Origin

Doctor Doom invented this time machine using both science and magic.^[2] Unlike most other forms of time travel, it can change history.^[3] The platform could send anyone who stood on its platform back into the past. The original platform was located in Castle Doom.

Several years before the rocket flight that created the Fantastic Four, scientist Nathaniel Richards constructed a time platform in his laboratory in a sub-basement of the Richards Family Estate in Central City, California. After arranging things so that he could not be legally declared dead, Richards tried to use his time machine to travel ten years into his future, leaving the machine still operational. However, instead of traveling forward in time, he was shunted sideways into a parallel time-stream, arriving on Earth-6311 on the same day he left Earth-616.^[4]

Operating out of his castle in the Adirondack Mountains, Doom used his time platform to travel back to 1942. With his head swathed in bandages, supposedly due to a recent laboratory fire, "Hans" spent months working with physicist Doctor Olsen on constructing a dimensional gateway, secretly hoping to learn something that would help him contact his dead mother in the Spirit World. When he decided he had learned enough about both the gateway technology and the Third Reich, "Hans" sabotaged Hitler's scheme to deceive Thor into fighting on behalf of the Nazis, destroyed the gateway and left, using the time platform to return to his own time. However, his departure had been witnessed by Baron Strucker who then accidentally followed Doom back to the future where he soon discovered that the Nazis were going to lose World War II. After reading and then stealing some history books from that time, Strucker returned to the castle and was briefly confronted by Doom who then allowed him to use the time platform to return to 1942.^[5][6]

The first time Doom attacked the Fantastic Four, he kidnapped the Invisible Girl and forced the other three members of the team to use the time platform to go back in time to the early 18th century and retrieve Blackbeard's treasure chest from the past. Doom hoped the treasure inside the chest would include the Stones of Merlin, gems that could make him ruler of the Earth. During this trip, the Thing took on the identity of Blackbeard (meaning he had actually gone back in time to find himself to be the man he was looking for). Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) outsmarted Doom by bringing the chest back to the present, not the treasure itself. In the struggle that followed, Doom was defeated and he abandoned the time platform,^[7] although eventually Doom built a second unit of it.^[1]

Later, Reed Richards read from a hieroglyph that there had once been a radioactive herb which apparently cured the blindness of a pharaoh during a mostly unrecorded era of Ancient Egyptian history. The Fantastic Four decided to use Dr. Doom's time machine to travel into the past and retrieve this element in order to restore Alicia Masters' vision. Once in the past, they were attacked by an Egyptian army that took them prisoner when their powers failed them. Brought before the army's master, the Pharaoh known as Rama-Tut, they learned that he was actually a time traveler from the year 3000 who, upon arriving in Egyptian times, had lost his vision but soon restored it with a rare herb which, after being exposed to the radiation from his damaged time machine, had become an Optic Nerve Restorative. Once he had regained his sight, Rama-Tut had been able to conquer the area and had ruled it ever since. The Fantastic Four ended Rama-Tut's operation, forcing him to flee in his time ship. Upon returning to the present, the FF discovered that the vial of Optic Nerve Restorative was gone, leading Reed to theorize that time platform couldn't transport radioactive substances such as the restorative herb they had traveled into the past to retrieve.^[8]

The time platform was then relocated to the Baxter Building so that Reed could study it. During this time, a dinosaur accidentally arrived from prehistoric times while Ben and Johnny were supposed to be watching the time machine, and it was eventually captured and returned to its own time.^[9]

