This week, it’s quality (I hope) over quantity, as we explore a surprising number of Barracudas, suggest a possible explanation for John Stewart’s “skin condition,” and judge bad puns from … Hawkman?
SPOILERS FOLLOW
* * *
LEAD STORY
“So What Now?” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, assistant editor; Mike Carlin, editor.
In Brief: We bid farewell to the Anti-Matter Earth as it copes with the loss of the Anti-Trinity.
Page 1
– Despero has henchmen from Armad to Zardb … including Yhea! I hope there are 23 more….
– The arrival of Despero’s men gives this story a parallel with “Syndicate Rules.” That arc also found three factions fighting over the Anti-Matter Earth; namely, the Justice League, the Crime Syndicate, and a Qwardian army.
– Zardb is the latest character to refer to Anti-Matter Earth merely as “this world.” Is the phrase becoming Trinity’s version of “I have a bad feeling about this,” or just part of the inevitable drinking game?
Page 2
– Barracuda, the Anti-Matter Earth’s Aquaman analogue, was named by Grant Morrison and fleshed out by Kurt Busiek and Ron Garney for JLA Secret Files & Origins 2004 #1 (November 2004). For whatever reason, Barracuda has never been a regular part of the Crime Syndicate, unlike Aquaman, who of course was a founding member of the Justice League.
– “Barracuda” is also a new alias for the old Aquaman villain called the Scavenger; and was used further by half of the pair known as Swordfish and Barracuda (see World’s Finest Comics #306-07 (August-September 1984)).
– They’re not the only ones, though. I found it interesting that there have been a couple of other Multiversal characters named “Barracuda,” both analogues for Marvel characters. The first Barracuda appeared in Freedom Fighters #7-9 (March-April 1977 to July-August 1977) as the Namor-analogue in the Crusaders, a group which parodied Marvel’s Invaders. This Barracuda has since been updated for the recent Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters miniseries. The other Barracuda was part of Earth-8’s Extremists (see, e.g., Countdown #29 (October 10, 2007), et seq.), who parodied Marvel villains like Doctor Doom, Sabretooth, Magneto, Dormammu, and Doctor Octopus. Wikipedia lists that one as a Namor analogue, but since he’s based on a Marvel villain, shouldn’t he be an Attuma analogue? I don’t know; I didn’t read the Lord Havok miniseries.
– Not to be outdone, The Invaders had its own parody of the Freedom Fighters, also called the Crusaders.
– I’m guessing that the hawk-people hail from the Anti-Matter Earth’s region which corresponds to the hidden land of Feithera. Feithera first appeared in Flash Comics #71 (May 1946) and is home to a race of avian/human hybrids, including Norda “Northwind” Cantrell of the original Infinity, Inc.
– In the absence of any official codename, I’m calling the guy in panel 3 “Whitestroke.” He’s obviously based on Deathstroke the Terminator, a/k/a Slade Wilson, the mercenary created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez who debuted in The New Teen Titans vol. 1 #2 (December 1980). Another anti-matter analogue of Deathstroke first appeared in Superman/Batman Annual #1 (December 2006), in a story written by Joe Kelly and pencilled by Ed McGuinness; but in yet another set of intercompany shenanigans, he acted a lot like Deadpool, who started out as a Deathstroke parody.
Page 3
– No annotations.
Page 4
– I suppose the line “every lost race hidden out of fear” would explain Barracuda’s absence from the Crime Syndicate.
Page 5
– Here’s a wacky thought: could John Stewart somehow have merged with an Omegadrome battlesuit? The Omegadrome suit first appeared in New Titans #114 (September 1994) in a story written by Marv Wolfman and pencilled by Rick Mays. The suit seemed to have been unique, but John’s condition looks fairly similar to me.
Page 6
– “Atomic transmutation powers”: Firestorm can permanently rearrange the structure of inorganic matter at the subatomic level, which is a fancy way of saying he can turn bullets into (plastic) flowers or air into water. If he tries to affect organic matter, he suffers painful feedback.
– Of course it’s convenient that this JLA squad includes two Real Smart guys, an android, and two heroes who can literally think things into existence, but I still love how they use their brains and Science! to solve the problem at hand.
