Back in Action: ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #630

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.

John Severin's cover to ACW #630 includes the flashy logo of "The Man of Steel" and boy how I wish last year's film of the same name would have included Superman lifting a circus elephant.  Scratch that.  I would have preferred Superman lifting a circus elephant for three hours to what I actually saw in The Man of Steel.  I love the playfulness of this cover.  It reminds me of something from the Wayne Boring era of Superman and Action, or even further back to Joe Shuster.

Black Canary

"Knock 'Em Dead" Part 7: 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.  Black Canary's story comes second out of the six features in this issue.

Picking up where the last chapter left off, Black Canary follows Deborah, the prime suspect in at least two murders to a warehouse where the Deb is hoping to score heroin.  But the Deb walks into a police ambush, and the cops aren't looking to arrest her.  These corrupt Seattle cops want her dead for killing Rich and ruining their drug dealing scheme.

Deb sounds pretty surprised to hear that Rich is dead, but the cops don't buy her innocence.  They move in for the kill, but Black Canary springs into action.  She takes down two of the cops and the other is wounded by friendly fire, but in the chaos of the fight, Deborah escapes.  Canary follows but loses Deb, and now Deb knows that she's being targeted.

The police have Deborah's apartment staked out but they're not the only ones.  Cat Maddox, the actress starring in a local production of Peter Pan and a woman who has had a keen interest in Deb since before the killings began is in a diner waiting for the prostitute to return.  A former acquaintance named Anna recognizes her in the diner and expresses her condolences about a loved one of Cat's suffering from a horrible disease.  Hmm... Disease?  We've heard AIDS pop up in the periphery of this story a couple times.

Cat excuses herself from the conversation and jumps an a bus as it arrives.  As she does so, she prevents Deborah from getting off the bus and thus getting caught by the police.

The next day, Ken Glazier meets an old friend at an outdoor basketball court.  Ken shares a newly arrived death threat from the killer he believes is his old flame, Deborah.  He admits to phoning in the anonymous tip to the police that pointed them in Deb's direction, but now that she's running scared she doesn't seem to be halting her quest for vengeance.  Ken warns his friend to stay away from her, but as the unnamed friend is gay, he doesn't believe Deb will get to pick him up in a bar.

Later, Lieutenant Cameron takes his daughter to see Peter Pan at the local theater.  He sees Dinah Lance ushering for the show and they talk about the case.  Cameron admits that Deborah is in the wind and he must pull some of his men off the investigation.  He thinks she was killed by drug dealers and they'll be lucky to find her body.  Unbeknownst to either of them, Deb is still alive, tied up somewhere underground.

[Click the images below to enlarge.]

This chapter showcases the best and worst of Randy Duburke's artwork.  The woman named Anna who talks to Cat in the diner? She looks exactly like Dinah when she's not dressed as the Black Canary.  And the gay man that Ken Glazier talks to looks exactly like Walt Sarno looks exactly like Dinah's friend from Sherwood Florist.  On the other hand, the action in the first three pages looks terrific in his stylized way.

In case there was any doubt, Deb is not the killer we're looking for.  She's a patsy and the most likely killer is actress Cat Maddox.  But what is Cat's motivation?  What's her secret history?  Me thinks it's tied into Ken Glazier; maybe she's his ex-wife.  The suspense builds as lairs of mystery are pealed and newly folded.

The Rest

Green Lantern spends most of his eight pages fighting Captain Atom in the latest chapter by James Owsley and M.D. Bright.  Hal Jordan calls Cap reckless, always prematurely assessing the situation and too eager to fight.  Pot calling the kettle black, in this case, because that sounds more like how Green Lantern has been written for most of the modern era.  Then again, I feel like Captain Atom has been used as a reactionary straw man for anti-military sensibilities ever since DC brought him over from Charlton.

The latest story in the adventures of the Secret Six by Martin Pasko and Frank Springer comes to a close as the mysterious Mockingbird explains how he survived a long time ago only to die at the end of this story.  And then someone else dresses up as Mockingbird at the very end.  Never ends.  Except this feature does, and the next issue will have Phantom Stranger in its place!

