[World of Wonder] BATMAN/SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN: TRINITY #1-3 &...✨

[AntLeon]

With respect to Bruce/Bat Clark/Kal, I’ve always liked the monologue in Kill Bill Vol 2. I realize it’s a little bit more about what’s about to happen in the movie and maybe a comment on society at the time… i guess it’s like mental chewing gum for me.

As to the lasso, there is holding it and being bound by it. Even so, Bruce believes he is The Batman, or more to the point, it is his truth. I would say Bruce is more Batman in his suit and tech and gear, but internally always Batman because of the mission.

[nu52]

It depends on the continuity, but for the most part, I don’t believe there is a difference in holding the lasso and being bound by it. I guess I took that to be more about the writer’s opinion and Batman being in an early stage of his career. Maybe if you asked the current Bats, he’d have a different answer and it’d also be true.

I still don’t get how Bizarro broke the lasso or why it bothered him that much. Does Bizarro have a weakness to sunlight or light in general? It turned his eyes to stone right?

@AntLeon You mentioning the narration boxes and how you would be unsure who was speaking at first made me think about the buzzing Bizarro was hearing and how I didn’t get it at first until it was revealed Ra’s was feeding him commands.

[AntLeon]

I was surprised by the breaking of the lasso as well. Bizarro’s truth is that he is a rejected science experiment.

Bizarro as a clone of superman gets his strength from sunlight but the backwardness is how it reacts with his cells. it’s why he’s pale white. In Smallville, the Bizarro reveal was when his skin was exposed to a sunbeam. Similarly, green K strengthens Bizarro.

We may have to agree to disagree: being bound by the lasso means you are on the wrong end and are about to expose your truth presumably to the one holding the lasso.

As to the Robin in this week’s selection, he is unnamed, so it could be the Robin of One’s Choice.

[Jay_Kay]

@AntLeon – It’s less a dig at Elektra and more a reference. Miller and Sienkiewicz had previously worked together on an eight part mini-series called Elektra: Assassin that is widely considered some of the best work of their careers.

[Jay_Kay]

Some images I saved while reading this.

One of my favorite argument moments.

[Jay_Kay]

They do tend to speak in cliches, don’t they?

[nu52]

I saved so many images from this book. I just feel bad spamming since we can’t post multiple images in one comment. I really liked this image.
I saved way too many Superman/Wonder Woman panels

It was neat seeing her using her powers of communicating with animals to speak with the birds to find Superman.

[nu52]

@AntLeon I’m just going off of stuff I’ve seen and read before. In the Wonder Woman animated film Steve is subject to the lasso’s power just by having his foot on it. In a comic Wonder Woman states just wielding it forces her to always be truthful.

Ah, gotcha. I didn’t know that about Bizarro. In this comic they did reference he was getting some strength from the moon so it makes sense for sunlight to be his power source. I just didn’t realize the sun was what made his skin like that.

[nu52]

This is still one of my favorite shots of the entire book. Superman looks cool and classic. He has a great expression in it. The shadows reveal how he is feeling and how much he wants to track down Bizarro. I even appreciate how his curl is lifted up by the wind as he flies. He reminds me of the Fleischer version and that’s my favorite Superman.

[BatJamags]

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bat! It’s an invisible plane! It’s that amazing stranger from the Planet Procrastination… TechnicallyOnTimeJamags!

1. What are your impressions on the villains that the Trinity faces in these issues?

Eh, I guess they were alright. Ra’s was his usual megalomaniacal self, though a little creepier than usual, and Bizarro was his usual messed-up Superclone self, though he am talking wrong there. I didn’t really identify anything particularly notable about their portrayals.

2. What did you most enjoy about this version of the Trinity meeting for the first time?
   Honestly, I found the art to be the most engaging part. It’s pretty. It reminds me of Bruce Timm’s style, but not quite so sharp and angular. It’s sort of the regular art deco to early BTAS’ Dark Deco

3. Where there any particular quotes or scenes that stood out to you?
   Well, I liked the first scene with Clark (though it ripped off Barry Allen’s late-to-protect-secret-identity thing) and then saving the train, and Bizarro’s forming a connection with “Racer Cool” was fun, but on the whole? I thought the story was pretty forgettable. It wasn’t bad, and what mistakes it did make aren’t anything new or uncommon, but nothing jumped out at me as all that exciting, either. It’s just kind of a pretty typical plot for all these characters. If it’s notable at all, it’s that it manages to be so typical for so many disparate characters all at once.

