Trinity of Sin—Pandora 1: The Curse

Comic Info

Trinity of Sin: Pandora #2

Reprints Justice League (2) #0 and #6 and Trinity of Sin:  Pandora #1-5 (April 2012-January 2014).  A girl named Pandora accidentally unleashed something on the world.  Along with the Phantom Stranger and the Question, Pandora has been damned for eternity for her actions, but Pandora is out to change that.  With help from an inventor named Marcus, Pandora wants to reclaim the box and capture her “children”…but Pandora might discover the box holds a far worse secret!

Written by Ray Fawkes with additional stories by Geoff Johns, Trinity of Sin—Pandora Volume 1:  The Curse is a spin-off title of the Trinity War series.  The comic is tied to Trinity of Sin:  The Phantom Stranger and serves as a bridge between the New 52’s creation in Flashpoint and Forever Evil.

Pandora was a character hanging around the New 52 DC Universe from the get-go.  You saw flashes of her in Flashpoint with little explanation of who she was and her role in the start of the universe.  Her character popped up a few times around the universe with her bigger appearances in Justice League collected her with the first issues of her series.  Pandora represents everything good and bad about the comic book market.

If you were a kid and you picked up the first issue of Pandora, you’d get a basic set-up for the series.  The second issue however throws all the set-up to the wind.  The book jumps to a Trinity War tie-in (not an actual part of the Trinity War) with no explanation of what’s going on or what is occurring.  The next issue jumps to the aftermath and straight into Forever Evil.  The book is not self-contained, but it also didn’t try to physically tie it to either story by having it be part of the crossover event…it is frustrating as a reader and makes you not want to read the series since it just fills like filler.

Trinity of Sin: Pandora #3

This is too bad because Pandora herself has moments of interest.  She pretty much takes the visual clues from Dark Horse Comics’ The Ghost (except in red) and shoots anything that comes at her (with little effect).  Her character as someone wrongly damned however is great for exploration…it just isn’t explored well here.

The art for the comic is solid, but issue like the Trinity War issues feature a lot of splash art with little context for pages.  I am on the side that the art enhances the story more often the story enhances the art and this book relies on the story being ignored for chunks to look at the art which seems weak.

Trinity of Sin—Pandora 1:  The Curse is an unfortunate byproduct of the current comic market.  It is a book you read and doesn’t make sense due to the comic “big event” trends, but it is also a book you read and question why it was ever green-lit.  Pandora cannot carry the comic more than a few storylines unless it is fantastic…which it isn’t.  You read this comic and realize it is doomed for cancellation.  Trinity of Sin—Pandora 1:  The Curse was followed by the final volume Trinity of Sin—Pandora 2:  Choices.

Related Links:

Trinity of Sin—The Phantom Stranger 1:  A Stranger Among Us