ZERO HOUR was collected twice, once in paperback, and then again a couple of years later in hardback.
The paperback – cover on the left – was a straightforward collection of both the SHOWCASE ’94 prequel stories and the main series without any extra material.
The hardback, however, shown on the right, was a bigger package. It had a new introduction by the series writer Dan Jurgens, as well as extensive amounts of promotional art, a two-page transcript of the original proposal he put together for the series, logo design and cover sketches.
While neither collection make any changes to the story or dialogue, the art in the hardback looks to have had the colours refreshed.
Perhaps the biggest revelation – certainly to me – was contained in Jurgens’ introduction where he says one of the questions he’s most often asked about ZERO HOUR is “Who was the Time Trapper character shown on the final page?“
I’ve read ZERO HOUR several times over the years and, perhaps because I’m not a Legion of Super-Heroes reader, I didn’t notice anything untoward about that last panel:
When asked that question, Jurgens says:
I’m not saying, but if you suspect the long hair makes it a female, perhaps with red hair, who once wore a black costume with a yellow bat symbol, well… you’d be right.
Holy ret-cons, Batgirl!
As far as I’m aware, Barbara Gordon as the Time Trapper was never used – use the Contact Me form to tell me otherwise.
Crisis on Earth-Prime 