13 Fascinating Time Travel Narratives in the World of Comics

Time travel in comics is as ubiquitous as superhero collaborations, often featuring whimsical journeys to eras like King Arthur's reign or distant futures. However, stories that delve into complex ideas such as causality and temporal paradoxes, though mind-bending, are the ones that truly stand out. Here are 13 comics that masterfully tackled these themes.

1. Weird Science Fantasy #25: "A Sound of Thunder"

Al Williamson/EC Comics

Ray Bradbury’s 1952 short story, A Sound of Thunder, stands as one of the most impactful pieces of time travel fiction across all mediums. It masterfully portrays time as a delicate chain of interconnected events and famously introduced the concept of “The Butterfly Effect.”

During the early 1950s, EC Comics adapted Bradbury’s story into a seven-page comic, illustrated by the legendary Al Williamson, though initially without proper credit or permission. The story follows a group of hunters who embark on an extraordinary safari to prehistoric times to hunt a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The expedition is meticulously planned to avoid ecological disruption, with hunters allowed to target a specific dinosaur destined to die naturally. However, when one hunter panics, tramples through the jungle, and accidentally crushes a butterfly, the group returns to a future drastically transformed by their actions.

You can read this story in its entirety here.

2. Uncanny X-Men: Days of Future Past

John Byrne/Marvel Comics

One of the most iconic time travel tales in comics, “Days of Future Past” from Uncanny X-Men #141-142, presents a bleak future where mutants are relentlessly pursued by the U.S. government. In a last-ditch effort to alter their destiny, the X-Men project the consciousness of adult Katherine (Kitty) Pryde back 30 years into her younger self, aiming to stop the assassination of a U.S. Senator—the pivotal event that triggers this grim timeline.

This nightmarish future, which must be averted at all costs, became a central theme in X-Men comics for years. Writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne conceived this idea three years before The Terminator explored similar themes in Hollywood. Days of Future Past later inspired a 2014 film adaptation, released just one year after the comic’s dark future was set to occur. Around the same time, writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Stuart Immonen reimagined the dark future trope in All-New X-Men, bringing the original Silver Age X-Men into the present to confront the chaotic events of their recent past. It became evident that the dystopian future depicted in the comics had, in many ways, already arrived.

The “many-worlds interpretation” of quantum mechanics, introduced by physicist Hugh Everett in 1957, suggests that time travel could be feasible by accessing parallel universes, thus avoiding temporal paradoxes. Marvel Comics adopts this theory, clarifying that “Days of Future Past” unfolds in the future of Earth-811.

3. Meanwhile

Jason Shiga

Jason Shiga’s innovative 2010 choose-your-own-adventure graphic novel Meanwhile brilliantly combines its theme with its format. Readers guide the choices of a young boy who discovers a scientist’s lab, complete with a time machine. The book features tabbed pages and color-coded paths that lead to different sections, creating a nonlinear reading experience. Shiga has adapted Meanwhile into various formats, including interactive apps for iOS devices and Apple TV.

With a background in pure mathematics, Shiga crafted a story offering 3865 narrative possibilities, encouraging multiple readings and exploring temporal paradoxes and alternate timelines. Readers might even encounter the boy meeting another version of himself. The time machine in the story is initially limited to seven-minute jumps, but hidden clues can unlock its full potential.

4. I Killed Adolf Hitler

Jason/Fantagraphics

The concept of traveling back in time to assassinate Adolf Hitler has become a subgenre of time travel fiction, even sparking questions for Republican presidential candidates during the election season. Eliminating Hitler before his WWII atrocities is a classic example of the “Grandfather Paradox,” which explores the consequences of altering the past, assuming the universe’s rules permit such changes.

Norwegian cartoonist Jason excels in every genre he explores, from crime to horror to science fiction, using his signature anthropomorphic characters and a narrative style rich with literary and cinematic references. His 2007 graphic novel I Killed Adolf Hitler, inspired by 1960s French New Wave cinema, focuses less on Hitler and more on the poignant love story between a hitman and his neglected girlfriend. When the hitman is sent back to WWII to kill Hitler, the mission fails, and Hitler steals the time machine, forcing the hitman to age naturally back to the present to rectify his personal and professional failures.