At Castle Doom in Latveria, when Doom commanded his Seer to show him the future, the Seer projected an image of Onslaught. Doom recognized that the being was very powerful but was frustrated when the Seer knew nothing about it besides its name. Noticing a similarity between Onslaught's vestments and the costume worn by Magneto, whose attempt to take over the country of Santo Marco had failed just a few days earlier, Doom suspected that there was some connection between the two. Believing that Onslaught was a vessel for some vast power source that he could harness and make his own, Doom decided to travel through the time stream in order to obtain the secret of Onslaught's creation from one of Magneto's future selves, and he brought the telepathic Seer with him to guide them on their journey. Once aboard the time platform and hidden by its cloaking bubble, Doom and the Seer traveled back to the previous month when the X-Men stopped Magneto at Cape Citadel so that the Seer could obtain Magneto's bio-signature for use as a tracing beacon, then went forward in time to scan the Magneto in those time periods for any sign of Onslaught. During their second stop in the future, they were telepathically detected by the Phoenix (then believed to be Jean Grey). Unseen by the New X-Men, Phoenix confronted the time travelers and set the time platform off-course so that it travelled to Earth-811 where Doom witnessed the death of the last of the X-Men at the hands of the Sentinels, inspiring him to create an invincible robot army of his own. While again traveling through the time stream, the Seer had a brief telepathic contact with Onslaught which made him suspect that the secret of Onslaught's creation might actually be found in Professor Charles Xavier, so Doom re-directed the time platform to several key moments in Xavier's future. However, when they had found nothing after four time-jumps, Doom set the time platform to a point after Onslaught's defeat where he confronted Magneto in order to distract him while the Seer telepathically pried the needed data from Magneto's subconscious. Now knowing where and when Onslaught was created, they traveled to the Avalon space station just as Professor Xavier wiped Magneto's mind. After shifting to the Astral Plane and seeing the Onslaught entity being born within Xavier, Doom tried to used his Absorption Transducer Module to absorb its energy but the entity was already so powerful that it was able to resist the transfer. Then, after detecting their presence, the entity sent them back to Castle Doom in their proper time. Despite the mission's failure, Doom was satisfied that he had acquired knowledge that he could use to ensure his own survival, and he then killed the Seer because knowledge was power and he did not intend to share it.^[10]

When Doctor Doom, as the head-of-state of a foreign power, made an official request for the return of his time machine, Reed Richards could not refuse, but he did duplicate it before returning it.^[11] Richards himself restored the time machine to Doom's American castle which the US Army began guarding.^[12]

The Avengers used the platform in Doom's abandoned American castle to go back in time to World War II so that Captain America could see if Bucky could have somehow survived the explosion of a drone plane that had supposedly killed him. While the Wasp stayed in the present to operate the machine, the other four were sent back to 1945 where they were intangible and invisible to all those of that era. As the time travelers watched Baron Zemo capture the past Captain America and Bucky and tie them to the drone plane he was about to launch, the Wasp was suddenly overcome by a strange drowsiness and unknowingly pressed a certain button that caused the time travelers to materialize in the past, enabling them to battle Zemo and his androids. However, their materialization was brief, and as it ended the future Cap threw his shield to that it would free his past self and Bucky from the bonds holding them. Then, after watching the booby-trapped drone plane launch and explode, presumably killing Bucky, the time travelers returned to their present.^[13] However, after returning to New York City, the Avengers sensed that something was different and they discovered what it was when they returned to Avengers Mansion and found the five original Avengers there. The two teams briefly battled, each believing the other to be imposters, until the time travelers escaped. Realizing that they were now on another Earth, the 616 Avengers sought out the Herodotron and from it learned that on this world the Scarlet Centurion had appeared to the Avengers just as the Hulk had been about to quit, and had promised to provide them with knowledge that could prevent famine and plague and vanquish evil if they would correct a cosmic imbalance caused by an excessive number of super-powered beings. Agreeing that solving all the world's ills was worth it, the 689 Avengers had set about tracking down and capturing every other super-powered being on their Earth, both super-heroes and super-villains. Concluding that Doom's dismantled time machine was their only hope, the 616 Avengers split up to retrieve the three sections and reassemble them. Along the way, they battled and defeated the 689 Avengers who had been sent to destroy them by the Centurion, then brought the three sections and their defeated foes to Doom's American castle. Just as the time machine was nearly operational, the Scarlet Centurion appeared and attacked them, revealing that he had manipulated them and caused them to materialize in the past in order to disrupt history, and had allowed them to remain alive until now so that they could defeat the more powerful 689 Avengers for him. Although the Centurion seemingly defeated all of them, Goliath was able to turn into Ant-Man, enter the time machine and activate it, turning the entire room into a huge version of the chrono-square and sending the Scarlet Centurion and the 616 Avengers out of that reality. The Watcher then appeared to the Avengers and revealed that their enemy had actually been the former Pharaoh Rama-Tut who had become the armored Scarlet Centurion after meeting Dr. Doom and who was now destined to continue traveling into the future where he would become Kang the Conqueror, an enemy they had already faced. The Watcher then removed their memories of this other-earthly adventure and caused them to rematerialize in Doom's castle on their Earth.^[14]

