Welcome to the definitive Time Trapper story, and in my opinion one of the best stories of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
They place names upon the unknown and pretend that makes it knowable.
They call this the End Of Time and trust they will not live to see it.
They have called him by a thousand names.
He is Night. Death. Apocalypse. Eternity. Entropy. Time.
To a few who have dared look upon his face that is not a face, he has been known as the Time Trapper.
To all that lives, all that moves, all that hopes that tomorrow will dawn, he is the enemy.
This is his kingdom. And its day has come.
A tale of despair and hope, death and life, sacrifice and heroism.
This… is “Life and Death and the End Of Time”.
Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #50 (1988)
by Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen
cover by Ken Steacy
It also has one of the best covers ever. I want a poster of this beauty SO badly.
I started the review by quoting its poetic introduction of the Time Trapper, but the incipit is equally beautiful and terrifying.
I also put that quote at the beginning because I know it by heart at this point.
But having it narrated in contrast with the barren wasteland of the End Of Time is priceless.
This issue sees the return of Keith Giffen’s artwork… and this is when his style has changed drastically.
I really like most of what he does with the scenes set at the End Of Time, but the rest of it introduces several elements that are going to become a serious problem in the rest of the run.
The way he draws faces is weird and sometimes off-model; I would never have guessed these are Ultra Boy and Timber Wolf if it wasn’t for the costumes!
Speaking which, Giffen is going to introduce some atrocious costumes soon.
The Legion is gathering material for Brainiac 5’s new plan to attack the Time Trapper, and we get an interesting perspective of the whole Pocket Universe plot.
It’s about time (pun intended), considering how integral time travel has been to the Legion universe.
Things are extremely tense for everyone, as they sense a milestone event coming.
Last issue included the surprise return of Rond Vidar to the land of the living, after he was presumed dead during the Universo Project.
We WILL get an answer on just how Rond is still alive later in the story, but it’s kind of weird that the Legion doesn’t press on the issue.
Like I said I have my problems with the way Giffen currently draws faces, but his Brainiac 5 closeups are great. He manages to say so much without words.
Saturn Girl is a little more suspicious than him, but she doesn’t want risking using telepathy to read Rond’s mind, thinking it might be part of the Time Trapper’s manipulation.
Mon-El is a bit more relaxed about the whole thing.
It takes a while, but eventually Brainiac 5 is able to build… whatever it is he’s doing.
And surprisingly enough he has the approval of nearly the entire Legion.
Including Polar Boy, which in retrospect is kind of hypocritical considering his actions in the next issue. But it also once again highlights how much he completely fails at being the team’s leader, considering nobody cares about his opinion.
The new time machine created by Brainiac 5 is going to need an infinite amount of energy to break the Iron Curtain Of Time.
And to achieve that they’re going to exploit the Infinite Man!
Who we last saw in issue 38, after which he’s reverted back to a vegetable.
There’s an intense discussion with White Witch about the morality of using his body for this.
Dream Girl is not the only one disapproving her sister’s reaction. Kind of surprisingly, even Blok doesn’t understand her objections.
This is one of the surprisingly few cases when the “science versus magic” dichotomy shows up in the Legion. This might be a controversial opinion, but I think this story manages to achieve something far deeper on the subject that the whole Magic Wars arc that will end the series.
As an atheist I very much agree with Brainiac 5, but we also have to consider that magic is real in the Legion universe so I also kind of agree with White Witch.
She is so offended by this that she just leaves in anger. She doesn’t officially leave the team, but she only has TWO other appearances in Volume 3.
Considering that from this issue Keith Giffen is the co-writer, and considering how he will handle the character in Volume 4 once Levitz is no longer on the book… I get the distinct feeling that the two had VERY different ideas on how to handle the character.
This is an INCREDIBLY risky plan, if you remember just how absurdly dangerous Infinite Man was.
First new terrible redesign: Bouncing Boy with a moustache.
Thanks, I hate it.
The new Time Cube(patent pending) is ready to leave for the mission. Carrying ONLY the members of the conspiracy.
I’ve been very critical of Polar Boy’s leadership, but this is just so embarrassing I feel bad for him.
