2013-02-09
Explanation
This long-form comic explores a humorous theological thought experiment about time travel and God'''s plan. The premise is that God has a plan for humanity where the great events of history are prefigured, but He has also designed the universe such that time travel is permitted. God tells an angel to "toss a few +/- signs on those equations" to allow it. Since history cannot be fundamentally altered but time travel is possible, the most responsible way to use time travel is to only interfere with history'''s highlights -- things that were already destined to happen.
The time travelers discover through trial and error which events are part of God'''s immutable plan and which are not. They find that World War II was in the plan but World War I was not, meaning they can make WW2 as bizarre as they want. This leads to irresponsible time travelers making absurd changes: giving Hitler a toothbrush mustache so wives will make their husbands shave, having Nazis use skull emblems "just like movie villains," and introducing nuclear weapons to ensure "pre-date world peace." The narrator observes it'''s strange that all of history'''s touchstones are characterized by irresponsible time travelers.
The comic continues with escalating absurdity: someone got Judas Iscariot to "pants Jesus" for 30 pieces of silver, and when challenged with "have you READ history?" another traveler announces plans to have the British Empire declare war on a place called "the Kingdom of Kandy" (which is actually a real historical event). The votey shows the ultimate punchline: a time traveler declaring "Now to make history'''s greatest villain be named Weinersmith" -- a self-referential joke about the comic'''s author, Zach Weinersmith.