In the two-page Superman strip by Roger Stern and Curt Swan, Clark Kent gets a tour of the underground complex housing the spiritual fellowship that reveres the Man of Steel like a god.  The high priestess of the order can move the earth with her powers, and other Followers of Superman display other abilities as well.

Clark Kent discovers that some form of external radiation is granting them their superpowers, that someone or something is manipulating them.  Meanwhile, the nefarious Consortium is sending an army of tanks and helicopters to destroy the compound and kill all of the cultists.

The fifth chapter of Nightwing & Speedy by Cherie Wilkerson and Tom Mandrake is the... third or fourth that does not show or even mention Nightwing.  Roy Harper is trapped in a burning house with his infant daughter Lian and the two Irish squatters, Moira and Button.  He gets Button outside, but she overhears the police say they firebombed the house, so the cops kidnap little Button.  Roy gets the others outside and confronts the mysterious private detective-looking guy who always shows up when Roy's in a tight spot.  Later Roy gets an anonymous tip telling him where to get Button back from the Friends of the Empire.  At the train station, there is a shootout between F.O.E. and Sanas, the rival faction in Northern Ireland.  Button is taken onto a train that is heading straight for a car full of explosives, 'cuz that's how you do a cliffhanger!

Martin Pasko and Rick Burchett's latest installment of Blackhawk drops a few historical context bombs as Jan Prohaska is called into the Oval Office to talk to the President of the United States about the still-forming C.I.A.  Meanwhile, there's some other mysterious business popping up about the creation of the hallucinogenic drug, L.S.D.  Also, that sexy Nazi chick.

Next week, I'll look at Action Comics Weekly #631, which kicks off a Phantom Stranger story to replace Secret Six, and furthers the adventures of Black Canary, Superman, Green Lantern, Nightwing, and Blackhawk.

Back in Action: ACTION COMICS #629

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 cover to ACW #629, by Dick Rockwell, depicts the shadowy Mockingbird revealing his identity to the Secret Six.  It's a pretty iconic shot and it should get me excited for the story inside, but this cover lacks any sense of shock or excitement.  Mostly because the Secret Six don't look all that shocked or excited about this unveiling.

Black Canary

"Knock 'Em Dead" Part 6: 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.  Once again, Black Canary's story is placed second in reading order.

This chapter picks up where last week's cliffhanger left off: Dinah Lance was delivering floral set pieces to a local theater staging a production of Peter Pan and the Pirates, when it suddenly appeared as though a knife wielding maniac lunged at her with deadly intent.  And creeping up behind her is a man with a nasty-looking hook.

Elsewhere in Seattle, Ken Glazier learns from the local news that Rich, the drug dealing music shop owner was killed.  Glazier ignores a call from the Red Cross asking for a blood donation, insisting that he cannot donate blood.  Then he calls a police hotline to report Deborah's involvement in Rich's murder.  Meanwhile, at the morgue, Lt. Cameron connects Rich to the death of Walt Sarno, figuring the same woman to be responsible for both.  The coroner mentions that Rich would have died soon anyway; his blood work showed he had contracted AIDS.  Then a local uniform tells Cameron about an anonymous tip from their hotline.

Back at the theater, Dinah whirls around and knocks out the man with the hook hand, who it turns out was just an actor playing Captain Hook in the show.  The director calls cut and brings up the lights, revealing the floating knifeman as an actress named Ellen Jamerson playing Peter Pan.  Ellen goes by the name "Cat".

After they unload the flowers from Dinah's van, the director asks her to stick around.  Dinah watches part of their rehearsal; she's quite impressed by Cat's performance as a boy, her ability to expertly mimic mannerisms of someone else.  We learn that Ellen/Cat is an out-of-towner, temporarily visiting Seattle, and that she's here because of her daughter.

Later, Dinah dons the costume of the Black Canary and returns to Rich's music store to question Rich's roommate, Joe.  After she puts the fear in him, Joe gives up Deb's full name, Deborah Tilden, and that Rich's heroin distribution was conducted from a United Food warehouse.  When Black Canary gets to the warehouse, she sees Deb, but is surprised she's not blonde.  She realizes that Deb must be or was wearing a wig when she killed Walt Sarno.