At one point, Doctor Doom sent the Enclave and some of his Servo-Guards on a mission to raid the Baxter Building at a time when he had arranged for the Fantastic Four to be attacked while they were away from their headquarters. Doom's minions practically demolished the interior of the FF's headquarters and wrecked much of their equipment, in part to hide the fact that they had actually retrieved all the inventions that Doom claimed Richards had stolen from him, including the time platform.^[15] Later, after all the retrieved mechanisms had been brought to Doom's castle in Upstate New York, Doom had one of his minions use the time platform to send him back months into the past so that he could find and retrieve the Cosmic Cube from where it had lain on the ocean floor since the Red Skull had dropped it while battling Captain America^[16] (as had been shown in Tales of Suspense #81). Doom's later reference to a certain Hulk robot as a "time-snatched artifact" implies that he had also used the time platform to retrieve that robot from some point in the future.^[17]

One Sunday afternoon, while Reed Richards was modifying the time machine's launch pad, the Thing arrived with two guests, Captain America and Sharon Carter, so Reed took a break and, distracted, didn't notice when the Thing accidentally turned on its power feed. Minutes later, the time machine activated and transported a woman named Tarin from the year 3014 A.D. in an alternate future into the laboratory. Once the terrified woman calmed down, she revealed that her Earth had been conquered in the year 3007 by the Brotherhood of Badoon, that most of humanity was dead and the survivors were kept as slaves, and that the leaders of the Underground resistance, the Guardians of the Galaxy, had named their starship after their symbol of liberty, Captain America. Hearing this, Cap, Sharon and the Thing all agree to travel with Tarin back to her future while Reed stayed behind to operate the time machine, reminding them that they had to be back at their arrival spot in 24 hours or they wouldn't be able to return to their own time. Twenty-four hours later, after having helped the Guardians and the Terran Underground take back control of New York City from the Badoon, the time platform returned them to their proper era.^[18]

While rampaging through the Baxter Building, the Puppet Master-controlled Power Man accidentally turned on the time platform and the vibrations from his smashing some equipment caused a cylinder of Vibranium to roll onto the time platform's sending surface where it was sent back in time. Unaware of all that had happened, Reed Richards just turned off the time machine.^[19] A few days later, after Ben Grimm (wearing his Thing exo-skeleton) had accidentally re-activated the time machine, it transported a group of Nazi soldiers into the Baxter Building from London, England, in the year 1946. Thanks to some subtle guidance from the silent Watcher, Reed deduced that the missing Vibranium had changed history and created a timeline (Earth-TRN557) where the Nazis had won World War II, and that that alteration to history might eventually affect all time-continuums. To prevent that from happening, the Fantastic Four traveled back in time to early 1942, appearing in London on Earth-TRN558 in a fortified bunker in London where the Invaders were receiving a briefing from Army officers about recent suspected Nazi activity near Castle Cherbelle in France. After a brief battle caused by a misunderstanding, the two teams were able to work together, stop the Nazis and recover half of the Vibranium cylinder before the FF returned to their own time. Although Reed and most of the FF assumed that the menace was over, Ben Grimm was less certain and his fears were confirmed when the Watcher appeared before him.^[11] With some more subtle guidance from the Watcher, Grimm was led to realize that the missing half-cylinder had ended up back in the past of Earth-616. Then, after seeing that the present was being changed by the past, Grimm used the time platform to travel back to New York City in 1942 where he teamed up with the recently-formed Liberty Legion to defeat another group of Nazi agents and retrieve the rest of the Vibranium cylinder. Grimm then used the time platform to return to his now-unaltered present.^[20][21]