5. Mystery in Space #114: "Killing Time"

Tom Yeates/DC Comics

The risks of attempting to kill Hitler are chillingly depicted in a 1980 issue of DC Comics' Mystery in Space by Gerry Conway and Tom Yeates. In this tale, a time traveler succeeds in assassinating Hitler but is overwhelmed by Nazis who seize his laser rifle, reverse-engineer it, and use the advanced technology to dominate the world.

However, the solution seems simple: send another time traveler to eliminate the first before he kills Hitler. But then a Nazi time traveler intervenes, killing the second assassin. This cycle continues indefinitely, creating an endless loop of assassins altering history.

You can read this story in near entirety here.

6. Ivar, Timewalker #4

Clayton Henry/Valiant Comics

In the mid-1980s, physicist Igor Novikov introduced the “self-consistency principle”, which dismisses any time travel scenario that could lead to a temporal paradox. Just as physical laws prevent actions like walking through walls, they would also stop a time traveler from changing the past in ways that create inconsistencies.

Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry brilliantly explore this concept in their Valiant Comics series Ivar, Timewalker. The protagonist, Ivar Anni-Padda, an immortal, has spent centuries charting “time arcs” to navigate through history. In his 2015 solo series, Ivar saves Neela Sethi, a scientist on the brink of being killed before she can revolutionize time travel. As they journey through time, Ivar imparts crucial lessons about time travel, emphasizing the universe’s inherent resistance to tampering. Issue #2 humorously demonstrates this by proving the impossibility of killing Hitler.

The self-consistency principle shines in issue #4, where Neela repeatedly attempts to alter the day of her father’s death. Despite her relentless efforts to rewrite her personal history, the universe consistently thwarts her plans. Her repeated failures are portrayed with a blend of humor and heartbreak.

7. Chronocops!

Dave Gibbons/2000 A.D.

Three years prior to their iconic 1986 work Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons sharpened their craft by contributing short stories to 2000 A.D. magazine. Among these was Chronocops!, a five-page tale featured in the Time Twisters series, regarded as one of Moore’s finest early works and a precursor to the intricate storytelling he would later master.

A mix of parody inspired by the TV show Dragnet and a playful exploration of time travel clichés, Chronocops! follows Joe Saturday and Ed Thursday as they thwart a teenager’s attempt to create a grandfather paradox by killing his great-grandfather. In just a few pages, Moore and Gibbons deliver a whirlwind of visual jokes, hidden references, and witty dialogue, all while navigating a plot that moves both forward and backward in time. Ed even suffers a punch for a crime he hasn’t yet committed and narrowly avoids marrying his grandmother to become his own grandfather.

You can read Chronocops! in its entirety here. It has also been collected in The Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks.

8. Adventure Comics #247: “The Legion of Super-Heroes

Al Plastino/DC Comics

In 1958’s Adventure Comics #247, one of comics’ most famous temporal paradoxes unfolded when Superboy was visited by three teens who transported him to the 30th century via their time sphere. There, they welcomed him into their group, The Legion of Super-Heroes. Unlike most dystopian futures in comics, the Legion’s era was a utopia that left Superboy eager to return. Readers were equally captivated, and though the story was initially a standalone, the Legion became a recurring feature, eventually earning their own series.

The Legion drew inspiration to become superheroes from the 20th-century tales of Superman. Yet, when they traveled back to Clark Kent’s teenage years, their shared adventures motivated Clark to evolve into the legendary hero they admired. This creates a "causal loop," where a future event influences a past event, which then ensures the future event occurs.

