Time Trapper

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caption=Drawn by Keith Giffen, Ernie Colon, and Bob Smith in Cosmic Boy #3.
comic_color=background:#8080ff
character_name=Time Trapper
real_name= Ty. M. Master
publisher=DC Comics
debut="(as Ty. M. Master) "Wonder Woman" #101 (October 1958); (as Time Trapper) Adventure Comics" #317 (February 1964) (first mentioned) / "Adventure Comics" #318 (March 1964) (seen)
creators= Robert Kanigher
alliance_color=background:#c0c0ff
alliances=
aliases=Cosmic Boy
powers=Time manipulation|The Time Trapper is a fictional character and supervillain who appears in stories published by DC Comics. The Time Trapper's main enemies are the Legion of Super-Heroes. The Time Trapper first appeared in "Wonder Woman" #101 (October 1958), and was first mentioned as Ty. M. Master and Time Master. Later mentioned in "Adventure Comics" #317 as The Time Trapper.

The Time Trapper's main powers consist of vast control over time itself; accordingly, his traditional lair has been located at the end of time.

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 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 Glorith, whom he eventually murdered. For an unknown reason, The Time Trapper appeared in 1958 to challenge Wonder Woman and Colonel Steve Trevor by creating a diabolical 'fun house'. Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor were transported to various disasters throughout time before defeating the Time Trapper. Time Trapper admitted defeat and disappeared, possibly returning to the unusual "Iron Curtain of Time". [Wonder Woman Vol. 1, #101, 1958]

In 1978, 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 super heroes 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. [Super Friends #17 and 18, 1979]

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 retcons made the Time Trapper not a Controller at all, but of a wildly changing series of origins that some comic fans have speculated is the result of time being fluid. These origins include him being the Legionnaire Cosmic Boy, Glorith, Lori Morning, and the living embodiment of Entropy in the Universe. One of the more noteworthy stories involving the Time Trapper came after the reality-altering miniseries "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and the 1986 revamp of Superman's origin, which removed Superboy from Superman and Legion continuities. Given the problems this posed for Legion continuity, it was revealed in "Action Comics" #591 (August 1987) 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. Ironically, this "pocket universe" lacked a Kryptonian Supergirl, and thus wasn't a perfect answer to patching Legion continuity. (This "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 effectively murders the Trapper in the Pocket Universe. This caused a chain reaction throughout time and results in the sorcerer Mordru dominating the universe for a time. His 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. This event led to many continuity conflicts and derided stories as the writers continually tried to correct their mistakes.

The Time Trapper seemed to have been killed by Parallax during the 1994 storyline "Zero Hour", 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 post-"Zero Hour" origin of the Legion, but after this origin occurred, he briefly bedeviled the new universe's version of the Legion, with memories of all his prior incarnations intact. The identity of this incarnation of the Time Trapper remains unconfirmed; some evidence suggests that this incarnation may be a future version of Lori Morning.Fact|date=August 2008

In his narration to "Action Comics" #864 (June 2008), the Time Trapper states that he has made countless attempts to separate Superman from the Legion and erase him from the timeline, but that these attempts never last. The Trapper claims to have "confused" the Legion with "pocket dimensions and alternate history", implying that he is responsible for the existence of at least three incarnations of the Legion: the "original" pre-Crisis team reintroduced in "The Lightning Saga", the post-"Zero Hour" team of Earth-247, and the rebellious "threeboot" team introduced in the "Teen Titans/Legion Special". He also reveals that he is the one who created the crystal tablet that stated Superman to be of Earth origin (As seen in the" Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes" storyline in Action Comics).

His plan comes to fruition in the upcoming "Legion of Three Worlds" miniseries by Geoff Johns and George Perez. He uses Superman-Prime which he views as a corrupted Superman as a tool to destroy the link between Superman and the Legion.

Powers and abilities

The Time Trapper has complete control over time itself. 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.

The Time Trapper is arguably the Legion of Super-Heroes' most powerful individual foe. Among 30th and 31st century villains, only Mordru and Darkseid rival him in terms of raw power.

References