History Main / ConquerorFromTheFuture

* The villain Tempus from a multi-part episode of ''Series/LoisAndClark''.

Sometimes this is combined with ThoseWackyNazis. For that, see StupidJetpackHitler. See also MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight, the supertrope of time travel used for evil.

* Quint, an evil version of ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' from the time just before VideoGame/MegaManX's awakening, or possibly an alternate timeline, travels back in time to menace his past self in the second and fifth UsefulNotes/GameBoy games and the UsefulNotes/WonderSwan game ''[[VideoGame/RockmanAndForteMiraiKaraNoChosensha Mega Man & Bass: Challenger from The Future]]''.

** The ComicBook/{{Maestro}} (who is actually an evil future incarnation of ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk himself) has become this when various incarnations of him have found their way from the "Future Imperfect" he rules over and into the present day.

* ComicBook/BigBangComics featured the Time Being, a living temporal anomaly caused by a time travel paradox, as the villain of storyline also starring ComicBook/TheSavageDragon. He exists in every possible moment but he operates mostly at the end of time, where he plans to destroy the universe and recreate it as its new god
* Two separate future versions of ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} have pulled this, the more successful being the 64th century native Brainiac 13, who nearly conquered the entire 21st century universe in ''ComicBook/OurWorldsAtWar''.
* In the ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' story arc, ComicBook/VandalSavage, an {{immortal|ity}}, evil JuliusBeethovenDaVinci who has been alive since 50,000 B.C., manages to do this, when it is revealed that he is still alive in the 853rd century and has hatched a plot to send a deadly cybernetic virus backward in time to change the future.
** Interestingly, this ends up as something of a [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstruction]], since the heroes realize that, since the villain's scheme originates in the future, [[spoiler: they have all the centuries in between to sabotage his plan.]]
* The [[ComicBook/DisneyComics Disney comic]] [[http://coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=D+99119 "The World Begins And Ends In Duckburg"]] features a villain from the future who comes and turns off all electricity. (AnAesop follows about not relying on modern technology.)
* In Franchise/TheDCU, the most notable examples are Epoch, the self-proclaimed Lord of Time, who comes from the year 3786 to regularly have his butt handed to him by the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, Chronos the Time Thief, a present-day crook who acquires time travel technology for the same purpose, and the Time Trapper, who is from so far in the future that he is one of these to the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes, who live in the 30th century.
* Also from Franchise/TheDCU, the Sheeda, a race from ''very'' far in Earth's future, thrives by plundering earlier civilizations. They succeeded in destroying one now-forgotten [[{{Expy}} predecessor of Camelot]] but failed to destroy the present thanks to the ComicBook/SevenSoldiers.
* ComicBook/TheFlash fights a number of villains who incorporate this trope to greater or lesser degrees:
** Abra Kadabra (who goes by this alias because his real name is utterly unpronounceable) is a ForTheEvulz terrorist from the 64th century who uses futuristic technology to pass himself off as an EvilSorcerer. When not pestering the Flash, he can often be found masquerading as a stage magician.
** Professor Zoom, meanwhile, is a criminal from the 25th century who recreated the accident that gave Flash his powers to become the Barry Allen Flash's EvilTwin and ArchEnemy.
** While not originally one of these, the supervillain Cobalt Blue (who is related to Professor Zoom above) ultimately became one as part of a convoluted plot in which his MacGuffin gem was passed down to his descendants for a millennium, which ultimately culminated in the original Cobalt Blue reincarnating in the year 2957 and now possessed of the ability to travel through time.
** One of the earliest Flash villains is the obscure Dmane, a criminal from the 70th century who was accidentally sent back to the year 1946 by a time travel experiment gone wrong.
* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': The ComicBook/{{Maestro}} (who is actually [[spoiler:an evil future incarnation of the Hulk himself]]) has become this when various incarnations of him have found their way from the "Future Imperfect" he rules over and into the present day.
* The robot [=Futur10n=] from ''ComicBook/TheIncredibles'' comics. His arsenal includes [[DevolutionDevice Devolution Bombs]].
* In the ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' / ''ComicBook/StrontiumDog'' crossover "Judgment Day", an OmnicidalManiac sorcerer with a thing for zombies who was being hunted by Alpha travels back to Dredd's time to destroy the Earth with his undead hordes and erase Alpha's timeline.
* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' has Xotar the Weapons Master, a criminal from the 120th century. His first attempt (the JLA's second ever appearance, in ''ComicBook/TheBraveAndTheBold'' #29) actually addressed the history problem: Xotar had found a fragmentary old historical document mentioning that he had traveled to 1960 to defeat the Justice League. The story ends with the document being written, revealing that with all the missing portions in place it is an account of his ''unsuccessful attempt'' to defeat the Justice League.
