Sorry I'm a day late again...
Trinity War was published, in trade, rather haphazardly. The lead up to the event in the
Justice League title (#18-20) was collected in
Justice League: The Grid along with the issues pertaining to the event itself (#22 and #23). Meanwhile, all of the various titles which were involved in the main crossover (including
Justice League #22 and #23) along with the tie-ins were collected in the Trinity War trade ( altogether comprising
Trinity of Sin: Pandora #1-3,
The Phantom Stranger #11,
Constantine #5,
Justice League of America #6-7, and
Justice League Dark #21 and #22). So if you were reading
Justice League in trade and wanted to read the full event, you'd essentially have to double dip.
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| Justice League #20, penciller: Ivan Reis |
So how is the story itself? It begins with the League trying to recruit new members. This feels like classic Justice League with the League members gathered in the watchtower and various DC heroes invited to "tryout". In the end Firestorm, Element Woman and the Atom are selected. Later Superman and Wonder Woman create an international incident when they rescue hostages from an insurgent group in Kahndaq and a mysterious assailant attacks the batcave and steals files pertaining to Superman. It is then revealed that Atom is actually working for Amanda Waller as a spy. Waller plans to use the JLA as a contingency against the Justice League.
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| Trinity of Sin: Pandora #1, penciller: Daniel Sampere |
Then we get into the actual event. It begins by explaining the origin of the Trinity of Sin. Pandora finds the "box" while wandering through the woods in 8000 B.C. and opens it accidentally. The monsters this unleashes kill her family and Pandora is sentenced to an eternity of loneliness and pain by the gods. The Phantom Stranger is sentenced to walk the earth as a stranger to man and The Question loses his identity. As the seven deadly sins wreak havoc on mankind Pandora vows to destroy them. Back in the present she steals the box from the Black Room at ARGUS. One of the gods appears and admits that punishing her was a mistake. He tells her that only the darkest or strongest heart can open the box leading Pandora to seek Superman's help.
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| Justice League #22, penciller Ivan Reis |
Pandora then approaches Superman and Wonder Woman, asking him to open the box, but it ends up corrupting him for short time until Pandora takes the box away. Meanwhile Shazam travels to Kahndaq to return the ashes of Black Adam, who was recently killed in a fight with Shazam, to his homeland. Fearing another incident, the League follows him there, prompting Amanda Waller to send in the JLA to confront them. Ultimately, Dr. Light's powers are activated by his proximity to Superman and Superman, seemingly, kills him.
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| The Phantom Stranger #11, artist: Fernando Blanco |
This leads to a fight between the JLA and the League, which Superman stops by giving himself up. Batman theorizes that some outside force must have manipulated the situation to make it appear that Superman killed Light while Wonder Woman insists that it was his encounter with Pandora's box that caused him to lose control. They part ways, with Wonder Woman recruiting the Justice League Dark to find the box while Batman, Deadman, Katana, and the Phantom Stranger go to "Heavens Basement" to find and interrogate Dr. Light about his death. Phantom Stranger warns Batman that if Diana gets her hands on the box it will lead to disaster. They find Light only to discover that he has no idea what caused his death. Then the angel Zauriel shows up to punish the Stranger for returning to the afterlife after being warned not to. He is erased from existence and Batman and the others are returned to the earthly realm.
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| Justice League Dark #22, artist: Mikel Janin |
Meanwhile The Question goes to Superman and offers to help him find out who actually killed Dr. Light. He gives him a newspaper clipping concerning the murder of a Kahndaq businessman by Dr. Psycho around the same time that Dr. Light was killed. He then helps him to escape from ARGUS custody. While all this is going on members of the Secret Society, specifically Vandal Savage, Giganta and Signalman, are seeking the box. Pandora, having failed to find the purest heart decides to seek the darkest one. She approaches Savage and a fight breaks out. He eventually attempts to open it but fails. It turns out he still has some light left inside after all. She then goes to Lex Luthor, who is currently in prison. Before she can give him the box Wonder Woman and her allies show up to take it for themselves.
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| Justice League Dark #23, artist: Mikel Janin |
Meanwhile, Martian Manhunter locates Dr. Psycho and the JLA show up to arrest him. J'onn reads his mind and finds out that Psycho wasn't involved in Light's death but was a red herring planted by the Secret Society. Atom then tells the League about Waller's secret agenda. Leading Superman and the JLA to confront Waller. The Secret Society then detonate a bomb they planted in Dr. Light's body. At the same time the Phantom Stranger dies after warning Batman about the box's true nature and telling him that the Secret Society is holding Madame Xanadu hostage to prevent her from warning the League about the box. Finally, Wonder Woman takes the box from Pandora and is corrupted by it.
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| Trinity of Sin: Pandora #3, penciller: Daniel Sempere |
This leads to a massive fight breaking out over the box. Pandora tries to fight the sins, who are fueling the conflict in order to increase their power. She finally figures out that she must see herself in the sins, or rather see them in her, in order to destroy them. She kills envy by admitting her enviousness toward mortal beings and then precedes to slay the other sins.
