Hail To The Warlord

Travis Morgan...President?  

An unlikely scenario, yes, but it happened in Warlord #84 (August, 1984) by Cary Burkett, Dan Jurgens and Dan Adkins (with cover by Dan Jurgens and Dick Giordano). 

The USAF pilot who had made Skartaris his home ended up in the near future, in a world ravaged by nuclear war, and helped fight using UFOs he got from New Atlantis.  Then, after the current President was gone, Travis ended up being elected President by Congress.

Just when you thought elections couldn't get any weirder.... 

World's Finest Time Travel Trouble

Time travel is a bit of a tricky thing, even if you are the World's Finest super heroes! Here's two tales from the Silver Age.....both really great stories, but problematic nonetheless!  Let's let Superman, Batman, Robin (and even Superboy, the younger version of Superman) show you the problems!

World's Finest Comics 91

First up, is "The Three Super-Sleepers" from World's Finest Comics #91 (November-December, 1957) by Edmond Hamilton, Dick Sprang and Stan Kaye (with a cover by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye).

Superman, Batman and Robin were converging on a criminal at Smoky Mountain, but he had prepared a trap for the three heroes, with sleeping gas, cryogenic chambers (and a little Kryptonite).  After they went into the chamber, he put them to sleep, then into the chambers, hid the Batmobile as well as the entrance to the cavern....and the heroes weren't found until 1000 years later!  Scientists in 2957 were willing to send them home via a time ray, but...it had been stolen!  The heroes worked against the criminals of the day, also facing a descendant of Luthor named Rohtul, but it was one of the scientists, Lora, who had taken the time-ray in an attempt to keep Superman in that time.  The heroes go back in time, preventing the original criminal from ever triggering his trap....

...and this is where the trouble begins!   Since they were never sent into the future, how could they come back in time to save themselves?    Not to mention, how were they so famous in the future, if they had disappeared in 1957 (among other things, before the Justice League of America or the Teen Titans were founded.....).

Adventure Comics 253

The problems with the previous tale were also echoed in Adventure Comics #253 (October, 1958) when Dave Wood and Al Plastino (under a Curt Swan/Stan Kaye cover) present the tale when "Superboy Meets Robin The Boy Wonder".

Superman is found by Robin, nearly dying, as a Cosmic Clock trophy he had gotten when he was in Smallville had a Kryptonite bomb trap in it.  So, Robin gets the idea to travel back in time to when Superboy gets the Cosmic Clock (thanks to Prof. Carter Nichols and his time ray).  Superboy stops Robin from destroying the Cosmic Clock as it was a gift to the fair from Superboy.  Robin and Superboy handle some very technological crimes during Robin's time in Smallville (eventually finding an older Luthor responsible, as Luthor's origin hadn't happened yet).  Then, they do find the clock gift for Superboy....which he throws into orbit, with Robin now feeling secure that he could go back to his own time, having prevented the disaster which would befall Superman.

Now, that causes the problem of why would Robin go back to help Superboy if there was no clock to explode and nearly kill Superman?   Also worth a mention was this (slightly still hairy) Luthor, who was closer to an adult Luthor than he would (very soon) be portrayed in Superboy's time?  

This second problem just comes because of different directions being taken by writers, but the first....shows the basic problem in going back in time to fix a problem....once you've fixed it, you have no reason to go back in time!  
Paradoxes are fun, no?  

They can give you quite a headache....likely making you wish you had gone back in time and NOT decided to read this, and just enjoy the tales as you read them! 

Superman and The Legion of Super-Heroes On The Moon

Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes once met on the moon, and it was quite the disaster.

But, perhaps we're skipping a little a head of ourselves in this story....and that's exactly what Superman was doing at the time.

So, perhaps it would be better to step back a bit, to allow you to catch up....

The Linear Men

It all started in Adventures Of Superman #476 (March, 1991, by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding), with Clark Kent trying to get use to being engaged to Lois Lane, ended up having to help Booster Gold (the greatest hero you've never know) against a Linear Man (one of the self-appointed protectors of the timestream), who wanted to return Booster Gold to his proper time (Booster was originally a resident of the 25th Century, who "borrowed" some equipment from the Space Museum, to travel back in time to become a hero....).

The encounter did nothing to change Booster's status as a hero before his time, but did send Superman forward in time, where he met the charter members of the Legion of Super-Heroes (Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad) early in their career, but for Superman, it was the first time meeting the Legion (after the Crisis On Infinite Earths, Superman hadn't had his career as Superboy, so hadn't met the Legion of Super-Heroes until recently...).

