Trinity #6
So, after liking “52″ a lot, and giving up on “Countdown” partway into it, I was hopeful about DC’s third weekly series, “Trinity,” to be written by Kurt Busiek (”Astro City”) and drawn by Mark Bagley (”Ultimate Spider-Man”). Back up stories were to be handled by Fabian Nicieza (”New Warriors”) with rotating artists.
I read the first three issues of “Trinity” and thought they were acceptable superhero fare, but nothing worth getting extremely excited about. It felt more, to me, like a lower-tier Busiek project; readable, engaging, but not a must-buy.
But, my wife, Annette, kept reading them, and last night she had a stack of issues 6-11 on the coffee table, so I figured, why not give them another shot? I haven’t read issues 4 or 5, but I picked up fine jumping in at issue 6, and in fact, felt like these issues were more like what I had expected out of issues 1-3.
The main storyline features some examination of what the “Trinity” of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman mean, with relevance to the story, of course. Bagley seems to be getting more familiar with drawing the DC characters, as well, or I’m getting more used to his interpretations of them.
And, in the back-up story, you get Scott McDaniel drawing a Hawkman that’s smart and aggressive; reminiscent of the Geoff Johns run a few years back. Issue 6 hooked me on reading more, and I plowed through issues 7 through 11. Krona and the Cosmic Egg — last seen, by me, anyway, in “JLA-Avengers,” looks to play a key role in “Trinity.” Given how much a fan of “JLA-Avengers” I was, I’m glad to see some of those plot threads followed up on.
While there’s a lot going on, and a lot of references to DC Universe history, it’s done in a way that’s not intimidating, and the reader always is given enough to follow the story. Nicieza is creating great dialogue and characterization, particularly of the Bat-characters. Nightwing fans who enjoyed his series drawn by Scott McDaniel are in for a treat, as McDaniel draws quite a bit of Nightwing in the “Trinity” back-ups.
So, if you weren’t sold on the initial few issues of “Trinity,” but you have an affinity for any of these characters, or Busiek or Nicieza’s previous work, I’d say, give it another shot. The series is still in the first quarter, and I’m intrigued by the mysteries Busiek and Nicieza are putting into play.
– Matt Price
August 19th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
First, when I saw the Avengers-JLA Reference i FLIPPED OUT. I’ve never seen either company acknowledge those events in continuity, and when they did, I just flipped. How freakin’ cool!!!!!
Trinity is perfect if for no other reason than Mark Bagley’s pencils. I could look at his depictions of the DC heroes every day for the rest of my life.
I find myself reading Trinity last every week, and I’m conflicted about the back ups. Sometimes they work, sometimes I just breeze through them.
But it’s a fun series, and about a 10000 times better than Countdown, although it still lacks the fantasticness that was 52.