Things are heating up both in space and on the Troika’s altered Earth. What this issue might lack in trivia it makes up for with action!
Still, there’s always room for trivia, so….
SPOILERS FOLLOW
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LEAD STORY
“Dead And Burnt To Ash” 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: The heroes are getting friendlier with each other, and just in time — Europe has fallen to Morgaine and Enigma.
Page 1
– Cool helicopters.
– Olympian, a/k/a Aristides Demetrios, was created by E. Nelson Bridwell and Ramona Fradon and first appeared in Super Friends vol. 1 #9 (December 1977). By wearing the mythical Golden Fleece, he gains (or did gain) all the powers of the Argonauts, including super-strength, super-speed, flight, and invulnerability. He was a longtime Global Guardian, but by the time of JLA Classified #2 (February 2005) he had joined the Ultramarine Corps.
– Lionheart, actually Richard Plante (a Plantagenet heir and descendent of Richard I), was created by Gerard Jones and Mike Parobeck and first appeared in Justice League International Annual vol. 2 #4 (1993). Accordingly, Lionheart owed his existence to the much-mocked “Bloodlines” crossover. Regardless, he went on to appear in a few more issues of the Justice League books. As you probably figured, he uses a suit of high-tech armor.
Pages 2-3
– No annotations, but that’s one spooky scene.
Page 4
– I know it’s not him, but doesn’t that guy in the glasses in the middle of panel 4 look familiar…?
Page 5
– This version of Wally West reminds me of “our” Green Arrow, the lovable leftist. It makes me think there’s a connection between them in this timeline, but I didn’t get the idea that Green Arrow was in this world’s Justice League (dialogue from last issue referred to one independent of the other). If Wally and Ollie (ha!) are tight in this timeline, it might be somewhat ironic: in his Teen Titans days, Wally was politically conservative.
Page 6
– “Complete cipher”: no José Delgado in this timeline? Let me think on that for a bit. There’s apparently no Firestorm either, which may well mean no Ronnie Raymond or Martin Stein.
– “No memories of any changed world”: back in issue #18, José didn’t remember the Trinity.
Page 7
– No annotations.
Page 8
– No annotations.
Page 9
– “That other alien powerhouse”: Konvikt, of course, as seen in brazier-vision in issue #1.
Page 10
– “Strength … youth and vigor”: Chris Miller’s chronology figures that Jay Garrick was born in 1918, and assumes generally that other Golden Agers including Alan Scott and Carter Hall were born around the same time. That would make them 90 or thereabouts today; but back in the early 1940s they would have been in their early 20s.
– Just to make sure I have it right: three sets of trios were closest to all the Castle Branek shenanigans. The Trinitarians are “somewhere else,” unknown to us as yet. The Troika has split up. That leaves Hawkman, Gangbuster, and Tarot. We saw Khufu learn the truth back in issue #22, but Carter Hall didn’t know any different until Khufu “educated” him just now. Tarot also remembers the old days, presumably because of her connection to the “worldsoul.” As for Gangbuster, I’m guessing that his costume, and the holes in his memories, are byproducts of being pulled into a new timeline alongside Tarot. He only knows that he has to protect her, but as a Batman-style vigilante inspired by Superman, he doesn’t have much else to do in the altered timeline. Sounds harsh, but that’s how I see it.
Page 11
– No annotations.
Page 12
– The WGBS building doesn’t have the big “G” that “ours” does. Did I mention that already…?
– I’m sure I don’t need to say it, but “Freddie” belongs to the altered timeline. “Alfred” is what he should be called.
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SECOND STORY
“Air Is For Cowards” 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, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.
In Brief: Krona investigates the Void Hound while Kanjar Ro watches Despero take on Green Lantern.
Page 13 (story page 1)
– No annotations.
Pages 14/2 and 15/3
– No annotations.
Page 16/4
– No annotations.
Page 17/5
– “So taxing to control”: well, maybe now it is. Earlier stories seemed to indicate that it was relatively easy for anyone to use a Green Lantern ring, albeit without much finesse. Green Arrow used one at least a couple of times, both in the old GL/GA days and in the “Archer’s Quest” storyline (around Green Arrow vol. 3 #20 (March 2003)). However, as of Green Lantern: Rebirth, the rings got a lot harder for the untrained to use. In issue #4 (March 2005) of that miniseries, Green Arrow sweated a lot more trying to make a ring work for him.
Page 18/6
– I thought Despero didn’t need to breathe. Clearly he’s tough enough to survive in space unaided, so breathing is a secondary concern, but I’m all about the nitpicking here….
Page 19
– No annotations.
Page 20
– “A global mind of a sort”: that would be the Construct, created by Steve Englehart and Dick Dillin, which first appeared in Justice League of America vol. 1 #142 (May 1977). The Construct is an electronic consciousness created out of all those radio and TV signals bouncing around Earth’s atmosphere. (And that was in the ‘70s, when not everything was wireless!) In JLA #114 (July 2005), the League used a domesticated version of the Construct to control the Void Hound.
Page 21
– No annotations.
Page 22
– The Justice League left these three Crime Syndicators in the “interdimensional void” back in issue #13. Obviously that protected them from the reordered timeline.
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I enjoyed this issue for a couple of general reasons. First, it continued to build that particular sense of impending doom which readers expect from a superhero story, but which today might be diluted or diffused by ironic detachment. Yes, the creative teams here have more freedom to wreak havoc, because obviously the damage can be undone when the timeline is restored. Regardless, Trinity has done a good job showing us that fundamentally, these are the same characters we know — they’ve just been through slightly different experiences than we’re used to. We expect this Justice Society and Justice League to come riding to the rescue — to save the world, at the risk of being corny — just as before, notwithstanding the changes in their collective past.
That’s as good a segue as any into the second welcome development of this issue: enlightening Carter/Khufu about the changes. I have written previously that alternate-timeline stories necessarily share plot elements, and I’m glad Trinity hasn’t spent too much time on “characters stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the truth.” I look forward to the making of clever plans and the heroic execution of same.
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Act One (including links to previous issues)
November 14th, 2008 at 8:02 am
I want to see Alan, Jay and Carter going to the mat on this one. I’m also wondering if Carter’s puzzlement when he first saw the scroll was because his past-life memories were ripped from him in Act 1 and this is bringing them back?
November 14th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Flash’s comment about the JSI brain washing–a nod to Identity Crisis? Maybe Prof. Ivo is working on behalf of society (as Firestorm wondered a few issues ago).
November 21st, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Hi — thanks for the namecheck and link re: page 10!
Nice work on these annotations, BTW.
Speaking of timeline details, has anyone else noticed that the Egyptian scroll case, since it’s connected to Hawkman’s origins (per #22), cannot *possibly* be from the 4th dynasty, as Alfred says in #19? The historical (4th Dynasty) pharaoh Khufu has always been a completely different person from DC’s killed-and-reincarnated Prince Khufu, long established as living centuries later.
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