Lost In The '40s Tonight

In Action Comics #663 (March, 1991 by Roger Stern and Bob McLeod), the Legion, busy with saving their city at the time, are startled to meet Superman, having not yet met him this early in their careers, get distracted, so an explosion there sends Superman back in time...


....all the way to 1943, where after a brief distraction at a circus, Superman gets the idea of enlisting the help of the then young and active Justice Society of America at their townhouse...but, the ghostly guardian, the Spectre, advises against that, rightfully saying that meeting Superman would mess up the JSA's history (which had already been changed in the aftermath of the Crisis On Infinite Earths so that they didn't have a Superman in their ranks), so sends the time-lost Man of Steel across the world to...

The Warsaw Ghetto

With Superman #54 (April, 1991 by Jerry Ordway and Dennis Janke), Superman did get more involved in World War II, messing up the life of the immortal General Zieten (whom Superman had just met in the modern day a few weeks previously, as Mr. Z, and where Clark's fiance, Lois Lane, was currently worried about the missing Clark Kent/Superman)...

....deciding to take a more active role in World War II due to seeing the suffering of citizens of Warsaw (unconcerned about historical damage he could cause), Superman tried to stop an experimental Nazi bomb, which exploded, engulfing him and sending him back to the future (but still beyond his own time....).   

Death Rekindled

The explosion sent Superman into space, meeting the Legion of Super-Heroes again (further along in their timeline, with members of the team being Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, Shrinking Violet, Ultra Boy and Wildfire...corresponding to their time in the 1970s, or is that 2970s?).  

This adventure from Adventures Of Superman #476 (April, 1991 by Dan Jurgens and Art Thibert) against the menace of the Sun-Eater (a gaseous creature that....well, eats suns).  

The Legion had a bomb that they planned to use to stop the creature, but, yet again, it was Superman who was there to help defeat the menace.

That bomb's explosion sent Superman back in time yet again...  

Many Long Years Ago...

Back to Action Comics #664 (April, 1991, by Roger Stern and Bob McLeod), and to a meeting with a Tyrannosaurus Rex! 

You'd think Superman would be alone at this time, but it didn't work out that way, as he met up with Atom's foe, Chronos, who had been trapped in this time period after a battle with the Blue Beetle.

Chronos had plans to return to his own time, but that was fouled up by Superman (so Chronos had to put himself in suspended animation and get home the long way, but even then, Chronos arrived to modern time early, letting him be better prepared for future battles with the Atom), while Superman ended up a little farther in the future (but still the past), and, with yet another explosion, ended up in...

Camelot

With Superman #55 (May, 1991 by Jerry Ordway), Superman found himself in the court of Camelot, as it was under attack by the forces of Morgan Le Fey and Mordred, and being protected by Merlin, and his demon, Etrigan.

Superman wasn't as much help against all the magic menaces that were around (as Kryptonian powers don't seem to work well against magic), so Merlin was forced to use desperate measures to save Camelot, bonding Etrigan to the human druid, Jason Blood, while Superman found himself yet another explosion, hurtling him into the far future once again (all the while, Lois wondering where Clark was...).

Moon Rocked

Getting readers of this article to where we started with, with Adventures Of Superman #478 (May, 1991, by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding), with Superman, and members of the Legion of Super-Heroes (from a period in their future called "Five Years Ahead" with members Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Laurel Gand, Chameleon Boy (going by Cham), Shrinking Violet (going by Vi), Furball (formerly Timber Wolf), where their were facing off against a homicidal Daxamite by the name of Dev-Em, with plans to blow up Earth's moon (as the Earth at this time had been taken over by the Dominators).

Superman shows up, but this time, stops the explosion of the moon.  That's when the Linear Man shows up, knowing that the moon must explode at this time, and continues the countdown, resulting in the moon exploding (sending Superman back to his home time, and Lois, with the knowledge that the Earth will lose its moon in 2995....).

As for the fate of the moon, and the future of the Earth, the Legion of Super-Heroes have to deal with that, starting with Legion of Super-Heroes #19 (June, 1991, with stories by Keith Giffen, Tom and Mary Bierbaum and Al Gordon, making their bleak future that much more dismal....

...at least until time resets the Legion's future (which happens again and again for a while....).

A Few Special Star Trek Issues

Star Trek has had a few comic series over the 5 decades of its existence, but there are a few that stand out.

Here's a couple of them from DC's first run at the cast of the Enterprise....

...and why these two issues have stood the test of time (in more ways than one!).

 Chekov's Choice

It is a rare thing when television actors get a chance to write comics, especially about their own character on a beloved show, but Walter Koenig got that chance for Pavel Chekov with DC Comics' Star Trek #19 (October, 1985) and the story of "Chekov's Choice", with art by Dan Spiegle and cover by series regulars Tom Sutton and Ricardo Villagran.

