Justice League: Trinity War Hardcover – March 18, 2014

At this rate, I'm going to have to read the full New 52 Justice League run of Geoff Johns to the end since that is what I would call blockbuster comics - gorgeous art, high stakes, and multitudes of supporting characters. And crossover events everywhere. This one starts with a quick exposition - ages ago, Pandora and two other humans were condemned to live forever on Earth for their magical sins. In the case of Pandora, it was her opening the proverbial box and letting loose the evils trapped inside. The other two are amusingly Phantom Stranger and Question (I wasn't familiar with their New 52 origins). Fast-forward to today and Pandora is still trying to put the cat back in the bag and she needs Justice League help for that. While JL has troubles of their own with JL Dark and JL of America (yeah, maybe there's a little too many of them). Neatly split in two along the fault lines by the machinations of very cute Amanda Waller, the main JLs butt heads everywhere. JLD is sort of in the back but has their place with New 52's Constantine in the lead. It all ends almost right where Forever Evil starts, so that's another plus.

I've been a comic book fan and collector ever since I was 10 years old. Even in my 30's I still continue to random buy a few titles here & there when I want to catch up on comics. I will say though I am not a very big fan of comic book universe reboots and I think that both DC & Marvel does it to often in this day in age and I understand that they are just trying to keep their characters modern with pop culture and the times. Rebooting comics every 5-10 years from Marvel & DC is out of hand and it becomes hard to keep up with certain titles from both publishers. Not to mention buying comics are expensive as ever now compared to maybe 20-25 years ago. So now I just prefer to buy the stories in novel form instead of issue to issue.Now with that being said...Since this is the era of rebooting/relaunching characters & ideas in comics I'd have to say that between both companies I prefer reading titles from DC. I remember picking up Batman and Batman & Robin both vol. 1's and I really enjoyed stories & artwork so I continued to buy both series because of the stories. Then I figured I would buy something different then my usual comics (Batman, Spiderman, Wolverine, etc.,) so I ordered Justice League vol. 1 some months back and I must say I wasn't very crazy about it. To me vol.1 just came off as the typical save the world from the bad guy story. It turned me away from JL.I got bored and wanted to pick up some reading again and I decided to take another chance on Justice League and I read some reviews on different JL story arcs some were mixed some were really bad. I decided to take a chance on Trinity War because it sounded interesting from the author review I read on here. I was not disappointed I liked the artwork, the story, & the concept. If DC can stay consistent on giving good JL stories I will continue to buy and Trinity War was a lengthy read and great price for the amount of pages written.

Trinity War is tough. This rather large sized event book is arguably DC's New-52 era take on Marvel's Civil War with the three Justice League teams all going head to head against one another. In reality, however, Trinity War is frankly just an event that sets up a bigger, much better event: Forever Evil. The plot of Trinity War has been set up since Flashpoint when Pandora first showed up and, at the time, seemed to merge the DC imprints into one new timeline (now that has seemingly been retconned to be the work of Dr. Manhattan). Throughout the first volumes of Justice League we have seen the formation of the Secret Society (led by a mysterious figured called the Outsider), as well as confrontations between Pandora and the Phantom Stranger. These plots come to a head when the Secret Society somehow frames Superman for the murder of Dr. Light and sets off a fight between the Justice League and the JLA. The two groups, as well as the Justice League Dark, try different means of proving Superman's innocence. In the end, all three groups are put on a collision course for Pandora's Box which seems to be the source of the literal Seven Sins. Again, the entire plot is a red herring to set up the arrival of the Crime Syndicate of Earth 3 and the plot of Forever Evil (in which Lex Luthor and other super villains are the ones to save the world from the evil dopplegangers).Trinity War is a fun enough read and it is impressive how much time Geoff Johns spent setting up the story, but it is seriously held back by the fact that the actual war over Pandora's Box ends up amounting to so little. Dr. Light is a throw away character used as a plot device with nothing in common with any of the pre-New 52 variations of the character; the Seven Sins (despite being shown to be sentient and influencing the world with their evil) drop out of the story entirely in the climax and don't work as well as they did in the pre-Flashpoint continuity; and there are certain plot holes that don't add up (at no point is it explained how Shazam being corrupted by the Box leads to the resurrection of Black Adam who was dead at the start of the book but plays a major role in Forever Evil). Again the constant fake outs and red herrings work well enough but you can't help but wonder if some aspects of the big "Trinity of Evil" story were sacrificed in favor of the simpler Crime Syndicate threat. Speaking of, the worst aspect of the story is "Trinity of Evil" aka the New 52 retcons for Pandora, Phantom Stranger, and the Question. While Pandora works well enough as a character, the Phantom Stranger is barely in the story and is seemingly immediately killed off, and even worse the Question is now a paranormal entity who has been stripped of his identity instead of being a badass detective like he was in the Vic Sage/Renee Montoya years. All in all, a decent read but best for completionists. Casual readers may just want to rent this one.