Page 7
– Wonder Woman channels Superman, Superman channels Batman, and Batman channels Wonder Woman? How circular.
– Also, while I understand completely that all the “trinity” talk is essential to the themes of this series, I have to wonder if it’s being given special emphasis because of the Troika’s mystic manipulations. I mean, it’s not like there’s a lot of Trinity Talk in Justice League, Superman/Batman, or any other team-up title. Again, I think it works well in the context of this series, but to a certain extent I think it would only work well here.
Page 8
– “Trying to make you its new trinity”: … yeah, I don’t know if I quite buy that. Given the particular ethical tendencies of the Anti-Matter Earth, I’d expect our heroes to start turning evil if it were trying to work its mojo on them.
Page 9
– No annotations.
Page 10
– Superman said “this world” — drink!
Page 11
– No annotations.
Page 12
– Superman’s brand comes from the same set of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs as Wonder Woman’s. Next issue’s preview describes Superman’s symbol as “justice” and Wonder Woman’s as “strength.”
* * *
SECOND STORY
“– Let The Burning Begin!” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Tom Derenick, inked by Wayne Faucher, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, assistant editor; Mike Carlin, editor.
In Brief: The Dreambound go down, but not before getting the last artifact.
Page 13 (story page 1)
– No annotations.
Page 14/2
– “Much like her sister”: without getting too far into it, remember from last issue that Donna Troy is, for all intents and purposes, Diana’s Amazonian sister.
– Over the course of Infinite Crisis, World War III, and “The Sinestro Corps War,” I grew tired of the “dogpile on [bad guy]” school of fight choreography. Big panels featuring several super-folk running dramatically at the bad guy therefore give me an uneasy sense of deja vu. Thankfully, there’s a little more strategy going on in this fight.
– Let’s take a moment, though, for a head count of those present at the end of last issue versus those present here. Last issue featured groups of Teen Titans (Wonder Girl, Ravager, Red Devil, Robin, and Supergirl), Outsiders (Grace, Katana, Metamorpho, Geo-Force), adult Titans (Donna Troy, Nightwing, Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg), Justice Socialites (Hawkman, Stargirl, Damage, and Doctor Mid-Nite) and Birds Of Prey (Huntress, Misfit, and Lady Blackhawk), and the unaffiliated Gangbuster. That’s a total of twenty-two super-heroes, not all of whom see action this issue.
– This issue’s fight begins with eight powerhouses (Starfire, Wonder Girl, Supergirl, Miss Martian, Donna Troy, Cyborg, Metamorpho, and Grace) charging Sun-Chained-In-Ink. Starfire, Donna, and Miss Martian are taken out by SCII’s gravitational power, leaving 19 people of various power levels on the good guys’ side.
Page 15/3
– SCII then stuns Cyborg and Metamorpho with his (solar-flare?) wind power. That leaves 17 (or 15 if you take Robin and Nightwing out of the mix), although Hawkman says “half our number” is now down. Since we won’t see Ravager, Katana, Raven, or the three Birds Of Prey, I’ll assume that they were also stunned, at least temporarily, by SCII’s blast. That accounts roughly for the “half.”
Page 16/4
– As Robin, Nightwing has been known historically for bad puns and groan-worthy fight dialogue, even without the whole “Holy [reference]!” thing. Therefore, it’s kind of odd for Hawkman to be doing the same in his presence.
– Donna and Wonder Girl are back in action, but I don’t know what Doctor Mid-Nite could do against SCII.
Page 17/5
– There are Stargirl and Red Devil, who weren’t in the first wave (shown on page 14/2).
Page 18/6
– Given what happens later in this story, I’d say that’s Max Lord’s skull in panel 2. I forgot to mention last issue: Max should get extra bonus-points for being a villain who struck at the heart of the Trinity itself. He used a mind-controlled Superman to beat Batman to a pulp and force his own death at Wonder Woman’s hands so that his Batman-built satellite could then exterminate the rest of Earth’s superheroes. That’s like hitting the villainous superfecta.
– From here the fight narrows, so I’m not so concerned about the choreography anymore. Still, we only saw 16 of the 22 super-folk from last issue. I think the obvious implication is that the others were busy with the rest of the Dreambound (with whom they were probably better fits, power-wise), but I suppose the nitpick is there if you want it.
