Black Canary in Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 2: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANNUAL #3

Black Canary left the Justice League of America roughly one year before the Crisis on Infinite Earths universe-altering series when Aquaman took over the team and ushered in the era known as Justice League Detroit.  She and Green Arrow teamed up with Green Lanterns John Stewart and Katma Tui at the beginning of the Crisis event before coming back to the JLA for the series' annual in 1985.

Justice League of America Annual #3: "Force of Nature" was written by Dan Mishkin with pencils by Rick Hoburg, inks by Mike Gustovich, and a cover by Paris Cullins and Mike Machlan.

The story begins with the android Red Tornado alone on the Justice League Satellite.  The satellite is badly damaged and plummeting toward the Earth while inside Red Tornado tries to hold the structure together.  Reddy also questions his humanity, but his existential crisis is interrupted by the satellite exploding.  Pieces of the satellite shower Earth in flames as the debris catches fire on reentry.

Below, Green Arrow and Black Canary have been rescued by Firestorm and ride a--a balloon in the shape of a puppy?  Really, Ronnie?!

In Detroit, Martian Manhunter watches the bulk of the satellite wreckage crashing toward the city's Renaissance Center.  J'Onn grabs Steel and Vibe just as Firestorm arrives with Dinah and Ollie.  Firestorm uses his atomic restructuring power to divert some of the debris, while Black Canary, Green Arrow, Steel and Vibe deal with the bits of fiery detritus that Firestorm misses.

But the largest chunk of the satellite, the command center, is still barreling down on the heart of Detroit.  J'Onn J'Onzz risks his life by throwing himself against the fireball.  Despite fire being his greatest weakness, his superior Martian strength is able to knock the satellite debris some ways from downtown.  Firestorm uses his powers to push the wreckage clear of the city and into the water of one of the Great Lakes.

In the aftermath, the Justice League members past and present begin to bicker amongst themselves with Green Arrow and Vibe about to throw down.  Firestorm separates them and calls their attention to the missing Red Tornado who was still on the satellite.  J'Onn, too, tries to settle the heated tempers and scans for Reddy.

The scene changes to New York City where Kathy Sutton, Red Tornado's boo, comes home from  the grocery store to find Reddy's face haunting her television screen beckoning her to join him.

Across the country, Ralph Dibny, the World Famous Elongated Man, and Zatanna Zatara, Mistress of Magic arrive at S.T.A.R. Labs to investigate a series of freak storms and unnatural weather problems across the globe.  Ralph surmises the influx of anti-matter energy is responsible for the storms, but a scientist confesses that S.T.A.R. Labs has been deploying experimental weather control satellites--weather control satellites that they're no longer able to control.

Elongated Man and Zatanna help the scientists try to override the weather satellites operations but fail to stop the satellites before the lab's control center is destroyed by malfunctioning equipment and another storm caused by a space warp opening up directly above the two heroes.

Back in Detroit, J'Onn brings Black Canary, Green Arrow and the rest of the League members to their current headquarters.  Ollie and Vibe continue to snap at each other.  Then some doctor comes out and describes the fate of Red Tornado.

Firestorm reveals to the others that Red Tornado's body was inhabited by the spirit of the Tornado Champion, but their discussion in cut off by Elongated Man's distress call.  The League watch on the monitor as Elongated Man and Zatanna are caught up in the storm and sucked into the space warp.

Meanwhile, Kathy Sutton follows Red Tornado's trail through hijacked electronic messages.

Then the Detroit heroes save some people trapped at a hydroelectric plant.  Black Canary, meanwhile, goes to Gotham City with Green Arrow and Firestorm.  They're flying into the city when Ollie spots Kathy Sutton standing on top of a bridge in the middle of the storm.  Kathy is rescued by Geo-Force and brought to Batman and Black Lightning.

Kathy is telling Batman and the Outsiders about following Red Tornado's summons when Dinah and the others land and tell them Reddy is dead.  Then Superman arrives and is unable to travel through the space-warp.  They reason that the rogue weather-control satellites are preventing the heroes from going through the warp, and J'Onn has been unable to destroy the satellites in space.  Superman flies up to help the Martian.

