Time Trapper
Encyclopedia
The Time Trapper is a fictional character
, a supervillain
in stories published by DC Comics
. The Time Trapper's main enemies are the Legion of Super-Heroes
. While the character first appeared as "The Time Trapper" in Adventure Comics
#317 (February 1964) in a story written by Edmond Hamilton, a similar character named "The Time Master" had appeared earlier in Wonder Woman
#101 (October 1958) in a story written by Robert Kanigher. In Super Friends
#17 (February 1979), writer E. Nelson Bridwell wrote a story that hinted that the two characters were one and the same.
The Time Trapper's main powers are depicted as vast control over time
itself. The Time Trapper's lair has been located at the end of time
.
, whom he eventually murdered.
The Time Trapper (as The Time Master) appeared in 1958 to challenge Wonder Woman and Colonel Steve Trevor
under the alias T.Y.Master by creating a diabolical "fun house." Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor were transported to various disasters throughout time when opening an door before defeating the Time Master by Wonder Woman vibrating through the doors. The villain then admitted defeat and disappeared, possibly returning to the "Iron Curtain of Time".
In February 1979, Time Trapper appeared again to defeat the Super Friends
. During the investigation, Wonder Woman suggested that the Time Master and the Time Trapper were the same person. Superman deduced that the Time Trapper wanted to get rid of all superheroes throughout time, particularly the Legion of Super-Heroes. Time Trapper kidnapped and transported the Wonder Twins
in the past by trapping Jayna on Krypton
and Zan on a water planet near the star-sun Neryla. With the help of Queen Hippolyta
, the Super Friends separated into small teams to locate and rescue the Wonder Twins. Returning to the present, the Super Friends defeated The Time Trapper who then disappeared. Superman
believed he was imprisoned by the Controllers from his world.
Later, it was revealed that the Time Trapper was a member of the fascist but well intentioned race of Controllers
. The Time Trapper was defeated by the Legion and it was believed that his menace ended when the villain Darkseid
removed almost all of his power during the Great Darkness Saga.
Later retcon
s made the Time Trapper not a Controller at all, but of a wildly changing series of origins. These origins include him being the Legionnaire Cosmic Boy
, Lori Morning
, Superboy-Prime
, the living embodiment of Entropy in the Universe, and a sentient alternate timeline.
One of the more noteworthy stories involving the Time Trapper came after the reality-altering mini-series Crisis on Infinite Earths
and the 1986 revamp of Superman
's origin, which removed Superboy
from Superman's and the Legion's history. Given the problems this posed for Legion continuity, it was later revealed that the Time Trapper created a pocket universe
from a slice of time in the distant past, and altered events in this reality so that an Earth resembling the pre-Crisis one was formed, complete with its own Superboy. The Time Trapper then further manipulated the timestream so that whenever the Legion would travel into the past to visit the 20th century (or Superboy visited the Legion's future), the two would be directed into each other's worlds. However, the "pocket universe" lacked a Kryptonian Supergirl, and thus was not a perfect answer to patching Legion continuity. (The "pocket universe" was later revisited and made the point of origin for a non-Kryptonian Supergirl, also known as Matrix
).
Four Legionnaires, (Duo Damsel, Brainiac 5
, Saturn Girl
, and Mon-El
) were involved in a conspiracy to destroy the Time Trapper, against the Legion's regulations. They managed to reach his citadel at the end of time and seemingly destroyed him by using the Infinite Man
against him. During this attack, Duo Damsel's second body was killed and Mon-El was put into a coma.
Following the five-year gap in Legion history, Brainiac 5 learned that the Trapper's essence had survived in Mon-El's mind. Mon-El then murdered the Trapper in the Pocket Universe, which caused a chain reaction throughout time and resulted in the sorcerer Mordru
dominating the universe for a time. Mordru's former sidekick Glorith
, through a magical spell, managed to take the Trapper's place in history and it was revealed that the Time Trapper had originally engineered the creation of the Legion in order to halt the inevitable rise of Mordru.
However it is eventually revealed that the Time Trapper had managed to survive and was probing Glorith's mind in a effort to regain his power. Enraged by this violation of her person Glorith confronts the Time Trapper in the remains of his Pocket Universe and literally consumes him effectively becoming the Time Trapper.
