In Drawing Crazy Patterns, I spotlight at least five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics). Note that these lists are inherently not exhaustive. They are a list of five examples (occasionally I'll be nice and toss in a sixth). So no instance is "missing" if it is not listed. It's just one of the five examples that I chose.

Today, in honor of Veterans Day and the 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day yesterday, I take a look at times that superheroes traveled through time to World War I.

Gary Friedrich created a World War I pilot known as the Phantom Eagle and while the character really did not catch on, Friedrich's friend, Roy Thomas, included the character in Incredible Hulk #135 (art by Herb Trimpe and Sal Buscema), where Kang sends the Hulk back in time to World War I where he is meant to allow a weapon Kang sent to the past to kill Bruce Banner's grandfather, as part of a ridiculously convoluted plan that would somehow mean that there would be no superhero teams to fight Kang in the 20th Century (besides the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, of course, which is why the plan is so weird)...

However, the Hulk ends up ruining Kang's plan...

Five years later, Jack Kirby celebrated America's Bicentennial by sending Captain America on a journey through America's war-torn past, including a brief trip through World War I (man, Kirby's mid-1970s Cap run was amazing)...

In 2007, Garth Ennis, Chris Sprouse and Karl Story launched a Midnighter ongoing series. The opening story arc involved Midnighter being sent back in time to kill Adolf Hitler. Midnighter starts his journey in World War I (where presumably Hitler's death would go unnoticed)...

Ennis also then ties in the classic bit about how EVERYone travels back in time to kill Hitler, so Midnighter keeps running into other people who are trying to kill Hitler and then he also has to clash with the Temporal Police Department, the time police who are in charge with keeping the countless time travelers who show up to kill Hitler.

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Booster Gold #16 (by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund) sees Booster Gold stuck traveling through time....

What he doesn't know, though, is that the American soldier that he just saved there is actually Cyrus Lord, an ancestor of Maxwell Lord, who murdered Booster Gold's best friend, Blue Beetle. So Booster has to deal with whether he wants to actually save Lord's life.

Justice League United #14 (by Jeff Lemire, Paul Pelletier, Rob Hunter and Jeremy Cox) shows the Justice League Untied members thrown through time. Robotman, Steel and Stargirl end up in World War I, where Stargirl's Cosmic Staff getting lost when she collides with a plane during an air battle involving the Enemy Ace.

It's funny, Enemy Ace is the most famous World War I comic book character but there aren't too many examples of superheroes going back in time to spend time with Enemy Ace (most of the time, when time travel is involved, Enemy Ace travels to the future).

Happy Veterans Day, everyone!

If anyone has an idea for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!