Behind Forever Evil and the Darkseid War, Trinity War is one of the key major stories in Geoff Johns’s Justice League run. It’s always a problem with such important stories when they cross over with other titles – Darkseid War doesn’t really do that, but Forever Evil features in nearly every New 52 title in some form. With Trinity War, thankfully the story is mainly secluded to the three Justice League titles – Justice League, Justice League of America, and Justice League Dark. It’s probably been one of the most teased tales in the whole run – one or two back-up strips featuring Pandora and the Phantom Stranger have the set the stage, as has the Shazam saga. In short, the road to Trinity War is long, but does it live up to the hype?
Trinity War lasted for six main issues, which included Justice League (vol 2) 22-23, Justice League of America (vol 3) 6-7, and Justice League Dark 22-23. However, there were a number of crossovers and even an entire three-issue miniseries focusing on Pandora to accompany the main storyline. For this review, I’ll mainly be looking at the main six parter, but I will be delving into the side plots. Geoff Johns and Jeff Lemire are the main writers here, and artists include Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Oclair Albert, Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Keith Champagne, Tom Nguyen, ,Mikel Janin, Walden Wong, and Eber Ferreira.
Before we get going with the Trinity War plot, it’s important to establish facts. Fortunately, Geoff Johns does that simply – and that’s a great thing when it comes to magic. When reading his Shazam storyline, I was more than thrilled to discover there was little overbearing dialogue or discussion about magic. It’s a subject which can easily bore me as it overcomplicates stories. Fortunately, Geoff Johns provides the backstory to Trinity War in just a few pages in a New 52 Free Comic Book Day special. Centuries ago, three transgressors of the laws of magic were found guilty and punished. One of the punished became the Phantom Stranger, an outsider to all. Another became the Question, a man constantly searching for the secrets of his past. And the other one became Pandora. Her crime was opening the box which unleashed the Seven Deadly Sins into reality. Her punishment is immortality as she hopes to open the box once again to trap those demons back inside. Johns writes a pretty simple and decent backstory here – the three issues of Pandora go into more detail about her character and quest, but if – like me – you aren’t too interested, then look no further than this short introduction.
Trinity War amalgamates virtually every single plot thread throughout the runs of Justice League, Justice League of America, and Justice League Dark, including Shazam. But fear not, as the story is never bogged down by in depth continuity. Geoff Johns and Jeff Lemire use their skills as storytellers to make sure readers are caught up to speed concisely. Justice League (vol 2) 22 kicks thing off with a great hook as JLD member Zatara contacts Madame Xanadu in fear of the future. Xanadu can see the apocalypse coming, and it’s linked to Captain Marvel and the Justice League. This is where Captain Marvel is first introduced to us within the main Justice League strip. After defeating Black Adam at the end of Johns’s story, Captain Marvel pledged to honour his foe’s final request by placing his ashes in the Kahndaq desert. This is where the story could get confusing, but Johns conveys this tale of interlocking twists, turns, and concerns with simplicity and drama. In a previous issue, the Justice League got into trouble with the US government after Superman and Wonder Woman rescued two hostages from Kahndaq. Since then, the government and Amanda Waller set up the Justice League of America, consisting of Green Arrow, Steve Trevor, Martian Manhunter, and many more (even Catwoman, very oddly), whose main job is to monitor the Justice League in their every move. If one international treaty or law is broken, Waller goes after the JL – think of the JLA a more noble and less villainous Suicide Squad. Anyway, the JL meet Pandora and hear her story when Superman learns of Captain Marvel entering Kahndaq. The military there think that Captain Marvel is Superman – the JL head after the Big Red Cheese, and as a result the JLA get involved. It’s just like some of the old JLA/JSA crossovers – a grand meeting caused by co-incidence. Superman gets into a fight with Captain Marvel, and then the JLA turn up. But the big surprise comes when Superman – in a flash – literally obliterates the JLA’s Doctor Light, killing him instantly. This shock is flawlessly told. It's jaw-dropping and unbelievable not because you don’t expect Superman to kill people, but because he didn’t expect to kill Doctor Light either. That creates great mystery – did Superman kill Doctor Light or not? Pandora believes that Superman has been contaminated by the unopenable box, but others believe that some villain is involved somewhere. The circumstances of this huge event are told effectively by Johns, and it doesn’t feel like all the heroes are together for a forced reason. But the emotional explosion presented by the death of Doctor Light and how Superman could be a murderer provides Trinity War with a fantastic introduction.
Justice League of America (vol 3) 6 continues the drama, first with a fight to take out Superman. In the end, the Man of Steel orders the heroes to lock him up. Superman is something of a star character when it comes to Trinity War. This is not only because of the crime he has become linked to, but because of his reaction to it. His sense of justice is present as he demands his own imprisonment, and there is a good scene when he asks Batman about Doctor Light and his family. This is great not only because it humanises Doctor Light in a way that makes him something more than collateral damage, but it reflects Superman’s personality and intense guilt. This guilt is present throughout, and the heroes try to work out who Doctor Light’s real killer was.