In particular, Wonder Woman doesn’t seem to do all that much, and while Batman has some good moments, the story kind of misses the point with him. I felt like I wanted to see him earn Diana’s trust after that first meeting, but instead he just keeps being edgy, and Superman kind of says it’s all to protect innocents, but I’d rather see Batman justify himself as a hero by being heroic, than see Batman justified as a hero because Superman’s there to make excuses for him.

And while Wonder Woman’s reaction to Batman’s interrogation methods is not unreasonable, it kind of defuses her argument when you see her running around indiscriminately breaking heads later in the same issue. And then there’s the fact that it never occurs to her that not everybody has a magic truth lasso.

So, the whole thing has lots of potentially-workable moments like that which just don’t come together properly as executed here.

4. Do you have a favorite origin story for the Trinity?
   For the bunch of them meeting up, I’m not sure I can think of that many options to choose from. I guess I’ll go with the Justice League animated series, but that’s probably just because I like the show. This is really the first story I’ve seen actually dedicated to the “Trinity meet each other” idea.

So, I realized I actually never read the Annual before, and somehow didn’t notice. So… huh. This is new. It actually kind of changes my perspective on a couple other portions of the run (mainly relating to Myndi and Julia, as I’ll get into in more detail below).

5. Which chapter/story was your favorite from this Annual?
   In keeping with her being my favorite character from this run, Myndi Mayer’s funeral was incredibly impactful. Since I’m so late and I’d already spent a while reading Trinity, I was kind of skimming most of this, but then that last story had me hanging onto every word. It was a perfect wrapup for her personal arc.

6. How do you feel about the revelation regarding Julia’s ties to Themyscira?
   This is quite possibly the stupidest in a chain of extremely stupid retcons that have plagued this otherwise good run from the very beginning. Really? Even Julia coincidentally crash landed on Themyscira in the distant past? How many are we up to now? The entire cast? What is the point of this? What does it accomplish? Before I read this, Julia was a good person and a good mentor because she was a good person and a good mentor. Now she’s a good person and a good mentor because she has special Amazon kiss magic.

7. Were you content with the outcome of Julia’s/Vanessa’s visit to Themyscira? How does it compare to Superman and Batman’s visit to Paradis Island in Trinity?
   I don’t think there’s much to compare. Aside from my extreme annoyance with the Julia retcon, it was pretty much just a pleasant framing device. I do sort of prefer when, monsters underground notwithstanding, Paradise Island really is a paradise, and the supervillain battles are concentrated in the outside world. Not that Perez’s run doesn’t have threats crop up on the island, but mainly after several much more peaceful visits (and I’m counting the trials from early in the run as peaceful, since that area below the island is sealed off from the Paradise-y portions of it), so it has a greater impact.

[BatJamags]

So, to respond to others:

@Jay_Kay: You bring up a couple points I didn’t mention, but I think I pretty much agree with everything you said about the questions.

I’m also glad I’m not the only one who thinks that, if nothing else, Batman is as much of a mask as Bruce Wayne. Batman’s persona is 90% theatrics and that can’t come that naturally.

That said, I’m not so on board for Frank Miller’s take on Wonder Woman. Or Superman. Or Batman. Or just about anybody except maybe Jim Gordon. His characters always feel like shallow, slightly bitter caricatures of themselves somehow, even when he’s trying to give them depth.

@AntLeon: I can go either way on the invisible plane. It’s fun, but doesn’t really make a ton of sense with her origin.

@Nu52: I guess I didn’t really think of them in terms of a dark trinity, but now that you mention it, it makes sense that that’s what Wagner was going for. That explains some of the odd matchups at the end, since I guess he was trying to have them switch dance partners from their direct counterparts. Ra’s should not have posed any serious threat to Wonder Woman in a 1v1 fight, and Batman’s gaining the upper hand over Bizarro is pretty ridiculous as well. It’s also a little weird because Artemis hasn’t really been a villain as such, so she seems like an odd counterpoint to Diana. Plus, did Ra’s really not have anyone already in his organization who could train his soldiers?