There’s also a stowaway on board: Rond Vidar joined the conspiracy.
And so here we are… the End Of Time.
And the Time Trapper is quick to show why it was A VERY BAD IDEA to fight him in his own domain.
Even having a time machine is not going to work.
Despite showing he’s massively overpowered, the Time Trapper still has a mind so Saturn Girl has a better shot than anyone.
Even the Time Trapper acknowledges that Saturn Girl is the best!
But the Time Trapper’s mind turns out to be impenetrable even to the galaxy’s best telepath.
Compare the respect he showed her with the utter contempt he has for Brainiac 5.
We may have left Polar Boy back in the 30th century, but this is absolute zero coldness.
So, uhm, what exactly was the plan for Duo Damsel’s contribution?
I’m not trying to be funny, that’s a legit question: everybody else could conceivably have a shot at him, but her?
We learn why she was so focused on joining the conspiracy to avenge Superboy.
We already knew in the Silver Age that she had a crush on him, but apparently it was MUCH more serious than it looked.
She also suffers the worst fate of all the Legionnaires present, because the Time Trapper kills her duplicate body… AGAIN.
Just out of sheer cruelty.
This will get A LOT of focus later on. It’s a powerful moment in its own right.
You might have noticed there’s one Legionnaire who has taken a backseat so far.
And it makes sense that Mon-El would be the one most affected by Superboy’s death.
For Duo Damsel, he was the first love.
For Saturn Girl and Brainiac 5, he was a friend.
But for Mon-El, he was a brother.
Too bad the Time Trapper is completely untouchable. He was not exaggerating when boasting that at the End Of Time, he’s basically invincible.
This is also the debut of what will become my personal nemesis during the Five Years Later era.
The 9-panel arrangement I call “The Grid”.
Giffen is going to abuse the hell out of The Grid, which will become a constant during the initial part of the 5YL.
To put it mildly, I hate The Grid with the power of a billion exploding stars.
But… and don’t expect me to say it often… HERE, it works.
It’s a very effective way to show the utter failure of Mon-El’s assault, underlining the sheer hopelessness of the situation.
But the Time Trapper has had enough, and he prepares to disintegrate all the Legionnaires.
That’s when Rond Vidar, of all people, suddenly shows up…
…protecting the team from the attack!
BECAUSE HE’S A GREEN LANTERN.
Yeah, uhm, sorry but… this makes precisely ZERO sense.
First, Universo was kicked out of the Green Lantern Corps, how could he still have his ring???
Second, are we supposed to believe Rond Vidar had access to a ring THIS ENTIRE TIME and didn’t bother to use it even once???
Even this random revelation is not enough to impress the Time Trapper, who retaliates in an AWESOME panel…
…and then proceeds to destroy some planets, even going as far as using a two-page spread.
Mon-El is still not out of commission (!!!) and he throws the Time Trapper into a star.
Am I the only one having flashbacks about Superman’s last fight with the Anti-Monitor at the end of Crisis?
If so, things don’t play out the same way.
At this point all the Legionnaires are out of commission, with the exception of Brainiac 5.
This exchange is one of my favorite parts of the story.
Brainiac 5 talking about wanting to travel through time for knowledge, only to find friends and love.
Time Trapper declaring that everything is meaningless, that death is the only ending and that hope is useless…
…and most importantly, Brainiac 5 having the best possible answer to nihilism.
Laughing in its face.
Little bit of a sore spot for Time Trapper.
This is the essence of the Time Trapper. It’s the cosmic horror of an uncaring universe.
Brainiac 5 has been skeptical of the Time Trapper’s boasts, but he concedes he’s right.
To paraphrase the story’s introduction, he’s not just time and entropy. He’s death itself.
This story is the Time Trapper at the top of his game. He can’t be more powerful, more cruel, more inevitable.
Perhaps before joining the Legion, Brainiac 5 may have accepted that.
But now… without powers, without weapons, after his mightiest allies have failed, when he’s facing the ultimate enemy at its peak, when he’s facing desperation… he comes up with a solution.
By summoning the thematic opposite of Time Trapper: the Infinite Man.
