While all of us at Multiversity are fans of a wide spectrum of comics, there are a few of us that tend to self-identify as “DC guys.” We’ve cried for justice; we’ve been through the blackest nights and the brightest days. And now, we’ve been culled together for a new column to focus on some of the bigger goings on in the world of Detective Comics Comics. If you’re wondering who is going to stand up and discuss what is happening at DC – don’t worry:
Today, we will be discussing the recent “Trinity War” crossover that ran through the three “Justice Leauge” books.
Brian Salvatore: Well, here we are: 48 mere hours from the start of “Forever Evil” and Villains’ Month, with their fancy 3D covers and weird creative teams. But before we dive into that, let’s briefly look back at ‘Trinity War,’ a storyline a year in the making that re-contextualized and, to tip my hand a bit, re-invigorated the Justice League books. What did you guys think of the crossover?
Vince Ostrowski: This might be the first time that the DC3 really throws down against one another. We might have our own little “Trinity War” here.
Bear with me here, but most of the time while reading this, I couldn’t help but think: “Age of Ultron”
*dodges tomatoes*
No, really! “Age of Ultron” was worse, in my mind, because it was so much worse than the rest of the high quality Marvel status quo that we’re getting right now – including Bendis’ other ongoing work. “Trinity War” is firmly entrenched in what the ‘New 52’ is trying to do and what it feels like, so I didn’t feel “betrayed” by the event. I just felt really underwhelmed. This continued to not feel like the DCU that I want.
Maybe I’m alone in this, but I really felt like the “Justice League Dark” suffered from getting folded in – something I already felt every time Steve Trevor showed up in their book. “Justice League” came out fine, but “Justice League of America” still feels like a team that doesn’t make sense at all.
Most importantly, this felt like a story that was supposed to be one thing and then was made to be something else. That actually is rumored to be the case, if Bleeding Cool is to be believed. “Trinity War” ended up feeling like “Trinity Scuffle” or “Trinity Argument” and as it spins into “Forever Evil”, what it leaves behind feels less consequential. I still don’t understand the “why” of Pandora. The supposed importance of her character has me constantly thinking about “Flashpoint” and pre-Flashpoint implications. But DC is blowing right past that, so I’m still not sure what her real role is.
The only thing that really made me pretty happy was the wonderful mash-up of art talent on this storyline. DC’s strongest artists getting to play in the Justice League sandbox was great.
Now, guys, tell me how wrong I am.
Brian: I don’t think you’re wrong per se, but I feel that the event worked far better than you feel it did. To me, the story did three things that have been totally absent from the New 52:
– It made the Justice League teams feel like they’re all extensions of the same idea, as opposed to three totally disparate groups
– It had characters interacting with each other in a way that wasn’t “Who are you? What’s going on?,” which sums up just about every other interline crossover of the past three years.
– It set the Justice League line on a path that seems to be actually going somewhere.
I thought that, for the most part, each character was represented authentically, and gave reason to care about what happened to them. Yes, the Pandora element still feels undercooked, and with Pandora’s Box revealed as not from this world, it sort of casts all the magical/mythical elements, as well as her own origin, oddly. Pandora has, in a sea of terrible creative decisions, possibly been the worst of the New 52, as she still makes no sense and still is not a compelling character.
Continued belowWhile I hate one crossover setting up another, the end of this story got me a little more excited for “Forever Evil,” especially as the Crime Syndicate seems to be the big bad here, and not the villains of the New 52, that makes things a little more interesting.
I get the feeling Zach is going to side more with me, but let’s see. What say you, Mr. Wilkerson?
Zach Wilkerson: I honestly can’t say Vince is wrong either.
I think I fall somewhere in between. I really enjoyed “Trinity War” for what it was. Johns and Lemire went in a lot of directions I didn’t expect, like putting characters like Constantine, Shazam, and Wonder Woman at the forefront of the story. Even with all the spoilers running around, a few things genuinely surprised me, like the bit with Cyborg at the end. That was a great payoff for a plot thread I had completely forgotten about. As someone that has diligently followed, and enjoyed, Johns’ and Lemire’s work over the past few years, it was awesome to see so many little plot seeds come to fruition.
However, “Trinity War” definitely fell below my expectations. Granted, it’s probably not fair that I based those expectations on a four-page spread, containing one line of dialogue, that came out over a year ago. The fact that “Trinity War” was built up as this huge event, the first in the New 52, only to play out as an extended #0 issue for the true event, definitely took the wind from those sails. And while the true significance of “Trinity” ended up being pretty clever, it completely undercut the emphasis on the “Trinity of Sin,” whose very existence continues to baffle.
There’s also something about the story’s set-up, something I can’t quite place, that irks me. Something about the convenience of it all just doesn’t sit well. It probably has to do with the JLA/A.R.G.U.S. stuff. As cool as the team is, it just never really felt fully developed to me.