This issue is important, as it focused on the era of Star Trek between the original series and the majority of original Star Trek movie era, set at a time after the original Star Trek motion picture but well before the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Chekov was faced with a choice (thus, the title), and had to lead the crew of the Enterprise in a mutiny to save the ship from a collision with an asteroid.

This issue also showed that DC Comics had, wisely, gotten legal rights from Paramount to cover all eras of Star Trek at the time (unlike the previous Marvel Comic series, which only covered the era of Star Trek: The Motion Picture).

Vicious Circle

The comic took advantage of that fact with Star Trek #33 (December, 1986) and "Vicious Circle" by Len Wein, Tom Sutton and Ricardo Villagran (and cover by Jerry Bingham), when the original series crew met with the movie era crew in a special, 20th Anniversary story!

Thanks to an early time travel adventure of the Star Trek crew from the episode, "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", Kirk and crew came from the 1960s, overshooting their own time to the time and ending up in the time between Star Trek III: The Search For Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  This caused many time anomalies and both crews had to work together to get the original Enterprise crew to their rightful place in time.  The crew used another time travel device to help them out (which won't be spoiled here, but it was from an episode fans remember forever)...and special note, you can see the differences in the crews, because Chekov wasn't around during those early, first season episodes, yet Yeoman Janice Rand was.

This points out a problem from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan....in how does Khan recognize Chekov, but that's one anomaly beyond our reckoning.  The issue is also special, as writer Len Wein had written original Gold Key Star Trek issues, making him the first Star Trek comic writer to have written Star Trek comics to go from Gold Key to DC (with Mike W. Barr the first in doing duty from Marvel to DC).  Then, in 1991, Walter Koenig wrote a book, detailing his experiences on making Star Trek: The Motion Picture, entitled "Chekov's Enterprise".  Quite a vicious circle of time travel for both writers!

The Hero, the Warrior and the Doctor

Last week, the heroes were time travelers on screen (TV and the movies), and here...


...it's  time to look at a few of the time travels of Superman, Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise on Star Trek and the Doctor of Doctor Who in the comics!


It's quite the wild ride, as characters met themselves over the years, crossing over generations...


...and it might even be as interesting as the cover mock-up of Super-Team Family provided!

Boy meets Man of Steel

Superboy met his future self, (the Man of Steel, Superman) in Superboy #47 (March, 1956), in a little story by Otto Binder, drawn by Curt Swan. 

Superboy accidently landed in the future, met Lois Lane and his future self (because, these early adventures of Superboy weren't those of a clone, they were of Superman, when he was a boy).  The two were stuck in one time, and had to put their heads together (sorry for the pun) to figure out how to separate themselves. 

This story was also reprinted in Super-Team Family #5 of 1976 (which had a slightly different cover in the day) and in Superman Annual #4 of 1961, which also featured a few Superman time-travel tales! 

There were even Superman meetings over in Smallville, where Tom Welling (as Clark Kent) met previous actors who played Superman (Christopher Reeve as Dr. Virgil Swann, and Dean Cain as Dr. Curtis Knox), so the Supermen didn't quite meet each other as Superman (at least in the "real world"), but close....

...oh, so close.

Star Trek Generations meet

Before Kirk and Picard met in the 7th Star Trek movie, Captain Kirk came across his younger self in a 20th Anniversary Star Trek tale from Star Trek #33 (December, 1986) by writer Len Wein and artist Tom Sutton (and a stunning cover by Jerry Bingham) for the story "Vicious Circle".

This story had the crew of the Enterprise-A (between Star Trek III: The Search For Spock and Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home) meet with the TV series crew from Star Trek's first season (including Yeoman Rand and Nurse Chapel, and not Pavel Chekov, who wasn't added to the crew until the TV shows second season).  It also showed the value in getting the complete Star Trek franchise (as the 18 issues of the original Marvel Star Trek run only had rights to likenesses and concepts of Star Trek: The Motion Picture).

A fun little story, and a chance to see how the Star Trek franchise had grown in 20 years (and this before Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise...

...and even the most recent two Star Trek movies that rebooted Kirk, Spock and the rest of his loyal crew!). 

Later comics had the various crews meet, and they even branched out and met other licensed characters...like one of the most frequent time travelers of them all!

Doctor, Doctor

Still, it took quite some time for the Doctor of Doctor Who to make it to American comics...and even then, they were reprints of issues from British comics from Marvel UK's Doctor Who Weekly featuring the 4th Doctor (Tom Baker)...at least to start in 4 issues of Marvel Premiere (#57-60, 1980-1981), and then 23 issues starting in 1984 (that featured reprints of Marvel UK stories with the 4th and 5th Doctor, Peter Davison....).

