Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "trinity"

Trinity, Volume 1: Better Together by Francis Manapul

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the first six issues of the Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman series, "Trinity." It begins with Lois deciding to invite Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince over for a barbecue and it ends up with them in costume and on journey through their own pasts. What's going on and who's behind it?

Writer/artist Francis Manapul sets out to make a team of this trio and to do that, the story focuses on letting them see each other at their most vulnerable moments, while at the same time keeping alive the mystery of what's going on. The art is incredible. It's far more beautiful and well done than the vast majority of comic book art being done today.

The challenge of the book is that it's working through some well-worn territory. The origins and backstories of these heroes are so well-worn and have been revisited so many times that it can feel like old hat to go back to that well. But, I think that the book shows that part of the reason why we revisit them so often is that these stories have emotional connections with readers and Manopoul pulls those connections out.

Batman in this book is a bit one dimensional compared to how he's appeared in other Rebirth books. He's constantly there to be the skeptic and discount other people's emotions. It’s easy to pigeonhole that way in an attempt to balance the other two, but it’s really not consistent with his character in other books.

The other issue is that the story of this new Superman is being told over so many books that it can be hard to keep track. If you read the Superman trades, Bruce's comments on Clark's son Jon's inability to control his powers seem weird as this was addressed in the second Superman trade. Trinity is a monthly series while Superman and Batman are among those that publish twice a month, so the trades are a bit out of sync. Even still, it does seem like much of the Superman embracing this world's heroes storyline has been covered in Superman, Action Comics, Justice League, and now Trinity. (And those are just the ones I've read.)

Still, the book manages to take familiar stories and create a compelling emotional narrative to draw our heroes together and features some of the best art work I've seen in any trade I've seen released this year.

***Disclosure: I Received a free digital copy from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review***




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