Hello, nerds!!! Today I’ll be doing reviews on last week’s Pandora issue and my pulls from today! Let’s go!

Trinity of Sin: Pandora #1

So . . . I was looking forward to this and it let me down. Why? Pandora was a cool character, dripping in mystery and obviously powerful. She’s the mother of the New 52 DCU, the plot behind one of the most controversial moves in comic history. I expected more of her backstory. Instead we’re given a page of her life before she opened the box and learn nothing about her. Then we see her release the Seven Deadly Sins and mourn for her village before we see the Council of Eternity punish her.

Nothing really new at all. The rest of the comic follows her throughout history trying to make amends for her crime and stop the Sins. Then she’s told she can re-imprison the sins if she can open the Box. Next stop: Trinity War.

She’s supposed to be a sympathetic character, Ray Fawkes wants us to feel for her plight. I just don’t, I get that I’m supposed to but in all honesty I think Pandora loses something when we learn her backstory. The art is solid enough, nothing that makes me wet myself (for what it’s worth I think that Jae Lee would have been the best artist for a title like this). But the art team of Daniel Sampere, Vincente Cifuentes, and Patrick Zircher do a well enough job. But on the page the Sins are released they colors disgust me. Really. I think so much more could have been done with that pivotal moment in the history of Earth.

Verdict on this one: Meh. Two stars.

Justice League #22

Oh . . . Geoff Johns is at his Geoff-Johniest!!! 😀 Trinity War starts with a bang.

Madame Xanadu, with her future telling, reveals Tarot cards representative of the various League members and schemers involved, eventually uncovering the plot but not before the Secret Society tries to silence her.
It’s very well done story-telling device and there are some very powerful and touching scenes. The fight between Shazam and Superman, the JLA showing up to confront the JL for the first time, and Madame Xanadu’s reaction to a spoiler, the all out brawl between the JLA and JL, Question’s(yay!) bulletin board . . . all the players (The Trinity of Sin and the Justice Leagues) are all being lined up and it’s spine-tingling!

My favorite moment was when Wonder Woman states the reason her rogues gallery isn’t as extensive as the other Leaguer’s is because she “deals with them”, that’s right Princess is throwing some shade. Superman wasn’t too happy about that and they had their fist little tiff. Johns is great about actually portraying the character’s personalities and how well they play off of each other. Catwoman’s banter with Batman when the teams first confront is also gold. He just gets what the characters are like in their heads and how they would interact, I love it. A lot of people can’t write huge cross-overs/events well because the characters all become of one voice. So kudos to this issue for being action-packed and well written. Time will tell if the Trinity War will be all that DC has trumped it up to be but it’s off to a nice start.

The art is nice, the two-page spread between the fight is especially impressive. Ivan Reis has made some detailed scenes and Rod Reis has has colored them nicely. 

This issue was brilliant and has me stoked for the next one: 45. stars!

Batman #22

More Scott Snyder and Year One goodness!!! Batman still isn’t Batman but instead he’s a master of disguise trying to take on the Red Hood gang, meeting Riddler for the first time, and breaking poor Alfred’s heart!

It’s more Batman origin but with a nice twist. Brace wants to be dead, not literally, but he wanted to lay low and only try to save Gotham through his vigilantism. His uncle (mother’s brother and I do not trust him) tries

to force him into the open so he can help Gotham through his public identity. We know he eventually he does but it’s interesting to see this younger, immature Batman. He’s inflexible and kind of a jerk.

Capullo’s art is still awesome and the fact we can see a difference between his older and younger Bruce’s is impressive. What is most impressive, I think, was the conversation when Bruce first met Edward Nygma. Taking place on an ancient board game following the conversation was easy and interesting, the dialogue was heavy-handed with foreshadowing. Very well done. FCO Plascenia’s colors are a bit more campy in this title but it is offset nicely by the darker panels of a child Bruce in a bat cave.

This issue was good, can’t wait for the next: 3 stars.

Tags: Batman, Daniel Sampere, FCO Plascenia, Geoff Johns, Greg Capullo, Ivan Reis, Justice League, Madame Xanadu, Pandora, Patrick Zircher, Ray Fawes, Rod Reis, Scott Snyder, Shazam, Superman, Trinity of Sin: Pandora, Trinity War, Vincente Cifuentes, wonder woman