Edited by Robert Beach
At the time of writing, the first reviews are coming in on
WB/DC’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of
Justice. I haven’t read any of
these, but judging by the critical consensus that’s slowly forming the word
is…not good. We’ll see how that
shakes out but if it’s any indication of audience reaction that could spell a
major roadblock for the blossoming DC movie universe. Dawn of Justice
isn’t just the first time Batman and Superman have met in live action, it’s
also set to feature Wonder Woman making it the first appearance of the DC
trinity in live action.
The
trinity (Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman) are the cornerstones of the DC
universe and comics as a medium. They represent the oldest and most recognizable
superheroes ever created, so having their opening debut fall flat would be a
massive slap in the face for WB and DC. So as we all wait with bated breath, I thought I’d showcase my favorite
vision of the first meeting of DC’s big three: Matt Wagner’s Trinity.
Trinity was a
prestigious graphic novel trilogy produced by DC in 2003, a date that’s kind of important
for all the context stuff that goes into these look backs. Previously, Wagner made a name for
himself writing the noir-inspired Sandman
Mystery Theatre, the objective best vision of Sandman, for Vertigo comics
from 1993 to 1999. At the time, DC
was farming Vertigo comics for great talent to import to the main line, hence
stuff like crazy Doom Patrol and Animal Man scribe Grant Morrison being
handed the reigns of power on Justice League. In Wagner’s case, he had always been more of an independent
author. So rather than taking up a monthly comic, he took up a project making 3
graphic novels telling the story of how Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman
first met.
I’m not sure what people expected from this particular pitch
at the start. Wagner’s most
mainstream work at the time was a gritty ‘30s noir comic full of some really
grimy crime fiction and barely any superhero elements. Conversely, Wager’s big independent
book at the time was Grendel, another
noir title only this time inflected with ninjas and copious amounts of
violence. Given all that and the
tone hovering over a lot of work in the early 2000s, no one would’ve
expected Trinity to turn out to be a
bright love letter to the core of these characters. They felt more at home in
the bright lights and joy of the DC animated universe than the darkness of any
of Wagner’s previous work.
The story at hand is superhero simplicity in its purest
format. Ras Al Ghul is trying to
end humanity to save the Earth from our degradation, pretty standard stuff from
him. To accomplish his goal, Ras
has recruited Bizarro, the failed Superman clone created by Lex Luthor thus
drawing Superman into Batman’s investigation and raising the level of threat
that Ras is posing. There are
complications when Bizarro acquires a nuclear submarine for Ras and
accidentally sets off a massive explosion close enough to Themyscira to impact
the Amazons. That causes them to send Wonder Woman to investigate. With all three heroes drawn into the
same hunt for Ras Al Ghul and his assembled weapons of destruction, the question
becomes if they can get along long enough to stop Ras and save the world.
Like I said, that’s about as straight forward a superhero
story as one can possibly tell. The thing to remember, though, is that simplicity in superhero stories
is actually a major boon to their storytelling. There’s a tendency to view complexity of narrative as being
tantamount to complex storytelling, that more plot equals more meaningful plots
but that really isn’t the case. With superheroes, the impetus for meaningful and engaging stories has
always been in the characterization. It’s not as important what the characters are doing so much as who’s
doing it and how they feel and think about what it is their doing. In that
case Trinity absolutely shines
because it’s all about characterization.
The story is broken into three distinct parts, each one
using a hero’s home town as a central setting and one of the heroes as the
central lens for the stories events. The opening third is a Superman story, dropping us into this beautiful
rendering of Metropolis combining the verve and life of ‘20s New York with the
kind of Art Deco futurism that informed the early Superman cartoons. Everything is big deeds, big emotions,
and big weirdness all filtered through the impetus of Superman’s actions and
his very existence impacting people he’s never even met or been aware of.
The second act drops us into Gotham City cut straight from
the Batman animated series, police
zeppelins and all. The entire
issue takes place at night in murky shadows and scarred red skies with the
super-powered elements feeling like weird outsiders to a foreign land.
