The first appearance of Trinity, full name Elizabeth Marston Prince, called Lizzie, is in the story titled Trinity published at the end of Wonder Woman #800, put on sale on June 20, 2023, a forty-eight-page anniversary issue. This story is signed Tom King on script and Daniel Sampere on art. It is not a cameo: she is the main character, named, costumed and equipped with her three lassos. However, she is not on the main cover of this issue, signed Yanick Paquette: it is Daniel Sampere's variant that shows her. Two traps await the buyer: the reprint of this story in Trinity Special #1 of January 30, 2024, and the confusion with Wonder Woman #14 of October 16, 2024, which tells her birth.
Buying the first appearance of a character born three years ago has almost nothing to do with buying an old issue. On a 1960s comic, the difficulty is finding the object and judging its condition. On a 2023 creation, the object can be found in a day: the difficulty is knowing which of the four or five issues you will be offered really carries the bibliographic fact.
Trinity is a textbook case because her file contains just about every pitfall of the genre: a story lodged at the end of an anniversary issue, a main cover that does not show her, a birth told sixteen months later in another issue, two collections sold as issues, three successive identities and a solo miniseries arriving two years after her debut. It is October 2, 2026: all the dates that follow are on-sale dates published by the publisher, and all the credits are verifiable issue by issue.
Who Trinity is, in one page
Elizabeth Marston Prince is the daughter of Diana and Steve Trevor. Her first and middle names pay homage to the couple who presided over the creation of Wonder Woman: William Moulton Marston and his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston. As an adult, she carries three lassos instead of one, gold for truth, silver for lies and black for death, leads the Justice League of her time, and regards Jon Kent, now Superman, and Damian Wayne, now Batman, as brothers.
The important point for a collector lies elsewhere. Trinity was not introduced as a character of the present, but as a figure of a possible future, which the publisher's notes place in 2047. For more than a year she exists only there, in backup stories of a few pages, then the main series has her born. Hence a direct consequence: the reference catalogs keep two distinct sheets, one for the future Trinity, the other for the child of main continuity, and each carries its own first appearance. Whoever ignores this duality buys the wrong issue one time in two.
The issue that carries the first appearance
No ambiguity on this point: the publisher itself wrote it a few months later, announcing a special that reprinted, in its own terms, the character's first appearance.
Wonder Woman #800, "Trinity" story
Last issue of the title's historic numbering before the relaunch at issue 1, this anniversary issue contains several stories. The one that counts is the last: Trinity, an adult, asks Superman and Batman to accompany her into a Greek cavern that tests pain, skill and honor, in order to reach the Sovereign's prison. She is named there, she speaks in the first person, she wields her three lassos.
The same story contains other first appearances: Damian Wayne as Batman and Jon Kent as Superman in this future continuity, the goddess Nike, and the Sovereign, still unnamed, who will become the antagonist of the run's first half.
A method detail, because it comes up constantly on issues with big numbers: the date of June 20, 2023 and the presence of the story titled Trinity at the end of the contents are the only two criteria that identify the object without discussion. Check the date before the number.
Cameo, full appearance, first cover: three different questions
These three notions are used as synonyms in most listings, though they measure three unrelated things.
The cameo designates a partial presence: a silhouette, a shot from behind, a line with no identification, or a dream appearance that does not engage continuity. The full appearance assumes a visible, identifiable and active character. The practical test comes down to one question: reading these pages alone, can a reader say who this character is and what they want?
The first cover is something else again, and it is the costliest trap of the contemporary market. A character can appear in an issue without being on its main cover, or be on a variant and not on the standard edition. Since a modern issue commonly gets five to nine covers, "first cover" means nothing until you have specified which one.
Applied to Trinity, the exercise gives a clear result. In Wonder Woman #800, she is a full appearance: main character of the story, named, equipped with her definitive gear. It is not a cameo. On the other hand, the issue's main cover is signed Yanick Paquette and does not depict her. The issue got eight other covers, by Brian Bolland, Jamal Campbell, Bilquis Evely with Matheus Lopes, Megan Huang, Tomeu Morey, Ted Brandt with Ro Stein, Laura Allred and Daniel Sampere. It is Sampere's that the reference catalogs file in the character's cover gallery: her first cover image is therefore on a variant, not on the standard edition.
