Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Who/What do you want the Time Trapper to be?

Who/What do you want the Time Trapper to be?

It's my first *gulp* poll. Be gentle.

Also please elaborate your choices. If a new origin...what?

I liked him as an unknown. That's why I voted for Something else else New

Although the idea of TT turning out to be Dynamo Boy (not Kid) is appealing, I went with "renegade Controller." The impact of the story in which this was revealed is still with me as it ties in neatly with what we already know about the Controllers. It gives the Trapper near-omnipotent powers and a plausible motive (e.g., power corrupts), something sorely lacking for a living embodiment of entropy.

I was torn between 'something brand new' and 'an obscure Legion related character', but ultimately went with the latter. Part of the reason I love the Trapper is that he’s so complicated and there’s so many possibilities in regards to what he is and who he is. Once revealed, I almost feel like then his story is close to over (except for the inevitable finale/showdown that would follow). I personally liked the ‘entropy’ aspect of him, but I also kind of liked the Rokk reveal. I loved the Glorith character, but feel that she should be able to stand on her own, so that her and TT are not one and the same.

But when it comes down to it, the visual of the character is too appealing for me not to want there be some sort of ‘reveal’. That hood and cloak just beg for it, whether my logic tells me other wise. But a Legionnaire has been done and a Legion villain is repetitive. So I want it to be someone obscure. Like Dynamo Boy, or someone that makes sense that way.

I echo Cobalt Kid .. cobalt kid ...cobalt ki ...

However, I really don't need to know his identity. The unknown makes him more powerful and more scary, IMO. The revelation that he was a Controller (although taken back), Glorith, and/or Rokk Krinn were all anti-climatic after the fact.

This is one of those "couldn't disagree more" moments. The only way I could support this idea is if the cloak came off - and it was empty, the Trapper WAS the cloak. "Its old Mr Jefferson, the man who was sweeping the corridor at the start of the episode" reveals are SO anti-climatic. You even admit it in the same post, in a way:

Which is just... y'know, the mask comes off and it's... A WHITE CAUCASIAN MALE!!!

It's a Scooby-Doo reveal - it "has" to be someone you know. This doesn't get better if it's an obscure "someone you know".

The problem with "the Rokk reveal" - well, leaving aside the essential Scooby-Dooiness of it all and that, as you acknowledge, it reduces the TT severely - is that it's chronologically absurd. You've got a sequential series of reality changes, which are essentially metachronological (the chronology of chronology ) and thus have an order - and the TT is someone not from the top rung of the ladder. If he's "someone" as opposed to a personification, he needs to be someone from the Pre-Crisis era (or "earlier", from the reality which was recreated into the Pre-Crisis era by Krona). Which is why it's probably for the best that the "Rokk reveal", if not completely negated, was hugely watered down in LSH105.

I nearly voted "Krona" because not only did that possibility intrigue me since I'd never thought of it before, but also because this potentially leaves the door open for "Rogue Controller" (sort of) and "Personification of Etrophy," too, sometime down the road.

By the way, it also occured to me that if character origins are rebooted yet again, Krona would also make a plausible Infinite Man. Y'know, along the lines of: "Okay, Krona, if you want to view forbidden events in time so badly, then--WHAM!--we Guardians of the Universe damn you to hurtle repeatedly through the cycle of time so that others will be dissuaded from attempting to view the moment of Creation." Just an idea, anyway.

If you see a gun in the first act of the play, that gun best be fired by the end.

If you strand a guy in a far future post-apocalyptic environment with a broken time machine in Adv. #331, then that guy best be coming back for revenge and more badass than ever.

Of course, if you've already got a badass villain who uses a somewhat similar m.o. who, I don't know, comes from a far future post-apocalyptic environment and whose origins are really mysterious, then there best be some connection between the two of them.

That's all I'm sayin'.

Both ephemeral and eternal. I enjoyed the progression the character went through, remaining fairly ill-defined.

I'm a bit torn though between whether TT's purpose with the Legion should have an overall cosmic scheme sort of thing or that Legion was just a mouse TT particularly enjoyed playing with. Certainly LSH needs at least one of both type characters. Legion never really had a Mxyzptlk did they, someone who's goal was just to aggravate?

Quislet?

I'd prefer a complete and utter mystery; just when you think he/it's nailed down, you're wrong. I did vote for Krono, though, 'cause it was a neat idea.

There are a couple of great ideas here but I'd like the Trapper to be Dream Girl+ this time around.
Brainy did some strange stuff with her this boot and I'd like there to be more of a consequence than that he now has a split personality.

I agree with Cobalt that the hood begs for there to be a reveal. I'm OK with him being entropy but would prefer him being someone.

Dynamo Boy? Sure. Anybody from Legion history that fits without a huge retcon or complication.

EXCEPT a former member. Atleast a "real" member. By this I mean people who were members for more than a day. I hated Rokk as the Trapper.

