What an absolutely brilliant piece Tom King’s Trinity: Daughter of Wonder Woman is.

Ostensibly it’s an all-ages romp, following three different-age versions of young Lizzie Prince in misadventures through the time stream, adorable and hilarious in turn. But deceptively it’s also a DC lampoon comic in the spirit of Ambush Bug or Harley Quinn, as King and his Wonder Girls send up everything from the super-serious Crisis on Infinite Earths to even moments from King’s own work. And then deceptively again, surely this is part and parcel of King’s own ongoing Wonder Woman story, no mere spin-off, as developments both reshape events we’ve already seen and must certainly affect the main action going forward.

There’s a structure to Trinity in that each of the Wonder Girls get a spotlight issue in turn — Li’l Lizzie time-traveling in the first chapter and then again in the fourth, for instance. This was fine, then mildly annoying, in that teenage Lizzie’s story in chapter five picks up almost exactly from the end of chapter two, as if the audience is reading three different titles in not the optimal order. But even that is so very, very well choreographed by King, a method to the madness, requiring the fifth chapter to be exactly where it is and the fourth, as well.

King’s work isn’t to everyone’s taste, but Trinity is such a smart puzzle box, again far exceeding the cute, comedic packaging. Few DC aficionados should be skipping this one.

[Review contains spoilers]

Equally rare for any DC title at all, there’s a lot to glean from this book’s variant covers (at least the cover homage ones). The first chapter starts with a parody of the famous Crisis #7 cover, with Li’l Lizzie in the Superman pose holding a corgi as her Supergirl, with DC-costumed corgis watching over. Lizzie is in tears, but the Super-Corgi greets us with a wink (with “Wink” sound effect in case artist Lucas Meyer is too subtle). It’s a nudge that betrays the melodrama of the original cover and lets us know, as with Ben Oliver’s “Death in the Family” homage variant that follows, that Trinity is going some dark places but won’t be going there darkly.

That even extends — after Li’l Lizzie has referred to Pariah as “Mr. Pirana” and teenage Lizzie has fallen over laughing at soon-to-die Jason Todd’s “boy wonder panties” — to King taking a jab at himself. The third chapter is fine but not up to snuff — adult Trinity in an indeterminate part of the George Perez saga (though the variant by Phil Jimenez is both perfect and touching) — but then for the fourth chapter, King drops Li’l Lizzie in the midst of Batman Vol. 7: The Wedding, letting the Tiny Tot run loose in one of King’s most controversial issues.

It’s in that fourth chapter that King’s Trinity distinguishes itself as something else entirely. The chapter is fantastic on the page, from the heart-warming interactions between Alfred and Lizzie and even Catwoman Selina Kyle and Lizzie, to King’s Bruce being an absolute groom-zilla on his wedding day (just you wait, Bruce!). But the narration, strangely, has Alfred talking to the deceased Steve Trevor … and we’ve already seen Steve rowing the river Styx trying to return to the living … and then there’s another boat rowing on the river … and then, as King surely intended, I got it just before it happens. Steve encounters the later-deceased Alfred and learns about his daughter, in a scene drawn smartly reserved by Belen Ortega (Alfred himself is completely shadowed). The whole build-up to denouement crackles with humor, love, and pathos, on its own and particularly that King wrote it as set within his own work, the kind of meta-weirdness maybe only comics can accomplish.

Seemingly, the fifth chapter is a letdown. Sure, I don’t regret another chapter of Jason Todd and teenage Lizzie awkwardly flirting, especially now that time has progressed right up to “Death in the Family” — but for the fifth chapter of this miniseries, maybe the joke’s already done and this seems a bit repetitive. But then — but then! — not only does the sixth issue make up for it with superb callback scenes like Steve and Trinity walking the reflecting pool, just like in King’s Wonder Woman, and the suggestion that Diana and Trinity have already met between the pages of Wonder Woman Vol. 3, but Steve’s back in the boat and encounters none other than Jason Todd, who’s going to help lead him out of Hades.

The layering of elements to get to this point is just staggering — from teenage Lizzie meeting Jason, to Trinity encountering Steve, to establishing via Alfred that Steve can meet dead characters in his boat, to just one more nudge about Lizzie and Jason (after the Steve meeting), all to end up with an almost foregone conclusion, Lizzie sending Jason after Steve. That is fine, fine construction, a book that works issue by issue and issue by parallel issue, but also that sets all its dominoes to knock down for the conclusion and beyond.

I should save some praise for Ortega. I am not usually one for manga stylings to the absurd — tears, for instance, literally streaming down someone’s face — but obviously it’s tonally right for this title. Not to mention that Ortega is consistent with the snot coming out of the Lizzies' crying faces, too, a silly but also thoughtful detail I don’t think every artist would consider. And there is a lot of good choreography here; see Alfred’s paroxysms of laughter, not just laughing, but that Ortega uses the scenery, with Alfred actually collapsing against the Batcave wall. Just great stuff. (Also clock all the adventures the corgis have in the background.)

I read Trinity: Daughter of Wonder Woman about two weeks before Tom King’s Wonder Woman Vol. 4 comes out. I thought, “Oh, it’ll be fine, I’ll knock this one out and then I’ll be ready when Wonder Woman Vol. 4 arrives.” What a mistake! I should have learned from reading the previous volumes! Will the spirit of Jason Todd appear again? Did Diana really meet Trinity or was that one of those Hypertime kind of things? How far out is Steve’s boat? Now it’s all I want to read next, and not a time bubble in sight …

[Includes original and variant covers, variant thumbnail gallery]