The romance that Superman enjoys with Wonder Woman is a big part of the story, since her emotions are running high, and she sees it as her destiny to find Pandora and absolve Superman. She wants to know how to open the box – and this leads her to John Constantine and Justice League Dark. Including characters like Constantine and Deadman in such a mainstream DC story would have been unthinkable in the decades before, but I’m happy to see them feature in such a crucial story. And the same goes for everyone’s favourite faceless vigilante – the second part ends with Superman being confronted by the Question, saying only: “Do you want to find out who really killed Doctor Light?” What a cliffhanger.
Justice League Dark 22 floods Trinity War with those wonderful characters like Deadman and the Phantom Stranger who had been away from the mainstream for such a long time. The Phantom Stranger warns some of the JL and JLA members of Wonder Woman’s rogue plans to track down Pandora. Unlike the powerful result of the fight during the first part, the third part’s confrontation between the heroes is dull and limited only to exposition. Wonder Woman escapes with JLD to find Pandora. Meanwhile, another interesting drama occurs as the JLA falls apart. The Question tells Superman of a villain named – wait for this – Doctor Psycho. This villain is in hiding and may have been behind the death of Doctor Light. Believing that Superman is innocent of any crime, most of the JLA join him and the question in their quest to find this Doctor Psycho. Throughout Trinity War, you realise just how well Johns and Lemire have paced things. There is no rush to finding a conclusion or dash for revelations. Inevitably, the middle contains less drama than the start or finish, but the writers masterfully develop a real mystery with a good cast, even if some of them enjoy more time in the spotlight than others. What I also really like is how Geoff Johns in particular is constructing the story like an old JLA/JSA crossover, which was a common occurrence for DC from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. That sense of adventure is present, and witnessing how teams like the JLA split apart as they are forced to work the JL has a touch of nostalgia.
In-between parts three and four is a tie-in which – despite not being particularly understandable – is important. With Doctor Light’s death, Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger 11 shows the title hero heading into the realm of the afterlife with Batman and Katana. Deadman comes along too. It’s a strong cast and the story idea is good – they attempt to find Doctor Light in the afterlife so they can ask about his death and his role in Superman’s actions. In the end, Doctor Light doesn’t remember, so it’s something of a wasted journey. But writer J.M. DeMatteis takes a weird turn as the Phantom Stranger tries to bring Doctor Light back to life in order to rewrite history and prevent Superman from killing him. Any decision which involves paradoxes on this scale is bizarre and frankly too big to go into. Also, it seems uncharacteristic of the Phantom Stranger to want to do this – I know he was shown to be a rogue in his origin story, but his random decision to break the laws of time is confusing. Regardless, Doctor Light is barred from leaving the afterlife because the Phantom Stranger is stopped by Zauriel, a guardian of Heaven. Well, that’s that then – a pointless but somewhat entertaining interlude.
There is also another tie-in, this time from Constantine 5. Right from the start, it appears fascinating. It’s John Constantine and Captain Marvel in a pub together – this unlikely duo already hooks the reader. But then Constantine predictably reveals himself to be an ass and steals Captain Marvel’s powers for himself (no idea how this works). Captain Marvel wins at the end of the day, but since there are few after-effects here along with around a dozen of fight scenes with little dialogue, this story isn’t worth revisiting.
So, after all that, we can get back on with the main story. Justice League of America (vol 3) 7 begins oddly with Lex Luthor, enjoying the troubles of Superman from prison. Pandora appears and orders Luthor to open the box, believing that only the hands of a truly malicious human can reopen the box and lock evil away forever. But that’s when Wonder Woman arrives with JLD, and the fourth part ends with Wonder Woman absorbing the total evil of the box. It really isn’t Pandora’s day, is it? Not only is her origin story grim, and she might have turned Superman into a killer, but now Wonder Woman has turned into a baddie. Not great, but frankly the magic and mysticism of the box is far less interesting to me than Superman’s battle with Doctor Psycho. Despite his name and weird appearance, Doctor Psycho has been around for quite some time. He was created in 1943 by William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter as a foe for Wonder Woman. Surely Wonder Woman should be fighting him here? Anyway, Superman and the heroes fight Doctor Psycho only to find that he had little to do with Doctor Light’s death, but he does mention some kind of Secret Society. The Question seems to think that his mistake over Doctor Psycho is part of the plan, making him and his choices throughout the story appear confused and ill-educated, but it doesn’t make him any less lovable as a character.
