Loose and dense. That's how I'd sum up this week's installment of the DC Weekly That's Better Than Countdown. Let's toss aside the collection basket and get right to it.

Godhead: Bruce Wayne throws a party but gets thrown to the ground. Superman has strange ideas about "take-out." Wonder Woman grills her friend yet finds nothing on her plate. The villains' ranks grow though they may end up with Egg on their faces…

It's Heaven to find an issue of a comic book that actually takes you more than five minutes to read it. Thus is Trinity. Meaty, with barely any gristle and only a small trace of fat, Busiek & Co. endow the series with a kind of joy that makes you feel it's comfortable in its own skin. There is always a sense of action, adventure, mystery, history, and drama. No matter which issue I have picked up, I haven't failed in finding those traits.

There's a great peek into Batman's personal life this week, complete with his closest family members: Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, and Alfred Pennyworth. It's the calm before the storm though, but while it lasts it offers a fascinating picture of a wealthy super-hero and the niggling persistence of his secret identity. My only regret here is that Tim and Dick's appearance is brief. Alas, such thoughts melt away with a great cliffhanger ending, one that dragged a throaty "Oh, crap!" out of me.

Things really get rolling with our villainous trinity as Morgaine Le Fey and Enigma welcome Despero into their ranks – and with him the stolen Cosmic Egg. The situation begins in Despero's kingdom on a far-flung moon than shifts to Morgaine's Castle Branek on Earth. There's a lot of crackling energy on the pages, encompassing the tension between the trinity of baddies and the forces with which they play. There's a lot of talk of universes – including a great reference to the 52 – and the picture of a something big that's growing continues on from previous issues. Best of all, in my opinion, is that once again Busiek and Nicieza allow each of their parts of the story to mesh and intermingle in a smooth mixture. We begin with the villains in Busiek's installment, shift to our heroes, and then back over to Nicieza for more with the villains. Great coordination, gentlemen.

Bagley is really hitting it out of the park this week, folks. His picturesque bird's eye view of Wayne Manor thrilled me, and his portraits of the many characters were enthralling. I had wondered how he would distinguish Lois Lane's facial features from Wonder Woman's, but I should have trusted rather than pondered; they are too separate, living beings on the pages. I especially like Bagley's Bruce Wayne; he reeks of wealth and privilege, and when he shifts the Caped Crusader from frowning Batman frustration in one panel to fawning Bruce playboy in the next, you believe it as two sides of the same person. Extra points also go to the fantastic silent panel of Dick and Tim approaching Alfred to fetch his master. Perfect.

In Purgatory must lie some of the plot construction of this issue, I'm afraid. Busiek's part is fairly loose, and exempting the great cliffhanger there's not much that actually transpires with our heroes to move things along. Bruce is simply frustrated by his inability to glean answers, Diana spins her wheels with the "trinity" conundrum, and Superman… well, he does find a "techno-beacon," but it's not much to carry the weight of the plot on. Flipping over to the villains, Nicieza overloads us with scads of dense information, most of which made me somewhat frustrated myself. There's a lot piled on, and from my point of view it was too many concepts in too small of a space. I know, I know; I'm unhappy when the book is too light, and I'm unhappy when it's groaning under its own poundage. There has to be a happier medium, I think, and if anyone can uncover the perfect construction of the perfect single issue of a comic, it's Kurt and Fabian.

From Hell comes the introductory page of three – or is it four? – new characters to liven up our villains' lives. I shut down immediately after reading that first page of Fabian's back-up story; those intros were that uninteresting to me. I'm intrigued by the "dreambound" energy that seems to rob a grave, but overall I'm going to have to be more heavily sold on these recent additions. I guess I'm just down on tattoos, juvenile gorillas, and incarcerated heroin addicts.

Batman Ascending: Like I said, the look in on Batman's homelife was very interesting, and I appreciated another nod to Bruce's cantankerous mood from having his deducting interrupted by the call of the playboy life. It was handled well and the nice acknowledgment of Grant Morrison's very similar scene between Bruce and Alfred was welcome. It was just one more way to make Trinity feel like a real part of the Bat-books.

Wonder Woman Descending: Diana's "girl talk" with Etta Candy added virtually nothing to the ongoing narrative, save for a minor look at how the public sees the trinity – if Etta can be considered a good representative of "the public." And besides, Diana already knows all this, doesn't she? Her obsession with it isn't near as charming as it was with Clark last time. Speaking of Etta, some sort of info on who she is would have been good, as well as the mention of "Tom Tresser." Yes, exposition by way of explanation can be tricky to get it to feel natural but it was a bit too much regarding what we were expected to swallow about Diana and then move on.

Superman Descending: As with Wonder Woman, so it is with Superman: nothing much ventured, nothing much gained. Do I need something gained each issue? Yes, pretty much, I do. I like advancement. What we have here is a basic portrait of Superman's place in the world and with his wife. The aforementioned "techno-beacon" revelation seems a one-panel add-on, mentioned one moment, forgotten the next. And Clark? Man, you have to get that ego checked, buddy; on the outside you’re all Smallville, but on the inside you're often Hollywood. You can't expect everyone to like you.

Dogma: Enigma: "Hey! We're ready to poach the egg!" Then, "Boy that really lacked dramatic flair, didn’t it…?" Yes, sir, it did. And I can't help but feel your scriptwriter thought so too when it came out of his keyboard but decided to make a joke about it in the actual dialogue. Sometimes that works; other times it fall down go boom.

Monsignor Wanty wants an appearance by Ambush Bug! Hey, it worked for 52, didn’t it!? Think about it, guys – it could be awesome!

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