Time Travel in the DC Universe

[JulianPerez]

What's the deal with Time Travel in the DC Universe?

During the John Broome GREEN LANTERN stories where Hal took the part of Pol Manning, Solar System Director, a big deal was made out of the fact that (exact quote) "by the law of time travel, he MUST be returned the EXACT SECOND after he departed!"

We learn more "rules" of how time travel functions in the DC Universe in SUPERBOY. There, it was established that it was not possible for more than one version of an individual to exist in a single time period, which means Kang the Conqueror-style duplication and David Gerrold-esque "self-folding" is not possible by DC rules. One result of this in a Superboy story was that Superboy was trapped in a time loop when he returned from the future too early, living the same 24 hour period over and over.

Jaxon Rugarth, the Infinite Man, was able to use such a loop in an intriguing way.

Is it, or is it not possible to change history in the DC Universe? The most common suggestion has been that it is not; for instance, note the various futile attempts by Superboy and Superman over the years to save the life of the Kents, or Superman's attempt to save the life of President Lincoln which ended in failure. Perhaps it is possible to change the future, but it is really, really hard.

It has been suggested that the time stream in the DC Universe is buffeting and difficult to manage; note for instance, the loss of King Kosmos in the time stream in DC COMICS PRESENTS ANNUAL (1985) and the fact that LEGION has stated that, except for beings with powerful personal senses such as Superboy, a "Time Beacon" transmitting signals are required for time travel, just like lighthouses are required for ships in foggy shores.

There was a recent SUPERMAN/BATMAN arc involving time travel that I've yet to pick up that sounds interesting in concept, which may have more insights on how time travel works.


Various DC Futures exist:

* One involving the Atomic Knights, where an atomic war leaves them the sole defenders of justice on a ruined earth (this future was later "retconned" to be a computer simulation in the 1970s, as Julius Schwartz insisted that scientifically speaking, the human race could not survive an atom war)

* The future of the "Super-Sons" stories, featuring the EASY RIDER-esque team-up of Batman's party-hearty kid and Superman's nebbish son.

* The "After Disaster" future of Jack Kirby's KAMANDI, which was preceded by the OMAC world watched over by Brother Eye.

* Tommy Tomorrow's interstellar future protected by Planeteer agents

* The 25th Century "dull utopia" home to the Reverse-Flash, incompatible with other futures as it depicts a period where all problems have ceased.

* The 57th Century future where Hal Jordan adopts the identity of Pol Manning, Guardian of the Solar System

* The "Superman of 2965" future, where the descendants of Superman have been protecting earth for multiple generations

* The Legion of Super-Heroes future, featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Legion of Super-Villains, as well as the possible future home of Don and Dawn, the Tornado Twins

* The "Superwoman" Kristen Wells 30th Century, where superpowers are able to be duplicated using high technology

* The "end of time" home of the Time Trapper where entropy has taken the entire universe, guarded by the "Iron Curtain of Time" by Time Travel assault.


Some futures that have been hinted at in the DC Universe as being possible:

* Any of the "Imaginary" Stories are entirely possible futures (that's the POINT of an Imaginary Story): including Superman-Red and Superman-Blue, the Death of Superman, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, etc. No definite word on which, if any Imaginary Story was Superman's true fate.

* It has been suggested by the presence of Captain Comet that in 100,000 years, most humans will have powers equal to that of Captain Comet.

[Sk8maven]

* The 25th Century "dull utopia" home to the Reverse-Flash, incompatible with other futures as it depicts a period where all problems have ceased.There are at least two, and probably three or more, versions of the "25th century dull utopia" future - and have been since the Golden Age. Landor (All-Star #31) and Knodar (multiple appearances, including fairly recently) both came from "25th century dull utopias", possibly the same one. And the Justice Society went TO a "25th(?) century dull utopia" future in All-Star #10 to secure the plans and components for a "bomb defense formula" (which appears to have been a small-city-sized force field).

It may be a future, or series of futures, of low probability, or it may be a temporary "island of stability" in a sea of chronal chaos - we just don't know.

Maven

[Bat-Mite]

All the rules you have there pretty much stopped being followed after Crisis. There aren't any rules anymore.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I want to see Kamandi again. I liked DC's multiple future thing. It went along great with the multiverse. Hell, with OMAC being his grandfather, it might be cool to see that brought back. I like both those books.