Ultimately “Trinity War” answered some questions, but few were ones I was actually asking. The art was fantastic, and I loved seeing the DC universe actually feel like a universe again. I’m definitely excited for “Forever Evil,” but not a lot more than I already was at the words “Geoff Johns writes a book about villains.”
Vince: But don’t you feel like most of the value of the Crime Syndicate reveal is the fact that they’re alternate versions of the heroes – in which case this is a “been there, done that” sort of situation?
Brian: It is a superhero crossover – it has all be done before. I want a few things out of a crossover – I want a reason for new fans to pick up the books (fail), I want things I typically don’t see in the monthly books (win), I want superior art (win), and I want the story to matter (remains to be seen). Plus, with the exception of adding $1.00 to “Justice League Dark,” this is, more or less, the cheapest possible crossover, especially if, like me, you were buying all the JL books already.
I realize these are hardly glowing endorsements, but, going back to Vince’s first point, these, to me, truly separate this from the “Age of Ultron” fray. Or so I seem to think.
Vince: Well, I would agree with you that the Justice League meet-ups were treated much more matter-of-factly than we’re used to seeing in company crossovers. That was a nice touch. Just seeing Batman address Xanadu by name and making it just seem like a normal thing was cool.
But I actually didn’t feel like the leagues were developed or showed direction by the end – mostly due to the way that the story got dropped in favor of prepping for villains month. I feel like the leagues got pushed to the background by the writers ignoring them, rather than an organic story development. Does that make sense?
My main problem with ‘Trinity War’ is really that it was all about Pandora being a catalyst for everything. It has never been more apparent to me that they either had no idea what Pandora would be when they introduced her, or that her purpose has greatly changed over time. And the Trinity of Sin?
Continued belowThis is what I mean when I compare it to ‘Age of Ultron’ – you can tell that this was supposed to be one thing, and then it sloppily became another. The Question and Phantom Stranger got roped into this by being a part of a ‘Trinity of Sin’, but now it feels like that doesn’t matter at all anymore. Wasn’t it supposed to be a big deal?
I guess my conclusion about all of this is that I agree with most of what you’re saying are your reasons for liking ‘Trinity War’, but that while you’re right about the book accomplishing those things – they didn’t fall on me the same way. I think, for me, it speaks to the greater problem with DC Comics right now. In the ‘New 52’ Superman has to kill someone – but then it’s immediately treated like an afterthought. The Justice League Dark gets roped in and they lose the weirdness that makes them unique. Everything is about heroes arguing and punching each other and not acting like heroes. What heroic thing did they do in these 6 issues? I guess I’m just fatigued.
I look forward to ‘Forever Evil’ – where, if the villains of the Prime Earth take on the Crime Syndicate, I expect them to actually be better heroes than the Justice Leagues have been.
Brian: I think fatigue is a good word, but I’m still feeling like you’re giving this a bum rap. Yes, the Trinity of Sin has been wasted. Yes, this was not a perfect event.
But to reduce this to just heroes punching each other isn’t really fair either. There was 1/6 of the crossover dedicated to actual intra-hero fighting, which is a much lower rate than just about any Big 2 Crossover I can recall in the past 4 or 5 years.
And while I agree that the Leagues weren’t pushed forward individually, I think we saw more character development out of some of these characters than we’d seen in the past few years. Just seeing what heroes sided with Superman versus Batman versus Wonder Woman gave insight into these characters that their dedicated books have lately.
Again, let me make this perfectly clear: this should have, and could have, been better. But given the current state of DC, this seems to be just about the most effective a crossover event can be.
Zach: I definitely get where Vince is coming from, and agree that some of the plot choices and character interactions felt wholly inorganic. To reiterate, much like “Age of Ultron,” there are a lot of signs pointing towards the fact that “Trinity War” shifted focus midstream from one endpoint to another. However, unlike “Age of Ultron,” I feel like the end-game still makes sense tonally with the beginning of the story. The whole thing just flows a little more cohesively in my mind.
As far as this falling in line with “The New 52” ideal, Superman killing someone seems more a bi-product of Man of Steel, which I see was independent of the New 52. Also, the fact that it was satisfactorily resolved within the crossover is a plus. The way I see it, this is a story that pretty much could’ve happened in the pre-New 52. In the context of the negative connotation the “New 52” has taken on, I don’t find anything particularly “New 52” about “Trinity War.”
I concur that this is a major step forward for the Justice League books and the New 52 in general. I see quite a few parallels between the set-up for “Trinity War/Forever Evil” and the mid-2000 “Infinite Crisis” days, which saw a major creative resurgence for the publisher. It’s probably a bit naive/unrealistic to expect similar results, but I definitely like what Johns and Lemire are doing here.
Brian: Before we go, I just want to let our readers know that we will be covering every single Villains Month title, so stay tuned for our thoughts later this week!
