New Year's Time-Tripping Part 1: Directing Chronolgies!

You all know the routine, by now; before I rush into my topic at hand, I have to share a few thoughts, so I can operate this blog on a clear conscience.  (A New Year may have dawned, but some routines do NOT necessarily require a resolution.)  First off, I do apologize for not writing blog entries for this previous in-between holiday weekend.  Laziness is probably one of my more MAJOR excuses, but bear in mind I had a lot of preparations to keep in mind for Christmas, generally questionable sleep for that entire week's span, and still getting used to my new work routines.  (For an official update, I DO truly appreciate and enjoy my newer job.  I just kind of wish my hiring agency would get the message that I NEED paychecks to actually operate in life!  Hopefully my time registry will synch up sooner, rather than later, so I'm not potentially facing a second job of panhandling off of the highway exits.)  So again, my humble apologies for missing a blog entry weekend.

Secondly, I wish to remind all my readers that my contest from blog post 100 is STILL running!  C'mon, Merry Marching Society members!  I've not received one single entry, yet!  The rules, and questions, are to be found in that particular post, and I can still guarantee there are BUTTLOADS of comic-related booty to be found with the prize packages up for the offering.  The only way this contest could get any better was if I had connections to the main publishing companies, and could offer winners their choice of dictating what the next major company-changing event SHOULD be.  (I still stand by my opinion the next major event should be NO MAJOR EVENTS for at LEAST an entire year.  Comic writers, it REALLY wouldn't hurt to learn how to write some stories that can be told in ONE ISSUE.)

Thirdly, and finally, my own comic developments.  Christmas was pretty kind to me in terms of comic-related swag.  From a mail-based Kringle program I take part in for the "Gentleman's Guide to Midnight Cinema", I not only walked away with a TON of movies... including the animated "Wonder Woman" feature, I also picked up some great novel omnibuses, and two particular trade paperbacks that I am FULLY intending on holding for a review set of blogs.  I'm thinking those will be done within this very MONTH!  (The only hint you'll get about what's to come involves a Bronze Age comic icon's return to a particular caped detective that is a highly... er... "interesting" tale.)  My girlfriend also kept me well-fed with geekish items, such as DVD copies of "Captain America: Winter Soldier" and "Guardians of the Galaxy", and a surprisingly adorable Bat-Pig piggy bank!  2015 may be a New Year, but comics are STILL going to be part of the life blood that keeps my days from becoming drastically dark, worrisome, and stressful!

With the dawning of a New Year, I wanted to tackle how the "Big Two" companies handle time changes... namely elements from certain characters that manage to CHANGE TIME.  Some of my entries are a WEE bit of a stretch... as you shall see from one IN PARTICULAR, today... but time travel/manipulation is a standard stock-in-trade with fantastic fiction.  I CAN understand some people's arguments that time-travel stories cause more headaches than entertainment value.  (One example I'm saving for tomorrow is a GREAT example of that opinion in action.)  But there is no denying the story-telling possibilities of going back... or sometimes FORWARD... into time to try and alter events to fit a personal agenda, makes for a great fictional conceit.  And let's be honest; we've ALL thought about changing certain events in our lives, if only we just had the "McGuffin" means to do so!  So, let's talk about some time-twisting, DC-Style!

Legion Of Super-Heroes, and the Time Bubble: "Adventure Comics #247" brought to our attention the recognized travel method of the 30th century super teen club, the Legion of Super-Heroes!  Basically a gigantic sphere of glass-like material... and while it may not seem all THAT sizable in the picture, I've seen stories where up to 5-6 Legionnaires fit comfortable into the machine, and that's NOT including Bouncing Boy..., it features internal mechanics that allow the team to set what time they wish to travel back to.  The time bubble began life as a method for the Legion to travel back to visit the young Clark Kent/Superboy to give him "rides" into the future.  This was before he mastered the ability to... hey, I can't talk about that JUST YET!  But future crises have called the Legion to run down that rainbow road with calendar year dates CONVIENENTLY passing by, just for our validation of time passing.  The time bubble has not exactly remained a constant with the Legion, because certain phases of the team have eliminated the ability to time travel... PERIOD... from the DC Universe, but eventually that glass cueball manages to show up with any given retconning of the team into the DC Universe.  Heck, even OTHER characters have cribbed the efficiency of the time bubble!  (I know Rip Hunter... and by proxy the Linear Men... had their own bubble-matic ride to skate through the years.  And oh... how it KILLED me that the Legion had this concept first, because it eliminated Booster Gold from the focused conversation about the time bubble!  But maybe in due time I need to dedicate a blog entry to that time-travel troublemaker!)

Travis Morgan, AKA Warlord, AKA Our Guide to Skataris: Okay... So THIS is the "cheat" subject I had in mind for today's entry.  "Lost lands" where the ancient world can be found in the "modern time" have existed in popular fiction since the days of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Pelucidar" novels.  And to be fair, Marvel DID coin the Antarctic "Savage Land" concept first before Mike Grell introduced us to Travis Morgan's adventures in Skataris, but if there's any given character/title that best represents the modern world finding a location in which time is COMPLETELY lost, and effectively traveling back into another era, it has to be DC's "Warlord".  Long story short, Travis Morgan crashes into the territory of Skataris in 1969, and the realm resembles a mixture of prehistoric Earth... with dinosaurs APLENTY... and early civilizations, with a barbaric existence and beliefs in supernatural powers.  (Except in this land, these beliefs were more based on the fact that evil wizards DID exist, and gave Travis and his friends plenty of difficult times!)  Other fun anachronisms to make note of for this time-blended territory include the "modern-age" weaponry and conceits that Travis carried in with him, and at one point the Kirby created world of Apokolips crossed paths with the hidden world, bringing in super-science into this ancient realm.  Time travel?  Maybe not in a chronological sense.  But in a blended element sense?  Hey, ask how that famous Vietnam-era pilot felt about being thrust into a world that was basically only known in history tomes for his then-current timeline!

An Indestructible Cape In Time Saves Nine, or Superman's Time Travel: You wouldn't believe how bloody hard it was to find Superman's first instance of breaking the time barrier, but according to the Internet, it occurred in the first run of Clark's solo title, in "Superman #48".  Basically, here's how the conceit works; the Golden/Silver/Bronze Ages Superman could generate enough speed while flying that he could burst the very bounds of time, and effectively time travel as easily as most of us would walk down the street to a gas station for a jumbo Zero Bar.  (If that's not the candy bar you are buying... then I feel bad for you, because Zero Bars are AWESOME!)  The concept wasn't used that often in the Golden Age of the character's existence, but during the Silver and Bronze ages, where Superman's powers were of near deity-levels, hitting up the past or future via the power of flight was "no big thing".  It wasn't until the first "Crisis" when that particular ability was taken off the table for Superman's powers.  But one other piece to note was that when Superman's cape was labelled as SPECIFICALLY indestructible, an average person could travel with Superman through time, as long as they were enclosed completely by the cape.  Indestructible cape means indestructible covering for your average Joe Schmoe.