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| Justice League Dark #23, artist: Mikel Janin |
In the meantime Shazam shows up and takes the box from Wonder Woman causing him to be corrupted by it. This creates a major magical disturbance and Deadman is able to sense Madame Xanadu's location. Zatanna determines that the box's power has combined with Shazam's to infect everyone around it so she casts a protective spell to protect herself from it. She tries to get the box away from everyone when Constantine shows up and takes it. He's unaffected because he's "already filthy" (just go with it). He brings her to the Temple of Hephaestus where Xanadu is being held just as Batman shows up with Deadman, Katana, Flash, Vibe, Green Lantern, Catwoman and Steve Trevor. Xanadu tells them that the box is not a prison for evil but a doorway to another dimension.
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| Justice League #23, penciller: Ivan Reis |
It's finally revealed that five years ago (of course) a mysterious man from another dimension, who has appeared throughout the story, formed the Secret Society in order to save his master. He manipulated the conflict over Pandora's box so that the League would lead him to it. At this point Pandora brings Wonder Woman and the Justice League Dark to the Temple and an another massive fight breaks out over the box.
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| Justice League #23, penciller: Ivan Reis |
As Batman and Superman fight over Diana, Firestorm discovers that Superman was infected with kryptonite somehow and this is what triggered Dr. Light's powers, killing him. Element Woman goes inside of Superman and finds the kryptonite lodged in his brain. Atom then reveals that she put it there as she was actually working for the Secret Society the whole time. She also reveals that Cyborg has been infected by GRID, a sentient computer virus which then proceeds to separate from Vic, leaving him powerless. The mysterious man then shows up and opens the box. He reveals that he is the Alfred Pennyworth of Earth-3, that the box comes from his world, and that only someone from his world can open it. The story ends with the Crime Syndicate emerging through the portal, setting up Forever Evil.
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| Flashpoint #5, penciller: Andy Kubert |
This story is extremely unfocused and overstuffed. Ultimately it's made up of two disparate stories that never really come together. One is Pandora's quest to destroy the evil she has unleashed on mankind and the other is Earth-3 Alfred Pennyworth's grand scheme to bring the Crime Syndacite to Earth-0. The entire subplot with Pandora and the Trinity of Sin turns out to be rather superfluous. This is especially frustrating as Pandora had been set up from the end of the Flashpoint, where she is revealed to be the mastermind behind the merging of the three separate timelines by Flash. Given what a waste of space her character turned out to be it's no wonder she was killed so unceremoniously in the pages of Rebirth.
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| The Phantom Stranger #11, artist: Fernando Blanco |
The Secret Society plot is really just a glorified set up for Forever Evil, which I'll get to later. Neither of these stories really allow time for anything but the barest of character development with our main cast. We see that Cyborg's dad is more interested in him for his scientific value then as a son. We get a nice moment where Batman gets to experience Christmas with his parents in the afterlife. The moment where Superman stops the big fight and asks to be locked up was refreshingly altruistic of him and especially welcome given the contrived nature of the whole situation.
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| Justice League #22, penciller: Ivan Reis |
The conflict is pretty contrived in general. I suppose you could attribute this to Earth-3 Alfred's machinations or the influence of Pandora's box but why does the box corrupt people anyway. I mean it's just a portal right? As far as the characters from the other titles go, they don't fare much better. Shazam probably does the best, following through with his determination to bury the fallen foe he has grown to respect and seeing through Constantine's manipulation. Atom seems to have a compelling inner conflict, feeling guilty about spying on her friends in the League, but it turns out she was working for the Crime Syndicate the whole time. The Phantom Stranger is given a somewhat compelling arc, though his sacrifice feels completely unnecessary as the entire episode in the afterlife doesn't really lead anywhere.
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| Justice League #22, penciller: Ivan Reis |
The art is all over the place which, I suppose, is to be expected in a big crossover with twenty different artists.
Justice League #19 is drawn by Jesus Saiz and his art is appropriately vibrant and warm for this more lighthearted issue. The rest of the
Justice League issues were penciled by Ivan Reis who does an excellent job. He really captures the colossal scale of the story and there are some really epic splash panels, especially in the last issue. Doug Mahnke's art for
Justice League of America is a little stiff and angular for my taste. Mikel Janin's work on
Justice League Dark is quite good and features some of the more creative layouts of the story. Various artists (too many to count really) worked on the tie-ins and there art is of varying quality but is overall pretty solid.
Trinity War is a good example of what's wrong with current comic book event storytelling. Just when this title began to hit its stride it was interrupted by two massive events coming right off of the heels of
Throne of Atlantis. The characters are finally starting to feel defined but they're lost in this sprawling event with countless other characters. There are some nice moments early on and Ivan Reis delivers the goods on the artistic front but overall this arc is really weak.
Score: 6/10
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