By Stephanie Mounce, The Batman Universe
41
In this review of the Trinity Special: World’s Finest #1, we look at the collected edition of backup stories from Tom King’s Wonder Woman run.
Trinity Special: World’s Finest #1
Written by TOM KING
Art by BELÉN ORTEGA
Cover by DANIEL SAMPERE
Variant covers by BELÉN ORTEGA, SWEENEY BOO, CHRISSIE ZULLO, SAOWEE
Page Count: 56 pages
Release Date: 9/4/2024
This review contains spoilers
Story 1 Summary: (Lizzie 4y, Damian 18y, Jon 23yo):
The boys are babysitting again and airing out some grievances towards each other about who’s had the worse life, when little Lizzie comes out of bed in her Wonder Woman pajamas, unable to sleep.
Damian, as skilled as he is in other aspect of life, demonstrates his lackluster story telling skills recounting a embellished Final Crisis fight between him against Darkseid, accidentally slipping in some more foul language.
Lizzie is unable to sleep now, thinking Darkseid is hiding in her closet with math (fearing the Anti-Life Equation). The two boys argue about the best way to wear her out so she has to go to sleep, with her insisting, while playing with her tappy pad, the only place she wants to go is the moon. Which they do.
Tucking her in after their romp on the moon’s surface, Damian guarantees her there is no Darkseid or math in her closet. Lizzie says she loves Damian, an emotion which he returns flustered. She then realizes she’s not sure what math looks like, at which Damian loses his final marble.
The boys pass out on the sofa, only to be joined moments later by Lizzie, her stuffed Jumpa, and her tappy pad.
Review:
I love this era of the trio. Tiny Lizzie and her baby sitting brothers makes me so happy. We once again get the running gag of Damian coming up with another thing “S” stands for (Schnook). The boys’ arguing can go a little long sometimes, but King finds way of having it not always be inane arguing for the sake of arguing. In typical meta King fashion, the TV Sports announcer’s commentary is paralleling the events in the story, which is a clever little story telling element. There is obviously some things going on that these two will need to talk out later, and showcases that Jon has really grown up in his ability to defend himself against Damian and fire back, something that was only in the very early stages when Jon was younger.
Lizzie is the perfect chaos agent in that she’s just a normal little girl. You can imagine almost any kid being like her – can’t sleep, only happy with one thing, asking all kids of questions, and having an irrational fear of a concept in her closet. The art is really cute and, other than a weird face Jon makes on the moon, is well done. One thing I like about Tom King’s writing is that he allows the art to speak for itself sometimes, and there are 7 panels at the end of the issue where Jon and the couch don’t move at all, allowing space for Damian to enter the panel, pass out, and for Lizzie to crawl on the couch and yawn, setting up a final gag with one word.