Deb enters the warehouse to pick up her heroin, only to find a police officer holding a gun on her.  Is this a police ambush...or something more sinister?

[Click the images below to enlarge.]

In this chapter, we get to see both Dinah Lance and Black Canary in action.  Her quick reflexes in the theater offer a little comic relief as she mistakenly beats up an actor.  As the Canary, her interrogation of Joe is quick and ruthless, the sort of questioning that would make Batman proud.

The mystery deepens as we wonder what is the connection between Ken Glazier, Walt Sarno and Rich Malone.  Why is Deb targeting them each for death?  Or is she?  Maybe she's being set up to take the fall for their murders, but then why?  The biggest reveal for anyone paying attention--because it's not made explicit in the text--is that Ellen Jamerson, also known as Cat, is the same woman who was following Deb earlier.  So Cat is an actress with a talent for disappearing into her role?  Suspicious...

The Rest

This week's Green Lantern story by James Owsley and M.D. Bright is a little more focused than last issue, but it still feels like a lot of filler.  Hal Jordan spends most of the eight pages straining to keep a building from collapsing on innocent civilians and firefighters.  As he does so, Captain Atom finds the alien building his shrine-ship below the building.  Atom tries to apologize for lashing out before, that there was a simple misunderstanding.  But the alien hits him and that starts them up fighting again.  Captain Atom seems to destroy the shrine-ship and knock the alien out, but by then Green Lantern has returned and wants to fight Atom.

In Secret Six by Marty Pasko and Frank Springer, Mockingbird reveals what I imagine would be the answers to all my questions had I been following this story along from the beginning.

Roger Stern and Curt Swan's two-page Superman strip takes a new turn as Clark Kent and Bob Galt, the leader of a fellowship of Superman worshipers are prevented from interrogating their attackers when the desert floor swallows them and takes them to the secret lair of a woman named Mother Tierra.  She can manipulate the sand and stone, and she's none to pleased to see Clark Kent until Bob shows her the message that Superman sent him with heat vision advising him to trust Kent.

In the latest chapter of Nightwing & Speedy by Cherie Wilkerson and Tom Mandrake, which is the second straight issue with no trace of Nightwing, Roy Harper arrives at his lodging in Ireland only to find a pair of little girls squatting there.  Roy learns a little more about the Friends of the Empire and their rival, the Sanas.  The girls' parents were victims of the conflict between the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland and Roy has inadvertently brought more danger right to them.

This chapter of Marty Pasko and Rick Burchett's Blackhawk is all sex and violence, but unfortunately no cool aerial combat.  Jan Prohaska has fistfight with special agent Claiborne after they learn Marcia died during her surgery.  Later, he goes back to his office, gets drunk, and sleeps with Natalie Reed.  Then they both get summoned to return to Washington, D.C.  Also, there's a bit with Nazis, including a blonde female Nazi officer sporting some impressive cleavage.  Sexy Nazis?!  To quote Django Unchained: "You had my curiosity. Now you have my attention."

Next week, I'll look at Action Comics Weekly #630, which concludes this story of the Secret Six and furthers the adventures of Black Canary, Superman, Green Lantern, Nightwing and Blackhawk.

Back in Action: ACTION COMICS #628

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.

Blackhawk's return is heralded by his cover appearance on ACW #628 drawn by George Pratt.  I love the idea of this cover: the hero grasping for a hold while outside his plane as another fighter spits hot metal at his wings.  But the image conjured in my mind as I type those words looks a lot better than Pratt's cover.  The lack of any background even empty sky makes this job feel rushed and halfhearted.  There is nothing threatening about the bullet lines unloaded by the enemy craft.  And I'm getting zero sense of concern from Blackhawk himself.  He's looking right at us like he could be wondering what's on television or how to refinance his home after three mortgages.  Again, I really like the idea behind this cover, but the execution itself...?  Ehhhhh...

Black Canary

"Knock 'Em Dead" Part 5: 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.  Black Canary's is suddenly moving forward in the issue's order.  Last issue, her chapter was the third of five features in ACW.  This time, she's second of six.  I'm not sure why she received this bump in order, but as her story is picking up the pace, it's nice to see it more prominently featured.

