Worst/Best Time Travel Stories

[Damo]

What are the best (and worst) Time Travel stories in DC?


Best:

As much as I'd love to give it to some of the Silver Age Degaton stories, the best Degaton story (the death of Earth 2 Degaton) didn't have much Time Travel at all. Hourman was good too but...

Chronos, the series, with Walker Gabriel has to be my favorite. It was clever and funny and kind of sad, this one man war against time. It's cancellation was one of the great tragedies of DC.

Worst:

There have been some doozies, but for me the king of them all has to be the "Future Carol" story in Impulse. This one just hurt my head. Aside from the terrible idea of taking an old wild west foe of Max's and turning him into a time traveler, the main story was built around an incredbily illogical problem.

After years of teasing the readers, Impulse and his best friend, Carol, were starting to move toward being more than just friends. So immediately (and I mean immediately) a future version of Carol shows up and says "no, one day Carol will one day be a brilliant scientist and her research into the Speed Force will be used by a villain, and could destroy the world. The only way to prevent this is to take young Carol and move her far far far into the future, separating you two lovebirds forever." And this is done, and Impulse is very sad, and the book starts on a downword spiral that finally destroys it.

I think any reader with half a braincell probably said "couldn't you just have asked young Carol not to research the Speed Force?"

[Lex]

Chronos, the series, with Walker Gabriel has to be my favorite. It was clever and funny and kind of sad, this one man war against time. It's cancellation was one of the great tragedies of DC.

I SO agree! Chronos was fun time travel without being super confusing. It was one of the best monthly books DC did in the 90's.

[dancj]

I was really disappointed by Chronos. It just never grabbed me. It looked like it was picking up a bit towards the end, but obviously that was too late.

My best is probably the issue in Grant Morrison's Animal Man.

Damn - I love time travel stories, but I'm having real trouble thinking up any particularly good or bad examples

Dan

[spideyrules99]

I wil tell you a time travel story I loved. It was called. Time and Time again. A Superman Sotry. I enjoyed it.

[dupersuper]

Chronos, Animal Man, Time and time again, Hourman, Current JSA Per Degaton stuff, JLA/Wildcats, DC 1,000,000...

[LordEd1976]

One of the best time travel stories I've read was one written by Elliot S. Maggin. In it, the Atom uses time travel to discover how a thief disappeared in the middle of his trial. I won't spoil the ending but I will say it involves an infamous moment in the history of one of America's most well known cities.

[dupersuper]

Oh, I almost forgot; DC 2000

[Lex]

Oh, I almost forgot; DC 2000

Wait, are you saying it was one of the best or worst? I heard that it was kinda bad.

[lucasb]

It's not exactly time travel, but I'd vote for "The Nearness of You", an Astro City short story. It involves a "Crisis on Infinite Earths"-type event, which essentially reboots the universe from the beginning of time, and has to qualify as one of the best comic book stories ever written.

[dancj]

has to qualify as one of the best comic book stories ever written.

You're not wrong. Mostly I much prefer the longer Astro City stories, but that one stands out a mile

[gloss]

Worst:There have been some doozies, but for me the king of them all has to be the "Future Carol" story in Impulse.

That storyline made less than no sense, I agree, and yet I have a really strange fondness for it -- maybe because we get to see aged-up!Bart as an adult Impulse, rather than Flash?

I also enjoyed Bart Saves the Universe as a time-travel story, if only because it exploited the fact that Impulse alone of all the heroes is impervious to shifts/changes in the timestream.

[Babylon23]

It's not exactly time travel, but I'd vote for "The Nearness of You", an Astro City short story. It involves a "Crisis on Infinite Earths"-type event, which essentially reboots the universe from the beginning of time, and has to qualify as one of the best comic book stories ever written.

I have to agree. This is a truly stunning piece of comic book writing. A Crisi-like event in 1 issue, with a truly emotional ending.

One of my favourite time travel stories has to be "the Unknown Soldier of Victory" from JLA vol. 1 #100-101. The 7 Soldiers of Victory are scattered in different time periods, and the JLA and JSA have to team up to retrieve them. Top stuff.

I'm also a big fan of the recent 1951 JSA/modern JSA Per Degaton story.

[marshal99]

JLA 207-209 and All star squadron 14-15 , the 5 parter JLA/JSA/All star squadron crossover is a classic pre-crisis time travel story - with the help of the crime syndicate of earth 3 , Per Degaton changed the history of earth 2 and destroyed earth prime in the process. It could have been much better though.

As mentioned , time and time again was a good superman time travel story.

Chain Lightning in the Flash 143–150 is a time travel epic story that replays the post crisis version of COIE with the anti-monitor in the last issue of the storyline.

[Agent Cooper]

Best could be debated endlessly. I have some thoughts that I may return with later.

But worst. Worst has to be Armageddon 2001. Has to.

"Howsabout, in the future, one of our heroes has gone insane and become a murderous despot who rules the world with an iron fist, but nobody knows which hero it is - and a scientist from that future gives himself time travel powers to come back and prevent those horrible events from ever happening - and we use it to show possible futures for all our heroes in their respective annuals - and, and, in the end the hero who went insane is revealed to be... "

"Yes?"

"Hawk!"

"...Hawk?"

"Yeah!"

"...Hawk."

"Yeah!"

"Get out of my office."


Just sayin'.

[Panman]

My best is probably the issue in Grant Morrison's Animal Man.

Damn - I love time travel stories, but I'm having real trouble thinking up any particularly good or bad examples

Dan

That has to be my best as well.