Black Canary on Green Arrow's Shorts... Yeah

DC Nation, the series of animated short features on Cartoon Network, is producing a series of shorts starring Green Arrow and guest starring Black Canary.  Last week, DC All Access went behind the scenes with the show runner and revealed some cool features of the animated alternative to Arrow.

When the New 52 began three years ago, the creators and editors of Green Arrow tried to make Ollie the Tony Stark of the DC Universe.  Though Ollie and Tony share a lot of thematic elements in their origins, the attempt to Stark-ize Green Arrow failed because, well, they're dumb.  Undeterred, the creators of these animated shorts have made him even more Iron Man-like by making his bow a talking artificial intelligence like J.A.R.V.I.S.

It's awesome that Black Canary is included in such a prominent way in these cartoons, and there's a lot to like about the clips previewed in the video above.  They put her on a motorcycle, which is always a plus.  She's in black and fishnets--plus and plus again.  Best of all, she doesn't seem to be based on the current New 52 costume that I dislike.  In fact, Black Canary's design looks similar to how the character appeared in Smallville.  Like, way similar.

In addition to the motorcycle, the new animated shorts give Black Canary a pair of collapsible batons like she wields in Arrow.  I haven't seen the first short so I have no idea if she uses a "Canary Cry" of some form or another.

To see a bootleg version of the short on YouTube, click here.

Pretty Bird: GREEN LANTERN #194 and DETECTIVE COMICS #555-558

Last week I covered the debut of Black Canary's then-new costume in Detective Comics #554.  For two straight issues, Dinah had taken point on the Green Arrow backup strip.  Now with a brand new look and a more focused identity, Black Canary seemed poised to launch into the upper strata of DC's heroes and heroines.

But then she disappeared from the backup stories in 'Tec for four months.  At the same time, DC was overhauling their entire continuity with the universe reshaping event Crisis on Infinite Earths.  I know Black Canary appeared in a handful of issues of Crisis, but for the life of me I can't remember what she did there.  I've only read Crisis one time and I didn't like it, and I don't feel inclined to wade into it again for the purposes of finding Black Canary in one panel of issue #6 or something.

However, I can painlessly recap her appearance in one of the Crisis tie-in issue of Green Lantern, wherein Dinah and Green Arrow witness the Harbinger take the new Green Lantern John Stewart off to his fateful rendezvous with the Monitor.

Green Lantern #194: "5" is written by Steve Englehart with art by Joe Staton.  The issue begins in Star City where Green Arrow and Black Canary are attempting to evacuate civilians as a building begins to crumble around them.

At the last second, John Stewart, the new Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814, flies by and creates an energy projection of a load bearing support to keep the debris off of Green Arrow and the civilian.  John and his fellow Green Lantern Corps member Katma Tui have just returned from space to find the Earth in the throws of violent environmental disaster.

Ollie tells the Green Lanterns that he doesn't know what's causing the freaky weather phenomena, and Dinah mentions the report that Firestorm mysteriously vanished earlier.  At that moment, the stunning and enigmatic Harbinger arrives.  Harbinger reveals that she is responsible for Firestorm's disappearance, and now she has come to claim Green Lantern as well.

John tells Harbinger he has no intention of going with her, and she warns him that if he doesn't his world is in jeopardy.  John throws an energy vice around Harbinger and tells her he doesn't like being threatened.  Him or his world.  Harbinger, though, effortlessly breaks free of his green construct.  Katma Tui uses her power to reinforce John's will, but neither of them appear strong enough to contain the strange woman.

With Black Canary and Green Arrow down, Katma takes a shot at Harbinger with her ring, but John stops her and ends the scuffle.  John says he scanned Harbinger and he believes she has only come to collect him for a purpose other than attack.  He trusts her and begs Katma Tui to trust him by letting him go alone despite his inexperience.

Just before Harbinger takes him away, she asks him to don the mask he wore originally because that's how the Monitor observed him (and that's how George Perez drew him, I think).

