’ll ever need to stand tall as time continues to soldier on.  No matter what you do with your life going forward, do all that you can to make it a good one.  Until then, see you in the future!

Back To The Future is created and owned by Bob Gale & Robert Zemeckis while the movies are distributed by Universal Pictures.