If the Linear Men had been around for COIE or INFINITE CRISIS...

[Buried Alien]

During the 1990s, the Linear Men were appointed the guardians of the DC Universe's timeline. They had a major role in DC's 1990s continuity-rewriting event, ZERO HOUR, but had not yet been created for CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS back in the 1980s and had been killed a few years before this past year's INFINITE CRISIS.

What if the Linear Men had been around for COIE and INFINITE CRISIS, however? What role would they have played? Could they have been instrumental in defeating the Anti-Monitor or Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime? Surely, the Linear Men would have been aware of the original Crisis On Infinite Earths' effect on the timeline (although it appeared that Waverider did not discover it until ZERO HOUR), and they would have noticed the effects of Kal-L's and Superboy-Prime's punches on the dimensional barrier between their "paradise" and the DCU.




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[Choppa]

Why weren't they around for IC? Where'd they go?

[marshal99]

Thought the linear men got stripped of their powers by the Quintessence a while back after OWAW.

The Linear Men aren't all powerful , they couldn't even stop Extant from taking over vanishing point during zero hour. Makes no bit of difference even if they were at COIE or IC. They wouldn't have interfered even if they had the power (which they don't).

[Paul Newell]

From what I remember they were all "destroyed" at the start of Our Worlds at War.

[Buried Alien]

The Linear Men aren't all powerful , they couldn't even stop Extant from taking over vanishing point during zero hour. Makes no bit of difference even if they were at COIE or IC. They wouldn't have interfered even if they had the power (which they don't).

They might not have had enough power to influence the outcome, but events such as INFINITE CRISIS are precisely why the Linear Men came into being. It was their job to monitor, prevent, and/or correct chronal problems such as those seen in INFINITE CRISIS.


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[Justin D.]

From what I remember they were all "destroyed" at the start of Our Worlds at War.

Destroyed how? The Linear Men and OWAW don't even match up to me. Seem like the concepts just don't have any association to each other. I liked the Linear Men even if they didn't do a whole hell of a lot.

[Sean Walsh]

Here's how I would've written their appearance:

Waverider: "Damn, this crap's screwed up."
Rip Hunter: "Should we intervene?"
Liri Lee: "Nah.......now whose turn is it?"
Matt Ryder: "Mine!"
Waverider: "Mine?"
Matt Ryder: "Stop doing that!"
Rip Hunter: "Don't we have any other board games besides Chutes and Ladders?"

;) :p

[marshal99]

They might not have had enough power to influence the outcome, but events such as INFINITE CRISIS are precisely why the Linear Men came into being. It was their job to monitor, prevent, and/or correct chronal problems such as those seen in INFINITE CRISIS.


Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Zero hour came WAYYYYYY before IC and the linear men did diddly squat in that one . In fact , one version of Waverider got killed by Extant and the rest of the linear men got kicked out of vanishing point. They were totally useless , same goes if they were around during COIE or IC.

[Super Buddies Forever]

I always loved the Linear Men and believed it was short-sighted to kill them off in as worthless of a crossover as Our Worlds at War.

It makes me wonder why the Linear Men never detected any of Superboy Prime's retcon punches. They were outside of the timestream in Vanishing Point and should have observed it happening, but maybe they were unsuccessful at finding the cause of the disruptance as it was from another pocket universe outside of the timestream. Or maybe Alexander Luthor's "paradise" dimension was on a plane of reality further outside of the timestream, allowing Vanishing Point to fall victim to the retcon punches as well.

Or maybe I'm putting way too much though in something DC never bothered to. Time for me to get a life, I suppose.

[Jolly Mon]

I always loved the Linear Men and believed it was short-sighted to kill them off in as worthless of a crossover as Our Worlds at War.

It makes me wonder why the Linear Men never detected any of Superboy Prime's retcon punches. They were outside of the timestream in Vanishing Point and should have observed it happening, but maybe they were unsuccessful at finding the cause of the disruptance as it was from another pocket universe outside of the timestream. Or maybe Alexander Luthor's "paradise" dimension was on a plane of reality further outside of the timestream, allowing Vanishing Point to fall victim to the retcon punches as well.

Or maybe I'm putting way too much though in something DC never bothered to. Time for me to get a life, I suppose.

I wouldn't be that harsh with yourself. But, trying to explain things that DC chooses to ignore (retcon punches, Max Lord is human (not cyborg), numerous plot holes in IC) will only drive you crazy.

[Buried Alien]

I wouldn't be that harsh with yourself. But, trying to explain things that DC chooses to ignore (retcon punches, Max Lord is human (not cyborg), numerous plot holes in IC) will only drive you crazy.

It's why the Psycho Pirate spent years at Arkham Asylum.

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[Sean Walsh]

I always loved the Linear Men and believed it was short-sighted to kill them off in as worthless of a crossover as Our Worlds at War.

It was actually *after* OWAW. But IIRC, they were attacked or something during the event too...

[Buried Alien]

I vaguely remember the Linear Men being executed for having been traitors and hypocrites...manipulating the timeline for their own self-justifying reasons despite some disastrous results.

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