Review — From Highs To Lows, ‘Second Coming: Trinity’ #4 Has It All

If you ever thought Batman was a bad dad in suiting up a vulnerable young pre-teen and having him fight crime throughout the night, then wait until you get a load of Sunstar in Second Coming: Trinity #4. I don’t see him winning any ‘Dad pf the Year’ awards any time soon as he decides to take his infant son – albeit one who is invulnerable – out to battle crime. The whole episode is recounted as part of a therapy session he and Jesus are attending and it leads Sunstar to question his own relationship with a father he never knew. Daddy issues has certainly been a reoccurring theme in this current series of Second Coming and leads to a good deal of self-reflection, both by Sunstar and Jesus. 

Mark Russell’s writing, filled with both way and wisdom, is always thoughtfully polished, while Richard Pace and Leonard Kirk’s art continues to fit the bill for the type of philosophy and pastiche comic book this is. And, as Sunstar returns to his childhood home (now turned into a sex shop), the artwork perfectly pivots to foreshadow a dark revelation from our hero’s past. Just one example of the artwork helping the script land with more impact. Pace is a great observer of the human condition and brilliantly captures the gamut of emotions felt by the characters in this issue effortlessly. Kirk’s economical inking only further draws attention to Pace’s skills. So much is conveyed in so few lines. 

By the end of this issue, the revelation may well leave you gobsmacked, with your jaw on the floor. There has been so much joy in Second Coming, but now we get a more tragic, somber tone invade the comic book, which is only ramped up by the turn of the last page.  The start if this issue feels like another goofy scene befitting of this title and its occupation with poking fun at the superhero genre, but by the end it feels like a completely different type of story, weighted with drama and doom. 

Second Coming: Trinity #4 is out now from AHOY Comics