Page 19/7
– Metamorpho can change himself into any element, and Geo-Force has gravity-manipulating powers.
– I don’t know why Geo-Force looks so beefy in panel 1. Weird perspective, I guess.
– According to WebElements.com, leutetium (or “lutetium”) “burns readily,” so Metamorpho might want to be careful. It melts at 1925 degrees K (3006 degrees F), and from the looks of panel 2, Sun-Chained-In-Ink may be well on his way there.
– The “Karman Line” is the estimated “boundary” between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, about 100 km high.
Page 20/8
– So Hawkman’s plan was for Supergirl to a) throw Metamorpho at the Sun, and then b) have Metamorpho get away somehow from SCII? Seems like Metamorpho would have had to “brake” himself suddenly, enough to let SCII’s momentum carry him on his way.
Page 21/9
– No annotations.
Page 22/10
– “So what now…?”: Hey, Nightwing read the first story!
* * *
I’ll be honest — this issue marked the first time I thought I had to justify the existence of these annotations. Trinity doesn’t depend on intertitle coordination, like Countdown did; and it’s not especially reference-heavy, like 52 was. It’s a straightforward superhero story focusing on three of the most recognizable characters in pop culture.
From the beginning, its creative team has also felt free to use quite a bit of the larger DC Universe, most notably the Bat-characters and the Justice League, but not in a way which seems off-putting to me. Instead, Trinity has tried not to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the details of its story; so it uses established (albeit sometimes obscure) characters and venues both to make longtime readers feel comfortable and, I presume, to introduce those hypothetical new readers to DC’s superhero settings. I’d say that’s where we fans come in, spotting the Easter eggs and providing an additional layer of context.
Every so often a blogger will post a review from someone relatively unaware of the current state of superhero comics. Generally, these reviews find the author lost in the high weeds of continuity, obtuse writing, and/or impenetrable art. Even the ones who aren’t driven away seem to be discouraged from coming back to a particular title. Well, I’d be very interested in reading what a relative newcomer thought about Trinity. I’m hardly the ideal person to judge a book’s accessibility, but as best I can tell, it tries hard to be not only accessible, but inviting. Here’s hoping that future DC weeklies do as well.
Until next week–!
+++++++++++++
September 5th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
>> Despero has henchmen from Armad to Zardb … including Yhea! I hope there are 23 more…>>
Nah. Or at least not alphabetically-named ones. Based on their appearances, I named them Armadillo Guy, Lizardboi and Y-head, and then trimmed.
>> The first Barracuda appeared in Freedom Fighters #7-9 (March-April 1977 to July-August 1977) as the Namor-analogue in the Crusaders, a group which parodied Marvel’s Invaders.>>
And while I’ve never gotten this confirmed, I have assumed that he’s the reason Grant selected “Barracuda” as the name for the Aquaman-analogue on the anti-matter Earth. And it was Grant, not me — Ron Garney and I may have showed him on panel for the first time, but the name came from Grant.
>> Not to be outdone, The Invaders had its own parody of the Freedom Fighters, also called the Crusaders.>>
…who debuted the same month as the DC Crusaders, just as the Squadron Supreme and the Justifiers of Angor debuted the same month. It was a planned stunt, back before crossovers were so common.
>>In the absence of any official codename, I’m calling the guy in panel 3 “Whitestroke.”>>
That works. He probably has some lameass name like “Coup de Grace” or something, but I never went that far. Thinking of the opposite to someone named Deathstroke the Terminator always headed me down the path of “Arnold Schwarzenegger is the Terminator; Michael Biehn is the Germinator” jokes…
>> I suppose the line “every lost race hidden out of fear” would explain Barracuda’s absence from the Crime Syndicate.>>
That was actually about the Feitherans. The CSA’s habit of killing off the competition explains Barracuda not joining. Besides, he’s the warlike ruler of his own undersea country; he doesn’t join, he conquers.
>> Of course it’s convenient that this JLA squad includes two Real Smart guys, an android, and two heroes who can literally think things into existence, but I still love how they use their brains and Science! to solve the problem at hand.>>
Thanks! Though I’ll point out that it wasn’t merely “convenient” — it was the plan. It’s the reason Batman sent those particular guys, including telling GL that they needed his specific abilities.
