Grumpy Old Fan

Although I wrote quite a lot over the past year about DC’s weekly series Trinity, I kept coming up with questions that went outside the scope of my weekly notes. Fortunately, writer Kurt Busiek was nice enough to participate in the following e-mail interview, conducted after Trinity concluded (and after he returned from a well- deserved vacation).

We discussed the nuts and bolts of producing Trinity, its connections to a couple of Busiek’s other DC projects, a few nitpicky items, and what the year-long series leaves behind.

* * *

TCB: How did the weekly format affect your approach? Did you feel obliged to pace the book so as to satisfy both the weekly audience and the “wait-for-traders?”

kdb: I always feel obligated to make a project satisfying in whatever formats it’s planned for. So yes, we wanted each individual issue to be an enjoyable read, and we wanted each trade paperback volume to be an enjoyable read. Which was a little tricky, since we didn’t know, going into it, whether it would be collected as 4 TPBs (meaning the volumes would end at #13, 26, 39, and 52) or 3 TPBs (meaning #17, #34 or 35, and #52).*

That said, we were aware that with a weekly schedule, it’s only 7 days to the next chapter, so if one week is light on action (or virtually all action), that would likely be balanced out by the next installment. Or maybe even by the story in the co-feature.

TCB: What sorts of decisions went into breaking the series into individual two-story issues? Were there any labor considerations, for example to give the artists time to rest up for the next crowd scene? Did you and Fabian Nicieza write particular second stories for particular art teams?

kdb: We did try to juggle things for the strengths of the various co-feature artists, yes. But we had flexibility there, because we had enough lead time so that we didn’t have to have them in strict rotation. If we needed two chapters in a row from Scott [McDaniel], for instance, we’d just have to make sure we were plotted far enough ahead that while he was working on chapter one of two, Tom [Derenick] and Mike [Norton] had their own chapters to work on. As a result, the co-feature chapters didn’t come in in order, but we had enough time that we didn’t need them to; we could juggle talent and material and match them up right.

As a rough rule of thumb, we started out giving Scott spooky stuff or crime stuff, Tom big superhero action and Mike “people” stories, but varied that around as we got more of a sense of what they could do. Tom turned out to be very good at space stuff, for instance, and Scott far better at “cosmic/trippy” stuff than anyone might have imagined, possibly even him. By the end of it, we were making sure he got the psychedelic stuff, because we knew he’d knock it out of the park, while at the start we were thinking of him for shadows and mood…

TCB: Especially considering the artists’ deadline pressures, I thought Trinity‘s art was consistently good. Among other things, I feel like I’ve been to Thayer’s Notch now that I’ve seen it drawn by Mark Bagley and Art Thibert; and I was very impressed by Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens’ psychedelic Worldsoul/Krona story. Not that you had low expectations for the art, but were there any scenes or sequences which looked better than you’d written them?

kdb: I agree with you on the art being consistently good — credit the artists, of course, but also credit Mike Carlin, for lining up such a good squad of guys and making sure to manage their schedules right.

As for which scenes looked better than I imagined, I’m tempted to say “All of them.” Getting pages in was a treat, because everyone found ways to go a little further, make it a bit bigger, or funnier, or more affecting. From giant battles to big mystery to chapters like that great Norton/Kesel chapter about the Riddler, which was just perfectly paced, it was a pleasure all the way through.

TCB: Mike Carlin edited most of Countdown, and worked on the “weekly” Superman titles of the ’90s. Was he more helpful with regard to the logistics of the book or the creative aspects?

kdb: Mike weighed in on the big-picture stuff, going over the outlines, the big ideas and so on, but when it came to the chapter-by-chapter stuff, Fabian and I had a pretty good sense of how to play it out, and Mike rarely asked for changes. So I’d say that after the big story decisions had been made, he was very supportive creatively, and had to be the scheduling logistics taskmaster more often than anything else. And his experience juggling a large creative team helped out a lot.

TCB: What was it like collaborating with Fabian? How much input did he have into those scripts, and/or the book’s overall direction?

kdb: Fabian was insanely helpful. On the one hand, Fabian and I have worked together in a lot of different situations, going back to when he was a promotions manager at Marvel and I was a sales manager. We get along, we have a similar enough sensibility that we can pretty easily pull in the same direction, and he’s an inventive and professional writer. One of the reasons Mike didn’t need to involve himself all that much in the chapter-by-chapter plotting was that we pretty much had it covered — Fabian was kind of an extra story editor, where I could call him up and bounce ideas off him, and get feedback and suggestions from someone deeply involved in the story, who wasn’t pulled in a million directions at once by other emergencies.

At the same time, Fabian brought tons of creativity and no ego to the process — he knew going in that I’d be basically driving the bus, and his job was to help. I probably trampled all over his stuff dozens of times, replotting co-features, tweaking the dialogue so much that at points it amounted to rewriting rather than co-writing — but it was all in the service of keeping the two pieces of the issue together and working at speed; it’s simply easier, sometimes, to rewrite rather than talk all the details through.

So in the end, the credits are a bit misleading. Fabian’s name doesn’t appear on the lead chapters, but he was essentially a contributing writer on those, a sounding board, a suggestion guy and more. And my name is only listed as co-plotter on the co-features, but I had a lot more input than that. It was very organic — we were on the phone a lot and figured things out together. So I was driving the bus, but Fabian was co-pilot, or something. He had a number of very good suggestions, pushing me to think harder about Gangbuster and Enigma and others, and making sure I didn’t set something up and then let it fade away when it should play a larger role. He’s had a lot more experience with gang-written books than I do, so he saw pitfalls and structural issues sooner than I did, and kept us from falling prey to them.

And then I’d rewrite all his stuff; what an ingrate!

TCB: Appropriately enough, Trinity itself seems to be the third part of a trilogy, wrapping up storylines from JLA/Avengers and JLA‘s “Syndicate Rules.” How much of what became Trinity did you have in mind when you were writing the earlier stories?

kdb: Almost none of it. We put Krona in the Egg at the end of JLA/Avengers because it seemed like a good place to leave him, somewhere that could lead to something rich, but we hadn’t figured out what, yet. And then in “Syndicate Rules,” we didn’t do a lot with the Egg itself, but built up ideas like the Void Hound, or the CSA’s favor- bank rules, knowing that they’d be paid off later, but again, not precisely how. So it’s more a case of putting things into places that feel like a satisfying resolution for the moment, but have a built-in springboard for further explanation. It’s more about knowing that there’s stuff you can do that’ll work than knowing exactly what stuff that’ll be.

TCB: Apart from simply being shorter, do you think Trinity would have been significantly different as, say, an arc in Superman or JLA?

kdb: Oh, it’d have to be. Keep in mind that the JLA doesn’t turn up until #3, and then is erased from reality for the middle third of the story. If it was a JLA story, we’d have gotten tons of complaints from people who thought we were using JLA as a vehicle to ram the Trinity down everyone’s throats, at the expense of the rest of the League, and then that we weren’t even letting the League be part of their own book. So it’d have had to have been a much, much different story.

Same for if it was in Superman – it’s not a straight Superman story; it’s a story that has Superman as one of the main characters. So to build it more fully around him would change a lot. It doesn’t really fit any existing DC book — to properly describe it, it’s either a book about the Trinity, with a whole bunch of guest stars, or a book about the DCU Universe, with a special focus on the Trinity. So if you don’t call it Trinity, you need to call it DCU or DC Nation or something like that. (It was originally pitched, by the way, as “DC Superstars: Starring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman….and The DC Universe!” Which would have fit pretty well, as it worked out.)

TCB: It seemed to me that Trinity shared some of its story structure, at least superficially, with JLA/Avengers. Both stories begin with a quest to gather certain powerful items, which are then used to create an alternate timeline. Although the two stories have their differences, are the similarities just coincidental?

kdb: I think they’re coincidence. The quest-for-power-objects part of JLA/Avengers was there to help make it a travelogue/showcase of the two universes, an excuse to have a lot of fun locations for the fights. In Trinity, it was the villains going after power-objects, and that was to set up the building mystery of the Tarot connections and the personal items that were used in the Trinity spell.

TCB: Another JLA/Avengers question. In JLA/Avengers, I got the feeling you were lamenting the heroes’ various personal tragedies, and saying that no matter how appealing it looked, the combined DC/ Marvel timeline was just a pipe dream. Here, though, the experience of the deified Trinitarians suggests that the characters’ tragedies are inevitable, and perhaps even necessary. What do these stories say about the usefulness of these events?

kdb: In JLA/Avengers, the “tragedies” you’re referring to were things like the Scarlet Witch losing her children, or Hal and Barry being dead — I’d call that the kind of upheaval and calamity that happened to the heroes over the course of their careers, but which they had to accept as their burden to bear to restore the world to what they should be. In Trinity, you mean the legends, with the death of Robin and the Max Lord thing and such, right? I don’t know that we’re saying those are necessary, merely that they were big events that sent the heroes off into directions that isolated them, and they had to overcome those and reconnect with their true missions, rather than obsessing about personal failures.

TCB: Apart from those tragedies, how important generally was it to tell a story about these particular versions of the characters? Was it simply a case of using what had been established and/or what was current? Could you have gotten the same points across with more “timeless” versions?

kdb: I think they were reasonably timeless versions. We didn’t dwell all that hard on minor details — we used recent history in the legend stuff, but we used it in the process of illustrating who the characters are at their core. In another era, with different histories, those legends would have been different, but I’m sure we’d have found ways to say what we needed to say.

TCB: Were there any characters who, for whatever reason, didn’t make the final cut? (Personally, I was a little surprised not to see the “Sword of Atlantis” Aquaman.)

kdb: DC didn’t seem to know what they were going to do with Aquaman, so even though I created that version, I didn’t want to force him into the story. The big loss, to my mind, was Metron — we’d set up that Metron was interested in what would happen to the Cosmic Egg, and then couldn’t use him as we saw it play out because the New Gods were off-limits due to Final Crisis.

And we couldn’t use Madame Xanadu, because of her Vertigo series, but that meant that Charity got to play a role, which spun the story a bit differently, and that was fun.

Overall, though, we got to use most everyone we wanted to.

TCB: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are each inspired by their parents in very different ways. However, Trinity didn’t really concern itself with those differences. Why not?

kdb: It didn’t really come up. We could have made that another aspect of their trinitarianity, if that’s even a word — Superman was raised by loving parents, Batman’s an orphan, Wonder Woman had a single Mom; Superman’s adopted, Batman’s a natural son, Wonder Woman was created…but after a while adding more details starts to feel like you’re just piling them on, not going deeper into the characters.

There certainly stuff there to explore, and maybe someone will do a story about it. But we had enough going on that we didn’t need to add that in, too.

TCB: Here are a couple of really nit-picky questions about the altered timeline. First, why did Hal Jordan become Sky-Knight if John Stewart was still Green Lantern? I take it Hal quit because he couldn’t operate as GL on Earth, leaving John to be the GL of Sector 2814 everywhere but Earth. Also, why did Interceptor wear those goggles?

kdb: Interceptor’s visor has hi-tech sensors in it — it allowed her military bosses to observe what she saw; to see and hear what she did. Part of her being an agent of the government rather than a solo act. Hal Jordan quit being Green Lantern at some point and then built a new identity to keep being a hero, and John became our sector’s GL. Neither of these really came up, but like you say, it’s nit-picky. Given the way comics work, we could see either character again and learn more about them, I suppose. I really got to like Interceptor, and would love to see Supergirl meet her, in a compare/contrast story. Each one would think the other’s life was unbearable; it could be a lot of fun.

TCB: He only popped up briefly here, so where might we see Khyber again?

kdb: Anywhere! He’s out there, but he’s very secretive, so he could pop up anywhere, or stay under the radar for years. He could make a good JLA villain, or get involved with some espionage/intrigue characters, or whatever. We hinted at him in “Syndicate Rules,” by the way, when I was planning him as a JLA villain. But I don’t think anyone noticed.

TCB: The Tarot plays a pretty significant part in the story, especially early on. I imagine that is the kind of thing you want to get right, because you’ll probably have some readers who will know if you got it wrong. Did you have to do a lot of research before you felt comfortable with it? Did you consult any experts?

kdb: Fabian and I got a number of reference books, and used those — I sort of delegated much of that to him, because, well, I was juggling so much stuff I didn’t have the time to be more than cursory about it, and he was willing….

TCB: Trinity works in a lot of Clark’s co-workers from his pre-Crisis days as a TV anchorman. That seemed to me to indicate a fondness for the Cary Bates/Elliott Maggin/Curt Swan era of Superman. Apart from your own work on the Trinitarians, and the ways they’re being handled currently, to whom do you look for inspiration for each of these characters?

kdb: Everyone. I’m not looking to recreate any particular era, and my Superman, for instance, is informed by what Weisinger and his crew did, what Julie [Schwartz]‘s creative staff did, what Byrne and Stern and Jurgens and Ordway and others did…. I like the Bronze Age Superman a lot, especially the Cary Bates issues, but when I write Superman it’s a synthesis of all the stuff I like about Superman over the years. I don’t try to hit particular notes, I simply have a sense of who the character is from reading all those comics, and that guy in my head is the guy I try to get on paper. Same for Batman and Wonder Woman … I’m a big fan of Englehart’s Batman, for instance, but I’m not specifically trying to capture that, it’s just one piece of the mosaic that makes up Batman to me. Wonder Woman’s history is a lot more fragmented, so I suppose I’m more guided by the stuff from what George [Perez] did to what Gail [Simone] is doing today, but there’s certainly parts of the Bronze and Silver Age Wonder Woman in there, stuff that resonates with me and feels appropriate to who she is today.

TCB: Any immediate plans for Trinity‘s supporting cast, including Konvikt, Tarot and Gangbuster, Enigma and Stephie/Void Hound, and Tomorrow Woman?

kdb: I can’t say, at present. I hope we’ll see a lot of them — including the Dreambound — but if there are plans I’m not at liberty to announce them, and if there aren’t I’m too sneaky to admit it.

TCB: Finally, can you share what’s next for the new Earth-Trinity? Should we call it “Earth One,” or was that just a wink to fans of the old Multiverse?

kdb: “Earth One” was a deliberate choice, and done in part at DC’s request. There’s definitely more than a wink going on there.

But again, I can’t say, at present, what it’s leading to…

kdb

+++++++++

* [It turned out to be 3 volumes, with vol. 2 covering issues #18-35 -- TCB]

Trinity #52

Well, it all comes down to this. With Trinity #52, Kurt Busiek, Mark Bagley, and the rest of their intrepid band have one last opportunity to sound off about Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Who will live? Who will die? Will there be food? And where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?

Join me, won’t you, for one more trip around the triune block!

SPOILERS FOLLOW

“Where They Should Be” was written by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza; penciled by Mark Bagley (pages 1, 4-5, 19-25) and Mike Norton (pages 2-3, 9, 12, 18), Tom Derenick (pages 6-8, 10-11), and Scott McDaniel (pages 13-17); inked by Art Thibert (pages 1, 4-5, 19-25), John Stanisci (pages 2-3, 9, 12, 18), Wayne Faucher (pages 6-8, 10-11), and Andy Owens (pages 13-17); colored by Pete Pantazis and Allen Passalaqua, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The Trinity throws a wrap party — and the cosmos gets a present!

Page 1

– As we’ll see on the next page, panels 1 and 2 are zooming in on the twin cities of Keystone and Central, connected by a bridge across the Missouri River. Naturally, this is a callback to issue #1, where the Keystone Coffee Pier made its first appearance. (But where is Cheynie?)

– Considering how this issue ends, it’s worth pointing out that in the days of the original infinite Multiverse, the two cities each occupied a different Earth. Earth-Two, home of DC’s Golden Age heroes, had Keystone; and Earth-One, where most heroes didn’t emerge until the Silver Age, had Central. Accordingly, the presence of Keystone City on the main DC-Earth is a constant reminder (for those of us old enough) of its merged status. The two were first seen as “twin cities” in Crisis On Infinite Earths #11 (February 1986).

Pages 2-3

– I won’t try to identify everyone on the patio, especially since most of them are spotlighted throughout the issue. However, I will say I like how this spread flows, particularly how the speech balloons lead one’s eye down alongside the tier of inset panels to the tiny Grace and Metamorpho, and then back up to the “close-ups.” Roy Harper connects panel 2 (the first inset) with panel 3, and Hal Jordan connects panels 3 and 4.

– For what it’s worth, Ollie Queen and Dinah Lance also appear with Roy and Hal in the insets. The guy in the tie is probably Tom Kalmaku, Hal’s longtime friend and frequent co-worker. Tom, an aircraft mechanic who’s known about Hal’s Green Lantern career practically since the beginning, was created by John Broome and Gil Kane and first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 2 #2 (September 1960).

[EDIT-- no it's not Tom Kalmaku; it's Ryan "Atom" Choi, as Mr. Busiek noted in the comments.]

Page 4

– Wonder Woman’s expression in panel 2 suggests that while she might be “nearly drained of power,” she’s still ready for the challenge. That’s a nice bit of acting from Bagley and Thibert.

Page 5

– Likewise, it’s balanced by Superwoman’s wild-eyed eagerness in panels 1 and 5.

Page 6

– With Geo-Force, Katana, and Metamorpho in the picture, it looks like the army of Justice Leaguers, Justice Socialites, and adult Titans (all of whom went from Castle Branek to the North Pole) has been augmented with a few Outsiders.

Page 7

– “That favor we owed you”: I’m sure this has come up before, but the favor was owed when the Justice League (and friends) saved the Anti-Matter Earth from the Void Hound (then inhabiting a Qwardian battlecruiser) back in JLA #114 (July 2005).

Page 8

– Enigma, Stephie, and the Void Hound are a sort of “trinity,” even though they’re not quite three separate beings anymore. It also looks like Enigma never gave up a last little bit of creation energy.

– I had pegged Stephie for the new conduit to the Anti-Matter Earth’s worldsoul, but this works too. Considering that she’s got the mind of a young girl, “I sort of want to [rip their throats out]” is funny in a very demented way. Again I wonder — since the Anti-Matter Earthlings are naturally predisposed to be bad, how much of that sentiment doesn’t come from the Void Hound?

Page 9

– In Panel 1 are Wally “Flash” West, Koriand’r/Starfire, Raven, Nemesis, Gar “Beast Boy” Logan, and Vic “Cyborg” Stone.

– Eddie “Kid Devil/Red Devil” Bloomberg, Maxine “Cyclone” Hunkel, and Cassie “Wonder Girl” Sandsmark are in the background of panel 4. Eddie lost his powers and his demonic appearance sometime around Teen Titans vol. 3 #68 (April 2009), but I don’t suppose that’s meant to fix Trinity‘s spot on the overall timeline. The “bubble of time” probably includes a fudge factor.

– If Nemesis is in a funk here, wait ’til he gets to this week’s Wonder Woman #32….

Page 10

– It’s an understatement to say that Morgaine and Jason Blood have a long history of mutual animosity. I don’t recognize this particular style of bookend. Coming soon from DC Direct…?

– “All of Enigma’s tech-goons are being deprogrammed” sounds like he brainwashed a few of DC-Earth’s Geek Squads.

Page 11

– The prison planet Takron-Galtos was created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan and first appeared in Adventure Comics #359 (August 1967). At first it was only seen in the 30th Century in connection with the Legion of Super-Heroes, but eventually it began to show up in present-day stories.

– Despero’s restraints echo Krona’s from his banishment in Green Lantern vol. 2 #40 (October 1965).

– A couple of familiar Green Lanterns appear in panel 2, Salakk (second from left, miscolored blue) and Kilowog (third from left). Salakk was created by Denny O’Neil and Joe Staton and first appeared in DC Special Series #1 (1977) (a/k/a Five-Star Super-Hero Spectacular). Kilowog was created by Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton and first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 2 #149 (February 1982).

– At first I thought the end of this particular subplot would mean no comeuppance for Kanjar Ro, but even his bravado recognizes how hard it’ll be for him to get away.

Page 12

– In the foreground of Panel 1 are Barbara “Oracle” Gordon, Helena “Huntress” Bertinelli, and Zinda “Lady Blackhawk” Blake.

– “Ectotheric” should not be confused with “ectothermic,” which means “cold-blooded.”

– Charity’s Tarot cards are the Hermit, the Lovers, and the Wheel! Of! Fortune!

Page 13

– The Vittaglias were seen previously in issue #26, as part of the altered timeline where Anthony was still alive.

– Since the Hermit card signifies “communion with one’s own inner world and deriving [one's own] truth from it,” it’s naturally appropriate for Xalitan Xor.

Page 14

– Kind of an ironic twist to his story, though.

Page 15

– “The Lovers” has been associated with Gangbuster and Tarot for a while now, so this is no surprise.

Page 16

– E. Barrett Prettyman (1891-1971) was a federal judge who served for fifteen years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, including two years as chief judge. As the caption indicates, the courthouse which bears his name is located in Washington, D.C., and is home to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia as well as the D.C. Circuit’s Court of Appeals.

– Accordingly, the Dreambound were probably there for a hearing before that U.S. District Court regarding federal criminal charges, including their fight at the National Air & Space Museum. Perhaps in the interests of judicial economy, other charges stemming from their actions in Gotham City, Metropolis, and elsewhere were all consolidated into one case before this court.

– Naturally, the Wheel of Fortune card signifies “life’s unexpected changes.”

– I think this is Courtney Waxler’s first appearance.

Page 17

– I thought Graak would be revived and Tomorrow Woman would stay dead, and the complete opposite happened. Still, I’m glad Tomorrow Woman is back, especially since “Clara Kendall” is back with her. I’ll look forward to her inevitable meeting with Clark/Superman when he re-settles on Earth.

– Jay Garrick’s T-shirt looks an awful lot like the original Mento costume. Maybe it’s the latest from Graphitti?

Page 18

– I’m still drawing a blank on the two guys talking (without dialogue) in panel 1.

– Hawkman’s soliloquy seems to set up the kind of “everything you know is wrong” story alluded to in Jim Starlin’s infamous Hawkman Special.

Page 19

– And now the stars of the show: the Trinitarians and the League of Extraordinary BFFs, three groups of three.

– “New Chronus” … wow, we’re so close to the end and here’s a reference to Donna’s origin! Well, I volunteered for this, so here goes. Originally, as depicted in Teen Titans vol. 1 #22 (July-August 1969), Wonder Woman rescued the infant Donna from her burning orphanage and took her to Paradise Island. This worked fine (in narrative terms) until Wonder Woman was removed from the Silver Age by her 1986 revamp. Consequently, The New Titans #50 (December 1988) revealed that Donna was rescued by Rhea, one of the Titans of Myth, who were the forerunners of the Greek gods. After the Greek gods deposed them, the Titans relocated to the planetoid New Chronus, and it was there that young Donna received her powers. When Donna was “killed” in 2003′s Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day miniseries, she was actually “reborn,” with a new identity as Goddess of the Moon, on New Chronus. The Teen Titans and (Nightwing’s) Outsiders then brought her back to Earth in 2005′s Return Of Donna Troy miniseries, just in time for Infinite Crisis.

Page 20

– “That other world might have … needed gods to repair the damage Krona did”; and the Trinity did a lot of good there. However, as we’ll see in a few pages, apparently they weren’t exactly what the other Earth needed.

Page 21

– “We’re not above this world”: again, this is a revelation which is not new to Trinity, and which I suspect many fans will associate with stories like Kingdom Come. More on this later.

Page 22

– No annotations.

Page 23

– I’m not going to argue the logistics of Superman’s whispered message, because it’s a sweet sentiment and a fine cap for the series.

Page 24

– What’s the sphere (that’s not the moon) in panel 1?

– Drained of all his extraordinary power, Krona’s back to his familiar Oan/Maltusian appearance.