As a reminder, the Infinite Man is A BIG DEAL. He’s seen the entire history of the universe play out over and over and over again.
While this could easily turn into a battle of who can chew the most scenery…
…which DOES happen, but it also turns into a bit of philosophical discussion.
What is more powerful, the inevitable decay of things? Or the lasting legacy of history?
The Legionnaires survive only because of Rond’s Green Lantern Retcon Ring.
And just in time (pun intended) because the Infinite Man is just about to win this battle by sending the Time Trapper back to the beginning of time.
I love the way those panels integrate the montage, it really give the impression that we’re only able to see a tiny portion of a much grander battle that we can’t fully understand.
Brainiac 5 does get to delivery the final blow, both defeating the Time Trapper and even gaining the forgiveness of the Infinite Man.
Rond is also able to bring everyone back to the 30th century, and it’s clear that the team REALLY took a beating.
Take a moment to appreciate that these guys just defeated the Time Trapper IN HIS OWN DOMAIN.
And so we end the issue with repeating the awesome initial description of the End Of Time.
But with a starkly different ending, because the Time Trapper is no more.
In all the universe, it seems there only remains energy enough to swirl the fragments of the past and abandon hope of the future.
This was his kingdom, and its last day has come.
Legion significance: 10/10
Oh boy, does this have repercussions!!!
The Time Trapper is dead for the rest of Volume 3, and once he comes back in Volume 4 he’s the catalyst for a massive amount of retcons.
Mon-El is out of commission for the rest of the volume as well, Rond will leave next issue, and Duo Damsel begins a journey that will last throughout Volume 4 and will also be expanded in the Retroboot.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Most definitely not.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
As if it wasn’t clear from the review, I absolutely adore this issue.
But if I’m trying to be impartial, it’s not without flaws.
I hate the connection to the Green Lantern Corps for both Universo and Rond Vidar: it comes out of absolutely nowhere and it doesn’t really make sense considering what both have been through.
The moral dilemma about killing the Time Trapper will take center stage next issue, but I think it should’ve been given at least a bit of spotlight here… everyone seems to be in favor of it here.
The only serious objection to the plan is by the White Witch. And while I really liked the philosophical aspect of her discussion, to me it seems a bit out of character for her to just decide to leave. ESPECIALLY knowing what she ends up doing later.
I’ve already mentioned my problems with some of the artistic choices, and while this issue does open the door for the more dark atmospheres the Legion will explore both in Volume 3 and Volume 4… I don’t think that’s necessarily a problem HERE.
Because yes, there are some very dark and very violent moments here, but it’s also a total repudiation of the Time Trapper’s argument.
The message of the story is that there is always hope in a better tomorrow, and what’s more Legion than that?
Unfortunately, while it’s not this issue’s fault… the Legion’s future is about to suck soon, at least in my opinion.
Because I consider this story, and the epilogue in the next issue, to be the last good stories of the Legion for a depressingly long time.
Things are going to be very dark and very edgy, the artwork is going to take a turn for the worst, and a new threat is looming just around the corner… The Grid.
We are legion
24 active Legionnaires
6 reserve members
12 deceased members
2 resigned members
1 honorary member
45 people have been members
50 people have been rejected
I love this story as well, the idea of using the Infinite Man to counter the Time Trapper is brilliant. I know I didn’t see it coming.
I can see that we’re going to disagree with one another about the upcoming Legion era. The 9-panel grid use was, obviously, inspired by Watchmen, which was at the time hailed as the best comic book ever (perhaps tied with Dark Knight), and I personally found it well-suited for portraying motion through both time and space. (There’s a page in the first issue of volume 4 that comes immediately to mind.) I also really liked how that era had a lot of mystery in it as well as tons of deep-dive Legion history.
I couldn’t help comparing this story to the earlier one in the Legion tabloid in which the entire Legion went up against the Time Trapper (the Controller version). It was monumentally stupid for only these four to fight the living embodiment of entropy. Duo Damsel’s fate was just waiting to happen.
In the end, the Legionnaires win–because of course they do. And there are enormous ramifications for the rest of the run. But Rond Vidar as a GL does indeed seem like deus ex machina.
