Comics Review: Trinity War - Worth the Continuous Build-Up (SPOILERS)

Since the start of DC's New 52 relaunch, events across their books have been building up to an event known as the Trinity War. All that was known for sometime would that it would involve Pandora, the mysterious figure at the end of "Flashpoint" that had a hand in rewriting the DC universe's timeline, the infamous box she is associated with, and heroes fighting each other to acquire it. It wasn't until the solicits arrived that revealed that event would be a crossover between the 3 main Justice League books: Justice League, Justice League of America, and Justice League Dark. While some like myself expected "Trinity War" to be its own miniseries like events usually do, I was surprised to find out that it would only be a 6 part story throughout 3 book for about 2 months. After the first month/half of the event, in which the heroes try to clear Superman's name after he accidentally killed Dr. Light seemingly because he had been corrupted by Pandora's box which he encountered earlier, I had to say that the story was well indeed worth the wait. Everything since the New 52 began has lead up to this and it was delivering. I will admit that during the second month/half, things were moving kind of slow in parts 4 and 5, but the final issue of the crossover had my jaw drop. Even though the story didn't have a true conclusion and DC had already partially revealed the ending ahead of time, they still did it in a way that left me excited for what was to come next.

One of the things people wondered about "Trinity War" was which 'trinity' they were referring to. Well when you read the story, you'll find that 3 is the magic number throughout the book:

• The three Justice Leagues: Proper, America, and Dark.
• Throughout the story, members of each League mix and match and are led by one of DC's main trinity, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, as they try and figure out what's going on.
• The Trinity of Sin, Pandora, the Phantom Stranger, and the Question, all play a role in this story, as well as assist or are hunted by one of the mixed-up Leagues. Pandora is hunted by Wonder Woman's group, while Phantom Stranger and Question assist Batman and Superman's groups, respectively.
• Aside from the Leagues, the other groups involved are government organization A.R.G.U.S. and the Outsider's Secret Society of Supervillains.
• The Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 arrive in the story's conclusion.
• The Atom was revealed to be a triple agent, working for the Justice League, JLA, and ultimately revealing herself to originally be Atomica from Earth-3, arriving with the Outsider.

Now, I think some people may be turned off by the event because it's yet another "hero vs. hero" story like "Civil War", "Schism", and "Avengers vs. X-Men." However, I think how it's handled here works better because there is actually some corrupting force, i.e. Pandora's Box, making the heroes fight each other, and that really only happens in the final issue for the most part. What I find most interesting though is that when Shazam is affected by the Box, it not only affects other magic-based heroes in the prime DC Earth, but also Dr. Fate in Earth-2 as well. Considering the multiversal elements of the story and box itself, it probably makes sense for Earth-2 to be affected as well. Since the Outsider and Atomica arrived from Earth-3 during the simultaneous Apokoliptian attacks on Earth-Prime and Earth-2 in which the barriers between Earths was ruptured, it makes me think Earth-3 was attacked as well. Outsider did say his world was destroyed. But that's just my theory though.

It's probably clear, but it was the last issue that really made this event for me. I did not expect Atom to be working with the Society, that she was responsible for Superman killing Dr. Light by putting a sliver of Kryptonite in his brain, or that she was originally from Earth 3. It was quite alot of twists. Not only that, but I was shocked when Cyborg's armor became sentient and separated itself from Victor's remaining human parts, becoming I assume to be new Crime Syndicate member, Grid. With the push Cyborg's been getting the last few years, it makes me wonder if or how long Victor will survive without his prosthetics. I can't really see him dying, but I can't predict that far ahead.

As for the Syndicate itself, I liked what I had seen so far. For starters, when the Earth-3 Aquaman (known as Sea King) showed up, it was a nice little nod to the 90's Aquaman with a hook.

Unfortunately, Sea King didn't survive the transportation between worlds. I guess compared to the New 52's prime badass Aquaman, this evil Aquaman is just the opposite. Oh well. Nice joke from Geoff Johns though, even if you have to dig to figure it out.

Aside from that, while it was rumored that the Outsider would turn out to be Alfred of Earth-3, it didn't make it even less cool when he addressed Owlman as his master. Speaking of which, the symbol he had reminded me of the Court of Owls from Batman. Makes me wonder if Earth-3 had a heroic Court of Bats.

One last point of interest was that the Syndicate brought a prisoner with them with a bag on their head. It most likely hood, it's probably the heroic Alexander Luthor of Earth-3.

 

While "Trinity War" didn't have a true conclusion, it acted as a lead-in to DC's true event, "Forever Evil." It took me awhile to think about it, but the end of "Trinity War" did its job; it got me even more excited for what's to come next in "Forever Evil." It's like when TV shows' season finales have a huge cliffhanger that makes you anxious for the next season to start.

 

As part of a larger story, "Trinity War" does a good job introducing the latest threat to the DC Universe, and despite being just a lead-in, it was a wild ride.

 

STORY RATING: 9/10

RECOMMENDATION RATING: N/A

 

Since the story isn't truly over, I'll be withholding my recommendation rating for "Trinity War" until the conclusion of "Forever Evil" next year, so my recommendation rating then will be for both stories as a whole. Until then, let's see where the story goes next...