9. Too Cool To Be Forgotten

Alex Robinson/Top Shelf

Can revisiting memories be considered time travel? Alex Robinson’s 2008 graphic novel, Too Cool To Be Forgotten, explores this idea while skillfully addressing the complexities of time travel. Andy Wicks, a man in his forties, undergoes hypnosis to quit smoking and unexpectedly finds himself transported back to 1985, inhabiting his teenage self. He soon realizes his mission is to prevent his younger self from smoking his first cigarette, but he also grapples with the consequences of altering past decisions.

As a devoted Star Trek fan, Andy’s understanding of time travel mechanics influences his actions, though it remains unclear whether his experience is a hallucination or something more profound. Robinson portrays the idea of reliving high school as both a nostalgic dream and a potential nightmare.

10. All-Star Superman #6: "Funeral in Smallville"

Frank Quitely/DC Comics

Each installment of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s 12-issue

All-Star

Superman

series is a brilliant example of high-concept pop comics, drawing inspiration from the whimsical yet imaginative Superman tales of the 1950s and 1960s. In issue #6, titled “Funeral in Smallville,” Morrison and Quitely offer a contemporary and awe-inspiring take on a classic Superman theme: visitors from the future. When Ma and Pa Kent welcome three strangers to assist on their farm, Clark quickly realizes they are not ordinary laborers. These individuals are, in fact, Supermen from different eras and dimensions—one from the 854th century, another from the 5th dimension, and a third known as The Unknown Superman of A.D. 4500. They have come to enlist the present-day Superman’s help in hunting a Chronovore, a creature that accelerates the aging of everything it touches.

This issue features a remarkable plot twist rooted in the fact that the story occurs in the past relative to the rest of the All-Star Superman series. Here, time travel serves not to change history but to revisit it and reconnect with loved ones who have been lost over time.

11. Patience

Dan Clowes/Fantagraphics

The most recent addition to this list is Daniel Clowes’ Patience, a graphic novel released in March. It follows Jack, a man whose life is shattered when his wife, Patience, pregnant with their child, is mysteriously killed. For nearly two decades, Jack obsesses over the tragedy until he encounters a man who has developed a time travel method (involving a vaguely described liquid injection). This gives Jack the chance to prevent the event that destroyed his life. Unsure of the murderer’s identity, Jack first travels back into Patience’s past to uncover the truth.

Clowes’ approach to time travel is influenced by EC Comics and 1950s sci-fi, but he uses it to delve into themes of nostalgia, regret, and the longing to control destiny. While Jack succeeds in altering Patience’s past, could his own actions inadvertently lead to her death?

12. We Can Fix It

Jess Fink/Top Shelf

Jess Fink’s We Can Fix It stands out as a unique time travel memoir. Similar to Alex Robinson’s Too Cool to Be Forgotten, it explores the idea of correcting life’s minor mistakes, but Fink draws from her own experiences. Equipped with a futuristic bodysuit and a massive time machine, she revisits her younger self, initially focusing on reliving and altering awkward sexual encounters. In a bold act of self-love, she even shares a kiss with her past self.

While the comic doesn’t strictly adhere to time travel rules, it offers plenty of humor and eventually delves into poignant moments as Jess reflects on her past. It raises the question: If given the chance, what moments in your life would you change?

13. Weird Science #5: "The Man Who Was Killed in Time!"

Jack Kamen/EC Comics

“The Man Who Was Killed in Time!” is a seven-page story by Al Feldstein and Jack Kamen, two legendary creators behind EC Comics’ early sci-fi masterpieces. Published in 1951’s Weird Science #5, the tale begins with a man accidentally hitting his own doppelgänger with his car and fleeing the scene. He later discovers a rocket that functions as a time machine, accidentally sending himself 14 hours into the past, where he ends up being struck by his own vehicle.

While this quirky story may seem simple compared to others on this list, it holds a charming place in history. The tale concludes with an explanatory illustration, reflecting the novelty of time travel concepts for readers at the time. EC Comics pioneered many ideas now taken for granted in the genre, and this story serves as a delightful reminder of their groundbreaking work.

This story is featured in the first volume of the Weird Science collection, but you can also read it in its entirety here.