Ivar, Timewalker was a 12-issue Valiant comic book published in 2015. It was written by Fred Van Lente and illustrated by Clayton Henry. It can be divided into three story arcs: Making History (issues #1-4), Breaking History (issues #5-8), and Ending History (issues #9-12). It is also a spin-off of Fred Van Lente's run on Archer & Armstrong.
Long ago, in the Mesopotamian city-state of Ur, the three Anni-Padda brothers found the mystical Boon, which would grant eternal life, but at a cost. Gilad became the Eternal Warrior, while Aram became a drunk for years and eventually found himself in a partnership with a young man named Archer, but Ivar? Ivar was lost in time. After finally being saved by Archer, Ivar became a master of charting "timearcs," naturally occuring miniature wormholes that allow people to traverse history itself.
Which is what led him to Neela Sethi, a genius theoretical physicist working for CERN and on the brink of inventing time travel. When Ivar shows up, he says that her work will not only put her in danger, but all of time itself. Initially thinking him a madman, Neela refuses to go with him, until they are attacked by the Prometheans, highly advanced fifth-dimensional beings working for Oblivi-1, a giant space station situated at the far, far future.
Needless to say, she begins to believe him. But he may not be telling her the entire truth — about why he showed up or about what her future holds. Because the leader of Oblivi-1 might actually be Neela herself.
Tropes in Ivar, Timewalker:
- Alternate History: Ivar and Neela end up in various alternate timelines, one of which has intelligent dinosaurs, which is where they meet Ank.
- Anyone Can Die: Ivar isn't immortal like his brothers. He dies saving Neela, although Neela manages to team up with a younger version of him.
- Arc Words: "Nothing is forever." It is the mantra of The Null, a sect that worships nothingness and whose goal is to wipe everything out of existence because the resulting void would be permanent.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Amelia Earhart helped Ivar assaulted Oblivi-1.
- Big Bad: Future Neela. But not really.
- The Cameo: When Ivar and Neela are in the 41st century, a panel shows Rai fighting some criminals.
- Chick Magnet: Ivar.
- Cyborg: Future Neela is one. In order to try and stop her, Present Neela kills herself, but that only ends up making her into a cyborg, too.
- Expy: Ivar acts a lot like the Doctor and Neela as one of his companions. At first.
- Expendable Clone: It turns out that Future Neela is actually a clone of Neela brainwashed into hating Ivar. And the Null made many, many clones of her.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: In issue #2, Ivar shows Neela Adolf Hitler in the time before he rose to power; first when he was living on the streets of Vienna in 1906 after failing to get into the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, and then in 1916, when he was a lowly corporal in World War I.
- Future Me Scares Me: Future Neela is the leader of Oblivi-1 and the Prometheans and wants to break history.
- Heroic Suicide: Subverted. In order to stop Future Neela, Present Neela tries to kill herself, but this only allows the Null to capture her and restore her using cybernetics, then clone her and instill a hatred of Ivar, which it turns out is what Future Neela was.
- Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: Issues #2 and #3 show that time travelers have a whole subculture full of ones trying to make a name for themselves by going back in time and killing Hitler, none of which have ever succeeded.
- Legacy Character: In the end, after everything, Neela becomes a Timewalker just like Ivar.
- Me's a Crowd: The many, many clones of Neela used by the Null.
- My Future Self and Me:
- After getting away from Ivar, Neela travels back in time to try and save her father. On the way to the hospital where he died, she finds a bar full of other versions of herself who either have tried or will try themselves. By the end of the issue, she has been all of them at one time or another, and each of them has failed.
- Neela ends up working with Future Neela in order to create a time travel device that will be able to save her father. It's a trick.
- Never the Selves Shall Meet: Subverted early on; in the 41st century, Ivar and Neela run into a past or future version of Ivar and pass by him without incident. Neela is surprised it didn't cause some paradox, but Ivar just says she watches too many movies.
- Our Time Travel Is Different: Time travel works by finding "timearcs," small wormholes that allow you transverse the timeline or timelines, as there are multiple timelines. Ivar has actually mapped out these timelines, so he knows where and went timearcs will appear, making him a "Timewalker."
- Perception Filter: Ivar and Neela mask themselves using Zelig devices, which makes them blend in with people of the time and place they're in. However, the device has its limits, such as only functioning effectively in places where bystanders won't be surprised to see strangers.
- Stable Time Loop: Ivar and Neela's relationship ends up being this. Ivar shows up to stop her from inventing time travel to save her father, but she ends up doing it anyway, but it was a trick in order to create a device that would erase the universe. Ivar stops it, but ends up dying, confessing that he loves her before his death. Neela then goes back in time and grabs a younger Ivar right after he initiated the Boon and they try to find a way to stop the Null together, but end up in a timeline where they can never interact. Ivar goes back to his own time and surrenders himself to the Keepers of the Timeless World, where he will eventually be found by Archer and then go on to try and save Neela again.
- Uplifted Animal: One of Ivar's companions is Ank, a talking humanoid Ankylosaurus from a timeline where the Roman Empire was ruled by dinosaurs.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Neela wants to save her father in the past, but Ivar explains that the past cannot be changed due to the "Chronology Protection Conjecture." Which leads her to teaming up with her future self to create a device that breaks time.
