Jaxon Rugarth was a professor at Metropolis University's Time Institute in the latter part of the 30th Century. He volunteered to test an extremely powerful time machine developed by Rond Vidar, a leading theorist and the son of Universo as well as being an honorary member of the Legion of Super Heroes.

The theoretical purpose of the machine was to test if time's flow was circular - sending Rugarth into the distant future so he would travel full circle back to his starting point.

Unfortunately, the machine was even more powerful than Vidar foresaw and Rugarth repeatedly circled time until he changed into the incredibly powerful being known as the Infinite Man. Whatever forces actually wrought the changes may be unknown, but Rugarth now possessed tremendous control over the fabric of time itself, and he used these powers to seek revenge on Rond Vidar.

The members of the Legion of Super Heroes managed to prevent the Infinite Man killing Rond, and sent him back to circle endlessly through time. Later during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Infinite Man found he could utilise energies given off by the Anti Monitor to free himself. In the resulting battle with the Legion, those energies and the ones that originally turned Rugarth into the Infinite Man were stripped, and he returned to normal.

Travelling to the the End of Time,Brainiac 5 and Rond Vidar recreated the experiment that originally transformed Rugarth in to the Infinite Man in order to combat the Time Trapper.The Infinite Man - the embodiment of time as a repeating cycle and the Time Trapper - the incarnation of entropy clashed in a last, apocalyptic struggle at The End of Time.Finally the Infinite Man carried the Trapper with him to the Dawn of time, vanishing from view and apparently negating the Trapper’s existence.

The wizard Mordru and his companion,Glorith later absorbed the Infinite Man power in order to recreate the universe in their own image but their plan was once again thwarted by the Legion of Superheroes.

Powers & Abilities

As an incarnation of time as an endless cycle, the infinite man possesses vast time manipulation powers. He can travel through time, and can move people and objects from one time period to another. He can also focus chronal energy into focused energy beams, though his control over this power is imperfect.

As testaments of his powers, he was able to stalemate the time trapper in his own realm at the end of time and drag him to the beginning of time moreover, Mordru and Glorith were able to remake the universe in their image with his power.