Comic Book Review: Trinity #4

The Revolution was less than impressed with the last issue of Trinity. This weekly title is not off to a great start. After having to suffer through Countdown, I will admit that I am a bit gun shy concerning DC’s new weekly title. I do think that Trinity has the potential to be a pretty good story, but it appears that we are not going to get much more than a pedestrian read. Hopefully, Busiek can get this title clicking with Trinity #4.

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 Superman getting back up from Konvikt’s punch. The JLA continues to battle Konvikt. We see Batman tell some bystanders to evacuate the area. The bystanders run in fright at the sight of the big bad bat. We see Wonder Woman with her arms full of people that she rescued from a falling down building. Wonder Woman inspires the rest of the people from the falling down building to have the confidence to walk across a steel beam up in air between the falling down building and a safe building. We see Superman saving some other bystanders. The bystanders cheer Superman and thank him for his help.

We cut back to Morgan and Enigma watching the fight via Morgan’s mystic flame. Morgan scoffs at Batman at how he frightens bystanders while Wonder Woman inspires others to achieve great acts and Superman acts as a savior. Enigma says that there is more to Batman than Morgan thinks. Enigma says that there are other kinds of strength other than raw strength. Enigma asks Morgan what is Batman up to while the other futilely try and stop Konvikt through sheer psychical force.

We see Batman running away from the fight. We cut back to the fight where Konvikt continues to kick ass on our heroes. During the fight, we see a furry creature’s arm reach out from a nearby bush and brand Wonder Woman’s shoulder with an omega symbol. The creature disappears and Wonder Woman gets sucked back into the fight with Konvikt.

We cut to Batman arriving at Konvikt’s space ship. Batman informs Superman and Wonder Woman that he has found it and will go inside and look around. Batman says that the ship is clearly an escape pod. Batman says that he does not expect any problems. We then see Graak hiding in the ship above Batman getting ready to attack Batman. End of story.

The “back-up” story begins with Rita deciding to go ahead and read her tarot cards. The tarot cards tell Rita that she now controls a cosmic power that controls the fate of the world. Suddenly, Rita says the word “Worldsoul” and begins feeling an earth tremor in Pakistan, a storm brewing over the Pacific Ocean and she can feel people in pain and people in love.

Rita then snaps back to her normal self and comments that it just felt like she just became the universe. Rita then goes to sleep. Rita then begins to dream about Despero attacking a planet that is owned by Kanjar Ro. Despero rips through Ro’s soldier. Kanjar Ro then confronts Despero and offers to sell the planet to Despero. Despero rebuffs the offer and states that he will take this planet by force.

Despero and Kanjar Ro battle. Despero gets the better part of this battle. Just as it seems that Kanjar Ro is about to be defeated, he manages to make a grand escape. Despero calls Kanjar a coward for fleeing. Despero then celebrates that he was able to take over the planet by force.

Despero then begins to interrogate Kanjar’s remaining soldiers in order to find out how to operate Kanjar’s interspatial gateway. Kanjar watches from a safe distance and wonders what Despero wants with his interspatial gateway for.

Despero fires up the gateway and asks that it take him to what he seeks. The gateway crackles with light. Despero is surprised by what he sees.

We then see Rita waking up from her dream due to her ringing telephone. Rita answers it and it is Jose on the line. Jose mentions that the M.V.G.’s that were slaughtered were paying dues to an older and more established gang called the Culver Boulevard ’68.

Rita begins reading her cards and says that Jose is her knight, but that he is worried about regrets from the past. Rita says that Jose is concerned that this time he is about to make a choice that he won’t be able to go back on.

Jose is holding a helmet from his Gangbuster costume and he denies that he is weighing making a choice. We cut to the Culver Boulevard ’68 leaders ordering three metahumans to go capture Rita and bring her back to them.

Comments
The Good: Trinity #4 was another average read. Busiek certainly dials up tons of action in this issue. The amount of action on Trinity is definitely not one of the problems for this title. The reader gets treated to seeing the Justice League of America and the big three go toe-to-toe with a massive powerhouse in Konvikt. The lively action that dominates the “main story” keeps Trinity #4 from being a dull issue.

