Trigger #3 Review

Archive

Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: Pulled: Part 3

Written by: Jason Hall
Art by: John Watkiss
Colored by: Jeromy Cox
Lettered by: Ken Lopez
Editor: Will Dennis
Publisher: Vertigo > DC Comics

The word “trigger” has many important roles to fill. Most prominent amongst them is that it is the name for what are apparently Ethicorp’s “cleaners” in this smut free world. “Trigger” also refers to that implement on a gun that one pulls to fire it. Finally, it is psychological term that refers to a word, event, flash of light, etc that causes an individual to act in a certain way. An obvious example of this sort of thing would be the Queen of Diamonds in the original Manchurian Candidate, but it can be anything really: a smell that brings back a memory of a past girlfriend, a song that reminds of that time you snuck out of the house, etc. And it is this last meaning of the word trigger that appears to be, while not the most prominent), the most important.

Plotwise, Trigger continues to deepen the story, revealing a mystery or two that have, in turn, created more mysteries. Hall deftly jumps between the four storylines he has set up, hinting at a deeper connection, but only giving us a taste of what that might be. Deidre Myers, the crusading reporter, has a more personal stake in Ethicorp’s behavior than just getting the story. Vi, the schoolgirl, finds herself to be far more competent in a fight than she initially might have guessed. Carter, the businessman, is clued in to the fact that the Ethicorp world is a far more complex place than anyone seems to know and that he himself is living a life far more complicated than even he was aware of. Meanwhile, Ethicorp and its CEO watch it all, with particular interest in Carter.

Watkiss and Cox, as in the first two issues, are masters of setting up the atmosphere of the world. Despite how clean (ethically and otherwise) the world these characters inhabit should be, the two have the ability to mine its darkness and grime to the surface. The best merging of art and story is Vi’s rather savage response to her classmates’ bullying. The scene is a brutal three pages that come on with no warning and ends with little by way of comforting resolution.

However, it is in this sequence that the weakness of the art is seen. Whether it is an artistic decision or an accident, many of the characters look very similar. If you were just to flip through this issue, it would be difficult to discern which plaid skirt wearing young lady is which. Sure, there are some external clues (glasses, skin color, pigtails), but facially/body wise, it is very difficult to discern who is who. The same hobgoblin surfaces towards the end of the issue. There is a moment of huge revelation (albeit a predictable one) that should hit like a thunderclap. However, the art undercuts it because it fails to clearly portray what we are looking at. Again, it is easy enough to figure out through story cues and one’s own predictions about where the story was going. But if you were simply to take the scene out of the book and show it to someone out of context, I doubt very much they would be able to correctly identify what they are looking at.

Overall, however, Trigger remains right on track. It is a difficult balancing act to not reveal too much and kill the suspense (see Twin Peaks post the solving of the mystery) while also not simply loading the saga up with too much mystery thus crippling its storytelling ability (see the last few years of the X-Files). I am pleased to see that Hall seems to know how to keep the balance between revealing and not revealing effectively. And, as I said above, even with my complaints about the art, it is an undeniable strength to it that certainly grounds the story in this new and different reality.