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Time travel has long been a basic of theDC Universe , from the Legion of Superheroes to Booster Gold , but oneBatmanstory rewrote the very nature of time travel while reveal how humanity discovered it . DC ’s prison term traveler are often from the future tense , making the technology ’s unlikely creator that much more impressive for inventing it in the past times . This inventor took the form of a classic Golden Age grapheme , reinvent in tragic fashion .
Created by Joseph Samachson and Dick Sprang inBatman Vol 1 # 24 , Carter Nichols was a scientist who forge a form of time travel that relied on hypnosis . Throughout the comic strip Golden Age , Nichols was often used as the fiber through which Batman could have clock time travelling adventure . However , with the destruction of the Pre - Crisis multiverse inCrisis on Infinite Earthsby Marv Wolfman and George Pérez , Nichols fall out of continuity and would n’t come out again until the late 2000s when Grant Morrison brought him back .
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Batman : The Return of Bruce Wayne # 6by Grant Morrison , Lee Garbett and Perry Perez reveals that Carter Nichols is the first human to invent meter travel in the DC Universe . In issue 5 by Morrison , Perez , Ryan Sook , and Mick Gray , Batman encounters a untried Carter Nichols , who has join Dr. Hurt ’s Black Glove organization . Hurt want Nichols to use his observational time travel probe to summonthe Hyper - Adaptor aka Barbatos . Nichols refuses , go steady the folly in his action , and in that moment , an amnesic Batman is able to steal the investigation , using it to hop forward in time to the chronological goal of the universe . In number 6 the archivist robot monitoring the universe of discourse ’s death bring out that Nichols ’ investigation is the first of its form , but that it was lost on its maiden ocean trip when Bruce steal it .
This story is n’t Batman ’s first post - Crisis coming together with Cartel Nichols , and Batman had already realize their last . InBatman # 700by Grant Morrison , Tony Daniel , Frank Quitely , Scott Kolins , David Finch and Andy Kubert , Nichols travels forrad in timeto the future first picture inBatman # 666by Morrison and Kubert . Here , Nichols kills his old self as a phase of self-annihilation , seeing himself as a failure after having been forced to influence for various villain throughout the exit . This metre loop-the-loop not only close down Nichols ’ chronicle , but also parallel his use inThe Return of Bruce Wayne . In both account Nichols work for supervillains but either repents of his legal action or resists them and attempt to make things correct . Ironically enough , The Return of Bruce Wayneshows that Nichols has been repeat this radiation pattern his entire animation .
Morrison ’s reinvention of Carter Nichols is abbreviated but makes for a tragic taradiddle . Upon refusingto do Dr. Hurt ’s biddinginThe Return of Bruce Wayne # 5 , Hurt tells Nichols that he will have “ age of lonely obscurity in the lead ” of him . Judging by the lack of any success as show inBatman # 700 , it seems that this came lawful to an extent . Nichols himself also interiorize this idea . When he kills his older self , he name that version of him as an “ former unsuccessful person , ” while also bemoaning his younger self . What Nichols ca n’t know is how he is thefirsthuman to invent this form of technology . So , one of the most important figures in humans ’s history dies in abstruseness , unaware that his name will be remembered until the remnant of the macrocosm itself . Carter Nichols might only be a minor bill inBatman’sstory , but for theDC Universe , he ’s more crucial than he ever could have known .
