Created, written and illustrated by John Byrne
Letters by Neil Uyetake and Robbie Robbins
Colours by Ronda Pattison
Cover by John Byrne (with Ronda Pattison)
Collection design by Neil Uyetake
Published by IDW

the three cents.

Under a new cover from series creator John Byrne, this volume one collection contains all of the contents of the first four to date issues of the Trio series. “Legendary” is a perfect adjective for many older comic book creators, as many can and have become even bigger superstars than their actual work. “Veteran” too is a great descriptive, with its connotations of survival being highly applicable to the truth of longterm endurance in the funny book medium. These writers and artists slave their lives away to entertain us, to educate us, to inspire us. The idea in popular culture of a cult of personality really does not fit in with the legendary veterans of the comic book medium though, as too often the case truly is that these persons are forgotten or over-looked to suit the ever decreasing attention spans of each newer age and the insistence by corporate heads to sell younger, newer paintjobs on tired, old ideas. Legitimate innovation can come from anywhere, especially from those outlets that have fought for it for so long, the artists. What Byrne does in Trio is as good as if not better than virtually everything previously published with his name on it. The records he was breaking twenty years ago, thirty years ago, all are still milked by industry today, yet in this series is he thinking even further outside of the corpse of Schrodinger’s cat.

The story of a triad of young heroes named One, Two, and Three- though dubbed by the media as Rock, Paper, and Scissors- with astonishing powers protecting their metropolis of urban living from a great variety of threats. Fast-paced storytelling with nonstop action unfolds a science-fictional narrative of weighty imagination on par with HP Lovecraft and Jack Kirby in vastness of scope and vision. In these four continuing issues we get hints of the past and allusions to the future, sandwiching a fully large cast of divers characters. Aside from the core spectacle are quieter messages, of ecological conservation and of equal rights for homosexuals, women, and minorities, as well as of government oversight and police violence. Byrne has taken, in terms of both story and artwork, the most common tropes of super-hero fiction of the past 50 years, folding matter into itself like a black hole and focusing none but the very best into this self-contained premise of heroic genre fantasy. It is sharply intelligent and visually cutting, with plot points as dynamic as the layouts of the pages and panels. Unfortunately, the few lettering gaffes of the series, possibly caused by a change in letterer, remain in this reprinting (such as an out instead of an our, and a transposing of words). As there were two names listed as collection editors- what exactly did they do to earn the credit? The rest of the lettering is great, especially giving imaginative voice to the alien and monstrous dialogue alike. And Pattison’s coloring is starkly bright for this series, though both many-hued and focused in technique.

This volume also contains the gallery of covers, with the shots for the series as well as the alternates, which included inks from Joe Sinnott, Tom Palmer, and Walt Simonson, as well as a Kirby homage. That’s it on extras, but it’s a smooth collection altogether with a huge story introducing a brand new universe in zest by spades.

Tags: exegesis, John Byrne, Neil Uyetake, Robbie Robbins, Ronda Pattison