THE TRINITY WAR READING ORDER
The Trinity of Sin Emerges Complete
End Date: August 2013
There are three mysterious forces cursed to walk the world for eternity: They are The Phantom Stranger, The Question, and the mysterious lady known as Pandora. Together, the DC Universe knows of them as the "Trinity of Sin".
It is now present day. Pandora has emerged on the proverbial field and now decided to recover the ill-fated Pandora's Box which caused her downfall long ago. Her goal is simple: return the Seven Deadly Sins to the box. The process, however, is the problem; she will go through heroes and villains to accomplish this task, even if it means she is the unknowning pawn of a mysterious outsider who leads The Secret Society for his own purposes.
What you're about to read is the Trinity War Reading Order. It's fairly straight-forward and only comprised of a handful of issues. But included here is also some artwork and detailed summaries of each title. Don't worry! If you just want the RO itself, I've put it up here near the top. If you want more, though, continue downward.
Reading Order
The Official Issues Ordered By Occurrence
Final Edition
P01 Trinity War Preview (Optional)
P02 Trinity of Sin: Pandora #1 (Prelude)
Main Event
001 Justice League #22
002 Justice League of America #6
003 Justice League Dark #22
004 Constantine #5
005 Trinity of Sin: Pandora #2
006 Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger #11
007 Justice League of America #7
008 Trinity of Sin: Pandora #3
009 Justice League Dark #23
010 Justice League #23
Updates Section
Last Implemented:
Disclaimer: The Reading Order is fluid until the event is over.
10/23/2013 - Started this page to catch up with the Trinity War event, which leads into the Forever Evil event. I'll be finishing up the rest of these issues tomorrow and that'll be the finality to this page.
Detailed Summaries
Spoiler Information Included
P02 Trinity of Sin: Pandora #1 - Starts The Trinity War Prelude. Pandora begins by relating her origin, how she found the Box, opened it, and unleashed the Seven Deadly Sins upon mankind. Soon after, she's summoned to the Rock of Eternity and cursed to walk the world eternally undead, witnessing the results of her act. The issue then shows her walking through the ages, then turning to the teachings of the Druids, Wizards, Healers, and multiple martial arts. It also shows her meeting Vandal Savage. It finally brings her to present day 2013 where she meets a weapons maker in Aleppo who creates her runed guns and armament. Lastly, she's confronted by one of the mages of the Rock of Eternity who begs her forgiveness, stating they were wrong to curse her. He tells her that to imprison the seven sins, she needs to reacquire the Box and have someone of Brightest or Darkest heart open it. He leaves, then she believes she knows where to go. On the last panel, the heroic "S" of Superman gives us indication of who that may be.
001 Justice League #22 - Starts the official event. Chapter 1: The Deathcard. Beginning with a young woman walking into Madame Xanadu's shop. Xanadu begins drawing cards, each one leading to a small story introducing the Trinity War. Shazam! decides to fly to Kahndaq and spread Black Adam's ashes over the soil. At the same time, Pandora approaches Superman while he is with Wonder Woman. She gives him the Box to open, but he gets hit hard from the power. Pandora quickly gets the Box away from him. While Shazam! is one his way to Kahndaq, The Justice League (JL) finds out, heading their to route him. This, in turn, alerts Amanda Waller's Justice League of America (JLD), who boards a plane to route the JL. Shazam! and Superman meet and fight it out. Soon, the whole JL appears to stop him, but they are suddenly face-to-face with the JLA who orders them to leave. Suddenly, in response to Doctor Light's power, Superman goes crazy and kills him with his heat vision. Back at Xanadu's shop, she's increasingly worried about the "Trinity War" as she "sees" events unfold. Suddenly, she's ambushed by the girl, who is really "Plastique", a member of the Secret Society. She blows up Xanadu's shop. Behind the scenes, each member of the Trinity of Sin is now active, but the person manipulating everyone is the unknown leader of the Secret Society.
002 Justice League of America #6 - Chapter 2: No Title. The fight between the JL and JLA still continues in Kahndaq until Superman creates a might backlash and says he needs to be taken in. Steve Trevor then orders his arrest. The story continues back at ARGUS where the teams are recovering from their wounds. Waller then asks Firestorm to make her Kryptonite. At the same time, Batman and Wonder Woman are with a confined Superman. Wonder Woman then tells the Caped Crusader that what really caused Doctor Light's death was when Pandora's Box was put in his hands. Batman doesn't quite believe her. In turn, Diana goes to Hephaestus, the weaponsmith of Olypus, and asks him about it. He says he didn't make it and that the Olympus Gods had Pandora open it. She then heads to Justice League Dark and asks for their help. In the final scene, Colonel Trevor walks into the chamber confining Superman and removes the controlling helmet. It then turns out to be The Question, who asks him if he wants to find out who truly killed Doctor Light.
