Quantcast



subheader

Trinity #14

Posted: Friday, September 5, 2008
By: Jim Beard

Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza
Mark Bagley, Tom Derenick (p), Art Thibert, Wayne Faucher (i)
DC Comics
Oh, the humanity! Again am I, your humble reviewer, split almost straight down the middle on the latest installment of Trinity. There was much coolness but also a fair amount of frustration. Lend me your ear and I'll sing you a song…

Godhead: As Antimatter Earth goes literally wild with freedom from the Crime Syndicate, the JLA get their butts back to their own Earth. In the meantime, the other heroes of Earth fight and fight and fight, but ultimately lose the battle.

It's Heaven: We finally got off of Antimatter Earth. That in itself is cause for celebration. A-Earth and its denizens wore out their welcome with me and though there seems to be yet a few dangling hairs from the JLA's wigging out, at least they and the kidnapped Earthlings are back to greener pastures.

After the discomfort I felt last issue with the trinity being responsible for the rest of the League fighting poorly, I'm happy to say that Our Three Heroes got read the riot act this week by one of those self same Leaguers. Vixen, who Trinity has to date portrayed as a somewhat vacuous chick has a great scene where she tells Clark, Bruce, and Diana that they're acting weird, that it's seriously not right, and they need to get out of the way or completely kibosh the mission. Good on you, Mari. It was a well-written moment and justified. The trinity needed that wake-up call – though I doubt they'll take it much to heart and realize Vixen's right.

I also appreciated the advancements in Morgaine's branding of the trinity and the latest coup in the artifact gathering. It felt as if, for a few moments, we were getting back to the real story. Or at least what I perceive to be the real story.

In Purgatory: I'm on the fence about a few apparent loose ends this week – why give so much space to the breakdown of "civilization" on A-Earth if it seems we leave that troubled globe behind? Why does Enigma only get three panels? Sidenote: I had to chuckle when I first turned to page 9 and saw that big "Get out now!" – I thought Krona was acting up again.

Why did it also seem as if the back-up had a lot of heroes standing around doing little to nothing and then taking turns to fight the bad guys? And after all that rigamarole they still got away with Max Lord's skull? And a big "meh" to the downplaying of Primat and some wishy-washy-ness on Hawkman's part – these are your STARS, Fabian! Go with your strengths. Don't make me blasι about these two again, man – you're killin' me, dude.

From Hell: Okay, it's getting to be ridiculous: the trinity has really taken a back seat in their own book. We have the teams of other heroes doing cool stuff and saying cool stuff and The Big Three standing around and saying, "duyhhhh" for the most part. I really, quite impassionedly, thought Busiek had a lot to say about these heroes right out of the gate and especially about Wonder Woman – but for several issues they've been weak-willed, weak-minded, and almost useless. They're almost McGuffins – objects to be tossed from situation to situation and always just out of sight. I haven't felt like I've had one new insight about any of the trinity in weeks. But I get a lot of Hawkman, Firestorm, Nightwing, and other cool heroes doing cool stuff – hell, even Geo-Force was The Man this issue.

Was Batman even in this issue? Oh, there he is, standing around with his hands in his cape and swirling one toe around in a circle in the dirt, looking like he's feeling sorry for himself. Are they all supposed to look like they're stuck in molasses, "feeling something"? Shades of Deanna Troi!

Maybe this book should be about Firestorm, John Stewart, Red Tornado, and the Atom, and be called Quartet. Just a thought. And I say that with a touch of ire but I say that because I still dig this book overall, but I want to LOVE it. One panel of a good Deathstroke-in-white just don't cut it.

Trinity Descending: This is what Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman get until they're handed back their title and wrest it from the creeping clutches of the rest of the world's costumed crusaders. I mean, I love the DCU and like that they form a backdrop for Trinity but enough's enough – unless the trinity has been crippled, let's see some movement from them.

Dogma: How many of you went and looked up "leutetium" and the "Karman line"? Hey, comics used to be all about crazy-ass science lessons! Very nifty!

[By the way, my spell-check and dictionary wanted me to spell it "lutetium," which is defined as "a trivalent rare-earth element." Same thing, Fabes?]

Monsignor Wanty: prays for Red Tornado to not be damaged from the Cosmic Balance Inverter, for Maxwell Lord to rot in hell, for that Vegas dancer to not breast feed her child in public, for the residents of A-Earth Feithera to finally find peace, and for that little bastard with the gun to make sure the safety's back on once he's done with it.



What did you think of this book?
Have your say at the Line of Fire Forum!