Legion of Super-Heroes vol.3 #38 (1987)
by Paul Levitz & Greg LaRoque
cover by Bill Sienkiewicz
One of the best Legion covers ever, and in my opinion one of the best Sienkiewicz covers as well.
You can even tell what it’s supposed to show, something that is not only universal in Sienkiewicz covers.
We begin with Superboy accompanying the Legionnaires he met in Smallville, with Brainiac 5 being the only one understanding what the Time Trapper has done to the timeline.
Superboy then tells them about the time he witnessed Crisis.
Until he was rescued by the Time Trapper. This is a bit contradictory with the origin of the Pocket Universe, because this seems to suggest the Time Trapper picked Superboy from a previously established Earth from the Multiverse.
Meanwhile, an unusually tall Time Trapper (WTF!?) tells the other Legion team that he convinced Superboy to help him thanks to a device that protected this version of Smallville from Crisis.
And I guess this is when we learn that the Time Trapper is currently using the Pocket Universe Smallville as his base of operations. If it came up in the previous issues, I missed it.
Also, I’m not entirely sure this works 100% with the version of the story told in the Superman books.
Still, I really like what Levitz is doing with the Time Trapper. Instead of treating him as just another supervillain, like he was in his Silver Age stories and a few of the later ones, he’s treating him as a cosmic being with a Lovecraftian touch.
At this point in time (pun intended), the Time Trapper is still responsible for the Legion existing in the first place. This will get MUCH more complicated later on, but in some shape or form it’s going to be the true for the rest of this continuity.
The Time Trapper’s monologue is interrupted by Superboy carrying the other Legionnaires to his lair. They are just pretending to be immobilized, while Cosmic Boy’s team really is paralyzed.
I’m not sure if the Time Trapper is calling his bluff, or of he was always going to ask Superboy to murder the Legion.
Superboy of course rejects the offer…
…which the Time Trapper doesn’t take well.
That leads to, of course, a big dumb fight between him and the now unfrozen Legionnaires.
Which means absolutely nothing, as the Time Trapper is not the kind of foe you can defeat with punches. At least not this version.
Even Superboy can’t hurt him, but in the process he damages the same device that was allowing Smallville to exist.
This means that the planet is threatened by Crisis-like symptoms.
The Time Trapper is quite pleased with this, because it will still hurt the Legion.
Although only 8 Legionnaires are present (plus Night Girl), so it would only kill a third of the active members.
It is interesting that apparently the Time Trapper’s ORIGINAL plan was to collapse all alternate realities on each other but “events elsewhere in the time stream” prevented it.
Perhaps a reference to the Crisis?
The reason why I love this version of the Time Trapper is that he is simultaneously a completely alien force of nature AND an extremely petty rival, and I just love that kind of contradiction.
While we were already told previously, this is the official confirmation that ALL the Legion time travel has been retconned into being the work of the Time Trapper.
And so the Time Trapper leaves, sure that the Legionnaires are going to die in this era.
After all, they no longer can travel in time without him.
This is extremely humbling for Brainiac 5, because it turns out he doesn’t understand time as well as he thought he did.
Too bad he can’t even get NEAR the Time Trapper’s machine to repair it.
The problem is that the machine can no longer contain the energies it unleashed, so Superboy offers a solution: offer his own invulnerable body as the vessel.
And considering we’re talking about the energy needed to hold together the entire Pocket Universe, it’s too much even for him.
Superboy doesn’t even allow his fellow Legionnaires to help, and the fact that the Kents are so protective of him they try not to cry is just heartbreaking.
The process saves Earth by moving it “somewhere else”, which is technically speaking what we refer to when we call this the Pocket Universe.
Even after surviving the energies of the Time Trapper’s machine, Superboy is STILL strong enough to carry the Legion back to the 30th century on his own.
But that’s the final straw. Superboy dies in the arms of his almost-brother Mon-El.
This doesn’t get the same level of fame of Supergirl’s death, because this is not the “real” Superboy, but it’s still a touching scene.
In other plots before the final scene, you may recall that along with his new horrible look Wildfire managed to get himself a solid body.
You would think Dawnstar would be happy about it, but what a surprise, she’s STILL giving mixed messages.
The more the series continues, the more I dislike Dawnstar.
