Comic Book Review: Trinity #3

The Revolution is rather neutral on Trinity at the moment. The first two issues have not been terrible, but they haven’t been anything special either. This story has been slightly above average. And a weekly title cannot be just a slightly above average read. I still think that Trinity has plenty of potential to be an entertaining read and Busiek is a talented writer. So, I will keep a positive outlook and hope that Trinity #3 shows something that gets me excited about this title. Let’s go ahead and hit this review for Trinity #3.

Creative Team
Writer: Kurt Busiek & Fabian Nicieza
Pencils: Mark Bagley & Mike Norton
Inks: Art Thibert & Jerry Ordway

Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 5.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Konvikt towering over an unconscious John Stewart as Graak announces that Konvikt shall take over the Earth. Suddenly, the Justice League of America (Black Canary, Vixen, Red Arrow, Hawkgirl, Firestorm, Flash and Black Lightning) appear on the scene. The JLA and Konvikt engage in a huge brawl.

Konvikt proceeds to lay a serious beating on all of the JLA’ers. During the battle Konvikt tells Graak that he doesn’t want to attack Earth. That Konvikt’s honor simply dictated that he attack his attackers and that is it. Konvikt tries to leave the fight scene, but the JLA refuses to let him leave and renews their attack on him.

Therefore, Konvict proceeds to take out all of the JLA’ers. Black Canary is the last one still barely standing. Suddenly, the cavalry arrives in the form of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Black Canary is elated to see the big three coming to the rescue.

We cut to Morgan and Enigma watching the fight scene via her magical flames. Morgan comments that it is interesting that Black Canary is a tough willful leader, yet she defers to Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman. Morgan also notices that Wonder Woman and Batman defer to Superman and let him take on Konvikt while they attend to the wounded JLA’ers. Morgan continues to slight Batman’s importance while Enigma continues to stick up for his fellow non-metahuman.

Superman then squares off with Konvikt and says to Konvikt “Show me what you got.” Konvikt responds by dropping Superman with just one punch. (Damn! That was awesome! Anytime the Big Red S gets dropped with one punch is always a cool moment.) Batman and Wonder Woman are stunned. End of story.

We then get a back-up story about the Hispanic girl who was reading the tarot cards in one of the teaser scenes from Trinity #1. The girl’s name is Marguerita Arroyo Covas and she lives in East Los Angeles. She makes money reading tarot cards. We see Rita at a diner where she thinks about how the tarot cards told her that she is supposed to be a part of some great cosmic dance. Rita comments that for the past couple of weeks that she has felt a strong connection to her cards.

Rita sees a newspaper with an article about some local gang that robbed a bank. Rita immediately jumps up from her table and exits the diner. We see Rita on her way to set up her tarot card table where she does readings for the afternoon lunch crowd outside of a restaurant called Tito’s.

On her way, Rita bumps into a friend named Jose. Rita asks Jose if he has heard of a gang called the M.V.G.’s (Mar Vista Guerreros). Jose says that they are a small time gang who are working with older organized crime gangs in order to become bigger players.

We then shift forward to Rita giving a reading to an old man outside of Tito’s. Suddenly, a van full of M.V.G. members pulls up and they jump out and surround Rita. The leader of the gang, Frito (Yeah, like the corn chip.) grabs Rita and tells her that the tarot card reading she gave him was completely true and enabled him to get past the security at the bank.

Frito tells Rita that she is now property of the M.V.G.’s and will continue to use her tarot cards to help Frito pull off more criminal jobs. Rita protests and wants no part of the gang. Rita breaks free of Frito and runs for it. Frito and his boys chase her. Jose sees Rita running from the gang members and chases after them.

We see Rita run into an alley that is blocked off with a large chain link fence. Frito and his homies are about to beat up Rita when we see a furry animal creature appear on the scene. The creature says that Rita is not for them. The creature says that Rita is meant for the three who are to rise. The creature then attacks the gang members and kills them.

