The Good
First thing's first, I LOVED how Jim Corrigan talked here. His dialogue came out of a classic crime film. It was awesome. When he threw his badge at his boss and said "Here! You can have it!", I may have giggled, a lot. In fact, any time Jim Corrigan talked, I got all giggly, especially when he called someone a "two-bit hustler." I had the most fun with the few scenes he was in here; however, I'm a big fan of the Spectre, so I also had a lot of anticipation waiting for Jim to die.
The Trinity of Sin is a very intriguing concept for this universe. Now, we don't get a connection to the DCU Pre-Flashpoint here at all, which is fine, but we do get to see their origins, for the most part, with the focus on Phantom Stranger. I'm glad these characters are finally making their way into the the DCU now.
This was a fun book for me. It wasn't high concept or muddled down with story on top of story. It was simple and a lot of fun, the same way OMAC was. I like seeing classic DC character have their own books. I like rooting for the underdog. Sometimes I get sick of the Trinity and I want to see... well... The Trinity of Sin.
The Bad
There is one big problem with book, and it's the art. Brent Anderson's pencils seem to be pretty good, and I really like what Jeromy Cox is doing with the colors, which match Anderson's pencils very well, but Scott Hanna's inks do not fit this book. They muddy up the art a bit and don't fit the style. The inks work with the pencils decently, but the colors, which I really enjoyed, do not work well. The inks need to be toned down quite a bit.
The intro to The Spectre wasn't a great one. He was a bit much for me in the two pages that we get to see him. The dialogue wasn't too great, and his appearance was over-the-top.
I had high hopes for this book because it has to deal with one of the members of the Trinity of Sin, and if you remember, one of those folks (Pandora) is responsible for the New 52. I felt a tad let down.
The Verdict
While I really enjoyed this book, it's not really a standout book. Sure, it's fun and a tad campy, in a good way, but it's not what I was hoping for, especially because the main character seems like a pivotal character in this new universe. I really enjoyed seeing the origin in this issue, and I love how much fun I had reading it.
On the down side, I really didn't think the ink worked with the pencils and the colors in this issue. It really muddled the art work. I also felt pretty disappointed in Spectre's dialogue, since the Corrigan dialogue was so good.
Overall, it's down the middle. I very mildly recommend it.