Maybe I'm just drawing a blank right now, but I was trying to think of time-travelling DC villains--basically, their Kang. Speedsters don't count! I remember the Time Commander, if no one else does; but Chronos might be the best known of the lot, and he's not way up there; but ahead of today's bad guy, anyway. From 1982,
Justice League of America #198, "Once Upon a Time in the Wild Wild West..." Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Don Heck, inks by Brett Breeding.
A bit of setting-up this month, as four Justice Leaguers wake up in the year 1878, without their memories. They are fairly quickly paired up with western heroes of the time: Green Lantern with Jonah Hex, Elongated Man with Scalphunter, Zatanna with Cinnamon, and Flash with Bat Lash. But none of them have yet noticed, each pair is being watched by an unseen rider...
Meanwhile, in 1981, Superman is trying to find out where his teammates have disappeared to. Using a new satellite positioning system set up by Hawkman--that sounds very similiar to
GPS, which would have been super-new at the time! Supes heads to their last known location, the Grand Canyon, and is promptly attacked by a good-sized robot. He defeats the robot easily--too easily, since it was a lead-lined trap, filled with Kryptonite!
Future Kryptonite, gathered by the Lord of Time from the year 3786; which I mention because I wonder if that's going to come into play in the conclusion: what's the half-life of Kryptonite? Enh, if it knocked Supes out, it's probably still within its shelf life. The LoT had of course sent the other Leaguers back in time, as part of a plan to capture an anti-matter bubble due to pop over the Grand Canyon in 1878. With Superman dying, he had time to see how it played out...
Man, the Lord of Time is
bland. None of Chronos's visual flair; even the Time Commander had a better outfit. Still, I'll have to find the next issue, to see how his plan went south.
Per Degaton is the classic DC time-travelling villain, though he's got even less flair than this guy. I think Time Trapper could time-travel too but he's a Legion villain, so it's not as impressive when all the heroes can too. Flash has Abra Kadabra, who's from the 64th century, but he really only used it to get there and back home.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually the Lord of Time's second attempt at this plot, and the second time he used Jonah Hex. The first was during a JLA/JSA crossover a couple years before, and he didn't even get this far the first time. His computer malfunctioned and he had to bring everybody to his place just to stop the end of time from happening. Elongated Man saved the day so yeah, the Lord of Time's kind of a joke. I have the next issue, and it's a pretty standard JLA resolution.
Ah, Per Degaton isn't a bad one! Although for some reason I think he was dead for quite a stretch. Which shouldn't be a hindrance to a bad guy, and especially not for a time-travelling bad guy, yet there he was.
ReplyDeleteDegaton's kind of the JSA's, just like Time Trapper belongs to the Legion: if they showed up elsewhere, I don't think that'd hurt them. I do kind of like how Legion continuity keeps resetting the Trapper as well, since I remember him being Cosmic Boy and nobody else does...
https://www.cbr.com/dc-comics-villains-time-travel-powers/
ReplyDeleteThat’s a list by CBR for time-traveling villains but I feel there’s probably one or two they’re forgetting.
Per Degaton does have a tendency to die at the end of his plans but that's never too big an obstacle (like you said, googum). He just comes back from another point in the timeline. Good plans, but the outfit's kinda bland- looks like some sort of Mirror Universe Archie Andrews.
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