Back in the ancient times of VHS cassette tapes, before I had even come close to hitting a double-digit age, I learned my lessons from School House Rock. I don’t think there is a person in America that hasn’t seen at least one episode of School House Rock, each person having his or her own favorite songs. While most people enjoyed “Conjunction Junction” and “I’m Just a Bill” my personal favorite was “Three is a Magic Number.” Not only did I learn about the multiples of three and that there was, in fact, a man and a woman that had a little baby, making three in the family, but also that three was an important number.
In literature we often think in threes, looking at the beginning, middle, and end of a story as well as various symbolic metaphors. In The Great Gatsby for instance, we see three representations of love in the trinity of Nick, Jay, and Tom. Nick is the representation of familial love, always loyal and anchoring a person to reality; Jay is the representation of romantic love, passionate and overwhelming; and Tom is a representation of lost love, fleeting and corrupted. The three even act as a trinity of status with Nick being the everyman, Jay being “new money,” and Tom being “old money.
This concept of trinities is not a new one, as many religious readers will attest to. The Holy Trinity of the Bible and the spread of Christian culture, through one manner or another, have ingrained itself deep in society. While the concept of trinities and the importance of three has been a big influence on culture in various ways the most prominent that comes to my mind is comic books.
When talk about trinities in relation to comic books the first thing that would come to mind for many readers is DC’s Big Three. Everyone knows their names, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, but why are they so important that they are considered a trinity? Why do they have such weight in our society? In 2002 and 2008 DC produced two different series that played off this idea of the DC trinity, with the latter series probably being the best at flat out stating the metaphorical symbolism inherent in the three. As if channeling the old Superman radio show we see symbolism of “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” with Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman representing each individual aspect respectively.
Wonder Woman encompasses the idea of truth through her character’s overt sincerity and level headedness that has made her the mother figure of the DC universe. Her creator, William Moulton Marston, was so enthralled with the ideal of truth, in fact, that he wrote a physical representation of truth into her armaments with the Lasso of Truth. The unbreakable golden lasso that compels people to speak only the truth created a powerful physical symbol that associated Wonder Woman with the idea. Wonder Woman’s core foundation is so bound to the spirit of that her creator is even credited as being one of the inventors of the lie detector.
With Batman we see a broader range express in his representation of justice. While many people know his tragic origin they do not associate it with justice so much as vengeance. That is incorrect. While Batman does lash out against the criminal world for the death of his parents he never enacts vengeance on anyone. He never strikes out in an eye for an eye fashion. Batman is not the Punisher and prefers to uphold the idea of what is right even in the face of evil. It is why he doesn’t kill the Joker; despite the lives the mad clown has taken. Batman doesn’t kill because he believes in justice and that it will do right by the world. If Justice says the Joker should be executed then so be it, but Batman is simply the tool to bring crime and evil to the blind goddess of Justice because he knows he can do what no one else can. His ideals go so far beyond vengeance that every time Batman has confronted Joe Chill, the killer of his parents, he has held to his oath to never kill, deciding to bring the man to justice instead.
Even broader than the concept of Justice, of course, is the idea of the American Way and how Superman represents it. While many people assume he represents the American Way because of his salt of the Earth, “aw shucks” personality that he gained from being raised on a farm in a small Kansas town, that is not completely true. Superman does represent the American Way because of that, but also because of his ability to rise up above that while still remaining grounded to it. He represents the idea because he is an industrious man in the big city from a simple background. Most importantly, however, is that Superman is inspired and strives toward the future. Literally and Figuratively. When he was younger Superman was a member of the 30th century superhero team The Legion of Superheroes. They inspired him much like he, as an adult, would inspire them. They taught him the ideology of being a hero. Coincidentally he learned this mostly from the Legion Trinity of Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and Lightning Lad who represent the ideals of youth. Saturn Girl was the hopeful aspirations of youth who acted as the moral spirit of the team. Cosmic Boy was the inner drive to for self-reliance and personal responsibility of maturing youth who acted as the heart of the team; and Lightning Lad was the reckless and energetic spirit of youth who acted as the spirit of the team. Each affected Superman deeply and made him the American Spirit he became.
From a celestial standpoint each character in DC’s Big Three have a patron symbol. Superman, who is powered by the sun, is also a representative of it. Batman, who is hides in the night, is a representative for the moon. Wonder Woman, who was molded from clay, then becomes the representative of Earth within this trinity. Theme wise Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman represent science, humanity, and magic at the same time. Even sociologically they differ with Batman being of capitalistic wealth, Superman being the humble workingman of Middle America, and Wonder Woman being royalty. To consider them psychologically even works in a trinity with each character balancing the others, each checking and counter checking, personality wise, the other two in the trinity. If Superman is too good natured and humble then Batman and Wonder Woman will push him to be firmer towards an opponent. If Batman is too harsh and wrathful then Superman and Wonder Woman will act as his conscience. If Wonder Woman is too sanctimonious then the others bring her back to reality.