Elsewhere in the story, Hal Jordan is doing stuff that doesn't matter for our purposes.  John Stewart joins Firestorm, Superman of Earth-2, Blue Beetle, Cyborg, and the others aboard the Monitor's ship.  Katma Tui returns to Oa to report the events to the Guardians of the Universe.  After hearing her story, the distressed-sounding Guardians send her bath to Earth to await further orders.

Back on Earth, Katma is visibly shaken by the Guardians' apparent fear.  She tries to warn the Green Lantern of neighboring Sector 2813, but finds nothing there: no Green Lantern, no sector.

While John does Crisis-related stuff, Katma Tui goes to meet with former ring-slinger Hal Jordan.  Hal then finds Guy Gardner just as Guy is granted a Green Lantern ring by one of the Guardians.  Dinah and Ollie, meanwhile, stand together in the cold rain where their story will be picked up in issues of Crisis on Infinite Earths which I already said I'm not going to cover at this time.

For the few pages that Black Canary is in this issue, I like what Englehart and Staton give us.  The obvious point is her tactical judo move that takes Harbinger to the ground.  That the move ultimately proves ineffective is because of how immensely powerful Harbinger is, not because Dinah isn't a badass fighter.

We also get a beat where John Stewart refers to Katma as his girl, and Dinah mentally corrects him with the word "woman".  This seems like a very pro-feminist concern that Dinah wouldn't necessarily believe but that liberal Ollie would have pushed on her.  The Black Canary that we've seen up to this point in continuity hasn't been as vocal in politics or in Ollie's ideals, and she seems too grounded for this thought to even occur to her in the middle of a dire situation like the one they find themselves in. I'm glad she only thought it, because if she said it out loud at that moment when the world is going to hell, everyone would have turned to her and said, "Shut up."

But the other bit of characterization that I really like is when John Stewart calls Green Arrow and Black Canary his best friends in the superhero world.  I've recently read John's early years as a Green Lantern for the first time and I mostly enjoy the stories, but I really like John Stewart as a character.  Most of my exposure to him comes from Justice League and other DC Animated Universe projects, and to me he always seemed incredibly flat and boring in those cartoons.  These comics proved otherwise.

Ollie, Dinah, and Hal Jordan were the famous Hard Travelin' Heroes, but sans Hal I like that Black Canary maintains a connection to the Green Lantern mythos through John Stewart.  And within a few years, she'll have a team connection to the new Lantern Guy Gardner.

4th of July Bonus!!!

Before I return to Black Canary and Green Arrow's adventures in Detective Comics, what has the Archer been up to while his Pretty Bird was away?

Detective Comics #555 includes a solo Green Arrow strip called "The Case of the Runaway Shoebox" written by Elliot Maggin with art by Dicks Dillin and Giordano.  Oliver Queen gets pick pocketed and the ensuing adventure leads to the foiling of a much grander criminal operation.  Black Canary is never seen, but Ollie does refer to Dinah in the very last panel.

This story is pure filler, unconnected to anything from Green Arrow's story in the past couple of issues.  I don't know if "The Case of the Runaway Shoebox" was a reprint, but I'm quite sure it wasn't conceived for this issue as Dick Dillin sadly died five years before this comic hit the shelves.

Detective Comics #556 and #557, however, do pick up where writer Joey Cavalieri and artist Jerome Moore left off.  Not with Black Canary, but with the other woman who was trying to get Green Arrow's attention: Onyx.  The two-part story called "Zen and the Art of Dying" begins with Oliver Queen returning home after he and Dinah wrapped up the Bonfire case in #554.  Onyx, a young whip-weilding woman last seen in #552, waits for Ollie in his home.

When he confronts her, she tells him she was sent to bring him back to the monastery where he trained in martial arts.  Onyx tells the story of Lars, a cruel thuggish student of the Exalted Master who trained her and Oliver.  Lars has been trying to take control of the monastery and its library of powerful teachings.  Only the Master has kept Lars in check, but now the Master is poisoned and Lars is on the brink of taking that power for himself.  Ollie remembers Lars from his days in the monastery; he and Lars did not get along and the bully swore there would be a reckoning some day.