Busiek teases the reader with the appearance of another furry animal-like creature in Trinity #4. In the last issue, we saw one of these furry creatures defending Rita from the gang members. In this issue, we see one of these furry creatures branding an omega sign on Wonder Woman’s shoulder.

Other than being kind of sexy, I am curious as to the purpose and meaning of this omega shaped brand. Personally, I hope it is not connected to Darskeid in any shape or form. Although I found the moment where Wonder Woman gets branded to be terribly awkward and poorly executed within the context of the fight, I will admit that Busiek has piqued my interest with this little mystery.

Busiek ends the main story with a decent little hook ending with Batman investigating the escape pod and is about to be attacked by Graak. I appreciate that Busiek has played up Batman’s mental prowess so far in these first four issues, but it is time to see the goddamn Batman kick someone’s ass.

There were several interesting aspects to the “back-up” story in Trinity #4. Busiek reveals more information about Rita’s emerging powers by showing the reader Rita accessing the Worldsoul. I am curious to learn more about the nature and scope of her cosmic powers. I dig Rita’s unusual powers. Her newfound abilities would make her handy in a support role to a super team.

Busiek unveils that Jose appears to be weighing a return to his career as Gangbuster. Personally, Gangbuster holds limited appeal to me. His outfit is kind of goofy and his character is nothing more than a generic street based non-metahuman hero. However, as the largest minority group in America, we definitely need more Hispanic heroes in the DCU so I am all for Gangbuster making a comeback in Trinity even if Jose is a bit of a stereotypical “urban” styled Hispanic character.

I am thrilled that Busiek is finally getting Despero into the mix. I have found it odd that Busiek immediately unveiled which characters would star as the three villains in this story and then proceeded to make us wait for Despero to join Morgan and Enigma. I hope that this appearance by Despero in this issue means that Morgan and Enigma will finally do something other than play the roles of JR and the King in the main story.

As always, Bagley serves up plenty of solid artwork. Bagley is so consistent and dependable. I really hope he is able to tear through all fifty-two issues of Trinity without missing a single deadline. Other artists would be lucky to have Bagley’s work ethic and dependability.

The Bad: At this point, Trinity is simply not clicking with me. There is just something missing from Trinity that keeps it from being any special that I would recommend to other readers. I am also still not warming up to the fact that despite this title being billed as centering on Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, it has become obvious that we are never going to get the big three for anything more than about half of each issue of Trinity.

I found Trinity #4 to be painfully repetitious. We get another mindless fight scene accompanied by running commentary by Enigma and Morgan concerning the big three and how they operate. As always, Morgan praises Superman and Wonder Woman, but disses Batman. And as equally predictable, Enigma stands up for Batman. Wash, rinse, repeat. So far, each issue of Trinity is beginning to read like the previous one.

Busiek’s approach to Trinity is too formulaic. It would be nice for Busiek to break out of the traditional story telling mode and treat the reader to something more than standard issue comic book material. Nothing on Trinity feels particularly unique or special. Instead, Trinity is giving us a very conventional story that borders on feeling like a Silver Age story.

Trinity continues to move at a slow pace. Yeah, we get lots of action, but nothing of substance or value has happened at all over the course of the first four issues. The story seems thin and the plotting has been unimpressive. I am getting that ominous feeling like I did with Countdown that DC simply does not have a thick and deep enough story for Trinity and therefore will have to fluff up the story in Trinity in an attempt to stretch it over the course of 52 weeks.

The bottom line is that Trinity #4 lacks any pop. This issue lacks that something special that gets the reader excited about the story. At this point, Busiek has failed to generate much energy on this title. Instead, we keep getting very mechanical issues that appear to be simply going through the motions.

I found the artwork for back-up story to be rather pedestrian. It is a shame that DC cannot deliver artwork for the “back-up” stories that is as good as what Bagley gives us on the “main” story. Especially since the “back-up” stories are only two pages shorter than the “main” story.

Overall: Busiek delivers a workman’s effort with Trinity #4. I am still stuck in neutral on this title. I cannot recommend that you spend your money on Trinity, but it isn’t so bad of a read that I would urge you to avoid Trinity. If you like simple comics with an old school feel then you might enjoy Trinity.