Trinity # 17

The three mystery villains finally implement their scheme, transforming Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman-- and in the process, changing the whole world.

The main feature of this story deals almost entirely with the effects of the magical spell unleashed on the heroes. There is a gigantic light show and then slowly, we see the effects of the spell unfold--- but what really happens remains unrevealed-- at least till next issue.

In fact, most of the actual story in this issue takes place in the back feature where we learn the background of the alien monster called "Konvikt who earlier battled the heroes and now breaks out of jail. It turns out that he is just a kid from the wrong side of the tracks, caught up in a star-crossed romance. It is difficult to say how this relates to the main plotline but the character clearly has a bigger role to play in this book.

It is disappointing to see that the so-called Trinity of DC Comics plays such a small role in this issue. Even the other DC heroesare relegated to background cameos. This puts the burden on Konvikt to carry the story in this issue and while Konvikt is becoming more interesting, his plight alone is not enough to make people keep reading.

The art is a bit uneven. The main "Trinity" story is depicted well, even though all we really see are explosions and energy trails. The Konvikt backup meanwhile looks rather rushed. It is told in the form of flashbacks to Konvikt's home planet while he awaits trial in some government prison on Earth. But McDaniel makes both the flashbacks and the present day "Earth" scenes look alike so it is hard to tell which scenes came first. McDaniel's blocky style simply does not lend itself to these kind of stories where setting and context are so important. All in all, this is a disappointing issue for TRINITY. Maybe since this is a weekly title, they feel they can spend an entire issue on special effects.  Well, maybe they could have given us a stronger back-up story to tide us over.