While those three seem deified when thought of in that regard, acting almost like a pantheon in their own right (which Grant Morrison, myself, and many others like to think of superheroes anyway) they are not the only ones in comics to take on the role of trinity. In fact there are several trinities in comic books beyond those three characters that get less attention and often share members. For instance, as if to counter DC’s Big Three, Marvel has their own Avengers Big Three.
The Avenges Big Three consists of Captain America, Ironman, and Thor (though Marvel often supplements this trilogy to be any combination of Super Soldier, God, and Armored character, much unlike DC’s attempt to emulate their big three with the “sidekick” counter parts of each hero). Many characters from different stand points point out a simplistic image of this trinity as being “The Knight, the Soldier, and the God,” when it is something far more. Each of these characters acts as a metaphor for time itself with Thor being our past, Captain America being our present, and Iron Man being our future. Each character fulfills the “science, magic, man” metaphor again with Ironman as science, Thor as magic, and Captain America as man. The three even display different styles of honor as it has evolved through history, but it is about around this point where we realize that this trinity isn’t quite as strong as their DC counterpart. While they do check each other psychologically their personalities aren’t so dynamically different that or paralleling to require them to push and pull for a balanced group mentality. The fact that Marvel tries to switch out the members with other analogous characters is proof that they don’t necessarily have to play off each other.
Another failing of the Avengers Big Three is the lack of feminine figures within it. While other trinities I am going to explain don’t necessarily have to have a character of the opposing sex it does take away from the power that the trinity has as a symbol. The need for a female and two males or a male and two females is to create that counter point of femininity or masculinity in opposition to overwhelming masculinity. Besides, without a woman in the mix people might think the Avengers are a big sausage fest.
The Avengers Big Three is often treated as the only trinity in Marvel, which is not true at all. The Avengers Big Three are simply the ones to get the most face time and are thusly pushed to the side. Other trinities in Marvel include the trinity of Spiderman, Daredevil, and Moon Knight, each representing different philosophies of vigilantism, sanity, and spirituality. DC, on the other hand, isn’t as hard pressed to hide its other trinities and often tries to have fun with them more.
What I often consider the second most dynamic trinity of DC is the Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Black Canary team. The team up and subsequent friendship of Green Lantern and Green Arrow was created in the early 70s, tracking Green Lantern’s girlfriend Black Canary into the story through relation. The series was a collection of highly acclaimed socially charged tales as they traveled across America. Any comic fan would tell you why the series worked, which is actually what lays the foundation of this trinity. Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, is a space cop. Hal was the square jawed and conservative individual who thought in black and white in those days. Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, was a vigilante and an outspoken liberal. Ollie was very aggressive and looked at the world as a series of grays, fighting for what he thought was wrong. Their philosophies were so unabashedly different that they clashed and grew closer at friends. Between them was Black Canary who acted as the median between the two. While those two clashed she was the voice of reason. Symbolically the three represented politics as a whole while being balanced in power and psychology. Black Canary, while having powers, fought with martial arts as her main offense. Green Arrow was a normal man who made himself what he was in a similar manner to Batman. Green Lantern was the one with the power of a god, but the mind of a man and it helped ground him. This, while not being as mythic as other trinities, was a trinity that represented the nature of political strife and personified various political views.
The power of three is so great that even the comic book industry is broken into three major competing companies: Marvel, DC, and Image comics. While there are other companies these three have consistently been the running juggernauts of the industry, and for good reason as each holds a different philosophy that maintains them as a trinity. For Marvel we have the super hero story as they try to relate it to reality, grounding their stories for relatability and the fantasy of “what if?” With DC they try to separate themselves from reality and turn the super hero stories into a mythos of their own, bringing them above humanity as epic stories. Image takes a third route by using self-contained series to create a personal interaction between the reader and the narrative (though the narrative was not very good in the 90s.) Each balances the other out and allows the reader to satiate different tastes in their reading material. I am a DC fan, personally, because of that legacy mythos. Marvel holds down the top spot in sales because many readers enjoy that relatable world. Image has various titles that hit or miss because of their desire to create a “dialogue” between the reader and the author’s creator owned work. They each bring something different to the table and represent different styles of literature as a whole.
In the history of sequential art trinities have kept forming to act as a three pronged (four pronged if you want to take into account the Jungian Lexicon and the idea of quaternities creating a wholeness) representation of reality. There are trinities I didn’t mention like Green Lantern, Flash, and Green Arrow; Wolverine, Cyclops and Jean Grey; Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, and Maxwell Lord; Fire, Ice, and Guy Gardener; and many more just to name a few of the various trinities one could find. Each trinity has a power in and of its self that helps inspire people in their love for sequential art or in stories as a whole. Trinities are a consistent theme that, while its roots are biblical in nature, has taken a life of its own in society. School House Rock was right, three is a magic number; the trick is seeing what makes it magic.