The consequence is concrete. If your criterion is the bibliographic fact, take the standard edition: it contains the story and it is the most widespread. If your criterion is the image, you are looking for a different and more expensive object, and you enter a variant logic that we detail in our file on Wonder Woman variants. Mixing the two criteria in a single purchase is the surest way to pay a premium for a reason you did not choose.
The second "first issue": the birth, sixteen months later
Here is the subtlety that makes bad deals: sixteen months after #800, the main series tells the child's birth in present continuity.
Wonder Woman #14, "What Is the Point of Steve Trevor?"
The publisher's presentation text announces Trinity's birth. Diana, after Steve's death, shapes on the shore a clay effigy that she binds to a thread woven from their two destinies and a lock of her hair, then asks her mother to give it life. The child is named Elizabeth Marston Prince. It is this issue, and not #800, that the catalogs index as the first appearance of the character's present version. Neither sheet is wrong: they do not describe the same narrative entity.
How to decide? By the use of the word. In market practice, "first appearance" designates the first publication where the character exists, not the moment of their biography where they come into the world. On this criterion, #800 remains the piece and #14 an important story issue that is not of the same nature. The only thing not to do is pay one at the price of the other.
The trajectory of appearances, issue by issue
In between, the character lives in the series' backup stories, drawn by Belén Ortega.
Wonder Woman #3, November 21, 2023
Start of the backup stories. The publisher's text speaks of Trinity's "return" and announces her first appearance in a backup story. Lizzie is five, goes on a mission in the Gotham sewers with Damian, who christens her "Wonder Robin." First appearance under this identity.
Wonder Woman #4, December 19, 2023, then #5 and #6
A night at the Fortress of Solitude under the care of Superman's and Batman's sons, a kanga race on Themyscira, a trip to the moon. Standalone stories of a few pages, with no bearing on the main plot.
Wonder Woman #8, April 16, 2024
Lizzie has become Wonder Girl and uses a time sphere to go give a report on samurai in ancient Japan. First appearance under the Wonder Girl identity, and the character's first foray into time travel, which will become the engine of her miniseries.
Wonder Woman #31, March 2026, then #37 and #38
The main cover of #31, signed Sampere and Morey, depicts her: she pilots her mother's invisible jet and wields a bow whose string is the lasso of truth. In #37, released September 16, 2026, she returns from the future with her father to warn Diana. In #38, put on sale October 21, 2026, the Amazons lock down Themyscira because of "two strangers" among them.
This list has a direct use: it tells you what you do not need to buy dear. The backup stories are reading pieces, printed like any ongoing issue, and whose content was later republished. Which brings us to the next trap.
The two reprints, and why they are not worth the original
The publisher grouped these stories in two special issues, in the format of an anniversary issue. They present themselves as issues, they carry a number 1, and they contain very largely reprint material.
Trinity Special #1
The publisher's text explicitly announces the reprint of the first appearance, along with the backup stories of issues 3, 4 and 5, and completed by an original story from the series' team: a hybrid object, reprint and novelty in a single issue. Main cover by Daniel Sampere and Tomeu Morey, variants by Jorge Jiménez, Belén Ortega with Alejandro Sánchez, Mitch Gerads, and a one-in-twenty-five ratio cover signed Evan Shaner.
The second part, Trinity Special: World's Finest #1, put on sale September 4, 2024 over forty-eight pages, applies the same setup to the backup stories of issues 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Main cover by Daniel Sampere, variants by Belén Ortega, Sweeney Boo, Chrissie Zullo and Saowee. No first appearance here: it is a practical reading object for anyone who does not have the issues, and nothing more in collecting terms.