Geo-Force uses his positive gravity power to try and collapse the warp, but it doesn't work.  Instead, it pulls the jet nearly crushing the heroes.

Geo's powers create a crazy kind of backlash effect that sends Black Canary, Green Arrow, Firestorm and Kathy Sutton into the space warp.  Batman and the Outsiders cannot follow, because screw the Outsiders!

In space, Superman and J'Onn destroy one of the weather satellites, while the malevolent spirit controlling voices his rededication to his plan, whatever that might be.

At the hydroelectric dam, one space warp opens dumping Ralph and Zatanna on the Detroit Leaguers.  Another warp opens up dropping Dinah and the others.  Vibe acts like a dick, which is Ollie's thing, so Green Arrow smacks Vibe, calling him a punk.

Zatanna notices that the weather has changed, that something is affecting the wind and air pressure specifically.  In space, Superman and Martian Manhunter destroy the last of the satellites which plays right into the hands of the Tornado Champion that has been causing all of the storms.

The gathered heroes watch as the giant tornado takes a familiar form: Red Tornado.  The tornado spirit explains how Red Tornado's android self was able to interface with the electronic satellites in orbit, and the Champion's spirit overrode their programming making them go bad.

Superman and Firestorm recognize that Reddy had been taken over by the persona of the Tornado Tyrant, who now wants to remake the world in his skewed version of perfection.  While the heroes engage the Tyrant in battle, we cut back to Detroit where Sue Dibny witnesses a whirling wind steal away the broken android body of Red Tornado.

The Justice Leaguers fight Tornado Tyrant but they're not accomplishing much.  Kathy Sutton thinks there is still a semblance of her lover's soul inside the storm and runs away from Green Arrow.  The whirlwind picks her up, and in the eye of the storm Kathy confronts Red Tornado, but his soul isn't the gentle man she loved.  He's crazy and wants her to join him in his quest to conquer the world.

She's able to calm him enough that he lets his guard down.

Superman, Martian Manhunter, Vibe and Firestorm try to contain the Tornado Tyrant but he busts free and rants against them.  Then, like a bratty little kid, he flies off threatening to get them back someday.

I think I would have enjoyed this story if I cared at all about Red Tornado and his history but I really, really don't.  I don't care much about the new Justice Leaguers from Detroit, either.  J'Onn and Firestorm got some cool moments to shine in this story, but Black Canary, Green Arrow, Elongated Man and Zatanna were little more than bystanders for most of the action.

Despite the end-of-the-world style natural disasters and potential for mass destruction that would make Michael Bay squee with delight, the story feels a little too small for a 41-page annual.  Part of that is Hoburg's artwork which never really elevates the dynamic scenes, but part of it, too, is Mishkin's story which is really too straight-and-narrow for a comic of this length.

Girl Power: WONDER WOMAN #310

In the previous two issues of Wonder Woman, a gypsy survivor of the Holocaust named Zenna Persik used her powers to swap bodies with Black Canary.  This resulted in Dinah getting captured by a mad scientist bent on world domination yada yada yada, and Wonder Woman and Zenna (in Canary's body) had to go stop him.  The two-part story ended with everyone getting their bodies back and Zenna sacrificing herself to kill the mad doctor.

Wonder Woman #310: "All's Fair" is written by Dan Mishkin with art by guest penciler Mark Beachum and inks by Pablo Marcos.  It was published in December, 1983.

The story begins with Dinah and Diana playing Null-Grav Handball, the kind of competitive sport they don't play at the Winter Olympics because the athletes need access to the Justice League Satellite to play.

Black Canary calls for a timeout so she can catch her breath.  She makes the excuse that her play was disrupted by Wonder Woman dropping the bombshell that she plans to reveal her secret identity to Colonel Steve Trevor.

Woah! Waitaminute... Hippolyta bequeathed the powers and title of Wonder Woman on Artemis thousands of years ago!  Is there some kind of crisis looming in the near future that'll ret-con this little factoid?

Anyway, Wonder Woman continues the tale.  Back in Homeric times when Greece was carved up into city states, a powerful and charismatic ruler name Cleon is leading his forces across the Aegean Sea when angry waves of Poseidon wreak havoc on his fleet.  Cleon's ship is destroyed and all aboard are dumped into the sea sure to drown.