And I really hope Johns brings back Pol Manning in Green Lantern. Last we saw of the Solar Council, my man Sallakk had shacked up with Iona Vane for a few years following Earth's civil war against evil talking chipmunks. Add in a taste for human flesh and you've got yourself a nice setup. There's also that evil Pol Manning clone running around the 57th Century somewhere...

[sirgod]

Please expand abit guys, who exactly is Pol Manning?

Stephen

[glennsim]

Please expand abit guys, who exactly is Pol Manning?

Stephen

Well, only expanding a bit, there were some stories where Hal Jordan was pulled into the future to defend future-Earth against attacks, and his memories were changed such that he thought he was future-resident Pol Manning for the duration of his visit.

I forget why...

[JulianPerez]

There are at least two, and probably three or more, versions of the "25th century dull utopia" future - and have been since the Golden Age. Landor (All-Star #31) and Knodar (multiple appearances, including fairly recently) both came from "25th century dull utopias", possibly the same one. And the Justice Society went TO a "25th(?) century dull utopia" future in All-Star #10 to secure the plans and components for a "bomb defense formula" (which appears to have been a small-city-sized force field).

It may be a future, or series of futures, of low probability, or it may be a temporary "island of stability" in a sea of chronal chaos - we just don't know.

Maven

Hmmm, interesting point about the ALL-STAR futures. It is entirely possible that the future of both Earth-1 and Earth-2 are distinct from one another. I've argued for years that, for instance, the "Superman of 2965" is in fact, the future of the Earth-2 Superman.

Consider: the only characters that are duplicated in 2965 include Superman, Batman, and the Joker: all characters that are found on Earth-2.

Now if there was a Brainiac in the "Superman of 2965" stories, that would be different, as there is only a Brainiac on Earth-1. The Legion future, on the other hand, is clearly meant to be the future of Earth-1 with proof too numerous to mention: the presence of a Brainiac descendant, Superboy is a Legionnaire (and only Earth-1 Superman had been Super as a boy), Supergirl's membership as well (the Earth-2 Supergirl was kept secret until adulthood), Daxam (only found on Earth-1's dimension), the fact that Superboy was vulnerable to red sun rays (something that Earth-2 Superman never had to worry about as he got his powers from other causes), etc.

Mon-El and Star Boy both have equivalents on Earth-2, however. Both of their first appearances were based on reprints of Golden Age comics, thus indicating there are versions of both of these characters on Earth-2.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Please expand abit guys, who exactly is Pol Manning?

Stephen

In 1960, Julie Shwartz, John Broome & Gil Kane came up with the idea that Hal Jordan was not only a hero on Earth and across the planets of Sector 2814, but he also secretly lived a double-life in the future as astronaut Pol Manning, where he served as Solar Director, the sole defender of Earth's solar system in the 57th Century.

Essentially, the Solar Council's Iona Vane masterminded a plan to pluck legendary Green Lantern Hal Jordan from the distant past to combat the never-ending series of increasily bizarre threats humanity was facing in the 57th Century. The fun little wrinkle was that Hal Jordan himself was completely unaware of this second secret identity in the future, because the time machines that plucked him from the distant past wiped his memory and programmed him with the false memories of Pol Manning, whose long absences from Earth were explained away as deep space exploration. After Pol Manning would defeat whatever crazies were about to destroy the Solar System this time, the Solar Council would zap him back into the past at the exact moment he left--which led to some fun stories in which Hal's ring would run out of power because his internal clock was frequently wrong. And, on top of all this, you had Iona Vane, who had cast herself as Pol Manning's love interest, adding yet another woman for Hal to chase after without technically cheating on Carol Ferris, the girl he was chasing after in the 20th Century.

The Pol Manning & The Solar Council stories continued on throughout the 1960s until Broome & Kane finally allowed Hal to discover his double life in the future. Shortly afterwards, they passed the creative reigns to Denny O'Neil & Neal Adams, who moved the character in a different direction.

Since then, different writers brought back Pol Manning on occassion, the most recent of which was Steve Englehart, who had Sallakk assume the role of Pol Manning and even married a brainwashed Iona Vane, who went insane trying to reconcile the two conflicting memories of the man she loves. Oh, and the villains were great. Usually some new kind of evolutionary freak of nature. Telepathic cavemen, talking chimpmunks, evil twins, you name it. Fun, fun stuff.

[Jape]

Telepathic cavemen, talking chimpmunks, evil twins, you name it. Fun, fun stuff.

