The New Look Canary

There's a lot I like about DC's New 52, and a lot I don't like.

One of the things I really do not like are the costume re-designs.  For pretty much every character.  I can't think of a single character whose costume I like better now than I did before the September 2011, when DC rebooted the entire universe.  I mean, I guess I like Wonder Woman now better than when she had the leather pants and jacket of the J. Michael Straczynski era a couple years ago, but I liked her most long before that.

Sketch by Jim Lee

I'll keep mulling this over, but for now I cannot think of one hero or villain whose costume wasn't tweaked for the worse, in my not-at-all-humble opinion.

At best, they feel different for the sake of being different (Nightwing, Captain Cold).  At worst, they feel like DC is ashamed of the fantastic and flamboyant costumes that defined them for 75 years (Superman, all the Earth 2 characters).  It feels like DC decided that new readers would only take their comics seriously if they could envision the costumes in a movie.  Thus, the way Bryan Hitch defined the look of the Marvel movie universe with his designs for The Ultimates, DC made every superhero costume look utilitarian and militaristic.  Gone were the underwear outside the pants and the skirts.  Gone was the sense of individuality.

One of the costume re-designs I dislike the most is Jim Lee's retooling of my beloved Black Canary.  Lee's design (pictured right) was then tweaked and modified by Birds of Prey (vol. 3) artist Jesus Saiz, who altered the fishnet style leggings to be more of an armored polymer mesh (pictured below).

From Birds of Prey (vol. 3) #1, art by Jesus Saiz.

I don't mind the legs being blue--I actually approve of that, as it harkens back to Dina's Golden and Silver Age depictions, when her fishnet leggings were colored blue.

From Black Canary/Oracle:
Birds of Prey, art by Gary Frank

No, what bothers me most about the New 52 Black Canary's look is everything above the waist.  It's too busy; Dinah always looked best when she had a very simple costume.  Her classic outfit, while it does evoke certain thoughts of prostitution and piracy, is also quite streamlined.  And that makes it as iconic as Aquaman and Green Lantern's costumes.  This new design calls back to the Black Canary of the late '90s and early '00s (right) when the first volume of Birds of Prey began and, later, when Dinah appeared in JSA.

I like those stories, respectively, and I love Gary Frank's work in the one-shot that birthed this new costume, but I hate this version of Black Canary.  This is my least favorite version of her costume, and I thought the Kevin Maguire-drawn Justice League International costume was really stupid, so that should tell you something!

I don't like the yellow accents.  I don't like the colors in general.  I don't like the intent to make Black Canary DC's version of Marvel's Black Widow.  Maybe that's too subjective, maybe that's not fair, but dude, it's my blog!

So what's the alternative?  How should Black Canary dress in the New 52?

Well, it's not perfect, but I would recommend this look based on a sketch by Paulo Sequeira.

Sketch by Paulo Sequeira, wardrobe by Hot Topic

Does this look like classic Black Canary?  Yeah, kind of.  She's traded the leather jacket and leotard for a black leather zip-up biker vest, which looks both sexy and tough as hell (sounds like Black Canary to me).  Her arms are exposed, but more importantly her muscles are exposed.  Black Canary is supposed to be one of the five greatest fighters in the DC Universe; she should look like she could kick anyone's ass.  The denim jeans replace the fishnet stockings (although you can see fishnets underneath in Paulo's drawing.  The jeans emphasize Dinah's status as a street-level character, which is where the Birds of Prey should live and breathe.

It might not be perfect.  It might not appeal to everyone, but this look at least gives Black Canary some personality, some individuality, some punch.

This month, the New 52 Power Girl finally got her "boob window" back.  If DC is willing to make some changes to the new character designs, maybe we can hope that Black Canary will soon end up in a costume worthy of her history and her fandom.

Let's Get Organized

After a couple weeks of random, haphazard posting, I have finally come up with an organized model for this blog's hopefully daily updates.  Each day of the week will be dedicated to a different category (or two) of posts.

MONDAY

• "Canary Comics for ___" - On weeks when new issues of Birds of Prey, Team 7, or other DC titles featuring Black Canary, including trades and collections are due out, I'll give the solicitation from DC's website.  Likewise, when DC reveals info and previews for upcoming months, those will be posted here.
• "Media Monday" - On bye-weeks when no new Dinah appearances are anticipated, I'll look at non-comics related iterations of Black Canary, like her appearances in such animated series as Justice League Unlimited, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and the DC Showcase: Green Arrow short film; I'll also look at her live-action appearances in Smallville, Arrow, and Birds of Prey, none of which I've ever seen.