The ancient Wonder Woman, Artemis, helps the storm-tossed sailers and dives deep underwater to rescue Cleon.  She carries him to safety and flies off, but not only does Cleon owe her his life, he's quite infatuated by her beauty.  But one of Cleon's lieutenants has been possessed by Ares, the God of War, who gives him some, let's say questionable advice on romance.

Ares tells the young Amazon princess that she could be the greatest warrior queen with his support, but she rejects him and goes to see Cleon.  Eros strikes the man with an arrow of love and Cleon and Artemis give in to their passions.  They become lovers and conquerors, ravaging neighboring cities and ravishing each other.

Their lust for power consumes them so that Cleon wants Artemis to lead them to conquer her sister Amazons on Paradise Island.  Artemis refuses, though.  She will not willingly betray Queen Hippolyta--"willingly" being the key word there.

Sometime later, while they're getting it on under a tree, the Ares-possessed soldier tells Artemis and Cleon that Hippolyta has fallen in battle.  Distraught with grief, Artemis leaves Cleon and their army to sail back to the secret home of the Amazons.

Once there, she discovers that Hippolyta is alive and well.  And, of course, Cleon's fleet followed her.  The queen demands to know why Artemis would betray her sisters by bringing a hostile force to their shores.

The Amazons defend their island, and though the battle is fierce, they prove to be the superior army, killing most of the invaders.  Artemis is prepared to slay her queen when Hippolyta realizes that an insidious presence is the cause of this battle.

Hippolyta exposes Ares' manipulative involvement in the current strife.  In a rage, Artemis blames Cleon and threatens to kill him despite his protestations that he really did love her.  In the end, she cannot execute him, because she too really did love Cleon.  But the treachery of Man's World has left a permanent shame on Artemis and she flies off, abandoning her home, her people, and her lover.

This is a total filler issue, but it's a pretty enjoyable one.  Mishkin kills some time waiting for Don Heck to return to the main story, and in the meantime tells a nice little parable of love and duty.  Even though the story sounds like a perfect example of why Diana should not commit herself to Steve Trevor, she sees the opposite as true.  She sees the deception between Cleon and Artemis as their downfall.

Mark Beachum's art is pretty great throughout this story.  I can't think of what else I've seen him draw, but his style strikes me as a cross between Gene Colan and George Perez, and that's pretty high praise indeed.  His panel construction and layouts especially remind me of Perez only more freeform and spread out.  Take a look at Page 7 up above and see how he blocks the eight panels on that page.

Black Canary for her part serves as the audience and reader.  It's nice that Mishkin continued to include her after the adventures of the past two months, and Beachum makes her look terrific, but really, Dinah could have been replaced by any League member and the story wouldn't have changed.

Girl Power: WONDER WOMAN #309

Previously...

Black Canary interfered with an angry gypsy woman chasing a Nazi war criminal.  The gypsy, Zenna Persik, used her magic to transplant her mind with the Canary's so Dinah ended up in a stranger's body and captured by the mad Doctor Schlagel.  Zenna used the Black Canary's bod to board the Justice League satellite where she was captured by Wonder Woman and the Elongated Man.

Wonder Woman #309: "The Black Canary is Dead" is written by Dan Mishkin with art by Don Heck.  It was published in November 1983.

While bound in Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth, Zenna recounts how she swapped minds with Black Canary, the unfortunate result of which left Dinah powerless in the clutches of Dr. Schlagel and his army of mutant Bigfoots.  Wonder Woman refuses to believe that Dinah is dead, especially since Zenna didn't see Schlagel kill her.

Wonder Woman and Zenna Canary teleport down to Star City.  Zenna explains that Schlagel converted a warehouse into his lab to continue the inhuman experiments he began under Hitler.  She reiterates how he tortured and killed her people and her hatred for him knows no limit.

These panels amuse the ten year old boy in me.

Meanwhile, in Schlagel's lab, Dinah has been sneaking around in Zenna Persik's body.  She might not have her sonic scream or Zenna's gypsy magic, but she still has years of martial arts training locked in her mind.

