The Timebroker is a fictional character appearing in

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of ''Action Comics'' ...

s published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

. The character was created by

Judd Winick Judd Winick (born February 12, 1970) is an American cartoonist, comic book writer and screenwriter, as well as a former reality television personality. He first gained fame for his stint on MTV's ''The Real World: San Francisco'' in 1994, before f ...

for the comic book ''Exiles''; a psychic construct created by the Timebreakers, a race of alien bug-people who accidentally damaged a large number of alternate universes.

Fictional character biography

The Timebroker first appeared in ''Exiles'' #1, when he invited the

Age of Apocalypse "Age of Apocalypse" is a 1995 comic book crossover storyline mostly published in the X-Men franchise of books by Marvel Comics. The ''Age of Apocalypse'' briefly replaced the universe of Earth-616 and had ramifications in the main Marvel Comic ...

version of

Blink Blinking is a bodily function; it is a semi-autonomic rapid closing of the eyelid. A single blink is determined by the forceful closing of the eyelid or inactivation of the levator palpebrae superioris and the activation of the palpebral portio ...

to join a group of dimension-lost superheroes whom he named "The Exiles", whose mission would be to repair the damaged realities, and hopefully, to return home safely. A team member whose home reality is repaired is immediately sent home, and replaced with someone new. To repair each damaged reality, the Exiles must complete a mission given to them by the Timebroker through a communications device called, "The

Tallus The Exiles are a group of fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics commonly associated with The X-Men. They feature in three series, '' Exiles'', ''New Exiles'', and ''Exiles'' vol. 2. The Exiles consists ...

," worn by the leader of the group, be it

Mimic MIMIC, known in capitalized form only, is a former simulation computer language developed 1964 by H. E. Petersen, F. J. Sansom and L. M. Warshawsky of Systems Engineering Group within the Air Force Materiel Command at the Wright-Patterson AFB in ...

, or Sabretooth. These missions are usually humanitarian or super-heroic in nature, but sometimes involve assassination. The Timebroker also created a separate team of lost heroes, called

Weapon X Weapon X is a fictional clandestine government genetic research facility project appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They are conducted by List of government agencies in Marvel Comics, Department K, which turns willing ...

, whose job is mainly

wetwork Wetwork ( rus, мокрое дело, mokroye delo) is a euphemism for murder or assassination that alludes to spilling blood. The expression and the similar ''wet job'', ''wet affair'', or ''wet operation'' are all calques of Russian terms for suc ...

. When they grew out of control, the Timebroker ordered the Exiles and Weapon X to battle each other until only 6 remained alive. In #53, the Exiles received a warning: "Beware the Timebreaker. He is not what he seems." Almost immediately after, the Timebroker acted irrationally, giving orders to murder the

X-Men as well as the Exiles'

. He also did not pop in when Tanaraq and

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

attempted to rebel and get their old lives back. The Exiles learned later the true nature of the Timebroker during a raid on Panoptichron, namely that "he" is an illusion created by bug-men. Later, Mimic used him to convince Blink and the others to cast the infiltrating Hyperion back to his original Earth during a raid on Panoptichron. Heather Hudson used the Tallus in #78 to tell the Exiles and

Squadron Supreme The Squadron Supreme is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, of which there are several notable alternate versions. The original team was created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, derived from the previous ...

about each other to save the Exiles from life in prison. The Timebroker then proceeded to fire the Exiles (albeit temporarily) in #84. He then appeared, controlled by Blink, in "Exiles: Days of Then and Now" when new Exiles needed to be recruited to save a world where the

Hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk' ...

hijacked the

Annihilation Wave "Annihilation" is a 2006 crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics, highlighting several outer space-related characters in the Marvel Universe. The central miniseries was written by Keith Giffen, with editor Andy Schmidt. Publication histo ...

. The Timebroker has not appeared since, and oddly enough, the final team of Exiles, led by Blink and coordinated by Morph,

Nocturne A nocturne is a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night. History The term ''nocturne'' (from French '' nocturne'' 'of the night') was first applied to musical pieces in the 18th century, when it indicated an ensembl ...

, and Heather, treat the Timebroker as the Timebreakers' predecessor instead of interface.

References

External links

*{{comicbookdb, type=character, id=7932, title=Timebroker Comics characters introduced in 2001 Characters created by Judd Winick