Reviewing two comics featuring Black Canary and the dastardly dream fiend, Doctor Destiny: DC COMICS PRESENTS #30 and JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANNUAL #1.
Flowers & Fishnets is available for download on iTunes by clicking here, or you can check out the show's RSS feed right here.
Click here to read my original review of DC Comics Presents #30, and follow along with some sweet image scans of this awesome story!
Click here to read my original review of DC Comics Presents #30, and follow along with some sweet image scans of this awesome story!
Sample pages from Justice League of America Annual #1--click to enlarge.
Music this episode:
"Sweet Dreams (Of You)"
Patsy Cline
Decca Records, 1963.
"These Dreams"
Heart
Capitol Records, 1985.
CLICK HERE TO PLAY EPISODE IN ANOTHER WINDOW.
I remember picking up that DCCP in a $1 at a con about a year ago and being very impressed with it.
ReplyDeleteI liked that Conway does allow a little bit of exposition giving us Black Canary's origins. I firmly believe that these team-up books were a way for companies to expose readers to their universe. I loved Brave&Bold and DCCP and discovered the Creeper, Metamorpho, Kamandi. etc. So this could be someone's first exposure to Canary and learn about her unique 2 Earth history.
And it is hard to believe that this would be Dinah's first exposure to the Fortress after being around so long. I am one of those fans that thinks Superman would prefer Clark so I liked that line. And I liked the easy discussion between the 2 characters there.
Dinah does shine in this issue as you say. Strong, determined, and faithful.
Listening to the recaps I am reminded that Destiny and Sandman had major roles in the early issues of Gaiman's Sandman. The Materioptikon is involved in an early Morrison Doom Patrol story showcasing Dorothy Spinner.
Great show!
I've only read the first couple issues of Morrison's Doom Patrol. That's one of those blank spots that I need to fill sometime.
ReplyDeleteThese are both solid late Bronze Age stories. The DC of this period is MY DC, so I'm predisposed to like these, and I do. I picked up this DCCP at a con a few years back. Again, Dinah having romantic feelings for the man eventually revealed to be her father is all kinds of wrong, especially since Conway co-wrote that one. I know, I keep harping on that, but...yuck. Other than that, it's a fun story, with both Supes and Dinah portrayed nicely. I've always rolled my eyes when DC characters scoff at ghosts...how many times have these people rubbed elbows with the Spectre?
ReplyDeleteJLA Annual #1 was one of those big dollar comics that was totally worth the price. I missed Batman, but it was nice seeing John Stewart again. He was in some GL issues shortly before this, and of course would become the full-time GL in a few years. I always liked the Simon/Kirby Sandman's costume, but his adventures are...bizarre. Hoberg and Giordano's art looks about at steeped in the house style as you can get, with many poses swiped directly from the Jose Luis Garcia Lopez (Praise Be His Name) style guides of the time. But I think DC was pushing those on artists, and Hoberg came from an animation background, so it all makes sense.
Another great episode!
Chris
You threw me off a bit with the David Guetta track, but I finally fully realized every musical digression on this show is femmepowered.
ReplyDeleteTwo things I forgot to mention on the last show's comments: If I recall correctly, switching from Ted Kord to Ray Palmer wasn't the Arrow show's choice. The availability of the Blue Beetle identity was taken from Arrow to be used elsewhere for undisclosed reasons. Maybe the Jaime Reyes pitch finally gained traction? Also, despite my defense of vigilante super-heroes in law enforcement roles, I find Dick Grayson becoming a cop stupid. It flies in the face of the character at his conceptual core, and made it clear that Nightwing was the one member of the Batman Family Chuck Dixon did not get at all. I've always felt he torpedoed Dick in favor of Tim Drake, and his wrongheadedness laid the groundwork for Agents of Spyral.
Ironically, I've felt exhausted at work and had to listen to this episode multiple times due to sleepiness. Once I dosed off in the car during lunch, and I put it on ahead of a five hour "nap" tonight, this replying at 1:24 a.m. on a weekday. I kept missing the resolution of the DCCP story, and trying to figure out how it played into the annual segment.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the intended purpose of this episode wasn't to whet my appetite for a John Stewart discussion and thwart my hopes for coverage of that Golden Age Atom story. Referencing a Curt Swan Canary did make me think of her battle with Mongul a few months later in DCCP.
So were we trying to reach for Doctor Destiny to join the Black Canary's Jailbirds (trademark pending?) A pro is that there are no rules in dream fights, which could bridge the gap in power disparity. A con is that all the girl heroes get villains with dream/mind control powers, and that plays into icky themes of manipulation and it "all being in her head." I'd like to see more of Dinah's fantastic rogues, but she always struck me as too grounded for this Freddy Krueger noise.