The Time Trapper appeared to have been killed by Parallax
during the 1994 Zero Hour
storyline, but was apparently reconstructed with the universe at the climax of that story. Keeping a promise he had made to the pre-Zero Hour version of Cosmic Boy, he did not intervene to ensure the creation of the post-Zero Hour Legion, but after they were formed, he briefly bedeviled them, with memories of all of his previous incarnations intact. The identity of this incarnation of the Time Trapper remains unconfirmed; some evidence suggests that it may be a future version of Lori Morning
.
The Time Trapper later states that he made countless attempts to separate Superman from the Legion and erase him from the timeline, but that these attempts never lasted. The Trapper claims to have confused the Legion with "pocket dimensions and alternate history", implying that he was responsible for the creation and existence of the "Batch SW6", "Reboot
" and
"Threeboot
" incarnations of the Legion. He also reveals that he is the one who created the crystal tablet that stated Superman to be of Earth origin.
His plan came to fruition in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds by Geoff Johns
and George Perez
. He uses Superboy-Prime, which he views as a corrupted Superman, as a tool to destroy the link between Superman and the Legion. He brings Superman and the Legion founders to the end of time, where he attempts to kill them and is revealed to be an older Superboy-Prime. However, during the battle, Saturn Girl watches as the Trapper's "S" scar on his chest gains a slash across it as it simultaneously happens to Prime in the past. With this evidence, Brainiac 5 theorizes that the Trapper is in fact an alternate, sentient timeline whose identity changes constantly as the true timeline marches on, explaining the multiple identity changes he has gone through in each incarnation. In order to weaken the Trapper, the founders combined their powers, using the cracks in reality at the end of time to bring in many alternate Legionnaires to fight him. The Trapper was knocked out and brought back to the Legion's time. The Trapper tried to convince Superboy-Prime to join forces with him to destroy the Legion. However, Prime refused to believe that the Trapper was his future self and punched him, creating a blinding flash that sent Prime back to Earth Prime
and destroyed that incarnation of the Trapper.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
, a supervillain
Supervillain
A supervillain or supervillainess is a variant of the villain character type, commonly found in comic books, action movies and science fiction in various media.They are sometimes used as foils to superheroes and other fictional heroes...
in stories published by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
. The Time Trapper's main enemies are the Legion of Super-Heroes
Legion of Super-Heroes
The Legion of Super-Heroes is a fictional superhero team in the 30th and 31st centuries of the . The team first appears in Adventure Comics #247 , and was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino....
. While the character first appeared as "The Time Trapper" in Adventure Comics
Adventure Comics
Adventure Comics was a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1935 to 1983 and then revamped from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues , making it the fifth-longest-running DC series, behind Detective Comics, Action Comics, Superman, and Batman...
#317 (February 1964) in a story written by Edmond Hamilton, a similar character named "The Time Master" had appeared earlier in Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston. She first appeared in All Star Comics #8 . The Wonder Woman title has been published by DC Comics almost continuously except for a brief hiatus in 1986....
#101 (October 1958) in a story written by Robert Kanigher. In Super Friends
Super Friends
Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes, which ran from 1973 to 1986 on ABC as part of its Saturday morning cartoon lineup...
#17 (February 1979), writer E. Nelson Bridwell wrote a story that hinted that the two characters were one and the same.
The Time Trapper's main powers are depicted as vast control over time
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
itself. The Time Trapper's lair has been located at the end of time
Eschatology
Eschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...
.
Fictional character biography
The Time Trapper was originally a strange robed warlord from the extremely distant future, well past the time of the Legion of Super-Heroes. In his early appearances, the Time Trapper (Also known as Paras) created a strange "Iron Curtain of Time" that prevented the Legion from going into their future. He also commanded a vast number of slaves and had a female henchwoman named GlorithGlorith
Glorith of Baaldur is a fictional villainess appearing in stories published by DC Comics. Her primary foe is the 30th century team known as the Legion of Super-Heroes, and she was a major presence in Legion of Super-Heroes...
, whom he eventually murdered.