TUESDAY

• "Trauma Tuesday" - While reading Dinah's first appearances in The Black Canary Archives Volume 1, I noticed that in almost every issue of Flash Comics, she got knocked unconscious and captured.  Like clockwork, this brain damage-inducing injury happened every month, and it became hard to suspend my disbelief.  And for some bizarre reason, I thought it would make a fun feature for this blog, so every Tuesday, I'll post an image of Dinah being hit, kicked, drugged or otherwise injured.

WEDNESDAY

• "Whatever Wednesday" - While hump day is spent reading new comics, I'll add new, random images of Black Canary every week.  These could be any image from her history throughout the decades, spotlights of my favorite artists' renditions of Dinah, commentaries, or cosplay pics.

THURSDAY

• "Out of Context" - Panels featuring Black Canary that--when separated from the issue--may be funny, suggestive, or just dumb.

FRIDAY

• "Playdate" - Images of my DC Universe Classics Black Canary action figure interacting with other toys.  I don't have Robot Chicken's budget, but I have soul.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY

• "Review ____" - A recap and review of Black Canary comics, new and old.

I hope this schedule works to eliminate the randomness of this blog's first two weeks.  And I hope it gives you something to look forward to at least once a week.

Choke up, BC fans!

...

That sucks. Okay, I still need to work on a clever signature for my editorial posts.

Costume Changes Through the Years

Newsarama used to be a site that offered informative and insightful, well, news about the comics publishing world.  About a year ago, the content shifted to a seemingly endless unveiling of recycled Top 10 lists that are as subjective as they are asinine.

Great, worse, worst, better.

Other than Vaneta Rogers, the only contributor to the site I follow is a gentleman named Alan Kistler, whose regular column "Agent of S.T.Y.L.E." chronicles the visual history of superheroes and how their costumes change over time.  In March of last year, Agent of S.T.Y.L.E. examined the "Hyper-Sonic Fashion" of Black Canary.

Cover art by Brian Bolland--channeling Howard Chaykin, I think.

Unfortunately, some of the image links have broken down in the nineteen months since the article was originally published, but you can still get a sense of Dinah's costume continuity.

Welcome to Flowers & Fishnets

I’ve had this idea for a year to create a fan blog for one of my favorite comic book heroes.  Until I get my overripe fingers on a shooting star and secure a writing position at one of the major comic book publishers, this blog, if nothing else, can put my great love of the medium, the history, and the rich crop of characters to some use, be it constructive or not.  The hardest part was settling on a character to blog about.  There’s never going to be a shortage of Batman websites out there, and most of my other favorite super heroes of the DC universe were duly represented in quality if not quantity.  The hero that ranked highest on my list and who wasn’t being covered readily in the blogosphere I regularly followed was the dark haired florist who by night donned a wig, fishnets and leather and judo-chopped criminals as the blonde bombshell, Black Canary.

I do not profess to be an expert in the character, but I am a fan.  I have read many comics featuring Black Canary, but nowhere near all of them.  I’d like to, though, which is the reason why for my birthday this year, I treated myself to a discounted copy of The Black Canary Archives Vol. 1.  If I was going to blog about the Canary, at the very least I had to be familiar with her first appearance.

Cover art (mostly) by Carmine Infantino

The goal of blog is to read and review Black Canary stories as I find them in my collection of Birds of Prey trade paperbacks, or her original adventures in Flash Comics reprinted in the Archives edition, or her guest spots in The Brave and the Bold, to her role on the New 52’s Team 7.  Yep, even that.  And hopefully a lot more in between.  I’ll also add pics of Black Canary as rendered by some of my favorite artists in the medium over the years, and try to score some fun creator interviews with writers and artists who have contributed to the character over the years.  I’ll review my one piece of Black Canary merchandize: her action figure from the DC Universe Classics line.  Hell, maybe I can even convince my motorcycle-riding wife to dress up like Dinah--  No. I’m going to stop myself right there.

Flowers & Fishnets will pay tribute to any and all versions of the Black Canary I can come across.  That especially includes both the Golden Age Dinah Drake version, and the more contemporary Dinah Lance version.  Except in specific instances, I tend not to distinguish between the two and often think of them both as part of the Black Canary icon, just as I think of Carter Hall and Kator Hol as both being Hawkman, and Barry Allen and Wally West as both being The Flash.  When necessary, I’ll try to identify which version of Black Canary is being featured in write-ups and reviews of certain issues.

Sketch by Darwyn Cooke.

If you’re a fan of Black Canary, or you’d like to be, I hope you can get something useful out of this blog.  If not new information, at least something halfway interesting.  If you’ve never heard of the character and happened upon this blog because you googled “flowers and fishnets” expecting some kind of fetish website, I apologize for wasting your time.  Maybe some of the forthcoming fan art, however, will be to your liking.  Regardless of how you found this place, I hope you come back often.

As befits the Black Canary, I will sign off each post with...

Tweet-tweet!

...

Hmm.  That might not work.