Back in Action: ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #626

Previously...

Every Wednesday, I review an issue of Action Comics Weekly featuring a backup story starring Black Canary among others.  Each installment of Back in Action will look at Dinah's story and touch on my favorite or least favorite moments from the rest of the strips in these issues.

Black Canary's second story arc continues in ACW with issue #626, which sports an understated but, I think, really awesome cover by Paul Chadwick.  At a glance it seems like the kind of look-to-the-sky shot I'd associate with a Superman cover.  On the other hand, I'm glad it's not.  Part of me misses how those Golden and Silver Age heroes all stood for the same thing: good.  What should it matter which larger-than-life hero you see flying over your head as long as he or she is there to save the day?

Black Canary

"Knock 'Em Dead" Part 3: written by Sharon Wright, pencilled by Randy Duburke, inked by Pablo Marcos, lettered by Steve Haynie, colored by Gene D'Angelo, and edited by Robert Greenberger.

This chapter opens with housekeeping service at Walt Sarno's hotel discovering his dead body.  Walt was a business associate of Dinah Laurel Lance, in Seattle to coordinate a window display Dinah's flower shop was constructing for Macy's and other big name department stores.  Dinah and her designer, Bob, arrive at Walt's hotel to find it swarmed with police and reporters.

The press wonder if Walt's murder was the first fatality from a crime spree called the Barfly Robbers, where women proposition men and then drug and steal from them.  Lieutenant James Cameron, a familiar and mostly friendly face to Green Arrow and Black Canary, won't confirm that theory to the media, but does privately express confidence in it to Dinah.

Also on the scene is Ken Glazier, another colleague scheduled to meet with Walt.  Glazier is the lighting operator for their proposed window displays.  He seems noticeably--conspicuously--agitated by Walt's murder and takes off.  Dinah looks suspicious.

The next day, the mystery woman who spied on Walt and his redheaded companion, skates through the park listening to the radio reporting on the case.  When the media brings the cause of death back to the Barfly Robbers epidemic, the mystery girl begins laughing gleefully.

That night in Dinah's apartment above Sherwood Florist, she reads a newspaper headline that Vincent Scales has died.  Scales, if you recall, was the evil CEO behind the events in Dinah's previous story arc, "Bitter Fruit", from ACW #609-#616.  That story ended a little ambiguously and unsatisfactorily, so getting some closure that the bad guy died of cancer at age 57 is a nice little consolation.

And then for some reason, Dinah remembers she needs to call the woman who is producing a community theater producing of Peter Pan.  Sherwood Florist is providing floral decorations as set pieces for the show, but Dinah decides she can't call the woman right now.  She's to rattled by Walt's death and hits the streets to investigate--Black Canary style!

[Click the images below to enlarge.]

Now we're getting somewhere.  We have a body and thus, a mystery.  And unlike with "Bitter Fruit", this case is personal to Dinah.  We have multiple suspects: there's the redheaded woman who went up to Walt's room--possibly one of these Barfly Robbers.  Then we have the shorthaired mystery woman who was following the redhead, or was she following Walt?  And finally, what of Ken Glazier, who received a death threat last issue and left the police cordon around Walt's hotel in a state of distress?  Three important story threads that aren't too hard to follow or separate who's who.

Once again, I have to commend the creative team and editor on this strip.  Last story, I thought they got Black Canary all wrong.  This time, they're hitting the right notes.  The story is simple but layered and important to Dinah.  We only see her as Black Canary for one page, but what a page!  Randy Duburke continues to channel Bill Sienkiewicz whenever Dinah puts the wig and black leather on.  That's the key; he changes visual styles when she's in crime fighter mode.  It's a great visual affect that gives each page with Black Canary an added punch and makes me want to read more!

The Rest

Jim Owsley and M.D. Bright continue the story of Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, in a story co-plotted by the two of them.  On his way back to Earth, Hal comes across an alien ship made of wood popping out of a wormhole near the moon.  Investigating, he mistakes it for a shrine and brings it to the Great Redwood Forest of Northern California so the ship can repair itself with plentiful wood.  Once Hal takes off, however, the ship's sentient energy-based life form takes the shape of Green Lantern and goes off in search of resources.  Somewhat accurately intuiting a television as a source of information, the alien visitor mistakes a violent action movie for typical behavioral customs of earthlings.  It responds by killing a whole lot of people.  You can read the visitor's interpretation of human entertainment as ironic for the sake of dark comedy, or more of a commentary on our society's obsession with violence.  It's funny either way, I think.  Bright's pencils are stronger in this chapter than I've seen yet.

You know who doesn't like following orders? Captain Nazi!  Go figure, huh.  In the fourth chapter of Shazam written by Roy and Dann Thomas with art by Rick Staci and Rick Magyar, the neo-fascist powerhouse antagonizes his own leader that security opens fire, igniting chemicals and explosives which blows up the whole Sons of Valhalla headquarters and their leadership.  Captain Nazi survives, though, and heads out looking for the boys who are going to dump cyanide into San Francisco's water supply.  He discovers Billy Batson, tied up and gagged and about to die in a fire.  Captain Nazi takes Billy's gag off, inadvertently freeing him to utter the magic words that unleash Captain Marvel.  The mightiest mortal throws a mountain on top of Captain Nazi and then stops the Hitler Youth from poisoning San Fran.  But while the Sons of Valhalla may be destroyed, Captain Nazi gets loose.