* The ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' rogues gallery includes a couple of these.
** ''ComicBook/ZeroHourCrisisInTime'' BigBad (later DemotedToDragon) Extant was one of the most dangerous enemies the Society ever fought. Originally the hero Hawk, he was forced by ExecutiveMeddling to become Monarch, the villain of the ''Armageddon 2001'' story (who was originally intended to be ComicBook/CaptainAtom). Following this forced FaceHeelTurn, Hawk mutated further into Extant, a deranged incarnation of chaos.
** Originally a lab assistant from the year 1947, Per Degaton morphed into one of these over time, particularly after an encounter with a TimeyWimeyBall split him into two incarnations: the original Degaton and a "chronal duplicate" who ran around committing mayhem while the original Degaton seethed as a SealedEvilInACan. In one story he mentions that it would be foolhardy to try conquering the world after WWII because of how complex and advanced it became, hence why he tried manipulating WWII in his, from his perspective, second attempt.
* Creator/MarvelComics has ComicBook/KangTheConqueror, Rama-Tut, the Scarlet Centurion, and Immortus. The catch is that these are all actually the same guy: he's traveled through time so often, and created so many [[AlternateTimeline Alternate Timelines]], that there is now an entire LegionOfDoom called the Council of Kangs made up entirely of his own iterations. Immortus, it seems, is the original Kang and the oldest, who is now a BoxedCrook: forced to spend eternity undoing the ContinuitySnarl that is the Marvel universe thanks largely to him.
** The miniseries ''ComicBook/AvengersForever'' is little more than an attempt to tie together all those threads. One issue was spent entirely summing up Kang's convoluted history.
** The Scarlet Centurion also appears in Marvel's alternate-universe ''ComicBook/SquadronSupreme'' limited series, albeit without the ContinuitySnarl baggage.
** ComicBook/DoctorDoom occasionally plays this role, thanks to his invention of the Time Platform. [[VillainousLineage He happens to be a proud descendant of the aforementioned Rama-Tut.]] And possibly also an ancestor of Kang. It's weird.
* ComicBook/TheMightyThor occasionally contends with Zarrko the Tomorrow Man, a villain who came from a perfect pacifist utopia but got so bored of it he decided to snatch a nuke from the past and take over. He and Kang mentioned above know each other and don't get along; they've had time wars occasionally.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', the Yorkes are a subversion; they came from the distant future to plunder the past, but during an unexpected detour in 1983, they made contact with the Gibborim, who conscripted them into a plan to remake the world, which kinda rendered any plans they might have had to conquer the world irrelevant, as the world would have ceased to exist in 2003.
* Max Bubba in ''ComicBook/StrontiumDog'', who travels back to the end of the eighth century and sets about wrecking the timeline in order to get revenge on [[FantasticRacism the future]]. It's unclear just how aware he is that he's wrecking the timeline.
* ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'' has Armaggon the Future Shark who regularly uses time travel in every story he appears in. Interestingly, while Armaggon has since become a CanonImmigrant, all his subsequent incarnations have done away with the time traveling conqueror aspect of him, reimagining him in more mundane occupations instead.
* ''ComicBook/{{Vampirella}}'': Professor Benjamin Quatermass originates from a timeline 100 years in the future when humanity has abandoned the Earth's surface for floating cities. In a variation, he invades the past to make sure that his ancestor will ''invent'' time travel technology, allowing for the incredibly complicated series of events to ensure that he'll control all timelines.
* The Future, one of the five heads of the Fraternity in Creator/MarkMillar's ''ComicBook/{{Wanted}}'', is a Conqueror From The Future clearly based on Kang and his crew. Only [[StupidJetpackHitler crossed with Nazis]].
* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
** ComicBook/{{Cable}}'s crazy son Tyler Dayspring became one of these when his madness worsened to AxCrazy levels and he reinvented himself as Genesis, the self-styled successor of ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}}.
** Preceding Genesis above (oddly enough given the former's name) was Stryfe, the ArchEnemy of Cable who drove his son crazy in the first place before travelling to the present day to work out his raging Oedipal complexes through pointless terrorism and biological warfare.
** Trevor Fitzroy's character path eventually took him down this road as the Chronomancer, though in his case it was a rather convoluted path -- originally a dilettante turned heroic mutant revolutionary turned mutant criminal (thanks to Layla Miller resurrecting him without a soul) from the late 21st century, he travelled back in time 80 years to escape prison time and his ArchEnemy Bishop. After pinballing around the present day for a while, he eventually realized he'd been thinking too small and travelled thousand of years into the future, reinventing himself as the Chronomancer: Conqueror From the Past From the Future!

