History Main / ConquerorFromTheFuture

* ''ComicBook/IncredibleHulk'' villain 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.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MegaMan'' 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 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/{{JLA}}, 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.

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

* 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/{{JLA}}, 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/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}, who live in the 30th century.

* The villains from year 2500 in ''Series/TheGirlFromTomorrow'' ponder this, but decide conquering each nation individually would take too much time compared to taking over their OneWorldOrder led by a MegaCorp.

** ''ComicBook/ZeroHour'' 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.

* In ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', Chao Lingshen is a subversion: the major antagonist for a huge portion of the story, bringing advanced technology from the future to meet her goal, she seems like this, but with two key differences: a) she doesn't want to conquer the world, just break the ExtraStrengthMasquerade earlier than "scheduled" and thus prevent a tragedy, and b) she's arguably not even a WellIntentionedExtremist, because she specifically ''avoids'' going to moral extremes to avoid becoming one: She doesn't lie, and [[TechnicalPacifist doesn't kill]]: her army of robot minions are equipped with [[TheNudifier disarmament beams]]. Interestingly, her profile lists ''world domination'' as one of her likes.

* As with its parent series, AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho features quite a few of these. One of the more subtle examples of this trope appears in "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho076Singularity Singularity]]," in which the new-age cult known as the [[PathOfInspiration Somnus Foundation]] is secretly being run by individuals from the far future; having found a way to transmit their minds backwards through time, the Sleepers have [[GrandTheftMe taken over the bodies]] of people in the 21st century and are using the cult in order to track down more compatible bodies for their brethren to take over - with the eventual intention of kickstarting a psychic singularity and transforming the human race into a PhysicalGod powerful enough to change history. For added unpleasantness, the body-snatching process leaves the minds of the unfortunate victims trapped in the Sleepers' own time, condemned to live out the rest of their lives in the Sleepers' [[BodyHorror original bodies]]. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed that the Sleepers are actually the last remaining members of the human race, having transported themselves into the past in a desperate attempt to escape the Heat Death of the Universe.]]

* 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 [[{{Immortality}} immortal]], 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.

* 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/{{JLA}}, 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/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}, 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:

* 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.

* 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]].

* Many ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' fics, such as the ''FanFic/FacingTheFutureSeries'', like to portray Dark Danny as this in stories where he escapes from his SealedEvilInACan status.

* 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]].

** In ''{{Literature/Conquistador}}'', a WWII vet and his buddies find a portal to an alternate universe version of California that Europeans never discovered. They use their access to modern weaponry and resources to create their own pirate kingdom and make themselves rich.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the old ''{{WesternAnimation/Superfriends}}'' cartoon, the LegionOfDoom subvert this by attempting to conquer the future... in the episode [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Conquerors of the Future."]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''

** Originally a Nazi scientist from the year 1946, 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.

** ComicBook/DoctorDoom occasionally plays this role, thanks to his invention of the Time Platform. [[InTheBlood He happens to be a proud descendant of the aforementioned Rama-Tut.]] And possibly also an ancestor of Kang. It's weird.

->'''Cueball''': Well, you know what they say, the past is a foreign country--\\
'''Black Hat Guy''': --with an outdated military and huge oil reserves... hmmm...
-->-- ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' looks at it from the other direction

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Franchise/StarTrek''

** ''Film/StarTrek2009'': After being sucked back in time, Nero decides to get "revenge" on Starfleet for not averting a [[NegativeSpaceWedgie oddly powerful supernova]] in time to save his home planet. Of course, Starfleet has no idea what he's talking about.

* Inverted in ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. [[spoiler: When the heroes travel back in time to retrieve the Infinity Stones, the Thanos of 2014 discovers what they're doing and why: his plan succeeded, but his future self is dead and his work is at risk of being undone. He travels to the present day to stop them, and brings his entire army - the Black Order, the Chitauri, the Outriders - with him.]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* As with its parent series, AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho features quite a few of these. One of the more subtle examples of this trope appears in "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho076Singularity Singularity]]," in which the new-age cult known as the [[PathOfInspiration Somnus Foundation]] is secretly being run by individuals from the far future; having found a way to transmit their minds backwards through time, the Sleepers have [[GrandTheftMe taken over the bodies]] of people in the 21st century and are using the cult in order to track down more compatible bodies for their brethren to take over - with the eventual intention of kickstarting a psychic singularity and transforming the human race into a PhysicalGod powerful enough to change history. For added unpleasantness, the body-snatching process leaves the minds of the unfortunate victims trapped in the Sleepers' own time, condemned to live out the rest of their lives in the Sleepers' [[BodyHorror original bodies]]. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed that the Sleepers are actually the last remaining members of the human race, having transported themselves into the past in a desperate attempt to escape the Heat Death of the Universe.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''ComicBook/IncredibleHulk'' villain the 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.

* Creator/MarvelComics has Kang the Conqueror, 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.

* Empress Istvatha V’han in ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'' is from another dimension but has time travel abilities which she uses to their fullest to let her conquer other dimensions.

** Professor Zoom, meanwhile, is a criminal from the 25th century who uses future technology to become the Barry Allen Flash's EvilTwin and ArchEnemy.

** ComicBook/DoctorDoom occasionally plays this role, thanks to his invention of the Time Platform. [[InTheBlood He happens to be a proud descendant of the aforementioned Rama-Tut.]]

** 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 traveling 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 mutant criminal from the late 21st century, he traveled 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 traveled thousand of years into the future, reinventing himself as the Chronomancer: Conqueror From the Past From the Future!

** Averted for BlackComedy when time-travelling supervillain Chronos punishes a minion by dropping him in the TheCretaceousIsAlwaysDoomed Cretaceous period]].

* Inverted in ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. [[spoiler: When the heroes travel back in time to retrieve the Infinity Stones from the past, the Thanos of 2014 discovers what they're doing and why: his plan succeeded, but his future self is dead and his work is at risk of being undone. He travels to the present day to stop them, and brings his entire army - the Black Order, the Chitauri, the Outriders - with him.]]

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Time's Arrow", Creator/MarkTwain believes Data is this trope.
* The villain Tempus from a multi-part episode of ''Series/LoisAndClark''

* Jeffrey Sinclair in ''Series/BabylonFive'' is an heroic inversion, having come from the future to be a defender against conquerors.

* Ransik, the BigBad from ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'' travelled back from the 30th century to 2001 for this purpose. In fact, [[EstablishingCharacterMoment his first dialogue]] in the series is "If I cannot rule the present, than I shall rule the past!".

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' 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.

Rarely does it occur to them that, if they were meant to succeed, history would already have recorded it, or that they might end up [[GrandfatherParadox screwing themselves up by tampering with time]]; unless, of course, they live in a multiverse. TimePolice exist to [[TerminatorTwosome stop these guys]].