Twice-Told-Tales: Alexander the Great - Ally or Adversary

The pivitol year was 331 B.C.E., in an event known as the Battle of Arbela. On both Earths One and Two, the Grecian leader Alexander the Great led his forces into battle against King Darius of Persia along with that monarch's army. Yet on each world, time travelers journeyed back from the 20th century, with the intent of influencing the past to further their future agendas. These twin time masters were Rip Hunter of Earth-One and Per Degaton of Earth-Two.

Rip Hunter and his crew of Jeff Smith, Bonnie and Corky Baxter retrieved an ancient tablet once possessed by Alexander that allegedly revealed the location of Atlantis. However, as they were unable to decipher the bottom line, they quartet piloted their time sphere back to 331. After aiding Alexander and his minions, they were given guidance and where they might find the missing information in another earlier era.

Per Degaton and his minions sought to deprieve the 20th century of all modern technology except that which they themselves possessed, and ascertained the pivitol year to change such history was in 331 during this key battle. Degaton and his forces aided the Persians in their onslaught against the Greeks, and a new timeline resulted in the time tyrant's victory. However, Green Lantern retrieved his Justice Society teammates from the future, and brought them back to the time of Arbela when they allied with Alexander's legion in defeating the Persians. The main future timeline was restored to normal.

While Alexander was treated as an ally by the Justice Society, when he had been brought forward in time with fellow world conquerors by Doctor Doome, the Grecian lord acted as a criminal. Utilizing a batallion of robots, Alexander was thwarted by the Ace Archers known as Green Arrow and Speedy, who along with their partners in the Law's Legionnaires helped track down and defeat the five tempermental tyrants of the past. 

On Earth-One, that Green Arrow in his identity as Oliver Queen purchased an ancient iron statute known as the Emperor Eagle, originally bequeathed to Alexander shortly before his death. This led Arrow and fellow Justice Leaguer the Batman into conflict with the Joker and Two-Face, who stole the statue for the ruler of the country where it originated.

Ripples Through Time: Historical Heroes Heralded

Rip Hunter and his pal Jeff Smith invented a time sphere, which they piloted on a series of adventures throughout history alongside his girlfriend Bonnie Baxter and her younger brother Corky. Journeying to several eras, the so-called "Time Master" and his crew had an indelible mark in tales of the past. 

Among their various voyages through time were to the eras of the dinosaurs, Briton of 1,000,000 B.C.E., Egypt and Roog of 2000 B.C.E, 500 B.C.E., King Darius in 325 B.C.E., Rome of 3000 B.C.E., Baghdad and Navar of 800 C.E., England of 1194 C.E., America of 1774 C.E., Poland of 1800 C.E., Ritannia of 1860 C.E., Germany of the early 1940s, and Italy of 2500 C.E. They also journeyed to other worlds such as the Zark of 1000 B.C.E. and ZM3 of 2165 C.E., to name just a few. They also appeared during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

After several years wherein they disappeared following an encounter with a mysterious pyramid created by Vandal Savage in which they prematurely aged, Rip and his partners were restored to youth and joined the Forgotten Heroes of Earth-One. While he met Superman on that occasion, Rip never met that hero's ally in Metropolis' Police Department, Dan "Terrible" Turbin. Dan was the counterpart of Rip Carter's teammate, Dan "Brooklyn" Turbin.

Rip Carter enlisted a quartet of youths during the formative days of World War II, including André Chavard from France, Alfie Twidgett from England, Jan Haasen from the Netherlands, and "Brooklyn" from the USA.

Although several of their tales as the Boy Commandos occurred during the present day on their native Earth-Two, they mysteriously had several tales in various historical periods through various inexplicable means. Some tales led them to Japan of 1842 B.C.E., Rome in 65 C.E., France of 1700 C.E., Earth of 3500 C.E., an ant world of 20,000 C.E. among other time periods.

The Commandos also battled various threats such as Sigrid aka Agent Axis, Crazy-Quilt and Case 13,  Case 13 was actually a husband and wife who matched wits with Carter repeatedly, and were the dopplegangers of Bonnie and Jeffrey.

Eventually, Andre, Alfie and Jan returned to their native countries to live with family, and new commandos in Tex and Percy Clearwater joined the team. During their tenure as troubleshooters, the Boys encountered various costumed crusaders of Earth-Two including Sandman, Sandy, the Guardian and the Newsboy Legion during an adventure. Likewise, Rip Carter and his teammates worked alongside the Sea Devils while both were allied in the Forgotten Heroes.

Twice-Told-Tales: The Forgotten Faces in the Crowd

Several once prominent adventurers found the need to assemble in order to overturn the malevolent machinations of Vandal Savage. Assisting Superman in protecting Earth-One from Savage, these heroes formed the core of the team known in the press as the Forgotten Heroes.

