Issue #19 continues the tour of the altered timeline from a couple of ground-level perspectives. Neither of these stories takes a particularly new approach to this kind of material, and the mechanics of the “reboot” remain rather elusive; but we’re still in an information-gathering period. The potential trouble I see with Act Two is that, unlike the first act, it may end up focusing entirely on this new timeline — and because altered-timeline stories can play out in very similar ways, the issue becomes whether Trinity will distinguish itself from the other variations on this theme.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
* * *
LEAD STORY
“Call Me Freddie” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.
In Brief: Gangbuster and Tarot are guided through Europe by a very familiar ex-spy.
Page 1
– Coffee apparently does wonders for Tarot, whose hooded poncho also makes her look a lot different (compare Panel 1 with Panel 4).
Page 2
– Add Rita to the number of people who remember the Trinity, including Firestorm/Gehenna, Bigger Melvin, and possibly Orin and J’Onn J’Onzz.
Page 3
– Looks like they picked up the motorcycle somewhere between Austria and the French Alps.
Page 4
– The altered Alfred looks a lot more vibrant now that he’s getting more fresh air.
Page 5
– “Late of Her Majesty’s Secret Service”: According to Bob Greenberger’s Essential Batman Encyclopedia, Alfred’s Secret Service career was established in Batman #599 (March 2002). (In the pre-Crisis days, when he would have been young enough to do so, Alfred served in World War II.) One of Alfred’s missions was seen in a two-part backup story in Detective Comics #s 806-07 (July-August 2005).
– Is the cave-figure “representing” Wonder Woman supposed to be Hippolyta?
– Wonder whether Alfred has discovered the giant Trinity statues seen in issue #1?
Page 6
– “Lost city of Bana-Mighdall”: In regular continuity, Bana-Mighdall was a hidden city in Egypt founded by Amazon followers of Hippolyta’s sister Antiope. The Bana-Mighdall Amazons were created generally by George Pérez (and drawn initially by Chris Marrinan and Will Blyberg) and first appeared in Wonder Woman vol. 2 #29 (April 1989). By issue #35, the god Hermes had destroyed the city, and the Bana-Mighdall Amazons resettled on Themyscira.
– “How the world worked … behind the scenes”: Regular Alfred also has a well-established acting background.
Page 7
– No annotations.
Page 8
– No annotations.
Page 9
– No annotations.
Page 10
– “A father-figure”: this is a relatively recent development in Alfred’s history, going back only as far as Batman #404 (February 1987), the first part of “Batman: Year One.” In pre-Crisis continuity, Alfred came into Bruce Wayne’s service well into the careers of both Batman and Robin (see, e.g., Batman #16 (April-May 1943) and #110 (September 1957)), learning their dual identities entirely by accident.
Page 11
– The Batcave’s giant penny is a trophy from “The Penny Plunderers!” in World’s Finest Comics #30 (September-October 1947). The “modern” account appeared in The Batman Chronicles #19 (Winter 2000).
Page 12
– “Khufu”: presumably reincarnated as Carter Hall/Hawkman, who (and not Ted “Wildcat” Grant, as I previously thought) was seen last issue with Alan Scott and Jay Garrick. Thus, “head of the JSI” may also be a reference to the Winged Warrior. If so, it looks like the Gangbuster/Tarot/Hawkman trio may be reunited before too long.
– “Bruce”: what would an alternate timeline be without a way to jog its residents’ former memories?
* * *
SECOND STORY
“Just A Little Bit Of Hope” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Mike Norton, inked by John Floyd, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.
In Brief: A mother-to-be has visions of Wonder Woman.
Page 13 (story page 1)
– Not sure if we’ve seen Desiree before, but a pregnant African-American woman (Helen Anderson) was featured in Wonder Woman vol. 2 #s 55-56 (June-July 1991).
Page 14/2
– “Trev”: might this be the altered version of Trevor Barnes, one of Diana’s beaus? He’s dead in current continuity, which (as we saw last week with Bigger Melvin) may have helped him to remember the “real” timeline … and since he loved Diana, that might have driven him to his current state of drunken jerkhood. Trevor was created by Phil Jiminez, first appeared ‘round about Wonder Woman vol. 2 #170 (July 2001), and died in issue #194 (September 2003).
– Remember, the National Air and Space Museum was seen back in issue #11. Wonder what happened to the space-plane Constitution?
Page 15/3
– The idea of Diana periodically touring the United States giving speeches started in Wonder Woman vol. 2 #8 (September 1987), not long after she arrived in the country. Since the costume depicted is the most current version, I take it this was a fairly recent speech … but since Desiree seems to remember the costume details incorrectly at other times, that might not be entirely accurate.
Page 16/4
– Here’s Julia Kapatelis, mentioned back in issue #13 but not seen until now. (Actually, was there anyone out there familiar with the Pérez Wonder Woman who didn’t think this would be Julia Kapatelis…?)
Page 17/5
– “National Museum of Natural History”: again, in regular continuity Julia works (or did work) for Harvard.
– “JSI Satellite”: clearly this timeline’s counterpart to the original Justice League Satellite (discussed back in issue #6). The smaller photo shows that the two space stations are virtually identical. However, assuming the timelines match up generally, the JSI satellite lasted longer than its counterpart.
– “Khund forces”: I wondered when I’d have a Legion reference! The Khunds were created by Jim Shooter and Sheldon Moldoff to fight the 30th Century’s Legion of Super-Heroes, and first appeared in Adventure Comics #346 (July 1966). (It seems that in that issue, one of the Legionnaires might have been — gasp! — a traitor!) In the present day, the Khunds were part of an alien alliance which attacked Earth in the Invasion! miniseries (now in paperback), serialized over three issues (January-March 1989).
Page 18/6
– Wonder Woman is fighting Khunds in this flashback.
– “Dominators”: the leaders of the aforementioned alien alliance. They’ve got yellow skin, elongated heads, and long sharp teeth; and they’re scientifically inclined. The Dominators were created by Jim Shooter and Jim Mooney and first appeared in Adventure Comics #361 (October 1967).
– “Metagene-thing”: the Dominators discovered that humans possess a “meta-gene” with the potential to bestow super-powers. As part of the invasion, they detonated a “gene-bomb” which targeted super-powered individuals. It put most into comas, but in others it activated their latent super-powers. In regular continuity, Superman recruited Daxamites (yet another extraterrestrial race, this time with Kryptonian-style powers) to help defeat the invaders. In this timeline, apparently humanity negotiated a truce.
– “Something … bigger?” Is this going to be a running gag?
Page 19/7
– Mammoth and his sister Shimmer (real names Barin and Selinda) were created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez and first appeared in The New Teen Titans vol. 1 #3 (January 1981).
Page 20/8
– This look at the Justice League includes Zatanna (real name Zatanna Zatara) in her blue-and-white costume. She was created by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson and first appeared in Hawkman vol. 1 # 4 (October-November 1964). Since she is also a stage magician, she performs (and goes out adventuring) in a top hat, tuxedo, and fishnet-stocking ensemble. The blue-and-white costume was designed (I think) by George Pérez, but first appeared in Justice League of America vol. 1 #187 (February 1981), in a story pencilled by Don Heck.
Page 21/9
– No annotations.
Page 22/10
– No annotations.
* * *
By the way, Desiree’s “real” backstory (if there is one) still bothers me — although I’m pretty sure she’s not Hoppy, Diana’s old manager at the Taco Whiz (first seen in WW v. 2 #73, first named in issue #75). Anyway, you know what the music means … our time is through.
++++++++++++
Act One (including links to previous issues)
October 9th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I think the cave figure is meant to be mankind between the Trinity (as alt-Alfred says), with the Earth beneath meant to represent Wonder Woman.
October 9th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
oops, by ‘Earth beneath’ I meant ‘line of squiggly-looking soil thing’.
Always look forward to these recaps! Artemis is one of the Bana-Mighdall Amazons, right?
October 9th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
In the words of the late Bob Ross, those are some happy little trees.
And yes, Artemis was a Bana-Mighdall Amazon.
October 9th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
>> Is the cave-figure “representing” Wonder Woman supposed to be Hippolyta? >>
Ha! That’s Anthro! Not that we’d expect anyone to recognize him from a cave painting…
Incidentally, there are two other references on p. 6, but they’re the sort of thing very, very few people would notice.
And we haven’t seen Desiree or Trev before.
kdb
October 9th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
“Freddie” Pennyworth, adventuring archaeologist, is a great character; it makes me want to weep that we’ll inevitably have to lose him.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:46 am
if Alfred remembers Bruce,
will that mean he passed away in regular continuity?
October 10th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Bad annotator, no cookie! Freddie’s artifacts of the trinity need to be sourced. The green bat statue looks familiar to me, but I can’t place it. The curly ‘S’ representing Superman, though, is quite distinctive. I remember seeing it in a digest-sized reprint of material - a race of people worshipping Superman as a godlike figure, calling him ‘Sonzaa’ or something like that. They had tiny golden ‘S’ icons like the one pictured. I’ll see if I can dig it up..
October 10th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Is this in current continuity? any continuty? As RIP wraps up I was thinking of picking up Trinity from the beginning. BUt with Final Crisis messing with Wonder Woman and RIP messing with Batman, I was wondering where this series fits in.
October 10th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I’m pretty sure “R.I.P.” precedes Final Crisis, and I think FC precedes Trinity. I want to say that FC will be acknowledged in Trinity, but it could be the other way around (although that makes less sense).
If it makes a difference, Trinity features the “un-messed-with” versions of most of DC’s characters.
By the way, if either of Freddie’s cave artifacts come from the 1997 Elseworld’s Finest miniseries — and I don’t think they do — I’m having trouble locating my copies at the moment.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
>> By the way, if either of Freddie’s cave artifacts come from the 1997 Elseworld’s Finest miniseries — and I don’t think they do — I’m having trouble locating my copies at the moment. >>
Neither are anywhere near that recent.
Or, for that matter, from non-continuity stories…
kdb
October 10th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Got it! The ‘S’ symbols are the emblem of Sonzrr, from “The Second Coming of Superman”, from Superman Spectacular #5, published in 1977, and republished in the Best of DC Digest #59.
October 10th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
A scan, for the curious :
http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z309/cg_pix/?action=view¤t=sonzrr.jpg
October 10th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Nice work, CandidGamera!
So, the Bat-idol is from an old in-continuity story, eh? That narrows things down….
October 10th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Okay, here goes. If this doesn’t work, at least I know I tried.
Page 6’s “Amerind” reference does recall Chief Man-Of-The-Bats, who first appeared in Batman #86 (September 1954) and reappeared as part of Grant Morrison’s “Club Of Heroes” arc. That’s not where I think the Bat-idol originates.
No, I think it may have more to do with the cult of the bat-god from World’s Finest Comics #255 (February-March 1979), an issue which saw Superman and Batman investigate an oddly familiar bat-man out West. This was another story dredged from my hazy memories, and probably filed in an out-of-order longbox, but I didn’t remember any Native American involvement.
Anyway, if I think of anything else before someone comes up with the right answer, I’ll be sure to chime in again.
(I have got to get those old Batman Family issues…!)
October 10th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Actually, Tom, World’s Finest sounds very right based on the hazy recollection I have of the Bat-Idol. So much so that I just went through my meager collection of old World’s Finest issues, looking for it, to no avail. I don’t have #255 though.
October 11th, 2008 at 3:43 am
“According to Bob Greenberger’s Essential Batman Encyclopedia, Alfred’s Secret Service career was established in Batman #599 (March 2002).”
Not relevant to comic continuity, but he was established as ex-British Secret Service in the Batman: The Animated Series episode “The Lion and the Unicorn” (first aired 9/15/1995).
(Incidentally, I thought it was a nice touch that The Dark Knight worked the Secret Service angle in too — particularly as that had been my explanation for how Alfred had so easily been able to take a ninja out with a golf club in the previous movie.)