This sequence also features the book’s most brutal action
sequence where Wonder Woman goes up against Bizarro, and we see just how
terrifyingly powerful he is. Again, there’s the aspect of the universe darkening under Batman’s lens. And the showcase of the issue being essentially evil Superman, a parallel that
becomes even clearer when Batman disables Bizarro with the most foreign thing
in this universe: bright light.
The final issue drops us into Paradise Island as Ras tries
to conquer it for super villain reasons. It’s an amazing contrast between the previous two segments, trading the
gothic edifices of Gotham City or the gleaming towers of Metropolis for a vast
marble culture cut into the living rock of the island. It’s a world of mythology and fantasy
where nature itself serves as an ally of the Amazons, and we finally learn that
Wonder Woman is also a princess.
Aside from each issue being an individually excellent
exploration of the character’s mythos and identity and how each of these
different people could co-exist within such different worlds, the character
interactions are just delightful. Something I really like about the series is Superman is the bridge
character between Wonder Woman and Batman (both don’t get along).
It’s a different take on things, but one
that makes a lot of sense to me. Firstly, Wonder Woman and Batman are just inherently stubborn characters. Both of them come from worlds of extreme privilege and having to work their
whole lives to maintain a level of insane perfection.
Superman, on the other hand, has never tried to be better
than everyone else. In fact, he has to work to be less than everyone around him
as Clark Kent. As Clark, he can
still be an impactful and well-regarded writer, but he can’t stand out as “the
best in his field” for the very reason that helping others is more important
than winning awards or recognition. Superman’s daily life is putting his ego to the side for the greater
good.
What’s more, he has to exist
as both Superman (God among men), and Clark Kent (the most human person
imaginable and a champion for truth). He essentially moves in both Batman and Wonder Woman’s world confronting the truth of humanity through his identity as Clark while also
striding through the world of myth and madness as Superman. He’s the perfect equalizer.
Even putting aside all the great characterization and
interpersonal relationships, this is just a really fun action-adventure
story. The Ras Al Ghul stuff
provides plenty of interesting team-up opportunities. And the fact Ras already guns for Superman means he’s always got an interesting plan to
keep the Man of Steel busy if the story needs him gone to progress. What’s more, the action is really fun
in a classic Silver Age type manner, including the highlight of Superman
throwing Bizarro into a volcano. Speaking of the Silver Age, there are a handful of cool shout outs to
early age comic stuff like that including brief cameos by Robin and
Aquaman.
The Silver Age connection actually ends pretty important
overall to Trinity’s legacy. Though a sequel was never made, DC did
produce a very similar series a few years later entitled DC: New Frontier. New Frontier, by Darwin Cooke, is a lot
like the sequel to Trinity that never
happened. It emphasized the first meeting of various heroes filtered through the
lens of Silver Age elements and DCAU levels of heroic ideals. Combine that with Cooke’s very similar
artwork style to Wagner (big poses, solid lines, bright colors, sparse details
giving everything a slightly cartoony affect), the two go hand-in-hand as
explorations of the dawn of DC.
Wagner himself went back to this particular well in two
later instances with a pair of outstanding Batman
mini-series entitled Batman and the
Monster Men and Batman and the Mad
Monk. I’ll probably showcase
them later on, but they’re stellar explorations of Batman’s early days without
needing to resort to Frank Miller/Batman
Begins/Long Halloween-style
storytelling that tends to infect that particular era of Bat history. Rather, the books read like a look into
“how Batman got weird” pitting him against hulking monsters and vampires with a
background emphasis on the development of stuff like the Batmobile and the Bat
Signal.
As for Trinity, DC
eventually produced a lavish graphic novel release for the trilogy that I
highly recommend picking up. We
still seem to be obsessed with origin stories even today, and this is one of the
best told origin stories for the three most important comic book characters of
all time (sorry Wolverine and Spider-Man.)
It’s just a great showcase of Wager’s superb
artwork and Dave Stewart’s beautiful coloring. If you’re looking for proof it’s easy to have these
characters meet, disagree, but still come together without needing to resort to
Batman worship or immature fisticuffs like so many modern tellings do, this is
it.
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