Consisting of Cave Carson the subterranean explorer, Congo Bill the explorer and his Congorilla alter ego, Rip Hunter the Time Master, Rick Carson the military mastermind, Dolphin the mystery maiden of the seas, and Animal Man... they were led by the enigmatic Immortal Man. Little did they know that their evil counterpart, Forgotten Villains, would cause them more problems.

For the Heroes and Villains, their twins on this parallel Earth were as follows:

• Cave Carson's was Cotten Carver, explorers of the depths below
• Immortal Man was from Earth-Two while Earth-One's T.O. Morrow traded places with him.
• Congo Bill had a twin in the Whistler Will, although Will never met his world's Congorilla.
• Rip Hunter's twin was Rip Carter, each a time traveler part of crusading quartets.
• Rick Flagg's was Red Dugan, both military men who had several covert adventures
• Dolphin's was Sontag Heyna, each bold blondes from the seas below who occasionally came to the surface
• Mister Poseidon's was Doctor Doombie, with technology allowing them to shrink their foes...one a foe of the Sea Devils... the other battled Sandman.
• Faceless Hunter and his fellow Saturnians’s were the “Space Men of Mars”, these gigantic aliens matching might with Superman and Doctor Fate.
• Atom Master's was Karat, counterparts who wore matter altering helmets.
• Kraknow's was Narkran, each evil elements from 18th century Poland terrorizing modern day
• Ultivac's was Angrak, each mammoth mechanized men of the 20th century employed by others.
• Enchantress aka June Moone's is Miss America aka Joan Dale of the Freedom Fighters, each matter manipulators.
• Chris KL's and his allies the Venusian named Jero and the Martian named Halk were future reporter/explorer Astra and her alien adversaries from two other worlds in her solar system.

Aquatic Avengers Aid All: Sea Devils and Boy Commandos

Just to show that the Aquamen didn't corner the market on all Seven Seas, each of their Earths had a team of underwater agents protecting life above and below the ocean.

On Earth-One, it was Dane Dorrance and his Sea Devils team consisted of girlfriend Judy Walton, her younger brother Nicky and his pal Biff Bailey, Eventually, the acclaim of the Sea Devils led to the creation of the International Sea Devils including Sikki of India, Molo of Africa, Miguel of South America, Petey Eldidge and a lad named Brad from America. Their chief foe and begrudging ally throughout the seven seas was Captain X aka John Payton Dorrance, who was Dane's father.

Years later, the Sea Devils joined forces with time traveler Rip Hunter (along with his colleagues Jeffrey Smith, Bonnie and Corky Baxter) as members of the Forgotten Heroes of Earth-One.

As to Earth-Two, we had Red Torpedo aka Jim Lockhart operate solo with behind-the-scenes support of his fiancee Meg. Biff on this world was an assistant of Lance "Captain Triumph" Gallant. During their adventures, Torpedo journeyed throughout the seven seas saving the world below, while encountering a fascinating array of awesome life forms such as the Femazons, while battling his arch-enemy Black Shark several times. Eventually, he joined Uncle Sam's Freedom Fighters as they prevented the attack on Pearl Harbor to occur on Earth-X, although this cost Red Torpedo his life! 

Other Earth-Two scuba-divers who swam the same seas as Red Torpedo were the Boy Commandos, consisting of Andre Chavard of France, Alfie Twidgett from England, Jan Haasan from Netherlands, Tex and Percy Clearwater Poodle of America. Each of these members corresponded to a youth on Earth-One, in Nicky Walton, Jason Todd, Dan "Brooklyn" Turpin, Corky Baxter, Jonathan Ross and Bertran "Bug-Eyed Bandit" Larvan. 

Just as Nicky and Corky were junior partners on their respective teams, Jason was the second Robin trained under Batman as his sidekick, while Jonathan was the son of Superman's old friend Pete who quickly became the Man of Steel's unofficial sidekick. Meanwhile, Percy was more an annoyance as a junior reporter working alongside fellow Daily Planet reporter Jimmy Olsen, although he did tag along with the red-haired "Action Ace" on some of his adventurers

Additionally, there were substitute Commandos named Oklahoma, Bronx and Marconi Einstein Edison also from America. Another charter member Brooklyn was born Dan Turpin, of whom his Earth-One counterpart would be a famous Metropolis law enforcement officer. The Commandos' leader was Rip Carter, a time traveling adventurer like his cosmic twin Rip Hunter who repeatedly battled evil dopplegangers of Rip's pals Bonnie Baxter and Jeff Smith, the male and female criminal couple known as Case 13.

