Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 3 38

"The Greatest Hero Of Them All"

Cover

Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 3 #38

The Greatest Hero Of Them All

Editors

Karen Berger

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Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 3 # 37	Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 3 # 39

He was the greatest hero of them all.

— Cosmic Boy

Appearing in "The Greatest Hero Of Them All"

Featured Characters:

Legion of Super-Heroes

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Time Trapper

Other Characters:

Supergirl (Statue only)
Ferro Lad (Statue only)
Karate Kid (Statue only)

Locations:

Items:

Legion Flight Ring

Vehicles:

Time Bubble

Synopsis for "The Greatest Hero Of Them All"

Superboy and the Legion decide to directly attack the Time Trapper in a direct assault and go to the Smallville High School gym where the Time Trapper is waiting for Superboy to deliver the immobilized Legion members to him. As the Legion attack the Trapper reveals his hold over Superboy to the assembled Legion members "This never was your past, Legionnaire. Only a whispery possibility I connected you to when you were presumptuous enough to try to travel through time. Each time you 'broke' the time barrier, I sent you here ... until this Earth began to fall apart and the jest paled." With that the time Trapper damaged the machinery that held back the destructive energies of the Crisis and left.

Once again the red skies began assaulting the Pocket Universe. As the heroes tried to repair the machine, Superboy realized that the only way to repair the machine is to find some way to channel its energies. Lacking the time to find a proper insulators to the enormous energies needed to safeguard an entire universe, Superboy jumps into the machine to act as the insulator and allows the universal energies to pass through him. He endures until the pocket universe is moved away from energy waves of the Crisis to some unknown safe locale in the cosmos. With the world safe, Superboy finally allows himself to collapse. Ma and Pa Kent watch in horror as the Legionnaires try to save the injured Superboy by taking him back to the 30th century. But arriving in the safeguarded future, Superboy dies from his injuries.

Notes

This issue was reprinted in Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 4.
This concludes the Superboy story started in Superman (vol. 2) #8 and continued in Action Comics #591.
Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium classifies part of this issue as happening on Earth-Twenty-Three

Trivia

During the funeral can be seen statues of all deceased Legionnaires, including Supergirl despite having been exiled from continuity two years earlier.

Links and References

Legion of Super-Heroes at Wikipedia.org

Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1987)
Part I: Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 3) #37	Part II: Superman (Volume 2) #8
Part III: Action Comics #591	Part IV: Legion of Super-Heroes (Volume 3) #38

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