Pandora 3
Ray Fawkes, Daniel Sampere
Trinity War Crossover
Spoiler alert! You have been warned!
Trinity War continues (and obviously, if you haven’t read the newest part in Justice League Dark yet, you should probably do so before picking this issue up) and we get a little more insight into the woman known only as Pandora. Writer Ray Fawkes is doing a better job than Jeff Lemire and I sort of wish they had reversed writerly duties, to be completely honest. His dialogue is strong and his storytelling ability is pretty good for a new writer, but he really seems to be wanting to write every character in this book significantly more than Pandora herself. It’s not super obvious, because he is a good writer and artist Daniel Sampere is doing a great job on pencils, but after three issues, I still don’t really care about or even like the main character.
The events are essentially recapping (again) of the Trinity War shenanigans with all of the fighting and the misunderstandings involving the various Justice Leagues, but with one major difference: Pandora can see the seven deadly sins working their magic on the world’s greatest heroes. I think this is a pretty neat way of setting up either that she is right and they are totally messing up the world or she is wrong and just plain crazy. I’m actually okay with both of those, but I admire the fact that DC is letting the reader drawn his or her own conclusions at this particular point in time. We then get some flashbacks, which are neat, but don’t really add too much to the story because they are simply too short. And then, in the final pages, we find out that the way to destroy the seven deadly sins is to embody them and then, apparently, just shoot them in the face. I’m sure there’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s sure what it seems like. This is a little weak if they’re real, but if they’re in her head, I guess that’s okay. I would still really enjoy her character a lot more if she ended up just being a crazy Zealot from the Wildstorm universe. Perhaps that’s only wishful thinking, though. We’ll see, I guess.
So, all in all, not a whole lot happens. It’s not bad and Fawkes is successfully keeping me reading, but I’m worried that the title character just isn’t intriguing enough to keep (or grab, for that matter) the attention of new readers. As a lifelong DC Comics fan, I’m interested to see where this series will go after it’s no longer a crossover tie-in guest star extravaganza. Perhaps we’ll get to see more of what Pandora was up to in the past, and not just glimpses, but actual full-blown scenes and storylines. I’d like to see more of that. I’d also be interested to know what else is going on in the rest of the DC Universe, not just involving the seven deadly sins. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the rest of the series (because it will probably get cancelled in the next wave) will focus entirely on her one woman hunt for the rest of the sins. It’ll basically be a supernatural and Biblical version of the Punisher, which sounds a lot cooler than it probably will be.
My Rating: 3/5