While the Forgotten Heroes and their forebearers the Sea Devils weren't as famous of their contemporaneous superhero teams of the Justice League and Teen Titans, while the Boy Commandos weren't as renowned as their contemporarneous superhero teams the Justice Society and Law's Legionnaires, these non-powered heroes were nonetheless necessary to keeping the peace on their respective Earths. And so, while many have forgotten them, we remember them.

Time Travelers of Twin Terras Triumph over Trouble

Time travel was a grand pursuit of individuals on both Earths One and Two. On Earth-One, Ripley "Rip" Hunter devised a time sphere along with his colleagues Jeffrey Smith, Bonnie Baxter and her brother Corky. Hunter as the "Time Master" along with his friends journeyed backward and forward in time several times. Rip Hunter's counterpart Rip Carter along with Carter's Boy Commandos, had their own unorthodox means of time travel. Both teams met several historic figures.

The Time Trust of Earth-Two consisted of Doctor  Swanley, Professor Everson, Professor Zee and Doctor Doome. This collaberation of scientists developed an experimental time ray which projected the Justice Society of America in the 30th century, whereby the heroes collected pieces necessary to devise a "bomb defense formula" that would protect America in the 20th century. Although initially this formula worked, the Time Trust's assistant Per Degaton sabotaged it to further his future schemes.

While the other Time Trust members left their own distinct marks on the history of the Justice Society of America, Degaton proved to have left the most indelible mark on the team. Three times, he attempted to alter history: first while altering history from 331 BCE Macedonia, next in December 1941 during the opening days of World War II and lastly in the Spring of 1942. Per battled the JSA a couple more times before a fourth failed chronal-caper led to Degaton’s death.

In place of Degaton’s forays versus the Society, another time traveling tyrant battled the Justice League of America in the same number of cases the Time Lord named Frand Mattar. This Lord of Time like his Earth-Two counterpart the Light (aka the Unknown) was tenacious, while Degaton and his Earth-One doppelgänger Brainiac Five of the Legion of Super-Heroes were equally so…on both sides of the law.

Professor Damon Everson assisted Earth-Two's Atom and his teammates of the Justice Society with his now improved time ray, as had Professor Alpheus Hyatt with his time pool during his long partnership with Earth-One's Atom and the Justice League. Everson projected members of the Society into past eras, to help Damon's assistant who had been tormented over his past. Hyatt used his small pool to extract historical items, unknowingly granting the diminutive Atom the ability to time travel with it.

Professor Malachi Zee developed a time machine that was stolen by his lab assistant Per Degaton on three occasions to employed various temporal schemes. Each was thwarted by the Justice Society, along with the All-Star Squadron and the Justice League. Decades later, a time-displaced Zee returned to identify his murderer before he died, in front of an assembled Justice Society. Seeing no alternative, Degaton took his own life rather than be returned to prison once more by his hated enemies.

A much kinder eventuality presented itself for Doctor Phineas Quayle who, unlike Zee, was not betrayed by any assistant as he kept his time traveling device secret. Using his time scanner to see future events, Quayle saw the collapse of society, blaming it on the presence of superheroes. To that end, he became the supervillain known as Doctor Anomaly. After a series of battles with the Justice League, when finally faced with defeat, Quayle projected himself into the future and self-isolated from mankind.

Doctor Wilfred Doome battled the Law's Legionnaires after his encounter with the Justice Society while with the Time Trust. Doome enlisted the aid of five historic tyrants to retrieve metals needed to refine his time machine. After his defeat, Doome retreated to the future and became Tibro, who fought the Earth-Two Wonder Woman. His twin was the Time Trapper, arch foe of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century and of the Super Friends in the 20th century. He first fought the Earth-One Wonder Woman as T.Y. Master.

Doctor Alvin Swanley had his death avenged when the Justice Society uses his time chute to track down the murder weapon and the man who used it against him. A competitor of Swanley Erik Pomar was jealous of Swanley's developments in temporal physics and sought to steal these while framing another man. After retrieving the weapon he used that had fallen through several past eras, the heroes brought Pomar to justice .

His doppleganger was Professor Mark Ronsom, a scientist who in 1942 on Earth-One developed the chronal transponder, and because of this became the target for Nazi Germany's Agent Axis. When Axis attempted to assassinate Ronson, he was thwarted by a visiting Wonder Woman from Earth-Two who used the transponder to save Ronson's life. Due to this, Mark became the Ravager, placed under the control of Agent Axis. The World's Finest Team of Wonder Woman with Earth-One's Superman, Batman, Green Arrow and Black Canary restored Ronson to normal and reset time.

In Earth-One's 30th century, it would be Brainiac Five and his allies in the Time Institute who would advanced temporal technologies in ways similar to the 20th century Time Trust. A version of the Institute existed in Earth-Two's 30th century with Jon Stannard's Space-Time Authority that worked with the Justice Society versus the Chameleon invasion.