Wanting to retrieve the Black Knight (Dane Whitman) from the past so that he could join a new lineup of Avengers, Hawkeye traveled to Latveria to use the time platform to go back to the 12th century,^[22] but was attacked during the voyage by Kang and ended up appearing in the desert near Tombstone, Arizona, in the year 1873.^[23] When Hawkeye failed to come back from his time trip, Iron Man and Moondragon went to that castle in Latveria where, finding the time machine missing, they concluded that Hawkeye had never returned from the past.^[24] However, just as they were about to leave, the time platform silently reappeared, with blood on its deck, which made them suspect it was a trap.^[25] After the duo returned to Avengers Mansion and reported that Hawkeye had been trapped in the past as a lure for the rest of the team, everyone agreed that Kang was responsible, so Moondragon and Thor contacted Immortus so that they could track Hawkeye without using a mechanical time machine. After their own brief battle with Kang, the trio arrived in 1873 where they met five Old West cowboy heroes (the Rawhide Kid, the original Night Rider, the Two-Gun Kid, Kid Colt and the Ringo Kid) who led them to Hawkeye.^[26]

After Cotton Mather somehow appeared in the present, he cast a spell that compelled the Scarlet Witch to fly to Doom's abandoned castle in Latveria where he attacked her. Before losing consciousness, she cast a hex-sphere that located Spider-Man in New York City and transported him to the Latverian castle. Although unable to stop Mather from using the time platform to take himself and the mind-controlled Scarlet Witch back to his time, Spider-Man was able to use the time platform to follow them, arriving near Salem, Massachusetts. in the year 1692. Spider-Man was soon joined by the Vision, who had also used the time platform to come after his wife. After the trio later confronted Mather and his master, the Dark Rider, they were joined by Dr. Doom, and then by Moondragon. Once the five time travelers had managed to defeat and destroy the Dark Rider, Doom used the time-circuitry in his armor to return to the future. When Spider-Man stated that he wished to stay and try to save the accused witches from being hanged, the Vision, the Scarlet Witch and Moondragon used the time platform to return home after promising to send it back for him.^[27] Having been too late to prevent the mass hanging, Spider-Man tried to use the time platform to return home, but disturbances in the time stream caused him to overshoot his own time and arrive on a future Earth in the year 2019 where he soon met and teamed-up with Killraven to fight servants of the Martians who had conquered that Earth in 2001.^[28] A second attempt to return home delivered Spider-Man to another future Earth in the year 1990 where he soon met the cyborg Deathlok and teamed-up with him to fight cannibal mutants and two snipers.^[29] After finally returning to New York City in his own time, Spider-Man watched the time platform disappear even as he quickly lost all memories of what he had experienced in the two futures he had just visited.^[30]

Doom continued to use the time platform to travel to the past in order to increase his knowledge of the mystic arts. In order to facilitate trips further into the past, he purchased booster components from Stark International, but Tony Stark cancelled the order; Doom would steal the components anyway. When Stark, as Iron Man, arrived to investigate, one of Doom's assistants, Gert Hauptmann, used the platform to send both Doom and Iron Man back to the 6th century, hoping to dispose of Doom to avenge his brother's death.^[31] Arriving in 6th century England, Doom sought out Morgan Le Fay, who agreed to assist Doom in exchange for killing her half-brother King Arthur. Iron Man sided with Arthur against Doom and Morgan's forces, and convinced Doom to call a truce. Working together using components of their armors, Doom and Iron Man created a makeshift time platform and returned to the present.^[32]