She lets the villain monologue so he can reveal that he's been kidnapping children to tap into their latent psychic abilities to feed his powerful machine.  With gypsy telepathic and telekinetic powers feeding him, Schlagel will be able to destroy America and take over the world.

While he's rambling, Dinah notices her own face looking down from the skylight.  Wonder Woman and Zenna Canary are on the roof, preparing to act.  Wonder Woman uses her lasso to stun two of Schlagel's mutant servants, and Zenna reverses the mind-swap with Black Canary.

Dinah cautions Wonder Woman against treating the monsters too roughly--they are children after all--while Zenna uses her new spacial position to try to kill Schlagel.  Unfortunately, his machine is working, giving him enough superpowers to hold them off.  "Even if you were men, you could not reach me!" he taunts.  (Sexism from a Nazi?  Now I've seen everything!)

Wonder Woman punches through the psychokinetic shield, slowly forcing her way to Schlagel despite his powers and protests.  "It is impossible!" he shouts.  "They don't teach us that word on Paradise Island," Wonder Woman responds.  At the second-to-last second, Schlagel teleports himself, his machine and Wonder Woman with him.

And at the very last second, Zenna uses her powers to swap bodies with Wonder Woman so that she travels with Schlagel, leaving Diana trapped in her gypsy body.

Across the country at Walter Reed Army Hospital, Colonel Steve Trevor is about to be discharged.  On the phone with Etta Candy, he learns that the general sent someone else to an assignment in the Caribbean that was supposed to be Steve's.  Before leaving, he's visited by Lisa Abernathy and her daughter, Eloise, thanking him for saving their dad.  They know he knows Wonder Woman and hope they get a chance to meet her someday.

Wonder Woman in Zenna's body and Black Canary fly across the ocean in the Invisible Jet to where Schlagel is going to sabotage the United States' new missile defense system.  Zenna in Wonder Woman's body is trapped in a psychic cage, unable to use any of Diana's powers.

The missile turns right back into the machine killing Schlagel, and appearing to kill Wonder Woman in Zenna's body.  As Black Canary and the Army search the area, Wonder Woman comes ashore.  And it is the real Wonder Woman, who explains that Zenna swapped minds with her so that she could sacrifice herself to kill Schlagel and stop his weapon.

Hey, wait... Wasn't that machine powered by a bunch of children strapped down to it?  Did that missile blast just murder a bunch of kids?  Huh, I guess it was fully powered and Schlagel no longer needed the kids anymore.  Maybe I missed something.

Anyway, that's the concluding half of the crazy gypsy body thief.  Dan Mishkin delivered a fun little story that shows how obsessed Zenna became with revenge to the point that she endangered the others and had to die to fulfill her mission.  Black Canary gets some decent action in this issue, but as a character she's mostly a spectator this time around.  Her body at least appears on almost every page.

Black Canary returns in Wonder Woman #310 as Diana tells her a story of Amazonian glories past.  Come back next Thursday for that review!

Girl Power: WONDER WOMAN #308

Once more, I draw inspiration from the 1976 Super DC Calendar for a segue into the day's post.  According to said calendar, February 6th is the birthday of the lovely Sue Dibny, wife of Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man.  Though Sue does not guest star in this issue of Wonder Woman, Black Canary and Elongated Man do, so that's what I be reviewing this morning.

Wonder Woman #308: "Heritage" is written by Dan Mishkin with art by Don Heck.  It was published in October 1983.

The issue opens with Wonder Woman on Paradise Island, being led in chains to an altar by her mother, Hippolyta.  The goddess of love, Aphrodite, is summoned to pass judgment on Diana, who must pass the test of steel.

After breaking the shackles, Diana freely dons the Bracelets of Submission, pledging herself to Aphrodite and the Code of Love.  This ceremony is done to replace Wonder Woman's usual bracelets, damaged in the issue before.  Queen Hippolyta then calls upon Athena, goddess of wisdom, to repair Diana's Lasso of Truth.  Once done, Diana is dismissed so her mother can talk about her to the goddesses behind her back.

