Review: Trinity #5

Quick Summary

Pros: This issue reveals a lot in terms of what has been happening in the series so far. Also Manapul has returned on the art, meaning that this issue looks beautiful.

Cons: This issue is very exposition heavy and comes right after other very exposition heavy issues. It does nothing to move the story along.

Overall: The journey through the Trinity’s mind is over and the real villain has finally shown up. This issue finally begins to delve into the backstory behind what has been going on and how our heroes are in their current situation. However, in order to get to what this story has been leading up to, more exposition must be given. This is an alright issue overall, despite it being dedicated to backstory, once again. Hopefully, the series will start to pick up again in the next issue.

Story

With what was perhaps too much introduction in the past, this issue finally starts to dig into what is actually going on in this comic series. Previous issues showed Mongul and Poison Ivy as villains but told nothing of their plans. In this issue, things are finally revealed and the motivations behind this story are focused on, rather than unrelated backstory. However, the story is still based firmly in exposition which leads to very little actually happening in this issue. Hopefully this means that this will be the last exposition heavy issue for a while and that the series can work on making things happen again.

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The best part of this issue is that it actually focuses on the plot that this series has introduced. The past few issues were pleasant in their own way, but they focused on individual examinations of each member of the Trinity and did not really give any information about what was going on in this story. This issue deals with what is going on now and begins to give the first pieces of information about it. It shows why Poison Ivy is working with Mongul and how the Trinity is involved in this, opening up a very interesting story for the next issue to continue. Hopefully this set up will pay off and this series will really kick it up a notch.

The problem with this however, is that this series is already feeling very heavy on exposition; the past three issues have just dealt with learning about each member of the Trinity. Now, the first issue in a while not to be focused on a member of the Trinity’s backstory ends up being focused on the villain’s backstory instead. It really is starting to wear on the series as nothing much has actually happened, outside of character development, in the last five issues. Although it is nice that this latest bit of backstory is relevant to the current story arc, it has the unfortunate timing since it comes immediately after three issues of backstory.

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Art

Manapul is back on art and the wait has paid off. This issue features the same stunning work that made the first few issues great. A lot of these praises have already been sung in our review of the first and second issues so make sure to read those as well.

In this issue, Manapul spends time showing off how fantastic he is able to draw Poison Ivy, especially when surrounded by plants. In these scenes, everything looks trippy and beautiful in a way that gives a magical feeling to the art. This is particularly useful in this issue to convey the crossover between the dream world and reality. Overall, the art in this issue is really good and makes the issue that much more enjoyable to read.

Continuity

This story is the continuation of a storyline started in Trinity #1 and continued on through to here. There are not too many connections in this issue that were not present in the first issue, which really just explains how the character’s got themselves into this situation. To see those, check the Continuity section of ComicBookWire’s review of Issue #1.

• The issue makes a reference to Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life & Death. This is pretty obvious though as it is clearly marked in an editor’s note.