About seven years after the formation of the Fantastic Four, Reed Richards discovered the still-operational time platform in the locked lab on the Richards Family Estate and realized that his father's use of the time machine explained his disappearance. Concerned that Nathaniel might have been trapped on a parallel Earth for years, Reed, the rest of the Fantastic Four, and Wyatt Wingfoot used Nathaniel's machine to travel to wherever Nathaniel had gone, but they ended up arriving on Earth-6311 as it existed in their time, ten years after Nathaniel had arrived there.^[4]

Following the dedication ceremony for Four Freedoms Plaza, Reed and Sue Richards were shocked when they discovered that many of their possessions that they thought had been destroyed months earlier along with the Baxter Building, including Doom's time machine, were somehow intact and now in their new headquarters. To learn what had happened, Reed and Sue used the time machine to travel back in time so that they, while in an out-of-phase state, would be able to observe the moment the artifacts were supposedly destroyed. After obtaining a reading on the spacial-temporal vector of the teleportational energy that took the items, Reed and Sue returned to their present and traced the energy to the Moon and then to the Watcher.^[33]

Seeking a weapon to use against any opposition to his plans to conquer Earth, the alien Dominus searched the Arizona desert until he found Doom's time platform, but discovered that it was damaged beyond repair, couldn't travel in space and could only travel into the past. When confronted by five West Coast Avengers, he activated the time platform beneath them, sending them back to 1876 where they met the Rawhide Kid, the Two-Gun Kid, and the Phantom Rider (who they believed was the same hero as the Night Rider who Hawkeye had met previously). After realizing that the time platform was damaged and that they would be unable to repair it, the Avengers decided to use it to travel back to Ancient Egypt in the hope that the reformed/benevolent Pharaoh Rama-Tut would be able to repair it. However, after setting the machine to send them back 100 years as test, the Phantom Rider attacked Mockingbird and abducted her, pulling her away from the chrono-square as it began transporting the other four Avengers into the past.^[34] Soon after arriving in 1776, the Avengers encountered Carlotta Valdez and, after realizing that she was somehow connected to their ally Firebird, Hawkeye entrusted her with a written message to keep safe for future generations.^[35] Then, carrying the time platform with them, the Avengers flew across North America to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they unknowingly almost encountered the time-traveling Doctor Strange and Clea, and then across the Atlantic Ocean to Egypt where they then traveled back to 2920 B.C. where the benevolent Pharaoh Rama-Tut, unable to help them, could only suggest that they go back to his his reign. Having no other choice, they made one last trip back in time, to 2940 B.C., where they were captured by Rama-Tur's evil younger self. They eventually returned to their own time when Avengers from their time used the Fantastic Four's time machine, rebuilt after Dominus and his minions had destroyed it, to rescue them from the past.^[36]

Some time later, Doom and Iron Man would once again be involved in a time travel caper involving King Arthur, this time being brought to the year 2093 by Merlin. Doom had no interest in Merlin's mission, however, and proceeded to build a new platform to return to his own time. However, despite its more advanced technology, it was prevented from working by the mystical means Merlin had used to bring them there, as both Iron Man and Doom had to return together.^[37]

Following Doom's disappearance following the Onslaught crisis, X-Force and Nathaniel Richards went to Latveria's Castle Doom to secure Doctor Doom's time platform before someone else could. As Cable was about to dismantle the machine, G.W. Bridge and other S.H.I.E.L.D. members interfered, and in the commotion the time platform sent them into Latveria's past during World War II where they encountered Baron Strucker. When they returned to the present, Cable quickly destroyed this version of the time-platform before SHIELD could use it.^[38]

