If Doctor Doom spent as much time inventing things to improve the lives of ordinary people as he did to torment the Fantastic Four then the world would be a better place. And comic books wouldn't have one of its greatest villains, or one of the earliest and most important devices in Marvel history: the Time Platform.
The Time Platform debuts in Fantastic Four #5, one of Doctor Doom's earliest gambits to take down the Fantastic Four. Since then, it's been involved in some of the most critical junctions in Marvel Comics history, past, present, and future. Here are ten things fans should know about Doctor Doom's Time Platform.
10 Blackbeard's Treasure
The first application of Doctor Doom's sinister invention doesn't exactly get all the potential out of the project.
His ruse is simple, and already routine for just five issues into the run: he kidnaps the Invisible Woman and then forces the other members of the Fantastic Four to go back in time via the Time Platform to steal Blackbeard's Treasure because there are gems in it that Doom will then use to rule the world. It's a lot and you wonder why he just doesn't do it himself, but there's actually a reason.
9 Integrated Armor
When Doctor Doom first developed the Time Platform, it required someone at the controls. Unlike the transporter in Star Trek or any camera, Doom couldn't set the timer and then run over to the platform to go back in time to steal gems. This later proved impractical enough that he devised a way to integrate the controls of the Time Platform into his armor.
Now, Doom could travel back into time himself and at well, which he did quite a bit, mostly to secure knowledge of magic he could use to rule the world.
8 Radiation Danger
Another major wrinkle in Doom's ambitions for the Time Platform had to do with what he could and couldn't transport.
That was understandable given how new the technology was, but a curious wrinkle in the manifest for allowable items included radioactive materials. This makes sense in the context of everything in the 60s and everything in the fledgling Marvel Universe being concerned with atomic and nuclear radiation, but surely the Time Platform harnessed massive cosmic energies in space and time that produced radiation, so...
7 The Origins Of Kang
The Time Platform plays a surprising role in some of the biggest events in Marvel history, and in the unlikely origin of one of Marvel's biggest villains - Kang The Conqueror. Long story short - if such a thing is possible with Kang - the Thing goes back to ancient Egypt to find a cure for Alicia Masters' blindness.
In the process, the Fantastic Four encounter Rama Tut, who turns out to be a time traveler from the year 3000. This is the earliest incarnation of the being - beings, really - who would trouble the FF and Avengers alike for decades to come.
6 Proof of Life
The Time Platform also plays a role in revisiting one of the darkest moments of early Marvel lore and creates a bit of an incongruity in the process. The Avengers use the Time Platform to go back in time to see if Bucky Barnes actually died during World War II as Captain America believed.
This story takes place in Avengers #56, decades before Bucky's fate is revised to show that he didn't die. Bucky of course becomes the Winter Soldier, contradicting the earlier Avengers story, though it could be argued they weren't seeing the whole story.
5 Stark Contrast
The Time Platform becomes as much a part of Avengers lore as it does the Fantastic Four, and really the entire Marvel Universe. Doom runs afoul of Iron Man when he tries to buy - legally, which why - necessary technological components for his new Time Platform from Stark Industries.
Iron Man obviously intervenes and the two end up stuck back in the 6th century, where Doom interferes in the legend of King Arthur. His relationship with Morgan le Fay continues to create ripple effects to this day, especially in Otherworld.
4 Heroes Reborn
Heroes Reborn sequestered many of the core Marvel heroes and their villains - including the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom - in a bubble universe outside of Marvel continuity. The Time Platform didn't play a role in saving them but remained exactly where Doom left it in Latveria.
Nathaniel Richards and X-Force go to secure it and end up stuck in the past, during World War II. Cable ends up destroying the Platform once they get back to the present, which forces Doom to create yet another one when he finally gets back to reality.
3 In The Year 2099
The Time Platform plays a crucial role in connecting the disparate realities of the Marvel 2099 universe and that of Earth-616. The Spider-Man of the future discovers the device in the palace of the Maestro, where it had been restored and repaired with technology from Iron Man.
Spider-Man uses the Time Platform to go to Earth-616, bridging the two realities and giving the character of Miguel O'Hara a new world to explore. Unfortunately for him, the Maestro follows him through the portal.
2 Age of Ultron
The Time Platform plays another role, perhaps even more importantly, in the Age of Ultron event. The device proves integral to the ultimate defeat of Ultron, who had conquered the world in this dystopian alternate timeline. Two different teams of heroes - one primarily Avengers and another mostly the Fantastic Four - go in two different directions in time.
Captain America leads the charge into the future to confront Ultron, while the Invisible Woman goes back to kill Goliath and try to head the whole thing off. It ends up being Wolverine using the device after those efforts fail who brings about the end of Ultron.
1 Old Man Logan
Logan had another major encounter with the Time Platform when the future version of the grizzled hero took on the Maestro and the Hulk Gang. Maestro destroyed the device after using it to travel to Earth-616 and then stranding Logan, but being the crafty guy he is, Old Man Logan manages to get home.
With the help of Forge, he dismantles the device once and for all and hopefully puts an end to its use as a weapon to terrorize time and space. Probably not going to happen any time soon, though.