Trinity #9
In the lead: Wonder Woman tries to rescue civilians at a mall bombing committed by new villain Swashbuckler, which is all an elaborate plan to steal Etta Candy’s ID card for Morgaine Le Fey. Meanwhile, Batman tries to fight off the werewolves that attacked him last issue. At the Department of Metahuman Affairs (also known as SHIELD), Sarge Steel briefs Diana Prince on some strange mass disappearances of populations around the globe. With the help of Nightwing and Robin, Batman learns that the werewolves are called Howlers and their branding discs are Arthurian in nature. Wonder Woman is told that Earth-3’s Crime Syndicate is responsible for the disappearances and calls in the JLA for back-up.
In the back-up: Oracle leads Nightwing, Huntress, Robin and the Outsiders in the investigation surrounding the Trinity. Nightwing encounters Swashbuckler, who tries to steal Nightwing’s mask and fails. Then Swashbuckler helps The Trans-Volitional Man break into Arkham Asylum and steal the Joker’s laugh.
My take: That’s more like it. The last two weeks of Trinity pretty much sucked. There was absolutely no action, and the exposition was incredibly boring. This week had a good blend of each, and the exposition actually moved the story forward quite a bit.
I found it strange that the book opened with Wonder Woman and the mall bombing. It seems like the bombing should have happened last week as a cliffhanger for this week. That definitely would have given WW something to do last issue instead of just going shopping. The entire sequence, from explosion to resolution, only took up two pages. Even adding one panel last week would have made the sequence seem more important.
The back-up was really good this issue. This is what the back-up should always be: a story that ties directly into the bigger picture but doesn’t include the Trinity. I’d even be up for a solo story featuring one of the big three every now and again. But these back-ups should be supplemental stories. Everything important involving the Trinity needs to take place in the leads.
Things to keep an eye on: Morgaine Le Fey’s werewolves finally have a name: Howlers. According to Nightwing, Batman and Robin have run into them before. Batman’s troubled because he thinks he should have recognized them right away. But he really should have, right? Is something going on with Batman?
If I’m not mistaken, the appearance of the Crime Syndicate is the first time since the multiverse was brought back that characters from another Earth have appeared on New Earth.
In addition to The Joker’s laugh, the Trans-Volitional Man stole Jim Gordon’s pipe. Clearly both have a connection to Batman. But how will these be used by the evil Trinity, and when will TVM start collecting items for Supes and WW?