Justice League: The Trinity War

As the superhero genre moves into film and television successfully, superhero comics are increasingly left to justify their existence with huge, multilayered spectacles—event comics that offer super-cameos in sprawling stories. This collection, spanning multiple DC titles, revolves around three versions of the Justice League in conflict with the legendary Pandora, and presents more of the same in competent but unenthralling form. The story involves Pandora stealing her box back from Steve Trevor’s vault in order to recapture all the evils it unleashed and win her reputation back. Every superhero who has anything to do with a current version of the Justice League (including yet another version of Shazam that misses the mark) becomes involved in the confused scuffle. All the expected tropes are there—Superman’s goodness, Batman’s hauntedness, Wonder Woman’s nobility—masquerading as depth. A surprise ending—the best part of the book—eventually ties things up, but leaves on a cliffhanger to drive sales to the follow-up miniseries. Readers who like cameo-driven epics will best appreciate this. (Mar.)