Trio

IDW Byrne Superhero-verse #1

by John Byrne

ZAP! POW! BAM! are sound effects you may actually see in this series, as John Byrne returns to his roots with a brand-new superhero series. Their code names are simple ONE, TWO, and THREE, but the world calls them ROCK, PAPER and SCISSORS. Together, they are TRIO!

Genres: Superheroes, Graphic Novels, Comics

120 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2012

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.

Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.

Reviews

[Chad]

This is something of a homage to Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four. A bit of an odd thing to do after Byrne wrote FF for years. It's all right but not nearly as good as Byrne's Marvel work of the 70's and 80's. It does pull one of his characters from Danger Unlimited, his 90's Dark Horse comic.

[Alan]

This TPB is billed in part as John Byrne's return to super hero comics, with a note that is creator owned super hero comics set in a whole new universe of his (I guess IDW was seeing his Next Men as far in the past). Unfortunately, unlike his Star Trek work for this company the writing, in particular the dialogue is not as sharp as he showed in the Trek work.

The story is basic, and is almost an out right rip off of a Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four Story. A super human comes from underneath the sea with a monster and begins to destroy a city. Suddenly he is opposed by three super heroes (I mean really FF/Sub Mariner story, actually I think FF#4 off the top of my head). The heroes designate each other One, Two and Three, but the media has dubbed them Rock, Paper and Scissors for obvious reasons if you decide to read this.

There is a little mystery as to the heroes background, why only one of them appears to have a secret identity. And, there is a nod to Byrne's earlier, and much better, Danger Unlimited work. There is a tease about the larger universe Byrne is creating here, and it does lead into his other TPB I just started, Triple Helix. Amusingly I began with Trio because I decided to read them in alphabetical order.

[Duane Ballenger]

I really wanted to love this book. I'm a big fan of John Byrne, however other than the great art, his writing in this series is odd. The "heroes" are completely ineffectual, I don't think they had one "win" in the entire book. Despite secondary characters behaving and speaking as though they are incredible. Some of the characters powers are not defined. I mean the flat woman is what, a stretchy piece of paper?! Huh?! Maybe I did'nt get it. Perhaps it will get better as the story is fleshed out more? I hope so, because it looks very cool!

[Rick]

While not as good as John Byrne's run on the Fantastic Four (could anything be that good?), this was still great fun and extremely enjoyable.

[Guilherme Smee]

Por mais que as narrativas do John Byrne tenham sérios problemas com a forma como as mulheres acabam tendo o seu destino nas tramas, não tem como não dizer que as histórias em quadrinhos pruduzidas por este senhor não sejam sinônimo de aventura e diversão. Sempre vale a pena ler uma história feita pelo Byrne. Neste Trio, temos um trio - claro! - de personagens cujos poderes se assemelham às características de pedra, papel e tesoura. Papel é uma mulher asiática, Pedra, é um homem negro e Tesoura é um homem árabe gay. Byrne, como sempre, insuflou diversidade em seus personagens. Embora, por outro lado, a mulher da equipe seja sempre a que está em perigo ou que desmaia todas as vezes, ou seja, a mais fraca dos três. A história me lembrou muito o seu Quarteto Fantástico, mas também lembra o seu Superman. Algumas coisas na série não ficam claras, aparentemente devem ser resolvidas na série seguinte, Tripla Hélice, que vai abordar transformações nos heróis principais. É esperar pra ver e estou bem curioso pela continuação.

[Fugo Feedback]

Si vas a armar un grupo de tres superhéroes, con dos hombres y una mujer, llamado "trío" y que representen a Piedra, Papel y Tijera, por lo menos procurá que la mujer sea "tijera".

[Kris Shaw]

Everything about Trio is huge. The concept, the characters, the setting, and the action are all larger than life and as fun as any Marvel Comic from the '60s-80s. This is Byrne living out his superhero fantasies, creating a new team in an unnamed yet likely futuristic setting. The team is clearly Government sanctioned, although we don't see who is running the show until the fourth issue, and only then for a moment.

Rock, Paper, and Scissors (or as they refer to each other, One, Two, and Three, and not in that order) comprise the team, and they tangle with threats such as Nautilus and his sea monster, Leviathan, an alternate Earth Nazi robot/monster called Golgotha, and an invading space alien who tries to steal the Earth's water supply. This book is high on action and low on backstory. According to the John Byrne Forum, there will be a second series. This will hopefully flesh out some of these concepts and put some meat on the bones.

I found myself unable to put this book down until I was done reading it. I couldn't wait to turn the page and see what happened next. Isn't that what comic books are supposed to do? Four issues are not enough. I am begging for more, not screaming for mercy from a bloated 6 issue talking head arc. I can't wait for the next series, although I will have to. No issues have even been solicited as of this writing.

[Flavio]

Uma interessante revisão dos conceitos que definem o “Quarteto Fantástico”, mostrando que embora tenha envelhecido, John Byrne certamente ainda consegue entreter o leitor.

[Travis]

Man, that was fun.
Byrne takes a gimmick super team idea and just runs with it, telling big old school super hero stories with a teaspoon of 'realism' to lure in modern fans.

Shame he didn't get to do more with these characters.

[Shawn]

The characters of One & Two weren't really fleshed out much and they didn’t actually do much but John Byrne's art is excellent.

[A.J. Bauers]

This comic, when taken at face value, is quite entertaining and the line art is exceptional. However, as an introduction to the series, I had very little connection to the superhuman manifestations of Rock, Paper, and Scissors.