SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Welcome to my comic book review blog - where you’ll always get recommendations on what to read, but you’ll never get any spoilers. Thanks for tuning in.

Today’s entry: Trinity (as per your request.)

For those who don’t know, Trinity is a relatively new title from DC comics focusing on their three big hitters - Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The book is written by Astro City and Marvels scribe Kurt Busiek and drawn by Amazing Spider-Man veteran and Ultimate Spider-Man founder Mark Bagley. What’s really special about this title is that DC publishes it weekly. Having just premiered in June, we’ve already received 12 issues.

And may I say that I have thouroughly enjoyed every moment of all 12 issues and am excitedly looking forward to the 13th. In fact, today is Wednesday - I’ll probably grab the 13th issue on my way to the Sacramento Comic Book Creators’ meeting tomorrow night.

So what’s so great about Trinity? It’s the way that all of the little shoe strings get tied together to tell an elaborte multiple world-spanning narrative. The basic premise of the title is that something cosmic is going on which somehow relates to the core trinity of all things - and Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are the living embodyments of that trinity. But from that premise springs countless stories that all manage to be entertwined in a larger narrative. As I mentioned in my review of Trinity #1, each issue has two seperate stories, which allow us to see other characters’ perspectives on the unfolding events. It’s incredible the way Busiek takes a Hawkman story from one issue, a Green Lantern story in another issue, and a Riddler story from a third issue, and manages to tie them all together into a singular epic tale. It reminds me of Charles Dicken’s A Tale Of Two Cities.

Another bonus: each issue, BOTH stories end in a cliffhanger that makes you want to read the next issue twice as much. Once I had all 12 issues, I sat down and read them in an hour because I couldn’t wait to read the next issue. I also feel compelled to add that I don’t think you need any previous knowledge about the DC Universe to enjoy this title. Everything was self contained and well explained. In fact, due to the cosmic nature of events, I have a hard time seeing how it even ties into the rest of the DC Universe (especially with Final Crisis.) However, not being a DC continuity expert, there could be a simple solution that I’m overlooking.

There were a few minor errors throughout the title - spelling mistakes, bits of dialogue that don’t quite make sense, etc. - that are obviously the product of the rushed timeline. But they in no way detract from the pleasurable experience of reading through this carefully crafted story. Trinity even has everything a good super hero comic book should: awesome fight scenes, an unsolved puzzle, character development, guest stars galore, and even an alternate universe.

My biggest worry is that I don’t see how they are going to continue Trinity as an ongoing series. Not each of the mini-stories is about Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. What ties the title into the Trinity concept is the overall story arc. Once it resolves itself, I don’t see how the next arc could maintain a similar focus on the Trinity concept without feeling redundant. On the other hand, Busiek has proven time and again that he is a master of all things comic book - so perhaps he’ll surprise me!

That’s it for Trinity - which gets my highest recommendation. As always, thanks for reading - see you next time.
-Searnold