Black Canary made her second appearance in the Johnny Thunder strip in Flash Comics #87. Whereas her first appearance was a six-page story, her second comes in at seven pages. Once again, her story is crafted by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino.
In her debut last issue, the Canary appeared as a masked woman of mystery who stole from criminals and bedeviled the lovestruck hero, Johnny Thunder. Were the Canary's intentions virtuous? It hardly seemed that way. More like the gangsters got in her way and Johnny was a means to an end for her.
Let's see what happens this time...
The papers say she's a criminal but she says she's being framed. Meanwhile, she gives Johnny a mysterious package that he pledges to protect. Of course, he's holding the package for all of three seconds before some goons in suits take it from him and beat him up.
Black Canary sends him a message attached to a rock she nails him in the head with. The note says the package is "worse than dynamite in the wrong hands" so he pursues the men who took it. Somewhat clumsily following the goons to their hideout--a castle--he sneaks in and announces his own brilliance. Which gives his presence away, allowing the gangsters to capture him.
They throw him in a sack being slowly lowered into a pit of alligators. But while the boss examines the package's contents...
The boss explains that the packages was contained a stuffed owl, inside which was the diary of the same crime boss. Were the diary to fall into the police's possession, it would clear up tons of unsolved crimes and put the guy in jail for life.
At that point, Johnny Thunder arrives to fight the gangsters. In his fashion, he closes his eyes and bumps into a suit of knight's armor, which falls into the goons.
Well, that story certainly positioned her as a crime fighter with a dubious reputation and public image, but no less virtuous heart.
Interesting that Johnny Thunder's magical genie, the Thunderbolt, does not appear in this story. Maybe the brevity of the story didn't allow for its interference, or maybe Black Canary took the place of the Thunderbolt's straight man fighter while Johnny played the comical bumbling hero.
Come back next Sunday for another Golden Age adventure of Black Canary in Flash Comics #88!
Kind of what Catwoman might be considered now. Or a variation on the old Green Hornet.
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