Secret Six by Martin Pasko and Frank Springer is frustrating again.  This story does not lend itself to short, crowded chapters.  I completely forget what happens from week to week, making me virtually lost when I start each new issue.  Plus, by its nature as a spy adventure, the characters change allegiance, change appearance, dress in costumes; it's very difficult to keep straight and spoils my enjoyment.  There was a cool escape scene with a guy who has prosthetic legs, but I didn't know who he was or who he was running from.  Maybe reading the whole story in one sitting as a trade would help, but as a weekly, sorry, I don't know if I can keep reading along.

Likewise, I was starting to loose interest in the two-page Superman strip by Roger Stern and Curt Swan, but this installment brought me back.  The sinister corporation that wants to kill Bob Galt, the founder of a religious sect that worships Superman like a god has found out Galt is traveling with Clark Kent.  Fearing that the TV reporter will bring more attention and sympathy to Galt's group, the bad guys send a couple of armed airships to kill Clark and Galt as they drive across the desert in a jeep.  The last panel shows Clark pushing Galt's head down as he swerves out of the way of gunfire.  Very cool action setup that requires Clark Kent to play the man of action in order to keep his secret identity safe.  Can't wait till next week's continuation.

The best part of Mike Baron's Deadman story is still the art by Kelly Jones.  He does an awesome Deadman, but the last chapter in this arc is as underwhelming as the others.  The magic ghost twins aren't so much duped into giving up their host bodies as talked out of it and then beaten up.  It's a little weak and I never understood their real power--of course, I missed the first half of the story.  Oh well...

Next week, I'll look at Action Comics Weekly #627, which cuts down the usual six features to five.  Nightwing returns in place of Shazam and Deadman, while Black Canary, Superman, Green Lantern and the Secret Six continue their stories.

Back in Action: ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #625

Previously...

Every Wednesday, I review an issue of Action Comics Weekly featuring a backup story starring Black Canary among others.  Each installment of Back in Action will look at Dinah's story and touch on my favorite or least favorite moments from the rest of the strips in these issues.

The second chapter of Black Canary's second story arc in ACW Black Canary continues her second story arc in ACW with issue #625.  The cover by artist Eduardo Barreto spotlights Deadman and a whole host of other characters in the red part of his costume.  I don't know if these are all characters he's possessed or what the connection is but you can definitely see Batman and maybe Sargon the Sorcerer and Enemy Ace.  Can you ID any others?

Black Canary

"Knock 'Em Dead" Part 2: written by Sharon Wright, pencilled by Randy Duburke, inked by Pablo Marcos, lettered by Steve Haynie, colored by Gene D'Angelo, and edited by Robert Greenberger.  Unlike the last story arc, which was told in eight-page installments, "Knock 'Em Dead" is broken up into seven-page chapters.

We pick up right where last issue left off.  Black Canary was exercising in some old house on the outskirts of Seattle when the floor gives out and she falls into... water?  Okay...

Elsewhere, a man sits alone in the dark, drinking and reading a death threat he received--possibly the death threat composed on page 1 of the previous chapter.  The man isn't identified here, but this is Ken Glazier.  Dinah Lance is scheduled to meet with him the next day as they're collaborating on a department store window project.

Dinah's friend Walt is also supposed to meet them for lunch.  He does his drinking at a bar where a woman sits down next to him and starts talking.  It's the red-headed woman we saw last issue, the woman who may or may not be named Deborah.  If we read between the lines of her dialogue, we might suspect she's a higher class prostitute.  Meanwhile, the mystery woman who stalked her from a car last time watches her and Walt from across the bar.

After a few more drinks, Walt and the redhead go up to his hotel room.  He invites her in, which activates her superpower to make the lights go out so her eyes can shine like supernovas.  Or maybe that's not a thing and it's just an artistic way of stressing her dark motivation when she follows him in.

Black Canary swims to the shore and passes out in the grass.  She doesn't seem that upset about almost breaking her neck or drowning.

Later, the redhead leaves Walt's hotel room.  The concierge at the front desk tries to forward a call up to Walt's room, but no one answers...because Walt is dead.

[Click the images below to enlarge.]

Dinah doesn't do much in this chapter--just falls into water and swims to safety, but she looks damn good.  And she's dressed in her Black Canary costume the whole time, which is a big plus.  I still can't get over how the same Randy DuBurke who so thoroughly underwhelmed me with "Bitter Fruit" wows me with this story.  The pages with Black Canary are striking, evoking a more fluid, dynamic style like Bill Sienkiewicz or Stephen Bissette from Saga of the Swamp Thing, especially with Dinah's seemingly endless blond locks.

