Last week was the first taste of some of the time travellers messing up the timeline for everyone else. Well, here’s some more of them:

Dr. Von Eiskammer

When this scientist saw his country being taken over by fascists, he decided he wanted no part of it. He invented a cryogenics chamber that would allow him to escape to the future. The only problem with that is that freezing oneself only gets them to travel to the future. If the scientist wants to get back in time to get home and maybe overthrow his enemies, he’s going to have to find another way. For example, he could steal someone else’s time machine. Well, with no better ideas, he’ll go with that one.

Timmy Mallory

In the 80s, this precocious young boy was rummaging through his attic and found a case belonging to his grandfather. Inside there was a digital watch with a button that, when activated, allowed him to travel to entirely different time periods. Being a child, he had no compunctions about using his new powers to just play around and do whatever he wants. Like stealing candy or whatever kids do.

(It has been mentioned that this kid looks like little PDR. I was going more specifically for a reference to the kid from Time Bandits, but hey, whatever. Little PDR was a pretty iconic 80s kid.)

Braininajar Jones

In the future, sometimes people will be brains in jars. This particular brain in a jar has access to a mental projection machine that allows her to send her consciousness through time itself into the bodies of people in the past or future. This allows her to alter the timestream in her favor, gathering a veritable empire of riches. Pretty good for a brain in a jar.

Ghuk

This cavewoman who stumbled across the remains of a broken time machine has decided to explore the future, though where her time machine takes her is mostly not a destination of her choosing. Though she likes the easy lifestyle that technology brings, she is generally not a fan of the clutter and confusion of the future. And with her temper, when she gets unhappy, other people find out very quickly and painfully.

The Khonsu Kid

Time travel has seriously messed with the timestream. As a result there are time periods that shouldn’t even exist, called Anachroclasm eras. For example, this gunslinger is from an ancient Egypt that is full of cowboys and robots. Naturally, to survive in that sort of environment, he’s had to resort to some underhanded acts like robbery. Thankfully, crime pays: During one heist he discovered a fancy hat (not pictured) that allows the wearer to traverse the timestream. Very handy for avoiding the Pharaoh’s lawmen.

Jikan Jingai

From another Anachroclasm Era, this one an Ice Age where criminal shoguns and their samurai mobs thrive while prohibition offers them opportunities, the Jikan Jingai uses time travel to get products from other eras and bring them home for sale on all sorts of black markets. If something is banned or can’t be produced in this freezing world, it just makes sense to go to another period to steal what you want, right?

Time Hobo

The Time Hobo doesn’t have his own time machine or access to any time warps or anything like that. But somehow, he finds his way around the timesteam. From the days of the dinosaur to the distant future, this eternal anachronism has a tendency to just turn up at the strangest times looking for whatever work he can get. Admittedly, he has a tendency to blow his earnings on get rich quick schemes (or wine), but he never stays down for long.

Okay, so that was a bunch more people who are messing with the timeline in their own interests. Isn’t there anyone out there who wants to ensure that history isn’t accidentally destroyed? Next week, we’ll meet the good guys (such as they are).

Does time-travel count as a Supernatural thing? It’s more the domain of science fiction, isn’t it? But it surely is inaccurate enough that it doesn’t count as “hard” sci-fi. Anyway, I wanted to introduce a bunch of time travel characters, so I’m including them in Supernatural Sundays whether you want me to or not.

I mentioned somewhere on this site about a year ago that Kip and I were working on a project. I am still not doling out too much information, but here are some of the characters involved:

Professor D’Eon

This American professor was stuck in a bit of a rut in the 1980s. He found that he didn’t enjoy teaching very much, he didn’t enjoy life very much actually, but what he did enjoy was movies about time travel. With that in mind, he built himself a Time Car and began travelling all over the timestream looking for adventures comparable to those he sees in film. He has no concern for the stability of history or anything like that, he just wants to have adventures.

Knight of the Clock

When a European knight in the dark ages found a sword that could cut portals into other timmes, he took it as a sign from God that his quest was a noble one. But what was his quest? Well, since God is on his side, he figures that whatever quest he sets his mind to is righteous. With that kind of freedom, the knight can now travel to any era he likes and do whatever he wants to the godless heathens he finds there, especially when it comes to taking their stuff.

Jakkhax99

In the sprawling metropolis of Neo-Manila in cyberpunk future times, this cyborg crook managed to steal an experimental Time Belt from a global hypercorporation. Now he’s able to extend his crime spree to all sorts of time periods less advanced than his world. He can steal whatever he wants and who is gonna stop him?

Hung-Shi Tu

Coming from roughly the modern era, this Chinese astronaut (or taikonaut, if you prefer) was piloting a space shuttle that discovered a time-warp anomaly that could bring her to any point in history. Rather than turn this knowledge in to her employers, she has decided she could use unlimited freedom the anomaly provides for her own purposes.

A.G. Bromley

This Victorian Era gentleman has access to a time-travelling hot air balloon. Occasionally the other men in his club will make some sort of wager and he will embark on a journey through history and the future to win. And, if he’s feeling nice, he might even use his innate greatness as a civilized Englishmen to help the poor, pitiful natives of all the other time periods he visits.

Uchoyo of Rhapta

In the ancient city of Rhapta, one merchant was the greediest of them all. He travelled the extents of the explored world, and beyond, but his lust for more wealth was unsatisfied. But luckily, for him but nobody else, the merchant acquired a strange crystal orb that allowed him to jump through time. As soon as he realized his reach now extended through infinity, his greed expanded in an attempt to fill that gap.

