Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Trinity #24

As this weekly series nears the halfway mark, we pause to reflect on how it's going so far.

Trinity has been something of a rollercoaster ride in terms of story - sometimes it's been strong, and sometimes it has meandered around.

More than once I've thought about dropping it, but I'm hanging in there for two basic reasons: I have faith that Kurt Busiek is a good enough writer to bring this monster home; and Mark Bagley's art has been terrific. The backup story by Busiek and Fabian Nicieza with art by Tom Derenick and Wayne Faucher is also very good.

The latest issue is actually one of the better in recent months, because we start to see signs that the story is actually heading in a specific direction, and not just a collection of random events.

In this issue, we see the evil Trinity (or is it a duo?) consolidating its power in Europe, but they're not in agreement about everything. Meanwhile, Hawkman receives a message from ancient Egypt, the League starts to make a comeback, Krona is trying to talk to planets, and Kanjar Ro and Despero have a meeting of the minds.

Busiek has a lot of plotlines floating around out there - no doubt that's necessary, since he's filling 52 comics - but it makes the cast a huge one, and difficult to keep straight sometimes, especially when the story veers off into an alternate reality.

I really think the biggest problem is with the basic premise - the idea (as I understood it, anyway) was that this series would focus on the Trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman - yet those three characters have been absent from the book for more than a month! (Remember, we're talking about a weekly here.)

It may be asking a bit much for fans to stay patient while the story spools out, but if this issue is any indication, the payoff should be worth the wait.

I hope!

Grade: B+

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