– “Make this Earth one at last”: I didn’t capitalize “one,” but I wonder if it shouldn’t be. In 1985, when the Multiverse was transformed/reborn/streamlined into a single DC Universe, there was considerable discussion about whether the new Earth was really a beefed-up Earth-One, which after all had been the main DC Earth for some thirty years. The short answer seemed to be no; the new DC-Earth was a conglomeration, dubbed by one fan “Earth-Sigma” (for “summation”). More recently, when the 52-Earth Multiverse was unveiled two years ago, there was considerable discussion about whether the main DC-Earth was the new Multiverse’s Earth-1. Again, the answer was no; it was “New Earth” (notwithstanding scattered contrary references), because the new Earth-1 had yet to be charted.

Page 25

– “A world is lost, a contest won, a child is orphaned”: references to our heroes’ origins, obviously.

– “What might have been … what could have been … what, perhaps, should have been”: the implication, I take it, is that without Krona’s interference (in the name of cruel science), the humanoids would not have been the blue-skinned people we met. Furthermore, this Earth would have produced a familiar Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, living in familiar-looking Metropolis, Gotham, and Themyscira.

– Together with the “Earth One” mention, it all makes me think that this new Earth might well be an analogue for the old Earth-One. Like many of the other pre-Crisis parallel Earths, it had only one main generation of super-heroes (as opposed to the current DC-Earth’s four). On Earth-One, when Superman first appeared (as the teenaged Superboy), he wasn’t really picking up where a Golden Age’s worth of super-people had left off. Instead, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were at the top of the heroic hierarchy because they were the first superheroes, not because they did things the Golden Agers couldn’t….

* * *

,,, And that brings us to the last roundup.

Let’s finish “Earth One” first. Trinity exists, at least in part, to give narrative meaning to this facet of DC’s publishing history. In practical terms, these three characters have been at the center of that history for the past seventy years. However, in the post-Crisis context, an entire generation of Golden Agers now precedes them. On the old Earth-One, as on its sister world Earth-Two, the Trinitarians were part of that first generation, and could claim to have inspired all of those who followed. Moreover, the Earth-One Trinitarians inhabited a fairly static universe, except for the occasional marriage, divorce, noble sacrifice (i.e., the Doom Patrol), or new Robin or Green Lantern. Their place in the hierarchy wasn’t challenged either by predecessors or successors. If the “Earth One” reference is any kind of a clue, that may also be true on the new Earth (Earth-Trinity? Earth-Krona?). Thus, in a sense, Trinity has produced a world which probably doesn’t need the justification of a series like Trinity.

What, though, is that justification? Why read Trinity, and not 52, The Nail, or Kingdom Come? Well, for one thing, Trinity combines aspects of each of those miniseries into its own distinct story. Through the use of two Earths — one deprived of the Trinitarians, and one which saw them as gods — Trinity asserts generally that our heroes are symbols of strength, hope, and justice. When deprived of those unique symbols, the altered Earth tried mightily to recall and/or replace them, while the armies of the Justice Society and Global Police Agency struggled to fit Golden Age ideals to a changing world. Meanwhile, on Earth-Trinity, the Trinitarians themselves lived their lives over, often in strange new ways. Those experiences helped lead the people of that Earth out of a dark, Krona-dominated past, but along the way the Trinitarians lost sight of the people who “grounded” them.

This development is nothing particularly new, but it highlights the utility of “Clark Kent.” Clark is the person Superman aspires to be, even as Superman himself is an inspirational figure. (It’s all very circular.) More significantly, Trinity suggests that not only does Superman choose to be Clark, the choice is inevitable — even for Kellel, god of a parallel Earth. By contrast, Dinanna and Ahtman embraced their roles as gods, and the resulting schism almost destroyed the Trinity’s adopted world. Here in issue #52, we see that they used Krona to rewrite Earth-Trinity’s history, presumably to avoid that cataclysm. Although having them as gods would certainly have made their influence eternal, in the long run their human flaws were better managed when they were “lesser beings.” The nigh-omnipotent Superman tries to relate to the rest of the world as an ordinary person. The mythologically-infused Wonder Woman relates to the world as an ambassador of her people. The non-powered Batman’s perspective is colored by his particular crusade. Take them away from their familiar surroundings and fill them with immeasurable power and they become boring and pompous, worth examining only with regard to their old selves. If trading that sort of eternal influence for the illusion of change means periodic reinventions, it’s a small price to pay. According to Trinity, our heroes will never be perfect, so some tweaking comes with the territory.

While the Trinitarians might not be eternal in real-world terms, they aren’t going anywhere either. When the next round of line-wide DC housecleaning comes along — and it will — the Trinitarians will be at the center of it once again. Although they’ve been revised, rethought, and relaunched countless times across various media, their resiliency has facilitated their longevity. For its part, Trinity has done a lot, especially early on, to establish both the Trinity’s individual qualities and its relationship to the larger DC world. It’s been fun not only to read but to dig into, and I’ll be glad to revisit it in the future.

* * *

Now, I’m sure this is not the last I’ll write about this miniseries. Before I close up this feature, though, I want to thank the many websites upon whom I’ve relied over these past fifty-two weeks.

My own research trinity has been the Grand Comics Database, Mike’s Amazing World Of DC Comics, and the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe. I’ve also turned often to Tarotpedia, the Unauthorized Chronology of the DC Universe, the Superman Homepage, Supermanica, TitansTower.com, Flash: Those Who Ride The Lightning, DarkMark’s Comics Indexing Domain, Cosmic Teams!, the Great Book of Oa, and Amazon Archives. My dead-tree collections of DC Archives, Complete Histories, and Encyclopediae have been invaluable; and of course, I had the Vast Bondurant Comics Library (when I felt like looking at it).

Thanks also to everyone who read and commented, especially writers Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza and colorist Allan Passalaqua. Whether you worked on Trinity or not — and whether you liked it or not — I appreciated your insights.

Thanks to Matt Brady and Troy Brownfield at Newsarama, who let me start this feature there; thanks to Jonah Weiland and Brian Cronin at CBR for their help in moving it here; and thanks to JK and my fellow Robot 6ers for all your support.

Finally, you may remember that a few months into Trinity, my wife and I welcomed our own little Trinitarian! Here was Olivia, barely a week old, channeling the cover of issue #12 …

Olivia, the Bat Girl

… and here she is today, forty issues later and 9 ½ months older.

"Says here Keystone/Central's off I-85! That sound right to you?"

She’s been my own special research assistant. Whether she does something as insane as this will be entirely up to her.

Talk to you later!

Trinity #51

Lots of last-minute housecleaning in this penultimate issue of Trinity. Just about every lingering subplot is either resolved or set up for resolution, which doesn’t leave much old business for next week’s conclusion. Considering the standalone nature of this miniseries — and the fact that it’s a 52-issue standalone miniseries — I think that’s for the best. There will probably be some super-powered action next issue, but I still hope that Kurt Busiek & Co. have left room for a thoughtful epilogue.

We’re not there yet, though.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

LEAD STORY (pages 1, 12-22)

“Can You Hold Out” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Some villains are dispatched — but some are still around.

SECOND STORY (pages 2-11)

“Solid Ground” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Tom Derenick, inked by Wayne Faucher, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The world’s superheroes deal with its reconstruction.

Page 1

– I was going to open with something smart-alecky like “now I feel like taking a few deep, cleansing breaths,” or maybe a comparison to one of those black-light posters from the ’70s. Really, though, this is a very nice, tranquil way to open the issue. However, I wonder about the transition from last issue, which ended with Lois at the North Pole yelling “It’s not over!” while the ground shuddered around her. Since the narration tells us things are “gentle on a planetary scale,” I suppose we’re to be reassured that it’s not as bad as it looks.

Pages 2-3 (story pages 1-2)

– What, no mention that Mercury is the only metal which is a liquid at room temperature?

– The Rocket Red Brigade was created by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton and first appeared in Green Lantern Corps vol. 1 #208 (January 1987). The Reds’ armor, developed by GL Kilowog, was originally more boxy. Their appearance here reflects a redesign which first appeared around 52 #6 (June 14, 2006).

Page 4/3

– The first logo-shaped Batplane was the “Batwing,” designed by Anton Furst for Batman (1989). Before that movie, the various Bat-aircraft were all pretty much recognizable as customized versions of existing vehicles.

– “Major fault line”: ’round about Batman: Shadow of the Bat #73 (April 1998), Gotham City was hit by a massive earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale. Eventually, as told in 1999′s year-long “No Man’s Land” mega-arc, the city was cut off from the rest of the United States.

– So long, Bigger.

Page 5/4

– “What will be revealed … remains a mystery”: sounds like more continuity tweaks, but I didn’t think Trinity would do that.

– Since the Marianas Trench is actually in the Pacific Ocean, I’m sure Hal has a good reason for being over the North Atlantic. Maybe he’s on his way to the Pacific?

– Speaking of mysteries, the last I knew of Tempest (specifically, November 2007′s Aquaman: Sword Of Atlantis #56), he had lost his powers and the ability to breathe water. Here (as in Final Crisis, which takes place after Trinity), he looks back to normal. Maybe the answers will be in July’s Titans #15.

– By the way, we first saw Tempest as Aqualad back in issue #23, so I’ll mention here that he first appeared as Tempest in Tempest #2 (December 1996), by Phil Jiminez.

– I take it Dina is back to life because she was killed as a result of Morgaine’s magic. By contrast, Bigger is (still) dead because the Joker had already killed him.

Page 6/5

– I had thought Tomorrow Woman might survive Trinity, but no such luck.

Page 7/6

– The resolution of the John Stewart/Void Hound subplot doesn’t feel that satisfying, at least where John is concerned. I understand that the Void Hound learned that it could set its own purpose, etc., but now it seems like John was only involved to give us insight into the V-H’s mind. Maybe I’m not remembering it correctly, but it seems to have made John more of a passive participant. (It also got him off Earth while the Arcana Wars were going on, for whatever that’s worth.)

Page 8/7

– No annotations.

Page 9/8

– Despero can stab Enigma, but the latter still retains some of his shadow-power. In light of what the Trinitarians tell us later on, I take it the Troika’s powers have been similarly reduced.

Page 10/9

– No annotations.

Page 11/10

– No annotations.

Pages 12-13

– I found this to be another awkward transition, mainly because there wasn’t much visually locating the various players in relation to one another. On page 8/7, SPHERE is apparently near Lois, Tarot, et al., judging by the placement of the word balloon in panel 1. The scene then shifts to the Troiksters’ battle, after which Enigma collapses next to SPHERE. Thus, Enigma apparently ends up near Lois, Tarot, and company, although each of these narrative threads plays out in isolation from the rest. Consequently, when Stephie emerges from SPHERE, calling for help, it’s not unreasonable to think she is in the same general area as Lois and the others. This sets up the transition from page 11/10 to page 12; but again, nothing has placed her expressly in relation to them. Moreover, this two-page spread doesn’t show any of those characters relative to each other, although the layouts may indicate that the good guys are on one side of the vast plain and the bad guys are on the other.

Pages 14-15

– No annotations.

Page 16

– This was a pretty touching scene, and well within Batman’s paternal nature.

Page 17

– “He knows what it means to be a machine”: but does he know what it means to miss New Orleans?  Although it took me a while to figure this out, I’m guessing “he” is the Void Hound. (In fact, since we see Batman’s cape in panel 4, it looks like the V-H has been transformed into the black serpentine spirit.) I like this development, not least because it may lead to a new Anti-Matter Universe trinity.

Page 18

– No annotations.

Page 19

– “Our power was largely spent”: in helping the Worldsoul repair the Earth, I guess. However, as seen in this issue, they still have enough power to grow and shrink as best suits the drama of the moment.

– Shorter Krona: “It’s not you, it’s me!”

Page 20

– Not sure what’s happened to Krona. The Trinitarians probably don’t have enough power to banish him from reality (as Morgaine’s spell would have done). Maybe he’s the Worldsoul’s butler now?

Page 21

– And finally, here is the Trinity, once again in the flesh. I know I had complained that they were staying in their godlike forms a little too long, but they’d gotten more interesting since then.

Page 22

– You know, if Green Lantern really is on his way to the Marianas Trench from the North Atlantic, he could take a shortcut over the North Pole….

* * *

I got to the end of this issue and almost groaned oh come on, the Crime Syndicate? Their scene in issue #49 would have been a good sendoff. Still, in terms of who’s left at the North Pole, this twist makes sense, and it’s a decent cliffhanger. Besides, I expect they’ll get snapped up by the SPHERE/Void Hound combo and spirited back to the Anti-Matter Universe within the first couple of pages.

Accordingly, this issue looks pretty much like it wraps up Trinity‘s big-cosmic-action portion. The Trinitarians have returned to their old selves, the Earth is on the road to recovery, and the proper timeline has been re-established (future tweaks notwithstanding). Assuming that Enigma and Stephie/SPHERE/the Void Hound will be OK, I suppose we must still say goodbye-for-now to Konvikt (and Graak, because I think he’ll be brought back the same way Dina was), and learn the final fate of Gangbuster and Tarot’s relationship.

Other than that, though, it’d be nice if Trinity ended as it began, with our three principals meeting over a light meal to suss out what they’ve been through. The more I think about the end of this series, the more bittersweet it becomes. It’s not that I’ve developed a deep emotional connection to weekly research sessions; but in the context of DC’s other big events, this represents the last time for a while that these characters will be together. Of course, that separation won’t last — nothing is really permanent in superhero serials — but the timing makes Trinity‘s end somewhat more meaningful.

See you next week for the finale!

++++++++++++++++++++

Issue #50

Issue #49

Issue #48

Issue #47

Issue #46

Issue #45

Issue #44

Issue #43

Issue #42

Issue #41

Issue #40

Issue #39

Issue #38

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #50

Maybe it’s just me, but this was one deep issue of Trinity.

Lately I’ve been thinking about the way I approach fictional universes, and had put some of that into words on Tuesday with regard to Star Trek. Accordingly, Trinity #50 gives me the chance to expand on that.

For those of you concerned about such things, this means very little trivia and a lot of rambling. You have been warned.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

LEAD STORY

“So…” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Krona, the Trinity, and the Worldsoul bring back Earth — but not before…

SECOND STORY

“Her Realm” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Scott McDaniel, inked by Andy Owens, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The Worldsoul tries to make Krona understand what it means to be her.

* * *

This issue is pretty simple, plot-wise. Krona has destroyed the Earth, pulling it apart like monkey bread (mmm…) in order to get at its Worldsoul. Said Worldsoul — which might also be described as the Gaia-force, or perhaps the planet’s “animating spirit” — is a critical piece of the cosmic puzzle Krona seeks to solve. Accordingly, he “enters her realm” and starts grilling her about the quantifiable aspects of her existence: life-cycle, sustenance, communication with similar beings, generation of planetary inhabitants, etc. She’s mystified by his questions, because all she does is exist and experience. Such existence and experiences are too big to be crammed into Krona’s “specific” demands, so she lets Krona share her perceptions in a mind-expanding two-page spread.

Still not getting it, Krona lashes out with “a hurricane of energy that could devastate a galaxy,” but which proves ineffectual in the Worldsoul’s realm. Finally, the Worldsoul asks Krona rhetorically “[do y]ou want reality itself to change to suit you? To be what you think it ‘must be,’ rather than what it is? What your own senses have shown you?” When Krona continues to protest, the Worldsoul kicks him back into the regular universe; but he’s far from done: “If the cosmic intelligences are too foolish to strive, to seek knowledge — then they are not gods, but sheep! Lab animals! And I will tear you to pieces to see what makes you tick…!”

At this point, however, the Trinity appears, still in their divine forms. They and the Worldsoul draw Krona into their circle, using his power and theirs to bring back the Earth and its inhabitants. The issue ends at the North Pole, with Lois, the Justice League, Justice Society, and Titans alive and well, but still dealing with natural disasters.

Regular readers of this feature are probably well-acquainted with my perspective on DC’s idea of a “Trinity.” Essentially, it’s an attempt to translate the characters’ continuous publication histories into an in-story relationship. It’s a relatively recent concept, and therefore not a well-settled part of the texts in the way that Batman and Superman have long been established as the “World’s Finest Team.” Indeed, Wonder Woman’s 1986 relaunch set her debut in the present, thereby eliminating all of her prior adventures with other superheroes. Only in the past few years has that history been restored; and even now, all we really know is that she helped found the original Justice League. To be sure, it’s important to her place in the Trinity, but it alone doesn’t qualify her for Trinitarian status.

I’m getting off the track a little, but not much. Like Krona tearing into the Earth, I am trying to pick apart one aspect of Trinity — Wonder Woman’s history — in order to see if it can be justified. However, What this issue seems to be saying to me is that such things are unquantifiable.

Let’s look at this briefly from another angle, continuing with Wonder Woman. Would Trinity be different if it were being published five years ago? Ten years? Twenty? Forty? Fifty? If the story did change appreciably, odds are those changes would come from her shifting role. Nevertheless, I daresay Trinity would still make the case that the essence of Wonder Woman — regardless of the details — justifies her Trinitarian status. She might be a white-suited martial artist, she might pose as an Air Force officer, she might not have killed Maxwell Lord, but those things are irrelevant in the bigger picture. Likewise, Superman might consider “Clark” a disguise, or Batman might be working through a sci-fi phase; but their core characteristics remain unchanged. Trinity‘s premise might not be defensible statistically, but it doesn’t have to be. The series provides its own justification. It just is.

That raises the troubling question of whether this space has been used productively. I do feel a certain sympathy for Krona’s fruitless pursuit of hard data. Perhaps I have also concentrated too much on the details … uh, sometimes.

However, as a weekly series, Trinity invites weekly scrutiny; and it’s not unreasonable to see if the details point to something more meaningful. Such an approach worked well with 52, which had its share of extended mystery plots (including Supernova’s identity and Sue Dibny’s final fate). By contrast, Trinity‘s main mystery was the villains’ plan in Act One. Act Two followed the search for the Trinity and the altered timeline’s effects; and Act Three has been a series of god-level battles. Thus, Trinity doesn’t share 52‘s play-fair mystery characteristics. It also seems a little lighter on the numerology that 52 relished. These are not bad things, and I don’t mean to suggest that Trinity suffers for not being 52. Both series use their details to give their stories depth and scope; and both use DC’s superhero characters to play off (and/or fill the spaces left by) the Trinitarians.

Still, while Trinity is not a play-fair mystery, it is tempting to apply those play-fair rules. Certainly Trinity has played fair in many ways, including foreshadowing the altered timeline and Earth’s destruction via issue #1′s brazier-visions. Nevertheless, at some point the scientific method cannot account for a story’s every twist and turn. More importantly, not every story has a predictable solution. On one level, 52 filled the year-long gap between Infinite Crisis and the “One Year Later” status quo. Therefore, those stories set parameters within which 52 could operate. Trinity‘s parameters are less specific, requiring only that its characters be “back to normal” at the end, ready to participate in Final Crisis and their own mini-events. This makes its ultimate outcome eminently predictable, since its characters will suffer no apparent consequences. (Regardless, I doubt it will be a complete reset.)

By the same token, though, this forces the reader to concentrate on what the story is saying, and not necessarily where it is going. I get the feeling that the Worldsoul tells Krona as much in this issue. Trinity is grounded firmly in the pre-Final Crisis DC Universe, and its assertions about the Trinitarians draw from established DC history. However, those assertions aim for a more general applicability. Trinity has not positioned itself as another link in the big-event chain which continues with Blackest Night. Instead, it has been a wide-ranging meditation on these characters’ relationships with each other and with their friends and colleagues. Looking for something more concrete — something more practically applicable — ends up missing the point.

Now, all that sounds like I’ve talked myself out of a job; but I wouldn’t say this feature has been wasted space. Again, Trinity has used DC’s superhero lore to examine, flesh out, and sometimes justify the Trinitarians’ relationships. To do this, it’s had to pull from who-knows-how-many stories produced by countless professionals over seventy-one years. The “Trinity” idea may be relatively new, but it has to fit into that history (or, at least, the current interpretation of that history). Likewise, almost all of the book’s guest stars are established characters with their own eclectic histories. The combination of those diverse ideas, and their distillation into narratives and themes, has always fascinated me. On Tuesday I mentioned Star Trek fans’ personal theories about the Trek universe, drawn from its established history — well, I see a good bit of that in Trinity, and I’ve enjoyed comparing its perspective with my own. To the extent that I can see the origin of a particular observation or plot element, I think Trinity has been “quantifiable.”

The important parts, though, are those products of creative energy which we readers don’t see coming. To me that’s a big part of the Worldsoul’s message: some things can’t be dissected or calculated. I look forward to reading Trinity as a completed story, but I’ve had great fun “experiencing” it this way.

* * *

By the way, I do have some notes on this issue….

Pages 2-3

– The triangular aircraft in the middle of page 2 looks like a version of the VentureStar spacecraft; but it is probably an F-14 fighter jet with its main wings folded back.

– I know none of these folks will be dead for long, but I’d be surprised if Supergirl couldn’t survive Earth’s destruction.

Page 5 (story page 1)

– The “CGI,” for lack of a better term, is a very nice addition to this story. Like Jack Kirby’s photo-collages, it gives the proceedings an appropriately otherworldly feel. I’d be interested in hearing more about how it was accomplished.

Page 6/2 et seq.

– Trinity has shown us different women who have been connected to the Worldsoul throughout the years (see, e.g., issue #26), so naturally, the Worldsoul looks different throughout this issue. Whether these different faces are expressions of her “facilitators” or of herself is probably a moot point.

Page 20

– “I lost one planet…. I won’t lose another”: while I don’t mind him saying this here, the phrase should definitely be part of the Superman Drinking Game.

Page 21

– We’ll see if this (finally) drains the Trinitarians’ god-powers.

Page 22

– Fishnets in the snow = brrr! I know Black Canary has warmer costumes….

– I think that’s a plume of yellow-and-black smoke in panel 7 (behind the fading-out Firestorm), but it kinda looked like Krona at first.

* * *

Two more weeks!

++++++++++++++++++++

Issue #49

Issue #48

Issue #47

Issue #46

Issue #45

Issue #44

Issue #43

Issue #42

Issue #41

Issue #40

Issue #39

Issue #38

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #49

Off and on throughout this series, I have wondered how Busiek, Bagley, Nicieza, et al., would spend their last few issues. Would they go all-out right up to the very end, or would they wrap things up a little sooner in order to have some time for an epilogue? Like last issue, Trinity #49 concerns itself pretty much with one plot point; and with Krona trapped and Morgaine and Despero on the ropes, the issue was shaping up to be rather pivotal.

And it was — but not exactly how I imagined.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“This Planet, These People…” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Page 1

– I don’t recognize the extraterrestrials in panel 1. However, that bridge layout looks awfully familiar (although not quite like an Apple store).

Pages 2-3

– While Batman has “reverse-engineered” the spell (thanks, again, to Luthor’s analysis), I don’t think the narration here contradicts anything I said last issue. Because, of course, I know more.

Page 4

– “Cast him from reality forever” sounds pretty final; but then again, so does “reduced to disembodied energy” (as the Guardians originally treated Krona) or “trapped inside/transformed into a creation egg.”

Page 5

– I understand that the Troika created the Dreambound. However, this talk of “controlling” them (and releasing them from said control) is rather superfluous, considering that Morgaine hasn’t done anything to stop their rebellion thus far. Sure, it might be a matter of Morgaine being too busy or too preoccupied to exert that control, but the way it’s played out, it hasn’t made much, if any, difference.

Page 6

– Here’s Charity talking about hope. If only Faith (created by Joe Kelly, first appeared in JLA #69 (Early October 2002)) had been part of this Justice League team.

– Yay, the Worldsoul has been healed! Now let’s get Stephie better and everything will turn out great!

Page 7

– And Ultraman’s heart grew three sizes that day…. Well, maybe not.

Page 8

– I liked the Trinity’s discussion of its roots, especially the notion that Wonder Woman represents “ancient powers that birthed my culture.” That’s a different, but perhaps more expansive, role than saying merely she is “of the Earth” — as in, literally formed from clay. (Likewise, we could say that Superman is “of the heavens,” and Batman is “of humanity.”) It connects her more to the supernatural, whereas Superman’s powers are rooted in (pseudo-) science and Batman’s skills come from study and training.