The rest of the pages are pretty typical of Sharon Wright's scripts.  A silent page or two with a character we don't know and little context, and some deeper mysteries.  But the mystery itself gets more interesting this issue, because we have our first body.  And this time, the corpse has a personal connection to Dinah Lance.  That means she has a stake in this story and that makes me want to read it all the more.

I'm still leaning towards giving credit to the new editor, Greenberger, for the clarity of the story and the focus on Black Canary's look in the art.

The Rest

Green Lantern still gets the lead feature in this issue and it's a terrific little done-in-one written by James Owsley (who would become Christopher Priest) and drawn by M.D. Bright.  Hal Jordan goes undercover to monitor a peace summit between two warring alien species.  When the peace talks devolve into open rioting, the Green Lantern settles the conflict and ensures they sign the peace treaty.  Of course, on the last page we discover that the aliens' peace agreement ensures they will work together to create a doomsday weapon.  Classic!

In Shazam! by Roy and Dann Thomas and the Ricks Staci and Magyar, Billy Batson continues to uncover more sinister secrets at a day camp for Future Nazis of America.  The new Captain Nazi, as surprised by his abilities as anyone, displays his super strength, flight, and heat vision so he can be a match for Captain Marvel.  Billy joins a group of boys sent out to poison a racially diverse city, but blows his cover and gets tied up so he can't utter the magic word.

Secret Six by Martin Pasko and Frank Springer is...Hmmm.  I really want to like this strip but I can't get into the story in this format.  Plus, I've missed a lot of the story in other issues of ACW I haven't collected.  There is a whole lot of action and characters shown in this chapter that weren't in the last one, and Pasko's story doesn't make it the most new reader friendly.  Again...wanna like it but can't.

In the two-page Superman strip by Roger Stern and Curt Swan, we learn that while Superman's weakness is kryptonite, if you want to hurt Clark Kent just sit next to him in a plane for a couple hours and talk endlessly about how Superman is a god who can lead humankind to a more perfect and holy place.

All I really got from this Deadman story by Mike Baron and Kelly Jones is that Kelly Jones drawing Deadman is damn awesome!  There were zombies and ghosts and twins with black magic--all good, but a little disjointed with this penultimate part of the story lacking the appropriate setup from earlier stories.

In the letters column of each issue of Action Comics Weekly, the editors asked fans to write in and rank the six features each week.  Because of the publishing schedule, it took a while to get the ranking for the issues with Black Canary's "Bitter Fruit" story.  And the results weren't encouraging.  She pretty consistently ranked sixth out of six features.  It's hard to argue given the quality of the first story compared to the others in those issues.  It wasn't exactly worthy of Action Comics.  Here's hoping the ranking of the new story picked up!

Next week, I'll look at Action Comics Weekly #626, which concludes Deadman's story and continues the ongoing stories of Black Canary, Superman, Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, and the Secret Six.

Back in Action: ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #624

Every Wednesday, I review an issue of Action Comics Weekly featuring a backup story starring Black Canary among others.  Each installment of Back in Action will look at Dinah's story and touch on my favorite or least favorite moments from the rest of the strips in these issues.

Black Canary's second story arc in ACW kicked off with issue #624, which features one of my all-time favorite Black Canary images as its cover.  I mean look at that thing... Alan Freaking Davis!  Look at the Canary.  Amidst all that chaos and action--the bodies thrown every which way, the trash cascading off the walls--she looks graceful, elegant.  Alan Davis hasn't drawn Dinah much in her classic costume; he rendered her in her spy outfit in the early years of JSA, but in her leather and fishnets, I think it's just this cover and the out-of-continuity tales, JLA: The Nail and Another Nail.  But she looks so damn good that Davis is always circling the top of my list of favorite Black Canary artists.

Black Canary

"Knock 'Em Dead" Part 1: written by Sharon Wright, pencilled by Randy Duburke, inked by Pablo Marcos, lettered by Steve Haynie, and colored by Gene D'Angelo.  The last Canary story was edited by Mike Gold, who also edited her appearances in Green Arrow.  This story, though, is edited by Robert Greenberger.  The only structural difference is that the Canary's first story arc in ACW came in eight-page installments; this one is broken up in seven-page chapters.

We open with someone cutting letters out of a newspaper or magazine, a trick commonly associated with composing ransom notes or death threats so people can't identify handwriting.  There is a picture on a desk of a woman and a young child (daughter).  The thing about Duburke's art in these stories, though, is that I'm assuming it's a woman in the picture, but the gender is a touch ambiguous.

Cut to Sherwood Florist, the flower shoppe owned by Dinah Lance, who is inconveniently absent at the moment.  Sherwood is providing foliage as set dressing for a local theatrical production of Peter Pan that is benefiting the Seattle AIDS Association.  The director or producer of the show has come to thank Dinah and invite her to see a dress rehearsal.

Also come to see Dinah is Rita, the young woman who crashed through Dinah's window in Green Arrow #1 and then set Dinah on the mystery surrounding her father's death in "Bitter Fruit", the last previous Canary story in ACW.  Rita has a work visa from INS and is looking for a legitimate job.  This is a nice bit of continuity that doesn't confuse or muddle the plot.

