Predestination paradoxes in comics, manga, and anime

A predestination paradox is a common literary device employed in many fictional and mythological works, dealing with various circumstances and paradoxes that can logically arise from time travel.

This page describes several examples of predestination paradox in literature. For more popular culture examples see Predestination paradoxes in popular culture, Predestination paradoxes in literature, Predestination paradoxes in film, Predestination paradoxes in television, and Predestination paradoxes in video games.

Comics

Calvin and Hobbes

• Calvin and Hobbes travel two hours into the future to steal homework from Calvin's future self, only to discover that Calvin still has not done the homework two hours into the future. The Two Calvins then travel back one hour to force the Calvin from one hour before to do the homework, while the two Hobbeses stay behind. After the three Calvins are unable to RESOLVE their argument, as they all will experience, are experiencing, or have experienced anything they will do, the Calvins from one hour before and one hour after travel back, only to find that the Hobbeses have done the homework.

Final Crisis

• The events that set off Final Crisis are triggered by the death of Orion, who was killed by a radion bullet. Upon examination of the crime scene, the bullet has apparently been buried for fifty years in the foundations. Batman recovers the bullet and later shoots the tyrannical Darkseid, seriously wounding him, although he later removes the bullet from his body. Due to Darkseid's resurrection, time and space begin to merge at one point; Darkseid uses this opportunity to fire the bullet backwards through time to kill Orion in retaliation for [...] him at the end of Countdown to Final Crisis, thus setting off the events that led to this point.

The Flash

• In Secret Origins Annual #2, it is revealed that the lightning bolt that gave the Flash (Barry Allen) his superpowers is the Flash himself, travelling backward through time as pure energy during the event of Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, in The Flash: Rebirth, due to Professor Zoom's actions as he reveals to have the power to create the grandfather paradox, the event was slightly altered as Barry Allen and Wally West are inadvertently responsible for the younger Allen's transformation during their battle with the villain when they were in the past, resulting Barry Allen to become the source of the positive Speed Force with the lightning bolt they both generate when entering the past. However, due to The New 52 retcons following the Flashpoint crossovers, it is ambiguous of whether Allen is still responsible of his own transformation.
• In The Flash vol. 4, #2, a mysterious electromagnetic pulse causes a blackout in Central City. Three days later, in #5, the Flash tries to contain an exploding genetic re-coder, but in doing so sends the burst of electromagnetic energy back in time, causing the blackout in the first place.

Homestuck

• In the web-comic Homestuck, there is a point where one of the characters who time travels often, Dave Strider, is told he must trust an alien named Terezi and proof of their trust will be a thumbs up from a future Dave nearby. He would not have trusted Terezi had he not returned to the past and he wouldn't have returned to reassure his past self if he didn't trust Terezi.

John Byrne's Next Men

• In John Byrne's Next Men, the character Sathanus travels from the year 2112 to the 1950s and uses his knowledge to create Project Mext Men, intended to create superhumans. Eventually, this leads to Senator Aldus Hilltop gaining superhuman powers. Once this happens, Hilltop realizes that he has become Sathanus.

Kevin and Kell

• In Bill Holbrook's webcomic Kevin and Kell, the Dewclaw family get sent back to the stone age by a malfunctioning computer. After causing various alterations to history (Such as the nonexistence of Ray Bradbury caused by Coney eating a butterfly), they realize that they can only return home by turning off the computer in the future. Recognizing a rock as the one lying at the bottom of his garden, Kevin carves a message on it telling a future reader to turn off the computer.

Our Worlds At War

• In the DC Comics crossover storyline Our Worlds at War, an energy being called Imperiex believes there is an imperfection in the universe, and plans to break it down and create a new one. The storyline concludes when the forces allied against him manage to send both Imperiex and Brainiac-13 to moments after the Big Bang, where they merge with the energies already there. Imperiex then realizes that this was the imperfection he detected.

Sonic the Comic

In Sonic the Comic, Sonic's enemies the Brotherhood of Metallix travel back in time and alter history so that Robotnik never came into existence, thus securing their rise to power as they were instead created by the less competent Grimer, who failed to install certain safeguards- such as a self-destruct system for the entire Metallix army- that Robotnik would have included, forcing Sonic to travel back to ensure that Dr. Ovi Kintobor has the accident that turned him into Robotnik in order to stop the Brotherhood.

Superman: Red Son

• In Superman: Red Son, Superman, as a baby, lands in the Soviet Union and his presence causes the USSR to become the dominant superpower. After Superman's alleged death, Lex Luthor uses Superman's IDeaS to bring in a new age for mankind. Billions of years later, Luthor's descendants send their infant son back into the past when Earth is AbOUT to be destroyed. This baby turns out to be the future Superman.

