Time Sphere
The Time Sphere is a time travel vehicle featured in comic book titles published by DC Comics. It first appeared in Showcase #20 (May 1959) used by Rip Hunter and the Time Masters.
| Time Sphere | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Time Sphere Showcase #20 (May 1959) Time Bubble Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958) |
| Created by | Jack Miller (writer) Ruben Moreira (artist) |
| In story information | |
| Type | Time travel device |
| Element of stories featuring | Legion of Super-Heroes Rip Hunter Booster Gold |
History
Origin
The Time Sphere is the time travel device that the scientist known as Rip Hunter and the Time Masters use to travel through time and space. Aided by his friend Jeff Smith, girlfriend Bonnie Baxter, and Bonnie's kid brother Corky, they have adventures in time. These stories were told in the series Rip Hunter...Time Master which ran for 29 issues between 1961 - 1965. The Time Sphere is capable of going anywhere in time theoretically, however there are a few places it cannot go. Logically the boundaries would tend to be the Beginning of the Universe and the Iron Curtain of Time erected by the Time Trapper at the End of Time. Inside the Time Sphere are many items to assist the crew such as an Encyclopedia of Time, which assisted them in "correcting history" to the path it was intended to go to all along.
Booster Gold
Due to the paradoxical nature of time travel, a Time Sphere was kept in the Space Museum until it was stolen by Booster Gold to travel back to the 20th Century.[1]
Legion of Super-Heroes
The Time Sphere was modified by Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super-Heroes who created the "Time Bubble". Due to the varying nature of time travel the true origin of the time is complex as Brainiac 5 invented the device in his childhood, but is Post Zero Hour continuity R. J. Brande requested the development so they could prove Superman was more than a myth. In both version this work is done prior to Brainiac 5 joining the Legion and when he was in the employ of Brande.[2] The device was used regularly to bring Superboy and Supergirl to the 30th Century.[3]
The Time Bubble has proven more durable than other time travel devices such as the Cosmic Treadmill of the Flashes which was obliterated when in a collision with Rip Hunter's Time Sphere. It also lacks the side effects of Rond Vidar's Time Cube, a technology that did the same as the bubble only it was portable.
In other media
Time Sphere
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
- The Time Sphere appears in Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Time Out for Vengeance!". It was used by Rip Hunter to help Batman and the Justice League International travel in time to save other versions of Batman from the minions of Equinox.
Arrowverse
- Rip Hunter is mentioned in the first-season finale of The Flash episode "Fast Enough" by Eobard Thawne as the original creator of the "Time Sphere" he attempts to create as a means of returning to his own time. In season five, Grace Gibbons / Cicada uses a stolen Time Sphere to travel back in time to 2019.
- The inventor of the Time Sphere Rip Hunter appears in the CW's spin-off of Arrow and The Flash titled Legends of Tomorrow.[4] Instead of the Time Sphere, they use a ship known as the Waverider. Rip and a team of heroes and villains travel in the ship to oppose the powerful immortal Vandal Savage whose plans will destroy the world and time itself.
- The Legion of Super-Heroes can time travel using the Legion ship, first shown in the Supergirl season 3 premiere "Girl of Steel". Supergirl is able to go back in time by using a Legion flight ring to find a disruption in space and use the disruption to time travel in the third season finale "Battles Lost and Won".
Time Bubble
Superman: The Animated Series
The Time Bubble made an appearance on Superman: The Animated Series in the 1998 episode "New Kids in Town".
Justice League Unlimited
The Time Bubble later appeared in a 2006 episode of Justice League Unlimited entitled "Far From Home" where Brainiac 5 and Bouncing Boy used it to bring Supergirl, John Stewart and Green Arrow to the 31st Century to stop the Fatal Five.
Legion of Super Heroes
The Time Bubble was featured in Legion of Super Heroes. In the pilot episode "Man of Tomorrow", the Legion used the Time Bubble in a moment of desperation to locate Superman to help fight the Fatal Five. They arrived when Clark Kent was only discovering his powers. Afterwards, the Time Bubble was utilized to transport Superman between time periods.
Smallville
The Legion Flight Ring is used to time travel rather than Time Bubble as shown in an episode of Smallville titled "Legion". Persuader stole a ring to travel back in time to kill Clark Kent, however the Legionnaires journeyed back to stop him and remove his ring sending him back to the future.
Notes
- Booster Gold #1 (February 1986)
- Action Comics #858 (Late December 2007)
- Adventure Comics #247 (April, 1958)
- Kit, Borys (March 30, 2015). "CW's 'Flash'/'Arrow' Spinoff Casts Time Travel With 'Doctor Who' Alum". The Hollywood Reporter.