Page 9

– “We cast you out”: hmm. Wonder where Krona would have gone? Same place the Troika would have sent the Trinity, I guess. (“Suppose they went nowhere?” “Then this’ll be your big chance to get away from it all!”)

Page 10

– Occasionally I have had my doubts about Morgaine being Trinity‘s main antagonist (as opposed to, say, Circe). However, this moment is the perfect expression of how irredeemably, monomaniacally crazy she is. She has nothing left to lose, so she pushes the doomsday button. It’s a fitting way for her to go.

Page 11

– No annotations.

Page 12

– And here, at last, is the final brazier-vision from issue #1. Accordingly, in all fairness, I suppose we should have seen this coming.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“No Future” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Mike Norton, inked by John Stanisci, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Insert R.E.M. reference here (and I don’t mean “Superman“).

Page 13 (story page 1)

– I hate to sound like a grump, but in the old days the Green Lantern rings were limited only by the wearer’s willpower (and, when applicable, the color yellow). In a flashback to the JLA’s first encounter with Starbreaker, shown in this winter’s Justice League of America vol. 2 #29 (March 2009), Hal whipped up a harness around the Earth so Superman could keep it in its proper orbit. More recently (DC-wise), in DC One Million #4 (November 1998), Kyle Rayner used a ring-bubble to contain an exploding star until it had burned out. Counting down the power-level percentages is fine for drama, but I liked the GLs getting to do whatever they wanted on one 24-hour charge.

Page 14/2

– “If willpower were enough”: see?

– Also, the rings are supposed to protect their wearers from mortal injury. Considering what happens in the rest of this issue, that may be a moot point. (Still, one ring even re-animated its wearer, the “dead” Lantern Driq. Wonder if we’ll be seeing him in Blackest Night?)

Page 15/3

– Well, I did say I wanted to see Desiree again. I guess that’s Julia Kapatelis with her?

– Looks like we’re having curtain calls. Madame Zodiac was last seen in issue #15.

Page 16/4

– Bigger’s story was told in issue #18. The fact that he’s still around suggests either that the timeline hadn’t been entirely repaired, or that Bigger is a temporal anomaly.

Page 17/5

– The Great Ten were referenced obliquely a couple of issues ago, but here are some of them in person. Bonded with the aircraft is Immortal Man In Darkess; next to him is Socialist Red Guardsman; then Thundermind, Ghost Fox Killer, and August General In Iron.

Page 18/6

– Dina Avenbruch was seen previously in issue #33.

Page 19/7

– The Sea Devils, a group of aquatic adventurers led by Dane Dorrance, were created by Bob Kanigher and Russ Heath and first appeared in Showcase #27 (July-August 1960).

Pages 20/8 and 21/9

– There’s Robin in the upper-right corner, but I don’t remember seeing him before. In fact, Hal is there too, on the right edge, just above panel 2; so I guess the ring protected his body after it fell from space.

Page 22/10

– A few pages back, the narration asked what can be done “when gravity itself fails.” That phrase, and this page, may be subtle references to the story “When Gravity Went Wild!” from Justice League of America vol. 1 #5 (June-July 1961). The issue’s cover looked down on the Leaguers and others as they flew away from Earth, not unlike panel 3. It didn’t get this bad back then, of course; but the story did introduce longtime League foe Doctor Destiny.

* * *

Now, be honest: haven’t we all just thrown up our hands at some point and said, “the heck with this — I’ll scrap the whole thing and start fresh!”

Obviously none of us thinks this is the end, but I thought this issue built suspense pretty effectively. As mentioned above, I was expecting things to start winding down; so I was caught off-guard by the ever-escalating series of “oh crap” moments. Despite all the power thrown around by Krona, the Trinitarians, and the Troiksters, I have no idea how this particular cliffhanger (or “cliff-shooter-into-space,” maybe) will be resolved. It could be as simple as Krona wiping the dust off his hands and saying “thanks, I found what I came for, here’s your planet back.” Perhaps the resolution will at last drain the Trinitarians of their divine power. Since the series started with inexplicable dreams, Clark, Bruce, and Diana could each wake up in their own beds, shellshocked by the tale their unconscious minds had shared.

Whatever happens, I doubt it will be a complete reset (and I don’t think Busiek will take the dream route either). Trinity hasn’t promised that “everything you know is wrong/will change,” but neither do I get the impression that it won’t matter at all. At the very least, the Trinitarians should come out of it with new appreciations of each other and of their role(s) in the grand scheme of things. How you get from the end of the world to that, I have no idea; but that’s why I read these things.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Issue #48

Issue #47

Issue #46

Issue #45

Issue #44

Issue #43

Issue #42

Issue #41

Issue #40

Issue #39

Issue #38

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #48

This issue of Trinity was pretty much devoted to one plot point. Considering that we’re on issue #48 of 52, it was a crucial plot point, but still. Just enough trivia to retain my regular format.

Mind you, I am not complaining, because I liked the issue pretty well. However, the days of obscure references and extended riffs on tangential Easter eggs are probably behind us.

But that’s not why we read Trinity, now is it?

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“Batman Said They Had A Plan” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: … And here’s the plan.

Page 1

– Every time the book refers to the Trinity thinking in unison, it reminds me of the subplot towards the end of Act One where their thoughts and emotions were intermingled. That all changed when they became gods in Act Two (and it probably contributed to their problems as gods), so it makes me wonder whether the “intermingling” was just a byproduct of Morgaine’s spell.

Page 2

– No annotations.

Page 3

– No annotations.

Page 4

– “A third the might”: There Krona goes again, talking about relative power levels, and while “a third” makes sense, I still find it hard to take him literally.

Page 5

– The Worldsoul doesn’t have the multiple female forms coming out of it like it did in previous issues; but I take it that’s not because it’s getting any better.

– By the way, shouldn’t the health of the Worldsoul be reflected in the physical world itself?

Page 6

– Again I note that Batman and Enigma both have similar all-encompassing shadow powers, but I’m not drawing any conclusions from that.

Page 7

– “You are the Void Hound? I am the Void.” Nice. I don’t think it diminishes the Void Hound at all. I mean, Batman is still a god at this point….

– I also like the fact that they bond because they are both relentless. John Stewart’s consciousness must be completely submerged.

Page 8

– “I’m just learning to take your energy”: again, no doubt drawing on his brief Electric Superman career.

– “You three cling to the past”: I’d say there is some truth to that, considering that the Trinitarians’ fundamentals will never change. In a way, the point of Trinity seems to be to identify those fundamentals, place them in context, and ultimately affirm them. This obviously includes returning to their original selves, something in which Krona would have no interest.

Page 9

– “They already are [noble]“: considering Kellel’s “secret identity” phase (among other things), this isn’t really a new insight into Superman’s character, even for Trinity. However, in light of the Trinity’s more recent attitude towards the people of Earth, it’s a big step.

Page 10

– “We’re just the conduit”: more about this at the end.

Page 11

– “Power flows downward … meeting power flowing upward”: ditto.

Page 12

–“It’s your own spell”: do I have to say it?

* * *

SECOND STORY

“Lesser Beings” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Scott McDaniel, inked by Andy Owens, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Exploring the new trio.

Page 13 (story page 1)

– I do like the new trio of Tarot, the Void Hound, and SCII. I like how they each come from different storylines, and aren’t merely a collection of three characters thrown together by chance (although I liked the trio of Tarot, Gangbuster, and Hawkman).

Pages 14/2 and 15/3

– No annotations.

Page 16/4

– Hemi’s frustration as an artist reminds me of issue #19′s Desiree, who drew Wonder Woman despite the altered timeline. I liked her, and it would be nice to see her again.

Page 17/5

– Is that the Iron Fist tattoo in panel 6 (next to the Sun Boy symbol)…?

Page 18/6

– No annotations.

Page 19/7

– For whatever it’s worth, Mrs. Guzman may have been the woman from issue #5. Back then, her reading was interrupted by Throttle, Blindside, and Eraserhe– I mean, Whiteout.

Page 20/8

– You know, in all these shots of the various superheroes, I still haven’t seen any Teen Titans. I guess they’re being held in reserve.

Page 21/9

– I did appreciate this page’s narration. It’s helping to bring the point of the series back in focus. After all, it is something of a happy accident that these three characters — and not, say, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman — have been published continuously since the late ’30s/early ’40s. We might explain it in business terms, but there was no conscious “mythmaking” behind it. Nevertheless, here we are; because myths have sprung up around them. I won’t get too philosophical yet, but without myths to give them meaning, the world’s everyday practicalities are just mechanics.

Page 22/10

– No annotations.

* * *

As we know from last issue, the Trinitarians (and friends) were able to cast Morgaine’s spell over Krona thanks to Luthor’s “thorough analysis” of his findings at Castle Branek. However, looking back at issue #17, when Morgaine cast the original spell on the Trinity, we see that the outward mechanics of the two procedures are quite different.

The Troika and its associates spent much of Act One pursuing three general components of the spell. First, they assembled items representing the Minor Arcana of the Tarot: swords, staves, pentacles, and cups. Second, they gathered items representing each Trinitarian’s friends, foes, and foundations. Third, they “tagged” each Trinitarian with an “anchor-sigil” corresponding to his or her place in the Major Arcana. The spell was finally ready when Batman was tagged, after he misjudged the agility of “Despero” (actually the disguised Kanjar Ro). We never actually saw what happened to the Trinitarians between Batman’s tagging (at the end of issue #16′s first story) and their captivity at the start of issue #17. Presumably, the tag completed some sort of mystical circuit (for lack of a better analogy) which allowed the Troika to have its way with our heroes. At least, that seems to be what’s happening with Krona.

Before we go too far with this, let me just say that yes, it’s a little silly to put a whole lot of analysis into a magic spell, which by definition includes a substantial fudge factor. This is the kind of thing for which the phrase “a wizard did it” was invented. Besides, I tend to misinterpret the mechanics of this series.

Anyway, the good guys may still have all the material components of the original spell. I suppose by now it’s a moot point whether those components — the staves, pentacles, friend-foe-foundation items, etc. — survived the mucking with the timeline. No one needed them when the timeline was altered, so it didn’t matter whether they had been erased from history. Now that the timeline has been restored, the good guys have found the friend-foe-foundation items still in Castle Branek, so it’s reasonable to assume that the other items would also be there.

In fact, I doubt that the Trinitarians’ 3-F items would work on Krona, because they’re not his friends, etc. That’s where Sun-Chained-In-Ink, Tarot, and the Void Hound come in. Seems to me that they represent Krona’s friend (the Void Hound), foe (Tarot), and foundation (SCII, whose “star in his belly” — and this is a stretch — literally personifies Krona’s hunger for cosmic knowledge). Furthermore, the assembled superheroes may well represent the Arcana themselves, just as the JSI members did in the altered timeline. We haven’t seen Krona tagged expressly with an anchor-sigil, but Superman could have been doing something similar with all the punching.

It’s worth pointing out that the original spell was supposed to switch the Troika for the Trinity, and so far Krona doesn’t seem to have established a comparable connection with the Earth. Therefore, the spell mechanics may only be in the service of channeling the Earth’s creation (?) energy so that it can be one side of the “pincer” holding Krona in place. In the original spell, the Troika may have provided the “incoming” energy which Superman now projects. I presume he didn’t do anything special for that part, but the spell was necessary for the “outbound” stream.

Since the Trinity apparently isn’t using the spell in quite the same way as the Troika did, my guess is that they’ll modify it, using Krona’s creation energy to heal the Worldsoul. Heck, there may be enough to heal SPHERE/Stephie as well, and perhaps install her as the conduit to the Anti-Matter Earth’s worldsoul.

Sadly, my track record for predictions speaks for itself….

Eleven months down — one to go!

+++++++++++++++++++

Issue #47

Issue #46

Issue #45

Issue #44

Issue #43

Issue #42

Issue #41

Issue #40

Issue #39

Issue #38

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #47

Lots of payoffs in this week’s installment of Trinity, and not just for this miniseries. Many of the plot threads and other elements about which I’d been curious show up here, which makes for a pretty exciting issue.

As the great tactician said, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“Power To Spare” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Big fight at the North Pole!

Page 1

– “Your hour of reckoning is at hand”: I know this isn’t a new thing, but what is it about godlike power that makes these folks elevate their speech patterns?

Pages 2-3

– No annotations.

Page 4

– “Three times the god”: In part because this is not 52, which played more overtly with that number, I have slacked off keeping track of Trinity‘s “three” references, but of course this one was pretty obvious. Just as obvious, I doubt Krona’s comment is meant to be taken literally. It’s not like the Trinitarians and Troiksters each have 1/9 of the Cosmic Egg’s energy, leaving Krona with 1/3.

– (And you probably thought I’d do a “once … twice” joke.)

Page 5

– What are the black areas of panels 2 and 3? Are they merely the blank spaces beyond the panels? At first I thought the heroes and armada were in space, and the black areas represented the nighttime Earth; but that would mean Supergirl could hear Despero’s taunt from orbit.

– This is the first time I’ve seen Cyborg with built-in jets. Cyborg is able to jump great distances, but I’d never seen him flying under his own power before.  Oh well, if it was good enough for R2-D2….

– “Smack ‘em up” is a phrase I, in my sheltered life, haven’t encountered outside of Busiek-written comic books and Prodigy songs. I can guess what it means, but I was a little surprised to see it didn’t have an Urban Dictionary definition. Even the venerable comic-book expression “Holy Hannah!” has an Urban Dictionary definition….

– By the way, does Supergirl remember much of her Interceptor leadership training? She seems pretty take-charge here.

Page 6

– Here’s one payoff: Krona’s keen insight into the Trinity. The more the Trinitarians settle into their godlike roles, the more they are, in fact, abandoning their friends and colleagues. Apparently the truth hurts so much that they stop fighting.

Page 7

– Payoff #2: the Dreambound and Xor make good on their side-switching. This has been a long time coming (the Atom helped nudge the Dreambound away from Morgaine back in issue #36, and Morgaine killed Graak back in issue #39), but I’m not really complaining.

– I do note that Morgaine was directly responsible for making these five characters what they are presently, so there’s a nice irony in them turning on her.

Page 8

– In fact, could that relationship to Morgaine make the Dreambound’s powers a little more effective against her?

Page 9

– The armada’s rocket-scooters (seen firing on Sun-Chained-In-Ink in panel 1) were a little confusing to me throughout this issue. They look a little like something Owlman would ride, and they also remind me of similar craft which the Teen Titans (and probably other groups) used. I got confused because the good guys are seen riding similar scooters (which I suppose could have been commandeered) in the second story.

– Payoffs #3 and #4: Enigma reclaims the Idol-Head, something I hoped for a couple of issues back; and attacks Morgaine’s forces in earnest.

Page 10

– Nice touch having Ultraman’s eyes glowing heat-vision red. Superman’s only light up that way when he’s really angry; but as you’d expect, Ultraman’s angry most of the time.

– “That favor we owe you” was for stopping the Void-Hound from completely destroying the Anti-Matter Earth back in JLA #114 (July 2005). Funny that the Void-Hound is here now, isn’t it? Wonder when the Crime Syndicate will find out?

– I can’t keep track: does Enigma now owe the CSA a favor?

Page 11

– Appropriately enough, Power Ring is attacking the Void Hound, which may still have his counterpart inside.

– If memory serves, “L.O.S.2″ (which I think should be L.O.S.T. 2) stands for Low Orbit Supersonic (Transport), version 2. I don’t think we’ve been told why it crashed, because it seemed to be doing fine last issue.

– See, here’s an (unidentified) good guy riding a rocket-scooter in panel 2.

Page 12

– No annotations.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“A Role To Play” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Tom Derenick, inked by Wayne Faucher, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Luthor’s been busy.

Page 13 (story page 1)

– “Kory” is short for Koriand’r, Starfire’s real name.  Yes, like the spice.

– “X’Hal” (which I don’t think is pronounced “exhale”) is the warrior-turned-goddess who Starfire worships. She was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez and first appeared “in person” in New Teen Titans vol. 1 #24 (October 1982).

– I’m sure I don’t need to tell you this, but the fight scenes in this story focus on the adult Titans, most of whom were New Teen Titans together.

Page 14/2

– “I kept his clothes from that night in storage”: huh. I don’t know whether this detail has ever been previously mentioned.

Page 15/3

– Payoff #5: Luthor’s plan, arguably foreshadowed by issue #42′s reference to the “Hierophant complicating matters.” I had thought Luthor would try to steal the Trinity’s creation energy (and he still might), but he’s not above helping Superman save the planet when things get really tough.

– Luthor was elected President in 2000′s Superman: Lex 2000 special (January 2001), beating out both Vice-President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush. He didn’t finish out his first term — something about going insane with rage, strapping on the green battlesuit, and attacking Superman — having been impeached following the events of Superman/Batman #6 (March 2004). Luthor’s Vice-President, Smallville’s own Pete Ross, succeeded him; and Ross was succeeded by one Jonathan V. Horne. Therefore, as far as I know, Bill Clinton was the last Commander-In-Chief which the DC-United States shared with the real one.

Page 16/4

– Luthor is flashing back to issue #42.

– “You can’t allow anything that doesn’t make them praise you”: … and here, he’s projecting.

Page 17/5

– One could make the case that apart from their ethical differences, both Batman and Luthor stand in much the same relationship to Superman, since each represents a pinnacle of human achievement. This page shows Luthor as science-detective, which of course is one of Batman’s more familiar roles. Luthor using magic is something unusual, though (by his own admission).

Page 18/6

– Going by the Dreambound appearance, Luthor’s investigation must take place between issues #42 and #43, since the original Sun-Chained-In-Ink returns in #43′s first story.

Page 19/7

– Back in #42, Firestorm mentioned a “hound” as part of his message to the Trinity about GL/John, but later in the issue, the Void Hound doesn’t come up in the JLA’s meeting. Now it seems from Alfred’s narration that the JLA knew the Void Hound was involved, and just didn’t mention it at the meeting. I guess when it’s no longer controlling a massive Qwardian engine of destruction, it’s (literally) not as big a threat.

Page 20/8

– I imagine a smug voice saying “you’re stuck in a cave, but your party’s at the North Pole fighting for the survival of the planet. Yep, there’s an app for that.”

Page 21/9

– In panel 2, it looks like Donna’s about to have a wardrobe malfunction.  The shape of the costume doesn’t match the shape of her body.

Page 22/10

– No annotations.

* * *

Like I said, lots of payoffs, and that doesn’t even include obvious things like Despero’s armada finally arriving, or Tarot and SPHERE being rescued. Now our heroes must simply heal the planet’s animating spirit, and how hard could that be? (Might take all of the Trinity’s creation energy, though….)

Again, this was a fairly satisfying issue. As a longtime New Teen Titans fan, I especially enjoyed seeing the Titans in action as a team (considering that we’d been focused previously on the Justice League or Justice Society). I also appreciated the coordination between Alfred, Dick, Lois, and Donna, 2/3 of the League of Extraordinary BFFs.

Finally, I know I don’t mention the covers here, but since we’re getting to the end of the series, it was good to give the second-story artists their share of a triptych. Mike Norton and Walden Wong’s cover for next issue was exactly what I’d hoped it would be.

So, on that note, I’ll see you next week!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Issue #46

Issue #45

Issue #44

Issue #43

Issue #42

Issue #41

Issue #40

Issue #39

Issue #38

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #46

I found a lot to like in this week’s installment of Trinity. It advanced each major plotline, it showed characters behaving proactively, and it had some good, unexpected character moments. After all this time, I think I like Trinity best when it doesn’t go too small (like last issue) or too big (like the epic battles). I liked the super-team interaction which kicked off the issue, the frustration which ended it, and most things in between.

Of course, this is probably just the calm before everything goes big again.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“They Who Taught Us” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: North, Ms. Teschmacher, north! (And bring cookies!)

Page 1

– Last week I was wondering when the magic-users were going to show up; and here they are. We’ve seen both Zatanna and Raven previously in Trinity, but mostly in crowd scenes.

– This has nothing to do with Trinity, or even his use on this page, but there’s something which always bothers me about the current Dr. Mid-Nite: he wears his costume in the operating theatre. Is there a reason for this beyond merely identifying him?

Pages 2-3

– I had a little trouble following the continuity of this scene from page 1. Dr. Mid-Nite is behind and to the right of Black Canary, but he (and Firestorm) must have moved into this bright courtyard from the shadowy ruins on page 1. Therefore, it seems like Zatanna and Raven located the “spell traces” heading into space; which is where Mid-Nite learned it. He then entered this two-page spread (off-panel, I guess) and repeated the information to Canary, explaining further that the energy was aimed at the Moon.

– Obviously the Justice League, Justice Society, and Titans have been working independently of the Trinity — that’s the point of page 4′s dialogue — but the way this spread reads, their respective exposition sounds a little redundant. That said, the JLA doesn’t work too differently here from how they did during the Konvikt fight, when the Trinity also went off on its own.

– I’ve said this before, but I like how Wonder Woman is connected to the Earth and Batman to the Moon.

Page 4

– “Fallville” most likely refers to Fallville, Iowa, Barry Allen’s birthplace, last seen just a couple of weeks ago in The Flash: Rebirth #1.

– For some reason I don’t think this is the first appearance of Reina Doerr, but I can’t find anything on her; and yes, I used the Google, more than once. (She probably appeared already in Trinity, and I have been too lazy to look through 45 other issues.) Marcy Doerr was a character in the first issue of Astro City (September 1996), but I’m probably not confusing Reina with her.

– Google did say that “KFLV” was the call letters of a 1920s-era Rockford, Illinois, radio station associated with the Swedish Evangelical Mission Church. So, you know, there’s that.

Page 5

– Evergreen City first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 2 #53 (June 1967). It is the home of the Evergreen Insurance Company, which once employed Hal Jordan. This map locates Evergreen City in southeast Washington State. The city was moved (forcibly) to Oa by an insane Guardian sometime around Green Lantern vol. 3 #4 (September 1990). Eventually, it became part of a “mosaic” community, made up of similarly-abducted cities from various planets, all watched over by John Stewart. The Mosaic residents were returned to their respective worlds before Hal-as-Parallax destroyed Oa, so it looks like the Evergreeners rebuilt.

– I didn’t think this was the first appearance of the current Ray in Trinity; but either way, it’s been a while. The (famous) original Ray, “Happy” Terrill (now deceased), was created by Lou Fine and debuted in Smash Comics #14 (September 1940). There have been three Rays, but this looks like the second, Ray Terrill, created by Jack C. Harris and Joe Quesada and appearing first in The Ray #1 (February 1992). Ray is Happy’s son.

– Starshrike (real name unknown) succeeded the villainess called Shrike in the supervillain group The Cadre. She first appeared in The Power Company #1 (April 2002), which was written by Kurt Busiek and penciled by Tom Grummett. The team’s original Shrike was created by Gerry Conway and Chuck Patton and first appeared in Justice League of America vol. 1 #234 (January 1985). If I have the overall chronology straight, Starshrike will be bad again in time for JLofA vol. 2 #21 (July 2008), a Final Crisis tie-in.

Page 6

– I take it that the “electronic signal” Batman wants to see looks in on this scene?

Page 7

– “A chilling, unearthly laugh”: belonging to the Joker (who, come to think of it, didn’t laugh a whole lot in his recent appearances), and “buried” as part of the nine Articles Of Association.

– Remember, these items represented “friends” (Commissioner Gordon’s pipe, Etta Candy’s ID badge, Lois’s PDA), “foes” (the laugh, a sample of Luthor’s blood, and Max Lord’s skull), and “foundations” (concrete from Crime Alley, clay from Themyscira, and hull plates from the space-plane Constitution) of each of the Trinitarians.

Page 8

– Mmmm … cookies. Kinda makes the pastries from issue #1 a little more important now, doesn’t it?

– Guess we know specifically what Lois wanted with her mother-in-law a couple of issues back. I bet it’s a fun story how those cookies got from Martha Kent’s oven (presumably in Kansas, unless Ma made a special trip) to Europe. Super-speed, Green Lantern express, teleportation…?

