In the season two finale of the sci-fi television drama Fringe, Peter Bishop returns to the alternate universe that he was kidnapped from as a young child, a world similar yet different from the one in which he was raised. Not only do the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center still stand tall over New York City, but the Statue of Liberty retains its original copper shell, the Brooklyn Dodgers never relocated to Los Angeles, and the profile of Richard Nixon is engraved on a one dollar coin as opposed to Dwight Eisenhower.
The differences are further highlighted when Peter Bishop observes a collection of six classic DC comic books with altered images on their covers. Apparently in the parallel universe of Fringe, both Green Lantern and Green Arrow are red, it was Superman who returned in the 1980s as opposed to the Dark Knight of Frank Miller, and Batman later died in the 1990s instead of the Man of Steel.
The special covers were created specifically for the episode “Over There,” but the partnership between DC Comics and Fringe was forged years earlier when the first installment of a six-issue series was released by the publishing giant a month before the premier of the sci-fi drama on FOX.
While Fringe the television show follows the exploits of FBI agent Olivia Dunham, Dr. Walter Bishop, and Peter Bishop as they investigate events from the fringes of traditional science – including the aforementioned alternate universe that is at war with our own – Fringe the comic book series delves into the background of the main characters and offers further insight into their psyche, motives, and personal narratives.
“While this series of comics is not necessary to understanding the show on which it is based, neither is the show necessary to understand the comic,” Fringe co-creators Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman explain in the forward. “They are, however, both born of the same DNA. In a way, this series of comics have become our laboratory, where we can test ideas and imagine what might normally be impossible to produce. Devoted followers of this world will see the waves created in the comic ripple across the show.”
The first collection of comic books center on Dr. Walter Bishop and his initial experiments into fringe science during the 1970s with lab colleague William Bell. While Orci and Kurtzman warn that it is questionable whether Bishop’s memories are “reliable or not,” the graphic narrative still presents an intriguing interpretation of Walter Bishop’s early years.
In one storyline, for instance, Bishop and Bell construct a strange device from old Nazi blueprints discovered in South America. When the mechanism is accidentally turned on, the two scientists are transported through both time and space to 1945 Germany. It turns out that the time machine was originally built by Walter Bishop’s father Hans Froelich, a high-ranking official of the Third Reich.
While it is never confirmed that the adventure actually took place – including the re-writing of history by suggesting that Adolph Hitler never committed suicide but was sent by Walter Bishop to the Mesozoic Era and devoured by an awaiting dinosaur instead – the background of Bishop’s parental roots were later explored in the season two episode of Fringe entitled “The Bishop Revival.”
“My father was a scientific pioneer at the University of Berlin,” Walter Bishop explains to Peter Bishop during the installment. When Peter asks if Walter is inferring that the man was a Nazi, the elder Bishop replies, “Technically, yes. Actually, he worked as a spy for the Allies, sabotaging German research and smuggling scientific information to the Americans.”
Two years after exploring the background of Walter Bishop, DC Comics released a second series of comic books under the title Tales from the Fringe, with each of the six issues centering on a different member of the Fringe television show. In order of appearance, the characters include Peter Bishop, Phillip Broyles, Astrid Farnsworth, Nina Sharp, Gene the Cow, and Olivia Dunham.
Like the original series that focused on Walter Bishop, the narratives of each issue take place prior to the events of the television drama and add additional insight into the characters while also tying the storylines into the ongoing plot of Fringe.
The Phillips Broyles issue is a prime example. During the season two episode “Earthling,” the Fringe unit is sent to investigate the death of a man who turned to dust. “It’s not the first time I’ve seen this phenomenon,” Broyles tells his colleagues, explaining that a series of killings from four years earlier followed the same modus operandi. The cases were never solved but had a profound effect on Broyles, turning into an obsession that led to the breakup of his marriage.
Tales from the Fringe reveals the story behind those original cases. “Everyone has good days and bad days, and one of those bad days will be their worst,” a former partner remarks in regards to Broyles’ marital woes. “In the meantime, we just gotta do the best we can with what we got.”
While the first two collaborations between DC Comics and Fringe take place prior to the events of the series, the third serves as a direct bridge between the third and fourth seasons of the television drama. Beyond the Fringe – as the narrative is named – was originally released as a digital comic through the DC website before being collected into a physical comic book in March 2012, and was crafted by Joshua Jackson, the actor who portrays Peter Bishop.
“The story I wanted to tell was a piece of Fringe that will never make it onto the television screen,” Jackson told Newsarama. “They allowed me to go off into the comic book world and fill in what I think is a gap in our mythology. Hopefully, people who like the show will go and find the comic, and it will expand the universe.”
The narrative centers on Peter Bishop’s attempt to reposition the components of the “doomsday machine” from season three of Fringe back to their original locations around the globe. Bishop bounces from one position in space and time to the next as the pieces are strategically placed, activated, and then used as the catalyst for Peter’s quantum leaps.
The plot, however, also serves as a way for Bishop to internally debate the consequences of his actions and need to make a different choice in the redefined future he is creating, as well as the implications to his family, friends, and the rest of humanity.
“Too long to be alone with my thoughts,” Peter Bishop reflects in Beyond the Fringe. “Too long to wonder why I never made the right choice before. Does everything happen as it should? Are we bound by fate and destiny? My choice led me here, where I must choose again and again.”
The television drama Fringe likewise raises questions about fate and destiny, the meaning of family, and the aftereffects of our choices and decisions. Just as co-creators Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman suggested in the introduction to the first graphic novel, the same DNA runs through the world of Fringe on television that inhabits the Fringe of the DC Universe – transforming the two unique forms of entertainment into parallel dimensions of each other in the process.
Anthony Letizia