| Time Commander | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | The Brave and the Bold #59 (April–May 1965) |
| Created by | Bob Haney Ramona Fradon |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | John Starr |
| Abilities | Is able to travel through time using a special hourglass |
The Time Commander is the name of two DC Comics supervillains. The first appeared in Brave and the Bold #59 (April–May, 1965). He was created by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon. The second appeared in JSA Classified #34 (2008).
Contents |
John Starr was a brilliant scientist who turned to crime after the demise of the artificial humanoid project which employed him. He was soon imprisoned, and while incarcerated perfected the Hourglass, which harnessed celerity and gave control over time itself.
Calling himself the Time Commander, the “Modern Monte Cristo,” Starr’s criminal career focused on rewriting his past: making himself appear “railroaded” into prison, and killing his former employer. These early schemes were foiled by the Batman and Green Lantern Hal Jordan.
Starr’s agenda then took a turn for the grandiose, as he began resurrecting the dead by reversing time’s flow, with the goal of returning humanity literally to Eden in "Animal Man" #16, (Oct 1989). He affects the clocks of Paris, France, freezing them all at 11:55. Animal Man, on a walk around Paris with his wife, notices many time discrepancies, including a T-Rex, which he defeats. Elongated Man, Metamorpho and Rocket Red join up with Animal Man and they track down Time Commander. He is reversing time in positive ways, such as granting one woman youth and bringing back a dead man. Time Commander swiftly defeats most of them, even destroying Rocket Red's armor. There is one left, Animal Man, who tries to talk him down off of his rampage. Animal Man notices the positive effects but is not sure if it is a good idea in the long run. Time Commander notes he is making life more interesting in general; furthermore that Animal Man doesn't seem like a bad person, just that Starr doesn't want any more psychiatric help.
Metamorpho, recovered, smashes Time Commander's hourglass. He is very distressed, claiming he was going to take the whole world back to the Garden of Eden. Metamorpho knocks Starr out with one punch; not noticing that his positive time reversals are now no more.
The Calendar Man freed Starr from prison to join with the Clock King and Chronos as the Time Foes. The villains aimed to recover the Hourglass, but were prevented by the Team Titans. In truth, the entire scheme had been secretly masterminded by a future-time villain, Lazarium.
The Time Foes are featured in Team Titans #14 (Nov 1993), heading into the Hudson River Mall. Their goal is to retrieve Starr's valued hourglass. They go relatively unnoticed, as Halloween costumes are prevalent that day. Attention is only brought to them when Starr smacks a woman who was confronting him over purchasing the hourglass. The heroes swiftly confront the villains. Calendar Man asks Starr to use his hourglass in battle. He claims he cannot do it, as it is an instrument for good (despite him having used it to smack around the heroine Redwing moments earlier). Also, the hourglass is broken.
Starr is not seen actually fighting in the resulting battle, he is admonished later by his captured allies for just having surrendered. Starr explains he is misunderstood, at heart he is a peaceful man.
As a result of the "Zero Hour" crisis in time, the Time Foes became stuck in a temporal loop. Unable to free himself or his teammates, John Starr seemed doomed to perish there.
Time Commander is featured in 52 #27 (2006). Waverider is in a clock store when time freezes. Starr appears inside of an hourglass and berates Waverider for his failed promises to make Starr, Chronos and other villains a Time Master in exchange for joining his fight. Starr then dissolves into sand, killed by Skeets, the robot ally to the time-travelling Booster Gold (really, a disguised and timetravelling Mister Mind). Waverider is swiftly killed as well.
Sterling Fry took up the Time Commander name after his mentor, John Starr, was killed. He kidnapped Liberty Belle in an attempt to steal Hourman's hourglass. Time Commander beat Hourman and took the hourglass from him. After releasing the tachyon particles from the hourglass, Fry disappeared. Whether his exposure to the particles killed him or not is not known at this time.
Time Commander appears in Justice League of America 80-Page Giant #1 (Nov 2009), in which he rescues the League, who have been scattered through time by Epoch. Although he appears to be acting as a hero, it transpires that in addition to acquiring Epoch's time displacement gauntlet, he also recovered the original Time Commander's hourglass from the JLA trophy room. Due to the nature of time travel, it is not clear if this Time Commander is Starr, Fry or a new character.
The Time Commander’s hourglass allows him to control time, allowing him to travel through time, move objects or beings through time and manipulate time in various ways.