[AntLeon]

@nu52 I have to defer to your expertise since you’ve read more Wonder Woman than me. That being said, i stand by what i was saying about Bruce/Bat in a previous post.

@Jay_Kay I knew dig was the wrong word, but i went with it anyway. in the pic you posted, it looks like a c and not a k.

@BatJamags the jet implies technology Amazons shouldn’t or wouldn’t normally have. What I liked was seeing an actual interior. Like the winged armor of gold we saw in an earlier week’s reading selection. As we progress in Perez’s run, you will have to rank the stupidity of the retcons.

[nu52]

@TechnicallyOnTimeJamags

Yeah, the art was a strong reason for the book works. I could totally see this art style in an animated film.

Yes! I loved how he was missing the same train every single day on purpose. Everyone even knew him as the guy that was always late. I like when he sells his cover, but he didn’t do it in a bumbling way, it was more organic. I’m not familiar with Barry doing that, but thanks Barry for the cool sequence

I felt Batman did earn trust. Perhaps not 100% of Diana’s trust, but a heck of a lot. I guess I didn’t require a full completed arc for the Trinity since this was their first outing and we know they’ll have many more after that. I actually felt Batman did justify himself as a hero through a lot of the book. He got a lot of shining moments, (even when they didn’t make sense) like him taking out Bizarro and Artemis while Diana struggled with Ra’s. He even took care of the weapon of mass destruction despite Bizarro coming for him. I felt his heroism was on display plenty in this title.

True, I hadn’t thought about Diana doing the same thing right after. I guess she wasn’t sitting there torturing anyone. I actually liked that this Batman just rolled with the lasso though. Some versions of Bats would have been weary of the lasso and whether it works and dragged out not trusting that, but this one took the lasso and started using it himself. That was fun.

I almost skipped the annual too because the Dive Back In section was listing the next issue # not the first annual. Now, it keeps trying to get me to read the second annual, LOL.

Seriously, such a good way to wrap up Myndi’s story and showcase her impact on the people around her. I really felt happy for her getting to go to Themyscira after all.

TechnicallyOnTimeJamags tapping out and BluntJamags coming in! I love it. In terms of comic book retcons, this ranks pretty low for me. I didn’t mind it, but I see what you’re saying. I guess the Diana Trevor stuff was so ridiculous that this didn’t make me feel too much one way or the other. The magic kiss thing, we’ve seen in fairy tales and it’s like a seed planted whether it gets watered and grows still depends on the person. It was convoluted, but the gods have already been depicted as going through extra lengths to be dramatic for dramas sake with having Steve Trevor be the one to “destroy” Themyscira after his mom was one of their heroes. I forgive it because her story of her home life and her relationship with her husband and daughter have been well told.

I actually liked the first time Wonder Woman confronts Ra’s, before Bizarro shows up. She had Ra’s in her grasp quickly that time. Now that I think about it, did Diana and Artemis ever fight? I did find it odd that Artemis had to come in to train the soldiers. They weren’t League right? They were called the Purge, but is that an offshoot of the League or is it a prototype leading up to the LoA? I would read a sequel to this series. Talia did get Ra’s at the end.

[nu52]

@AntLeon Totally fair! It’s a debate many people have and many agree with you.

I still like the jet though
If people are constantly crash landing there or Amazons keep going out into the world, then I could see them getting that tech somehow. Superman’s Fortress of Solitude is ridiculous, but I still like it

[AntLeon]

the Fortress isn’t so bad if Superman actually built it as opposed to the magic construction in Superman '77.

With respect to the jet, i refer you to what i said “at” Jamags.

[nu52]

I like how this Superman was constantly winking.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/448834776959549460/625758445093650432/image1.jpg

[nu52]

They need to make Superman wink more often, it’s endearing

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/448834776959549460/625758445093650433/image0.jpg

[nu52]

He even winked at Batsy

[AntLeon]

If you want a winking Superman, i want to suggest the animated New Adventures of Superman of '66, but it’s at the end of each story (vignette?) and technically it’s Clark.