Still, IDW finally took advantage of the unlimited access comics provide to time and space with a 12 issue mini-series entitled Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time!

Over the course of these twelve issues, the Doctor's companions were disappearing (as seen starting with the first Doctor in issue #1, the second Doctor in issue #2, and so on), until all 11 Doctors gathered to solve the problem and find which companion was behind this in the 12th issue, as each Doctor appeared once a month all over 2013, all written by Scott and David Tipton and a variety of artists!

The story has been collected in 3 volume tradepaperbacks (the first four Doctors in Volume 1, the second four in Volume 2, and the ninth through the eleventh and resolution in Volume 3), or get it all in one large oversized hardback all from IDW!


A chance to see all the Doctors in action once again (from the 1st - William Hartnell, 2nd - Patrick Troughton, 3rd - Jon Pertwee, 10th - David Tennant, 11th - Matt Smith, 4th - Tom Baker, 9th - Christopher Eccleston, 5th - Peter Davison, 8th - Paul McGann, 7th - Sylvester McCoy and 6th - Colin Baker), all in one story, helping to celebrate Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary in a story the Silence couldn't even make you forget! 

Still, here we are with the newest Doctor (Peter Capaldi), and I bet he's feeling left out after his renewal...

The Alien, the Captain and the Doctor

Many people have tried time travel (at least in the fictional worlds of TV and movies), and here's a few of the amateurs who have done it before, bending time to their will, or losing it all in the blink of an eye...


....as well as a true time lord, who seems to have done it all himself at one time or another!

Look...Up in the Sky!

Yes, in his very first color action movie of 1978, you'll not only believe a man can fly, but that Christopher Reeve was truly super in Superman...the Movie! 

Clark really did love Lois...so much so that he was willing to change the course of time for her (yes, it was a bit odd, and a bit confusing, and they even joked about it in the 100th episode of Smallville, but...take the symbolism that Superman was a hero willing to do anything to save the lady he loved....and let it stand as the expression of Clark's heartache at losing someone and being willing to do anything to get her back).

Beam Me Up, Scotty!

Meanwhile, in the 23rd Century...or was it the 1930s? 

Dr. McCoy gets lost in the Depression Era thanks to an accidental overdose and beaming down to the planet with the Guardian of Forever, and makes a change in history that changes everything in the Star Trek universe in the episode "The City On The Edge of Forever" from April 6, 1967 (written by Harlan Ellison).  Kirk and Spock go to set things right...and learn that "Edith Keeler Must Die!".  Sadder still, is that Captain James T. Kirk has fallen in love with her....  Not all time travel stories have a happy ending, but this is always considered one of Star Trek's greatest episodes (and one of the best hours of TV).

Trust Me, I'm The Doctor

Seems these time travel rookies like Superman and James T. Kirk need some lessons from a time lord....someone like the Doctor! 

After all, with 50 years of TV episodes of Doctor Who, 11 lifetimes and countless companions, the Doctor is someone who knows what he's doing right?

Well, not so much.

His time travel device, the TARDIS (for Time and Relative Dimension In Space) is broken (stuck looking like a blue Police Box), and the Doctor has had his heart broken as well.

The 10th Doctor (David Tennant) was unable to prevent his companion (and one might say lady love) the lovely Rose Tyler from being trapped in an alternate dimension (away from him) in the episode "Doomsday" from December 22, 2006).  This sort of worked out later, but it was still a heartbreaker for the Doctor (lucky he has two hearts as a member of the alien race of Time Lords from Gallifrey, but this was sad enough to nearly break them both!).

The 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) had his own mystery to deal with...that of an "impossible girl".  The Doctor met Oswin (but didn't see the girl) while fighting his immortal enemy, the Daleks, in the "Asylum of the Daleks" of September 1, 2012.  The Doctor couldn't save her, but met her again in "the Snowmen" (on December 25, 2012) in London of 1892...and failed to save Clara again (who he realizes she is Oswin as well). 

The Doctor grows deeply depressed at losing this girl twice, until he gets a phone call from her (oddly enough, in his "mobile phone", a surprisingly accurate description of his TARDIS) in "the Bells of Saint John" (March 30, 2013).  As the season progresses, the audience finds out more of the mystery of Clara, and how great a companion to the Doctor she truly is (and was).

Clara will be truly tested, as she has a new Doctor (the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi) to deal with.  The question Clara might have to answer is..."is the Doctor a good man?". 

One would hope so, though, with the price one might pay because of time travel, one never knows...not just because he's alien, or because he's in charge, but because unlike Superman or Kirk, one never really knows what the Doctor will do...