Jose then arrives in the alley and sees the bloody mess and asks Rita what happened. Rita says that she doesn’t know what happened. We cut to later that night with Jose walking Rita home. Jose tells Rita that if she needs anything to call him and he will be there. Rita thanks Jose and goes into her apartment.

We see Rita sitting in her apartment thinking about what purpose she is supposed to be serving. Rita also thinks about the monster. Rita thinks how for the first time in her life she doesn’t want to do another tarot card reading to try and figure out what to do next. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Trinity #3 was a decidedly average read. Busiek definitely serves up tons of action. We get brawling galore. The main-story to this issue was basically just a twelve page fight scene. The huge fight certainly keeps Trinity #3 a lively read. If nothing else, action fans will probably enjoy this issue.

Busiek’s dialogue has an old school feel to it. I can appreciate it and I am sure other readers will. However, there will also be many readers who will be less than impressed with the old school style dialogue. Busiek continues to do a nice job with the big three and making sure the reader gets a good sense for the specific strengths that each of the big three bring to the table.

Busiek also impresses upon the reader the important role that the big three play in the JLA. When the JLA members are on the verge of defeat, the sight of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman is like a vision from Heaven. This scene reinforces the big three’s important role that they play in the team dynamic of the JLA.

Busiek serves up a solid hook ending to the main story with Konvikt dropping Superman with one punch. That was not the ending that I was expecting. It should be interesting to see if our heroes can figure out a way to stop the rampaging Konvikt.

Busiek does a nice job using the back-up story to flesh out Rita’s character. Busiek gives the reader a good feel for Rita’s personality and her everyday life in East LA. Rita’s tarot card reading powers should provide for plenty of cryptic teasers during this story. Busiek managed to get me curious to learn more about Rita’s role in Trinity as well as the mysterious monster that appeared and killed the gang members.

I dig that DC is making an effort to create more Hispanic characters for the DCU with Renee Montoya, Blue Beetle and now Rita. It doesn’t matter that I despise the new Blue Beetle and strongly dislike Montoya as the Question. It is just nice to finally see some of mi gente in the DCU.

Mark Bagley and Art Thibert provide some solid artwork for the main story while Mike Norton and Jerry Ordway give the reader some serviceable artwork for the back-up story. I will admit that none of the artwork was anything particularly impressive.

The Bad: There is not much substance to Trinity #3. Busiek dedicates twelve pages to fighting in the main story. We get no plot advancement at all. I know this is a weekly title and, therefore, each issue will not have as much plot development as a single issue of a monthly title. However, the fact remains that Trinity is off to a really slow start.

Busiek is moving this story along with absolutely no sense of urgency. It is critical that Busiek start performing a bit more plot progression on this title. I also would like to see Enigma and Morgan do something other than play the role of voyeurs during this story. At this point, Busiek has failed to do anything on Trinity that really grabs my attention or gets me excited.

I was disappointed that even though Trinity is supposed to be about Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, that the big three get practically no panel time at all in Trinity #3. Instead we get the JLA assuming the majority of the panel time in the main story and then the entire back-up story centering on Rita. If you advertise this title with the logo of the big three then you better have them appear in more than just a couple of pages.

My biggest complaint with the back-up stories is that they are just too long. The main story in Trinity #3 was just twelve pages long and the back-up story was ten pages long. That is too evenly split between the two stories. The back-up stories need to be scaled back to seven pages. I purchase Trinity to read about Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman and not some no-name tarot card reading girl.

The back-up story was a bit of a dull read. It was definitely too long and had some fluff in it to stretch it over the span of ten pages. I cannot say that Rita and her story really interest me all that much.

Even though I am glad to see DC creating more Hispanic characters, I have to say that I found Rita and her East LA neighborhood a bit stereotypical. Rita herself is somewhat stereotypical and shallow. I do not know if Busiek is going to be able to get me to dig Rita’s character.

Overall: Trinity #3 was an average read at best. I have to admit that Trinity is just not clicking with me at this point. Trinity is not a horrible read like Countdown was. It is just not a particularly interesting title. Given the fact that the big three barely appear in Trinity #3, I cannot say that I would even recommend this issue to fans of the big three.