Don’t get me wrong, she doesn’t OWE him a relationship, but at least be clear on whether you have feelings for him or not!
She could’ve just said “I’m happy for you but I’m not interested”. Wildfire would’ve been devastated, but at least it would’ve been more respectful than pulling THIS bulls##t!!!
Wildfire, buddy, I’ve told you multiple times: you deserve better than Dawnstar.
Polar Boy keeps having doubts about his abilities to be the leader.
At least he gets some encouragement from Dream Girl. Although considering her leadership wasn’t all that impressive, maybe that’s not such a compliment.
But it’s time for the final scene: the funeral of Superboy.
With Polar Boy hinting at the next big storyline.
The scene is one of the best two-page spreads the Legion gets in this era.
It has several highlights.
Duo Damsel talking about her crush on Superboy when she was Triplicate Girl.
Notice that the background showing the statues of the fallen Legionnaires still includes Supergirl! I guess excluding her from the scene would’ve been too cruel.
Mon-El was probably the one closest to Superboy, reflected in his goodbye.
I don’t know if Saturn Girl saying “he saved my life” is a reference to anything specific; Superboy saved the entire Legion multiple times, but nothing specific to Saturn Girl comes to mind.
And Cosmic Boy gives us the title drop.
Legion significance: 10/10
The death of Superboy will be the starting point of a very important plot that will lead to issue 50, and overall it would be hard to understand anything that happens in the rest of Volume 3 without this.
Silver Age-ness: 1/10
We spend most of the time in a recreation of the Silver Age Smallville, but nothing is done with it. However the concept that the Time Trapper is STILL this petty about the Legion is a bit Silver Age-y.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
Not a bad story, but a real missed opportunity. First of all, while I don’t typically give THIS much importance to the artwork… such a milestone deserved better.
What the heck happened to Greg LaRoque? This is way worse than his typical style, and I can’t blame the inks because it’s once again Mike DeCarlo who HAS done great stuff with LaRoque before. Some of the shadow work done on the Time Trapper is still fine, but everything else is way too stiff and everyone’s face feels off-model.
But it’s not the only problem I have with the story: why are only 7 Legionnaires and one of the Subs present during the last Superboy story? This deserved to be an epic battle with the full Legion!
Or at the very, VERY least, all three founders and a bunch of the veterans should’ve been present.
And for all the praise I have for this portrayal of the Time Trapper as a character… this was his master plan? Really?
We are legion
24 active Legionnaires
6 reserve members
12 deceased members (now including Superboy)
And that’s it for this part of volume 3, because I’ve decided to consider the rest of the series as a separate era. It’s a bit arbitrary, but otherwise the era would be too long and this IS a milestone.
Next I’ll be taking a look at the Pocket Universe fallout in the Superman books, and then we’ll continue the rest of Volume 3.
The Legion Apocrypha retrospective will also be running in parallel with the official one.
Right after the LEGION AWARDS, of course!
The saddest part of this arc, and the final triumph of the Trapper: This all served to nothing! Everything will go SNAFU when this world will be destroyed by Zod and his minions…
Long after this Pocket Universe is forgotten, the Supergirl it produces will continue to fight the good fight. She even gets to romance the Reboot Era Brainiac 5.
There are other ripple effects after Zod. Gangbuster. Superman’s space journey. Warworld.
Regarding the art in this issue, which you note was not up to the usual LaRoque/DeCarlo standard: I have a vague memory that this story arc was something of a rush job. I believe Levitz had been assured that the post-Crisis changes to Superman would not affect his Legion stories, or at least that he could address them at his leisure. But then he received a panicked call from DC editorial, that Superboy had to be eliminated, and ASAP. So he switched gears and urgently charged out these issues, with the artists presumably struggling to keep up with an unexpectedly tight schedule.
My recollection is that Levitz (most likely) related all this in an interview; but it’s been 30 years since I read it. In any case, he produced a moving story—although at the time I felt the sweet-natured Boy of Steel had been cruelly served by DC comics. There’s no doubt, though, that Levitz and Byrne treated the character and arc with due respect. For example, I love the scene in the Action Comics chapter, where Super-Man and Boy embrace, before each goes off to fulfill his destiny. And the “eulogy” by Mon-El in this issue still tugs at the heart.