>>I mean, it’s not like there’s a lot of Trinity Talk in Justice League, Superman/Batman, or any other team-up title. >>
No, but they do talk about their own series concepts — why the League is the League, compare and contrast Superman and Batman, that sort of thing.
>>Given the particular ethical tendencies of the Anti-Matter Earth, I’d expect our heroes to start turning evil if it were trying to work its mojo on them.>>
Or the anti-matter Earth to change its nature is it got a different Trinity?
>>Over the course of Infinite Crisis, World War III, and “The Sinestro Corps War,” I grew tired of the “dogpile on [bad guy]” school of fight choreography.>>
Hey, Geoff Johns can’t hog it all! It’s our turn, dammit!
:: innocently fails to mention use of same strategy in JLA/Avengers, Avengers Forever and other books. contemplates pointing at Fabian and running ::
>> I think the obvious implication is that the others were busy with the rest of the Dreambound >>
Yep.
>> I’ll be honest — this issue marked the first time I thought I had to justify the existence of these annotations.>>
They’re a lot of fun. That’s all the justification they need, I’d say.
And we’re going to give you plenty to annotate as the series rolls on…
kdb
September 5th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I probably don’t fall into the realm of “relative newcomer,” but as I’ve stated weeks ago I dropped this title like a hot potato after deciding I couldn’t get through all the past characters and situations one apparently needs to know about to make sense of Trinity.
I don’t mind a few guest stars here and there, I like Bags’ art, and I really enjoyed the first few issues, but (as I said before) I went into this really just wanting an exciting book with some mystery, but one that focused squarely on The Big Three. Yet after the first few issues, they sure weren’t doing a whole helluva lot. Maybe that’s the curse of having to plot a 52 issue story arc? I dunno. I haven’t read the book in over a month now, but this week’s annotations barely even make mention of Bats, Supes and Wondy. It sure mentions of boatload of other characters though. Some I know, some I don’t.
Busiek has every right to make references back to old stories he’s written, but since I haven’t read them they just serve to confuse me. I’m not sure where it’s all going or what it all means. I just know that I’m getting the fill of the characters I wanted, and I couldn’t justify paying $3 a week for another 40+ weeks for something I wasn’t understanding or even enjoying anymore.
I don’t mean to pick on Kurt at all. I enjoyed his Superman run a lot (it was just unfortunate that the book was plagued with delays, just like many DC titles the past couple of years). Hopefully others are enjoying Trinity more than I did.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Whoops, meant to say I’m NOT getting my fill of the characters I wanted… Sorry for that, and any other typos I made.
It’s not just Trinity that I’m down on either. Morrison’s Batman run has been a major disappointment to me (a shame, because I like All-Star Supes and much of Morrison’s past work), the Chris Kent continuity fiasco has left me cold on Superman, and DC’s general editorial mandate on reviving the Silver Age just isn’t where I’m at. Oh well, hopefully someone will reboot or explain away all of that eventually.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I don’t think we’ve made reference to any past stories without giving new readers what they need to know to understand them and move forward even if they haven’t read the earlier stuff.
But to each his own, of course.
kdb
September 5th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Flowers are organic material.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Shouldn’t the name of the Wilson Slade counterpart be Lifestroke.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Flowers are organic material.
Whoops, meant to say “plastic flowers.”
September 6th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Hey, I’m new! As new as they come– Trinity was the first DC comic book I ever bought.
…well, okay, not quite, but it’s the first comic series I’ve ever decided to follow.
And I have to admit, I’m loving it! My familiarity with the characters is only Justice League Unlimited-deep, but that’s been more than enough. Anything I haven’t known your annotations have filled in. Beyond that, it’s been great for my budget. I don’t have a lot of money to spend, so Trinity has been great in giving me a taste of the DCU. Each week I get two great stories, and each one leaves me hungry for me. Nicieza’s supplements, especially, have given me a taste of Nightwing, The Outsiders, Robin, Hawkman, and other great books I really want to pick up. Busiek’s lead, though, has been a better Justice League story than the current title.
I’m loving it!