I think they would have to define what the Trapper is trying to do. Loved in v4 the Mordu/Trapper, iron curtain of time stuff.

Also the discarded ideas would make great villains in their own right.

EDE, I think you stated before how many Controllers have gone rogue. But you know DC really doesn't use the Controllers. Lets take them from the GL books.

Dynamo Boy? To reintroduce a writer has a really good job retelling his story but I think it's possible. As long as they don't get long winded with the exposition.

Krona as Infinity Man? Well not sure I like that but both of them in a story would rock.

Legion has a great history with a wealth of villains that any point can be made into great villains. I guess that's another post.

I voted for a new origin, but I'm not sure what it would be. I'm only sure that when revealed, I'd say "Why didn't I think of that!"

I prefer the mystery, too. Yes, the hood and the cloak beg for a reveal, thats why any such 'reveal' MUST be another of TT's machinations. There should be one rule in the LOSH mythos: Never reveal the true identity and origin of TT. That's it, that's the one rule.

Wait, two rules:1. Never reveal the true identity and origin of TT and;
2. LOSH must always be a team, no more of this movement nonsense (what are they going to have a sit-in in the UP President's office?)

Oh, oh FINAL RULE: Lightning Lad has to have jacked-up luck but it never gets him down.

AND THAT'S IT! THOSE ARE THE RULES! Carry on.

Shady! Welcome back!

TT as Dream Girl? A burgundy robe hiding that beautiful face? Well, it would be unexpected.

I agree with Duck's rules. It would be a fun series of stories to do an infinite regression of Time Trapper impersonators, and you could use all of the great ideas here, and more, but never get to the identity of the real villain. It's always more fun when everything is hinted at but not nailed down. Like all the connections between Reed Richards, Doom, Immortus, Kang, etc. Much more fun when you can speculate for yourself.

I voted for something new.

One, I don't know much about TT and weren't sure who all these people were, but I do feel that he should be an unknown, wants you know that he is a rouge Controller, or an former villain or member, or something else (a former New God, guardian, etc) you make him mortal, he is no longer cosmic and just beyond our understanding, once you put him in a category he is just another comic character that can be defeated (because as far as I know all those aforementioned groups have at some point had their butts handed to them).

As for the entropy of time (or whatever), I'm sorry, but things like that just sound wimpy. I think I dislike them because they don't have a will, they are just an 'event' if that makes any sense.

I think the TT should always be clocked, and maybe you can drop suggestions that he is Krona or a former member or Dynamo Boy or something, but he can never be revealed because once revealed the mystery and 'awe' is gone. I don't know much about TT, but I think he's a great villain because it sounds like he is powerful (Time Trapper, messes with time, sounds like a worthy villain) and because you don't know his story (or at least I don't) so the 'mysterious cosmic villain' thing works for him.

Hope that all makes sense, it probably doesn't but I tried.

Yeah i guess the fun is not knowing who he is. So Duck's rules make sense.

Yeah, even though I said I couldn't help but want a reveal, it was under my earlier premise that such a thing would basically mean no more Time Trapper stories. So while I really *don't* want a reveal, I really *do* want to think that one day there will be one.

Make sense? Guys like me and Walt Whitman don't need to make sense

Thanks HWW!
I lurk a lot.

I only thought Nura was a good idea because of her snatched dead body/rebooted body this time.
I was very unhappy with what happened to her AND the way she was envisioned by Waid.

Shady

Hmm.... I disagree strongly with the "permanent mystery" idea. Unless there's some definite answer to who he is and what his motivation is, then he remains completely uninteresting as a character as far as I'm concerned. If his motivations and actions are purposely vague and unintelligible, then the plotline of any story that is driven by his actions becomes vague and unintelligible. Mysteries in fiction are fine, but they require having answers that you can figure out, and be right or wrong about.

Especially given the serial nature of comics as a medium, having a principle that the TT's true identity be something that must remain permanently unrevealed is just a prescription for each writer to treat the character in a completely different manner, with no consistency whatsoever.

I also disagree that once his identity is revealed, his story is over. If his backstory is well done, and his agenda and motivations are indeed well thought out, the "reveal" of who he is has the potential to really be just the beginning of his story. The GDS plays on the mystery of the who the villain of the saga is. Is Darkseid's story over once he's revealed as the mysterious villain? Hardly.

I see the reveal of the Time Trapper's identity and motivations as something which can only progress the storyline, while leaving him permanently mysterious and vague gets old pretty quickly.

EDE makes some strong points.

To fine-tune my position, I would argue that there is room for some ambiguity, to keep some mystery. We could see plenty of hints that it is a future version of a legionnaire or of a major DC immortal type, but never quite no for sure.

One of the things I dislike about super-hero universe-style storytelling is that the fans are usually told too much: we don't need to know that the Controllers were Oans, for instance; I'd have rather seen Oa left as a mystery.