By Kurt Busiek, Mark Bagley, Scott McDaniel, Tom Derenick, Mike Norton (pencils), Art Thibert, Andy Owens, Wayne Faucher, and Jerry Ordway (inks), Pete Pantazis, Allen Passalaqua (colors)
“Trinity rolls on this week…” is what I would be saying to you if anything happened. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman experience a very real hallucination connected to their dream from the previous issue. Then, two seemingly unconnected characters show up and beat up Green Lantern. Sound thin? Well, you heard right. On one hand, it’s nice not to have an issue as dense with information as the first. At the same time, I’d like to feel like more than an hour has passed.
The dialogue itself is still written well. The introduction of Green Lantern seems out of place, mostly because nothing really happens. I’d just rather get some new information as to how he fits into this story than see a cameo. Issue #1 had two stories and we saw both the heroes and villains come together, then try to figure out what was going on. Issue #2, goes for the same idea, without any of the progress. It’s like reading a season of 24 in the sense that every episode is a short period of time. Unlike 24, there isn’t an obscene amount of action between each commercial. In issue #1, I had hope the creative team would be able to pay off everything set they set up. As of now, the returns are diminishing.
Mark Bagley’s art remains consistent, but I still feel like there could be more detail put into the faces of everyone involved. On the plus side, the battle scenes throughout depict a lot of realistic collateral damage. The bad news is that we get so few panels of it, it’s hard to really tell what’s going on.
The main problem I have with weekly comics is the pacing. More issues means more time in most people’s minds, so there’s a real tendency to “pace.” That’s why I prefer monthly titles, there’s just a larger sense of urgency to keep everything fresh and exciting. The hallucinations our heroes experience are really confusing, until you find out that the events aren’t really happening. Once you know that, it’s expected to force some progress (or answers) and none come! Instead of moving to the Batcave to analyze, we get a Green Lantern story. This many missteps (and we’re only at issue #2) isn’t a good sign. (Grade: C)
- Ben Berger
Filed under: DC Comics, Reviews Tagged: | Allen Passalaqua, and Jerry Ordway, Andy Owens, Art Thibert, Batman, Batman, Kurt Busiek, Mark Bagley, Mike Norton, Pete Pantazis, Scott McDaniel, Superman, Superman, Tom Derenick, Trinity #2, Wayne Faucher, Wonder Woman
