Time travel is one of the most tantalizing and confusing narrative devices ever, but that hasn’t stopped writers from trying to make it work. It makes sense that it often gets paired up with superhero stories, which are also convoluted. The upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quanumania is set to likely include a ton of it; however, Ant-Man isn’t really a hero known for his time travel-based exploits.
There are plenty of other time-faring heroes in Marvel, DC, and even outside comics. These characters demonstrate a little more finesse with causality in comparison to Scott Lang’s lackadaisical time jumping. Fans on Ranker have voted to determine which time-traveling superheroes reign supreme as the most powerful.
Note: Ranker lists are live and continue to accrue votes, so some rankings may have changed after this publishing.
10 Franklin Richards
Franklin Richards probably doesn’t seem like much. No mainstream Fantastic Four film adaptation has ever gotten to him, leading to his obscurity in polls like this. However, as the son of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, as well as also being mutant, Franklin is unstoppably powerful. Time travel is lower on the scope of his reality-bending abilities.
Franklin also travels through time a little differently than other heroes. One of his powers is complete control over fundamental forces like space and gravity. He actually bends space-time in order to travel through time. This allowed him to meet his own past self and warn him of the future.
9 Booster Gold
Booster Gold is the greatest DC hero that most have never heard of. Those that have heard of him desperately want to see this character in the DCEU movies, but his obscurity likely kept him low on this poll. That’s ironic, given what a great time traveler he is. Booster used to be a football player in the future who was caught betting on his own games and expelled.
He got a job at a superhero museum, found a time machine, and went back in time to strike it stinking rich. He used his foreknowledge of crimes from the future to profit from things he knew would already happen. However, his schemes would usually backfire. Eventually, he did find humility traveling throughout time fixing the cracks in history and fighting evil time-traveling threats.
8 Spider-Man 2099
Spider-Man 2099 is going to appear in the upcoming sequels to Into The Spider-Verse, and fans’ excitement to see him likely played a part in his placement. These days, he’s more known for dimension travel than time as Marvel has been inconsistent on whether he’s from the future or an alternate universe. Still, Miguel O’Hara is from 2099 and has crossed path with the main Spider-Man before.
He worked for the evil megacorp Alchemax before getting his powers which he used to fight the future’s evil overlords. Miguel is a scientific mind just like Peter. Though perhaps even more so, as he possesses an understanding of time travel. He used this to help heroes in his time and team up with the present Spider-Man.
7 Doctor Manhattan
To say Dr. Manhattan from the seminal Watchmen has time powers is a bit of an understatement. Much like Franklin, he has complete control over his entire universe . Unlike Franklin, he experiences it all at once. Manhattan experiences every moment of his life simultaneously and understands every atom.
Teleporting through space-time is easy for him. He can choose wherever and whenever he wants to go. He can even bring others with him, which is usually the only time any of this matters to him. He’s apathetic, but being in one of the genre’s best works means he’s at the forefront of the public’s mind when it comes to time travel.
6 Rip Hunter
Rip Hunter is also known as a Time Master. If that doesn’t give one a good understanding of what he’s all about, nothing will. Rip was originally portrayed as a solo adventurer who used his Time Sphere to travel time. In later versions, though, he would be made a guardian of the timestream.
He would appear in plenty of DC’s time-related crossovers and events. He would eventually be revealed as the son of the fellow time traveler Booster Gold. Rip had a few solo comics but mostly appears as a side character or mentor. He took a prominent role in DC’s television series Legends of Tomorrow, which likely helped his visibility to mainstream audiences.
5 Green Lantern
Green Lantern has a lot of powers. This was a common criticism of him before the 2011 Green Lantern film bombed, and it switched to him being “lame,” which possibly contributed to his middling placement despite being a powerhouse. His willpower-fueled ring allows him to create constructs, shoot lasers, fly, breathe in space, become invisible, and heal others. So it’s no surprise that he can time travel with it as well.
While Green Lantern has used his time travel ability to save despotic future cities, he doesn’t do it often. This perhaps stopped Ranker’s voters from considering him a “time-traveling superhero.” It creates a tremendous strain on the body and the Guardians of Oa generally don’t like it. Typically Green Lanterns only use it as a last resort.
4 Cable
Cable is famous for being a poster boy for the edgy 90s anti-hero. He’s gritty, uses tons of guns, and is rough around the edges. However, he’s also the poster boy for the “child from the future” archetype. This child of Cyclops and Jean Grey comes back to the past to save his parents.
Unlike some other mutants who literally have the superpower of time travel, Cable does it with technology. Fans actually know him more for his time travel than his actual power, telekinesis. He can use it to set up traps during fights and escape persistent foes (and his odd-couple ally Deadpool).
3 Doctor Strange
While it’s always been a part of his character, time travel wasn’t always Doctor Strange‘s forte. It was simply one of many things the hero could manipulate with his magic. In the MCU and Avengers movies, time travel became more of a focus for him. His eye of Agamotto, which used to give him hints, became a time manipulation device.
Not to say that he’s never used it in the comics, though. In the comics, he explains that scientific and magical time travel are different. Magical time travel is literally rewriting history, as opposed to travel. Strange is a powerful archmage, but the MCU has caused the audience to focus on his time-traveling skill.
2 The Doctor
Doctor Who isn’t a piece of superhero media in the traditional sense. However, there’s really no better descriptor of The Doctor than “time-traveling superhero.” This explorer travels the galaxy in a time and space transcending ship and tries their best to help out everyone they meet. Their name says it all, as they always try to help.
They haven’t always succeeded, and there were times when they abandoned the Doctor’s name. However, they’re so good at helping others that their name became synonymous with “Healer.” While they don’t always have complete mastery of their time-traveling ship, they can usually use it with finesse. With past, present, future, and a fifty-year backlog of well-beloved programming with a devoted fanbase in their grasp, the Doctor is one of the greatest time travelers in fiction.
1 The Flash
It should be no surprise that The Flash takes the top time-traveler spot. He’s not an expert at messing with time like some of the others on this list. However, Barry Allen and the Flash Family are the only characters who can travel through time by running. His television show also played a big part in forming the public about how easily he shatters timelines.
Barry has always been encountering time travelers in his entire career. His grandson Impulse and his arch-enemy Reverse-Flash come from future times. Flash himself has run so hard that time has stood still, or he’s traveled into the past or future. His manipulation of the past can be clumsy, though, like when he accidentally created the Flashpoint universe after trying to save his mother. These great stories have solidified the speedsters in Ranker’s knowledge of time-traveling excellence.
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