New Comics!: The "Trinity War" Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Justice League of America #7:  So, the Secret Society sent Dr. Psycho to Khandaq, possibly to convince Superman into killing Dr. Light, except maybe Amanda Waller did it first.  So, is Amanda Waller colluding with the Secret Society or did she and its mysterious leader just happen to have the same idea on how to discredit Superman?  Also, what exactly is the Box, since it apparently isn't what we think it is?  At this point, Johns has pretty much jettisoned any effort at characterization, letting the mysteries propel the story.  It actually works, but I'm still not really sure that I care all that much about the answers.

Justice League Dark #23:  It's not a box, it's a doorway and Amanda Waller claims that she didn't get Superman to kill Dr. Light, though no one really believes her.  Onto the conclusion!

Justice League #23:  OK, I acknowledge that this ending would've been a lot cooler if I knew more about the DC Multiverse and, specifically, Earth-3.  I'm sure Wikipedia will reveal a lot, though I know enough that I recognize Owlman as Earth-3's Bruce Wayne, making the revelation that Alfred was the Secret Society's leader all the more awesome.  ("The butler did it."  Heh.  Hilarious.)  I was also impressed by how well Johns delivered the revelation that the Atom (a.k.a. Atomica) was playing all sides; I was really honestly shocked not only by the revelation that she was an Earth-3 villain but also by how well her treachery explained Superman's illness.  (The confirmation that the Secret Society played Dr. Psycho by using him as a diversion was also welcome.)  The transformation of Vic's armor into a super-villain -- activating the threat inherent from the start when his father used a poorly understood technology to save him -- was just icing on the cake.

That said, Johns leaves some things on the table, if only because this plot has been building for so long that it's hard to remember all the details.  I don't really recall how the JLA discovered the Secret Society and I don't think we ever really got a full understanding of how Alfred recruited so many DCnU villains into the Secret Society, since it's unclear what they had to gain.  But, in the end, these are minor quibbles and, in fact, probably due to my own faulty memory and not Johns' plotting.

Turning to the item at the center of this story, the fact that Pandora's Box did actually unleash evil onto the world -- in the form of the Crime Syndicate -- is pretty great.  I will say, though, that I don't understand how Pandora "opened" the Box in the first place if only someone from Earth-3 could do so.  Did the gods, whoever they are, trick her into thinking she did?  Why would they do that?  Moreover, we never really learn why Earth-3 put the Box on Earth in the first place.  Was it exactly as a back-up plan in case they had to abandon their Earth?  I get the sense that Johns isn't leaving those questions on the table so much as they're answered in one of the side mini-series, like "Trinity of Sin:  Pandora."  I'm not all that curious about the answers, so I'm happy to leave them be.

Honestly?  I'm really tempted to get "Forever Evil."  I can't believe this issue would convince me to do that, but it was actually that good.  I was ready to turn my back on "Justice League," but I think I've got some back ordering to do.  What an awesome surprise.

Justice League Dark #22 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

The problem with this issue is that Lemire is forced to remix the three existing teams into three entirely different teams, with each character taking up a different side for a specific reason.  However, with so many characters, Lemire never really gets to spell out those reasons for all the characters.  It’s not like we’re really give insight into why Atom, Element Woman, and Firestorm decide to defy Waller’s orders and follow Superman.  Moreover, for the characters whose motivations are identified, they don’t always make sense.  I kind of doubt Batman would just take the Phantom Stranger’s word that Wonder Woman approaching Pandora would make matters worse.  He acts against his teammate (and someone who knows a thing or two about the box) simply because a stranger (heh) tells him to do so?  I get that Lemire is pressed for time here, but this issue reads as little more than a fantasy-football draft.

Moreover, the plot is getting extremely difficult to follow.  The search for Dr. Light’s soul, John Constantine’s mysterious side quest with Shazam!, Superman following a newspaper clipping conveniently stating that a mind-controlling super-villain was present in Khandaq the day before he got there:  it’s all a bit much.  I'm starting to doubt that Johns and Lemire are going to be able to cover the ground that they want to cover in a six-part series.  That generally means that a lot of action is going to happen in the tie-in issues, which usually means that I'm going the ending, when it comes, is going to make little sense to those of us not collecting all the tie-in issues.  We'll see, but color me skeptical that I'm going to be happy at the end.