CHRONO-PHONECHRONO-PHONE
Classification: Terrestrial technology (time travel)
Creator: Charles Czarkowski
First Appearance: She-Hulk
II#1 (December, 2005)
Powers/Abilities/Functions: The Chrono-Phone allows sending of messages forward and backward in time.
Charles Czarkowski used the Chrono-Phone to send messages back and forth with his future self, who delivered stock tips to his past self.
The Chrono-Phone appeared to only be able to send messages back and forth to its own temporal counterpart, so messages could only be sent to the possessor of the Chrono-Phone.
History:
(She-Hulk II#2 (fb) - BTS) - Charles Czarkowski
developed time-travel technology. To help fund his expensive work, Czarkowski
used his Chrono-Phone to contact his future self for financial advice.
Charles Czarkowski's future self sent his present self stock tips.
(She-Hulk II#2 (fb) - BTS) <A few weeks before the main story> - One of Baintronics time-transmitters intercepted a call Czarkowski had placed from the future, and they discovered that his future self had been sending him stock tips.
(She-Hulk
II#2 (fb) - BTS) <22 days before the trial in #2> - Czarkowski received a call via his Chrono-Phone. Though the audio was somewhat
garbled, a man he did not recognize seemed to be telling Czarkowski
that he was coming from the future in 6 hours and would kill him unless
Czarkowski killed the man first.
(She-Hulk
II#1 (fb) - BTS / She-Hulk
II#2 (fb) - BTS) - When the man from the Chrono-Phone call appeared before him, Czarkowski
shot him. As the shooting happened in broad daylight in front
of a dozen eyewitnesses and was captured on film, he appeared to have shot a defenseless man in the back.
(She-Hulk
II#1 (fb) - BTS) - The man Czarkowski shot was kept alive on life support.
(She-Hulk
II#1 (fb) - BTS) - Czarkowski was charged with attempted murder, and
videos and photos were frequently shared my the media.
(She-Hulk
II#2) - As the shooting victim's photograph/facial features,
fingerprints, and dental records failed to show up in any
database he and/or his associates could find, and his DNA was unlike
anything the medical
examiner had ever seen, the victim was classified as a "John Doe."
(She-Hulk II#1 (fb) - BTS ) - The Time Variance Authority (TVA) approved and supervised the idea of bringing in jurors from the past so they would not be biased by media portrayals of Czarkowski as a murderer.
(She-Hulk II#2) - Lawyer Jen Walters called Czarkowski to the stand, and then discussed how he used his Chrono-Phone to receive financial advice from his future self, after which she showed the call he had received 22 days ago which seemed to be a man noting he was traveling back in time to kill him.
(She-Hulk II#2 - BTS) - Using a remote device, Czarkowski summoned his robot from the past, creating a distraction, during which he escaped.
(She-Hulk II#2) - Arriving at Czarko Industries, Czarkowski set some random coordinates on his time machine and used the scrambler -- a device that scrambles a time-traveler's DNA, facial features, and anything else that could be used to identify him or her, which prevented corruption of the timestream in the event that the time-traveler was discovered in his or her own past -- so that the TVA would not be able to find him.
Before departing, Czarkowski sent a message to his past self,
warning him of the impending attempt on his life.
As he left the message, however, he realized that his scrambled self was the form of the man he shot, and, in his shocked and confused state, he had verbalized that he was the one to kill Charles Czarkowski.
After the message concluded and was sent, Czarkowski realized what he had done, and he prepared to send another message to clarify things to his past self.
However, Justice Peace then stopped him, intending for him to fulfill the temporal paradox. To complete this, Peace sent the scrambled Czarkowski 22 days into the past, and he emerged on 7th Avenue shortly in front of his past self, who recognized him as his seeming would-be killer and then shot him in the back.
Comments: Created by Dan Slott, Juan Bobillo, and Marcelo Sosa.
I would think it highly likely that Justice Peace confiscated Czarkowski's Chrono-Phone, Time Machine, and possibly the Scrambler for the Time Variance Authority, but this was not confirmed in-story.
The name Czarkowski seems too close to Zarrko (as
in the Tomorrow Man) for the fact that they are both time-travelers to
be coincidence, especially with continuity-conscious Dan Slott as the
writer. Even more clearly, Czarkowski's business was called Czarko
Industries.
2006' All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel
Universe#12 and 2010's Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z
hardcover#14 not Czarkowski as a possible ancestor and included this
note:
Any relationship to Charles Czarkowski of Czarko Industries — who
became the 9th wealthiest man in the world via stock tips from his
future self before unwittingly shooting his disguised future self in
the head, rendering him comatose — is unconfirmed.
Two
definite errors with that…(1) He shot his future self in the back, not the head; (2) He
wasn’t comatose, as he was making inarticulate vocalization. I think
semi-comatose or stuporous would be OK.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Charles Czarkowski's Chrono-Phone should be distinguished from:
images: (without ads):
She-Hulk
II#2, pg. 13, panel 3 (in profile);
panel 4 (message picture);
panel 5message projection);
pg. 21, panel 6-7 (Chrono-Phone, recording message - start and during);
pg. 22, panel 2 (realizing scrambled self was the time-traveler);
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
First posted: 10/02/2022
Last updated: 10/02/2022
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!