Time Travel Questions

[dans]

Do you guys think that super powers granted by 'the gods' would work in the distant past, before 'the gods' came into being? For example, would the powers of Shazam work before the Greek gods came into existence? How about Isis who gets her power from an amulet given to her by an Egyptian queen, in a time 90,000 years before the rise of the Egyptian civilization?

Would the spells of a modern-day mage work 100,000 years ago? Spells that depend on material components might be difficult. The dust of an oak leave, crumbled under a full moon might be difficult to come by. Any spells that depend on the Moon might work differently, and certainly any spells that depend on the relative positions of the stars would be uncertain. Would magic be more powerful then and harder to control, perhaps?

Would magical talismans that have somehow been imbued with power work before they are created?

[johnreiter902]

Here are some examples I can think of which might be informative

In DC Universe: Challenge of Shazam, on the site, Ibis and Captain marvel are sent into the future, and neither the Ibistick nor the power of Shazam work as well because belief in the Egyptian gods is even less.

In Whiz Comics #26, Billy Batson was sent back to the prehistory, and was unable to call on the magic lightning, because the gods did not exist yet. However, there have been many other stories were Captain Marvel was able to use his powers normally in the prehistory.

My theory is, it has to do with whether the power is innate or not. For example, Isis's powers come from her necklace. The power was put into the necklace by the goddess Isis, but now the power comes from the necklace itself. So, as long as Isis has the necklace with her, it should work at any time in history. Contra-wise, Billy Batson has no innate powers as himself. When he says Shazam, he drawls his power directly from the gods through the wizard. Therefore, his powers are dependent on the status of the gods at the time, just as Superman's powers are dependent on the status of the sun at the time.

Here is my explanation for how Cap is able to operate in the prehistory sometimes (like in Shazam #26) with full powers. The Rock of Eternity can access any time in history. If the Wizard knows that Cap is going to be traveling through time, he "tethers" him through the Rock of Eternity to the present day, so that Cap will continue to draw power at the normal rate.

[dans]

Thanks, John - I can work with these...