Trinity of Sin #1 (DC)

writer: J.M. DeMatteis
artist: Yvel Guichet

via Comic Vine

Combining Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger and Trinity of Sin: Pandora and the nonexistent Trinity of Sin: The Question is the new series called Happy Fun Time Trinity of Sin.

I figured I had to at least catch the debut issue, because both parent titles are among series I probably should have been reading all along anyway.  I liked the issue I caught of Phantom Stranger, and Pandora comes with her a whole host of expectations as the most important new character of the New 52, although her actual story debut and subsequent adventures may have undermined her potential.

Originally introduced as the mystery figure who theoretically explained everything about the New 52, Pandora didn't actually enter into regular appearances until a year or so into the DC relaunch, and by that time her own series was almost immediately tied in with a crossover arc.  Fans are increasingly uneasy with series that seem to spend too much of their time interrupted in crossover arcs.  That left Pandora as the latest new character to seemingly become instantly forgotten.

Thankfully she has another shot, this time with a little less pressure.  The first of the three to be featured in the issue, however, is the Question, who has been repositioned to be a mystical figure rather than a vigilante who wears a faceless flesh mask (who, I like to point out, was the inspiration for Watchmen's Rorschach), whose penchant for being defined, well, by questions has been taken to its greatest possible degree.  

Next Phantom Stranger, who used to be known as the guy whose secret origin left him, well, to be a stranger, but has for a while been associated with the death of Jesus, making him the most obvious of the three to be forced to walk the earth (like Cain, as Jules points out in Pulp Fiction, although he might have been referring to Kung Fu and/or Kill Bill).  He's seen palling around with Dr. Thirteen, a semi-obscure mystical detective, who's the most famous of the apparent victims in the issue.

Then comes Pandora.  What defines her?  She's immediately linked with the Greek myth of the box of sin, and as such is the obvious unifying figure for the whole concept for anyone who doesn't know what Phantom Stranger is supposed to be about much less the Question's current role.  It seems Trinity of Sin continues to make her story more about her future than her past, a signal of what's to come.  I guess we'll see about that.  I assume the whole point of the series is to help keep her story going, and I think it's a good idea to keep her contextualized, whether it's in direct associations with better-known figures or the general concept.  It forces everyone to remember what's supposed to make her special.  

When the New 52 launched there were distinct corners of the landscape put into groups.  These guys might otherwise have been placed in the Justice League Dark camp, but they're, well, darker, more haunted figures rather than a bunch of outcasts who tend to have had Vertigo series attached to their recent pasts.  They're the guys who might have been Vertigo figures but never were, a little too superhero but also not superhero enough.  If that makes any sense.  The result, in the current DC landscape, is relatively the same.  If that helps.

I'll be keeping my eye on this one.