Lemme run something by you. There are two staples to comic books:

1) The super mad villain trying to take over the universe (and sadly usually thwarted) and…

B) time machines (or portals or alternative timelines etc.).

Staples, yeah?

So my question is this: if a supervillain was able to steal/build a time machine why not just go back to the past before the superhero arrived?

Imagine what Joker could do to Gotham in the past before Batman arrived on the scene. Then who would thwart the supervillain?

In fact if Joker did go back to a pre-Batman Gotham and mashed up enough things in the past, forever altering the present/future, wouldn’t that generate the possibility of Batman never existing?

Or…or…would Fate be stubborn and determined that no matter what the (now) current circumstances may be Batman must–absolutely must–be born?

But would that be enough to stop a supervillain with a time machine…hmmm: another staple?

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Also published on Medium.