Chapter 5 picks up with the Black Canary getting booked by the Seattle Police Department on suspicion of either prostitution or involvement in the Barfly Killing that took the life of Dinah Lance's friend, Walt Sarno.

The Canary leaves a message for Lieutenant Cameron, who comes to spring her.  She wants her fingerprints and mugshots destroyed, and then Canary and Cameron share what they've learned from the Sarno investigation.  Cameron reveals that Sarno died from a heart attack resulting from his poisoned drink (so maybe it was accident?) and that the killer is a natural blonde who smokes unfiltered Luckies.  Black Canary gives Cameron a suspect: a prostitute named Deborah who scores heroin from a guy named Rich.  Rich runs a music store; Canary gives the lieutenant a list of music shops in the city.

Elsewhere in the city, Ken Glazier receives another anonymous death threat.  Else-elsewhere, the mysterious woman who was following Deborah and Walt Sarno and laughed about the news of his death is fixing her hair in the mirror.  In her room is a leaflet for the stage production of Peter Pan.  Dinah Lance's flower shop, Sherwood Florist, is supplying the set dressing for that show, and Ken Glazier was a lighting specialist who used to do theatrical productions.  Connection?

Deborah goes to see her dealer at his store, It's Instrumental.  Rich has her wait while he's in an interview.  The woman he's interviewing happens to be the mystery woman, who tells him she knows his sound/music work from local theater productions more than band gigs.

After she leaves, Rich talks to Deborah in his office.  He warns her that the police are looking for her, and gives her the address where she can pick up her drugs.  After Deborah leaves, Rich drinks his coffee.  Too late, he realizes it's poisoned--by Deborah, or the mystery woman?!

Later, Dinah goes to the local theater to deliver the floral dressing for the show.  But as she enters backstage, a wild figure lunges out of the shadows to attack her.

[Click the images below to enlarge.]

I wish I had a name to give the mystery woman, but at this point in the story she hasn't been named.  Her part, however, is becoming more clear.  She was left alone in the office with Rich's coffee, so she could have poisoned him while Deborah really couldn't have.  She was at the bar watching Deborah with Walt Sarno before Sarno's death.  Could she have followed them upstairs and killed him after Deborah left?  Is she targeting these men specifically, or is she trying to frame Deborah, or both?  Who is her real target and what does Ken Glazier have to do with it?  The one connection between them seems to be a past or present association with the theater.

And speaking of the theater, how 'bout that cliffhanger?  Is Dinah Lance being targeted because her shop is doing flowers for Peter Pan?  That seems thin, but what else could bring her in the killer's crosshairs?  Unless there's something else going on.  It is the theater after all, a place and theme for disguises and illusions.

This chapter went by really fast, but it's the best so far.  Black Canary and Lieutenant Cameron share notes and suspects.  One of those suspects is killed by a mysterious player with as-yet-unknown motivations.  And then there seems to be an attack on our leading lady.  Great action and intrigue!  And Randy Duburke's art really pops in a few places.  Canary's mugshots don't look too flattering, but then what mugshots ever do?  The panels where Rich realizes he's been poisoned are awesome and crazy with lines and energy!  And the final panel in the chapter--man!  Lots more Sienkiewicz homages, but they look good.

The Rest

The lead-off feature starring Green Lantern by James Owsley and M.D. Bright takes a step back this week as the pace of Hal Jordan's adventure comes to an engine flooding stall.  Bright's artwork is solid all-around, but I'm fairly sure Owsley was just filling out the script with so much fluff for some scheduling reason.  Hal and Captain Atom spend eight pages bickering about the alien's peaceful or violent intentions and whether it should be killed or not.  Even when they're seeking help from the military or the media or rescuing people from collapsing buildings, they just keep dishing out the same basic talking points.  They aren't even compelling ideas; they just sound like a couple of kids.