003 Justice League Dark #22 - Chapter 3: House of Cards. Xanadu is now captive of the mysterious character leading the Secret Society, Firestorm has finally made Kryptonite, and Batman and others study Doctor Light's body, The Phantom Stranger appears. He tells them that Wonder Woman has enlisted the aid of Justice League Dark and it would be bad if they found Pandora. In Superman's captive room, however, The Question finally convices the Man of Steel to escape after showing him a newspaper clip of Dr. Psycho in the area of Kahndaq. He decides to break out. And convinces most of the remaining heroes to ignore Amanda and follow him. Wonder Woman, in the meantime, convinces Constantine and the others to join with her; they head to the House of Mystery where Zatanna, Batman, and others are waiting. There's a standoff and Woman Woman attacks The Phantom Stranger. Sides are taken, splitting up all the heroes. Wonder Woman has Zatanna teleport her team out to locate Pandora. Colonel Trevor, Batman, and others call on Constantine to stop them, but he's disappeared with Shazam! As all this is happening, Superman is getting sicker; no one knows exactly why. Madame Xanadu is still in captivity, receiving future glimpses. The stranger then tells her he has a "mole" in the Justice League.
004 Constantine #5 - Trinity War Tie-In. Shows where Constantine took Shazam! John leads Shazam! to a bar and then tricks him into turning into Billy Batson and stealing his voice which in turn steal his power. Nearly at the same time, The Flame of Cold has a demon come forth and attack John in the bar. John becomes Shazam! and fights. Together, he and Billy defeat the creature; at the same time, Billy tricks him into giving him his powers back. As Shazam! he leaves the bar, but not before Constantine warns him not to touch the box.
005 Trinity of Sin: Pandora #2 - Trinity War Tie-In. Begins with "Pride" ordering "Envy" to block Pandora as she tries to remove them from the world. The next phase of the story has Agents Kincaid of SHADE and Chang of ARGUS working together and merging their files on Pandora. Back at the site where Pandora encountered Superman, members of the Secret Society, Giganta, Signalman, and Vandal Savage are attempting to track her down. She finds them before they find her and takes them out, except for Savage. They fight to the death, which means nothing to immortals, and she gives Vandal the Box, thinking he may have a heart of darkest evil. He doesn't and collapses under its power.
006 Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger #11 - Trinity War Tie-In. The Phantom Stranger leads Batman, Katana, and Deadman with him through heavenly realms. On their journey, the humans are drawn into their own versions of heaven, but the Stranger rescues them until they are finally in front of Doctor Light. Arthur doesn't remember anything useful to them and the Stranger vows to return him to the living. Suddenly, Zauriel and his angels intervene and send Doctor Light forward into the afterlife, and begin to banish Phantom Stranger forever.
007 Justice League of America #7 - Chapter 4. Opening with Lex Luthor, his lawyers say they could have him out of prison within the day. He's not concerned, though, because he knows someone set Superman up. Soon after, Pandora shows up. She wants to hand him the Box. Elsewhere, there are two divisions: Green Arrow, Superman, and teammates go after Doctor Psycho. They learn he's part of the Secret Society, but didn't mess with the Man of Steel. The Atom also admits that Waller created the JLA to replace the JL. The other team is headed by Wonder Woman with her group. They confront Lex as he's about to receive the Box. By the end of the issue, things go to worse. Wonder Woman is now under the Box's control.
008 Trinity of Sin: Pandora #3 - Trinity War Tie-In. Occurring within the military installation holding Lex Luthor, the Justice "Leagues" are fighting amongst themselves as Pandora watches. The issue goes through many chapters of her history as she tries to understand how to defeat the Seven Deadly Sins. By the end, she realizes that she has to embrace the concepts of evil for her weapons to affect them. In doing so, she kills Greed. And now she's ready for the next evil.
009 Justice League Dark #23 - Chapter 5. The fight at military prison for Lex Luthor continues. Wonder Woman has it, but SHAZAM! gets it. His magic interferes with it and its evil starts contaminating everyone. It continues switching hands until John Constantine gets it, teleporting out with Zatanna.. Somehow, they end up at the Temple of Hephaestus. They then go underground and find...Batman and his team, ready to strike, but also see Madame Xanadu, who can explain what's really happening. Zatanna tells them that the Box is actually a doorway. From the shadows, The Outsider muses and says she's right. He then suggests that it is time for the doorway to open.
010 Justice League #23 - Chapter 6, Final. This issue begins by explaining how The Outsider arrived to our dimension, gathered her resources and enacted. It all started at the same time as Darkseid's siege. The battle of heroes then subsides; Firestorm realizes that it isn't evil affecting Superman, it's a sliver of Kryptonite in his brain. The Atom admits she's a traitor, putting it there. Suddenly Cyborg's armor pulls away, calling itself Grid, and leaving Victor Stone near death. The Outsider activates the Box, saying it is an object of science from his dimension, the Birthplace of Evil! As the energies sway and circle, The Crime Syndicate emerges!
For what happens next, follow the Forever Evil event.
The Trinity War Checklist
Prelude
Preview
Trinity of Sin: Pandora #1
Main Event
Constantine #5
Justice League #22-23
Justice League of America #6-7
Justice League Dark #22-23
Trinity of Sin: Pandora #2-3
Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger #11
Signatures Please
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Really great review, helpful & written extremely well, congrats!
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