Because the Time Platform is basically a hole in space-time, however, it cannot actually be destroyed. Thus it eventually reappeared on its own in Castle Doom. With the help of Sekmeht Conoway and the Mengo Brothers, Gambit and Courier broke into Castle Doom so the two mutants could travel to 1891, as Gambit’s father, Jean-Luc LeBeau, revealed they were destined to do. There Gambit rescued kid Jean-Luc from the External Candra in London, then travelled with Jean-Luc and Courier to New York City, as Remy had promised to obtain information about Apocalypse from Mister Sinister for Candra. Instead, Gambit bargained with Sinister to save Courier and the Thieves Guild's lives, allowing Sinister to keep a sample of Courier’s cells for study. Though Gambit intended to double-cross Sinister by having Courier destroy the sample, Courier was unable to, thus allowing Sinister to bestow himself with shapeshifting powers. Sinister also removed information about the Old Kingdom and hid it within the recesses of Gambit’s mind. While Sekmeht had been unable to program the Time Platform to return Gambit and Courier to the present day before their time-jump, the two got back regardless, thanks to Sinister restoring Gambit’s full breadth of powers.^[39]

Using the time portal, Doctor Doom traveled to the year 1211, A.D. and became involved in a romantic relationship with Morgan le Fay in exchange for her tutelage in the mystic arts. This arrangement was interrupted when the Mighty Avengers came to Latveria to arrest Doctor Doom for crimes against humanity. During the battle, Doom, Iron Man, and the Sentry, stumbled through an open time travel portal, trapping Doctor Doom and his opponents in the past. Doctor Doom and Iron Man managed to return all three to the present, where the Sentry subdued Doctor Doom.^[40]

