A Mirror; Or Maybe A Lookingglass?
I have only a couple of nits to pick with this issue. DC Comics has this Multiverse with an infinite number of worlds. Like Marvel Comics each Earth has a designation. I could give a rats - - ! I've read and enjoyed Gotham By Gaslight, The Blue, The Grey, The Bat, Holy Terror, Speeding Bullets, Justice League: The Nail, just to name a few of the really good Elseworlds stories. Then there were the Elseworlds Annuals. Then there was the incredible Earth-2, that featured the revamped Crime Syndicate. If only there had been as much detail given to the alternate versions of Luthor, Joker and The Riddler as there has been to the heroes, I'd be happy. I'm disappointed with the return of the Multiverse, and the 52 Earths. That shouldn't be a problem for Kurt, Mark and Fabian. But it is a problem for me to really appreciate and enjoy Trinity.
In Trinity #20, Firestorm is trying to adjust to the alternate reality around him. He's not sure if he is in an alternate timeline or on an alternate Earth. He just knows that he is unfamiliar with his surroundings.
I shouldn't have a problem with it because I have rejected the Multiverse as heresy. There is one Earth. A single, consistent timeline. History that includes Carter Hall - the reincarnated Prince Khufu - as Hawkman, a member of the wartime Justice Society and liason to the Justice League. His Shiera was reincarnated as Kendra, a Thanagarian Hawkgirl. (Hey, DC revises its continutity so often I've decided to create my own, so that I can navigate easier.)
As a Golden Age fan, this is a great issue to look at a different way the JSA handled McCathy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. I like this version much better. Except for the whole Squadron Supreme aspect of it, where the JSA take over the world.
The pivotal point of the issue is where Firestorm realizes that in a world without Superman, the original JSA are just men and women -less a mystery - more men and women who rise up to face challenges. In a world without Superman, other metahumans are rejected as abnormal, outcasts, freaks. The cool line of the issue is when Firestorm comepares Aquaman to Superman. Without Superman, there are no other super-heroes. That's what comics always were about growing up, reading about super-heroes.
I'm not really sure about the Amazos as Sentinels. After seeing the Borg, I can't see the need for such an over-sized robot. Seems more like overkill. The Sentinels were cool, just unrealistic. The Borg are more menacing.I wonder who the faceless guys on the flyers are?
I have a hard time believing that any one else remembers bits and pieces of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman if they've been erased out of existence from the timeline. How can you remember something you've never experienced?
This is the issue where everything clicked together. Of course the fabric of this has been coming together over the last few issues.
If you pick this issue up for no other reason, grab it for Peter Parker scratching his head looking at the Tomahawk statue. Mark bagley sneaked Peter Parker into Trinity. And his Superman is looking less and less like Peter's father.