Broken Frontier

Trinity is here! It’s THE DAY EVIL WON! Wait... no... that’s not it. WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?! No... that isn’t it either. Bah! I give up.

Alright. As far as we can tell, Trinity is about DC’s three poster heroes, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. It’s happening at the same time as Final Crisis (get ready, continuity police) and it’s being done by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley.

... and Fabian Nicieza. And Scott McDaniel. And Mike Norton. Maybe I shouldn’t be making fun of this book. I can’t say I’m not slightly weary, though. A lot of people are going to pick this up because of the creative team alone. But do the three most prominent faces in DC’s lineup really need the under-the-microscope treatment? Countdown wasn’t the best story DC ever put out, remember? I do enjoy having something new to read each week, though. Let’s just hope that this one delivers.

The main thing here is that, while Trinity is happening in the DCU, it is occurring independently from other books. It’s looking like it will be an examination of how these characters’ exhaustively rich histories have impacted the universe in the past years. I can understand the sentiment behind this title. Sometimes I’ll pick up a DC comic and just feel lost. Dan DiDio has said that Trinity is “epic storytelling on a very personal level.” If the series can present the scope of a weekly title with the precision of these characters’ own comic books, then we’re in for an epic journey indeed.

How can you really determine if another big series is worth the investment? Well, that depends on your personal opinion on a lot of factors, like traditional story development. We know that the final ten pages of each issue will be a rotation of characters’ stories, both new and familiar. And while the team on those arcs will rotate similarly, Busiek will be ship captain throughout the entire run. This differs from the way that both Countdown and 52 were produced. It’s a good thing Busiek has a great track record – the challenge of managing such a project must be daunting. Another important factor is that Trinity is contained in a specific period of time that hasn’t yet been revealed. This is intended to solve pacing issues that hindered Countdown. Ideally, all the cliffhangers that make a weekly so appealing – and worth returning to – are going to flow at the perfect pace.

So what is this big old plot, anyway? We know that the three heroes meet for breakfast in the first issue to discuss some mysterious omens – and Busiek has said that the Trinity is being targeted because they are a Trinity. Their formation as the “trifecta of the DCU” implies more than simply being three powerful characters – there are metaphysical, symbolic implications. And these villains are said to represent the yin to the yang of our heroes. The bad guys, though, won’t be the obvious choices we may have expected.

Maybe the spotlight on these characters – and their relationships therein – can really illuminate new and exciting concepts. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have always existed in the spotlight, and perhaps that’s what brings out the best in our heroes (and their writers! And artists!) What’s interesting is that these stories are inclined to be internal and subtle. We’re going to see a lot of the inner workings and mechanics of DC’s main lineup, all told at a super-quick pace. And maybe that’s why it will work. A lot of backing has been given to the weeklies – and Trinity has the potential to justify that strategy.

Great storytelling takes you somewhere – and a weekly series can do that at a blistering pace. With Marvel getting so much press for their big events (the super-successful Iron Man movie included), it will be good to see DC a boost between this high-profile story and The Dark Knight. It’s no secret that the DC universe is changing dramatically in the near future, so it’s seems only fair to say that Trinity is going to give us the shape of things to come.