Trinity #1 Review

TRINITY #1
Written by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza
Art by Mark Bagley and Art Thibert, Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens, Tom Derenick and Wayne Faucher and Mike Norton and Jerry Ordway

Let's get this out of the way quickly. Unless you readers want me to keep covering Trinity each week, I see absolutely no reason to continue buying this weekly for the next year and will otherwise drop it. It's no Countdown, but it's no 52 either.

This first issue is broken into two stories, one focusing on the Big 3 and the other focusing on their future villains, Morgan Le Fay and Enigma, who both see they will have to recruit a third in the form of Desparo. I had no problem with the format of the issue and it's being broken up into two stories, but the stories being offered left a lot to be desired and did little to make me want to stick with this for the next year.

On the Busiek / Bagley side of things, we have some great dialogue and interactions with Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. I liked Wonder Woman's claim that she does not have a secret identity like the other two and that her's is merely private. She is always Diana Prince, even when not acting as Wonder Woman. Batman and Superman are forced to act as completely different people when they are in their civilian forms and it was an interesting, if obvious in hindsight, observation.

It appears the trio are all having similar dreams, but with different themes. They all depict a being that's been imprisoned trying to escape and calling out to them. Superman's is of a cosmic entity, Wonder Woman's of a more godly nature and Batman's mirrors them with a depiction of someone imprisoned in jail. Based on Superman's dream, it appears the villain of the piece will be Krona, of Crisis on Infinite Earths and JLA / Avengers fame and a character Busiek has some experience writing. It's not confirmed and I'm only guessing at this point based on the dream-like face in the cosmos that Superman saw, but I'm pretty confident with my guess.

Bagley's art was great, but, to be honest, felt a little rushed or lacking in detail compared to his Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel work. It still looked fantastic, especially for a weekly book when compared to 52 and Countdown, but not up to par when compared to Bagley's previous work.

The second half the story features the introduction, as far as I know, of Enigma, a character that seems to be part Riddler and part Two Face. He has intimate knowledge of ancient magic and impressive technology at his command and appears to be from the future, but that is unconfirmed. To be honest, I hate the character and he is a big part of why I have little to no interest with continuing with this storyline. Horrible, horrible dialogue and just a terrible character for someone that is supposed to be Batman's foil for this evil trinity team.

Enigma has sought out Morgan Le Fay and is recruiting her to help him claim the mysterious power that is haunting the dreams of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. The two find out that the Big 3 are magical conduits and represent the arcana, as revealed by a random woman playing with tarot cards in one of Morgan's spells.

From there, we get some glimpses at future events, which I suppose are supposed to entice us to pick up the rest of this weekly series, and the only thing that stood out to me was an alternate future / timeline that showed Green Arrow as the protector of Gotham City, a billboard with Lois Lane on it and what looked like Astro City's Hanged Man and a sidekick confronting Green Arrow and Speedy.

McDaniel's art was absolutely atrocious and about on par with his work on Countdown Arena. I don't know what happened to McDaniel in recent years, but he used to be fantastic back when he was doing Nightwing in the 90's. I hope they have other artists lined up for the back up work or these will easily be the weakest part of the series.

Verdict - Check It. Some may enjoy this new weekly, but I'm just burned out on them after Countdown and 52. DC should have experimented with shorter versions, like quarter or half year weeklies instead of another 52 marathon. I'd probably pick this book up if it was actually a monthly or bi-monthly book with full artwork by Bagley, but a weekly just isn't for me anymore and this opening salvo just didn't do anything for me.

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