Time travel stories have been part of DC Comics since the Golden Age. While there have been imaginary stories set in the future, it's the stories directly involving traveling through time that is truly special. Sometimes it's a hero directly traveling to the past or future. Sometimes it's a threat that has traveled to the present.

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What's not included in this list are stories set in another period, but not involving time travel. "Possible future" stories like those with Superman and Lois raising two boys won't find their way on this list. These are all stories that involve good old-fashioned traveling through time.

10 Legion of Super-Heroes #19

When Roxxas attacked the reforming Legion on Winath, Jo Nah, the former Ultra Boy was his fiercest target. The murderer was forced to use a Dominator weapon that sent Jo thousands of years into the past. Ultimately, the story led to Jo arriving in ancient Egypt and becoming a pawn of a Lord of Chaos. The resident Lord of Order is Nabu, known by DC fans as the force behind Doctor Fate.

The real emotional impact of this story is about a hero that has been refusing to mourn. The Lord of Chaos uses that to manipulate Jo Nah. His reaction when Nabu kills the "woman" Jo has loved for months is genuine. When Nabu returns Jo to the 30th century, it comes with beautiful closure.

9 Seven Soldiers of Victory vs. Doctor Doome

Seven Soldiers of Victory

From the Golden Age, this story has a scientific genius called Doctor Doome to use a time machine to use historical characters to commit crimes. He's thwarted by a loose-knit group of heroes calling themselves the Seven Soldiers of Victory. He eventually flees from the Seven Soldiers through time to Ancient Greece.

Revisited in All-Star Squadron #29, it's revealed that Doome tempted the Shining Knight to turn on his teammates by dangling a return to Camelot. It's a great addition to a story that was already solid for a Golden Age super-hero story.

8 Flashpoint

Flashpoint might be the most influential DC story of the past decade. When Barry Allen goes back in time to stop his mother from being killed, he manipulates the timestream one time too many. All of the history changes, sending the world headlong into destruction.

With help, Barry goes back to undo his mistake, what results is not the same world that he left, but altered. It would be known as the New 52. For five years, the effects of Flashpoint would be felt across all DC Comics. It could even be argued that all of the effects of it aren't gone yet.

7 Titans Tomorrow

After the Teen Titans help the Legion of Super-Heroes stop the Fatal Five Hundred, they're not returned to their own time. They arrive ten years into the future where their future selves have begun a reign of terror. They find a Titans East team opposing them.

It could have simply ended, but it became influential in the series immediate future. The Titans of Tomorrow travel back to the present to ensure their future. The future Tim Drake even survived into the world after DC Rebirth. All the while, it was a nice little detour with a team that doesn't usually get thought of when it comes to time travel.

6 Time and Time Again

Superman sought to stop the Linear Man from returning Booster Gold to the future. In doing so, he found himself bouncing around in time, using the energy from massive explosions to power each trip. Many times he went into an era of the past, and a few times, he met the Legion of Super-Heroes.

As the trip ends in the 30th century, the Linear Man reveals he manipulated Superman's trips to ensure the moon explodes as it was destined to do. When he returns home, it's an uncharacteristically pyrrhic victory for the Man of Steel.

5 Legion of Super-Heroes #100

When several Legionnaires find themselves stranded in the 20th century, it's a trying time. They help defeat a Sun-Eater, pick up a new member, and find their leader injured and in a coma. The entire time, they're trying to get home. To that measure, Brainiac 5 builds a super-computer, Computo.

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In the midst of battling Computo, who has possessed one of Triad's bodies and Cosmic Boy, the Legion has to keep a portal to the future open. Eventually, the secret to defeating Computo comes when Cosmic Boy uses the portal to bring help from the 31st century, the rest of the Legion. It's a simple solution using this form of time travel, but it shows a level of strategy that doesn't depend on hitting something until it breaks.

4 All-Star Squadron and Infinity, Inc vs. the Ultra-Humanite

Prior to the debut of Infinity, Inc. the heroes of Earth-2 were represented in the Golden Age era All-Star Squadron. One of their first big storylines was a battle against the Ultra-Humanite. Since the present era version of that villain was trapped by the Justice League and Justice Society in Limbo, writer Roy Thomas had both versions work together. This led to a plot twist that saw a new team consisting of the children of the JSA coming to the 1940s.

Those heroes led to a massive force of heroes facing off against the Ultra-Humanite and her forces. It was a great moment for the All-Star Squadron that had seemed not to live up to its promise of enlisting every costumed hero of World War II. It was also a very high-profile debut for a new team of heroes.

3 The Greatest Hero of Them All

When Crisis On Infinite Earths resulted in a DC Universe where Superman was never Superboy, it had to affect the Legion of Super-Heroes in some way. The solution came in a crossover with Superman and Action Comics. It culminated in Superboy and the Legion in battle with the Time Trapper, who had manipulated every trip the heroes ever made to the past.

Superboy died protecting the Earth that the Time Trapper put in a pocket timeline, and it was a devastating loss for the team. Superboy was their inspiration and he died as he lived, being a hero. It would eventually lead to a final showdown that would seemingly kill the Trapper, but can a force of entropy ever truly die?

2 Crisis On Infinite Earths

Crisis On Infinite Earths is the DC event that sparked all DC events. It begins with the Monitor sending teams to various periods in time. We got to see the Great Disaster, ancient Atlantis, World War II, and the Old West. It ends with almost every hero going to stop the Anti-Monitor.

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The time travel serves the purpose of bringing in the entire DC Universe, past, present and future. The characters that the teams meet broaden the scope of the story and the threat. The use of the Dawn of Time helps shape the end of the story in a way that was revolutionary for comics at the time.

1 Adventure Comics #247

Superboy meets the Legion of Super-Heroes

This is the time travel story that launched a team that lasted for over 60 years. The Legion of Super-Heroes travels through time to recruit Superboy. They take him to the future where he gets a hazing before being accepted into their super-hero club.

This also helps define the legacy of the DC Universe, especially the legacy of Superboy. This is also such an important story that it's been referenced many times. The Legion remains so popular that even though numerous reboots, some version of this story remains.

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