Dinah is out in the city meeting a potential client from New York.  The man she's meeting is named Walt and they talk like old friends, or old acquaintances; they're familiar anyway.  Through their conversation we learn that Sherwood Florist is decorating window displays for department stores in Seattle.  A man named Ken Glazier does the lighting while Dinah does the floral arrangements.  Dinah and Walt plan to meet with Ken the next day for lunch.

Elsewhere in the city, we witness a rather strange encounter.  A woman in a car pulls up alongside another woman and asks for directions.  The driver almost looks like the woman from the desk picture on Page 1, but with different colored hair.  As the woman on the street walks away, we hear the driver's thoughts.  She knows the other woman but wasn't recognized by her.  And that's good.  Hmm... What could that be about?

On page five we see--oh, hey, it's Black Canary!  Dinah's actually dressed as Black Canary, fishnets and all!  We hardly ever got that in the last story from Wright and Duburke.  Maybe some angry fan letters brought about this change...  Dinah has gone to some old castle-looking house to work out.  She seems familiar with the place.  I'm not sure if this house is an established location from Green Arrow or what.

As the sun goes down over Seattle, a woman gets herself ready in an apartment.  She seems to be fixing her hair (or applying a wig?) and she has a syringe on the desk.  She talks about shooting heroin like it's an old habit.  She also refers to herself as Deborah... or she's talking to Deborah.  Whoever she is, she's planning something serious.

Back in the old house, Black Canary swings about the rafters, training her body, maintaining her fighting and athletic skills.  The house betrays her when the old wood cracks and she falls through the floor into the darkness below.

[Click the images below to enlarge.]

This first chapter of "Knock 'Em Dead" continues one or two of the problems I had with the last story arc, mostly related to Duburke's art.  A lot of his characters have the same general appearance, which can be confusing when you have a whole lot of new characters that look and sound the same, and might not be identified by name or context.  On the other hand, from the little bit of narration we got in pages four and six, it seems like ambiguous identities might be a central part of the story.  And Duburke's art isn't bad by any means.  In fact, the two pages with Dinah dressed as Black Canary are gorgeous.  The panel construction and the endlessness of her blonde wig in the last page remind me of Jae Lee art.  Except this predates Jae Lee's work, I guess, so it's a bit more like Bill Sienkiewicz.

One note I'm pretty excited about with this story is its relative clarity.  The title "Knock 'Em Dead" refers, I assume, to the theater.  There's a stage play referenced, and characters appear in disguise in this first chapter.  Ambiguity and voyeurism are two of my favorite themes in literature and art, so this type of story seems like it's right up my alley.

Probably the best part of this first chapter is that Dinah seems to be at the center of the story.  We have just a taste of a mystery to come, but there's enough pages either with Dinah or hearing characters talk about her that there's no confusing whose story this is.  That was a critical issue with "Bitter Fruit"; it was "A Dinah Lance Mystery" not a Black Canary story, and really, Dinah wasn't much more than a spectator.  I looks like that's changed this time.

I wonder if that's Sharon Wright's doing, the infusion of the new editor.  Either way, it's a positive change.

The Rest

As per usual, Green Lantern gets the lead feature in a story written by James Owsley and drawn by M.D. Bright.  That's James Owsley who would eventually change his name to Christopher Priest.  He wrote one issue of Black Canary's solo title in 1993 as Owsley, and wrote her again a year later in the pages of The Ray after he changed his name.

It's interesting that in this Green Lantern story, Hal Jordan is confronted by an alien being named simply Priest.  He puts Hal in a position that taxes his willpower and the limits of his faith in himself and God.

In the second chapter of a Shazam! story by Roy and Dann Thomas and Rick Stasi, young Billy Batson arrives at a summer camp called Aryan Acres...which is exactly what it sounds like.  There's a whole lot of hate speech against blacks and Jews in this little story, which appropriately enough sees the creation of a new Captain Nazi by chapter's end.

The ever-continuing soap opera that is Secret Six picks up with a man named Tony in a hotel room with a woman named Shelley.  They're kissing, but he breaks it off suddenly.  They have a gun; they might be on the run.  Later on, Tony tells her about his life and keeps telling her they can't make love.  Sometime later, Tony visits the grave of his lover and says goodbye.  In the dramatic reveal at the end--his lover was another man.

Roger Stern and Curt Swan continue their Superman saga.  Clark Kent is still protecting Bob Galt, the leader of a cult that worships Superman like a god.  Clark and Bob board a small, private jet, but someone from the mysterious organization hunting Galt sees their plane take off.

Deadman's tale involves ghosts, zombies, voodoo, plantation owners, twins with magical powers, a formal Southern gala with gentlemen in uniforms, a wise old black woman, and some racism.  All the ingredients for classic American horror, but the story by Mike Baron is pretty lackluster.

Man, religion, racism, AIDS, homosexuality, anti-semitism... Talk about a pretty heavy comic!

Next week, I'll look at Action Comics Weekly #625, which continues the ongoing stories of Black Canary, Superman, Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, Deadman and the Secret Six.

Back in Action: ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #612

Previously...