The rule that emerges holds well beyond this character: a reprint never carries the first appearance, even when it contains the text and pages. What grounds an issue's relative scarcity is the quantity put into circulation on a given date, not the content. Our landmarks for telling an original from a reissue or reprint are in the guide to Wonder Woman reprints and fakes, and the general case of anniversary issues and specials is treated in our file on the title's annuals and specials.
The solo miniseries, what it proves and what it does not
In 2025, the character got her own six-issue limited series, Trinity: Daughter of Wonder Woman, written by Tom King and drawn by Belén Ortega. The first issue came out on June 11, 2025 over twenty-four pages, the sixth on December 24, 2025. The plot, a time trip where Lizzie chases corgis through the history of the publisher's universe to find her father, owns a comic tone the main title did not have.
What this series proves is measurable: the publisher judged the character able to carry a monthly issue alone, two years after her creation, and entrusted it to her creator. It is the strongest signal a recent character can produce.
What it does not prove deserves to be said just as clearly. A solo miniseries issue #1 is not a first appearance, and it is ordered in full knowledge of the character's identity, therefore in quantity calibrated on an already visible demand. #1 got a main cover by Belén Ortega and six variants, by Dan Mora in a one-in-twenty-five ratio, Lucas Meyer, David Talaski, Dan Hipp, Tirso Cons and Leirix. Such a rollout indicates anticipated demand, the reverse of the #800 configuration.
The risk specific to modern first appearances
This risk must be named, because no key-issue list ever mentions it. A character created within a writer's run has a lifespan tied to that run, as long as another team has not taken them up.
Trinity is exactly in this situation. The run that created her ends at issue 40, announced for December 16, 2026, and no creative team has been announced to take over. The balance sheet of this run and its hierarchy of pivotal issues are covered in our dedicated page on the Tom King and Daniel Sampere run, which approaches the whole from the series angle. Here, the only question that matters is the character's survival beyond her writer.
Three scenarios are open, and none is publicly decided: a takeover by the next team, which would settle the character in the bibliography; shelving, the frequent fate of creations from a run that ends; or a suspension of several years before another writer picks her up, the most common case and the hardest to anticipate.
Two elements weigh on the good side. Trinity already has a completed solo series and a collection, so an autonomous corpus to which a future writer can attach without rereading forty issues. And her narrative construction gives her a convenient exit: she comes from a possible future, and a possible future can be reactivated without contradicting what will have been published in the meantime.
Finally, the New York convention runs October 8 to 11, 2026, a few days after this page was written, and it is traditionally where the publisher announces its teams for the following year. If you read these lines after that date, the information may exist and not appear here.
Buying this first appearance without mistakes
Identify the object by its date, not by its number
The piece is the issue put on sale June 20, 2023, forty-eight pages, whose contents end with a story titled Trinity by Tom King and Daniel Sampere. If the listing mentions neither the date nor this story, ask for it before anything else.
Rule out the two specials
An issue titled Trinity Special or Trinity Special: World's Finest is not the first appearance, whatever the seller says and even if it contains the story. The first is dated January 30, 2024, the second September 4, 2024.
Choose your cover before looking
Yanick Paquette's standard edition if you aim for the bibliographic fact, Daniel Sampere's variant if you aim for the image. Both decisions are defensible, but they lead to two searches and two different budgets.
Note both sheets in your tracking tool
Two distinct entries, one for #800 and the other for #14, with in the comment the exact nature of each. On a character with a double first appearance, it is the only protection against duplicate purchase, which is the real error on a recent comic. A collection tracking app does this memory work for you.
Decide on certification by the price gap, not by the character
A 2023 issue often arrives in very fine condition from an attentive buyer. Certification is justified when it brings information direct inspection does not give. On the standard edition of #800 this condition is debatable; on the backup stories and specials, it does not arise.
One last landmark, valid for any recent creation: before buying a first appearance less than five years old, count the issues where the character reappeared under a pen other than their creator's. For Trinity, as of October 2, 2026, this count is very low. It is not a reason to give up, it is a reason to calibrate the spending. Our landmarks on the period are in the file on Wonder Woman modern key issues, and the case of the main character's very first appearance, in 1941, is treated in our page on Wonder Woman's first appearance.