Once Diana has left, the queen expresses her concerns about Steve Trevor to Athena and Aphrodite.  They mention that Trevor has twice been brought back from the dead.  This revelation is shocking to Sofia Constantinas, the young Amazon (or woman living among the Amazons) who has been eavesdropping on the ceremony.  Just then, she's caught spying by Wonder Woman.

Meanwhile, Black Canary is on patrol in Star City when she finds a young woman accosting an old man.  When Dinah tries to intervene, the woman conjures a wall of fire!

When the seeming attacher is felled by the Canary Cry, the old man calls in some backup, which happen to be hairy Bigfoot-lookalikes.

Black Canary realizes she attacked the wrong person with her cry, but before she can correct her mistake, a mysterious and unseen event changes the game.

Back on Paradise Island, Diana walks with Sofia, explaining how she used to spy on her mother, too, and that it will take time to grow used to Amazonian customs.  Sofia seems receptive to the idea, but she asks Diana about the deaths of Steve Trevor.  This causes Wonder Woman distress, and she seems to forget where she is and what they were talking about for a moment.

Diana leaves Sofia so that she can take up monitor duty at the Justice League Satellite.  When she arrives, though, she finds Elongated Man knocked out on the floor.

Not the best endorsement for one of the world's best detectives to be caught unawares by Black Canary acting so out of character.

Planetside at the Pentagon, Etta Candy is disturbed to learn that another Air Force major is getting a high profile assignment that was supposed to go to Colonel Steve Trevor, who was wounded.

Back in the satellite, Wonder Woman and Elongated Man use the security monitors to track Black Canary to the League's arsenal.

With the hull breached, the artificial gravity fails.  "Black Canary" is sucked up toward the hole that would shoot her out into space.  Wonder Woman rips a piece of metal from the wall to create a patch, and Elongated Man stretches up to the hull to seal the hole.

Once they have Black Canary captured, Diana knows she's not the real Canary.

"Concentration camp... Then you're Jewish?" Ralph exclaims.  Man, again with the awful, awful detective skills on this guy.  Anyway, Zenna Persik explains that she is a gypsy.  Using her psionic powers that people call Gypsy Magic, she swapped bodies with the Black Canary, putting her mind in Dinah's body and Dinah's mind in hers.  Then Zenna was able to tap into Dinah's memories in order to get access to the satellite.  She needs a weapon that can destroy Dr. Schlagel.

Wonder Woman is more concerned with the fate of her friend, Dinah Lance, the real Black Canary.  Zenna suspects that as soon as Schlagel had her captured, he probably killed her.

However, back in Star City, Dinah wakes up in Zenna's body.

Dinah sneaks around the dark looking for an escape.  What she finds, though, is a nightmarish invention: Schlagel has a dozen children strapped to a machine that draws energy from their life-force.  At that moment, she is captured by the Bigfoot goons.  Schlagel comes at her with a syringe, threatening to kill her.

Next issue: Three women against a madman's menacing scheme, and a battle that must end with... "The Death of a Hero!"

The ceremony scene that kicks off this issue is a little confusing if you didn't read the issue before it, which I didn't.  But once Black Canary and Zenne Persik enter the story it's nonstop fun and adventure.  

Black Canary gets plenty to do in this issue, whether she's in the right body or not.  I love that the Canary is considered one of the two heroes of Star City, as if she gets equal billing with Green Arrow in that department.  I always love seeing her cruise around on her motorcycle, and later, when she's trapped in Zenna's body, she still manages to escape captivity and find the villain's weapon.  Her body sees some action, too (teehee), when Zenna uses it to attack Ralph and Diana.

I really like Zenna.  Her background as a gypsy's whose people were butchered during the Holocaust is terrific motivation, and her psionic powers are great for story and visual purposes.  Dr. Schlagel could be a worthy mad scientist when we learn what he's doing with the kidnapped children.  In any event, he's got hairy Bigfoot goons.  That's cool.

There's nothing really to complain about Don Heck's artwork.  His rendition of Black Canary looks good, though not as good as how Mike Grell, Mike Nasser/Netzer and other artists drew her in the '70s and '80s.  His Ralph Dibny seems to be lacking the signature schnoz that made Elongated Man so distinguished.

All told, a really good story.  I'll post the next chapter, Wonder Woman #309 next Thursday.