The Time Trapper (as The Time Master) appeared in 1958 to challenge Wonder Woman and Colonel Steve Trevor
Steve Trevor
Steve Trevor is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics, as the primary love interest of Wonder Woman. He first appeared in All Star Comics #8 .-Golden Age:...
under the alias T.Y.Master by creating a diabolical "fun house." Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor were transported to various disasters throughout time when opening an door before defeating the Time Master by Wonder Woman vibrating through the doors. The villain then admitted defeat and disappeared, possibly returning to the "Iron Curtain of Time".
In February 1979, Time Trapper appeared again to defeat the Super Friends
Super Friends
Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes, which ran from 1973 to 1986 on ABC as part of its Saturday morning cartoon lineup...
. During the investigation, Wonder Woman suggested that the Time Master and the Time Trapper were the same person. Superman deduced that the Time Trapper wanted to get rid of all superheroes throughout time, particularly the Legion of Super-Heroes. Time Trapper kidnapped and transported the Wonder Twins
Wonder Twins
The Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna, are fictional extraterrestrial comic book superheroes published by DC Comics. Their first comic book appearance was in Super Friends #7 , by E. Nelson Bridwell and Ramona Fradon...
in the past by trapping Jayna on Krypton
Krypton (comics)
Krypton is a fictional planet in the DC Comics universe, and the native world of the super-heroes Superman and, in some tellings, Supergirl and Krypto the Superdog. Krypton has been portrayed consistently as having been destroyed just after Superman's flight from the planet, with exact details of...
and Zan on a water planet near the star-sun Neryla. With the help of Queen Hippolyta
Hippolyta
In Greek mythology, Hippolyta or Hippolyte is the Amazonian queen who possessed a magical girdle she was given by her father Ares, the god of war. The girdle was a waist belt that signified her authority as queen of the Amazons....
, the Super Friends separated into small teams to locate and rescue the Wonder Twins. Returning to the present, the Super Friends defeated The Time Trapper who then disappeared. Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
believed he was imprisoned by the Controllers from his world.
Later, it was revealed that the Time Trapper was a member of the fascist but well intentioned race of Controllers
The Controllers
The Controllers are a fictional extraterrestrial race existing in the DC Universe. They first appear in Adventure Comics #357 , and were created by Jim Shooter, Mort Weisinger, and Curt Swan.-Pre-Crisis:...
. The Time Trapper was defeated by the Legion and it was believed that his menace ended when the villain Darkseid
Darkseid
Darkseid is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 and was created by writer-artist Jack Kirby....
removed almost all of his power during the Great Darkness Saga.
Later retcon
Retcon
Retroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
s made the Time Trapper not a Controller at all, but of a wildly changing series of origins. These origins include him being the Legionnaire Cosmic Boy
Cosmic Boy
Cosmic Boy is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in the 30th and 31st centuries of the DC Comics universe. He first appeared in Adventure Comics #247 . He is a founding member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and was the original leader in all incarnations of the Legion...
, Lori Morning
Lori Morning
Lori Morning is a fictional character in DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes.-Early appearances:She first appeared as part of the Underworld Unleashed crossover, as the ten-year-old daughter of one of Chronos's henchmen; her father Ron first appeared in a 1989 issue of The Atom, also written by Tom...
, Superboy-Prime
Superboy-Prime
Superboy-Prime, also known as Superman-Prime, or simply Prime, is a DC Comics superhero turned supervillain, and one of several alternate Supermen. The character first appeared in DC Comics Presents #87 , and was created by Elliot S...
, the living embodiment of Entropy in the Universe, and a sentient alternate timeline.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths is a 12-issue American comic book limited series and crossover event, produced by DC Comics in 1985 to simplify its then 50-year-old continuity...
and the 1986 revamp of Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
's origin, which removed Superboy
Superboy
Superboy is the name of several fictional characters that have been published by DC Comics, most of them youthful incarnations of Superman. These characters have also been the main characters of four ongoing Superboy comic book series published by DC....
from Superman's and the Legion's history. Given the problems this posed for Legion continuity, it was later revealed that the Time Trapper created a pocket universe
Pocket universe
-In science:A pocket universe is a concept in inflationary theory, proposed by Alan Guth. It defines a realm like the one that contains the observable universe as only one of many inflationary zones.-In fiction:...