Fariba the Mad

In the dark ages, there was a Persian princess who had a reputation for being both extremely vain and extremely eccentric. Her reputation was, if anything, an understatement. In an effort to appease the princess, she was given a supposedly magical mirror that was actually a time-travel device that allowed her to switch places with other time travellers in history. And with no particular goal in mind beyond her own amusement, she set about using that ability to mess with everyone.

You may have noticed that all of these characters are pretty much time-travelling jerks. That is not accidental. We’ll be back with still more time-travelling jerks next week, and they’ll get even stranger.

Time again for me to flesh out the Efmon family. These are the people from a fantasy world who mutate themselves to serve their demon bosses.

Grunnich Efmon

Grunnich is the family’s hunter. Her mutation allows her to run, on all fours, at speeds about as fast as a car and she can track scents from miles away. Her claws and her bite allow her to do a lot of damage to her prey. Since the war, Grunnich has been helpful during invasions of new worlds. When the Efmons show up in a new place and start conquering, often the first instinct of the locals is to flee and seek help. Grunnich makes sure those runners don’t get anywhere.

Essan Efmon

As should be obvious from his great big head, Essan is a smart guy. His mutation allows him to think more quickly and abstractly than a normal mortal, which has become especially useful since the family had to flee their home dimension and start dealing with the mathematics of higher space. This works out nicely for Essan, who is something of a coward and has no desire to be anywhere near physical conflicts. A downside for Essan, however, is that his intellect has riddled him with doubts about the cult-like nature of his family’s worship of the demon Thalamaya. But Essan keeps those thoughts to himself. He is a coward, after all.

After the Frankensteingularity, humanity was almost done for. The worst case scenario was being cut into pieces and turned into new frankensteins, the best case is wandering the world eking out a measly existence through constant toil. Here’s some of the people who do that:

Elsa Holst

Elsa was near the epicenter of the frankenstein apocalypse, so she had to fight her way out of the city to stay alive. At first she tried to find help, but it was soon apparent that the frankensteins had put an end to the police, the army, and any other organized bodies. To survive, Elsa needed to fend for herself until she came across other survivors and decided there might be a chance to rebuild society after all.

Joe Turner

Before the world got apocalypsed, Joe was a junior high science teacher. He loved science and is kind of upset that the apocalypse was caused by mad science run amok. In a way, Joe’s new quest is to redeem science. He keeps methodical notes about what is happening and is hoping to find a scientific way to turn things around.

Koji Turner

Joe’s husband Koji is not a science teacher. Before the apocalypse, he was just some guy who worked an office job. In a lot of ways, Koji’s life has actually gotten better. Now unshackled from his job he gets to wander around with his loved ones. I mean, sure, he has to struggle to survive and avoid marauding frankensteins, but it beats toiling in a cubicle.

Shelley

As a child, the year since the Frankensteingularity makes up a very large portion of Shelley’s life. She’s adjusted to the new status quo pretty quickly. She now considers herself the group’s “big guns” and most “streetwise” member. She’s not, though. She’s a kid. But still, having not lost as much history, she’s got the most hope for making a future where humanity makes a comeback.

Okay, so Elsa, Joe, and Koji are named for the portrayers of the Bride of Frankenstein, Blacula, and the Kaiju Frankenstein respectively. Shelley is probably also named for someone involved in the history of Frankenstein stories.

It occurred to me too late that a group of people trying to survive in the world of the Frankenstein Apocalypse ought to be armed with torches and pitchforks. Oh well.

Morbid

Morton Bidwell has a unique ability. He can transfer traits from any corpse he touches into another body. For example, if the corpse had knowledge of the location of a hidden treasure, Morton could touch the body, then touch another person and that person would know the location. He could transfer kung-fu, or he could transfer fingerprints, or if the body was superhuman, he could transfer super powers. With that last bit in mind, he has become Morbid, a supervillain who swoops in like a vulture when superheroes and villains die so that he can get their corpses.

The catch is, though, that Morton can’t transfer the traits into himself. He has to put them into someone else to get any use out of them. With that in mind, he has assembled an army of henchmen called the Nosferatroops. Mostly a group of criminals for hire, Morton tempts them in with promises of riches, but the first trait he transfers into them is blind loyalty taken from the corpse of his first Nosferatroop, who died to save his life. The result is a cadre of loyal superhuman soldiers.

I thought up the name Nosferatroop sometime in the early 2000s and then created a supervillain to lead them. There’s at least some inspiration here from a Captain America villain called Dead Ringer.

Tavya

Tavya claims to be the exiled ruler of some mystical realm in another dimension. Her only goal in life is to get back home and she doesn’t care who she has to hurt to accomplish that goal. With the Wand of Wazoon she has access to all sorts of magical powers (which mostly amount to shooting energy blasts from her hands), but that isn’t enough to get her home. Unfortunately, most of her plans for returning home involve mystical rituals of human sacrifice or stealing vast quantities of precious metals or other crimes that Justice-Man has to stop. Honestly, he’s probably be willing to help her to find some less-evil way of returning to her home, but she refuses to accept his help.

Tavya is meant to evoke the kind of magicians that showed up in old Dr. Strange comics. Lots of alliteration and weird visuals would follow her around. Unlike all my other Justice-Man characters this month, she’s a fresh creation, rather than something from my notes. I just felt that there should be some new blood in here.

So that’s it for another month of Justice-Man characters. Next week, something else, I don’t know…