– Back when we were going through the “Trinity myths,” I wondered why we weren’t seeing anything about the Trinitarians’ parents. Looks like that was deliberate.

Page 9

– I don’t recognize Gangbuster’s plane, but with the tail fin and red canopy it looks a little like the Martian spaceship J’Onn J’Onnz flew during the “War Of The Worlds” (Justice League of America #s 228-230 (July-September 1984)). That ship didn’t have wings, though.

Page 10

– “Directly over the North Pole”: Oh no — Krona’s killed Santa! (You bastard!)

– As of Action Comics #840 (August 2006), the Fortress of Solitude is back in the Arctic, but it’s never been particularly close to the North Pole. (Don’t want to encroach on the toy workshops, of course.) This is not to suggest that Krona’s lab would set off any Fortress alarms, because the Arctic is a big place.

– I shouldn’t go overboard on the Santa jokes, but I will point out that Kanjar Ro has a red nose. (Not, however, one like a lightbulb.)

Page 11

– I’m guessing that the various unidentified women intertwined between Tarot and SPHERE are the previous links to the Worldsoul.

Page 12

– No annotations.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“Not What Heroes Do” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Scott McDaniel, inked by Andy Owens, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The Dreambound find Konvikt, and the Crime Syndicate finds Enigma.

Page 13 (story page 1)

– Man, McDaniel and Owens can draw the hell out of some mountains, huh?

Page 14/2

– Same goes for Konvikt. I especially like the little snow/frozen bits in his hair.

Page 15/3

– No annotations.

Page 16/4

– The Dreambound left Castle Branek two issues ago, “warping out” once they got to a safe distance. I presume they knew he was alone because TVM detected only his “funky energy smell?”

– I’m a little surprised that Morgaine would cast Konvikt away while leaving him with his creation-energy power-up. She gave it to him, and I figured she could take it away. (Probably still can.)

Page 17/5

– “I am a force of creation”: if SCII isn’t just speaking metaphorically, that could also give the Dreambound an edge Morgaine and Krona aren’t expecting. Still, back in issue #10, he said “I am the center of your universe….”

Page 18/6

– “The strain’s flowing through to us”: We’ve seen, here and elsewhere, that the Anti-Matter Earth is affected by events on the positive-matter one. (That’s why there are Lois Lanes, Jimmy Olsens, James Gordons, etc., on both Earths.) Accordingly, our Earth getting a new Worldsoul might reasonably have repercussions for its anti-matter counterpart. (Makes me think about the A-M Earth’s Worldsoul — she’s gotta be like Lady Macbeth.) Enigma could also be caught between his “bond” with the positive-matter Earth and some desire on the part of his home Earth to make him one of its gods.

– By the way, most of you know this already, but as Crisis On Infinite Earths taught us, red skies are never good (“Batman: The Animated Series” excepted). The A-M Earth sported red skies during Trinity‘s first visit, back in the teens, but things weren’t much better then.

– Owlman’s glider looks very familiar, doesn’t it?

Page 19/7

– The Most Unworthy Ten have got to be this Earth’s counterparts to the Great Ten of DC-Earth’s People’s Republic of China. The Great Ten were created by Grant Morrison and first appeared in 52 #6 (June 14, 2006).

– The Young Offenders were first named (but not seen) in JLA #114 (July 2005), which was written by Kurt Busiek. They are, most likely, a group of ne’er-do-well sidekicks and other bratty super-kids, being counterparts of the Teen Titans or Young Justice.

Page 20/8

– “This is what we’ve been reduced to?” The Crime Syndicate’s Earth-3 predecessors were a little more altruistic when an antimatter wall destroyed their world in the opening pages of Crisis On Infinite Earths.

Page 21/9

– “We can’t be heroes”: (Not just for one day? … sorry) Ultraman probably doesn’t like the idea of predestination, because no one and nothing is the boss of him; but apparently neither does he enjoy stepping too far out of his comfort zone. Still, it’s not like the universe is always asking Superman to be a villain.

Page 22/10

– Looks like Enigma has just as much power on the Anti-Matter Earth as he does on the regular one.

* * *

With Trinity rapidly approaching its end, I’m thinking that the Trinitarians pretty much have to stay “divine” for much of the rest of the series in order to stand a chance against Krona. Although Ma Kent’s cookies and (again, I’m guessing) Batman’s checking up on Alfred seem to pull our heroes back towards their familiar selves, as a practical matter I doubt we’d see them relinquish their extra power in the face of the current threat.

After a few issues where the Trinity tells the world essentially to relax and let them do the work, I liked the way they realized their true place in the nature of things. They are not separate from the rest of humanity, and they cannot separate themselves from it, no matter how godlike they become. They’re important “keystones,” naturally, but as the altered timeline showed, the world will get along (albeit imperfectly) without them. Indeed, DC itself has been removing the Trinitarians from certain parts of its fictional history for over twenty years now, mostly with regard to the Golden Age and the early years of the Justice League. Only in the past few years (since 2006′s JLofA vol. 2 #0) have they been restored to the JLA’s history.

Anyway, the Trinitarians finally seem to have found a good middle ground with their colleagues and friends, and it looks like this will carry them through the next few issues at least. That is, unless they start to lose their godlike power the more “human” they become….

Six issues to go–!

+++++++++++++++++++++

Issue #45

Issue #44

Issue #43

Issue #42

Issue #41

Issue #40

Issue #39

Issue #38

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #45

This week’s set of Trinity notes will be a little different. Issue #45 was extremely light on trivia, focusing tightly on a relatively small group of characters. Since my function is to offer insight on elements which come from outside the series, there’s not a lot of that to discuss here, because everything happens based on these characters’ roles in the series to date.

Accordingly, #45 was an important issue for the series. It built steadily towards a big finish and threw in a couple of twists. I’ll be eager to hear what you thought.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“The Power Is Close…” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The Crime Syndicate takes one for the team … and one just for Enigma.

– Although the Trinity had little trouble sending the Troika into retreat, I thought our heroes’ fight with their Crime Syndicate counterparts was legitimately more suspenseful. Because the CSAers are also their world’s trinity, it’s reasonable to think that would give them some advantage, even away from home. Moreover, because the Trinitarians will have to give up their godhood at some point, I bought into Ultraman’s power-draining ultra-vision. As we know, though, it wasn’t meant to be; and the Crime Syndicate was just a slightly bigger bump on the road to Castle Branek.

– This is not the first Trinity reference to the inhibition-loosening power of Superwoman’s lasso. She used it to help her Jimmy Olsen tell more convincing lies, back around issue #11 when he was posing as “our” Jimmy. Later, in issue #13, our Trinity bound them with it so they’d blab their plans.

– Since I’d been complaining about the unitary nature of the Trinity’s work, it was good to see them each manifesting different but appropriate powers.

– It was also good to see Enigma get some measure of revenge, however short-lived, on the Crime Syndicate. He hasn’t been on Morgaine’s page for a while, of course, but he seems locked in a détente with her. Like the Trinitarians, the Troiksters each appear to be evenly matched, regardless of whatever super-powers they had previously. (Indeed, both Enigma and Batman have similarly wraith-like god-bodies, although I’m not inclined to read too much into that right now.) Enigma still needs Morgaine, and vice versa, because neither can conquer their Earth without the other. Furthermore, as long as Morgaine is hoarding creation energy, she must make sure that Enigma’s power is still on her side. On balance I think this puts Morgaine at a disadvantage, since she’s not used to dealing with equals. It also makes me eager to see more of her interactions with Krona.

– Morgaine’s mention of the reality-changing ritual also makes me wonder about her options now. On page 11 she states that “[i]f we’d gotten the spell right, we’d have had all the power.” However, as we know, Kanjar Ro’s impersonation of Despero screwed things up enough that he got none of the power, while Morgaine and Enigma were elevated to “godhood.” At the same time, rather than being wiped from history, the Trinity were elevated themselves and displaced to a newly-created parallel Earth. Therefore, if the spell had succeeded, Morgaine, Enigma, and Despero would be the new Trinity, with all of Earth looking to them for various forms of inspiration. Green Arrow would be accused of ripping off Enigma, Despero might have a midriff-baring cousin (Despera, of course), Lynda Carter would have played Morgaine on TV….

– But I digress. Practically speaking, Morgaine has no shot at re-creating the original spell, even with Despero’s participation. The biggest barrier would be trapping the Trinity, which was hard enough to do when they were just superheroes; and seems virtually impossible now. I have a feeling any new ritual would have to include (willingly or not) anyone with a claim on the creation energy.

– By the way, since it’s pretty well-known that Morgaine Le Fay has been involved in all these shenanigans, I’m hoping we see some input from the friendly magical community. Zatanna’s popped up in cameos and Dr. Fate has been mentioned a couple of times, but it seems like they should start having more active roles.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“A Single Human Soul” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Scott McDaniel, inked by Andy Owens, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Krona, meet the Troika. Troika, Krona.

– Krona and the Troika are both fueled by creation energy, but I get the impression that Krona is still significantly more powerful than the Troika (or the Trinity) combined. I’m guessing that’s why he didn’t sic the Void-Hound on his guests — he didn’t need to.

– As revealed in issue #17, Konvikt was deprived of the ability to speak (intelligibly, that is) as a part of the criminal proceedings against him. (Graak spoke for him through a telepathic link.) The fact that he can speak now may well be related to some psychological block placed upon him by the authorities, which could be undone by an appropriate change of heart. It could also be simply temporary, and/or a product of Graak’s death. Regardless, I imagine being able to talk again will have a profound emotional impact on him.

– Morgaine and Krona’s scheme, as I understand it, involves giving the Worldsoul (via Tarot) to Krona. Stephie Nashton, the soul within SPHERE, would then replace the Worldsoul itself. All this would be in exchange for Krona lending his power to Morgaine’s. Apart from depriving Enigma of his only surviving family member, this plan is (needless to say) not the best deal for the Earth. First is the notion that the new Worldsoul wouldn’t be as “vital” as the old one. Second, since Stephie comes from the Anti-Matter Earth, her soul might turn the Earth as corrupt as its anti-matter counterpart. I know I’m getting into original-sin-type issues here, but if everyone on the A-M Earth is inherently, irredeemably … well, less virtuous, you’d think that would start (if only in small ways) right from the beginning.

– I mentioned back around issue #4 that “Gaia,” the spirit of the Earth, appeared in a Firestorm storyline which also featured other elemental beings including Swamp Thing, Naiad, and Red Tornado. Swampy’s off-limits, but we’ve seen a good bit of Firestorm and Red Tornado in Trinity already. If the Worldsoul is another name for Gaia, I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘Stormy and Reddy participated in some kind of Gaia-protecting ritual.

– Actually, since Morgaine is the only member of the (extended) Troika who comes from the regular Earth, might not Krona be planning some sort of double-cross involving whatever connection to the planet she might have? Tarot’s the link to the Worldsoul, but Morgaine has to be plugged into something.

– I’m curious to see how much of his godhood Enigma retains on the Anti-Matter Earth. He might even be stronger there. After all, the Trinitarians were gods on their parallel Earth, even though their home was elsewhere. In any event, he still has the Idol-Head of Infernatu, so he’s not exactly helpless.

– Finally, I have to note that this is not the first time Morgaine has screamed “I’ll KILL YOU” uncontrollably at Enigma.

* * *

Well, that’s it for me this week. It’s funny — the day after I show off all my research material, I barely get a chance to use it. Oh well.

Until next time–!

+++++++++++++++++

Issue #44

Issue #43

Issue #42

Issue #41

Issue #40

Issue #39

Issue #38

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #44

The two stories in Trinity #44 each ask their characters to face some hard facts. The Troika, the Crime Syndicate, Despero, and Kanjar Ro have no reason to trust each other; and as of last issue, the Trinity hadn’t found any compelling reason to return to their old lives. The result is more foreshadowing, albeit in an entertaining way.

Accordingly, this was another issue where not much happened on a macro level, but which still left me with some thought-provoking questions about the nature of the Trinity and what it could really mean for the world. After all, that’s what Trinity is supposed to do….

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“What’s In It For Us?” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: As the Dreambound leave Castle Branek, the Crime Syndicate and Despero come on board.

Page 1

– I won’t parse T-V Man’s recap of recent events, because if you’ve been reading Trinity you’re pretty familiar with what he’s talking about. Still, if any new readers need a translation, leave a comment and I’ll do my best.

– Seems like Swashbuckler is a lot less demonstrative and/or dynamic now than he was when we first met him. Back then he was cocky enough to steal Nightwing’s mask and Etta Candy’s ID badge. These days he seems comfortable letting T-V Man and Primat do the talking.

Pages 2-3

– The four-eyed creature reminds me of the mechanoids who fought Wonder Woman back in issue #2.

Page 4

– “How can I know”: as far as I understand it, Despero has never met Morgaine or Enigma in either version of the timeline. Issue #23 revealed that, Kanjar Ro took his place behind the scenes of issue #4, prior to the would-be Troika’s first meeting in issue #7.

– Am I remembering correctly that Morgaine and Despero’s common dreams were a product of Krona’s escape?

Page 5

– “We had a deal”: well, the whole Despero/Kanjar Ro alliance never seemed very stable to me. Since the Anti-Matter Earth operates on the “favor bank” principle, the Crime Syndicate is at least marginally more trustworthy.

Page 6

– Speaking of shaky alliances, Enigma was ready to throw Morgaine under the bus before his old tormenters showed up.

– “Addled, syphilitic”: probably pretty accurate, actually. Makes me wonder — could Superwoman’s constitution be strong enough to withstand the Anti-Matter Universe’s toughest sexually-transmitted diseases, or is she merely contributing to the evolution of the ultimate super-syphilis? (Hey kids, comics annotations!)

– Compare the Crime Syndicate’s dismissive treatment of Enigma to the Trinity’s dismissive treatment of the Justice Society and Justice League (and even Lois, Alfred, et al). The Syndicators remember Enigma/Quizmaster only so far as he provided them with entertainment — in other words, only so far as he served their purposes. To them, he simply wasn’t that important in the grand scheme of things. The Trinity isn’t so cold to its old colleagues and loved ones, and their big-picture designs are definitely more charitable, but they’re not so much about interpersonal relationships for their own sake either.

Page 7

– No annotations.

Pages 8-9

– We know just about everyone on these two pages, but there are a few new faces: Bizarro, at the top of page 8, and Captain Nazi, almost lost in the fold. I don’t recognize the caped woman firing at Wonder Woman.  [EDIT:  alert commenter Ben Morse says she looks like Magenta -- see below.]

– Bizarro (a/k/a the Bizarro Superman and/or Bizarro No. 1) was created by Otto Binder and George Papp and first appeared (as an imperfect duplicate of Superboy) in Superboy #68 (October 1958). The more familiar adult Bizarro was created with the same duplicating machine (this time stolen by Luthor), as told by Binder and artist Al Plastino in Action Comics #254 (July 1959).

– Captain Nazi was created by William Woolfolk and Mac Raboy and first appeared in Master Comics #21 (December 1941). He fought Captain Marvel and, by crippling Freddy Freeman and killing his grandfather, was indirectly responsible for the creation of Captain Marvel Jr.

[EDITED TO ADD] — Magenta, a/k/a Frances Kane, was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez and first appeared in The New Teen Titans vol. 1 #16 (March 1982).  Back then she was Wally West’s proto-girlfriend from Blue Valley, whose crazed mother thought she was possessed by the Devil when she was really possessed by Dr. Polaris (who’d been trapped in another dimension after a recent Green Lantern arc).  Yadda yadda yadda, it all activated Frances’ own magnetic powers, but she didn’t want to become a superhero.  Eventually, she had second thoughts, and suited up (in a really hideous costume; you can’t see much of this one but trust me it’s an improvement) to bring down the Church of Brother Blood.  She made her Magenta debut in New Teen Titans vol. 2 #29 (March 1987), but put on the costume only irregularly after that.  She was Wally’s girlfriend for the first couple issues of Flash vol. 2, and when she came back (in Flash vol. 2 #80, Early September 1993) she wasn’t too happy with him.  I think the phrase “psycho hosebeast” was involved.  She did, however, get a new costume, designed by the late Mike Wieringo.  I think her current costume is different from Wieringo’s, and was designed by Scott Kolins.

Page 10

– “If we take that power away from them”: Morgaine supposes correctly that the Trinity isn’t inclined to relinquish it, but I still like the idea of Luthor trying to steal it as well.

Page 11

– Kanjar Ro’s technobabble suggests that the Trinity and its allies needed similar measures to get into Castle Branek at the end of Act One.

Page 12

– You’d have to think, too, that because the Dreambound were made by Morgaine, they could help take her down.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“Much To Discuss” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Tom Derenick, inked by Wayne Faucher, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: “What if they’re right?”

Page 13 (story page 1)

– “Jerome” honors Clark’s co-creator Jerry Siegel, although other sources give his middle name as “Joseph,” for Joe Shuster. Wikipedia asserts that “Joseph” is the more common usage. However, “Jerome” was used on “Lois & Clark” and “Smallville,” which arguably reach more people.

Page 14/2

– “They’re just leaving?” Hawkman said the same thing last issue. Drink!

Page 15/3

– No annotations, although I wish Tomorrow Woman had yelled “Can you read my mind?!”

Page 16/4

– No annotations.

Page 17/5

– Tomorrow Woman’s plight is somewhat similar to Power Girl’s. PG is the last survivor of Krypton-2, which belonged to the universe of Earth-2, which for all intents and purposes ceased to exist as a separate entity after Crisis On Infinite Earths. There is a new universe of Earth-2, but as we see in the Power Girl preview at the back of this very issue (and other DC books this week), it has its own Power Girl. Anyhoodle, Tommie is about to become one of the last survivors of the Troika-altered timeline, which for all intents and purposes will cease to exist once the Trinity’s work is done.

Page 18/6

– “We went to another universe to get you”: really? Perhaps that’s true from a certain point of view, but it seemed at most like just another galaxy.

Page 19/7

– “We let our human feelings … cripple us”: apparently the Godwar had more of an impact than I thought. It seemed to me that the Trinity got more in touch with their feelings (the positive ones, at least) afterwards.

Page 20/8

– “Our old selves could not have restored this world”: that’s a good point.

Page 21/9

– “Is it truly important for Lois Lane to have a husband?” Like a fish needs a bicycle, eh? Indeed, the more successful Lois is on her own merits, and the less she looks like a “trophy wife,” the more valuable she becomes as a character.

Page 22/10

– “Martha Kent”: Clark’s adoptive mother, of course. She was created by Siegel and Shuster and first appeared as “Mary Kent” in Superman vol. 1 #1 (Summer 1939). Clark recently lost his adoptive father in Action Comics #870 (December 2008).

* * *

Last issue I argued for the quick resolution of this “godhood” storyline, and I’m not ready to back off that completely this week. However, this issue introduces the notion that the Trinity works better as gods; and perhaps also that their “ascension” is a natural part of their collective development. In other words, what if they were always meant to be the gods of DC-Earth, in truth as well as in spirit? That would mean the end of the Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman titles as we know them, but it’s hardly the worst way to go. (At any rate, it beats being killed by a rampaging monster or zapped by Neron or Darkseid….) Superman and Wonder Woman were sent to Earth by well-meaning parents, and “Batman” was created out of an ordinary, sadly familiar, terrestrial tragedy. The former two ostensibly show humanity better ways, and the latter shows humanity what it can achieve on its own. For them to become divine archetypes seems altogether appropriate. They’ve done just about everything else. Certainly, as this world’s “keystones,” they appear to have unique connections which facilitated their transformations. The Crime Syndicate may even be closer to this sort of godhood than the Trinity.

There are “trinities” all across the Multiverse, of course, not just the Crime Syndicate. By dint of their continuous publication histories, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have become cosmic constants, branching out from the Silver Age Earth-1 to the Golden Age Earth-2 and dozens of other parallel worlds (and Elseworlds and Hypertime branches) besides. They were always there, and we are told they will always be there, in some form or fashion.

That, in turn, brings up a dangling plot thread from the altered timeline: the artifacts Alfred unearthed back in issue #19. In the context of that issue, they were none-too-subtle reminders of what the world was missing. Today, though, they also seem to speak to the Trinity’s inevitability, and the publishing realities which insure their eternal youth. Time passes for everyone except Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, making the Justice Society inspirations rather than contemporaries, and creating two generations of protégés so far. It creates a logjam, and sooner or later, DC’s flexible timeline will have to give. Trinity isn’t particularly concerned with that problem (nor should it be), but if it were actually the Trinitarians’ final sendoff, it would let everyone else get on with their lives.

Nevertheless, that’s a topic for another day, and I’m enjoying Trinity well enough as it is.

Until next week–!

+++++++++++++++++++++

Trinity #43

This week’s issue struck me as similar to last week’s. The Trinity is still putting the Earth back together, the villains are still regrouping, and everyone else is trying to figure out what to do. The overall plot did advance a little, but that had more to do with gathering all the players than showing them in action.

Still, the problems I had with this issue seemed also to be the point of the issue itself … so without further ado:

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“Shiny Face Pitch A Fit” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The Trinity continues resetting the world — and good thing too, ’cause company’s coming.

Page 1

– The Justice League doesn’t have a lunar headquarters anymore, but you’d think someone would be keeping an eye on any new structures up there.

– “The Earth’s animating spirit … brought very close to consciousness”: I take it this refers to the various upheavals caused by the Troika’s replacement of the Trinity.  My understanding is that the Worldsoul (including Tarot’s connection to it) is something different, but it might still be related.

Pages 2-3

– No annotations.

Page 4

– France fell to Morgaine and Enigma back in issue #23.

– “Hrh” sounds like a very Batman thing to say. I know the Trinitarians have been a lot closer since the end of the Godwar, but they’re not sharing each other’s thoughts again, are they?

Page 5

– “Court”: Stargirl’s real name is Courtney Whitmore.

Page 6

– “They’re just — leaving?” Ha! Hawkman so wants to be needed….

Page 7

– Is this revitalization of Europe’s flora and fauna something unique to Wonder Woman, or can the others do similar things? Power-wise, the Trinitarians seem rather interchangeable in their divine forms. Since they’ve come back to Earth, we’ve seen them throw energy blasts around and restore people’s regular histories, but they’ve tended to act as a unit — not, say, the Sun-God, the Moon-God, and the Earth-Goddess.

Page 8

– I’ve said it before, but Tattooed Man/Sun-Chained-In-Ink is a lot more nasty here than he was (or, more accurately, will be) in Final Crisis.

Page 9

– “Things will be different”: last time I asked if Morgaine and company ignored the Trinitarians’ old haunts in favor of Europe, and this little speech seems to confirm that.

Page 10

– “The old reality … reasserting itself”: SCII exploded in the old reality, but as we’ll see later, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s gone for good.

Page 11

– “The power that fuels you can yet be your salvation”: as I also said last time, if the Trinitarians gave up their godhood, the creation energy would have to go somewhere; and why not to the Troika?

Page 12

– “Kanjar Ro’s moment of vengeance”: is he looking for his share of the creation energy now? I’d think Despero would want him to get in line.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“Talking To Sunshine And Shade” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Tom Derenick, inked by Wayne Faucher, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Lois and the other BFFs again confront the Trinity.

Page 13 (story page 1)

– “Where Were We”: if this is Lois’ account of her trip to the Genesis Planet, I’d hope it would be self-censored to protect the Trinity’s non-super, non-public loved ones. Otherwise I can see a Valerie Plame thing happening:  I was on another planet with Supergirl, Troia, Nightwing, Neme– uh, an unidentified employee of the federal government, and Al– well, there’s really no good way to describe what he does. Anyway, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were gods there, but Superman got married and everything went to hell. Not that that would happen here, because it totally hasn’t.  It hasn’t, right?  I mean, not as far as my strictly professional journalistic investigation has revealed.

Page 14/2

– “Daniel Reed” has no other Metropolis/Superman connection that I can see, but maybe I just don’t have that one issue of Lois Lane. However, GCD lists Dan/Daniel Reed as a penciller for various titles from various companies, including DC, Marvel, and Image.