September 6th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
>> Shouldn’t the name of the Wilson Slade counterpart be Lifestroke.>>
I wouldn’t think so. On the one hand, “Lifestroke” doesn’t mean anything. And on the other, the other anti-matter Earth characters don’t have “reverse names.” They’re morally-inverted versions of the characters, but their names don’t try to take the positive-matter names and invert them, too.
He could be called “Lifeblood” or “Lifeline” or something, though.
kdb
September 6th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
“Page 5
– Here’s a wacky thought: could John Stewart somehow have merged with an Omegadrome battlesuit? The Omegadrome suit first appeared in New Titans #114 (September 1994) in a story written by Marv Wolfman and pencilled by Rick Mays. The suit seemed to have been unique, but John’s condition looks fairly similar to me.”
Actually it reminds me of the Weaponeer 500 armor that Kyle wore when they battled The Key early on in the Morrison/Porter/Jimenez JLA series that preceded the current one.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
As long as you don’t call him Life-eld.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
For instance, “Deathstroke” is the antimatter opposite of The Pro.
September 7th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Don’t stop with the annotations - no reason to quantify their use, I’m enjoying the breakdowns. Thanks for the great work, and awesome that Busiek chimes in.
Cheers.
September 7th, 2008 at 11:34 am
What happened to The Trinity Sessions? Is that still going? I’m looking for the Busiek interviews for #10 - #13. (Don’t have #14 yet, so I haven’t read previous comments; and apologies if this is already asked and answered.)
September 7th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Mike: unfortunately I can’t answer that, since the Trinity Sessions are run by Troy Brownfield over at the main site. I enjoy Troy’s interviews too, but he and I are doing our own things with regard to Trinity.
September 7th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Right. I got all that. Two different analyses, two different writers. All that said, I’m just looking for an answer to my question. Do you know if there’s been any new columns after #9?
September 7th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
The mark on Superman’s forehead looks a WHOOOOLE lot like the astrological symbol for Libra.
Libra, huh?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libra_(astrology)
I’m not saying anything about anything. Who knows what’s coming?
September 7th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Mike: If it hasn’t been posted, I don’t know about it.
Korvac: The Libra astrological symbol would go along with “justice” (i.e., the scales thereof), so that’s not surprising.
September 7th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Any thought as to whether the Construct is behind what is happening to John Stewart, seeing as Kurt has written the character at least a couple times (Red Tornado mini-series and in his JLA run).
September 7th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
>> What happened to The Trinity Sessions? >>
Beats me. I haven’t got any questions in a while.
I assume it’s a holdup on the Newsarama end; maybe it’ll get straightened out and things will resume.
kdb
September 7th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Re: Deathstroke (and what sort of name is that anyway - death stroke - I mean, death hit or death blow or death shot but death stoke? How do you stroke someone to death? Okay, let’s not answer that).
Love the Lifeblood name - and since it’s Deathstroke the Terminator how about Lifeblood the Protector? It’s a nice twist on his name and explains what his raison d’etre is likely to be…
And want to give props to the great covers we’ve had on Trinity - they’re just beautiful!
September 7th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
“Shouldn’t the name of the Wilson Slade counterpart be Lifestroke.”
I think “LifePet”
if your not stroking…. a cat then your petting it?… man did I go there? sorry
The throwing of Sun Chained was sort of dealing with the problems at hand the best they could at the time. Even oracal was kinda of like “…err ok guys do what you got to but is that a good idea?”
So we may see some repercussions there (I don’t know that either)
last thing:
I think this story is a blast… I think when all the other huppla is over in the rest of the DC universe people will be scrambling to catch up on Trinity.
it’s a damn good read and pretty solid all around (and I do say so myself)!
September 8th, 2008 at 5:34 am
On a slightly tangential note: I’m totally in love with how Kurt and Fabian write Hawkman. I’ve never been a huge fan of his character (coming into the DC universe only a few years ago), but here he’s got a really great voice that makes me want to read more.
Would it be too much to hope for a Kurt/Fabian Hawkman series?
…Well, probably, but a guy can hope.
September 8th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
As soon as I saw Jon say “10001010001″ I thought of the Kilg%re, which I first (and last) saw Wally West dealing with sometime in the early nineties. The appearance and abilities displayed in Jon’s transformations have only reinforced this impression.