Green Arrow and Onyx arrive at the monastery only to find Lars has taken over and ambushes the two of them with dozens of his men.  Green Arrow draws his bow and manages to disarm most of Lars' followers and capture some with a net-arrow.  Onyx doesn't do so well as she is quickly captured by Lars and taken to the bell tower.

Lars tells Onyx that he wants to open the Exalted Master's ancient and powerful Book of Ages, but he needs something called the Wisdom Key.  The Master, it turns out, hid the key on Onyx's headband, but Lars finds it and sneaks away to the library.

Green Arrow rescues Onyx from the bell tower and they follow Lars to the library.  They're too late to stop him from opening the box with the sacred tome, but they needn't fear.  The book was cursed and when Lars tries to read it, it crumples to dusty vapor that kills him.  Eeek!

Detective Comics #558 features another disconnected Green Arrow backup tale called "Believe Everything I Hear" written by Dean Traven and drawn by Black Canary's series artist Trevor Von Eeden.  Green Arrow saves one of his criminal informants from murder, but misinterprets the wounded man's tip about an illegal shipment coming in that day.

This is another filler issue, though I have less idea of when or why it was originally produced.  It's still a fun story.  All of them are good stories; I really, really enjoyed the two-parter by Cavalieri and Moore.  Revisiting Green Arrow's formative years that don't involve being stranded on an island is a nice glimpse behind the scenes.  And Onyx was a great character that got a little bit of attention in Batman and Detective Comics, but could have been a much more mainstream hero or foil.

Black Canary eventually returned to the pages of Detective Comics with issue #559, where she and Green Arrow teamed-up with Batman and Catwoman in a story I've already reviewed--check it out!  After that, she co-starred with Ollie in the backup strips for the next eight issues.  Dinah brought her all-new costume to the criminal underworld and a direction of the character that was, ironically, closer in line with her very first appearance in Flash Comics #86.

Come back next Friday for the next chapter of Green Arrow and Black Canary in Detective Comics #560...

DCAU Homage to George Perez's Justice League

I found this image a long time ago.  I don't remember the name of the artist, but it is a custom depiction of the satellite-era Justice League in the Bruce Timm style of the Animated Universe.

Then, not too long ago I realized that the above image is an homage to the last page from Justice League of America #200 by George Perez.

Click to enlarge.  Seriously, do it!

Note that the DCAU-style version up top corrects the one major flaw of Perez's drawing by including Hawkgirl among the other heroes.

Black Canary Sketch by Bruce Timm

This is an older sketch--you can tell from the date beneath the signature--done by Bruce Timm, the creator of Batman: The Animated Series and basically the DC Animated Universe that's existed for two decades now.

There's a little more detail in the sketch, and more color variety between Dinah's black leather jacket and her leotard.  As with her appearance in Justice League Unlimited, her legs are covered by what looks like solid gray tights instead of fishnets.  It's still unquestionably Black Canary, though, and there is a iconic-ness to her look that is completely lacking in her current New 52 costume.

Media Monday: DC Showcase: Green Arrow Animated Short

While Warner Bros. has been woefully inadequate--financially negligent, I might argue--at producing live action movies based on DC Comics properties, their animation studios have been consistently churning out quality cartoons and animated movies for over twenty years now.

For the last couple years, DC Animation has released a couple direct-to-video animated films a year.  A few are original stories, but most of the movies are adaptations of acclaimed stories like The Death of Superman, Batman: Year One, and The New Frontier.  Also, for some reason, they adapted a couple of Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman stories that are... well, they are.  For a while, though, these seventy-minute movies featured ten minute animated shorts under the DC Showcase banner, giving fans of the A-list heroes like Batman and Green Lantern and chance to see characters like The Spectre and Jonah Hex.

