Professor Carter Nichols

Professor Carter Nichols

The renowned scientist, historian (WF No. 82, May/Jun 1956: “The Three Super-Musketeers!”), and “student of the mysteries of the subconscious mind” (Detective Comics No. 116, Oct 1946: “The Rescue of Robin Hood!”) who has come to be regarded as “the world’s foremost authority on time-travel” (Batman No. 36/3, Aug/Sep 1946: “Sir Batman at King Arthur’s Court!”, Batman No. 52, Apr/May 1949: "Batman and the Vikings!"). On numerous occasions over the past decades, Professor Nichols has used his “weird powers of hypnosis” (Detective Comics No. 135, May 1948: “The True Story of Frankenstein!”) and incredible time-traveling apparatus to transmit Batman and Robin across the time barrier, either into the distant future or the misty past.

In November-December 1955, after Professor Nichols has propelled Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson back into the past, to the city of Baghdad 1,000 years ago, to verify the authenticity of an ancient tradition concerning a “magnetic mountain” near the city, Batman and Robin find that “the terrific magnetic forces” of the magnetic mountain “interfere with [Nichols’s] time-force” and prevent him from returning them to their own time. Nichols, however, calls on Superman, who uses “his full awesome speed to break through the barriers of time and space” and return Batman and Robin to the present. While they are in the past, Batman, Robin, and Superman meet the legendary Aladdin (WF No. 79: “The Three Magicians of Bagdad!”).

In May-June 1956 Professor Nichols transports Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, and Clark Kent to France in the year 1696 in the hope that they will be able to uncover the answer to “history’s greatest riddle,” the identity of the famous “main in the iron mask.” In the course of this adventure, Batman, Robin, and Superman encounter the Three Musketeers (WF No. 82: “The Three Super-Musketeers!”).

In February 1960 Professor Nichols transports Batman and Robin back into the past, to the time just after Alexander the Great has been crowned king following the death of his father, Philip of Macedonia. When Batman’s portable “time-box” is accidentally damaged and he and Robin find themselves marooned in the past, Nichols summons Superman to his laboratory and shows him how the time-box must be repaired, whereupon Superman travels swiftly into the past, repairs Batman’s time-box, and returns with Batman and Robin to the present (WF No. 107: “The Secret of the Time Creature!”).

By March 1963, escaped convicts Denny Kale and Shorty Biggs have imprisoned and impersonated Batman and Robin and tricked Professor Nichols into transporting them into the past, to the city of Florence in the year 1479, where they think their twentieth-century know how will enable them to amass wealth rapidly. When the two time-travelers fail to return to the present, Superman journeys to fifteenth-century Florence to search for them, but Kale and Biggs capture Superman and leave him to die with a piece of synthetic Kryptonite chained to his chest. Ultimately, however, Batman and Robin escape from their place of imprisonment and have Professor Nichols send them into the past, where they rescue Superman and, with his help, take Kale and Biggs into custody (WF No. 132: “Batman and Robin, Medieval Bandits!”). (TGSB)

External Links

• Wikipedia entry on Professor Carter Nichols
• Wikipedia Entry on Time Travel