Review by Karl Verhoven

Duncan Ainsworth is a charming American test pilot with a few personal problems hired to fly a jet fighter carrying experimental software. Some of that features the work of French mathematical coder Lucie Delosnier, and they’re established as a bickering couple. “If it isn’t the Countess” is countered with “If it isn’t the oaf” on their second meeting.

A lot of scientific theory is dropped upfront accompanied by technical details, but with his comics career prioritising plane-themed material, it’s somewhat the calling card of co-writer Frédéric Zumbiehl, to whom accuracy matters. Olivier Jolivet’s background extends a little wider into other territories. After a while the technical jargon becomes largely irrelevant because as the cover shows, it’s not too many pages before Dunk and Lucie are dragged through a hole in time to the battlegrounds of France during World War I.

From then The Wings of Time is more mild comedy adventure than flight-propelled action, as Dunk and Lucie must find a way home while adapting to the customs of a century earlier and avoiding curious Germans. Despite the opening location being Florida, it’s been conveniently set-up that despite her career, Lucie is minor French nobility, and her family home isn’t far from where the plane lands in 1917 so she’s able to masquerade as an ancestor. More credibly established is Dunk’s enjoyment of flying vintage bi-planes.

With period drama being so common a genre in European comics Patrice Buendia puts effort into illustrating the era, with cars, planes, outfits and surroundings being completely convincing. The flight scenes, whether in the present day or the past supply variety and thrills, and the cast are designed to be recognised, even in an era where everyone dressed similarly and men all had moustaches.

The Time of the Pioneers sets up problems very efficiently, with the drama set to escalate in The Time of Confrontation.