Looking Ahead for Flowers & Fishnets

I may have given up on the New 52 but I haven't quit on DC in general or Black Canary in particular. Something I did over the holidays was finally compile a list of Black Canary's appearances in everything from Birds of Prey one-shots to Green Arrow annuals to World's Finest backups; from her own short-lived ongoing series to her numerous revised origin stories.  Since Christmas I've begun aggressively searching out these issues in comic stores and online.

For most of the first year of this blog I was without a working printer-scanner, so I depended on digital comics and pre-existing Google images to fill the coffers of my reviews.  Thing is, there ain't a whole lot of Black Canary material on ComiXology.  Since I got the ol' scanner working, nothing can stop me from blogging every appearance of the Blonde Bombshell except for a) money,  and b) an inability to dig up some of the more rare issues of Action Comics.

From Injustice: Gods Among Us Annual #1.
Art by Bruno Redondo.

I'm really excited about the content I'll be sharing starting in the next couple weeks.  New series and new daily features will keep me busy and keep you entertained (I hope).  Here's a look at the weekly schedule as I'm envisioning it.

• Monday will still be sort of a mixed-bag day.  This is the day I review episodes of Arrow that prominently feature the Canary, which seems like it'll be pretty regular for at least the rest of this season.  When the show isn't on, I'll post artist sketches, random panels, or miscellaneous Canary stuff.

• Tuesday is going back coverage of Birds of Prey, but not the depressing New 52 series.  I'm talking about the classic.  Starting tomorrow, I'm kicking off the first of four BoP one-shots that lead directly into the ongoing series.  That's where we're headed: from Chuck Dixon to Gail Simone, and I'm super excited because, at the time of this writing, I haven't read the one-shots or a big chunk of Dixon's run on the ongoing.

• Wednesday will continue my reviews of Dinah's story in Action Comics Weekly.  That'll last another seven weeks or so.  As soon as that's over, I'm diving right into Sarah Byam and Trevor Von Eeden's Black Canary miniseries from 1991 and then her only regular series that lasted twelves issues in 1993.  I've been sitting on these books for a year and it's way past time I reviewed them.

• Thursday will be for assorted Black Canary team-ups in The Brave and the Bold, as well as guest appearances in books like Wonder Woman.  At some point, I've got to start reviewing her appearances in Justice League of America.  This might also be a day of rest, so no promises of anything permanent.

• Friday I am thrilled to rename "Pretty Bird Day".  Should be obvious: this is when I look at Green Arrow and Black Canary team-ups.  I've avoided this kind of regular feature for so long because there was just so much material to cover I felt intimidated.  No longer.  This Friday I'll look at the first of a two-part GA/BC story from Detective Comics #549 written by f***ing Alan Moore!

• Saturday is when I update my Sandman blog with reviews of Sandman Mystery Theatre.  Please check it out if you haven't already (the blog, I mean...actually, the comic and the blog).

• Sunday will remain Golden Oldie day where I spotlight Dinah's earliest appearances in Flash Comics.  I think I have fifteen or sixteen more of those before the series ended.  Once her Golden Age appearances have run out, I will switch over to reviewing the Sandman's early adventures on that blog.  Basically, the work week will belong to Black Canary while the weekend is devoted to Sandman--but that's still months away!

Again, I can't express how jazzed I am to share these stories, some of which I'll be reading for the first time as I sit down to review them.  Come back regularly and enjoy the bountiful Black Canary action!

Also, here's a sketch by Arthur Adams.

Thanks and You're Welcome!

Unjust Panel of the Week #11

From Injustice: Gods Among Us Chapter 25.
Art by Bruno Redondo.

Unjust Panel of the Week #10

From Injustice: Gods Among Us Chapter 33.
Art by Bruno Redondo.

Top 10 Black Canary Moments of 2013 Part 2

Click here to review 10 - 8.

7. Coming Off the Bench

From Justice League #17, art by Ivan Reis.

Earlier in this countdown I talked about how Black Canary almost joined the ranks of the Justice League in 2013.  The closest she came was fighting on their behalf against the Atlantean invasion in the crossover event Game of Thrones "Throne of Atlantis".

From Aquaman #16, art by Paul Pellatier.

When the League's heavy hitters are taken out of the game, Cyborg calls in the reserves to defend the city of Boston from Ocean Master and the army of Atlantis.  Black Canary, as well as Hawkman, Vixen, Zatanna, Firestorm, Black Lightning, and Atomica, hold off the destruction of the East Coast until Aquaman and the rest of the League ran reinforce them and save the day.

(Apropos I like this team roster a hell of a lot more than the one with Vibe, Stargirl and Catwoman.)

It was great to see Dinah valued enough by the League to fight a war in their absence, even if there is a total lack of discipline and organization to their defense.

Wait, Cyborg's line in the panel to the left doesn't sound very flattering!  Dinah never steps in and takes charge of the battle; she exhibits zero leadership skills.  She can't even prevent a teenager from endangering them all.  Oh God, why does the New 52 hate her so much?!!  Top 10!  I can't even make a Top 10 list that shows her in ten favorable moments!

6. "Where the Hell Did You Come From?"

At this year's San Diego ComicCon, the show runners of CW's surprisingly successful Arrow television series screened a short video that recapped the major beats of the first season finale while teasing the second season's premier.

And the climactic sequence of the video--what drove fans crazy was the first appearance of the Blonde Bombshell played by Caity Lotz.

