Loose Ends and how have things changed

Given the Jurgens interview I started thinking of all the plot we never got tied up and things we never got answers for.

• What is Alex now? How did she come to exists as this energy being?
• Who's looking for Rani? Will she be raised by the Carters?
• Who is Black Beetle?
• Who went to the Beetle Cave with the scarab?
• What happened to Sondra and Gracie Green?
• Who ends up marrying Booster and gives birth to Rip?
• What is Rips' real name (beside his surname being Carter)?

Anything I'm missing? I also wondered what is different with Boosters' supporting cast that Jurgens didn't want to show yet. Are Daniel and Rose married? Seeing other people? Did Michelles' boyfriend Drew live? Did he save Rani? Are the Time Masters (Bonnie, Jeff, Corky) alive? I just hope Rips' not back to being cyborg Linear Man because that wasn't fun for the character.

Waverider

Waverider is Matthew Ryder from an altered timeline. In his own timeline Matthew lived under the rule of a dictator called the Monarch. Having been saved as a child by heroes Matthew became inspired by the superheroes of the past to fight back against Monarch. After discovering the villain used to be a hero Matthew built a time machine to travel back into the past to avert this timeline. Unlike other attempts by other travelers Matthew survived the ordeal. Although the process changed him by somehow merging him with the time streams' temporal energy. Physically changed Matthew dubbed himself Waverider. Eventually he came in contact with the Linear Men, who had just (depending on your linear POV) lost a member named Travis O'Connell. They asked Waverider to join their ranks.

Powers: Able to travel to any point in time by will. Waverider is also a seer that can see into a persons' future by touch alone. 

Waverider 2.0: In Zero Hour Waverider was killed by Extant, the evolved form of Monarch.Another Matthew Ryder was called upon to take on the role of Waverider in his place.

(Other) Deaths: During 52, time travelers were being hunted down by Mr. Mind and Waverider was unlucky enough to be discovered. Unable to reveal Rip Hunters' location (and boasting that Mind would never be able to outsmart Hunter) Waverider was murdered. According to the remaining Linear Men (New Earths' Matthew Ryder and Liri Lee), Rip Hunter argued with the group over Waveriders' paradoxical origins. They claim that he died during Infinite Crisis. How and why this differs from the events in 52 (which takes place during the year proceeding) are currently unknown.

First Appearance: Armageddon #1     

Being "Erased" and Anomalies

Time Travelers who don't protect their identities find themselves at the mercy of assassins who would gladly remove those who would stand in their way. This could be done by two means. Killing a younger version of their foe or an ancestor to prevent their births. This is referred to as "erasing" someone from the timeline. Of course there are exceptions. Those that for some reason or another (usually due to something paradoxical in nature) continue to exist despite having no logical reason for still living. These anomalies might be created through a shift in events, diverged timelines, or other unusual temporal disturbance that affects the being.

  

Per Degaton

Per Degaton has a complex backstory. Yes, I know that it's shocking to hear that a time traveler has a confusing origin so I'm going to attempt to make this as basic as I can. Degaton was an assistant in a group of scientists called the Time Trust during World War 2 that were attempting to find a means for bomb defenses in the future to help the war effort in their time. The Justice Society of America went 500 years into the future and returned with the formula to produce such defenses. Enraged and jealous of the JSA Degaton sabotaged the formula before abandoning the Time Trust. 

Obsessed with time travel Degaton had many run ins with heroes before coming in contact with a robot from the future named Mekanique. She helped him learn more of his passion. During their first five years together her body was crushed leaving only her head. Spending time together the two fell in love. (Don't you love comics?) Professor Malachi Zee, like Degaton a former member of the Time Trust, worked with the two to create a time machine. In one of the many ironic twists in his life Degaton aims to kill Zee unintentionally sending him 40 years into the future in a time machine he intended to use for his own purposes. Mekanique suggested they wait for it to reappear which drove Degaton over the edge to the point where he buried her head. 

The moment that's retconned: Originally Degaton carries on with his dastardly plans living out most of the next 40 years behind bars. Once he's out he reconstructs Mekanique and he battles the Infinity Inc. in the same spot that the Zee time machine disappeared where it soon reappears. A dying Zee comes out along with a Chronal Duplicate of Degaton made when he attempted to stop the time machine from leaving. The old Degaton commits suicide rather than return to jail and Mekanique gets her revenge by killing the double. In the retconned version the duplicate tries to change his fate prior to these events only to return to relive the same moment in a time loop when he is defeated. He recalls all these failures each time he returns to the same moment.

Accepting that on some level that he will never win against the JSA Degaton existed as a non-linear ghost like being that repeatedly watched his enemies dying taking pleasure in witnessing their pain. He lives "between the seconds" as an ageless eternal being thanks to his Time Disk which he sometimes uses to travel. Tachyons like the ones found in Hourmans' hourglass are able to get him out of his intangible state. Degaton has been able to break the pattern of the time loop since aquiring the time disk to watch more of his foes suffering.

Team Ups: The original worked with the Time Trust, and Mekanique. The duplicate has genetically advanced soldiers from the year 2666 called the Red Morgue that he uses as his own personal assassins. He has also teamed up with other time displaced villains to form the Time Stealers.

Enemies: He has an intense hatred for the JSA and his biggest rival in time travel appears to be Rip Hunter who Mr. Mind promised he could personally kill.

A/N: Because of the long history involved I have decided to only write about the Time Stealers that have previous history in time travel, i.e. Mr. Mind and Black Beetle. 

