Trinity #22 – James Robinson, Writer; Patch Zircher, Artist; Gabe Eltaeb, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 6/10
Corrina: Flat Ending
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
Ray: This series concludes with Trinity #22, and by and large it suffered from a lot of the same problems as the series it spun out of – Superman/Batman, Batman/Superman, and the ill-advised Superman/Wonder Woman. It’s hard to create a compelling series when you don’t have full creative control of any of the characters involved, and as such this series and its sister series largely felt irrelevant in the big scheme of the DCU. The final arcs, bringing in Mike Grell’s popular Warlord characters, had some promise, but only the first arc lived up to them. The final arc mires the Trinity in an over-the-top battle against corrupt military contractors and a monster-fied Steve Trevor, under the control of Skartaris’ evil sorcerer Deimos. Patrick Zircher’s art does the best it can at saving the issue, creating a gorgeous-looking final battle with some glimpses of Skartaris that deliver, but the story overall is lacking.
What does Deimos want, for instance? His motivation never really seems to go beyond “evil”. The Trinity battles him as he rants about conquest, and Diana struggles to get through to the monstrous Steve. The issue tries to create some suspense when it looks like Deimos wins and he kills off the Trinity before invading Skartaris and conquering the entire realm. However, it’s very clearly a fake-out as Batman pulls another rabbit out of his hat and neutralizes Deimos by trapping him in his own mind. It’s a plot device that’s been used quite a few times, going back to the classic “What Do You Get For The Man Who Has Everything?”. By the end of the issue, it’s really just wrapping up loose ends, as Steve Trevor deals with Deimos’ allies and the Trinity flies off for bigger adventures. This series was very up and down, aside from Manapul’s spectacular art in the early issues. Its cancellation isn’t a big surprise.
Corrina: I wonder if this was supposed to go an issue longer because it has problems with pacing. The concept of a black ops corporation trading with a Skartaris wizard so each can have magic and firearms/weapons is a good one. It’s just that Deimos is barely there (like his costume) and he makes no impression as a villain after so much build-up. Evil wizards should not be so dull.
The one moment I liked was Diana comforting the monstrous Steve because, of course, she wouldn’t care about his transformation.
Overall, I feel like the Warlord arriving after the battle–not really much to see in this story after all.
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Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
