Trinity #20

In the lead: Firestorm realizes this isn’t an alternate reality, but his own reality in an altered state, so he does what Batman says: “When you’re not sure what to do next, get more facts.” To the microfilm room! After studying up on this reality’s past, Firestorm is attacked by an army of giant Amazos. After escaping, Firestorm decides he needs to find John Stewart, who he believes will be able to help.

In the back-up: Krona travels to Laboratory World 7431, and enlists the Controllers there in his quest to commune with the universe and learn everything there is to know. The Controllers decide to betray Krona and get evaporated for their troubles.

My take: In this reality, the JSA never retired and became a worldwide charitable organization. With the JSA still active, they were the ones to repel the aliens that the JLA orginally formed to combat. Any metahuman that didn’t join up with the JSA was treated as a criminal. Hal Jordan is treated like a space cop outside his jurisdiction. Aquaman is treated as dictator invading foreign soil. Martian Manhunter decides to remain in hiding so he’s not treated the same way. Flash is accepted, but “he didn’t last long.” Hmmm…

Essentially, without the Trinity, this world never came to accept superheroes. The JSA, as part of the war effort, was still seen as a group of normal people with extraordinary abilities. No one in the JSA could leap tall buildings in a single bound, or create anything they could imagine just by imagining it. Without Superman to set the example, no one in the DCU grew to believe that someone that powerful could actually be in it for the good of the world and not just for themself.

Interestingly, a lot of people “remember” Superman. In the past two issues, we’ve seen people remember Batman and Wonder Woman, but it was just one person in both cases. An entire crowd of people seem to remember that a statue of Tomahawk in Metropolis used to be one of Superman. Superman is definitely treated as the most important missing piece in the puzzle this issue.

I was surprised to see Krona back after only a couple issues. I figured his story would be put on hold for a while, but I guess Busiek wants to keep building on it until Krona’s inevitable confrontation with the Trinity.

Things to keep an eye on: Umm…not a whole lot to hold a reader this issue. It was pretty much all exposition, which didn’t leave a whole lot of room for hooks for next issue. I guess if you’re reading Trinity at this point, you’ve probably committed to reading the whole thing, though.