Book Review: Trinity War by Geoff Johns et al.

Trinity War written by Geoff Johns and others

8000 years before Christ, Pandora and two others are punished for their crimes. Pandora's crime is opening her box (a creepy golden skull with an extra ruby eye in the forehead), which lets evil enter the Earth. She is forced to wander the planet for eternity and see the results of her act. In modern times, she is told that she can undo the damage if she can get the person with the purest or the darkest heart to open the box. She goes to Superman, who tries to open it but is seemingly possessed by an evil entity. Pandora flees with the box and Superman returns to normal (or so we are lead to believe).

Meanwhile, Steve Trevor (ex-boyfriend of Wonder Woman) is in charge of the Justice League of America. They are a group of second-string superheroes put together by a government agent in case the Justice League (Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, et al.) gets out of line. Just such a situation arises when the Justice League goes to Kahndaq (a fictional African country) where Shazam is burying his nemesis, Black Adam, which may cause a massive political incident. Shazam doesn't surrender and a fight breaks out. The Justice League of America shows up and the fight gets bigger. Superman, in a fit of rage, kills JLA member Doctor Light (don't worry if you haven't heard of him--apparently he is a recent addition to the DC canon) so things go from bad to worse. Superman is imprisoned and becomes physically ill while the rest of the superheroes (including Justice League Dark members who specialize in magic) try to figure out what really happened and what to do with Pandora and her box.

The plot is sprawling, with plenty of minor mysteries along the way. I found it interesting but a little overwhelming since every current hero character is stuffed into the story, some of whom I know little or nothing (who is Stargirl and what does her cane do? No answers in this book). Without that larger awareness of the DC universe, parts are hard to follow. And the story winds up as a lead in to another story, which is clever marketing but I'm not so interested that I am going to get the next volume.

At least I know a lot more about the story for the Dice Masters Organized Play campaign I'm in (which doesn't really follow the plot of the graphic novel but there are flavor elements).