Chapter 3 of the Nightwing and Speedy story is absent of Nightwing but full of action and intrigue.  Plotted by Marv Wolfman and scripted by Cherie Wilkerson with art by Tom Mandrake, Roy Harper is taking his infant daughter, Lian, on a train to Northern Ireland when someone from the Friends of the Empire tries to kill him.  Roy manages catch him, but the assassin chooses death before he'll offer any more information.  Once safely at the train station, Lian is snatched and Roy must change into his Speedy costume and take out the kidnappers.  One of the kidnappers is run over by a car and the child is rescued by a mysterious cigar-chomping man who has the feel of a cop.  Lots of levels to this conspiracy.

Superman's two-page strip by Roger Stern and Curt Swan continues Clark Kent's dangerous predicament with Bob Galt, leader of a cult that worships Superman like a god.  Clark and Galt race through the desert as a pair of killers on sky-bikes chase them, trying to blast their jeep.  Clark can't turn into Superman to save them without revealing himself.  Meanwhile, Bob Galt is praying to Superman for help.  Clark realizes that Galt can use his psychic powers to confuse the pursuers.  Galt creates an image of Metropolis, which freaks out the bad guys, forcing them to jump off their sky bikes.  Clark stops the jeep so he can go back and question the two.

I've had a lot of difficulty following the Secret Six chapters in ACW since I never seem to read the first issues that establish what the hell is going on.  In this chapter, at least, by Martin Pasko and Frank Springer, I at least learn that the current members are all reunited and complete their mission to destroy a building and a VTOL project.  They discover that August Durant, who they thought was Mockingbird, is actually dead.  The masked Mockingbird they've been taking orders from is an old white man who is Rafael's father...  I don't know who Rafael is, though.

The thrilling adventures of Blackhawk and his compatriots picks up again, written by Martin Pasko with art by Rick Burchett.  Natalie Reed and her pal, Mairzey, at the airfield discuss how the Red Scare has taken over every part of America, not just Washington, D.C., but businesses across the land.  As Blackhawk and his pals return from their last mission, Weng discovers that Marcia was wounded.  They get her to the hospital, but it's too late for her.  Meanwhile, some German scientists are doing something nefarious, but they're surprised by the army and possibly blown up.  Not sure about this...

The coolest part of the issue, though, is probably the house ad for Sandman on the very last page.

Next week, I'll look at Action Comics Weekly #629, which draws the Secret Six closer to conclusion and furthers the adventures of Black Canary, Superman, Green Lantern, Nightwing and Blackhawk.

Back in Action: ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #627

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 cover to ACW #627 spotlights Nightwing drawn by Gil Kane, a polarizing and at times frustrating artist.  Polarizing because he drew some incredible stuff on Sword of the Atom and the Silver Age Green Lantern, and he contributed a lot to Marvel's monster characters, but then he went and crapped out a cover like this.  Aside from that being a horribly boring cover for a book called Action, his Dick Grayson looks a little chubby and a little ethnic.  I can't decide if Kane thought Dick was Mexican or Korean but that seems like what he's channeling in this cover.

Black Canary

"Knock 'Em Dead" 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 Robert Greenberger.  For the first time, I think, since her first story debuted in ACW #609, Canary's story is not the last feature in this issue.  She actually comes third in line between Secret Six and Superman.

The fourth chapter opens up with Ken Glazier thinking about the death threats he has received.  He believes the same woman out to get him killed Walt Sarno the night before.  Ken seems surprised and disdainful toward the note's assertion that he ruined the woman's life, considering she already took so much from him.  He even says she murdered him years ago.  Figuratively, I imagine.  Or not...

Anyway, Glazier isn't the only one driving around Seattle thinking about Sarno's death.  The police are cruising the streets questioning prostitutes off the assumption that Walt Sarno was murdered by a woman associated with the Barfly Robbers crime spree.

Black Canary is on the case, too, and dressed in her leather jacket and fishnet stockings, she does kind of blend in with the street-walking hooker crowd.  Some of the ladies are familiar with her--or, with her undercover persona, that is.  She asks about the heavy police presence, and a girl named Wanda mentions a hooker named Deborah who used to work the streets before upgrading to the barfly scene.  This Deborah was beautiful and claimed to have a boyfriend in the theater business.