– “Lane”: I thought Lois and Alfred were on a first-name basis?

Page 15/3

– “For once the Batcave didn’t get trashed”: I imagine it ceased to exist, but that’s not the same thing.

– “Department of Extranormal Operations”: since I’ve been corrected already on this point, I presume we all remember that Nemesis and Diana Prince work for Sarge Steel in the Department of Metahuman Affairs. The DEO is a separate agency, headed by the skeletal Mr. Bones. The DMA’s relationship to the DEO is still unclear to me.

Page 16/4

– No annotations.

Page 17/5

– Of course, this isn’t the first time Lois has baited Superman. For example, The Man of Steel #2 (October 1986) showed her faking a car accident in order to score the first interview with him.

Page 18/6

– No annotations.

Page 19/7

– Wonder Woman’s invisible plane dates back to the character’s Golden Age origins, first appearing in Sensation Comics #1 (January 1942). The current version isn’t Amazonian technology, coming instead from a grateful alien culture and given to Wonder Woman around WW vol. 2 #117 (January 1997). Originally it was a crystalline device capable of assuming any shape, but to make a long story short, as of issue #201 (April 2004) it was stuck in “plane mode.”

– In fact, this may be the first time we’ve seen Donna flying the invisible plane. I suppose Nightwing and Troia could have borrowed one of the Titans’ T-Jets, but it wouldn’t have had whatever sentimental value Diana might have attached to her own ride.  If Donna hadn’t gotten the keys beforehand, she most likely did when she took over (temporarily) as Wonder Woman IV (as shown in World War III #1 (April 18, 2007) and Wonder Woman vol. 3 #1 (August 2006)).

Page 20/8

– No annotations.

Page 21/9

– Shouty Alfred seems a little out of character. Shouty Lois does not.

Page 22/10

– “It must be made perfect”: oh, good luck with that.  Have you seen these pages from JLA/Avengers #3?

* * *

I’m not exactly thrilled that the Trinity hasn’t yet let go of its godhood. Obviously it’ll have to happen before the end of the series, and I still think it will happen at the least opportune moment, but I get the feeling it needs to happen soon. We’ve already seen Lois et al. plead with the Trinity to return to normal. We’ve seen Kellel acknowledge his connection to humanity by living as one of his worshippers. I can make a pretty educated guess about the resolution of this subplot, and you probably can as well — and I’d say if it doesn’t involve Lois and Clark’s eternal bond, it won’t feel true to what’s been built up so far (not just here, but in decades of Superman stories). I mean, it’s not like Tomorrow Woman is suddenly going to make the difference that changes the Trinity’s collective mind. Furthermore, it’s pretty late in the series to start exploring more tweaks to the timeline, even if they do illustrate the Trinity’s “perfect” world.

Now, it is possible that this subplot will wrap up next issue, with Tommie pleading her willingness to sacrifice herself for the imperfection of the regular timeline, and Lois saying her perfect world is with Clark.  However, the Trinity’s current Living Tribunal act is getting a little old.  (Nevertheless, Luthor pulling a Dr. Doom and sucking the “Power Cosmic” out of the Trinitarians — at the most inopportune moment, naturally — would be a good twist….) It tends to prove the conventional-wisdom criticism that Superman is too powerful to be interesting. Indeed, these scenes with Lois, Alfred, et al., would be more interesting if they didn’t feel like a variation of what’s come before.

Admittedly, Trinity is in a weird place, pacing-wise.  Nine issues doesn’t seem like a lot in a fifty-two-issue series, but it is still nine issues.  For example, Osiris’ death at the end of 52 #43 led into a few issues’ worth of Wrath Of Black Adam; but the culmination of that arc (i.e., World War III) didn’t come until issue #50, after a few issues with Montoya and the Crime Bible.  Likewise, what with the Trinity, the Troika, Krona, Despero, Kanjar Ro, the Crime Syndicate, the Dreambound, Tarot, Gangbuster, Charity, Luthor, and probably Brainiac and Khyber, you’d think Trinity would need most of its remaining space.

Oh well.  I imagine it is tricky to satisfy the needs of both the weekly crowd and the eventual collected-edition audience, and in hindsight this may play out better.  At the moment, though, I’m more impatient.

++++++++++++++++++++

Issue #42

Issue #41

Issue #40

Issue #39

Issue #38

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #42

If last issue was “transitional,” the one-word description of this issue might well be “housekeeping.” Everything’s being put in order in advance of the big finish, but that finish keeps looking bigger all the time.  As of last issue, we’ve got two divine trinities, a would-be god with an unstoppable hunting dog, an alien armada with its own set of supervillains, and a handful of Earthbound villains, all set to fight over ownership of our little planet.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“An Old Pattern Repeating Itself” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The Trinity continues resetting the world.

Page 1

– There are 56 flags around the base of the Washington Monument, one for each state and territory. The two flags closest to the monument look like those of Puerto Rico and Missouri, but I can’t place the third one from the right, with the star.  (I know, I know — altered timeline.)

– Black Adam was seen as Washington, D.C.’s local hero back in issue #23.

– “Flee … or be eaten”: if this timeline had been restored already, boy would that have been the wrong thing to say. In 52 #43 (February 28, 2007), Black Adam’s stepbrother Osiris was eaten by Sobek, one of the Four Horsemen of Apokolips.

Pages 2-3

– “Like it’s always been mine”: I’ll accept that, in order for the story to move forward, Cheetah has somehow gained Wonder Woman’s connection to Washington, just as the Joker has gained Batman’s bond with Gotham. However, if the Troika substituted themselves for the Trinity, wouldn’t Morgaine and Enigma have inherited those connections?  Did Morgaine and the others abandon them in favor of Europe?

– “You have relocated often”: well, the modern Wonder Woman has. Historically, though, Wonder Woman (through her secret identity of Diana Prince) worked out of Washington pretty regularly. This changed with the 1986 revamp, when she settled originally in Boston in Wonder Woman vol. 2 #3 (April 1987). By issue #101 (September 1995), she had moved to Gateway City, but as of issue #195 (October 2003) she had relocated to the Themysciran embassy in New York City. Heretofore-unknown continuity tweaks aside, she’s only lived in Washington since the start of WW vol. 3 (August 2006).

Page 4

– No annotations.

Page 5

– I take it the Joker can exert such massive control over Gotham City for a couple of reasons: he is probably better-suited to channeling “chaospower,” and he has a much stronger connection to Gotham than Cheetah did to D.C.

Page 6

– I think this is the first time in Trinity that we see Batman’s eyeballs through his “mask.”

Page 7

– “You are corrupt”: really? For one thing, I’d expect Wonder Woman to make that sort of looking-into-one’s-soul determination; but for another, Luthor hasn’t always been invariably evil. In the Silver Age, Luthor’s intellect brought such benefits to an alien planet that they renamed it Lexor. Indeed, regardless of his original orientation, the thing which always seems to push him over the edge is the presence of Superman, doing just the sort of thing he does on this page. To Luthor, Superman is an affront to the dignity of ordinary Earthlings, so it doesn’t help when Superman actually is a god pronouncing judgment.

Page 8

– “Do it!” I’m sure the Watchmen parallel is unintentional (and probably superficial); but like Rorschach, the Joker realizes he doesn’t fit into this new reality.

Page 9

– “Jason”: probably not Jason “Robin II” Todd.

Page 10

– According to the Unauthorized Chronology of the DC Universe, Jay “Flash” Garrick was the first super-powered costumed hero in the unaltered timeline’s Golden Age (and the most senior surviving Golden Ager after the deaths of the original Crimson Avenger and Sandman). Therefore, I suppose it’s appropriate that he makes this choice.

Page 11

– No annotations.

Page 12

– No annotations.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“Weaving Fate” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Scott McDaniel, inked by Andy Owens, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Looking in on Hawkman, Gangbuster, Charity, and Tarot.

Page 13 (story page 1)

– Justice Society members include (from the top) Hawkman, Stargirl, Power Girl, a miscolored and unmasked Starman (?), Lightning, Cyclone, Green Lantern (Alan Scott), Jakeem Thunder and Thunderbolt, an unmasked Damage (?), Liberty Belle, Sandman, Mr. Terrific, Hourman, and Wildcat.

– Justice Leaguers include Red Tornado, Vixen, Hawkgirl, Firestorm, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), the Flash (Wally West), Red Arrow, Black Canary, Black Lightning, and Zatanna.

– Lightning, a/k/a Jennifer Pierce, is Black Lightning’s other daughter. She was created by Mark Waid and Alex Ross and first appeared in the alternate future of Kingdom Come #1 (July 1996). Later, she was incorporated into present-day continuity by Ross, Geoff Johns, and Dale Eaglesham beginning with Justice Society of America vol. 3 #12 (March 2008). Her electrical powers manifest themselves as spikes of energy.

– Jakeem Thunder, a/k/a Jakeem Johnny Williams, is the modern successor to Johnny Thunder. Johnny was created by John Wentworth and Stan Aschmeier and first appeared in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940). By speaking the magic word “Cei-U” (or its homonym, the phrase “say you”), Johnny, and later Jakeem, could command the omnipotent Thunderbolt. Jakeem was created by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar and first appeared in The Flash vol. 2 #134 (February 1998), which was penciled by Paul Ryan. Jakeem’s first significant appearance came a year later, in JLA #26 (February 1999), which was written by Morrison and penciled by Howard Porter.

– Starman, a/k/a Thom Kallor, a/k/a Danny Blaine, f/k/a Star Boy, was created by Otto Binder and George Papp and first appeared in Adventure Comics #282 (March 1961). Originally he was a member of the 30th Century’s Legion of Super-Heroes, but as of Justice Society of America vol. 3 #1 (February 2007) he had traveled back in time and joined the Justice Society.

Page 14/2

– Also visible on GL’s disk are Dr. Mid-Nite and Citizen Steel.

– “Sometimes I don’t know who I’m even supposed to be”: this may be a veiled reference to that Jim Starlin Hawkman Special from last summer whose “everything you know is wrong” approach caused a minor kerfluffle among Hawkman fans. Although I didn’t read it (well, not exactly), that Special struck me as the kind of thing you do when you’re getting ready to relaunch a character for the nth (get it?) time. However, it could just be an innocent complaint.

Page 15/3

– No annotations.

Page 16/4

– “A ring beacon”: I’m wrong again, apparently, about John sending out an energy twin.

– “[W]hat you stole”: Firestorm’s fragmented interpretation notwithstanding, let’s recap who’s covered in John’s message. Two threats are headed for Earth. First, there are Krona and the Void Hound, who want to talk to the Earth … talk it to death –! Second, there’s Despero’s fleet, which includes Kanjar Ro, and which is augmented by Ultraman, Owlman, and Superwoman. Despero wants his share of the creation energy he would have gotten had Kanjar not interfered — but he’s apparently made his peace with Kanjar after Kanjar hooked him up with the Crime Syndicators. Besides, his ex-partners in the Troika have already passed along that share to Konvikt.

– The question, though, is whether Despero has any beef with the Trinitarians. Their return to Earth doesn’t mean that they necessarily sucked any creation energy from the Troika. Instead, the Trinity simply seems better able to control the Earth than the Troika, thereby making it relatively easy for them to displace the Troika. Put another way, the Trinity and the Troika still look just as godlike as they were before the Trinity’s return. Therefore, I don’t see where Despero has any claim on the Trinity’s power … unless his reunion with the other Troiksters would fix the defects Kanjar’s presence brought to the ritual, and allow the original Troika to displace the Trinity.

Page 17/5

– No annotations.

Page 18/6

– Everyone seated at the League’s table is an active member except Zatanna. She’s been part of the League in recent issues, but I don’t remember anyone mentioning she’d come back full time. (That said, I don’t remember anyone making a big deal out of Geo-Force leaving.) The four characters standing are each former members, except for Gangbuster, who has never been a member.

– “John’s signal blinked out”: you know, there’s no reason Hal would have known about that squad of sixty-odd GLs who ran afoul of Despero and company; but given their fate, it shouldn’t be too hard for him to learn what interstellar armadas might be causing trouble and where.  Besides, I’d think if Hal had asked about John, the Oan dispatcher might have mentioned that they’d just lost a bunch of GLs.

Page 19/7

– “You’re not under League command”: Black Canary may be speaking informally, but as I understand it, there is something of a “once a Leaguer, always a Leaguer” mentality. There is the active League, whose members have been thoroughly vetted (usually by an intricate process involving a card table and some headshots), and there’s the reserves, consisting of everyone else who has ever been a Leaguer. Therefore, as the League’s current chair, BC can order around Green Arrow or Booster Gold without giving it another thought; but she has to be nice to Gangbuster.

– If Charity’s talking about the two Arcana teams, the Fool could be Plastic Man or the Joker, and the Hanged Man could be Deadman or the Gentleman Ghost.

Page 20/8

– Likewise, the Hierophant could be either Luthor or Ra’s al Ghul, but in light of his confrontation with Superman I’m going with the former.

Page 21/9

– No annotations.

Page 22/10

– According to Tarotpedia, The Lovers “stands for love and romance, fulfillment and peace, and a harmonious meeting of opposites. However, […] the card is often interpreted as denoting choices and a need for guidance; it might indicate that you have to get your priorities straight and have to re-evaluate what you believe in, in order to move forward with renewed confidence.”  I’m inclined to go with the less-romantic interpretation here, mostly because I think Jose and Rita work better as friends.

– (If I remember correctly, Solitaire also pulled the “Lovers” card in the film version of Live and Let Die, but that was because Bond had stacked the deck.)

* * *

This time out, it was good to see Trinity catching up with the trio of Hawkman, Gangbuster, and (Charity filling in for) Tarot. They’re not quite a capital-T trinity (or troika), at least not for purposes of this story, because Gangbuster and Tarot have been paired up pretty much since Jose came into the story; and there’s no comparable coupling in either the Trinity or Troika.

Still, we’ve seen a lot of Gangbuster and Hawkman to go with Gangbuster/Tarot, and it makes me wonder whether we’ll see a significant Hawkman/Tarot scene in the final issues. Bringing together Hawkman’s memories of his past lives with Rita’s connection to the Worldsoul might be fascinating to watch. In light of the Trinity’s actions this issue, I don’t know that the timeline needs any more restoration — it looks like the world just woke up one day to find that Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman had become gods — but with Hawkman, Tarot, the Construct-mind, and the Void Hound (not to mention Vandal Savage and probably someone else I’ve forgotten), Trinity is bringing together a lot of folks with deep connections to planetary history and/or consciousness.

Going into the home stretch, however, the big question seems to be how to de-power the Trinity and Troika. They’re currently fueled by creation energy, which Krona wants, but which neither trio will let him have. Maybe the solution will involve creating a new set of gods for the Genesis Planet. (Would they be the Third World, after Krona’s First and the Trinity’s Second?) Heck, maybe Krona just needs some rehabilitation and better people skills and he could go back to being their supreme deity.

Anyway, looks like it’s all getting ready to boil over in the next few issues — and the Crime Syndicate owes Kanjar and/or Despero a favor for letting them out of interdimensional prison.

++++++++++++++++++

Issue #41

Issue #40

Issue #39

Issue #38

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #41

Quite a few transitory in this issue, as old plot threads are wrapped up and new ones are set up.  Actually, I thought it spent a good bit of time on characters, which was nice amongst all the energy-blasts and reality-adjusting.  Plus, the issue ends with the potential for the greatest squirrel-versus-dog battle of all time.

Nothin’ up my sleeve…!

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“Our Rightful Realm” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The Trinity saves Metropolis, this time for sure!

Page 1

– Is it just me, or does the big board place Metropolis and/or the epicenter of the rift somewhere around Norfolk, Virginia?

Pages 2-3

– We left Metropolis last issue under clearing skies, a crowd of heroes cheering the Trinity, and the Trinitarians themselves musing about how to handle the “malefactors.” Now, however, the sky is purple and the two sides are still ready to go, despite it appearing that very little time has passed. I suppose last issue ended on an overly optimistic note.

– Dark Arcana members include Sparx (unless that’s Prysm), Cheetah (who can now fly, presumably thanks to the godlike power to which she’s been exposed), and Giganta. Justice Arcana members include Skyrocket, Hawkman, and Green Lantern Alan Scott.

Page 4

– Remember Castle Branek from Act One?

– More Dark Arcana: Ra’s al Ghul, Shrapnel, Eclipso, Grodd, and Cat-Man. You know, it’s a minor quibble, but I really don’t see Ra’s and Eclipso as team players. Maybe in this reality, I guess.  Actually, Ra’s could be leading a team of unseen assassins….

Page 5

– More Justice Arcana: Panel 1 depicts Mr. Terrific, Ragman, Beast Boy, Booster Gold (?), Plastic Man, Starfire, Vixen, and the Flash (Wally West). Firestorm can be seen in the corner of panel 2.

– Panel 5 shows Cyborg, Solomon Grundy blasted by Black Lightning, Hourman punching Eclipso, Nightshade shooting a shadow-energy burst, and Power Girl punching Deathstroke. I would have had Power Girl switch with Hourman, but that’s just me.

– Ah, no wonder I couldn’t find anything on Sky-Knight! Well played, Trinity team … well played. In the altered timeline, extraterrestrials were definitely unwelcome, so apparently Hal Jordan gave up being Green Lantern fairly early on. Assuming that John Stewart took over (after Guy Gardner was incapacitated?), I take it from Interceptor’s comments in issue #18 that he was forced to work off-Earth. Looks like Hal wouldn’t be denied an heroic career, though. Now that the Trinity’s energy corona has restored his real history, Hal’s GL look is the updated one popularized by artist Ethan Van Sciver.

Page 6

– That one Metal Marine looks more like Stark technology than Magnus’.

– “Society scientist William Magnus”: this must be part of the altered timeline, because I don’t recall Doc Magnus being quite so well-socialized.

– “Responsometers” are the gizmos which give each Metal Man his or her personality.

– Panel 2 shows us Gold, Platinum (“Tina”), Lead, and Iron.

– The kid in the jacket is Armando Ramone, brother of Paco “Vibe” Ramone, who shares his sibling’s vibratory powers. After Vibe’s death, Armando took the codename Reverb, and later was known as Hardline. Armando was created by Gerry Conway and Chuck Patton and first appeared in Justice League of America vol. 1 #233 (December 1984).  He first appeared as Reverb in Justice League Quarterly #1 (Winter 1990), in a story written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis and penciled by Chris Sprouse.

– The kid with the hood is Isaiah Crockett, who has heat-based powers and has fought crime under the codenames Joto (Swahili for “heat,” but an anti-gay slur in Spanish) and Hot Spot. Isaiah was created by Dan Jurgens and George Perez and first appeared in Teen Titans vol. 2 #1 (October 1996).

– “You’re aging, visibly”: will this be important later? I might be reading too much into this, but Jay, Alan, and Carter were de-aged by the magic in Carter’s ancient-Egyptian scroll. That magic isn’t a direct consequence of the Troika’s actions or the Trinity’s absence. Instead, it was part of Khufu’s plan to have his future self fight the evil gods which had taken over the world. While Khufu wouldn’t have needed the scroll in the regular timeline, its effects are still independent of the Troika’s and/or Trinity’s powers. Therefore, instead of pushing one omnibus reset button, could the Trinity be rewriting history, one person at a time?

Page 7

– “And he was gone”: I take it Trinity takes place before Barry Allen came back from the dead.  Barry’s physical body crumbled into dust in Crisis On Infinite Earths #8 (November 1985), but Secret Origins Annual vol. 2 #2 (1988) revealed that Barry was transformed into energy and sent back in time, becoming the lightning bolt which gave him his powers.  Barry’s later posthumous appearances in the Speed Force, and his return to active duty in Final Crisis, seem to pick up at least on the transformed-into-energy part.  No doubt the upcoming Flash:  Rebirth miniseries will clarify everything.

– I’m glad to see Khyber and Brainiac skulking off into the shadows, because it gives me hope they’ll contribute more before the series is over.

– Speaking of contributing, Triumph is about to embrace his regular-timeline destiny….

Page 8

– As you probably know, everyone on this page is dead in the regular timeline.

Page 9

– “I’m going to find my own”: It seems a little too convenient for Cheetah to head to Washington, D.C., since that’s Wonder Woman’s most recent place of residence.  Barbara Minerva is a British anthropologist from Nottinghamshire, and the Cheetah is affiliated with the African god Urtzkartaga.  However, it’s probably too late to introduce any new locations.

– The Joker, naturally, will go home to Gotham. I still say that’s bad news for Bigger Melvin.

– “All this violence”: I’m not surprised the Trinitarians have this attitude, after what the Godwar did to their adopted planet.

Page 10

– Panel 2 gives us Trans-Volitional Man, Vandal Savage, Aquaman, Flash, Black Adam, and the Parasite.

– “Metropolis [is] safe”: see, I thought it was safe at the end of last issue.

Page 11

– However, as we see on this page and the next, the sky’s still full of energy, so it’s not totally back to normal.

– “You have your lands back”: well, even if the Cheetah’s not going to D.C., it looks like the Trinity is (with another stop in Gotham, of course).

– “Without discussing our next goals?” Ha!   I like Bureaucratic Hawkman, even if he is a doofus.

Page 12

– “All of humanity’s dreams”: emphasis on “humanity,” I suspect. That looks like an evil twinkle back in Lex’s eye, and it suggests that he’s been reminded that he has always hated Superman. Much as I’ve enjoyed Morgaine, Despero, Enigma, Kanjar Ro, and Konvikt, it’s good to see the Joker, Brainiac, Luthor, and Khyber getting some time to shine.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“His Hunger” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Tom Derenick, inked by Wayne Faucher, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: A god and his dog.

Page 13 (story page 1)

– The name “Erdammeru” first appeared in JLA #111 (April 2005), which of course was written by Kurt Busiek. Considering that the Qwardian Weaponers and Thunderers look like space-age Vikings, “Erdammeru” sounds appropriately similar to “Götterdämmerung,” a German translation of “Ragnarok.” (Did Gil Kane, who designed the Qwardians, have a thing for Norse mythology? He also drew an adaptation of The Ring of the Nibelung.)

Page 14/2

– In addition to the aforementioned issue #111, the Void-Hound’s history was revealed in JLA #114 (July 2005), also written by Mr. Busiek. Those two issues tell pretty much the same story as this one. In JLA #114, Wally/Flash explains that “[w]hen the electronic comm-web around Qward got complex enough, it formed a mind, like the Construct […].” Dialogue in issue #111 had already revealed that the Hound’s “machine-mind [was] swifter and more complex than any other known to Qward. Those who built the Hound, though, did not build the mind. They found it – enslaved it. Some fear it was the mind of the dark god Erdammeru itself. That was the Hound’s great flaw. None could command it. Any who tried were driven insane.”

– At least superficially, the Void Hound reminds me of Fenris/Fenrir, the great wolf from Norse mythology who is foretold to kill Odin and be killed by Odin’s son Víðarr. Because the gods knew about the prophecies, they bound Fenrir as a precaution. (The legendary Erdammeru was never caught, but the Void Hound was.) As a result of the binding, the god Týr lost his hand; perhaps not unlike the Qwardians driven insane by trying to command the Void Hound.

– “The Green Glow … spoke of freedom and respite and peace”: In JLA #114, the Justice League sought to tame the Void Hound by using a fragmented version of the Construct to “befriend” it. (I know I’m glossing over the subtleties.) This “Construct-mind” was eager to reach out, saying that “[the Void Hound] is not-us, but is like-us. Like-us but tortured, angry, in pain. Can speak to it, can let it know as [Flash] let us know — that we need not be alone –!” Thus, with the Construct-mind already inside John Stewart’s power ring, the Green Lantern absorbed the Void Hound’s machine-mind into the ring as well.

Page 16/4

– Again, in JLA #114, the problem seemed to be that the Void Hound, like the Construct, developed in isolation. GL observed that “[i]t’s got no concept of anything like itself.” However, from the VH’s internal monologue, I get the impression that any desire for friendship has been way overcome by more violent impulses, albeit mediated by a general lack of direction.