The Canary would take on a much larger role in the show's second season than fans likely expected.  At the time the video came out, though, it was enough to demonstrate to new and old audiences how bad-ass a character she could be.  Hell, those 40 seconds got me to buy the first season so I could prepare for her screen debut.

5. Change of Clothes

Even though Black Canary didn't really make it into the game Injustice: Gods Among Us as anything other than an NPC who recharges Green Arrow's health (so I've heard; never played it), she did get the full-service concept art treatment.  Below are seven different could've-been interpretations of the Canary by Bernard Beneteau.

Okay, none of these are ideal costumes for Black Canary--not if you want to take her seriously in anything other than a knockoff Street Fighter video game.  Some of them look silly, and some of them make her look more intimidating than she's probably going for.  But, and I cannot stress this enough, I like all of these costumes, every one, more than the Jim Lee-designed costume she wears in the New 52.  I can't explain it rationally, but I would prefer her in even the silliest of the above designs to the one she has been stuck in for the last two years.

Thankfully, these weren't the only options for the digital-first comics that tied-into Injustice.

From Injustice: Gods Among Us Chapter 18.
Art by Jheremy Raapack.

Several artists have depicted Dinah in this bleak, alternate universe, and each one of them does a terrific job rendering her "unjust" costume.  This look is so much better than the conceptual entries above and the New 52 design.  I think the reason it works, even with its faults, is that it honors what I consider the most important elements of Black Canary's costume.

From Injustice: Gods Among Us Chapter 24.
Art by Mike S. Miller.

The three essential things her costume needs to have:

1. Black.  Her costume must have black, preferably black leather or something like it.
2. Blonde.  Whig or dye-job, I don't care, but as long as Black Canary is a caucasian woman, she's a blonde.
3. Fishnets.  Not padding.  Not mesh.  Fishnets.

And three recommended things her costume should have:

1. Cleavage.  It sounds juvenile, but Dinah's bust is part of her aesthetic.  Not as much as Power Girl's, I'll grant you, but it is important to her look.
2. Choker.  She ought to have something around her neck.
3. Jacket.  Not necessary, but she looks better when she has one.

The Injustice costume is still a little more armored and tactical than I'd prefer, but it hits all three "needs" and two out of three "shoulds" on my checklist.

4. You Can't Stalk Someone Who Wants to Be Followed

Early in December I "followed" actress Caity Lotz on Twitter.  Caity plays Black Canary on the television series Arrow.

A few hours later, I received this:

Holy--! A direct message from the woman who plays Black Canary?!! Did she see my Twitter handle and address and know what a fan I am?  Is this the start of something--?

Yeah, for all of five minutes I believed this was really, truly a personalized direct message to me.  Then I figured out that she wasn't following me back.  The DM was probably a bot that automatically shoots the same message back to everyone who follows her.  Nothing more.

... Still, it felt really cool for five minutes.  Everything after that was sad and humiliating, but those five minutes were awesome and deserve to make my Top 10 Black Canary Moments of 2013.

What moments will make the final three?

To Be Continued...

Unjust Panel of the Week #9

From Injustice: Gods Among Us Chapter 25.
Art by Bruno Redondo.

Unjust Panel(s) of the Week #6

From Injustice: Gods Among Us Chapter 25.
Art by Bruno Redondo.

Unjust Panel of the Week #4

From Injustice: Gods Among Us Chapter 33.
Art by Bruno Redondo.

Tom Taylor Promises More Black Canary in the Second Year of INJUSTICE

I heard the basic premise of Injustice: Gods Among Us, the digital-first comic based on the popular video game, and I scoffed.  Another superhero civil war?  Haven't we seen the good guys gone dark enough for one lifetime?  Do we really need another Batman vs. Superman?

But because the digital chapters were so cheap, I gave the first chapter a chance.  Not bad.  Because the series continued to sell better than anything on ComiXology, I picked up the next couple chapters.  By chapter 4, I was hooked.  The comic became as addictive as any great television series, due in no small part to its out-of-continuity freedom to shock readers with shocking plot twists and character deaths.

Series writer Tom Taylor gave an interview to Comic Vine yesterday where he talked about the success of the first year and what's to come next year.  You can check out the full interview right here, but I was particularly interested in the following exchange:

CV: Obviously you can't spoil anything, but could you elaborate a bit about what Injustice's future has in store for us when it returns in 2014? Will we see more characters thrown into the mix or do you plan on shining a spotlight on characters who haven't received much attention thus far? 

TT: There will definitely be characters we haven't seen before. Also, characters I deliberately underused in Year One, particularly Green Lantern, will have a big part to play in this. 

Also, if you think Black Canary is just going to go quiet after what happened to the love of her life, you're very wrong. 

And a special group of allies, namely Batwoman, Catwoman and Huntress, may be right there to help Dinah hunt her prey.

I have previously gushed about how much better I like Black Canary's costume in the Injustice comics than her New 52 look--I post an image of her from Injustice every Friday.  But so far I've never felt the compulsion to review the comic here because Dinah didn't have much to do in the first year.  The fate of other characters, though, definitely puts her in prime position to step up and take on a more active role in the sophomore season.

Taylor's comments, as well as the solicits for the second print issue, hint at Black Canary leading a new version of the Birds of Prey.  Can't wait!

From Injustice: Gods Among Us Chapter 25.
Art by Bruno Redondo.

Unjust Panel of the Week #2

From Injustice: Gods Among Us Chapter 25.
Art by Bruno Redondo.

Have I mentioned how much better I like Black Canary's Injustice costume than her current Birds of Prey look?  Because I really, really do!