Review by Ian Keogh

Second Coming deals with Jesus returning to Earth. How would the son of God be treated? While a subject with potential to offend, Mark Russell’s treatment was relatively respectful in the first volume, with the satirical aspects restricted to superhero Sunstar with whom he’s lodging. Lessons were learned and time has moved on. Cranium is about to be sentenced for dastardly deeds, and Sunstar now has a baby who’s inherited his powers,. It’s just as well Jesus is a capable babysitter.

Russell’s put himself in a tricky situation by continuing Second Coming. Almost all the points he wanted to make were crammed into the first volume, and it leaves Trinity as the same sort of domestic comedy, but this time with very little counterpointing it. There’s much mulling about the responsibilities of parenthood, but while jokes about Sunstar throwing his invulnerable baby at a criminal are funny, much of Trinity has a more sombre tone.

Trinity also looks different, as original artist Richard Pace is only providing layouts for Leonard Kirk to finish the art. Kirk’s a polished superhero artist with a long track record, so the pages look good, with the superhero action having extra dynamism and Kirk strong at distinguishing people.

As opposed to last time where the spotlight was 50/50, Jesus is very much a secondary player here, and it reduces the series to easy superhero parody with little of the social observation characterising the first outing. Jesus’ role is largely limited to a non-biblical flashback until he gets down to the salvation business in the penultimate chapter supplying a few home truths before humanity disappoints once again. Russell has plotted clearly to this point, although in a way that makes it seems as if he’s meandering, and the final chapter is both funny and terrifying. It’s a strange reversal of the opening book which was very good until the disappointing conclusion.

Readers who’ve been paying attention will probably figure where things end up, which leaves the door open for a continuation, but much of Trinity is ordinary by Russell’s standards.