Every Wednesday, I review an issue of Action Comics Weekly featuring a backup story starring Black Canary among others.  Each installment of Back in Action will look at Dinah's story and touch on my favorite or least favorite moments from the rest of the strips in these issues.

Black Canary's fourth appearance in ACW was issue #612.  This time, the Secret Six get the showcase treatment in a nice, atmospheric piece by Paul Gulacy.  The costume designs, the Tron-like influence of the background and floor makes this image very evocative of video games I used to play on my original Nintendo in the '90s.  The costume designs are sleek and befitting the cover design, but this doesn't look like the Secret Six I've been reading for the last couple issues.

Black Canary

"Bitter Fruit" Part 4: written by Sharon Wright, pencilled by Randy Duburke, inked by Pablo Marcos, lettered by Steve Haynie, colored by Gene D'Angelo, and edited by Mike Gold.  Once again, the Black Canary feature is the last story in the issue.

The fourth part of "Bitter Fruit" opens with a homeless woman finding the gun that Black Canary took off of one of the thugs last issue.  That part of the story ended with Canary--calling herself Bonnie Cardinal--meeting a guy dressed like a cowboy calling himself Doug Vallines, and then being knocked out by... someone... maybe Doug... bad art...?

After the bag lady walks off with a gun, Dinah wakes up in a dumpster.  Doug Vallines helps her out, claiming that he was knocked out, too, and dumped in a dumpster down the alley.  Vallines says the two thugs that he scared away doubled back and cold cocked him and Dinah, which is stupid and sounds like a horrible lie, but the art from last issue was so ambiguous that who knows?  He also refers to himself as a gringo, suggesting the two assailants were also Latino, but nothing about the art or coloring in the previous parts of this story would corroborate that.

Vallines is looking for Hector Librado and knows that "Bonnie" is associated with him.  Vallines gives "Bonnie" his card so Hector can contact him.  Then there is another one of those pages that just wastes space and time; it's mostly black and a guy named Vincent Scales (I think) answers the phone. He's talking to someone named Gary (I think) about something we don't know.  This cryptic dialogue and unknown characters is really getting on my nerves.  Are we to assume this guy is a major villain like the Kingpin, because this page looks like something out of Frank Miller's Daredevil, but the writing and art fail to reach that standard.

The next page, however, makes up for that as we catch Dinah Lance naked in the shower.  There's a weird kind of POV panel effect that suggests someone is sneaking up on her--are we supposed to be scared for her?  Is this Psycho?  Whatever, it turns out to be exactly who you'd think: Oliver Queen, come to towel her off and ask how her mission is going.  As Dinah recaps her day, she is interrupted by a phone call from Rita telling Dinah that someone attacked Hector in his hospital room last issue.

The last page cuts to sunny Hollywood, California, where yet another stranger pops up in the story.  This guy calls someone named "Barry" and identifies himself as Doug Vallines--but hold up, it's not the cowboy Dinah met earlier!  Woo-oo-ooh, mystery!

Click on the images below to enlarge.

We're halfway through "Bitter Fruit" and I still don't know what the story is about or who the bad guy is.  What mystery is Dinah investigating?  Does she even know?  Who are all these supporting characters?

Sharon Wright's script has a lot of value, but it is not conducive to these short eight-page installments.  This story clearly needs room to breathe and that takes a longer format, if not a graphic novel.  I'm not even sure her story is appropriate for a comic; this feels like a story that would work in prose, where the narrative could flesh out some of these characters and locations that aren't being served by the art.  Maybe that's a fault of editor Mike Gold for not recognizing these problems and having Wright bulk up the script with captions and exposition.  I like comics that allow the art to tell the story instead of text, but the art isn't doing that effectively in this case, so the script needs to pick up its game.

Since most of Dinah's part of this story involves crawling out of a dumpster and recovering from being pistol-whipped, the highlight is clearly the shower scene.  Here again, though, the art hinders what could at least be a good cheesecake moment.  There's little sex appeal to this moment, as Pablo Marcos' inks over Duburke's pencils make Dinah look boney, wrinkly, almost sickly.  It's also worth noting that in this scene, Dinah Lance looks more Latino than any Mexican character we've been introduced to so far.


The Rest

Green Lantern continues as lead feature for this issue with the story written by Peter David and drawn by Tod Smith.  Last week, Hal Jordan was struck by Mind Games' mind-control ray, driving him insane.  This chapter picks up with Green Lantern attacking the Chicago police detective he has partnered with.  The problem is, Hal's ring is powered by his will, and under the control of Mind Games, the ring won't work.  This leaves Hal nothing but a crazy man at normal strength, and the detective kicks the crap out of him until he snaps out of it.  Meanwhile, Hal's alien girlfriend Arisia is propositioned to model by the same agency that apparently represents Starfire.  They must have a market for "sexy" non-humans cornered.  Hal eventually finds Mind Games' hideout, discovering that the villain is really short.  I was kind of hoping for a more dramatic, more original villain reveal.

