Slide-Rule of Time

Created by Amabel Holland, the Slide-Rule of Time is an old-fashioned slide-rule that controls the sliding time scale of the Looniverse; that is, the way time flows out of sync with the "real world".

   From what she understands, the standard operation of the Slide-Rule of Time-- i.e., resetting the standard time-scale itself-- requires two things: one, a zero-point, and two, a time period.

   "For example," explains Saxon Brenton as he smiles warmly at the reader, "for a long time all events in the Marvel Universe since the debut of the Fantastic Four (the zero point) took place within the 'last ten years' (the time period). Retcons both large and small enabled the zero point to 'slide' from 1964 to 1984 to 1994, and so on, hence the term, sliding time-scale.

   "And I must assure you that 1994 was not chosen because of its similarity to 1964, but rather because the current zero point for the Marvel Universe appears to be '94, not, as one would expect, 1997, which means that the sliding time-scale for that Universe is, in fact, the last thirteen years, as established in the last issue of the Dan Slott run of THE THING (for the text explicitly states it has been thirteen years since Ben Grimm's second birth as a member of the Fantastic Four, thus entitling him to finally go through his bar mitzvah). To get into slightly more detail..."

   "That's enough, thanks," says Cat.

—LNH Comics Presents #38