Trinity: The Road to

No, this is not going to be about that terrible mini by Wagner nor misguided and irrelevant series during Rebirth initiative. This series of posts is going to be about something way more interesting and better - Busiek's weekly Trinity series. In the first post we'll be covering some key earlier works by Busiek that led to Trinity and how it relates to Morrison's work.

It all starts with wonderful JLA: Earth 2 story where Morrison and Quitely created a new version of CSA existing in anti-matter universe since at the time DC was operating under "no alternate universes" direction.

And in JLA/Avengers crossover by Busiek and Perez we have Krona destroying alternative universes in Marvel and DC. So obviously since DC technically doesn't have alternate universes... anti-matter universe gets hit instead. This is important bit that is revisited later. Another important bit is that Krona is put into the egg at the end of the story. Other than that it is also a wonderful story that is worth reading if you haven't done it already.

What I like about these stories is that they are complete, but leave enough room that can be later built upon and that is what Busiek with Garney did in JLA: Syndicate Rules. One of the misguided criticisms of Morrison's story is that it is too meta with CSA being unable to lose in their own universe, but that is how things were back in the day! JLA, JSA and CSA had an advantage on their native Earths against other teams. I think that this is fun idea that can lead to unique stories. But many people don't agree and Busiek solves this "problem" by saying that after anti-matter universe was destroyed and recreated it changed - now CSA and JLA don't have an advantage on their native Earths, things are equal.

Another important thing is that it establishes that yes, JLA/Avengers story did happen and the egg actually exists in DC universe now. It is being observed by JLA, but they are unaware that Metron is actually hiding real data from them and something is going on with the egg.

Busiek also spends a lot of time fleshing out CSA and their world. Anti-matter AI Void Hound is also introduced in this story. Speaking about AIs we also get a return of Construct, it is a bit modernized when compared to Englehart's version and I wasn't really a fan of it. Original version, while certainly dated, has some charm and stands out compared to every other AI out there. Anyway, John Stewart gets involved with both of these AIs and while at first glance his story is resolved here it does get revisited in Trinity.

JLA: Syndicate Rules is not as good as JLA: Earth 2 or JLA/Avengers. So if you want quality standalone comics then you might want to skip JLA: Syndicate Rules. But if you are planning to read Trinity series then it is a must-read as well since it brings together many important bits that will become relevant as the story progresses. It is also worth reading if you are a big fan of CSA.

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