– Also, in its first appearance the Void Hound appeared to be an energy being inhabiting and controlling the war machine the Qwardians built. Since that machine (which survived the loss of the Void Hound) was nowhere to be found when the Void Hound started manifesting itself back around issue #2, I presume that its current body was created with the help of the power ring.

Page 17/5

– No annotations.

Page 18/6

– No annotations.

Page 19/7

– “Khund smugglers”: we’ve already seen the Khunds back in issue #19, as part of Desiree’s memories of Wonder Woman.

Page 20/8

– “Something that is soft and thick”: okay, get your minds out of the gutter. I think John may be sending out his “energy-twin,” which is basically the GL’s consciousness transformed into energy and set free to fly around the universe. I tend to think of it as an Oan-powered version of Dr. Strange’s astral self.  An energy-twin was first seen in Green Lantern vol. 2 #1, when the Guardians introduced themselves to Hal Jordan by summoning his energy-twin to Oa.

Page 21/9

– No annotations.

Page 22/10

– “Something of the Greenglow”: usually, the energy-twin is a glowing green specter of the person, but I suppose it could also be the blob of energy shown here.

– “Sector 1014”: since John is assigned to Sector 2814, I take it this indicates his current location. Sector 1014 contains the planet H’lven, which was home to Green Lantern Ch’p and his successor B’dg. No offense to B’dg, but I really hope Ch’p is still alive in this timeline.  The more I think about it, the more I want to see him stare down the Void Hound.

* * *

Even though Trinity still has a lot of old business to mind, here’s hoping the Joker, Luthor, Brainiac, and Khyber each have some heretofore-unknown part in the grand finale.  They’re too good as standalone villains to be seen simply as part of a crowd.  Honestly, I’d like to say the same about the Cheetah and Giganta, but they’re not in the same class.  Both Circe and Doctor Psycho are scarier, but we haven’t seen much (if anything) out of them here.  I’d have thought that, like the Joker with Batman, Circe would take issue with Morgaine erasing Wonder Woman from history.  Still eleven issues to go, though.

Since we’re headed to D.C. and Gotham, it would be nice to catch up with Desiree, Julia, and Bigger Melvin (the latter while we still can, of course).

I liked the spotlight on the Void Hound mostly for its “mythological” feel, but also for the way in which it recast the Hound’s role in the JLA storyline.  Clearly it’s another version of the story related in JLA, but unlike the mythologized versions of the Trinitarians’ lives, it’s more primal and less specific to a familiar character.  It’s good (in a way) to see that John has given up trying to change the Void Hound’s mind, at least for now, because that would either have been too predictable or it wouldn’t have ended well for John.

Besides, I wouldn’t want to be the Void Hound when Ch’p gets through with it….

++++++++++++++++++

Issue #40

Issue #39

Issue #38

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #40

You know, I’m a little ashamed to just be thinking of this now; but in a weird way, Trinity has pulled at least a little truth out of those “Batman will become a New God” rumors from a year or so ago. True, Batman hasn’t become a capital-N new god, but the god he’s become is certainly new to the rest of us….

Too much of a stretch? Yeah, probably.

Anyway, with this issue we start the last quarter of Trinity. It’s 75% over now, people! Give yourselves a hand (assuming you’ve been following all along)! While I was expecting certain developments to last a little longer than they have, I suppose there’s only twelve more issues to go and we need to start wrapping things up.

Naturally, any more and I’d have to say …

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“Returned” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Want to see the Trinity/Troika fight?  Want to see it again?

Page 1

– Here’s our old friend Krona, still transformed from the last time we saw him ‘waaay back in issue #24.

– Krona is totally tripping. “Have you ever looked at the coherent energy which manifests itself as your hands? I mean, really looked at the coherent energy which manifests itself as your hands?”

Page 2

– Get more than a handful of Green Lanterns together, and it means trouble. At least one Green Lantern is assigned to each of the universe’s 3600 space sectors (these days, every sector is supposed to have at least two, a primary GL and a deputy).  I count about 62 here.

– Somebody’s gonna have to help me out with all these Lanterns, because I’ve gone through the most recent Secret Files, the original Who’s Who, and more than a couple of websites, and I can’t identify every one.

– The speaker kinda looks like Chthos-Chthas Chthatis, created by Dave Gibbons, who first appeared in Green Lantern Corps vol. 2 #5 (December 2006).

– The big guy with the window on his brain is Validus, who’ll be more familiar about a thousand years from now as a member of the villainous Fatal Five. Validus was created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan and first appeared in Adventure Comics vol. 1 #352 (January 1967). Validus was also a Green Lantern (for the first time) in the alternate timeline of Justice League: The Nail #2 (September 1998), which was written and penciled by Alan Davis.

– The blob over Validus’ right shoulder (our left) looks like Eddore, who was created by Len Wein, Mike W. Barr, and Joe Staton, and first appeared in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #1 (May 1981). The Green Lantern Corps was modeled after the Lensmen, a group of intergalactic peacekeepers created by E.E. “Doc” Smith, and Eddore was named for a character in the Lensman series.

– Galius-Zed (big head, bottom center) was created by Len Wein and Joe Staton and first appeared in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #2 (June 1981).

– The Xudarian (left edge, orange skin, pointed ear, fin) is probably either Tomar-Re or his son Tomar-Tu. Tomar-Re was created by John Broome and Gil Kane and first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 2 #6 (May-June 1961). Tomar-Tu was created by Gerard Jones and Pat Broderick and first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 3 #5 (October 1990).

– Salakk (bottom center, under the speaker’s legs) was created by Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton and first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 2 #149 (February 1982).

– In the bottom right corner, the woman with the blue skin and yellow hair might be a miscolored Arisia (who normally has a Caucasian skin tone). Like Eddore, Arisia was created by Wein, Barr, and Staton for Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #1. Arisia was similarly named for a planet in the Lensman series.

– The tentacled ball could be Brokk, who was created by Wein, Barr, and Staton for Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #1.

– To the left of Brokk, that looks like a miscolored Ghr’ll, who was created by Paul Kupperberg and Carmine Infantino and first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 2 #151 (April 1982). If it’s Ghr’ll, he should be orange, not blue.

– The red-horned person just above the speaker could be Opto309v, who was created by Grant Morrison and Giuseppe Camuncoli and first appeared in 52 #41 (February 14, 2007).

– The lizard-looking fellow to (our) left of the speaker might be Isamot Kol, who was created by Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons, and Patrick Gleason, and who first appeared in Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #1 (November 2005).

– The pink blob (bottom right, next to “Arisia”) might be Gpaak, who was created by Chuck Dixon and Joe Staton and first appeared in Guy Gardner #11 (August 1993).

– The multi-armed person over Validus’ left shoulder (our right) might be Lashorr, who was created by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis and first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 4 #12 (July 2006).

– The pink-skinned fellow behind the blue-skinned one in the front row might be Okonoko, created by Kurt Busiek and Dave Gibbons and first appearing in Green Lantern vol. 2 #162 (March 1983).  (I figure at least one Busiek-created Lantern is in this spread.)

– Actually, Mr. Busiek wrote a story (penciled by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, inked by Joe Rubenstein) for Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #3 (1987), in which a Green Lantern is worshiped by the people of his planet.  The people question their faith when other GLs show up to prevent a planetary disaster.  There, however, the GL knew he wasn’t a god.  As we’ll see, the Trinitarians still need some convincing.

– If I missed anyone, this site looks to be as good a resource as you’ll find.

Page 3

– Here’s the “trinity” of the Crime Syndicate (Superwoman, Ultraman, and Owlman), along with Despero and his fleet. All were last seen in these pages in issue #24.

Pages 4-5

– I like how the Troika and Trinity match up visually, especially the burning Konvikt and the radiant Superman.

– Not a lot for the Arcana teams to do now; but just to be complete, I spy Hawkgirl, Giganta, Luthor, Black Adam, Dr. Polaris, Gangbuster, Plastic Man, the Joker, the Cheetah, and Starfire.

Page 6

– “Batman”: Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time … a long time. I presume that it, like the Trinitarians’ changed forms, is a product of their return to Earth. Surely they didn’t think of themselves as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman while they were the gods of the Genesis Planet?

– “They shouldn’t even have known”:  Morgaine seems to confirm that only through the intervention of the League of Extraordinary BFFs did they remember their old selves.

Page 7

– “Who’s got [you]?” is, as if I needed to tell you, one of the first things Lois (Margot Kidder) says to Superman (Christopher Reeve) in the movie Superman (1978).

– We started last issue with Hawkman, Barry Allen, Charity O’Dare, Jay Garrick/Flash, and Alan Scott/Green Lantern on this rooftop (or one like it).  Hawkman, Flash, and GL did some fighting, so I suppose they’re back protecting Charity and Barry.

Page 8

– This “fight” (if you can call it that) was weirdly funny to me. I like how the Trinitarians just shrug off these massive energy beams like someone’s just turned up the fan full blast.

– Dark Arcana members in panel 5 include Prometheus, Ra’s al Ghul, Khyber, the Floronic Man, Dr. Polaris, Deathstroke, the Joker, Sun-Chained-In-Ink, the Parasite, Catwoman, the Cheetah, the Scarecrow, Solomon Grundy, the Gentleman Ghost, the Royal Flush Gang, Giganta, Zoom, Cat-Man, and Vandal Savage.

Page 9

– “A part of our power is still missing in this world”: we’ll see what that is on the next page.

Page 10

– I loved this little bit with Hawkman asking the Trinitarians to “put [themselves] under Justice Society authority.” It seems so autocratic, bureaucratic, and brave, all at the same time.

– “Channeled symbolically through representations of the conceptual structure”: i.e., matching super-people to Tarot cards.

– Snapping his fingers in recognition of his idea? Superman’s a god, but he’s still Superman….

– Justice Arcana members (and others) include Ragman, Sand, Deadman, Tomorrow Woman, Cyborg, Hawkgirl, Starfire, Blue Beetle (?), Plastic Man, Raven, Hawkman (over Batman’s shoulder), Nightshade, Green Arrow, Flash (Wally West), Aquaman, and Luthor.

– If that is Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes), he was created by Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hamner. Jaime first appeared in Infinite Crisis #3 (February 2006) and first appeared as Blue Beetle III in issue #5 (April 2006).

Page 11

– No annotations.

Page 12

– Well, the regular timeline’s not completely restored, because the JSIers still have their monochromatic costumes. Here’s Power Girl, Tomorrow Woman, Black Lightning, Metamorpho, and Black Canary.

– “As it should be”: apparently the Trinitarians have gotten used to being worshiped.

– “Let us show these malefactors”: … and here’s the ugly side of that.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“Patience, Mighty Krona” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Scott McDaniel, inked by Andy Owens, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The new adventures of Old Krona!

Page 13 (story page 1)

– This story, and especially these “creation” pages, put me in mind of J.M. DeMatteis’ meditations on creation in the Dr. Fate series from about twenty years ago (which I just re-read a couple of weeks ago). From that series I got a rather genial picture of creation, and the notion that everything worked out to a fairly good purpose. Here, Krona’s narration is appropriately macro- and micro-oriented, and very evocative of being “one with the cosmos.”

Pages 14/2 and 15/3

– “I am” is, I suspect, an allusion to Exodus 3:13-14, from Moses’ introduction to the Lord on Mount Horeb:

And Moses said unto God, “Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, ‘The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you,’ and they shall say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say unto them?”

And God said unto Moses, “I AM THAT I AM.” And He said, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, ‘I AM hath sent me unto you.’”

So, you know, a little bit of hubris on Krona’s part, but apparently not much.

Page 16/4

– “Like fingertips brushing against a new lover”: okay, that was a little clunky.

– “My brothers and sisters”: remember, the main-line universe which the DC superheroes inhabit is personified by Kismet, a female-appearing figure who first appeared in The Adventures Of Superman #494 (September 1992). (I’m repeating myself a little, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen this concept.) Kismet is something of an analogue for Marvel’s Eternity, and indeed the two hooked up in JLA/Avengers.

– The spiral of personified universes here is also reminiscent of the couple of scenes (in issues #16 and 22) where Hawkman remembers his past lives.

Page 17/5

– “Fifty”: as far as we know, the DC Multiverse is made up of 52 parallel universes, not including the anti-matter universe where Qward and the Crime Syndicate’s Earth are located.

– “Let me out”: Krona’s perpetual lament, ever since issue #1.

Page 18/6

– “I am you, as you are me”: you’d think I’d make a Beatles joke here, but that would be too easy. Instead, I’ll take Old Krona at his word, such that we’re seeing the Kronas in a timeless dimension where Old Krona is speaking from a perspective eons past Young Krona’s. That’s kind of cool, since it implies that Old Krona not only survives the end of Trinity in his present form, but that he’s moved past the “petulance” of his younger, trouble-making self.

– While I’ve enjoyed the story titles coming from dialogue and narration, it’s too bad this one couldn’t have been called “Krona Vs. Krona.”

Page 19/7

– “A cosmic accident”: a couple of them, I would say. First, Krona was trapped in the Cosmic Egg at the end of JLA/Avengers, and then the egg was used in Morgaine’s ritual.  Krona has just been caught up in these things, neither time really by choice.

– “Thrust into the gestating womb of a new universe”: again, the Cosmic Egg, from the end of JLA/Avengers.

– “Like all wombs, it became a prison!” Paging Dr. Freud….

Page 20/8

– So, should we be wondering where Old Krona sent Young Krona? (Certainly not to Anthro’s cave.)

Page 21/9

– “Worldminds”: Krona discovered in issue #20 that each planet has its own form of consciousness.

– “A planetary mind”: actually, if I understand correctly, it’s the old JLA villain the Construct, trapped in GL’s power ring, who is the planetary mind. The Construct, remember, was formed from Earth’s aggregate electronic transmissions. Of course, since he was formed in the mid-1970s out of analog broadcasts, he’ll have to upgrade to digital by June.

– I feel obligated to note the obvious, namely that John Stewart looks a lot more feral here than when we saw him last.

Page 22/10

– No annotations.

* * *

Well, in a way this was a typical issue of Trinity: movement on the big plot in the lead story; good character spotlight in the second story. I never thought I’d enjoy Krona arguing with himself as much as I did. Even though it was a little familiar, it presumably allowed Old Krona to displace his younger, more impetuous self. I take this to be a plot pivot, and obviously a change in characterization, but it was handled pretty well.

As for the first story, as mentioned above I thought the Troika vs. Trinity fight would go on longer than it did. However, under story logic it makes perfect sense: the Trinity is naturally attuned to the Earth’s mojo, so it can command the energy which was feeding the Troika. (The ultimate home-court advantage, as it were.) More importantly, though, it wraps up most (if not all) of the various Earth-based story threads, from the disappearance of the Trinity to the fight against Morgaine. Naturally, there’s more to do now that the Trinitarians are back, not just punishing the Troika and restoring the timeline but fighting Krona, Despero’s fleet, and the Crime Syndicate. Twelve issues to do all of that is probably about right.

Finally, for those of you interested in Trinity‘s place in the timeline, a little nugget appears in this week’s Gotham Gazette:  Batman Dead? Thanks to Trinity‘s own Fabian Nicieza, Spoiler muses that Nocturna was “arrested in New Orleans last [she] saw.”  I took this as a reference to Trinity #6, which actually took place in St. Roch, but I figure Steph’s memory is close enough.

Back next week!

++++++++++++++++

Issue #39

Issue #38

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #39

Act One of Trinity featured a few big super-scrums, but to a certain extent, Act Two got away from that. Now Act Three is underway, and although we’re not too far into it, I daresay we’re already in for a few issues’ worth of super-team combat.

Not much in this issue discusses the nuances of the Trinity, and for the most part, the big character development isn’t all that surprising. However, the combat is choreographed well, and the last page is a welcome development.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“Metropolis” (pages 1-6, 17-22) was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: It’s the big Cossack number!

Page 1

– Last issue I nitpicked that Alan Scott’s ring was on the wrong hand. Here it’s on the right hand, which is Alan’s left hand. I could go into a whole routine here (or I could have just said “correct hand”), but you get the idea.

– In other costume news, J’Onn J’Onnz is now wearing more than he was last issue. Maybe Hawkman wanted to be the only bare-chested super-guy on the page.

– I have to say, it’s a little strange to see Jay Garrick in his prime and Barry Allen in a wheelchair.

Pages 2-3

– Didn’t expect the Dreambound to be here, since they’re supposed to be having second thoughts. However, so’s Konvikt, and he’s front and center.

– If I were more of a Marvel fan I’d make a “Red Konvikt” joke. Good news for everyone that I’m not.

– Anyway, most of these folks you know already. On Page 2, there’s the Trans-Volitional Man, the Royal Flush Gang, Sparx, Doctor Polaris, Sun-Chained-In-Ink, Giganta, the Joker, Morgaine Le Fay, Eclipso, Deathstroke, Mr. Nobody, the Floronic Man, the Parasite, Ra’s al Ghul, Gorilla Grodd, Prometheus, Brainiac, and the Scarecrow.

– Page 3 depicts Enigma (standing on S.P.H.E.R.E.), the Cheetah, Doctor Light, the Gentleman Ghost, Negative Woman, Negative Man, the Queen Bee, Konvikt, Swashbuckler, Shrapnel, Catwoman, Cat-Man, Lord Khyber, Vandal Savage, Solomon Grundy, Zoom, Brimstone, and Lady Shiva.

– The Parasite is making his Trinity debut. The Queen Bee and Shrapnel had cameos in issue #27.

– The Parasite, a/k/a Maxwell Jensen, was created by Jim Shooter and Al Plastino and first appeared in Action Comics #340 (August 1966). The character was revamped, although not in any meaningful way, by writer John Ostrander and penciller Joe Brozowski for Fury Of Firestorm #58 (April 1987). That Parasite, Rudy Jones, is probably the one here; but again, I don’t think the details matter. In any event, since the Parasite can siphon off super-powers into himself, he also has the potential to be very dangerous. Either that or he’ll get too close to one of the omnipotent combatants and absorb so much he explodes….

– Speaking of power-absorbing characters, where are those giant Amazo-sentinels we saw back at the beginning of Act Two?

– Shrapnel, a/k/a Mark Scheffer, was created by Paul Kupperberg and Erik Larsen and first appeared in Doom Patrol vol. 2 #7 (April 1988).

– Zazzala, the Queen Bee, was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky and first appeared in Justice League of America vol. 1 #23 (November 1963). Her current look dates back to JLA #34 (October 1999), which was penciled by Howard Porter.

Page 4

– Here are some glimpses of the Justice Arcana, starting with Ragman in the background of panel 1.

– Panel 2: Dr. Mid-Nite, Citizen Steel, Ravager, Congorilla (?), Black Lightning, Red Arrow, and the Crimson Avenger.

– Panel 3 (discernable): Plastic Man, Cyborg, Atom-Smasher, and Firestorm.

– Panel 6: I can make out Red Tornado, Firestorm (again), Starfire, Booster Gold (? — the one with the star), and Triumph.

– There’s conflicting data on the first appearance of Congorilla (if that’s who that is), but apparently his origin was told by Robert Bernstein and Howard Sherman in Action Comics #248 (January 1959). Who’s Who also gives Congorilla’s first appearance as Action #248. He’s a gorilla whose mind is periodically switched with the mind of his friend Congo Bill (created by Whitney Ellsworth and George Papp and debuting in More Fun Comics #56 (June 1940)). He’s also in the upcoming no-modifier Justice League title headed by Green Lantern and Green Arrow and written by James Robinson. Congorilla is supposed to be orange (well, golden), but I say it’s him because he’s too big to be Detective Chimp, he doesn’t have the right wardrobe for Sam Simeon, Solovar, or a reformed Monsieur Mallah, and he wears too many clothes to be a miscolored Beast Boy. (Actually, he wasn’t colored gold on the cover of Action #248 either….)

– By the way, far be it from me to tell anyone how to run their business, but I bet Trinity would sell even better with more gorillas on its covers.

Page 5

– Uh, boy. Those not previously seen in this issue include Deadman, Hawkgirl, Skyrocket, Booster Gold (seen clearly here), Tomorrow Woman, Luthor, Power Girl, Black Adam, another gorilla (maybe the same one, colored differently?), Vixen, Nightshade, Brain Wave, Aquaman, the Phantom Stranger, Mr. Terrific, Black Canary, Hourman, the Flash (Wally West), Green Arrow, Metamorpho, and what appears to be Shift.

– Shift, the “offspring” of Metamorpho, was created by Judd Winick and Tom Raney and first appeared in Outsiders vol. 3 #1 (August 2003).

Page 6

– Not sure who the “red giants” in panel 2 are, unless they’re Morgaine’s minions.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“The Power You Deserve” (pages 7-16) was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Tom Derenick, inked by Wayne Faucher, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Konvikt’s second thoughts are confirmed by tragedy.

Page 7 (story page 1)

– I take it that the detail of Triumph saving Tomorrow Woman is meant to link this page with page 6.

– Is Konvikt supposed to be throwing that bus at a building?

Page 8/2

– Wow, Cheetah’s gotten big!

Page 9/3

– You’ll excuse me being thick, but I’m having a hard time with the significance of the frog. Is it supposed to remind me of Graak? Will it start singing at some point? The only thing I can come up with is that it and the other animals represent the fact that Konvikt isn’t trying to hurt anything but the humans and their creations.

Page 10/4

– Gotham City’s not supposed to be that far from Metropolis, so while Morgaine took time out to power-up Konvikt, the Justice Arcana probably had time to regroup.

Page 11/5

– Remember, it wasn’t that long ago that Graak was encouraging Konvikt to conquer Earth. However, his experiences with Morgaine have been changing his perspectives on his and Konvikt’s places in the grand scheme of things.

Page 12/6

– “Laying waste of urban mudball domiciles”: okay, maybe Konvikt was throwing the bus at the building for the heck of it.

Page 13/7

– No annotations.

Page 14/8

– Well, I wasn’t expecting that. Here’s hoping he comes back when the timeline is restored.

Page 15/9

– “Wipe that irritating thing off your face”: man, she’s cold!

Page 16/10

– “He will use it to remake the world”: thus, Morgaine is outnumbered two Troiksters to one, plus there’s the Joker’s incentive to reset the timeline, and whatever blueprint is in the Construct’s consciousness.

Page 17

– “Embody those roles, fill the gap”: well, in a way they do sort of map to Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Hawkman has extraterrestrial connections, Green Lantern’s ring comes from the magic-oriented Starheart, and the Flash’s powers come from science. However, in terms of the Trinity’s moral dimensions (truth, justice, hope), the Justice Society’s leaders seem too similar, especially Jay and Alan.

Page 18

– Of course, the Joker/Luthor/Cheetah trio would match up even better with the departed Trinity.

– “The momentum’s gone”: because Luthor has been turned? If there are members of Morgaine’s team who are normally good (I’m thinking particularly of the Negative Couple), might they be turned as well?

Page 19

– Part of me thinks that J’Onn’s death (and Triumph’s, on the next page) is related to the timeline trying to reassert itself, but it seems more likely that it’s just a consequence of the world getting more evil.

– I guess it’s appropriate that Deadman can fight the Gentleman Ghost, but it’s still weird that we can actually see Deadman in action.

Page 20

– No annotations.

Page 21

– Again, at first it looks like there are perspective problems with the characters in panel 1, but I think it’s the villains getting physically bigger.

Page 22

– Nice! The next thirteen issues just got a lot more interesting….

* * *

In fact, it looks like the Trinitarians, in their newly-altered states, are starting to resemble their old selves. (I presume they’re still giant-sized.) Kellel isn’t too far from Superman. Atmahn isn’t bestial anymore, although I can only think to describe him as a wraith in a costume. Dinanna actually looks the least human, but it could just be full-body armor like Morgaine used to wear. Perhaps this latest round of changes is meant to bring them closer to their “divine ideals,” now that they’re back on Earth.