Manga and anime

Dragon Ball

• Bardock, a low-class Saiyan Warrior in Frieza's Planet Trade Organization was seemingly destroyed by Frieza along with his home planet of Vegeta and the seeming entirety of the Saiyan race (Sans: Prince Vegeta, Nappa, and Bardocks' two sons Raditz and Goku), under the pretense that Frieza feared the appearance of a Super Saiyan like the one that attacked and killed his ancestor Chilled. However the blast that Frieza used to destroy the Saiyans home planet with accidentally sent Bardock into the past where he confronted Chilled and still feeling animosity towards Frieza for his callous disregard for life on his planet caused Bardock to transform into a Super Saiyan and blast away Chilled into space where Chilled was rescued by his subordinates and near-death. Chilled then tells his officers to warn his family to beware the legendary Super Saiyan before succumbing to his wounds and dying. Creating the Super Saiyan legend that Frieza would grow to fear and cause him to try and destroy Bardock along with the Saiyan species still on Planet Vegeta.

• In the Japanese manga Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama, Cell, one of the many enemies the Z-Senshi face in the series, is a bio-creature made using the DNA of the mightiest fighters. But his existence is expressed in 4 different timelines; the first being that the Androids he needed to absorb to become complete have been defeated by the future remaining warrior Future Trunks, so he ambushes and kills him and travels back to the present timeline in Trunks' time machine to absorb the Androids needed as they are still alive. The second one is the future that Trunks returns to after Gohan defeats the Cell from the alternate timeline in the main timeline's present. The third is from the main timeline which was destroyed prematurely by Future Trunks (from the second timeline) and Krillin so that there will not be a threat from that timeline's cell. The fourth was the one that was destroyed prematurely by Trunks and Krillin who then used the blueprints of the Androids to make sure that a device was built to deactivate/destroy the androids (Bulma made this in his timeline and all others where this is used). Trunks of the second timeline was able to defeat the Cell of his timeline and thus see his reality along with that of the mainstream Dragonball universe safe.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

• In episode 10 of the first season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyon encounters a future Mikuru Asahina, who tries to prove it's really her by showing him a mole on her breast. She points out that he is the one who told her it was there in the first place. However, this was the first time Kyon had seen the mole.
• In the first new episode of the second run of the series, Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, Kyon is transported back to 3 years earlier, where he meets a younger Haruhi Suzumiya. He tells her about North High School and seems to influence her decision to go there. If she hadn't gone to North High in the first place, Kyon would have never had the opportunity to go back in time and influence her decision.
• In The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, towards the end, Kyon comes back from the future in order to save his own life.

Naruto Shippūden

Uzumaki Naruto, the son of Fourth Hokage Minato, learned a jutsu known as the Rasengan from his father's former teacher Jiraya who in turn learned it from his student Minato when he was still alive. In the 4th Shippūden movie, Naruto travels 20 years back in time to stop a criminal from his time period from conquering the past, and encounters his father Minato when he was still a ninja instead of Hokage, and defeats their enemy with the Rasengan technique that Minato would later develop. Leading to the creation of a causality loop of Minato seeing Naruto perform the Rasengan and Minato creating the Rasengan technique to teach to Jiraya,and for Jiraya to teach it to Naruto so at some point in his life go into the past and perform the technique before his future father in the first place.

Viewtiful Joe

• In the anime of the video game Viewtiful Joe, in the beginning of episode 18, V-Watch Panic, while having his seventh cheeseburger of the morning Joe and Captain Blue Jr. are approached by another Joe who is transformed and trapped in a state of "mach speed" (one of Viewtiful Joe's abilities in which he runs at super fast speeds). This Joe from the future eats present time Joe's burger and dashes off once more back to his time. Later in the episode Joe's V-watch malfunctions and while he is transformed into Viewtiful Joe his mach speed ability will not let him stop running making him run so fast that he travels back in time to earlier that morning. In which just like the beginning of the episode, he encounters himself and Jr. from earlier that morning and consumes the cheeseburger that his past self was going to eat. Then he dashes off back to present time.

The World God Only Knows

• In the manga, after managing to stop a plot to revive a group of powerful, ancient demons and create hell on earth, the protagonist Katsuragi Keima is sent back in time to find someone with enough power to put a final end to the people behind the plot. There, he discovers that the time travel technique used had actually been created as a desperate attempt to stop the plot: if the enemy's plan was thwarted the person who brought it about would be able to come back so he could make sure that the path of history went in the right direction to bring about his future. He thus needs to find a way to create his own future, but if he can't do this then he can't succeed in that future and come to the past to set the path in motion.