This past Wednesday saw the publication of TRINITY #45… and as of today all the plots are written… the co-features are drawn and inked through issue 51… And Mark Bagley and Art Thibert are well into the art for issue #50.

So that’s seven more issues for you… and one and a half for us!

Without patting ourselves on the back here for doing what we set out to do (we SHOULD always do that)… I WOULD like to pat the guys who’ve done the Herculean part of the assignment for the last year! Weekly comics are hard… but we’ve done a few of them lately… and I was personally involved in the SUPERMAN titles when they were virtually weekly back in the day. But weekly comics are HARDER when you have a bunch of people represented on virtually half of the pages of every single issue for that year!

No one writer or artist did that on SUPERMAN… JG Jones DID do every single cover on 52—and that was amazing. The writing team of Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Geoff Johns did a quarter of each issue for a year. And only Paul Dini was in on the whole of COUNTDOWN… supervising another team of writers.

But Kurt Busiek, Mark Bagley, Fabian Nicieza and Art Thibert have touched the equivalent of about half an issue every single week for the last year! This is a simply phenomenal achievement!

For the artists this is a commitment of over 600 pages in one year and Kurt’s had his hand in every single page that’s 1160 pages in one year, sports fans!

Sure we’ve had help from co-featured players like Scott McDaniel, Tom Derenick and Mike Norton with Andy Owens and Wayne Faucher, too… and most of them had other gigs producing comics on time for DC this year!

(And you won’t catch leaving out recognizing the weekly work of colorists Pete Pantazis on the Bagley-Thibert section and Allen Passalaqua on the co-features—they haven’t missed an issue either. And while letterer Pat Brosseau HAS missed about 30 or 40 pages… it wasn’t his fault, AND that’s still 1100 pages on this one series!)

In an age where everyone can debate the ultimate merits of any single comic series (or novel, or movie, or TV show), nobody can argue with a great work ethic… I would like to offer a round of applause to the TRINITY team!

Believe it or not, here at The Source, we sometimes get a day off that doesn’t fall on the weekend. Today is such a day. So, to use a common blogging phrase, “posting will be light” today. Which is not to say we won’t have a healthy dose of fun content, though. TRINITY editor Mike Carlin will pop in this later for our regular From The Editors feature and we’ll have a sneak peek or two to keep you entertained as you count down the minutes to the weekend. See you Monday!

What happens when every villain and hero on the planet wants your head on a platter? Welcome to the world of the Human Flame. As he awakens, seconds after the end of FINAL CRISIS, the two-bit thug realizes that he’s a dead man walking for his role in the death of the Martian Manhunter. Broke and powerless, there’s little choice in what he can do: Run like hell and cross his fingers. Check out the first few pages from FINAL CRISIS AFTERMATH: RUN #1, from writer Matt Sturges and artist Freddie E. Williams II. RUN #1 goes on sale 5/6.

David Betancourt, over at THE WASHINGTON POST’s “Comic Riffs” blog, spoke to Dan DiDio about some of the bigger storylines percolating in the DCU in 2009, including BATTLE FOR THE COWL, FLASH: REBIRTH and SUPERMAN: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON:

DB: It seems like you’re making Superman choose between two worlds. Is this your way of showing that despite growing up on Earth he’ll never be human?

DD: Absolutely. One of the things we find interesting–and we did a lot of research on this as we were building the storyline–this is one of the first times we ever pushed a story where we brought all of the Kryptonians back, and really made them a part of the DC universe. And more importantly a part of Superman’s world. One of the things we like to see in this is showing how unique Superman is by putting him against people who are just as super powered as he is.

Batwoman isn’t the only lady trying to fill the void left by Batman’s disappearance in the pages of DETECTIVE COMICS — Rene Montoya, i.e. The Question, joins the series as an ongoing co-feature starting this June in the pages of DETECTIVE COMICS #854, from writer Greg Rucka and artist Cully Hamner. Until now, we’ve only seen a few of Cully’s design sketches. But we’ve got a few inked pages to show off his work right here.

Believe it or not, stuff happens elsewhere on the Internet. Crazy, huh? Here are a few things worth looking at.

• The guys at iFanboy have posted a video interview with FLASH: REBIRTH writer Geoff Johns discussing the new series. The interview was conducted the day the first issue hit, during Johns’ signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe. Additionally, IGN eviews FLASH: REBIRTH via their SMASH!! podcast. And if that’s not enough REBIRTH for you, AIN’T IT COOL NEWS also gives the first issue a strong review.

• Greg Rucka discusses THE QUESTION co-feature, which will appear in DETECTIVE COMICS starting in June.

• Got a question for Dan DiDio? Newsarama is collecting the latest batch.

You’ve seen the cover pencils. Earlier this week, we went ahead and showed you the inks. Now, you can bask in the full, final glory of BLACKEST NIGHT #1, shown above. Nice, huh?

Two titles that were initially announced at this year’s New York Comic-Con are heading closer to being in your hands. In an effort to make you long for those issues all the more, we’re debuting a look at the covers to the second issues of BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM and GOTHAM CITY SIRENS, both from writer Paul Dini and artists Dustin Nguyen and Guillem March, respectively. And, because we’re in a giving mood, we included two pages from the first issue of STREETS, by Nguyen. Both titles launch in June.

You’ve seen the preview, read the interviews and bought the first issue — but I doubt you’ve had your fill of FLASH: REBIRTH. It’s Barry Allen, back from the dead. But why? We’re obviously not going to spoil that here, but we will give you new, pretty art to look at. Here’s the cover to FLASH: REBIRTH #4, by Van Sciver plus an interior page from FLASH: REBIRTH #2.

“Deathtrap” — the TEEN TITANS/VIGILANTE/TITANS crossover that kicked off in TITANS #12, continues in the pages of VIGILANTE #5, as our “hero” finds himself trapped by the Titans after trying to off Vic Stone — aka Cyborg. But the Vigilante isn’t the kind of person who gives up easily. So, do you see what I see? Yeah. CONFLICT. Check out these preview pages for more. The issue hits on 4/15.