I wonder if, or how closely, Konvikt’s transformation parallels the Trinitarians’.  They’ve each been changed by creation energy, but Konvikt’s change is different in a couple of ways.  First, his shot of creation energy might be tinged with Morgaine’s evil, and therefore might be exacerbating his own violent tendencies.  He’s not just helping the world to be more evil, he’s perhaps fueled by an energy which is evil to begin with.  However, unlike the Trinitarians, his transformation has been accompanied by a running commentary from Graak, who knows the real Konvikt and won’t let him forget it.  Therefore, by the time Morgaine kills Graak, Konvikt may already have overcome the corrupting tendencies of Morgaine’s creation-energy infusion.  You’d think this will make it easier for the good guys to defeat Morgaine, but of course there’s still Krona to consider….

See you next week!

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Issue #38

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #38

Man, there was a lot of red meat in Trinity #38, and I don’t just mean the plot. From soup to nuts(y), it was a smorgasbord of superheroics the likes of which I haven’t seen since the Great Pastry Wars of the early issues.

Grab your fork, folks, because tonight we dine … on trivia!

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“Who Are You” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: I really wanna know!

Page 1

– “Outsiders”: an intentional allusion?

– My interpretation of Interceptor’s speech is “when you finish patting yourselves on the back for wisdom and compassion, you could suck it up …”

Page 2

– “Our power confined them easily before”: … as will be explained by Dinanna on page 4.

Page 3

– “It tickles!” is a classic Superman line from the cover of Superman vol. 1 #32 (January-February 1945).

Page 4

– “Great Athena”: and so Dinanna starts to remember.  I like the fact that she recalls her old life by invoking the name of one of her own gods.

– “Remember them”: seems like I called this particular plot development back in the Act Two wrapup.  Naturally, I hedged my bet, because it seemed a little, well, predictable. Still, there’s predictable, and then there’s the thrill one gets when an expected piece falls into place; and for me, this next sequence definitely brought up the latter.

Page 5

– However, I didn’t expect Dick’s first attempt at a memory trigger to be “Ollie Queen’s chili.” Oliver Queen has been known for smokin’ hot chili at least since the Green Lantern/Green Arrow days of the 1970s. The first reference to Ollie and chili may be Green Lantern vol. 2 #84 (June-July 1971), where he promises to take Dinah Lance “to a Mexican joint [with] chili so hot they have asbestos napkins.” However, the blogger Sea of Green has posted an image from the Denny O’Neil/Mike Grell days (I’m going to guess GL #93 (February-March 1977)), which would be the earliest reference I can find (without diving into the long boxes myself) of Ollie making his own super-hot chili. A recipe appeared in Green Arrow Secret Files & Origins #1 (December 2002), so of course it’s on the Internet as well.

– “Foul … scorched taste …”: see, it is hot! Practical too: besides being the first thing Dick could think of, it also cuts through a lot of ambiguity that might accompany, say, shouting out an ex-girlfriend’s name. Besides, with Batman there have been so many….

– “Sundollar Coffee” is, for all practical purposes, the Starbucks of DC-Earth, and was first seen officially in 52. However, a Daily Planet article about the prolific franchise appeared here, prior to the miniseries’ first issue.

– “Beef Bourguignon”: a reference to Superman vol. 1 #297, written by Elliott S! Maggin and Cary Bates, and penciled by Curt Swan. In that pre-Crisis issue, Lois and Clark share a romantic dinner, and it is strongly hinted that they shared a little more afterwards, nudge nudge. In Superman vol. 2 #153 (February 2000), writer Jeph Loeb appears to have added the “ketchup” for reasons which may remain a mystery. Thus, it’s still a code-word, but in the post-Crisis days, it means “all clear” (and not “premarital sex”) in the Kent household.

– Nutsy Squirrel is a National/DC funny-animal character created by Woody Gelman and Irving Dressler for Funny Folks #1 (May 1946). In the mainline DC universe, Nutsy is a popular funny-animal character whose likeness graces at least one amusement park (as seen in Justice League Spectacular #1 (March-April 1992)).

Pages 6-7

– Going back to Wonder Woman’s origin in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941-January 1942), “bullets and bracelets” was an Amazon sport wherein one participant would try to deflect live fire with her metal bracelets. In The Encyclopedia Of Comic Book Heroes, Volume 2: Wonder Woman, author Michael Fleisher notes dryly that “Princess Diana’s skill at this sport … enables her to win the right to come to America.” (Well, duh, if losing means getting shot.)  The 1986 revamp (Wonder Woman vol. 2 #1 (February 1987)) recast it as the “test of the flashing thunder,” a “secret and terrible part of [the Amazons'] past” which only Diana had to face.

– In her montage, Wonder Woman is fighting Heracles, who looks to be wearing an outfit designed by Terry and Rachel Dodson for Wonder Woman vol. 3 #2 (September 2006). In that issue he’s called “Hercules,” although since the 1986 revamp all the mythological characters have tended to be called by their Greek names.

– The image of Diana with Tom comes from WW v. 3 #18 (May 2008). The necklace represents a “bond of consideration” and is the first step in Amazon courtship. There is also a matching bracelet.

Page 8

– With Donna, “mother” could refer to more than one person (including Dorothy Hinckley, her biological mom, or Faye Stacey, her first adoptive mom), but I’d say here it refers to Hippolyta, who considered Donna to be Diana’s sister.

– “Kandor” is a Kryptonian city once captured by Brainiac, and now relocated to a spot opposite Earth in the latter’s orbit around the Sun. Supergirl and her parents Zor-El and Alura were from Argo City, but (in the regular timeline, as revised) Brainiac destroyed Argo after Supergirl left and her parents had been placed in Kandor. Kandor was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino and first appeared in Action Comics #242 (July 1958).

– “Barbara” is Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl and current Oracle, for whom Dick has always had strong feelings.

– “Ditching your responsibilities”: isn’t it more accurate to say they’ve been reordering their priorities?

Page 9

– No annotations.

Page 10

– In her revised origin, Supergirl has ties to all three of the Trinitarians, so it’s appropriate that she lectures them. (Seems like I’ve mentioned this before, but still.) Besides being Superman’s cousin, Batman found her spaceship and she received Amazon combat training on Themyscira.

Page 11

– No annotations.

Page 12

– No annotations, although I was expecting the story to be continued in this issue.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“The Last Stand” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Mike Norton, inked by Walden Wong, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: North America falls to the Dark Arcana.

Page 13/1

– Good guys include Cyclone, Space Ranger (the Hermit), Triumph (Strength), and assorted Metal Marines (who may be part of the “Heywood Corps” we’ve seen earlier, or perhaps Magnus-designed androids). Bad guys include Giganta (Strength), Eclipso, and Zoom (the Chariot).

– This version of Cyclone, a/k/a Maxine Hunkel, was created by Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham and first appeared in Justice Society of America vol. 2 #1 (December 2006). An earlier version of the character, considered to be the “older” Cyclone/Red Tornado III in a potential future, was created by Mark Waid and Alex Ross and first appeared in Kingdom Come #2 (June 1996).

– Ivy Town is the home of Ivy University, which has employed two Atoms, Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi.

Page 14/2

– As far as I know, Cyclone is still alive in the regular timeline; so given all the normally-dead characters in Trinity (AHEM, page19/7), this is something of a change-up.

Page 15/3

– “You always take the young girls”: eww! Not quite as bad as the rapetastic Dr. Light reference from a few issues back, but still pretty unsavory. It refers to Deathstroke’s heavily-implied (i.e., a lot more heavily than the “beef bourguignon” incident) sexual relationship with 16-year-old Tara “Terra” Markov, as portrayed for example in The New Teen Titans vol. 1 #39 (February 1984).

– “Just like Enigma said it would”: sure, he’s smart enough to have figured it out, but I’m guessing SPHERE helped.

Page 16/4

– “This world is coming to want them to win”: again, just like the Anti-Matter Earth favors the Crime Syndicate.

Page 17/5

– “You made this world more receptive to them”: now, that’s an intriguing thought; and J’Onn will pick up on it a couple of pages later.

Page 18/6

– “Your years of support”: it’s a nice touch that the two Silver Age pioneers share this particular secret. Although Barry’s first appearance in September-October 1956’s Showcase #4 is overwhelmingly credited as the “official” start of the Silver Age, many consider J’Onn J’Onzz (who appeared almost a year earlier; see below) to be the first Silver Age superhero. In a flashback to 1959, Barry also stuck up for J’Onn in front of a hostile mob (Justice League of America vol. 1 #144 (July 1977)).

Page 19/7

– J’Onn J’Onzz, the Martian Manhunter, was created by Joe Certa and Joseph Samachson and first appeared in Detective Comics #225 (November 1955). He was transported accidentally to Earth by one Dr. Erdel, who died from the shock of his machine’s success. Here he’s shown wearing a version of his classic costume, but he didn’t make his head quite so pointy when he wore it.

Page 20/8

– “Where would I be now?”: I particularly liked this speech. In recent years conventional wisdom has held that J’Onn is pretty much Superman without the good public relations. Although J’Onn has all of Superman’s major powers plus a few more, the chroniclers have reasoned that his non-human appearance, plus his origins in the paranoid 1950s, gave him a different outlook on the whole “fitting into Earth society” thing. As DC’s post-Crisis sliding timeline created an ever-larger gap between the Justice Society’s 1951 retirement and the Justice League’s “15 years ago” debut, the period of J’Onn’s secret operations increased as well. Thus, the Justice League allowed J’Onn to work openly, in no small part because it included a Kryptonian and an agent of the Oan Guardians as members. If Trinity had tried to map single characters to the missing Trinitarians, I’d like to think that J’Onn would have been first in line as a replacement Superman.

Page 21/9

– “Not us, someone else”: gee, I wonder who. See, this is why I was expecting the Trinity to show up on the last page.

– I haven’t been paying attention, but is GL’s power ring on the correct hand?  Here it’s on Alan’s right hand. “Our” Alan usually wears the ring on his left hand, whereas the intergalactic Green Lanterns wear theirs on their right (where applicable).

Page 22/10

– No annotations, but there’s Alan’s ring on his right hand again.

* * *

I enjoyed this issue pretty much from cover to cover, and it left me very eager for next Wednesday. There are still fourteen issues left, but everything is coming together. The Trinitarians are apparently ready to resume their normal lives, the Dark Arcana is about to conquer an ever-more receptive Earth, and — in a development which everyone and her dog seemed to see a mile away (commenter Ian predicted it back at issue #25, and I agreed five issues later) — J’Onn J’Onzz finally cast off his Space Ranger disguise.

So yeah, I’m glad I stuck with Trinity, because these events were meaningful on a couple of levels. Although I expected the “remember them!” strategy and J’Onn’s reveal, I thought they were more than just button-pushing moments; presented powerfully and with an eye towards Trinity’s underlying themes. I hope the Trinity’s inevitable return to Earth, and the subsequent “reawakening” of Earth’s people, will be handled as well. (Of course, I’m excited about the fact that it could come in the next couple of issues.)

Still waiting on Krona and Green Lantern, though….

+++++++++++++++++++

Issue #37

Issue #36

Act Two

Trinity #37

I thought this issue was particularly strong all around. There’s still a bit of setup to take care of, but it all serves the needs of the larger story. Plot threads are tying together, Act Three’s engines are revving, and if we can see where the story’s headed, at least the journey looks fun.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“And They Fought” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The God War, and what came of it.

Page 1

– Well, this explains the “acolytes and servants” reference Kellel made last issue. I’m sure I don’t need to expand on the appropriateness of “the Sons of Atmahn” being ninja-esque warriors, or the “Diannazons” wearing classically-styled armor.

– Although Batman has trained quite a few protégés (including four Robins, two Batgirls, and one replacement), he hasn’t really built an army of followers. I call these guys the “Sons of Atmahn” after the “Sons of the Bat,” the alternate-future gang co-opted by the aging Batman in the last book of The Dark Knight (1986).

– It’s noteworthy that Kellel hides his face, since Superman may be the most prominent DC superhero who maintains a secret identity but doesn’t wear a mask. Of course, at full power Kellel, like Superman, wouldn’t need armor either. Thus, his battle garb here suggests to me that he is abandoning anything which might reveal his humanity, and striking out as a creature of raw power.

Pages 2-3

– I just want to be clear: in past issues I’ve compared scenes in this book to similar scenes in Infinite Crisis, Kingdom Come, and other Trinity-centric works; but I don’t think everything needs an antecedent to have merit. The God War depicted here is unlike anything else I can think of, clearly because these beings have gone beyond their familiar pasts, and probably because they lack familiar networks of support.

Page 4

– “Arrogant, self-absorbed popinjay”: Still, speaking of Kingdom Come, when Batman and Wonder Woman (who, remember, was part of Superman’s army) fought at the climax of that miniseries, she called him an “aristocratic bastard,” adding “[a]fter all these years, you have the nerve to swagger out of your cave and expect everyone to bow before your precious wisdom!”  So, you know, there’s a precedent.

Page 5

– Note that the deaths of his “eyes and ears” don’t provoke a reaction in Atmahn, although the death of Rabat did; and likewise with the deaths of Kellel’s family and Dinanna’s favorites. I presume the Trinitarians are too consumed with their own battle to care, or even notice.

Page 6

– Again, this fight is unprecedented in the shared histories of these characters, not only for the apocalyptic consequences but also for the fact that each is out for him- or herself. As Dinanna’s “my world” comment from page 4 indicates, each is the other’s equal, whether in terms of dominion or power, and that too is something the comics haven’t reflected.

Page 7

– Dinanna may have been the only Trinitarian who could have convinced the others to stop fighting, given Kellel’s bombast and Atmahn’s hard line.

Pages 8-9

– “It felt like the passing of ages, but it [wasn’t] more than a month or three”: something you want to say about the weekly schedule, gentlemen…?

Page 10

– It’s a shame that the apparent reconciliation between the Trinity and their worshippers happened off-panel, because it seems like a big part of the story. After all, these are three nigh-omnipotent beings who have just devastated a good bit of the planet, causing untold destruction, death, and (literally) holy war among the people; but we go from the moment of reconciliation to the ratification of their newly-resolved unity. Granted, there are practical and in-story reasons why we didn’t see the healing process (and we still might see it), but the way it’s presented, the people might look a little too forgiving.

– Never noticed before that the sunburst emblem atop the Kellel-priest’s staff looks to me like the symbol of “Nova,” Superman’s alternate identity from an imaginary story in World’s Finest Comics #s 178 (September 1968) and 180 (November 1968).

Page 11

– Here’s a better look at the Trinity’s citadel, which more clearly resembles the current JLA Watchtower space station.

Page 12

– No annotations.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“A Special Dark Angry Flappy Toy” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Scott McDaniel, inked by Andy Owens, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Meet the new Fool!

Page 13/1

– No annotations.

Page 14/2

– The Creeper, a/k/a Jack Ryder, was created by Steve Ditko and first appeared in Showcase #73 (March-April 1968). As Enigma notes, he’s the only one of these candidates who’s not normally a villain.

– The Trickster, a/k/a James Jesse, was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino and first appeared in The Flash vol. 1 #113 (June-July 1960). In the regular timeline, the Trickster died somewhere around Countdown #21 (December 5, 2007). [Fun fact: GCD has no page for the main Countdown series.]

– Mr. Nobody, f/k/a Mr. Morden, was created by Grant Morrison and Richard Case and first appeared in Doom Patrol vol. 2 #22 (May 1989). Morden was a minor character created by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premani for Doom Patrol vol. 1 #86 (March 1964).  His mind-expanding transformation, and Mr. Nobody’s first substantive appearance, took place in DP v. 2 #26 (September 1989). Mr. Nobody disappeared in DP v. 2 #52 (February 1992).  Personally, Enigma’s shadowy “god-form” reminded me of Mr. Nobody, but the resemblance is only superficial.

– Harley Quinn, a/k/a Dr. Harleen Quinzel, was created for the “Batman” animated series. She first appeared in the episode “Joker’s Favor” (original airdate September 11, 1992), written by Paul Dini and directed by Boyd Kirkland. Harley’s costume was designed by Bruce Timm. Her first comic-book appearance was in the Batman: Harley Quinn one-shot (October 1999), written by Dini, penciled by Yvel Guichet, and inked by Aaron Sowd..

Page 15/3

– “Happiness is a warm puppy” was the title of a 1962 Peanuts collection. It helped inspire the Beatles song “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.”

– Fran Tarkenton played quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings (that’s a Vikes logo on the beer-cap) from 1961-66 and 1972-78, and for the New York Giants from 1967-71. Wikipedia sez that Howard Cosell used to call him “Sir Francis,” so the Joker’s in good company. After football, Tarkenton became one of the hosts of the ABC proto-reality series “That’s Incredible!” (1980-84). As it happens, “TI!” had three hosts, including Cathy Lee Crosby, who had previously played an off-model Wonder Woman in a TV movie remembered mostly by people who’d rather it be forgotten. However, the CLC version of Wonder Woman did show up on a parallel Earth in Infinite Crisis #6 (May 2006). In a weird way, then, Fran Tarkenton is part of a Trinity.

– I guess I was right about the Joker being the Fool … just not at first.

Page 16/4

– Carleton College is a real place, and why wouldn’t it be?

– “The Joker’s controlling it”: This is actually not the first time the Joker has had some form of ultimate power. Besides the “Emperor Joker” storyline in the Superman titles, or the Joker’s brief possession of the Philosopher’s Stone in JLA’s “Rock of Ages,” the Joker teamed up with the Shaper of Worlds in the Batman Vs. The Incredible Hulk special (officially called DC Special Series #27 (Fall 1981)).

Page 17/5

– “Red Robinson”: I can’t tell if this refers to a particular story, but the name combines two important figures in the Joker’s creation. Jerry Robinson claims credit for creating the character; and according to Detective Comics #168 (February 1951), the Joker (real name unknown) started out as a small-time crook called the Red Hood.

– “Wilhelm Veidt”: The Joker’s original look seems to have been inspired by the disfigured title character in the film The Man Who Laughs, who was played by Conrad Veidt.

– “Failures as a husband and father”:  this possibly alludes to the tragedies which drove the future Joker to crime, as told in flashback in Batman: The Killing Joke (1988).

– “Jack Napier”: This, the first real name given to the man who would become the Joker, comes from screenwriter Sam Hamm, who wrote Batman (1989). As we all know, Jack Nicholson played the older Napier/Joker, while Hugo E. Blick played a younger Jack.

– “Disfigured while fighting Ragman”: as revealed in the aforementioned ‘Tec #168, the Red Hood was knocked into a vat of chemicals while fighting Batman (or Ragman, in the altered reality). The chemicals bleached his skin white, turned his hair green, and colored his lips ruby red.

– “Urban legends he perpetuates himself”: this is a widely-accepted theory for why the Joker’s origins will forever remain mysterious. However, Batman: Gotham Knights #55 (September 2004) seemed to confirm the Killing Joke’s backstory; and both it and a revisionist origin in (the possibly-apocryphal) Batman Confidential #s 7-12 (September 2007-February 2008) refer to the proto-Joker as “Jack.”

– The second and fourth ovoid panels are homages to Killing Joke, while the third recalls Batman ‘89’s younger Jack.

Page 18/6

– Of course, giant props were a staple of Batman stories for decades.

– As Enigma will observe on the next page, the Joker’s mind is pulling in items from “our” reality, like the giant Batarang impaling that poor fellow, and the blocks spelling out “B-A-T.”

Page 19/9

– Nice translation of “Pop Goes The Weasel.”

Page 20/10

– No annotations.

Page 21/9

– The notion that the Joker feels a profound connection to Batman goes back at least as far as the seminal Detective Comics #475 (February 1978; written by Steve Englehart, penciled by Marshall Rogers, inked by Terry Austin), where the villain observed,

The Joker must have the Batman! Nay, the Joker deserves the Batman! What fun would there be in humbling mere policemen? I am the greatest criminal ever known! […] And for anyone else to destroy the Batman would be unworthy of me!

Therefore, if the Joker finds out Morgaine took away his “toy,” she’s in trouble.

Page 22/10

– “Everyone’s going to love having me around”: Yes, I know he’s being ironic. Still, I feel compelled to mention that, in Infinite Crisis #2 (January 2006), the Royal Flush Gang’s King tells the Joker he’s the only one the all-inclusive Secret Society doesn’t want. “Everyone knows Joker’s too wild,” King says, right before the Joker kills him.

* * *

As mentioned above, the notion that the Joker might reshape reality is nothing new. I’ve seen enough stories coast on the Joker’s reputation to know that he’s not automatically cool. However, the presentation here really highlights the Joker’s menace. I especially like the fact that Enigma, who can appreciate just how dangerous the Joker can be, is the one who fills in the rest of the Troika.

Naturally, it’s getting to be a “Troika” in name only. Clearly this is Morgaine’s show, and she’s letting Enigma have a say only because she knows he’ll leave this Earth alone. There’s a nice parallel with the God War, because Dinanna started and stopped that conflict and Morgaine looks pretty responsible for the Troika’s eventual dissolution. I really don’t think we’re supposed to think that their gender had something to do with their group’s problems. Instead, both have the strongest connections to the Earth itself (as opposed to the extraterrestrials and the “self-made men”), and I think that sense of possession contributed to their actions.

The Joker makes the second “Trinitarian” villain we’ve seen specifically recruited by Morgaine, after Khyber in issue #31. He’s not the only Bat-villain (Ra’s al Ghul, Catwoman and Cat-Man, Lady Shiva, and the Scarecrow are all part of the Arcana, which also includes peripheral Bat-villains like the Gentleman Ghost, Prometheus, and Deathstroke). The other Trinitarians’ rogues are represented as well, with Brainiac and Khyber for Superman and the Cheetah and Giganta for Wonder Woman. However, not only does the Joker have a much higher profile than any of the others, he (like the Construct trapped in John Stewart’s ring) has a connection to the regular timeline — and thanks to his “affection” for Batman, a compelling reason to see the old timeline restored. Bad news for Bigger Melvin, though….

+++++++++++++++++

Issue #36

Issue #35

Issue #34

Issue #33

Issue #32

Issue #31

Issue #30

Issue #29

Issue #28

Issue #27

Issue #26 and previous

DC's Trinity, by Mark Bagley and Art Thibert

In Trinity Act Two (which began ‘way back on October 1!), series mastermind Kurt Busiek removed his three stars from their customary place at the center of DC’s superhero community. As a result, the past four months have told the weekly story of a world without Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Last fall, I joked that I’d already read this miniseries when it was called 52. However, in 52 the superheroes knew who was missing. Here, the Trinitarians aren’t just offstage, they’ve been erased from Earth’s history, and the world is desperately trying to find someone to replace them. Accordingly, Trinity’s altered timeline, plus the Trinitarians’ new roles as a younger world’s gods, has taken the miniseries down a more metaphysical road.

[Just to be clear, I consider Act Two to be issues #18-35; so this week's issue #36 kicked off Act Three.]

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Act Two has four main subplots:

– the changes to the timeline, as seen mostly through the exploits of Justice Society International;

– the League of Extraordinary BFFs and their search for the Trinity;

– the breakdown of the Troika; and

– the action in space with John Stewart, Krona, Despero, and Kanjar Ro.

Because (for the most part) Act Two couldn’t stage its subplots around the Trinitarians, it had to identify new protagonists. At first I thought it was going to balance out the Batman-heavy Act One with a Superman-themed Act Two, and while that may have happened, it didn’t quite come off like I thought it would. The tale of Kellel comes at the end of Act Two, and inspired a lot more Superman-oriented thoughts in me than either the Atmahn or Dinanna myths did. Combined with the Nancy-Gracious (a cousin of Granny Goodness?) version of Lois Lane on display throughout Act Two, and the relative prominence of Superman villains (Luthor, Brainiac, Khyber), overall I suppose the Superman cast got more “page time” than Batman’s or Wonder Woman’s.

It would also have been relatively easy for Act Two to fill the Trinitarians’ void through a committee of similar superheroes, and in fact that’s how it began: Green Arrow and Ragman for Batman; Black Adam for Wonder Woman; and Tomorrow Woman for Superman. Before too long, though, Act Two picked up with Act One’s de facto supporting cast of Gangbuster and Tarot, Hawkman, Green Lantern (John Stewart), and Firestorm. These characters helped track the changed playing field, including providing a transition into the BFFs’ journey. Act Two’s focus narrowed after about issue #24, which was the last glimpse of the “space subplot” featuring GL/John. The Troika subplot dovetailed with the JSI’s exploits to become the War of Arcana, leaving the BFFs’ journey for the A- or B-story as necessary.