You get to see Green Lantern take on Alvin? Sweet.

[Apathy Boy]

All the rules you have there pretty much stopped being followed after Crisis. There aren't any rules anymore.Post-Crisis, DC tried to institute a new series of time-travel rules in a mini-series called TIME MASTERS. Basically, there were eight (I think) methods of time travelling, and people could use each of those methods once only.

Thankfully, no one ever read TIME MASTERS, so those rules have been forgotten as well.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

You get to see Green Lantern take on Alvin? Sweet.

And their villainous creator, the devious Dr. U'Bx! Nothing more creepy and hilarious than a pint-sized talking chipmunk who is also a criminal mastermind with giant buck-teeth and Fu Manchu wiskers.

[JulianPerez]

And their villainous creator, the devious Dr. U'Bx! Nothing more creepy and hilarious than a pint-sized talking chipmunk who is also a criminal mastermind with giant buck-teeth and Fu Manchu wiskers.

Ooooh, I dunno about that. As weird as it sounds, Dr. U'bx scared the everliving snot out of me. At first it's funny to see this three foot tall evil badger thing walking around supervillains and huffily saying "I warn you, Sonar - DON'T MAKE ME MAD!"

But at least in his Englehart-penned issues he was surprisingly effective; the guy took on like, eight GLs in GREEN LANTERN CORPS #203 and Sonar and trapped them in glass coffins.

By the way, that story has to be one of the saddest and most touching stories ever. Dr. U'bx can't bring himself to kill his foe, Ch'p - because if he did...he would be alone and different from every other creature in the universe.

Wow. (sob) :(

[LordEd1976]

Serious time travel question.

After CoIE, it was established that one could time travel using a particular method only once. So if Superman were to use his superspeed to travel to the 30th Century he would have to find another way back to the 20th Century.

does anyone know if this rule still applies and if not around when did it get removed?

[Paul Newell]

Serious time travel question.

After CoIE, it was established that one could time travel using a particular method only once. So if Superman were to use his superspeed to travel to the 30th Century he would have to find another way back to the 20th Century.

does anyone know if this rule still applies and if not around when did it get removed?
It was forgotten long ago.

[JulianPerez]

Serious time travel question.

After CoIE, it was established that one could time travel using a particular method only once. So if Superman were to use his superspeed to travel to the 30th Century he would have to find another way back to the 20th Century.

does anyone know if this rule still applies and if not around when did it get removed?

Granted, my understanding and enthusiasm for this period is limited, however, this question can easily be answered. According to Apathy Boy, wasn't one of the rules for Time Travel after Crisis that each method would only work once for any given person?

Thus, the exact point that the time travel rules stopped "being in play" must have been the first time travel story where one means of travel worked twice for the same person.

[Zero Hunter]

All I know is it seems like time travel is alot more difficult and unpredictable than it used to be in the old days. It always looks like the timestream has been a very rough place every since Crisis and Zero Hour.

[OzBat!]

The restrictions on using time travel methods only once has been well and truly smashed in the FLASH and JSA books. Even forgetting the cosmic treadmill being revived several times, John Fox had his time gauntlets, Hourman his time ship, and Wally West and Jay Garrick have both raced through the timestream under their own power.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

All I know is it seems like time travel is alot more difficult and unpredictable than it used to be in the old days. It always looks like the timestream has been a very rough place every since Crisis and Zero Hour.

They've definitely made time travel more difficult. Both Superman and the Green Lantern Corps were able to time travel with relative ease before, now that's not the case. But, this is probably for the best. Turning time-travel into something as simple as driving down to 7-11 is probably not a good idea.

[Apathy Boy]

Granted, my understanding and enthusiasm for this period is limited, however, this question can easily be answered. According to Apathy Boy, wasn't one of the rules for Time Travel after Crisis that each method would only work once for any given person?

Thus, the exact point that the time travel rules stopped "being in play" must have been the first time travel story where one means of travel worked twice for the same person.One of the first examples must've been Waverider (the guy who could ride the timewaves or whatever). ARMAGEDDON 2001 came out just a year or two after TIME MASTERS.

[OzBat!]

The funny thing was that Waverider was an alternate timeline version of one of the Linear Men.

I'd guess that some sort of restrictions must still apply to ordinary people. But when you add superpowers or extra dimensional abilities (Speed Force, time manipulation, Worlogog, whatever), things become much more unpredictable.