Cosmic treadmill

Cosmic treadmill
Cosmic Treadmill, as it appears in Flash #196. Art by Paul Winslade
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	The Flash #125 (December 1961)
Created by	John Broome
In story information
Type	Time travel device
Element of stories featuring	Flash

The cosmic treadmill is a fictional time travel device in the DC Comics universe. The treadmill first appears in The Flash #125 written by John Broome. Its origin is never explained in the comics.

The treadmill was first seen in The Flash #125 written by John Broome. It was initially developed as a means of allowing Barry Allen to travel through time precisely to battle aliens who had taken over the Earth in 2287 by projecting a hive into the past that stopped technology, so Kid Flash traveled to the past to stop it, while the Flash battled the aliens in the Future. Kid Flash succeeded, enabling the aliens to be defeated. The Flash had already travelled through time to return a future criminal to his own time using superspeed vibrations in his second story, and passing through a 'roadblock' in the mists of time called the Time barrier.

The treadmill appeared in a handful of stories, notably allowing Barry Allen to travel to the 25th century and meet Professor Zoom (Eobard Thawne).

In its last appearance before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Barry used it to relocate to the 30th Century to be reunited with his wife, Iris West.

The treadmill appeared during the Crisis as well, in issue 11. Jay Garrick (the Earth-Two Flash), Wally West (Earth-One's Kid Flash), Kal-L (the Earth-Two Superman) and Kal-El (the Earth-One Superman) attempted to travel to Earth-Two to allow Kal-L to return home. Instead of finding Earth-Two, there was simply a void, a consequence of the multiverse collapsing into a single universe. Upon returning from the void, the treadmill exploded.