Image	Description	Issue
	In Earth-9200, Doctor Doom used it to escape a worldwide nuclear war by traveling to the future where the Maestro ruled Dystopia. His Time Platform came into the possession of rebels led by an elderly Rick Jones who recruited the Hulk from Earth-616 to defeat the tyrant. Once the Maestro was gone, the Abomination and his mutate army invaded Dystopia, causing three different groups to flee back in time to escape to Earth-616 where the first of those groups began calling themselves the Abominations. Back in the future, the Abomination destroyed the machine to strand them in that alternate reality.	Hulk: Future Imperfect #1
	In Earth-9411, the Sinister Six planned to use this time platform, stationed in the Baxter Building, to kill Spider-Man in the past. However, while Electro was sent outside to keep Spider-Man busy, the remaining five members were accidentally sent to different points in the past and the future. Spider-Man and H.E.R.B.I.E. followed them in order to protect history.	Spectacular Spider-Man (UK) #174
	In Earth-12041, Thor sabotaged Doctor Doom's time platform, making it looked like it had malfunctioned.	Planet Doom
	In Earth-13729, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants used the platform to travel to Earth-616, wanting to use it to return the time-displaced X-Men to their time.	X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1
	In Earth-15329, Doctor Doom's broken time platform was placed in Maestro's palace. It was repaired by Spider-Man using Iron Man technology. Spider-Man the used it to return to Earth-616, unaware he was followed by Maestro.	Spider-Man 2099 (Vol. 2) #10
	In Earth-18236, the Time Platform stopped working properly after becoming cursed. Ignoring this, Deadpool used it to travel to the Prime Marvel Universe in order to defeat Master Matrix.	Spider-Man/Deadpool #32
	In Earth-19725, Cassie Lang and Mayhem recovered the Time Platform. Once it was repaired, Mayhem was sent to Earth-982 to save Spider-Girl.	Spider-Girl: The End! #1
	In Earth-61112, Captain America, Iron Man, Nick Fury, Red Hulk, Quake, and Quicksilver used the Time Platform to move forward in time and confront a time-displaced Ultron in the future. Meanwhile, Invisible Woman and Wolverine used it to travel to Earth-26111's past and kill Goliath. They left and arrived in Earth-26111's present. Believing the new reality was worse, Logan then traveled to Earth-616 and stopped his past self from killing Pym and asked for a fail safe to be implanted within Ultron.	Age of Ultron #5
	In Earth-66881, Doctor Doom used the platform to trap the Fantastic Four in the era of pirates.	Exiles (Vol. 3) #4
	In Earth-81191, Donald Birch used the platform to bring the Phoenix Force to his era.	Iron Age: Alpha #1
	In Earth-28245, President Red Hulk sent Logan and Maestro through the platform to Earth-616 to assassinate his counterpart; however, they ran out of time and the platform sent them back.	A + X #1
	In Earth-13164, Doom used the platform to prevent the formation of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four and take over Earth. Later, a reality-displaced Thor used it to return home to Earth-12041.	Planet Doom
	In Earth-44216, Spider-Man used the platform and was accidentally sent to multiple eras in time. He later learned that due to his inexperience, he created multiple, time-spread duplicates of himself. He traveled to the future and learned he was to take one of his temporal paradoxes five years into the past.	Spider-Man: 101 Ways to End the Clone Saga #1
	In Earth-39234, the platform was taken to Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. Facility and guarded by the Venom Symbiote.	Generations: Iron Man & Ironheart #1
	In Earth-71986, a brainwashed Deadpool sabotaged the Time Platform, resulting in the deaths of the time-displaced X-Men.	Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again #3
	In Earth-TRN794, Maestro used the platform and traveled to Earth-21923. After recruiting the Hulk Gang, they traveled to the Prime Marvel Universe. Later, he tried to destroy it to antagonize Logan, but failed and it was discovered and repaired by Forge. Once Logan return to his home reality, Forge destroyed the platform, as per Logan's request.	Old Man Logan (Vol. 2) #50
	In Earth-31444, Black Cat used the Time Platform to escape from Doctor Doom after she stole his mask.	Mary Jane & Black Cat #1
	In Earth-TRN1445, Doom used the Time Platform to transport himself and his allies to the X-Tron controlled Arakko.	Marvel Rivals
	In an Unknown Reality, Spider-Man used the Time Platform in search of a solution to defeat Doctor Doom, but ends up in a future where Doom dominates supreme.	Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #36

• Apparently Doom's early time machine was unable to transport radioactive materials.^[8] Although that machine was later able to transport Godzilla, it seems that the creature's radiation caused it to transport Godzilla sideways in time to Earth-78411 instead of back in time to the Cretaceous Period. The radiation also induced a slingshot effect and eventually rejected Godzilla's irradiated form and hurled him back to the present (Earth-616) from which he had been sent.^[41]

• Initially, the machine required an operator to manipulate a stationary control console that was separate from the platform while someone else used it to time travel.^[7] Later, Doom modified his own armor to incorporate the needed circuitry into it, so that he could time-travel and remotely operate the platform.^[1][10] Later still, Doom added time-circuitry to his armor so that he could time travel without using the time platform.^[42]
  • Reed Richards has also modified his version of Doom's time platform to enable it to be controlled by the travelers, first by adding a control system that was physically attached to the time platform and traveled with it^[43] and later by using small remote-control devices.^[11][33]

• Although part of the time platform is often called the "chrono-square" and the device's entry in Machines of Doom #1 states that its surface area is 10 feet by 10 feet, the time platform has often been depicted as being rectangular in shape and about twice as long as it was wide.^[18][23][44] On one occasion, the surface of the chronal transporter was circular.^[43]

• In Captain Britain and MI13 #10, Doom stated that he had studied under one of Dracula's greatest enemies, suggesting that Doom has traveled back in time to study under Abraham van Helsing.