from a slice of time in the distant past, and altered events in this reality so that an Earth resembling the pre-Crisis one was formed, complete with its own Superboy. The Time Trapper then further manipulated the timestream so that whenever the Legion would travel into the past to visit the 20th century (or Superboy visited the Legion's future), the two would be directed into each other's worlds. However, the "pocket universe" lacked a Kryptonian Supergirl, and thus was not a perfect answer to patching Legion continuity. (The "pocket universe" was later revisited and made the point of origin for a non-Kryptonian Supergirl, also known as Matrix
Matrix (comics)
Matrix is a fictional character and a superheroine, best known as the 1988-2002 Supergirl, published by DC Comics. She was created by John Byrne as part of his Superman revamp...
).
Four Legionnaires, (Duo Damsel, Brainiac 5
Brainiac 5
Brainiac 5 is a fictional character who exists in the 30th and 31st centuries of the DC Universe. He is a long standing member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Brainiac 5 is from the planet Colu...
, Saturn Girl
Saturn Girl
Saturn Girl is a fictional character appearing in DC comic books. A talented telepath from the 30th century, Imra first appeared in Adventure Comics #247 as a founding member of the Legion of Super-Heroes...
, and Mon-El
Lar Gand
Lar Gand, known primarily as Mon-El , is a fictional character in DC Comics' universe who is associated with the Legion of Super-Heroes, Superboy, and Superman...
) were involved in a conspiracy to destroy the Time Trapper, against the Legion's regulations. They managed to reach his citadel at the end of time and seemingly destroyed him by using the Infinite Man
Infinite Man
This article is about the LSH character; for information on the New Gods character with a similar name, please see Infinity-Man. For information on the 1973 science fiction novel by Daniel F. Galouye, see The Infinite Man....
against him. During this attack, Duo Damsel's second body was killed and Mon-El was put into a coma.
Mordru
Mordru is a fictional character, a supervillain in the DC Comics' main shared universe.Mordru is the most prominent Lord of Chaos who is fated to survive even after the end of the universe, although he is usually shown as a powerful wizard...
dominating the universe for a time. Mordru's former sidekick Glorith
Glorith
Glorith of Baaldur is a fictional villainess appearing in stories published by DC Comics. Her primary foe is the 30th century team known as the Legion of Super-Heroes, and she was a major presence in Legion of Super-Heroes...
, through a magical spell, managed to take the Trapper's place in history and it was revealed that the Time Trapper had originally engineered the creation of the Legion in order to halt the inevitable rise of Mordru.
However it is eventually revealed that the Time Trapper had managed to survive and was probing Glorith's mind in a effort to regain his power. Enraged by this violation of her person Glorith confronts the Time Trapper in the remains of his Pocket Universe and literally consumes him effectively becoming the Time Trapper.
The Time Trapper appeared to have been killed by Parallax
Parallax (comics)
Parallax is a fictional comic book supervillain in the DC Comics universe. Created by writer Ron Marz and artist Darryl Banks for Green Lantern vol...
during the 1994 Zero Hour
Zero Hour (comics)
Zero Hour: Crisis in Time is a five-issue comic book limited series and crossover storyline published by DC Comics in 1994. In it, the former hero Hal Jordan, who had until then been a member of the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps, mad with grief after the destruction of...
storyline, but was apparently reconstructed with the universe at the climax of that story. Keeping a promise he had made to the pre-Zero Hour version of Cosmic Boy, he did not intervene to ensure the creation of the post-Zero Hour Legion, but after they were formed, he briefly bedeviled them, with memories of all of his previous incarnations intact. The identity of this incarnation of the Time Trapper remains unconfirmed; some evidence suggests that it may be a future version of Lori Morning
Lori Morning
Lori Morning is a fictional character in DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes.-Early appearances:She first appeared as part of the Underworld Unleashed crossover, as the ten-year-old daughter of one of Chronos's henchmen; her father Ron first appeared in a 1989 issue of The Atom, also written by Tom...
.
