Pocket Universe Primer

Part Five: Brave New World

In the wake of Hal Jordan’s attempt to reshape history at the Dawn of Time a new timeline emerged in the 30th century, and with it a new Legion. (Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 4 #0, Legionnaires #0)

In the “rebooted” timeline the Legion was founded in 2994. Its inspiration was the great Heroic Age of the 20th century, including (but not specifically) the legendary Valor; the Legionnaires never met the Pocket Universe Superboy.

After Legionnaire Jenni Ognats (XS) became lost in time (Legion vol. 4 #75), the Legion traveled back to the 20th century to find her — their first trip through time. While there, Triad (Luornu Durgo, known as Triplicate Girl in the previous timeline) persuaded her fellows to investigate the ultimate fate of Valor — who she, like many others in the 30th century, considered a nearly divine figure. (Legionnaires #30)

The Legion’s investigation led them to an encounter with the modern Superboy (who, despite his apparent resemblance to a teenaged Superman, is a genetically engineered superhuman created by the Cadmus Project in an attempt to clone Superman. (Adventures of Superman #500. After an unfortunate skirmish, Superboy was able to tell the Legionnaires exactly what happened to Valor. A few days earlier Valor, suffering from the advanced stages of lead poisoning, had clashed with Superboy, who took him to the Cadmus Project. (Superboy vol. 4 #18) There, Cadmus scientists used an experimental time-stasis machine to place Valor in the so-called “Stasis Zone,” transforming him into a disembodied phantom so that he could survive until a cure could be found for his condition. Unfortunately, the experimental device exploded after it was used, leaving the Project no way to restore Valor to normal. (#19)

Undaunted by the technological challenge, Brainiac Five attempted to rebuild the stasis generator, but his efforts backfired and catapulted the Legionnaires and Superboy back to the 30th century. (#21) In the Legion’s native era Superboy helped the Legionnaires retrieve some necessary components from his old enemy, the Scavenger, who had somehow survived the intervening thousand years. (Legion vol. 4 #74) Brainiac Five was then able to recreate the conditions under which Valor had been sent to the Stasis Zone and release him, providing him with an antidote to his lead poisoning.

The Legion returned Superboy to his own era, but not before making him an honorary Legionnaire to thank him for his aid. (Legionnaires #31) Though he seemed moved by the gesture, on returning to his own time Superboy promptly gave his Legion flight ring to his girlfriend, Roxy Leech. (Superboy vol. 4 #22) The Legionnaires eventually reclaimed the ring. (Legion vol. 4 #94)

The time-lost XS later returned to the 30th century with help from a very unlikely source: the Time Trapper. The Trapper told XS that he was “a traveler in time...one might almost say that I am trapped in time.” He then revealed that he had engineered her trip through time, claiming that it was necessary because she had “a very important — one might even say cosmic — destiny to fulfill.” He stripped her of her memory of their encounter (Legionnaires Annual #3) and returned her to her own time. (Legionnaires #35)

Meanwhile Valor subsequently adopted a new costume and a new name — M’Onel, from the Martian word for “wanderer” — in an effort to keep a low profile. He joined the Legion, but opted for detached duty status so that he could devote his time to exploration. (Legionnaires #37)

Not long afterward a group of Legionnaires became trapped for several months in the 20th century. There they met Superman, who described his strange previous encounters with an alternate Legion (the Legion of the previous timeline, as seen in Adventures of Superman #476–478, Superman vol. 2 #8, and Action Comics #591), which neither Superman nor the Legion could explain. (Legion vol. 4 #85)

Brainiac Five later found a way for some of the Legionnaires to return to the 30th century, but several of the stranded time travelers were briefly sent instead to the year 1943 (Legionnaires #54) and then to 1958 (Legion vol. 4 #92) before finally making it home. (#93)

After returning to their native time some of the Legionnaires encountered a series of bizarre temporal distortions. (Legion vol. 4 #104, Legionnaires #61) Several Legionnaires found themselves in the timestream, where they had their first face-to-face meeting with the Time Trapper.

The Trapper revealed that he had rescued XS and that he had also given the Legion’s friend Lori Morning (a 10 year-old girl from the 20th century transported to the future in Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 4 #75) with the H-dial so that she could be taken more seriously by the Legionnaires (behind the scenes in Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 4 #91). He confessed that he was also responsible for sending some of the Legionnaires to 1943 and 1958, entirely for his own amusement, but presented himself as an essentially benevolent figure. He introduced them to alternative versions of the Legion from various different timelines — including the Legionnaires that Superman had encountered — which were apparently accessible from the Trapper’s domain. The Trapper explained himself this way:

I’ve watched you Legionnaires for a long time. Studied you. Fought you. Even ‘saved’ you. I’ve been both ‘villain’ and ‘hero’ to you. I may even be one of you. I have been, you know. I’ve tried to control your legacy — change your history, your origins, your very lives. Anything that didn’t quite ‘fit.’ I believed I was helping, but in my arrogance caused untold damage, and almost destroyed reality itself. In fact, I did destroy this era, but I also saved it, restarting time for you, without my previous influence. And I’ve kept my word as well. Well, almost....but I did not, would not, alter your destinies. Until, perhaps, today.

The Trapper claimed that he had only revealed himself now because he was lonely, “being unstuck in time.” He then tried to entice Lori Morning to join him, accelerating her age to make her an adult and telling her that they could rule time together. Lori refused, however, and attacked the Trapper with the powers granted to her by the H-dial, which restored her to her normal age. Although she was unable to injure him, the Trapper appeared surprised by her power, noting that Lori apparently was immune to his control over time.

Together, the assembled alternate Legions turned on the Trapper. The current Legionnaires were abruptly returned to their own time, naively believing that they had put an end to the Trapper’s plot. From his vantage point outside of time, however, the Time Trapper was watching. He remarked to himself that his earlier manipulation of the Legion was an experiment, intended to test them for a much greater challenge still to come. (Legion vol. 4 #105)

The Legion subsequently managed to use the knowledge they acquired in their encounter with the Trapper to defeat the Dark Circle. Soon afterwards, they encountered the Trapper again, who removed his hood to reveal an older version of Lori Morning/Glorith. She claimed that her earlier actions had been meant to prepare the Legion to deal with that crisis. Pleased with their success, she offered the Legionnaires a reward, which they angered her by refusing. (Legionnaires #64)

Despite this revelation, many questions about the Trapper and the nature, extent, and purpose of his/her manipulation of history remain unanswered. It is unclear if the Trapper is the previous timeline’s Glorith, an adult version of Lori Morning, or whether the apparent revelation of his/her identity is simply a subterfuge. It is possible that the Trapper, like Death, Dream, and the other siblings of the Endless, is a personification of aspects of the timestream who may have different identities at different points in history. In any case, the Trapper’s claims that s/he has not interfered with history are highly dubious: for example, as the Legionnaires witnessed. (Legion vol. 4 #105) s/he brought about the meetings between Superman and the Legionnaires of the previous timeline. The Trapper’s motivation presumably is the same as that of Glorith in the previous timeline, i.e., to maintain Superman’s interactions with inhabitants of the Pocket Universe (including Superboy, the three Phantom Zone villains, and Supergirl) in order to preserve key events of 20th century history. However, it begs the question: how many other ways has the Time Trapper interfered with the course of history in the current timeline — and what schemes have yet to be revealed?

One thing is certain: at the end of the time, the Trapper waits, patiently, for all of creation to tumble into his (her?) hands.

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