Legionnaires 3 #2 (1986)
written by Keith Giffen (plot) & Mindy Newell (dialogue)
pencils by Ernie Colon
I feel you, Time Trapper, these are the worst figurines I’ve ever seen.
The Time Trapper has kidnapped her son, so Saturn Girl is understandably worried sick. Lightning Lad, on the other hand, is having a hard time convincing his sister not to visit (because the Time Trapper threatened to kill the child if other heroes get involved).
Saturn Girl being worried about her son grabbing the Time Trapper’s nose is both hilarious and terrifying.
Hilarious because it’s keeping the running gag and because it’s funny to think a big-time villain being injured by a child… but terrifying because if he does get angry at the kid, we’ve seen that he would probably not hesitate killing a child.
Although does the Time Trapper even HAVE a nose under that hood?
I like how Lightning Lass is able to sense that something’s up with her brother.
Honestly I was half expecting Blok to ask what teething is. Maybe he IS learning about humans.
He still has a long way to go, though.
There’s another relative to be taken care of: the only minor comic relief of Saturn Girl’s aunt.
Notice that she’s also named Imra… that’s Saturn Girl’s civilian name, so is that where she gets her name from?
Also, her aunt is not from Titan. Not only because she’s CLEARLY not a telepath, but there’s also a comment she makes later.
Wouldn’t it be easier for Saturn Girl to give her a telepathic command to leave?
Apparently, the couple lives nearby other Legionnaires because they almost run into Colossal Boy and his wife.
Cosmic Boy asks for a leave of absence from his tenure as a magno-ball coach at Metropolis University. To be fair the issue says he JUST started, but… couldn’t we get ONE mention that this is what he wanted to do after leaving the Legion!?
Back to the star of the miniseries: the Time Trapper. Does he look cool or what?
You know a supervillain is great when they can give the order to keep a baby safe and STILL sound terrifying.
The three founders need to go to the End of Time to recover the baby, but since they can’t go to the Legion to ask for a Time Bubble™ the best option is the Time Institute.
(I might get tired of using the word “time” in this series)
Should be easy, right? Rond Vidar runs things there, and he’s a Legion honorary member.
Saturn Girl’s despair over her son’s kidnapping is done well enough that I can almost forget that it technically happened between panels.
In a surprising bit of realism, the Legionnaires are stopped by bureaucracy!!!
I don’t think anyone can blame Saturn Girl for telepathically knocking out Rond, but was it REALLY necessary to have him fall on his face!?
Brainiac 5’s image inducer holographic projector makes a return, and it’s as ridiculously effective as always.
But again: surprisingly realistic! Turns out that stepping into a highly regulated time machine in a restricted area is much harder than the founders anticipated.
Still… it’s the Legion, and when was the last time the Science Police was successful at anything?
If you’re up to date on Legion lore, you might have wondered: how the heck are they supposed to go past the Iron Curtain of Time, which prevents anyone from reaching the End Of Time?
The answer is satisfactory… they can pass it because the Time Trapper WANTS them to reach his time… but the real question is, what did the founders think was going to happen!?
Well I call it “the End of Time” out of habit. Technically speaking, at the moment the Time Trapper simply lives in the far future, but it’s not THAT far. Yet.
While the artwork makes it difficult to see, these ARE the ruins of Legion HQ.
The Time Trapper has a welcoming committee for them.
You might think the soldiers are here for show…
…but they’re actually SUICIDE BOMBERS THAT RELEASE NERVE GAS.
Most of the Time Trapper’s minions are just mindless henchmen, but there’s one guy with a bit of a personality.
And that’s where we end the issue, with the Time Trapper… exactly in the same position he was last time.
Dude I know you have all the time in the universe, but we don’t… pick up the pace, will you?
Legion significance: 3/10
Cute but skippable.
Silver Age-ness: 1/10
Saturn Girl’s aunt is the only bit of levity.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
The previous issue focused more on the Time Trapper than on the heroes, so I guess this was due. And the focus on Saturn Girl in particular is well done. But overall barely anything happens in the story itself.
“Dude I know you have all the time in the universe, but we don’t… pick up the pace, will you?”
That’s pretty much how I remember this story. It was a great idea to focus on the three founders, but the story went on too long and seemed padded to fit the mini-series format.
I’m glad for this review, though. It reminded me that there was a lot of good in the story. The silent page in #1 where Imra, Garth, and Rokk react to the realization that Graym has been kidnapped is masterful storytelling.
I was never a fan of the Time Trapper as “living embodiment of entropy”–too powerful. And, like you, I wonder why he doesn’t just blast the Legion out of existence and be done with it. His motivations were never precisely clear to me. It doesn’t work for me when all-powerful enemies hate heroes just because. But he does sell being creepy and threatening.
I suspect that your questions about that are precisely what led the Bierbaums to come up with their “Time Trapper created the Legion to suppress the rise of Mordru” theory.