Wanda is interrupted by the arrival of her knife-weilding pimp.  Black Canary puts the guy down in fast, efficient style.  Wanda tells her about Deborah's drug dealer, but the cops arrive and arrest Dinah on suspicion of prostitution.

Elsewhere, Deborah scores heroin from her dealer, Rich.  Elsewhere elsewhere from that, the mysterious woman who was following Deborah goes to bed, looking at a picture of a little girl, the same girl from the picture on Page 1 of the first chapter.

[Click the images below to enlarge.]

It's nice to see Black Canary go undercover and do some private investigator work.  It's all the more amusing by the fact that she's using her superhero costume to blend in with hookers.  Sharon Wright had Dinah burn her Justice League International costume in the first arc, now she's getting picked up by the cops for looking dressing like a prostitute.  I doubt that sort of thing happens to other Justice League veterans.

The mystery continues to deepen, but not so far it's out of sight.  Did Deborah really kill Walt Sarno, or was the mystery woman behind it all?  Who was Deborah's boyfriend from the theater world?  Was that part of Ken Glazier's background?  He's a lighting guy, right?  What happened to his family and why is he being targeted by a woman who thinks he ruined her life?

Randy Duburke is still doing a solid job on this story, but the few action beats in this chapter don't really shine.  They're muddled and lack a real sense of movement and fluidity; I'm not sure if that's all his fault or the inker's but Dinah beating up the pimp is confusing and underwhelming as a fight scene.

The Rest

The Green Lantern feature by James Owsley and M.D. Bright guest stars Captain Atom.  Cap has been sent from Justice League International to investigate the disturbance in the forests of Northern California--that disturbance being the alien Visitor destroying everything in sight, mistaking violence for human greeting customs.  The Visitor keeps "greeting" Captain Atom, which levels more of the Redwoods.  Down in Los Angeles, Hal Jordan gets a psychic summons from the alien, and learns that it has gathered enough resources for its shrine/ship that it will soon be leaving.  But before it can go, Captain Atom destroys its shrine/ship, stranding the alien and probably insulting it.  It's strange in this story to read Green Lantern being the more passive, tempered spirit.  I've never had much use for Captain Atom, but he makes a cool foil for Hal in this instance.

It seems like things are coming together in Secret Six by Marty Pasko and Frank Springer.  The redheaded lady manages to figure out some things about Mockingbird and the Agency and a deadly chemical weapon, while the guy with cybernetic legs breaks out of jail, sneaks into a control room and turns off some surveillance monitors.  Then three members of the team bust into a building and shoot some people.  There's also another guy talking to someone who looks like the grand wizard of the KKK.  Same as every week: I want to enjoy this but I can't tell what's going on.

In the two-page Superman strip by Roger Stern and Curt Swan, Clark Kent and Bob Galt are driving a jeep across the desert when two raiders in airships start shooting at them.  Clark fantasizes about how easy it would be to take them out as Superman, but can't do so because he can't reveal his identity to Bob.  It's a cute trick to throw in some Superman action even when it doesn't make sense at this point in the story.  I also really like that Clark considers using his heat vision, but holds off because he doesn't know how it will affect the ships.  It could accidentally kill the pilots, and killing is wrong.

In the previous issues, there were six different stories.  This time, though, there is only five, because Nightwing returns with a double-feature guest starring Speedy.  In a story cowritten by Marv Wolfman and Cherie Wilkerson and drawn by Tom Mandrake, Dick Grayson and Roy Harper are on a ferry heading to Ireland when superhero life happens.  A couple of drug smugglers drive a truck off the ferry and Nightwing fights with the survivor over a coffin carrying a dead body filled with drugs.  Roy rescues Dick, and they make it to Ireland where Roy explains that he was fired from the CBI for getting too close to a drugs investigation involving Ireland.  Now, when he happens to be bringing his infant daughter there, he's involved in another drugs investigation.  Coincidence?  Certainly not!

Next week, I'll look at Action Comics Weekly #628, which sees the return of Blackhawk as well as the continuing adventures of Black Canary, Superman, Green Lantern, Nightwing, and Secret Six.

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.

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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.