I’m not bothered by Rond being a GL. In one panel, he says the Guardians have been keeping an eye on earth, so they may have given him his own ring. Does the story actually say he was using his dad’s? Even if he was, perhaps the Guardians confiscated it from Universro and gave it to him. Also, it’s not clear when they recruited Rond to be a GL. It could have been any time before or after his previous appearances (unless I’ve missed a reference somewhere).
As for my main man, Mon-El, this is basically his swan song in V.3. He later passes away as result of his injuries when the technology keeping him alive is disrupted. Sad as that is, I accepted it. He truly died a hero and in the way many real heroes die–not on the battlefield but due to the lingering effects of a life exposed to combat. I appreciated the realism.
This issue is in some ways the first hint of what the five-years-later Legion will be. Giffen’s very angular new style, matched with the nine-panel grid, makes everything feel very arid, stagnated, lifeless. A good match for scenery of the end of all things, not so much for entire runs of previously optimistic and idealistic characters.
I don’t know much about the mentions of the GLC and the Guardians in the 30th and 31st centuries, but I believe that the origin of Universo involves his rebellion against the Corps. It makes some sense that he would lose his ring and give it to Rond Vidar… sure, that amounts to making a spy and a clandestine agent out of him, in direct challenge to Earth law. But that is, if nothing else, realistic.
It is not reasonable to expect Oa to feel duty-bound to comply with Earth law’s expectations; Oa is very much out of their jurisdiction. Rond Vidar was a good choice for a clandestine Earth GL because he is well-placed to watch for sensitive developments in the planet, being connected to several influential individuals and groups. In this story we also see that giving him the ring also protected him from Universo’s predictable revenge attempt.
Notably, even in this story Rond Vidar isn’t really challenging Earth law. He is as removed from the reach of Earth’s jurisdiction as anyone could be; there can be no issue except perhaps for the moment after they return to the 30th century. The Scientific Police might conceivably want to confiscate the ring or explicitly forbid its use, but that would serve little purpose beyond creating diplomatic tensions and invite a defense based on the need to protect lives of others. The Legionnaires are not likely to expose him either, although I suppose it is a real risk in a group of over 20 persons.
The very next issue reveals that Rond is now formally outed as a Green Lantern and is staying off Earth to comply with Earth’s laws on the subject. He sends his testimony in Brainy’s court martial remotely rather than being on Earth at Legion HQ. So either the Legionnaires did expose him, or he saved them the trouble.
I wouldn’t have minded the death of the Legionnaires in this issue -I mean, the guys went on with a mission to KILL an enemy, to exact sheer vengeance. The Legion never forbade, and rightly so, the taking of a life, even an enemy’s, so this should’ve been the swan song for these heroes. An even more powerful finale for THE most powerful story ever. (let’s face it, there’s always a way to bring a hero back anyway!)
You’ve said pretty much everything I would about this story; it is a freaking gem. Possibly the best single issue of the whole team’s history. To me (and a few others I’ve come to find out) this is the real ending of the Levitz run and the rest of volume 3 works sort of as a transition period between eras, which is why I also mostly agree with your assessment of the rest of the volume (the single issue story before the Magic Wars was enjoyable imo).
I don’t think the Rond GL dilemma is nearly as outrageous as some point out. Vidar mentions that the Guardians wanted to keep an eye on earth, which indicates that he got the ring from them and not from Universo. It being the same ring might have even served as a tool to convince Rond to play spy for them, digging into his desire to make up for his father’s crimes (I got that feeling from his Adventure era appearances). There’s also plenty of room for this event to happen considering the long gap between his appearances.
About Mysa leaving: If you recall in #26 she left quite nonchalantly right at the time in which Legionnaires were missing and the Fatal Five were on the loose. To me that reads that apart from Nura and Blok she really didn’t have such strong connections to the rest of the team and to Earth, even if she was overall comfortable living there.
One thing I couldn’t understand is how Saturn Girl could risk her life like this given that she’s a mother. I don’t see this explained before or after the story. Surely Lightning Lad would have been shocked or angry.