Marty Pasko and Dan Spiegle's Secret Six gets more complicated this chapter, with some new twists adding to confusion and new revelations clarifying the direction the story seems to be going.  The arrival of a former agent clues the team into the danger presented them by their mysterious employer, Mockingbird, who was probably one of the original Secret Six team, long thought dead.  The current team must now investigate the old team, discover the identity of their boss, all without tipping him to the fact that they're coming for him.  Meanwhile, the Six appears to have all the facts regarding their mini pig case, and that signals the end of the first story arc.  The Six will return in issue #619.

Deadman's story by Mike Baron, Dan Jurgens, and Tony DiZuniga takes a strange, preposterous turn considering the first part of the story that I read had Deadman and Satan possessing the bodies of President Reagan and Premier Gorbachev.  A group of aliens who look like Native Americans have returned to Earth, which is bad news for Satan because, as Deadman says, it jeopardizes the belief in Judeo/Christian theology.  Satan possesses a military woman and tries to incite a war to destroy the aliens with their own weapons, but Deadman stops her/him.  All is more-or-less resolved, and this concludes the Deadman feature for a couple months.

In the Superman two-page strip by Roger Stern and Curt Swan, the enigmatic Bob Galt concludes his story of the Fellowship's plight to Daily Planet reporter and editor Clark Kent and Perry White.  Perry wants Clark to find hard evidence to support Galt's story of the cult that worships Superman and died for it.  Meanwhile, in a corporate boardroom somewhere in California, an organization has come together to destroy Superman and his followers.

In Catwoman's story by Mindy Newell and Barry Kitson, Selina is saved by the last person she wants to see, Detective George Flannery.  He finds the unconscious mob hoods in her office, along with her Catwoman costume and whip.  He's ready to take her into custody, but she knocks him out and bolts from the Tin Roof Club in her costume.  She goes to Jersey to see her friend Holly, who she gave the stolen Egyptian brooch to last issue.  Holly gave the gift to her husband, who deposited it in the bank, drawing all kinds of unwanted attention.  The chapter ends with Holly's townhouse blowing up, with Catwoman and Holly presumably still inside.

Next week, I'll look at Action Comics Weekly #613, which begins a new feature starring Nightwing, a new Phantom Stranger story, as well as continuing the sagas of Black Canary, Superman, Green Lantern, and Catwoman.

Back in Action: ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #611

Previously...

Every Wednesday, I review an issue of Action Comics Weekly featuring a backup story starring Black Canary among others.  Each installment of Back in Action will look at Dinah's story and touch on my favorite or least favorite moments from the rest of the strips in these issues.

Black Canary's third appearance in ACW was issue #611.  The terrific cover by Alex Nino shows Superman in action, chasing a pair of getaway cars, while the hoods open fire on the Man of Steel.  I must say I love the idea of this cover and I love the composition of the cars and the gunmen, but I feel like Superman is too far away.  There's a lot of blue sky and blank space to account for the title and tag, but there's still enough room that Superman should be twice as big as he appears in this image.

Black Canary

"Bitter Fruit" Part 3: written by Sharon Wright, pencilled by Randy Duburke, inked by Pablo Marcos, lettered by Steve Haynie, colored by Gene D'Angelo, and edited by Mike Gold.  Once again, the Black Canary feature is the last story in the issue.

The third part of "Bitter Fruit" opens with an immigrant family driving through the desert at night.  The children in the back of the car are abruptly startled as lights flood the windows of their car and the voice of the Immigration and Naturalization Service demands their surrender.

We cut to the kids, now grown, visiting their father in the hospital.  The kids from the first page grew up to be Rita and her brother, Luis.  They're at the hospital visiting their father, who at some point we'll piece together is Hector Librado from the first page of Part 1.  The nurse tells Rita and Luis that visiting hours are over and shows them out.  Once Hector's kids leave, he is almost visited by the mysterious man with the beard who was following them last issue.  The nurse refuses to let him in and he leaves somewhat ominously.

Meanwhile, Dinah Lance in the blonde and black leather guise of the Black Canary goes to a bar looking for the thugs who beat up Luis in Part 1.  Rather than question every lowlife in the place, she simply takes a seat at the bar and lets them find her.  When they approach her, she pulls a gun from one of them and forces them to slip out into the back alley.  Their exit is observed by a man dressed vaguely like a cowboy.

As Black Canary tries to get information about who the thugs work for, the cowboy comes up behind her with a gun of his own.  The thugs escape while Cowboy and Canary try to glom information from each other.  Cowboy says his name is Doug Vallines; Dinah introduces herself as "Bonnie Cardinal".  As they shake hands, someone or something hits Canary upside the head, knocking her unconscious.  (This panel is pretty vaguely drawn and the dialogue won't make it any easier to understand in this issue or the next.)

In the last page, someone--we can't see who--enters Hector Librado's hospital room and attempts to kill him, either by strangulation or smothering.

Click on the images below to enlarge.

"Bitter Fruit" Part 3 is better than the last chapter inasmuch as I kind of know what's going on this time around.  Dinah's part of the story is pretty straightforward.  Given the limited page space for the story, I like Sharon Wright's decision to let Black Canary find her prey by drawing them in with her looks.  Sex appeal is a weapon that Black Canary should always be ready to use for her benefit.