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears'' cartoon, Vile and Spark Mandrill came to the past to steal some Dr. Light's new Lightanium energy rods, so they could sell them in the future. Unfortunately for them, VideoGame/MegaManX went back to the past to stop them.
* In the old ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' cartoon, the LegionOfDoom subvert this by attempting to conquer the future... in the episode [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Conquerors of the Future."]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' cartoon: in a reversal of the basic setup of "31st-century heroes summon 21st-century Superman to help", the second season has a 41st-century Superman clone summon the 31st-century heroes to help against the warlord Imperiex. Both the Superman clone and Imperiex remain in the 31st century (their past) for the rest of the season. (Note that this only applies to the cartoon Imperiex, not the comic character he was based on.)

** In the three-parter "The Savage Time", Vandal Savage sends a laptop computer and a complete history of World War II to his 1930s-era self, so that he may use the advanced technology and foreknowledge of history to take over the Nazi war machine, defeat the Allies, and conquer the world.
** Averted for BlackComedy when time-travelling supervillain Chronos punishes a minion by dropping him in the [[TheCretaceousIsAlwaysDoomed Cretaceous period]].
-->'''Chucko''': You think I'm scared? *ignites dual-bladed lightsaber* I'll be running this dump in a few yea... ''(sees asteroid coming down on his head)'' [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Oh phooey...]]

* {{Subverted}} in ''WesternAnimation/SabrinaTheAnimatedSeries:'' Sabrina goes back to ancient Rome with Gem and the two wind up in front of UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar. Gem tries to intimidate him with a flashlight, but he's [[DeadpanSnarker less than impressed]].

* In ''Animation/{{Gandahar}}'', the Metal Men are invading Gandahar from a thousand years in the future. They petrify the locals and transport them to the future so that [[spoiler:their creator, the Metamorphis, can sustain its ailing body by draining the Gandaharians of their cells]].

* Kang The Conqueror and his nearly-infinite variants are the [[GreaterScopeVillain Greater-Scope Villains]] of ''Series/Loki2021'', the [[TimePolice Time Variance Authority]] was specifically created to prevent Kang from arising again, [[spoiler: which, at the end, he did]].

* In ''Film/AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania'', Kang The Conqueror makes his live-action debut, he is a 31st century time-traveler who has conquered and wiped out multiple universes, he ended up being imprisioned in the Quantum Realm as it is stated to be the only prison that could hold him, and he ended up conquering it too. [[spoiler: [[TheStinger The Stinger]] also reveals the presence of Rama-Tut, the Scarlet Centurion, and Immortus as the leaders of the Council of Kangs.]]

* In ''Film/AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania'', Kang The Conqueror makes his live-action debut, he is a 31st century time-traveler who has conquered and wiped out multiple universes, he ended up being imprisioned in the Quantum Realm as its the only prison that could hold him, and he ended up conquering it too. [[spoiler: [[TheStinger The Stinger]] also reveals the presence of Rama-Tut, the Scarlet Centurion, and Immortus as the leaders of the Council of Kangs.]]

* Kang The Conqueror and his nearly-infinite variants are the [[GreaterScopeVillain Greater-Scope Villains]] of ''Series/Loki2021'', the [[TimePolice Time Variance Authority]] was specifically created to prevent Kang from arising, [[spoiler: which, at the end, he did]].

This is a character, very common in ComicBooks and occasionally appearing in other forms of ScienceFiction, who comes from a distant future, where the technology has advanced to the point where time travel is possible. Having found conquering his own time either too difficult or too easy, he travels back in time to the present, where he sets about using his advanced technology to conquer our world and become an EvilOverlord.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/KangTheConqueror https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kang_the_conqueror_8.jpg]]]]