The Return of the Trinity?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Trinity wrap-up, but let me make up for four weeks of issues I missed: the good and bad arcanas try to claim territory for themselves while Alfred’s Six slowly learn what happened to the Trinity after they were banished. Very slowly. Mind-numbingly slowly.

I really raved about Kurt Busiek’s pacing in the first arc of this series, but he really dropped the ball with Act 2. He spent way too much time setting up this world (which isn’t going exist in a few issues) and started the plot with Alfred recruiting people important to the Trinity way too late.

Things actually started out okay in Trinity’s second act. Issue #18 with Lois Lane’s “Fastlane” introduction to the universe was nicely done, and the early reveal that Kanjar Ro had been impersonating Despero made it seem like the second arc was going to keep pace with the first. And then Ro met up with Despero, and they met up with John Stewart, and then Krona showed up and all sorts of craziness was going on. In issue #24, Krona kidnapped Stewart and Ro & Despero found the counter-Trinity, but none of them have shown up since. Instead, it’s been weeks and weeks of Hawkman being a dick and Tarot acting irrational. Now it’s issue after issue of Hawkman’s Justice Arcana playing Call of Duty 4 Headquarters with Morgaine Le Fey’s Dark Arcana. (more…)

In the lead: Dr. Polaris, Professor Zoom and Lady Shiva are sent by Morgaine Le Fey to London to close a dimensional rift and steal its energy. Power Girl, Ragman and Triumph (not the Insult Comic Dog) arrive to try and stop them while Green Arrow, Tomorrow Woman and the Flash close a rift in Rio de Janeiro. Khyber, a villain from Busiek’s Superman run, agrees to help Le Fey, and Charity O’Dare helps Hawkman form his Justice Arcana.

In the back-up: The purple alien dudes tell Alfred’s Six a story of a carnival boy whose parents are killed that Atmahn (the god verison of Batman) took under his wing and made a hero. Then the boy is beaten to death by people dressed like the Joker. So it’s not Dick Grayson, it’s Jason Todd.

My take: Meh. So the Robin in the story is Todd and not Grayson…why does that matter?

Things to keep an eye on: Take a look at the next issue’s cover… (more…)

Hey, remember when Doom DeLuise stopped caring about Countdown? The series created a whole new level of suck at one point and Del just couldn’t bring himself to review the thing on a weekly basis. Well, I’ve offcially gotten to that point. This issue of Trinity is from last Wednesday’s comics, which I guess is obvious since this Wednesday’s comics won’t come out until this Friday. And as a strange coincidence, it happens to be the same issue number that it was for Countdown, #30. Granted, Countdown was counting the other way, but that’s weird, right?

So what happened this issue that sucked so much? In the lead, Alfred’s Six learn the story of how the purple alien world came to be. Turns out they live in the cosmic egg, and Krona was their god until he escaped. Then the Trinity became their new gods and things got better. In the back-up, Morgaine Le Fey forms her bad guy team while Hawkman forms his good guy team, using certain villains/heroes to fit certain roles in the major arcana that’s on tarot cards.

Okay, so the back-up wasn’t terrible, but the lead was just boring as hell. That’s the sort of thing that should be the back-up story: something that isn’t essentially to the plot but fills in some gaps. Does it matter that the Trinity is the Holy Trinity inside of the cosmic egg? Not really. What matters is that Alfred has to find a way to bring the Trinity back, and this trip inside of the egg is the way to do it.

(more…)

In the lead: Alfred’s group of six heads to Happy Harbor, Rhode Island to the cave that would have been the first JLA HQ if the Trinity existed. After some mystic hoodoo, the group is transported to a different world and starts acting more like their “true” selves. Society in this world is run by the Nightlord, the Sunlord, and the Truthlord, obvious stand-ins for the Trinity. And those giant statues of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman from the flash forward in issue #1 are here too.

In the back-up: Hawkman assembles a group of scientists (Will Magnus, T.O. Morrow, Lex Luthor, Dr. Sivana and John Henry Irons) to sort out this whole “reality coming down around us” thing. Luthor realizes that the power is being harnessed by TVM, presumably at the behest of Morgaine Le Fey. Tomorrow Woman confronts TVM and gets all sliced up into bits.

My take: The lead this issue was pretty good. It seems that Alfred’s six and Tarot are probably going to play a much larger role in reversing the spell and defeating the bad Trinity than the JSI is, so all the stuff with the JSI just seems like a waste of time. So I didn’t like the back-up, naturally.

It looks like I may have been wrong about Alfred getting another three people to fill a trinity of trinities. It seems odd that Maria Kapatelis would have been introduced several issues ago if she wasn’t going to come back into play, though. As it stands, we’ve got a set of three protégés of the Trinity, but I’m not sure how Alfred, Lois and Nemesis relate to one another. Alfred doesn’t fit the role of a love interest, and Nemesis doesn’t fit the role of long-standing close confidante.

Things to keep an eye on: Why are there giant statues of the Trinity in a society full of purple aliens with Bronze Age technology? The group didn’t change physical positions during the spell, so did they travel through time or across dimensions? I realize I’m grasping at straws here. That will probably be resolved next issue and really isn’t any reason to stick around for another issue. But really, if you’ve made it this far, you’re probably not going to stop now.