That someone came up behind her unnoticed not once but twice in four panels, however, isn't the most flattering moment in her career.  It reminds me of her original appearances in Flash Comics by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino, when Dinah Drake would be knocked unconscious every issue.

Where this story really stumbles, though, is with the supporting characters.  Everyone but Dinah and Rita is so thinly drawn by the script as to be interchangeable, and Randy Duburke's art doesn't help because so many of them look identical and the colors don't distinguish between caucasian characters and Latinos.  It's hard to follow the story when everyone looks the same and speaks cryptically.

The other problem is I still don't know what this story is about.  It begins with an image of the Librado family (I think) being stopped by the INS while trying to enter America years ago, but I'm no longer sure this story is about illegal immigration.  There seems to be some mystery surrounding Hector Librado, but he's a non-character.  There are so many unknown background characters flitting around with their own agendas, spying on other characters, that it's impossible to find out what's going on.  As a mystery, there is nothing for us to try to solve; we can only let this play out before us.

The Rest

Green Lantern gets the lead feature once again this week.  The story, written by Peter David and drawn by Tod Smith, continues to explore what it means for Hal Jordan to be "fearless".  Picking up from last week's cliffhanger, Arisia is attacked by the room service bellhop, who is on of many people around the city to be brainwashed.  Though she fights frantically and ultimately defeats her crazed attacker, Hal is a lot more preoccupied by the fact that he was never afraid for her safety, not even for an instant.  The chapter ends with the still unknown villain beaming a mind-control ray from his secret hideout that happens to strike Hal, turning him crazy.  David's script is typical for him; light-hearted dialogue over heavy themes.  This is a far cry from the Geoff Johns Hal we've had for the last ten years; I can kind of understand why so many people don't like Hal based on this representation.

In Deadman's chapter by Mike Baron, Dan Jurgens, and Tony DiZuniga, we learn that the Devil looks like D.B. Cooper and always has.  Or maybe Cooper looks like the Devil.  Or Cooper was the Devil.  Either way, Satan banishes the minor demon Yakin back to Hell, and terrifies an old man into having a stroke.  Then a space ship arrives with a big Native American.   This was... confusing.  The story concludes next week.

Once again, Marty Pasko and Dan Spiegle's Secret Six feels like an engrossing soap opera whose plot is just barely out of reach.  This issue clarifies a few questions while raising more.  I get that the team is infiltrating a hog factory to discover whether the food product coming out has been tainted, I'm just not sure why these characters care.  Are their motives righteous or selfish?

The two-page Superman strip by Roger Stern and Curt Swan finds Clark Kent and Perry White still in Perry's office at The Daily Planet, except to them the office has been transformed to a California community where everyone worships Superman like a god.  The mysterious Galt, who is projecting the images and sounds for Clark and Perry, shows them how his community came under attack from stormtroopers while the Followers of Superman began developing their own powers.

Finally, Catwoman kicks off a new feature in this issue.  Written by Mindy Newell and drawn by Barry Kitson, the story finds Selina Kyle operating a nightclub called The Tin Roof Club.  Catwoman has stolen an ancient Egyptian brooch and means to hide the evidence with her former street friend, Holly.  The cops and the mob anticipate her moves, though, and the issue ends with her being ambushed by mob goons and possibly shot by her own bartender.  It's an interesting story as Selina seems to be working different angles, but her plans seem really obvious, which is a deviation from the more guarded Selina I'm used to reading.  And I love Kitson's work, but he doesn't capture the pure sensuality of Selina/Catwoman in these pages.

Next week, I'll look at Action Comics Weekly #612, which concludes the current Deadman story, as well as continuing the sagas of Black Canary, Superman, Green Lantern, Catwoman, and the Secret Six.

Back in Action: ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #610

Previously…

My review of "Bitter Fruit" Part 1 has been updated to include scans of pages.

Every Wednesday, I review an issue of Action Comics Weekly featuring a backup story starring Black Canary among others.  Each installment of Back in Action will look at Dinah's story and touch on my favorite or least favorite moments from the rest of the strips in these issues.

Black Canary's second appearance in ACW was issue #610.  The cover, showcasing the Deadman feature of the comic, was done by David Lloyd, the artist behind Alan Moore's V for Vendetta!  Boston Brand's face is ghoulishly exaggerated as he attempts to walk the tightrope between Heaven and Hell.

Black Canary

"Bitter Fruit" Part 2: written by Sharon Wright, pencilled by Randy Duburke, inked by Pablo Marcos, lettered by Steve Haynie, colored by Gene D'Angelo, and edited by Mike Gold.  Last issue, Black Canary got the first feature in the book.  This time, she is last.

The second part of "Bitter Fruit" opens with a phone conversation between an mysterious man named Doug and another man in Seattle.  They talk cryptically about "Scales" and "doing a job" and finding "Librado".  The man in Seattle looks like William MacDonald, the INS agent shown last week, except this guy has a goatee, and MacDonald was in Nebraska last time.