• While the seven-part "Lost in Space-Time" storyline in West Coast Avengers (Vol. 2) #17–23 was the longest single storyline to involve the time platform and provided dates for the reigns of the evil and benevolent Rama-Tuts, it was not without a couple of glitches.
  • First, although Hawkeye believed that the time machine that had transported them back into the past was the same one he had used in his previous trip to the Old West, that time machine had actually been shown returning to the present in Avengers #140. So, where did the time machine that Dominus found actually originate?
  • Second, while travelling in 1776, the time-lost Avengers almost encountered Doctor Strange and Clea walking with Benjamin Franklin in the streets of Philadelphia. This is meant to be a call-back to events depicted in Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #18–19. However, that two-part story was established as taking place from March to May of the year 1775. So how could the Avengers in 1776 almost run into Strange, Clea and Franklin in 1775?

• Since its first appearance, the time platform has always been shown to be capable of transporting its passengers to any place on Earth at any time. So far, the damaged time platform found in the Arizona desert, the one that was only able to send passengers back in time, is the only one that has been unable to move in space as well as time, with each use transporting it and its passengers back in time to the very same location, relative to the Earth, where they were when they began their journey.

• Given that the position of Castle Doom changes constantly through the universe as time goes by because of the Earth's rotation and orbit, and the movement of the Solar System, and the Milky Way, and so on, the time platform also acts as a "space machine," and can also be used to transport individuals through space instead of time, or both.^[45]
  • While it is undeniable that time machines must also be space machines, this does not necessarily mean that all time travel machines can go anywhere in space and time. As a result, while it's never been stated that the time platform is incapable of transporting travelers to locations outside the Solar System, no published story has yet shown it doing so. Instead, all stories have so far only shown the time platform traveling to locations on Earth-616, to Earths in other timelines or, in one case, to the Moon of an alternate timeline.

• According to the Marvel Chronology Project, Doom's time-jumps in X-Men/Dr. Doom Annual #1998 begin and end at Castle Doom sometime before he was lost in space at the end of Fantastic Four #23, However, the history laid out in Marvel Saga the Official History of the Marvel Universe #13–14 contradicts that by listing the events of X-Men #4 as taking place after the events of Fantastic Four #25–26. Since Doom's time-jumps must take place after Magneto's failed takeover of Santo Marco in that X-Men issue, where can the time travel story be better placed in his chronology?

• In Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Comics Magazine #4, after his minions had stolen the time platform from the Baxter Building and brought it to his American castle, Doctor Doom declared that he had been without his time machine "for far too long." This comment is puzzling because the time platform had been shown to have been returned to that very castle sometime prior to Marvel Super-Heroes #20, and that story definitely took place before the events of that maxi-series. It has been suggested that, contrary to what he said, Doom having had "his" time machine stolen back from the FF in Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Comics Magazine #1 was more a matter of pride than any actual need.

• The way in which the time platform has been shown to function has varied over time. As a result, people who've used the time platform have seemingly been shown teleporting through time or passing through a time portal or riding through the timestream.
  • On some occasions, the people that are standing on the time platform's sending surface when the machine is activated become transparent and disappear, then suddenly reappear at their destination in the past. When it is time for them to return, that sending surface (or retriever) appears floating in the air high above where they arrived and then lowers down to ground level, causing the travelers to return to their own time as the surface (acting like a time portal) passes through them.^[7][8]
  • On other occasions, travel both to and from a destination occurs when the time transporter plane rises up (or descends down) through the travelers, acting as a mobile time portal through which they pass.^{[18][46][33][47]}
  • On still other occasions, the time platform has acted like a vehicle upon which its passengers ride through the timesteam.^[28][10]
  • On one occasion, the time platform apparently just projected its passenger into the timestream.^[23]

• How the time platform functions in any given story affects whether or not it actually travels with the travelers in that particular story.

• The time platform can be programmed to recalibrate the atomic vibration rates of its passengers so that they will be out of phase with the matter of their destination era. This renders the travelers invisible, inaudible and intangible to everyone except themselves, thereby preventing their noncontemporaneous physical presence from disrupting history.^[33]