Millenia ago, Pandora opened a mysterious box and freed the seven deadly sins into the mortal world. Cut back to the present day, and everyone who is anyone in dcverse is out to unfold the mysteries of pandora's box - the justice league, the justice league dark, the secret society, and pandora herself. The journey is adventurous, action-packed, and full of intrigue, and as such kept me hooked through the book. Geoff Johns manages to weave mythology, magic, and superheroes seamlessly. The art is really good throughout as well. However, as good as the journey is, the climax is quite underwhelming.Here are the reasons-1) The relationship of pandora's box to the seven deadly sins is not explained properly. The fact that we had been reading this massive GN to uncover this very mystery, makes you feel cheated.2) The book ends quite abruptly, at a cliifhanger, and you find that all this was just an excuse to setup the next volume - Forever Evil. Now, as such this would have been a fun satisfying twist, except for what i already mentioned in point 1.Basically, what the combination of points 1 and 2 does is that it renders this epic, thrill-filled journey of 300+ pages redundant. And this makes you feel like you were.. well, cheated. It's like - "sorry Mario, we know you had fun platforming through all these levels, but our princess is in another castle."READ THIS IF: you have been following the New 52 Justice League saga. At the very least, know that this volume is not standalone and you will have to read Forever Evil to finish the story.RECOMMENDED READING:The new 52 Justice league has been quite an eventful ride. If you want the proper, epic experience of this event, I'd recommend you read through these books for a seamless experience:-Justice League vol 1-JL vol 2-Aquaman vol 1 (as setup for throne of atlantis)-Aquaman vol 3 - Throne of Atlantis (not Justice league vol 3. Ive enumerated the reasons in Aquaman vol 3 review)-JL vol 4 - the Grid- JL of America vol 1 - world's most dangerous (delves into the Secret Society)- Shazam vol 1 (features the seven deadly sins. but more importantly, this book is amazing and a must must read. )-TRINITY WAR-Forever EvilYou might also want to read some Justice League Dark issues, to get acquainted with the team. I've read the first volume, and it wasn't that great. But i've heard the subsequent two volumes are good

The story for Trinity War poses a battle of three sides, the main one being with the Justice League (starring Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman), versus the ARGUS sponsored Justice League of America (featuring Martian Manhunter, Hawkman and Green Arrow) and Justice League Dark (consisting of John Constantine, Deadman and Zatanna), but it also features a battle of other trinities too.Batman is at war with Wonder Woman and Superman over the nature of their new relationship, suggesting that the two most powerful people in the world being together would concern governments and agencies around the world. The other trinity is the Trinity of Sin, Pandora, Phantom Stranger and The Question, who are battling with each other over the nature of the relic known as Pandora's Box, which Pandora is trying to re-open in order to return the evil of the world to the box.These events all come together and the true nature of the Box is revealed and leads to the events of Forever Evil. This story is a good lead up to Forever Evil (a far superior story) but it can often be too confusing because of the multitude of characters involved. Had the story contained a trinity of characters from each group instead of all of them, it would probably have been more enjoyable. The twist at the end of the book regarding the nature of Pandora's Box is excellent and is something that is hard to predict.The art is fantastic throughout but the writing styles of the different books don't mesh well together, even though they are good in their own right.Definitely buy this book to lead into Forever Evil.

This graphic novel consisting of 12 issues put together in one volume is amongst the best dc tales I have read since the launch of 'The New 52'. You don't have to be a hardcore comic book fan to enjoy this although it helps to understand the intricacies.So what's it about?Basically a long long time ago Pandora is one of three (the trinity of sin?) who was sentenced to a circle of wizards to walk the Earth in eternal torment observing the horrors that she was purportedly responsible for. Her crime - opening Pandora's box and unleashing the seven sins upon the world. As the centuries have passed by Pandora has come to believe that the seven sins can be returned to the box - their prison, but only by one of the purest or darkest of hearts. Pandora sets her sights on Superman.Needless to say things go wrong and this is the catalyst for a storm pitting the Justice League against the Justice League Of America, justice League Dark and so forth.There is no happy ending here folks and essentially what this boils down to is a prelude to the Forever Evil saga. But that is a different story.You will not be disappointed by this book although in my opinion a couple of the issues could have been done away with. Many characters play key roles such as John Constantine, Phantom Stranger etc.Great purchase!

This story sets the base for all the upcoming parts

Really enjoyable story that sees the three Justice Leagues bump heads. The main JL continues to be strong, and Amanda Waller's own JL are a solid bunch, but for me it is the Justice League Dark that really shine. Constantine is really well handled, and it is great to see him included into the main DC universe. So many characters, if you are not a massive DC fan it can get a little confusing, but overall the Volume holds up on its own without the need to have been following any of the individual runs.So why not 5 stars? Simply because the follow up to this, Forever Evil, blows it out the water.