* * *

Taking the subplots one by one:

1. The “space storyline” was introduced at the beginning of issue #18 and tabled in issue #24. Essentially, it involves GL/John heading into space to try and get the Qwardian Void-Hound out of his system. The V-H is kept in check by the Construct, an old Justice League villain who is an electronic consciousness formed from the accumulation of Earth’s various broadcast and computer signals; and both are trapped in John’s power ring. While in space, John encounters Krona, who has just learned that planets themselves have their own form of sentience. Accordingly, Krona is intrigued by the Construct, and he and John disappear to who-knows-where. Meanwhile, it turns out that Kanjar Ro, posing as Despero, has screwed up the Troika’s ritual to remake the universe. Kanjar hightails it into space, where of course he encounters Despero’s fleet. Shortly after Krona and John depart, Kanjar and Despero team up, Kanjar having discovered Ultraman, Owlman, and Superwoman where the Justice League left them imprisoned.

Now, that’s a lot of plot; and it’s especially a lot of plot to be set aside for twelve weeks and counting. However, it doesn’t have a lot to do, at least on the surface, with the missing Trinity; and bringing it to a stopping place at the end of #24 lets Busiek and company focus on just two threads: the fate of the Earth and the (new) myths surrounding the Trinity.

Nevertheless, this storyline contains some pretty important players. The Void-Hound ravaged the Anti-Matter Earth, and could probably do the same to the regular one. Since the Construct represents a kind of planetary consciousness, it could help Krona (wielder of all that creation energy, remember) remake the timeline. The anti-matter Trinity is at least as powerful as the regular Trinity (in non-god form, that is), and they would be none too fond of Enigma remaking their world.

2. And speaking of Enigma, the Troika’s breakdown seems important enough to warrant its own section here. The Trinitarians had their “god war,” of course; but judging by the last page of issue #35, they made up. I doubt that will be the case with the Troika. It has already lost Despero to Kanjar Ro’s treachery, and both Enigma and Konvikt seem too ethical to continue their associations with her much longer. Never mind that Konvikt appears to want nothing more than his honor restored. (I’m sure Graak wants all the world-conquering action he can handle, but like Kanjar, he appears to be just a hanger-on.)

As such, the conquest of Earth has become, and probably will be, almost entirely Morgaine’s show, as her Dark Arcana team stakes out more and more territory. This has made the villains’ end of the storyline a little less complex than a more committed Troika might have made it; but of course the point of the subplot is to contrast an imperfect Troika with a missing, but more or less united, Trinity. Predetermination is perhaps Act Two’s central theme, and indeed all of Act Two rests on the assumption that things would have been even more different (if not unrecognizable) if the Troika’s ritual had been flawless.

3. Accordingly, let’s talk about the changed timeline. I’m a little slow in bringing this up now, but so far Trinity has the same basic structure as JLA/Avengers. Both begin with a “quest” plot — there, the two teams assembling mystic artifacts; and here, Morgaine’s servants putting together the ritual’s ingredients. Each story’s quest ends in a ceremony which fundamentally remakes reality. There, the DC and Marvel Universes were joined in a parallel-Earth relationship; and here, the Earth struggles to exist without its keystone heroes. Both stories feature characters who would be dead under normal circumstances (and who, upon learning the truth, soldier on gallantly). Thus, both stories hint that despite its fundamental wrongness, the changed reality isn’t all bad.

In fact, although the roots of Trinity’s altered timeline go back as far as ancient Egypt, the most obvious point of divergence seems to be fairly recent. In response to a Congressional hearing, the Justice Society went public instead of going underground. I have to admit, it’s a little hard for me to see how that relates to the Trinity, since it occurred years, if not decades, before any of them would have been born. It seems like more of a device for explaining plot elements (Earth’s collective xenophobia; the JSI’s ubiquity) than a development flowing directly from the Trinity’s absence. Still, Trinity offers no clues about the Kents, the Waynes, or Hippolyta’s Amazons, and therefore seems less concerned with cause than effect.

In other words, this altered timeline won’t be restored simply by the manipulation of a particular event. Neither is it a matter of finding replacements for the Trinitarians (and Act Two spends a lot less time on that subplot than I would have guessed). Instead, Trinity uses the idea of opposing Arcana teams as a vehicle for big action sequences.

This seemed to work better week-to-week than it does in one big chunk. Read all at once, the Arcana skirmishes tended to blur into one another. This is not to say that the subplot suffers greatly when read as a whole. However, once I knew where Act Two was going, I found myself wanting to get there.

4. With that, then, let’s move on to the meat of Act Two: the pilgrimage to find the Trinity. As much as I enjoyed spotting the Easter eggs and fluid changes in the revised timeline, my favorite parts of Act Two centered around the BFFs. They make a good group on paper, and they also work well together. I would have liked more Alfred/Dick and/or Dick/Donna interaction once they “woke up” fully, but that’s a minor nitpick. (Maybe in Act Three?) I also find myself questioning whether Etta Candy might have been a better choice than Nemesis; but I suppose that may have to wait until Act Three as well.

Regardless, the BFFs (man, I have got to think of a better nickname) have done a good job reminding the readers of what the Trinitarians were missing. Alfred, Lois, and Nemesis emphasize their friends’ human aspects, while Dick, Donna, and Supergirl represent their legacies. That may seem rather obvious and simplistic, so let’s go a little deeper.

Alfred isn’t just Batman’s father-figure, in many ways he’s Batman’s conscience. As the Wayne family butler, Alfred is an ever-present link to Bruce’s parents, and therefore to the values Batman wants to restore.

Dick stands in for the rest of Batman’s sidekicks and protégés (and hey, where has Barbara Gordon been in all of this?); but more than any of them, he is the best example of Bruce as a parent. “Richie” Grayson is an immature man-child who betrays flashes of an adolescent Boy Wonder, but who never had to grow up. Chris Kent aside, parenthood (or the next best thing) is unique in the Trinity to Batman, which is why it was essential for Atmahn to replicate.

Likewise, marriage is unique in the Trinity to Superman, so Lois shows another way for superheroes to relate to “mere mortals.” I suspect Nemesis is in this group for similar soulmate-based reasons, but since Wonder Woman’s mission of societal change is hardwired into her character, maybe he works better as a representative for Patriarch’s World generally. Similarly, while Donna is Diana’s sister in the familial sense, she may also be a representative of Diana’s sister Amazons.

That leaves Supergirl, recast here as Interceptor, who was raised by the military and not a kindly Kansas couple (or, for that matter, the Justice Society). Therefore, Interceptor is Superman without Clark Kent. However, because she doesn’t know what a “Kryptonian” is, she’s also Superman without Kal-El. The combination has left her a rather bland character who defaults to barking orders. That’s not really a criticism of Busiek’s writing, because I imagine it’s his point: without his dual heritage, Superman’s just a set of powers.

Therefore, it’s important for Superman, in whatever form, to assert his humanity at the expense of his powers, and I liked how this set him apart from his colleagues. Batman is humanized by friends like Dick and Alfred, and Wonder Woman relates to humanity through Nemesis and Etta, but neither of them really needs to be Bruce or Diana like Superman needs to be Clark. Accordingly, Superman’s core values come through strongest in Kellel’s story. The other two speak more to Trinity’s theme of predetermination.

Indeed, despite its many structural similarities to JLA/Avengers, Trinity offers a different perspective on the predetermined nature of corporate-superhero existence. JLA/Avengers removed its characters from their various continuity tangles, presenting them in what I can only call pure, unadulterated forms. When they realize the “truth,” it’s a harrowing moment, because Busiek seems to argue that in a perfect world such a parade of tragedy would never have happened.

However, Trinity suggests that such tragedies are not only inevitable, but that the characters themselves view them, albeit subconsciously, as necessary. I suppose the difference is that in Trinity, these are the only lives the characters know. The various tragedies may even express the characters’ inherent discomfort with being gods. Regardless, it’s a little unsettling to think that these things have to happen, especially if that makes them as important as, say, having Alfred or Supergirl in their lives.

It does make me wonder whether the influence of their friends will restore the Trinity to their familiar forms. Just as Donna rediscovered her powers, and Dick his abilities, upon hearing their mentors’ stories, will Nemesis telling Dinanna about their relationship help bring her “down to Earth?”

Probably not, but I guess we’ll know soon enough….

* * *

Overall, I thought Act Two did a good job establishing the altered timeline without getting bogged down in its details. The “Arcana war” left room for plenty of action to balance out the exposition and mythmaking. Once the story’s attention returned to the Trinity, it built on the observations of Act One, but didn’t overwhelm the reader with infodumps. I feel like I got a lot out of Act Two, especially at the end, and now I’m ready for everything to come together.

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Issue #36

Issue #35

Issue #34

Issue #33

Issue #32

Issue #31

Issue #30

Issue #29

Issue #28

Issue #27

Issue #26 and previous

Thoughts on Act One

Trinity #36

While there’s no clean break between Acts Two and Three like there was between Acts One and Two, there’s definitely a shift in the series’ focus. The two stories in this issue catch up with characters who got moved to Act Two’s background; and they lay the groundwork for a couple of Act Three’s subplots.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“God War” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The Trinitarians remember their schism.

Page 1

– Naturally, “the citadel of the gods” recalls both the Hall of Justice and the lunar JLA Watchtower, set in a mountainside like the original Secret Sanctuary. It also reminds me that the Earth-2 Superman located his version of the Fortress of Solitude not in the Arctic or Antarctic, but in a distant mountain range. This Fortress was first seen in Superman vol. 1 #17 (July-August 1942).

Pages 2-3

– As we’ve discussed previously, Atmahn’s rampage parallels the ultraviolent period in Batman’s career after Jason Todd’s death (ca. the spring of 1989).

– If we’re supposed to match Dinanna’s assault with a similar point in Wonder Woman’s life, I suppose it’s the Amazons’ attack on the United States, chronicled in (you guessed it) the Amazons Attack miniseries (June-November 2007).  There, the Amazons were mad at the U.S. for imprisoning Wonder Woman after Max’s death, whereas here Dinanna’s … fighting the people who are trying to imprison her?  (Maybe they’ve been emboldened by Kellel’s death and “descent” into regular-human life.)

– “The children we have rescued from starvation and death”: Even if his foster parents don’t have analogues on the Genesis Planet, Kellel probably still remembers that he was adopted, and would want to return the favor. Of course, Clark and Lois recently looked after a Kryptonian boy who took the Earth name of “Chris Kent” (see ’ “Last Son” storyline, as well as various issues of Superman).

Page 4

– This world’s descent into chaos, while its gods are otherwise occupied, parallels the buildup to Infinite Crisis, when bad things slipped by the Trinitarians while they were similarly distracted.

Page 5

– No annotations.

Page 6

– In the opening pages of Infinite Crisis #1 (December 2005), the Trinitarians argued in the ruins of the Justice League Watchtower, not in a leveled city; but the thrust of this scene is similar.

Page 7

– Again, while this argument doesn’t quite track the InfC scene, these are different times.

– However, I do wonder about the “acolytes and servants” who “tend” Atmahn’s caverns. It suggests that Atmahn had a bigger network of associates than Rabat alone. Of course, it could refer simply to priests and other followers, but I hadn’t gotten that impression from the texts.

Page 8

– “None go there anymore to learn the ways of peace from you”: in the InfC #1 scene, Superman reminds Wonder Woman that the footage of Max Lord’s death has been playing continuously.

Page 9

– “I am the goddess of the world entire”: This whole sequence brings into focus the ways the Trinitarians see themselves (including their perceptions of each other) in relation to their adopted world. In order to judge its people, Atmahn must remove himself from them; and sit almost in opposition to them (or at least not allow himself to let sympathy sway his judgments). Naturally this puts him at odds with Kellel, who seeks to bring himself closer to the people by becoming one of them. However, Dinanna can take neither position. Since she is “made of the world,” she can’t remove herself from it or its people; but she may see becoming one of them as a luxury she can’t afford.

Page 10

– “You kill while I love”: Furthermore, by executing the Gray Lord, Dinanna has poisoned her relationship with her people, perhaps irreparably.

Page 11

– No annotations.

Page 12

– No annotations, except to note that this story has been almost all flashbacks.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“Fellow Prisoners” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Scott McDaniel, inked by Andy Owens, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Dissent stirs in the villains’ ranks.

Page 13/1

– “Remaking … reality to suit their tastes”: Doesn’t look all that different to me, but as always, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.

Page 14/2

– Notice that the Dreambound are disposing of a faceless Global Police Agency agent in panels 2 and 3. The Justice Society might not be a serious threat, but the Dark Arcana must still deal, if only perfunctorily, with the cops.

Page 15/3

– Ironic that here, the Tattooed Man/SCII is eager to be part of the evil forces taking over the world. In Final Crisis: Submit (December 2008), under different circumstances, he was a reluctant superhero.

Page 16/4

– “Jerkface”: … and nicer, too.

– I have to ask: do the demons do their cooking in … wait for it … Hell’s Kitchen?

Page 17/5

– “Server demons”: okay, maybe they’re just the waitstaff.

– Actually, might these “demons” be some of the people transformed by Morgaine’s magic, like in Tel Aviv?

– I noticed when re-reading Act Two that in issue #18, when the Atom is mentioned in connection with Sue Dibny’s murder, his newcast headshot shows a JSI-style gray-tone uniform. I presume he’s gone back to the traditional blue-and-reds because he’s officially a fugitive.

Page 18/6

– “I pack quite a punch”: remember, the Atom can control both his size and his weight, so he can beef up to 180 pounds even while he’s small.

Page 19/9

– “Fraunhofer lines”: apparently, they’re used more for astronomy.  Therefore, near as I can figure, the Atom is using the lines to gauge the wavelengths of TVM’s attacks and avoid them accordingly.

Page 20/10

– No annotations.

Page 21/9

– No annotations.

Page 22/10

– And so S.P.H.E.R.E. and the Dreambound join the growing list of “villains” (well, Konvikt and Enigma) at least partially dissatisfied with Morgaine’s plans.

* * *

Overall I enjoyed this issue, although I’m not sure why we’re learning about the God War now that the gods have apparently made up. I suppose it will explain why they have withdrawn from everyday contact with the Blue People, and therefore why it’s been so hard for their old friends to contact them.

With regard to the Dreambound, I’m not really surprised that they’d see their status reduced once Morgaine started recruiting high-powered supervillains. From there it’s a short ride to repentance. We’ve seen in the past couple of issues that S.P.H.E.R.E. had already pretty much turned against Morgaine, and as I said it looks like Enigma and probably Konvikt are on their way as well.

Accordingly, we are starting to see the various subplots wrap up, which is eminently appropriate for the beginning of the last act. Although the broad strokes of these conclusions seem obvious, they’re just pieces of the bigger picture; and of course the real appeal of Trinity lies in what it has to say about Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

Finally, because I know I have been teasing it, I hope to have a post on Act Two ready to go this weekend. Last weekend was a busy one for me personally, and on top of that I figured many readers (including myself) would rather watch the Super Bowl than dig deep into the past seventeen issues.  (No offense, Trinity crew, but it will always be hard to argue against the Super Bowl….)

See you in a couple of days!

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Issue #35

Issue #34

Issue #33

Issue #32

Issue #31

Issue #30

Issue #29

Issue #28

Issue #27

Issue #26 and previous

Trinity #35

If this is the end of Act Two, it’s about what I expected. That sounds rather blase, I know; but I mean it mostly in terms of plot. It got to the place I thought it would, and it took one subplot a little farther. Together with some thought-provoking observations on Superman’s duality, the issue was fairly satisfying all around.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“The Unsolvable Riddle” (pages 3-12) was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Mike Norton, inked by Walden Wong, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: More about Enigma.

Page 1

– No annotations.

Page 2

– “Truckling?” That’s one erudite marauder!

Page 3 (story page 1)

– Anantanarivo is the capitol of Madagascar. Since Morgaine and Enigma started their campaign in Europe, an expansion which reaches as far south as Africa (and as far east as Singapore, later) is pretty formidable.

– “Xor the Warhound”: that reminds me, we haven’t seen Konvikt in a while.

Pages 4/2-5/3

– Here’s the complete 22-slot Dark Arcana roster, updated from issue #31. Back then I guessed that the no. 10 card, Wheel of Fortune, would be Professor Amos Fortune, founder of the Royal Flush Gang. I wasn’t too far off there, but last week I missed my guess that the Joker was the Fool.

– Anyway, this week’s lineup reveals that the Royal Flush Gang is/are the Wheel of Fortune, the Hanged Man (card no. 12) is the Gentleman Ghost, Temperance (no. 14) is Prometheus, and the Star, the Sun, and the Moon (card nos. 17-19) are, respectively, the Cheetah, the Tattooed Man/Sun-Chained-In-Ink, and the Scarecrow. We’ve seen all these folks before; we just haven’t seen their positions on the chart.

Page 6/4

– Enigma’s origins were first revealed in detail in issue #21.

Page 7/5

– Remember, we saw the Metal Marauders earlier in Trinity, as harbingers of the Crime Syndicate’s involvement.

– “Rip Hunter, the Time-Shredder”: obviously, the evil counterpart of our Rip Hunter, Time Master. The good Rip was created by Jack Miller and Ruben Moreira and first appeared in Showcase #20 (May 1959).

– “How the physical properties … worked”: Luthor visited the matter universe in JLA: Earth 2.

– “So much calmer than this world’s version”: yeah, I can’t quite picture how a “good” Ra’s would act. Our Ra’s ostensibly only wants what’s best for the Earth, but he’s willing to kill 95% of the population to achieve it. Maybe on the Anti-Matter Earth, he’s more like our Al Gore; and their Gore is more like Ra’s. Assuming their Gore wasn’t killed by George W. Bush in a knife-fight on the steps of the Supreme Court, of course….

Page 8/6

– “Zatanna”: On Earth-3, Zatanna’s evil counterpart is named Annataz; but apparently not on the Anti-Matter Earth.

– Ah, the Idol-Head! We all remember the Idol-Head of Diabolu, which gave the Martian Manhunter so much trouble ‘way back when. I suppose the anti-matter differentiation accounts for this one being associated with Infernatu. The IHOI was created by a (presumably) good sorcerer to house the spirits of angels, whereas “our” IHOD was created by an evil sorcerer and contained evil spirits. This flashback also explains Enigma’s “Infernatu!” invocation from issue #13.

Page 9/7

– No annotations.

Page 10/8

– “I did dream”: remember, Krona’s escape was communicated to both Trinity and Troika through their dreams.

Page 11/9

– “We’re taking Singapore now”: again, sounds like the Dark Arcana control most of the Eastern Hemisphere.

Page 12/10

– Originally I had speculated that Enigma, who had been a good guy on his world, turned “bad” around the same time that our Riddler apparently reformed. This page makes it clear that Enigma hasn’t sacrificed all of his morals, so the parallel might not be exact.

* * *

SECOND STORY

“The Depths Beyond The Depths” (pages 1-2, 13-22) was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: The story of Kellel concludes.

Page 13

– “The 10 P.M. GBS national update”: It’s too bad this timeline won’t last until the fall. Otherwise, I know Lois would hand Jay Leno his head.

– [By the way, does any network still do prime-time updates? The only ones I see are on CBS during ballgames or "60 Minutes."]

Page 14

– No annotations.

Page 15

– “Dead enough”: last week I mentioned Superman’s escape from the netherworld (for lack of a better phrase) in Adventures of Superman #500. I don’t know if the sequence here is meant to mirror that one, but long story short, the “Kryptonian funeral” there was really put on by a group of demons. Make of that what you will.

Page 16

– “Unleashed his rage and his pain”: Superman never destroyed Doomsday as he does here. However, as we saw a few weeks ago in Action Comics #871 (February 2009), Doomsday was killed (rather quickly) by the combined efforts of Superman, Supergirl, and several other Kryptonians.

Page 17

– “Triumph over my own godhood”: at this point I was expecting Kellel to set himself up as unquestioned ruler, like in 1999’s “King of the World” storyline.

Page 18

– Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to see instead that he got married. (And by one of his own priests!) This is in keeping with Lois’ overall role in the mythology for the past ten years or so. A couple of years ago I wrote that

the biggest Lois innovation may be her role as Superman’s anchor to humanity. Whenever something happens to Lois, Superman ends up going nuts: mad enough to change history in the first Reeve movie; despondent enough in an alt-future to go into exile (Kingdom Come) or even commit suicide (JLA‘s “Rock Of Ages”); and restoring Lois to the mix was part of the resolutions of “For Tomorrow,” DC One Million, and the “King of the World” storyline from about 10 years ago.

This goes along with Kellel’s “the man … is who I am!” declaration: his wife is his anchor, since he has no “Clark” to serve as one.

– Furthermore, the schism this causes between Kellel and his friends indicates that while it’s necessary for him to be “Clark,” the same is not true for them. The theory that “Bruce Wayne is the mask” has prevailed (despite its flaws) for at least the past twenty years. For just about as long, Wonder Woman was without her traditional secret identity. For example, in Kingdom Come, both Batman and Wonder Woman function “normally” wihout secret identities; but the overall story concerns Superman’s rediscovery of “Clark Kent.” Thus, it is perfectly in character for Kellel/Superman to emphasize his humanity over his divine responsibilities, since Superman without Clark is incomplete in any reality.

Page 19

– No annotations.

Page 20

– “I’m the one who broke Superman?” Not necessarily. Lois may be projecting some of her own fears on this page and the next, but maybe she doesn’t remember that Batman and Wonder Woman have changed as well. It takes more than one deity to have a Godwar, Lois!

Page 21

– “Made things happen according to their ideas of their own histories”: actually, it makes sense that Atmahn “made” a gang of Jokers, Kellel a gang of Luthors (and a Doomsday), and Dinanna a Max Lord, if these were entities which they thought they needed as opponents.

– In any event, I’m sure that Alfred would point out that the Trinitarians also re-lived their lives without Lois, Alfred, Dick, et al., so of course things were going to be different.

Page 22

– No annotations.

* * *

With regard to Enigma, once I saw who he really was, I did think he wouldn’t be as conflicted as this issue shows. By that measure, though, he’d be about as “bad” as the Riddler was, and where’s the drama in that? Besides, I figured Konvikt would turn on Morgaine before Enigma did (and he might still), so I didn’t think there was room for two Troiksters struggling with their ethical codes.

Now that we’ve seen the three “gospels,” I have to point out one shared element of our heroes’ origins missing from each: their parents. As gods, the Trinitarians are more like trustees, in the sense that they were not part of the world’s creation, and neither are they descended from Krona. I mentioned before that they are a kinder, gentler New Testament to Krona’s Old, but there’s no “house and lineage of David” running through both. Accordingly, as Alfred says, they have to re-enact their lives according to what they think they should be; and because they do it as adults, there’s no one reinforcing what they learned as children. I mention this mostly in connection with Superman, whose ties to humanity were formed mostly through the Kents. However, I think it holds true for Batman and Wonder Woman: both see only their respective “missions,” taken out of the context which informs those missions. Atmahn loses his connection to the Blue People when Rabat dies, and Dinanna actually kills one of them. Because neither of them really requires such a connection, they’re content to become more distant — but Superman doesn’t work that way. Fans complain that Superman is “too powerful to be interesting,” and that’s true in the sense that Superman needs “Clark” to work properly. Lois may be Superman’s anchor, but without Clark in the mix, their relationship is very different.

As you can probably tell, I could say a lot more about that … but you know what the music means. Our time is up.

P.S. I don’t know whether I’ll have time this weekend to put together something on Act Two, so watch this space for the details. It may have to wait until next weekend.

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Issue #34

Issue #33

Issue #32

Issue #31

Issue #30

Issue #29

Issue #28

Issue #27

Issue #26 and previous