They only produced five of these shorts, which sucks because they were some of the best work DC Animation has ever produced.  Four of the stories are available in the Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam Blu-Ray/DVD; the Superman and Captain Marvel adventure counts as a short as it's only about twenty minutes; also included are the aforementioned Jonah Hex and the Spectre showcases, as well as a Green Arrow story I'll be reviewing today.  The fifth short, featuring Catwoman, is available on the Batman: Year One movie.

I would review all of these short films, but only one features a cameo from Black Canary, so that's the one I'll review here.

DC Showcase: Green Arrow originally appeared with the Superman/Batman: Apocalypse DVD, which was an adaptation of the "Supergirl" story arc from the Superman/Batman series written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by the late Michael Turner.  They story had a few good moments, but it wasn't anything really special and the adaptation isn't much better.  I wouldn't have gotten this if I knew the Green Arrow short would be included with another movie.

The story opens with Oliver Queen stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic at Star City airport where his longtime girlfriend Dinah is set to arrive.  Those in the know are aware that Ollie is the costumed adventurer and Justice League member, Green Arrow, and Dinah is none other than Black Canary.  Ollie has an engagement ring for Dinah, but worries she'll be too disappointed in his lateness to accept.

When he finally finds a parking spot, Ollie discovers that the heavy traffic backup is due to the increased security surrounding the arrival of Princess Perdita of the Eastern European nation of Vlatava.    Ollie also recognizes a familiar face getting out of a taxi.  Using a handy Justice League app in his smartphone, Ollie identifies the man as Merlyn, one of Green Arrow's rogues.

Inside the airport terminal, the ten-year-old Princess Perdita's security detail is ambushed and slaughtered by mercenaries posing as paparazzi.  The mercs close in on the princess, ready to execute her when...

Green Arrow unloads smoke-grenade arrows and other non-lethal trick arrows to confuse the mercenaries.

From here we get seven minutes of fast-paced and truly fun action and marksmanship.  Ollie evades ambush after ambush, engages in a duelist-style bow-and-arrow shootout with Merlyn, and discovers exactly why the princess has been targeted for assassination.

Of course, there is one final ambush--one final dastardly villain, revealed to be the mastermind behind the princess' assassination.  And our heroic archer is taken out, helpless.  But not alone.  Remember why Ollie went to the airport in the first place?

Black Canary shows up to save the day.  Figuring that there's no bigger turn on for women than having to save her man from international terrorists, Ollie chooses that moment to pop the question and give Dinah the engagement ring.  With a little encouragement from the ten-year-old Perdita, Dinah accepts.

This is a really fun little short movie.  It's not a complex story or layered character piece.  It's an extended chase scene.  It's a ten-minute action scene, and it's done incredibly well.  Did it leave me with a deeper appreciation for Green Arrow?  No, but it entertained me, and if this had been my introduction to the character, I would want to learn more about him.

The animation is tight, blending the DCAU house style with a kind of dark manga fluidity, and fast, making every punch, bullet or arrow seem as dangerous as it should.  The script, for as simple a story as it is, is funny and full of gems that create a medieval adventure motif.  From the obvious comparison of Green Arrow to Robin Hood, to him rescuing a princess, to the villainous archer named Merlyn, to the final beat about queens needing consorts--and Green Arrow being a Queen, after all--there's enough of subtext to give this straight action adventure to give it a fantasy element.

This is certainly not a Black Canary story.  Her's is a cameo, really, but it's a nice one.  She gets to save the day by showing off her sonic scream Canary Cry for any viewers who might not know her.  We see just how important she is to Green Arrow ("I couldn't live with out you," he says, "literally.")  And she looks really, really damn good.

DC Showcase: Green Arrow is

• Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos
• Written by Greg Weisman

And features the voice talents of

• Neal McDonough as Green Arrow/Oliver Queen
• Malcolm McDowell as Merlyn the Magnificent
• Ariel Winter as Princess Perdita
• Steven Blum as Count Vertigo
• John DiMaggio as Merc #1
• Grey DeLisle as Black Canary

I highly recommend this animated short as a terrific Green Arrow story and a fun Black Canary cameo!