Justice League Dark 23 is an all-out brawl where little comprehensible happens. Everyone plays pass-the-parcel with Pandora’s Box as Wonder Woman fights everyone in sight. All the heroes reunite to find that Captain Marvel has become evil, before Constantine grabs the box only to find that it doesn’t affect him. Once again, the heroes are going around in circles, but it’s all part of the plan. Zatara and Madame Xanadu discover that Pandora’s Box isn’t a prison for evil, but a doorway. And that’s when the real villain finally comes out from the shadows. Seen only in brief scenes, Trinity War’s grand villain is none other than Batman’s most faithful friend Alfred…
Okay, that’s not quite true. Yes, it really is Alfred who is ready to open the doorway to evil, but it isn’t our Alfred. This Alfred is from another Earth – now that he has the box and has destabilised Earth’s superheroes, he can open this gateway for his masters. Calling himself the Outsider, this Alfred arrived from his own Earth when Darkseid’s multiverse-shattering battle with the Justice League (vol 2, 1-6) weakened the barriers between Earths. The Outsider – with a mysterious helper – spent years planning the destruction of the Justice League by creating the Secret Society to unite supervillains. Justice League (vol 2) 23 is when all this and more comes out, and this revelation is just the first of many which are not just shocking but make for some of the best plotting I’ve read in comics books since the 1990s. All the heroes are united when Superman becomes contaminated by Pandora’s Box (for real this time) as it becomes quickly clear that the Man of Steel is ill. With his skin green, it’s revealed that a dart of kryptonite has been planted in his brain. And this is what caused that instant reaction which incinerated Doctor Light. And who placed the kryptonite there? None other than the Outsider’s mysterious friend – the Atom. This, too, is another sensational moment. The Atom was revealed to be spy quite early on, but instead of being a spy for Amanda Waller and the JLA, she works for the Outsider and his masters. That moment when she reveals this and is so open about her betrayal is shockingly blunt. Things get even nastier when the Atom reveals to Cyborg that he too is a traitor, but only his robotic half. With that, Cyborg is literally ripped apart and his robotic insides and mechanisms unite to create the Grid. Together, the Outsider, the Atom, and the Grid open Pandora’s Box, which explodes into nothingness when they arrive. And who are they? Nobody but the Crime Syndicate, featuring Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Deathstorm, Johnny Quick, and Power Ring. And that is also Sea-King, but he dies instantly for some unknown reason. The Atom reveals herself to be Atomica, the girlfriend of Johnny Quick, and the Outsider takes his rightful place next to Owlman as his most loyal servant. What a way to end a story.
As an ending to a major story, this is truly unrivalled. Johns and Lemire are undoubtedly masters of storytelling not just because of the quality of the revelations, but the sneaky and then absolutely barnstorming manner in which such details are revealed. Nobody would have predicted the Outsider to be involved, nor the Crime Syndicate. An aspect I really like about this story is that the Outsider and his evil allies have played the Justice League teams for fools. Even with their combined powers, they still couldn’t stop the Outsider, a cunning foe who put them deliberately on a wild-goose chase. And as a result of this fantastic ending, there are so many questions about what might happen in the future, and you can’t wait to find out what happens next.
By the end, Geoff Johns and Jeff Lemire do disregard Pandora and the magic side of the story. After all, it is no longer relevant, but it did feature so predominately throughout the run up until this story point. Perhaps a scene or two featuring Pandora and her reactions to the story’s events might have been good. Also, where was the obvious ‘Batman looking shocked’ scene? I know that it might have been cliched to witness a scene of Batman realising the true foe to be a version of his oldest friend, but I would have loved to see that. But in the end, with whatever problems Trinity War may have had with its lacklustre plotting in the second half (which is just full of fight scenes), Johns makes up for it fully with a totally flawless finale.
Just a quick word about the Pandora miniseries. As I said, it’s good for background, and the first part is honestly very good as you learn about her adventures through history and her quest to open the box. But it stalls rather badly in the second part when nothing really happens. The main point of it is to build up Pandora’s character as hero so she can learn to fight and overcome the powers of the Seven Deadly Sins. The transformation of her personality from victim to conqueror is rewarding I suppose, but I means very little in the context of Trinity War’s main plot thread, especially after it’s revealed that magic has little to do with the overall villains of the tale.
Understandably, the art varies from title-to-title. You’ll find the style of Justice League and Justice League of America mimic the Jim Lee school of art, but those words might be a tad unfair to artists like Ivan Reis who add their own flair and style to the work. Doug Mahnke’s style is a bit plainer and slightly inconsistent due to an abundance of inkers, but it still looks good and effectively tells the story. Mikel Janin’s visuals for Justice League Dark are mystical and appear fuzzy. His page layouts are excellent, but the finishes leave little impression. Overall, though, these varying styles within the six main issues are surprisingly consistent and make Trinity War a smooth read visually.
VERDICT
Trinity War could easily have been about magic, and Pandora and her box. But thankfully, it was made infinitely better by the fantastic revelations throughout that leave genuinely lasting impressions. For all of its hype and tie-ins, Trinity War is revealed to be a prelude to an even larger story, one in which the Crime Syndicate will rule. But the fact that Trinity War is a prelude to Forever Evil and Forever Heroes shouldn’t decrease one’s rating of it. It may have a few faults here and there, but the quality of the plotting and storytelling is sensationally good. It’s one of the very few comics from the modern era which is enjoyably shocking.
Next Week: Superman vs The Amazing Spider Man. Written by Gerry Conway, with art by Ross Andr and Dick Giordano.
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