Justice League – Page 7 – Comics Archeology

SUPER FRIENDS #18 (1979)
by E. Nelson Bridwell & Kurt Schaffenberger

The conclusion to this weird excursion into the Super Friends series. Will this be as surprisingly good as the first part?

Well Time Trapper is my favorite Legion villain so I’ll probably agree with Wonder Woman’s expression, but I’ll try to keep an open mind.

We begin with the Super Friends getting the location (or is the time?) of Time Trapper thanks to the help of Tuatara, the New Zealand hero part of the Global Guardians.

That is one hell of a superpower to waste on a basically throwaway character!
Sorry for all Tuatara fans. All… well I was going to say “all two of them”, but even that feels too generous.

(the above is from Justice League International #8, if you’re curious)

Jokes aside, his power is REALLY impressive here!!!

Jayna brings up a good point: if history cannot be changed and Time Trapper is from the future, shouldn’t all his plans fail by default?
Superman’s answer is basically “This ain’t that kind of story, kid, just don’t think about it”.

What kind of answer is that!? Either history can be changed or it can’t! Make up your mind!!!

Also Superman should be the most knowledgeable about Time Trapper, since he has faced him as Superboy (the Legion was acknowledged existing in this continuity last issue). But instead it’s Batman who comes up with the idea of not using a time machine, because even this far back only Batman is allowed to have ideas.

As acknowledged last time there is ample precedence in Batman stories of hypnosis being used to PHYSICALLY travel through time. It still makes no sense whatsoever.

Thanks to the wonderful folks of Legion World I can share another obscure piece of trivia: the plot of using hypnosis for time travel was used on the 1980 movie Somewhere in time starring… wait for it… Christopher Reeve!

Many thanks to Legion World member Thoth Lad for identifying the second movie where Christopher Reeves travels through time.
(yes he’s traveling back in time and not reversing the rotation of the planet, don’t be so literal)

Superman and Aquaman are first, visiting the Atlantis of the past. It’s fun to see Aquaman acknowledge that he should have absolutely no clue about what’s going on.

Although I would’ve loved a reference to the time Superboy fought in the Atlantis-Krypton war.

Considering that would require him to tell Aquaman that Star Boy sank Atlantis, that’s probably for the best.

Unless it was Lois Lane’s fault.

Time Trapper is attempting to sink Atlantis too early (for some reason) by shaking it really really hard.

Sounds legit.

Unfortunately Superman can’t disable the device without causing it to explode. And he can’t melt the thing with his heat vision because… I’ve got nothing.

This looks like a job for Aquaman! SOMEHOW.

Next we move to Robin and Wonder Woman, who is apparently a scholar on Spanish history.

Yep. Time Trapper wants to stop a marriage now. Are we sure he’s not actually Mephisto?

After the two beat up some armors animated by the Time Trapper…

…we find out the actual reason the Time Trapper was here was to ensure Columbus would never discover America.

Uh. His plan in Wonder Woman #101 also involved preventing the discovery… does the Time Trapper have some kind of personal vendetta against Columbus?
I didn’t know I needed another reason to love Time Trapper, but this is in my headcanon now.

Next is the unlikely trio of Batman and the Wonder Twins, who arrive in 1860. I would expect this to be about American history…

…but out of absolutely nowhere Bridwell also drops some Italian history into the mix!
Not only it’s especially weird to see Garibaldi mentioned in an American comic, but by sheer coincidence I’m reviewing this on Liberation Day.

Even more surprisingly, Time Trapper is not after Lincoln or Garibaldi. He’s after this kid working as a “candy butcher”.
I share the Wonder Twins’ confusion: I have never once heard that expression.

Time Trapper has set up a trap to derail the train, and this 1979 so Batman doesn’t have a solution ready.

Okay, the Wonder Twins didn’t get to do ANYTHING last time, and it’s pretty unlikely they will ever appear in one of my reviews. Impress me, guys!

Eh. That was passable. The twins are still insufferable, though.

Turns out the boy is Thomas Edison, who ends up being deaf in one ear because of an explosion of chemical compounds on the train.

While all of this was going on, it turns out that the Time Trapper has kept the real bodies of the Super Friends hostage… because the hypnosis doesn’t physically send their bodies into the past, it just creates physical copies.
I thought time travel by hypnosis made no sense, but it turns out that it makes no sense in a different way. My bad.

Okay, so we are at the very last page and Time Trapper has the heroes hostage. Has he managed to appear in this series without embarrassing himself?

Well he hasn’t faced his worst enemy yet: GLEEK THE MONKEY.

HE LOST TO GLEEK THE FREAKING MONKEY.

And so we end with Time Trapper being taken away by the Controllers after being insulted by Superman.

Hey remember when THIS was the most embarrassing Time Trapper moment!?!?

Those were the times!!!

Historical significance: 0/10
The Wonder Twins show up in multiple continuities, but Gleek the monkey is noticeably absent from other incarnations. I wonder who could POSSIBLY be responsible for erasing him from the timeline?

Legion significance: 0/10

Silver Age-ness: 10/10

Does it stand the test of time? 1/10
It does feature Thomas Edison being punched in the face, so it’s not THAT bad. Other than that… now THIS is the kind of story I expected from Super Friends.