The Countess

Fiorella de Ravenna hails from the Firenze (Florence) Italy. Deeply fascinated with the concept of seeing the future she quickly latched herself onto Konstanin Vyronis, a former member of Goodfellows' trope. In 1464 Walker Gabriel was introduced to her by Vyronis, in hopes that Walker could be of use to their goals. Thinking that he's seen the last of her Walker was in for a surprise when he found her in 2113, claiming that another ex lover had brought her to the present. That man, Baron Winters owned a house with many doorways that accessed different points in time. He warned Walker that the woman known as simply "The Countess" had a habit of seducing and destroying men. 

The Countess wanted to return to her old life in the courts of 1464, only to discover that Walkers' actions had unintentionally trapped her. 

Real Life Connection: Based on a real life mystery woman named Maria Lani who suddenly appeared in Paris in 1930. Lani persuaded several artists, who would later become quite famous, into painting her portrait. She was said to have sold some works, and held an exhibition before taking the remaining paintings. She disappeared without a trace. 

What became of her: Since their introduction Fiorella has greatly improved both her english and her ability to use fire arms. Early on we learned that she was supposed to become Walkers' lover, an experience that would embitter him. She resided in the non-linearly synched city of Chronopolis in the process of remodeling. Her faithful android servant Mordecai serves her in at least two futures. Stating that she would "live forever" she does her best to keep away the boredom by indulging in parties, gossip and her vanity. This might be a vastly different future thanks to Walkers' meddling with his own timeline. 

First Appearance: Chronos #1

Chronos 2: Walker Gabriel

The Second Chronos, Walker Gabriel has a history that's a little hard to explain even without my usual "don't spoiler too much" stance. His story involves his 30 year old future self and his rookie 23 self, alternate timelines and his own status as an abnormal life form in the time stream. Walker was adopted not knowing anything about his real parents until sometime after he created his own displacement suit. We never learn why he was kicked out of college (according to Jean Loring) but he creates a costume of his own design to help him steal the money he needs to fund his research. A contact of his that helped him improve his prototype suit was David Clinton. As Clinton was at that point rapidly aging and slowly fading away he was only to eager to help, so long as he got his cut from Walkers' thefts.

Once Clinton was legally declared dead he left Walker in his will though the two were only associates. Many started to dub him the new Chronos, the apparent heir of the title. After an earlier theft gone horribly wrong many time travelers soon became interested in Walker. Wondering why his mere presence registered as a temporal anomaly. Through a series of events he became more and more involved in events he'd rather stay out of. The whole hero vs. villain scene didn't interest him in the slightest yet he kept getting pulled into the kind of conflicts where he had to choose a side. 

Through his self interest Walker did come quite close to becoming the bad guy. Making one horrible mistake that he alone had to set it right. He kept people guessing of where he stood usually doing things for the right reason but also having his own self interest tied in. The comic was about Walkers' journey of discovery of who he was and what he was willing to sacrifice. His series didn't last long due to low sales, the demand to tie the character to different DC events and the death of Archie Goodwin, a driving force to the book.

What can he do?: Not much of a fighter Walker can freeze and/or slow down the time around him. John Fox, a future Flash, was in fact affected by this enough to not be able to move. Walker is Time Sensitive. He can touch items to be transported back in time to different points in it's existence. Once the capabilities of the suit have been improved upon he can time travel at will. At this stage the early post-crisis means of time traveling by the 2 way method seems to be void. 

Where is he now?: Walker hasn't made too many appearances since. The biggest ones have been his odd death in JSA (it's odd if you read his series, trust me) which is later erased when the timeline is restored. He was in Superman 3D in Limbo and his costume was seen in a possible future where Lady Chronos rules next to David Clintons' living statue.

First Appearance: Chronos #1 

Rex Hunter Version 1

When Booster Gold #4 Vol 2. was released the character of Rex Hunter was first introduced claiming to be a former Time Master. This left more than a few readers looking on wikipedia to see if Geoff Johns was putting in an obscure character from the Silver Age. But no, we find out everything there is to know about him from Rip Hunter himself when Booster asks if the two are related. His real name is in fact Jason Goldstein, a man that never thought much of the rules of time travel claiming he could do a better job. Rex was kicked out of the Time Masters after attempting to push a ten year old Lex Luthor onto the railroad tracks. The butterfly effect of the act made certain that billions of lives were later lost since Connor Kent/Superboy wasn't cloned. 

Impatient, Rex isn't one to think of his actions in the greater scheme of things more focused on a short sighted end goal. He doesn't see things that way claiming that Rip isn't nearly as smart as he thinks he is. To enact his revenge Rex got rid of the Time Masters (stating that he killed Bonnie himself) except Rip Hunter whos' true identity he could never discover. Unfortunately for Rex bragging was yet another rule he broke. This would later prove how he overestimated his value to the rest of the Time Stealers once he was captured by Rip. They decided to kill his infant self in his crib to prevent him from talking. The results weren't what they were expecting. 

My take: Personally I liked the addition of Rex to the Time Masters mythos. He shows how important it is that you have the right people in charge of such an important mission. While he doesn't think of himself as a bad guy his stubborn refusal to listen to his teacher feels very true to life. I'm an art student so I've come across (and been a little) like this myself. There are little things about the character that aren't revealed but are hinted at in the story. Jason seemed to be more than a little obsessed with Rip to the point that he chose for his new identity to be as close to his as possible. Rip refers to him as a kid though it's apparent that Rex is an adult. I don't see Rip as the sort to randomly call people kid that aren't as well versed in something as him. This leads me to assume that Rex was a younger age (likely a teen like Corky) when he was a student.

First Appearance: Booster Gold Vol. 2 #4