With page 2, we pickup where we left off last week.  Dinah opens the door to find Rita, bruised and battered.  Dinah had invited Rita over to her apartment above Sherwood Florist with the intention of offering her a job in the store.  But Rita refuses to discuss how she got the bruises and storms off when pressed on the matter.

Then, after thinking about it and maybe feeling desperate, Rita returns and lays out the situation for Dinah.  Last issue, we saw Rita run out into the alley with a baseball bat when someone she knew was getting beaten up.  That victim was her brother, Luis, and the assailants were a couple of "shakedown grunts".  Rita explains how her father's health problems have forced her to sell drugs in the past, and now Luis borrowed money from some unsavory characters.  Rita knows her father and brother are keeping secrets from her, which prevents her from helping them.

Dinah says, "I have a friend who has some… interesting… connections."  Translation: Black Canary is going to get to the bottom of this situation.

As Rita leaves Dinah's place, she gets in a van driven by somebody--it's unclear who, maybe Luis?--while the bearded man from page 1 watches her from around the corner.

Pages 6 and 7 show Dinah outfitting up as Black Canary, while a shot of the cityscape focuses on a building with scales on the side.  There's some even more cryptic dialogue about business mergers and concerns that aren't attributed to any speaker.  Very vague.  Annoyingly so.

The last page shows to men hunting egrets or some kind of bird with a pistol.  One of the men is named John and works for the Department of Fish and Game.  The chapter ends with a panel of a dead bird.  Again, very vague.

Click the images below to enlarge.

Okay, I have no idea what the hell is going on!  I thought from last issue that this story was going to be about immigration and racism but that is nowhere to be found in this chapter.  In fact, the beating of Luis doesn't seem to be based on bigotry or racism at all; it's just street-style debt-collecting.  There are lots of people we don't know talking about things we don't understand.

I'm worried that for a short story spread out over short installments, this plot might be too big and unwieldy.  That was a problem I had with Black Canary's miniseries that came out a few years later, and the first arc of her ongoing series in the '90s.  All of these stories were edited by Mike Gold, and I wonder if this direction was his push.

The highlight of the issue is seeing Dinah suit up as Black Canary as played by Heather Locklear, but everything else is too ambiguous to be entertaining.

Speaking of Dinah's costume, it's better than the Justice League International look she incinerated last week, but it's still missing the fishnets.  I hope to see it in action next week.

The Rest

Green Lantern gets the lead feature this time around.  His story, written by Peter David and drawn by Tod Smith, continues the question posed by a woman on Oprah of all things: Is a man without fear a man insane?  Hal Jordan tests his fearlessness by confronting a sword-wielding maniac without his power ring.  After defeating the man and discussing the strangeness of the case with the local Chicago PD, Hal goes to the hotel room and screws his elvish alien girlfriend, Arisia.  But when Hal goes to the bathroom, Arisia is attacked by the room service bellhop brandishing a knife.  Given Peter David's involvement, the script is pretty good.  The sex-with-Arisia aspect is awkward if you take into account she's an alien and only, like, fourteen years old, but other than that it's decent.

The Phantom Stranger gets a nice done-in-one story written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by Kyle Baker.  A computer geek named Kenny Bush Miller who is constantly tormented by, well, by the whole world is possessed by a demon.  The Phantom Stranger has to confront a monstrous mashup of magic, man and machine in what 1988 perceived as cyberspace.  Baker's art is really, really good in this story, but suffers from some unspectacular coloring.

Deadman's story by Mike Baron, with art by Dan Jurgens and Tony DiZuniga, continues this absurdly comical premise that Satan has escaped confinement in a jar and possessed First Lady Nancy Reagan, while Deadman has taken possession of Russian Premier Mikhail Gorbochev's wife, Raisa.  After probably sparking a World War by firing at the First Lady with a sci-fi ray gun, Deadman leaves the State Dinner in the body of a buxom woman named Major Kasaba.  At her apartment, they find that the "Satan" Deadman thought he was chasing was just a minor demon named Yakin.  The real devil is inhabiting the body of famed skyjacker D.B. Cooper.  Yeah!

Continuing from last week's Superman two-pager by Roger Stern and Curt Swan, Clark Kent is trying to get information from Bob Galt, a man who worships Superman like a deity.  For reasons unknown, men have tried to kill Galt.  When Clark takes Galt to The Daily Planet building to confide in Perry White, Galt reveals an uncanny power, to cast his thoughts and memories like three-dimensional projections.  Despite it's brevity, this is a really enjoyable feature.  With Curt Swan drawing Stern's story, it would have to work pretty hard to not be great!

Secret Six by Marty Pasko and Dan Spiegle reads like a great daytime soap opera.  I don't know who these characters are, I don't know what their angle is, what they hope to achieve, if I should even be rooting for them to survive… but it's fascinating to see play out.  There are a couple of dramatic twists in this chapter, which would be more dramatic, I assume, if I knew the stakes involved.  I don't, but it's still an enjoyable read.

Next week, I'll look at Action Comics Weekly #611, which begins a new feature starring Catwoman, as well as the continuing sagas of Black Canary, Superman, Green Lantern, Deadman, and the Secret Six.