Time Sphere

Time Sphere
Interior artwork from 52 vol. 1, 52 (May, 2007 DC Comics). Art by Patrick Olliffe.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Showcase #20 (May 1959) (February 1965)
Created by	Jack Miller (writer) Ruben Moreira (artist)
In story information
Type	Time travel device
Element of stories featuring	Legion of Super-Heroes Rip Hunter Booster Gold

The Time Sphere is a time travel vehicle featured in comic book titles published by DC Comics. It first appeared in Showcase #20 (May 1959) used by Rip Hunter and the Time Masters.

The Time Sphere is the time travel device that the scientist known as Rip Hunter and the Time Masters use to travel through time and space. Aided by his friend Jeff Smith, girlfriend Bonnie Baxter, and Bonnie's kid brother Corky, they have adventures in time. These stories were told in the series Rip Hunter...Time Master which ran for 29 issues between 1961 - 1965. The Time Sphere is capable of going anywhere in time theoretically, however there are a few places it cannot go. Logically the boundaries would tend to be the Beginning of the Universe and the Iron Curtain of Time erected by the Time Trapper at the End of Time. Inside the Time Sphere are many items to assist the crew such as an Encyclopedia of Time, which assisted them in "correcting history" to the path it was intended to go to all along.

Due to the paradoxical nature of time travel, a Time Sphere was kept in the Space Museum until it was stolen by Booster Gold to travel back to the 20th Century.

The Time Sphere was modified by Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super-Heroes who created the "Time Bubble". Due to the varying nature of time travel the true origin of the time is complex as Brainiac 5 invented the device in his childhood, but is Post Zero Hour continuity R. J. Brande requested the development so they could prove Superman was more than a myth. In both version this work is done prior to Brainiac 5 joining the Legion and when he was in the employ of Brande. The device was used regularly to bring Superboy and Supergirl to the 30th Century.

The Time Bubble has proven more durable than other time travel devices such as the Cosmic Treadmill of the Flashes which was obliterated when in a collision with Rip Hunter's Time Sphere. It also lacks the side effects of Rond Vidar's Time Cube, a technology that did the same as the bubble only it was portable.