Anachronicstic technology -- Both Ways

[Michael Hopcroft]

How many superheroes use technology that either comes from the distant past or from the distant future?

 

I don't mean things like super-archers or swordmasters -- arrows and swords are still used today, though not in battle by soldiers.

 

I mean things like lightsabers, magic items from the distant past, and things you usually see in sicnece fiction or fantasy. Are these the superhero staples I thought they were?

[JmOz]

I would say that a good number use devices from the ancient past, esapecialy Mystics (Such as Dr Strange's Cloak and amulet). As for stuff from the future, not really, but many use devises they invented that are far and away beyond modern tech, but in the comics it was usualy invented in the present

[Lord Liaden]

JmOz generally has the right of it. In comics the magic items are generally ancient artifacts rather than contemporary manufacture, while advanced tech is the mostly the province of modern "super geniuses" but not actually from the future. Two exceptions to that second rule that I can think of are Booster Gold, who used technology "borrowed" from the future (which he also came from), and Kang the Conqueror who pillaged the inventions of the far future.

 

Sometimes the really advanced technology is of recent but alien manufacture, such as the devices created by the New Gods which have been employed by numerous heroes and villains, or the rings worn by the Mandarin.

 

Among the ancient magical artifacts wielded by heroes are Wonder Woman's lasso forged from the Girdle of Gaia; the Ebony Blade wielded by the Black Knight (now in the hands of the Blood Wraith); Dr. Fate's helmet; and of course Thor's hammer Mjollnir.