The Time Trapper later states that he made countless attempts to separate Superman from the Legion and erase him from the timeline, but that these attempts never lasted. The Trapper claims to have confused the Legion with "pocket dimensions and alternate history", implying that he was responsible for the creation and existence of the "Batch SW6", "Reboot
Legion of Super-Heroes (1994 team)
The 1994 version of the Legion of Super-Heroes is a fictional superhero team in the 31st century of the DC Universe. The team is the second major incarnation of the Legion of Super-Heroes after the 1958 version and followed by the 2004 version. It first appears in Legion of Super-Heroes The 1994...
" and
"Threeboot
Legion of Super-Heroes (2004 team)
The 2004 version of the Legion of Super-Heroes is a fictional superhero team in the 31st century of the . The team is the third major incarnation of the Legion of Super-Heroes after the 1958 and 1994 versions...
" incarnations of the Legion. He also reveals that he is the one who created the crystal tablet that stated Superman to be of Earth origin.
His plan came to fruition in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds by Geoff Johns
Geoff Johns
Geoff Johns is an American comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics, where he has been Chief Creative Officer since February 2010, in particular for characters such as Green Lantern, The Flash and Superman...
and George Perez
George Pérez
George Pérez is a Puerto Rican-American writer and illustrator of comic books, known for his work on various titles, including Avengers, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman.-Biography:...
. He uses Superboy-Prime, which he views as a corrupted Superman, as a tool to destroy the link between Superman and the Legion. He brings Superman and the Legion founders to the end of time, where he attempts to kill them and is revealed to be an older Superboy-Prime. However, during the battle, Saturn Girl watches as the Trapper's "S" scar on his chest gains a slash across it as it simultaneously happens to Prime in the past. With this evidence, Brainiac 5 theorizes that the Trapper is in fact an alternate, sentient timeline whose identity changes constantly as the true timeline marches on, explaining the multiple identity changes he has gone through in each incarnation. In order to weaken the Trapper, the founders combined their powers, using the cracks in reality at the end of time to bring in many alternate Legionnaires to fight him. The Trapper was knocked out and brought back to the Legion's time. The Trapper tried to convince Superboy-Prime to join forces with him to destroy the Legion. However, Prime refused to believe that the Trapper was his future self and punched him, creating a blinding flash that sent Prime back to Earth Prime
Earth Prime
Earth Prime is a term sometimes used in works of speculative fiction involving parallel universes or a multiverse, and refers either to the universe containing "our" Earth, or to a parallel world with a bare minimum of divergence points from Earth as we know it...
and destroyed that incarnation of the Trapper.
Powers and abilities
The Time Trapper has complete control over future time. He is able to freeze it, alter it, and even separate parts of it, thereby creating his own pocket dimensions. He cannot, however, alter events in the present time.See also
- GlorithGlorithGlorith of Baaldur is a fictional villainess appearing in stories published by DC Comics. Her primary foe is the 30th century team known as the Legion of Super-Heroes, and she was a major presence in Legion of Super-Heroes...
- Legionnaires 3Legionnaires 3Legionnaires 3 is a four-issue comic book limited series published by DC Comics in 1986, the second limited series to feature the Legion of Super-Heroes. It was written by Keith Giffen and Mindy Newell, pencilled by Ernie Colón, and inked by Karl Kesel...
- Cosmic Boy (limited series)
- "The Exaggerated Death of Ultra BoyThe Exaggerated Death of Ultra Boy"The Exaggerated Death of Ultra Boy" is a story arc that was published by DC Comics, and presented in Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2, #273–275 and #277–282 . It was written by Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas and Paul Levitz, with pencils by Jimmy Janes and Steve Ditko...
" - "The Greatest Hero of Them AllThe Greatest Hero of Them All"The Greatest Hero of Them All" is a story arc that was published by DC Comics, and presented in Superman vol. 2, #8, Action Comics #591, and Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 3, #37–38 from August through September 1987. It was written by Paul Levitz and John Byrne, and pencilled by Byrne, Greg LaRocque...
" - "End of an Era" (comics)End of an Era (comics)"End of an Era" is a story arc that was published by DC Comics, and presented in Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 4, #60-61, Legionnaires #17-18, and Valor #22-23 . It was written by Mark Waid, Tom McCraw and Kurt Busiek, with pencils by Stuart Immonen, Ron Boyd, Chris Gardner and Colleen Doran...
- Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds