This issue featured a little more background in the lead story and a little more plot advancement in the backup, so overall it made for a good blend. I honestly did not see the twist at the end of the lead story coming, which was nice. Then again, it’s not like I catch everything the first time around….
SPOILERS FOLLOW
* * *
LEAD STORY
“Moment Of Truth” 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: Secret origins of super-villains!
Page 1
– I presume that the Troika are sharing each other’s thoughts and moods, sort of like the Trinity was doing before the Big Boom.
Page 2
– With regard to Morgaine’s origins, I have to offer a disclaimer and something of an apology. Clearly this character comes to us by way of Jack Kirby and the various writers and artists who followed him. However, I’m not familiar enough with Kirby’s Morgaine to offer an opinion on how he might have tweaked her. All I have is the Internet and a self-imposed deadline … and maybe that Demon hardcover for my birthday or Christmas.
– That said, Morgaine’s older sisters Patty and Sel– er, Elaine and Morgause come from the Arthurian legends. According to those legends, Morgause is the mother of both Gawain and Mordred.
Page 3
– We discussed the respective histories of both the Quizmaster and “our” Riddler in the annotations to issue #12.
– My brother-in-law, who collects Rubik’s puzzles, would be happy to see Eddie with a Rubik’s Revenge cube. The old-style TV in the background is a nice touch too.
– The kids in the Cyclops visors in panel 4 look a lot like the garden-variety punks in Frank Miller’s immortal The Dark Knight miniseries. Obviously the Anti-Matter Earth is decades ahead of our own when it comes to cultivating criminals.
– On “our” Earth the Riddler never married or had children. That didn’t stop one Duela Dent from dressing op as the “daughter” of various Batman villains, including the “Riddler’s Daughter” in Batman Family #9 (January-February 1977). Eventually she settled on the name and costume of the Joker’s Daughter, and became a footnote to Batman history. Duela was created by Bob Rozakis and Irv Novick and first appeared in Batman Family #6 (July-August 1976).
Page 4
– Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, also comes from the Arthur tales.
Page 5
– “Mouse Wonder”: this may be the first time we’ve seen the anti-matter version of Robin. I have to point out, though, that Talon, the Nu-Earth-3 version of Robin, was seen in Countdown Presents The Search For Ray Palmer: Crime Society #1 (December 2007).
– The Justice Underground was also discussed in the annotations to issue #12. Pictured are Star Sapphire, General Grodd, Sir Solomon Grundy, and Q-Ranger.
– Motto of The Gutted Ox: “Thou Kill’st It, We Grill’st It.” No, it’s not entirely grammatically correct, but that’s not why you eat there.
Page 6
– No annotations.
Page 7
– As far as I can tell, “Sarah” and “Tad” don’t appear to be references to any regular DC characters.
Page 8
– Morgaine holds an icon of her future nemesis Etrigan in panel 3.
– “Better to rule a burned-out shell than to serve in paradise”: To us, it sounds like Morgaine is paraphrasing Satan’s “better to reign in hell than serve in heav’n” from John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. In DC continuity, though, Milton might have been channeling her. Morgaine helped destroy Camelot in the 6th Century, over a thousand years before the publication of Paradise Lost in 1667.
Page 9
– It’s the origin of S.P.H.E.R.E.! I guess the “S” might stand for “Stephie” as well….
Page 10
– Kanjar Ro’s background was discussed ‘way back in the annotations to issue #4.
– This snowy wasteland looks like the backdrop for Enigma and Morgaine’s meeting with Konvikt, seen in a brazier vision in issue #1.
Page 11
– Similarly, Morgaine’s new look is reminiscent of the giant Trinity statues also seen in a vision in issue #1.
Page 12
– No annotations.
* * *
SECOND STORY
“Clear And Present” was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Scott McDaniel, inked by Andy Owens, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.
In Brief: Firestorm finally links up with Green Lantern, just as John’s mechanical buddy takes charge.
Page 13 (story page 1)
– And another prediction bites the dust. It should have been obvious to me that the thing in John’s ring was the Void Hound from JLA’s “Syndicate Rules,” but nooooo: I had to go chasing every other evil-computer thingee DC’s published….
Page 14/2
– Anyway, in JLA #114 (July 2005), John used the Construct, another old JLA cyber-villain newly domesticated by the Flash, to draw the Hound’s consciousness into his ring. If it were a snake, it would’ve bit me.
Page 15/3
– “Tawny” is Tawny Young, created by Len Wein and Dave Gibbons for Green Lantern vol. 2 #176 (May 1984). In regular continuity she was a TV news reporter, and briefly John’s love interest, until writer Steve Englehart introduced John to Katma Tui. John and Kat eventually married, but Kat was killed by Star Sapphire.
– Naturally, “Hal” and “Guy” are references to John’s Green Lantern predecessors. We saw last issue that Hal preceded John as Green Lantern. Guy Gardner, Hal’s first backup, was created by John Broome and Gil Kane for Green Lantern vol. 2 #59 (March 1968). He was crippled in issue #87, the issue which introduced John; and only returned to full-time Green Lanterning in issue #195 (December 1985).
Page 16/4
– No annotations.
Page 17/5
– No annotations.
Page 18/6
– See, here’s Gehenna depicted (for the first time in this series) in the traditional “backseat driver” position. Since I hadn’t mentioned it before, Gehenna was created by Stuart Moore and Jamal Igle and first appeared in a cameo in Villains United #5 before showing up in earnest in Firestorm vol. 3 #17 (both cover-dated November 2005). Gehenna (no other aliases) can teleport and is at least moderately telepathic.
Page 19/7
– Not sure exactly what’s going on here, but Jason’s command of the “Firestorm matrix” has always been a little different from his predecessors’. While they could only form Firestorm with particular people, Jason could bring anyone in as a backseat driver. Maybe that, combined with Gehenna’s powers, is behind this little bit of (you’ll forgive me) skullduggery.
Page 20/8
– No annotations.
Page 21/9
– No annotations.
Page 22/10
– Justice Socialites here include Cyborg, Starfire, Tomorrow Woman, Atom-Smasher, Triumph (speaking), Liberty Belle II, Skyrocket, Hourman, and … someone I’ll kick myself for not recognizing.
– Tomorrow Woman, created by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter for JLA #5 (May 1997) is, like Amazo, another one of Professor Ivo’s androids designed to destroy the Justice League. In regular continuity, she achieved sentience in time to stop herself from doing just that. Here, obviously, things worked out differently.
– Triumph’s pedigree is a little tough to figure out. Wikipedia credits Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Howard Porter with creating him. The Unofficial Triumph Chronology gives his first appearance as Justice League Task Force #16 (August 1994), which was written by Waid and pencilled by Sal Velluto. However, his 3-part “origin story” — the first one I remember where he really played a major role — was written by Christopher Priest and appeared in the September 1994 issues of the League’s books (Justice League America #92, JL Task Force #17, and Justice League International vol. 2 #68). Triumph, a/k/a Will McIntyre (sometimes MacIntyre), was a superhero with energy-based powers who, but for a quirk in the timestream, would have been a founding member of the Justice League. That’s right, he was the Sentry before the Sentry was cool. Also, he’s usually drawn with blond hair.
– Liberty Belle II, a/k/a Jesse Chambers, was created by Len Strazewski and Mike Parobeck and first appeared (as the super-speedster Jesse Quick) in Justice Society of America vol. 2 #1 (August 1992). Her first appearance as Liberty Belle was in JSofA vol. 3 #1 (February 2007).
– Hourman II, a/k/a Rick Tyler, was created by Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, and Todd McFarlane, first appeared as Rick in Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 #20 (November 1985), and first appeared as Hourman in issue #21 (December 1985). Rick and Jesse are married.
– Skyrocket, a/k/a Celia Forrestal, was created by Kurt Busiek and Tom Grummett for their original super-team The Power Company. She first appeared in the Power Company preview story in JLA #61 (February 2002).
* * *
Yesterday lasted a very long time for me and I didn’t get through a big stack of new comics until very late. I read only two new comics right away — Final Crisis #4 and this issue of Trinity — and I have to say, after getting hit with the devastating events of FC #4, this issue was a real tonic. I enjoyed both for different reasons, but I would have felt a lot worse without a weekly dose of Trinity. (Seems like I still had Final Crisis nightmares, though….)
Anyway, back next week — see you then!
+++++++++
Act One (including links to previous issues)
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Person you don’t recognize is, I believe, Brainwave (the son of the original.) From Infinity Inc.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:24 am
>> Cyborg, Starfire, Tomorrow Woman, Atom-Smasher, Triumph (speaking), Liberty Belle II, Skyrocket, Hourman, and … someone I’ll kick myself for not recognizing.>>
Brainwave. Kick away.
>> Also, he’s usually drawn with blond hair.>>
And will be again, once the corrections kick in!
As far as I know, nobody guessed ahead of time that John’s being possessed by the Void Hound, despite lots of plot-pointers to SYNDICATE RULES, and a few judicious hints — like the fact that it’s stronger in the anti-matter universe (which is where it’s from). Yay us!
Then again, sometimes we do something we think is clever that no one’ll get, and tons of people get it from the very first panel.
kdb
October 24th, 2008 at 12:45 am
Oh, and –
>> “Mouse Wonder”: this may be the first time we’ve seen the anti-matter version of Robin.>>
I believe it is, though we made tangential reference to him/them in SYNDICATE RULES, when Owlman noted that one of the things he gets from the death of Jack “Rat-Eyes” Drake was his son.
I’m not sure we got the name “Mouse” in there somewhere, but we might have.
And it’s just Mouse. “Mouse Wonder” is the Quizmaster being flippant.
kdb
October 24th, 2008 at 4:22 am
Brainwave Jr.: yes, of course. I will say that the pose makes him look a lot younger, and the new costume didn’t help matters either.
Triumph’s hair: actually, it kinda works better for me that he looks like Superman, considering his would-be “foundational” role. For a minute I thought he was a version of Electro-Supes, but then I figured you guys wouldn’t do something that complicated.
Mouse: I remember the Jack/Tim Drake references, but considering that my computer has just awakened me at 3 a.m. with an automatic restart, I’ll have to check the issues themselves a little later.
October 24th, 2008 at 6:34 am
Hey Kurt, as long as you’re here, you said we’d all recognize who the group of villains going after the Trinity objects were based on. Well, the penny never dropped for me- care to spill?
October 24th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I remembered that Priest has written about Triumph so I thought maybe he might have mentioned the creation of the character and sure enough he wrote that Triumph was “created by DC Comics Group Editor Brian Augustyn, Mark Waid and Howard Porter.” http://www.digital-priest.com/comics/frames/triumph.htm
October 24th, 2008 at 10:28 am
“but for a quirk in the timestream, would have been a founding member of the Justice League.”
Actually, he would have been THE founding member and de facto leader of the Justice League. He put them together and issued orders to them as a unit during those Zero Hour issues before being erased from the timeline and bumped to the present.
Triumph and Moon Maiden are my favorite JLA characters who never were. Both were The Sentry before The Sentry.
October 24th, 2008 at 11:15 am
I don’t think Kurt ever said we’d *all* recognize them — it’s a pretty old, one-shot reference. But Swashbuckler, Primat, and the Trans Vibrational Man were the alternate IDs some JLAers used to “test” Black Lightning in his tryout issue of JLA (circa 1979, I think)… which most likely never happened in this continuity. There’s no connection to that story other than the names.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
The highlight of the issue for me was the back-story on The Quizmaster. Always nice to check in on the “mirror”-verse. It’d be kinda cool to see a History of the “Mirror”-verse. Or maybe a Ssecret Files and Origins.
Pretty cool so far!
October 24th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I loved the reveal that Kanjar Ro was Despero all along. He’s the one character that has felt “off” to me all along, seeming a little too deferential to Morgaine and Enigma the past few months. It was one of those where I was wondering if Kurt just didn’t “get” the character, but it looks like he didn’t after all. Bravo and great issue.
October 24th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
>> Brainwave Jr.: yes, of course. I will say that the pose makes him look a lot younger, and the new costume didn’t help matters either.>>
It’s a variant costume, but it’s a variant of his current DCU costume.
>> Hey Kurt, as long as you’re here, you said we’d all recognize who the group of villains going after the Trinity objects were based on. Well, the penny never dropped for me- care to spill?>>
I didn’t say everyone would recognize them, I expect I said someone would figure it out. And it was covered here, eventually, and at other places. The Dreambound are loosely based on the “jive turkeys” of JLA #173, who were all actually Leaguers in disguise. They were Primak (Zatanna), Swashbuckler (Green Arrow), the Human Starburst (Green Lantern) and the Trans-Visible Man (Flash).
Our version got created because I’ve always liked those guys, in a goofy way, and I remarked at one point that someone like Grant Morrison could bring them back, retool them and make them seem totally modern, off-the-wall and cool.
So why shouldn’t I?
kdb
October 24th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
I loved your versions Kurt, hope to see more of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_criminal_organizations_in_comics
October 24th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
I have not read this title since issue #10 because frankly it wasn’t as good as or better than the other already existing mulitple Batman, Superman & Wonder Woman titles. Has it improved? Is it within DC’s top 25% percent of titles published? Just curious as to whether it’s worth reading for the final third?
Tom, would you still be buying it if you weren’t annotating it for your blog?