Birds of Prey #1 (Jan 1999)

Previously in

• Birds of Prey Special
• Birds of Prey: Manhunt
• Birds of Prey: Revolution
• Birds of Prey: Wolves
• Birds of Prey: Batgirl
• Birds of Prey: The Ravens

By the time DC launched a Birds of Prey ongoing series, the partnership of Black Canary and Oracle had been going (relatively) strong for over two years.  Series creator Chuck Dixon turned them into a jet-setting international espionage team--well, mostly.  Oracle stayed fixed in her secret headquarters, her true identity as Barbara Gordon, former Batgirl and daughter of Gotham Police Commissioner James Gordon, a mystery.  Even Dinah didn't know who was dispatching her around the globe to take down arms dealers, drug kingpins, master assassins, and lousy boyfriends.  But in spite of their differences, Black Canary and Oracle made the partnership work.  One the brains, one the body.

Birds of Prey #1: "Long Time Gone" is written by Chuck Dixon and drawn by Greg Land, with inks by Drew Geraci and colors by Gloria Vasquez.  Greg Land previously drew the Birds of Prey: Batgirl special, making him the first return artist on a Birds of Prey comic.  This is from the era when he actually drew characters instead of tracing porn stars and his own stock art.

The issue opens wit a close up of Dinah Lance screaming, "No, take it away! It's too horrible!"  What is she referring to, some gory crime-scene photos?  Green Arrow's head in a box?  A platter of poisonous scorpions?

No.  It's a laptop.

Oracle tries to convince Dinah that using a computer will help them communicate more effectively--What a novel idea?  Dinah stubbornly clings to her electronic ignorance and throws her underwear over the monitor, blocking the camera.

Elsewhere, a couple named Brendan and Daria are on the run trying to escape from a dense jungle and find safety in a nearby village.  But they've been tracked through the jungle by Hellhound, a foe of Catwoman who specializes in training attack dogs.

Brendan and Daria run for their lives, which don't amount to much.  Hellhound's dogs catch them in the clearing and appear to savagely rip the people to shreds.

Back in Black Canary's apartment, she removes the underwear obscuring the real-time camera and flashes a tribal (possibly Asian) bat mask in front of the screen.  Oracle shrieks for a moment before regaining her composure.  She starts to tell Dinah about the latest mission which will take Black Canary to Rheelasia, a nation devastated by a nuclear meltdown in the original Birds of Prey Special.

We cut to Rheelasia where a handsome sleaze-ball named Reed Montel meets with a gangster named Jackie Pamerjanian, better known as "Jackie Pajamas".  Jackie Pajamas has billions of dollars in drug money, and in a place like Rheelasia, he can buy and sell anything to or from anyone.  What Reed is interested in buying or selling, we don't yet know.

Then we find Black Canary undercover--though less covered than usual--on a cruise ship off the coast of Rheelasia, getting more mission details from Oracle.

Oracle tells Black Canary to be weary of Jackie Pajamas; he's dangerous and he's not the sort to simply fall for a gorgeous blonde flaunting her body in a bathing suit.  They plan for Black Canary to reconnoiter Jackie's hideout that night with a camera mounted to her costume so Oracle can look for any relevant information.

After ending her conversation with Dinah, Barbara rolls her wheelchair throughout her hideout, chatting online with another cyberspace tech aficionado.  She has a whole other codename besides Oracle--Rollingthunder, in this case.  Barbara keeps her cyber-chat somewhat flirtatious, but avoids any commitment to meet with whoever's on the other side of the chat.

Meanwhile, at the Pentagon, the Major in charge of the 1998 equivalent of Internet and Electronics Security meets with his lieutenant about someone hacking into their system and using memory from the U.S. government.  It's not stated explicitly, but it sure sounds like they're talking about Oracle.

That night, Black Canary swims to the shore, scales the cliff, and sneaks onto Jackie Pajamas' villa.  She creeps around, stealthily disabling Jackie's security force before slipping inside.

Black Canary enters the kitchen and Oracle notices there are two seemingly identical refrigerator doors side-by-side.  She switches to infrared on the Canary-mounted camera and notices that one of the doors isn't giving off any heat or power.  The door leads down into a hidden basement chamber that Canary observes looks like it hasn't had any use or visitors in quite some time.

Oracle hacks through another door and Black Canary enters to discover a room full of expensive suits, expensive cameras, expensive watches... and jars of body parts, such as fingers, noses, ears, and eyes.

Black Canary starts to exfiltrate the villa, but as she's leaving, Jackie Pajamas' helicopter touches down on the helipad.  Canary waits to see who Jackie is with.  Oracle recognizes Reed Montel, but that's not the name she calls him.

For a first issue, I was surprised at the lack of action in this comic.  We see Black Canary take down a security guard or two, but they're small, quiet panels.  The real action of the chapter is Hellhound sicking his dogs on the runaway couple, but even then the event is so horrific and violent that we don't see it.

To compensate for the lack of gunfire and ass-kicking, Dixon gives us some nice character beats.  Barbara has a world to herself of online acquaintances who talk and flirt.  She might also be stealing bandwidth from the Department of Defense, which is an interesting ethical decision for a police commissioner's daughter.  That Dixon devoted a whole scene with these two out-of-their-depth military officers talking about it suggests he has some plans for this down the road.  I hope so, because it's a big deal for Barbara.

Dinah, on the other hand, is still portrayed as Barbara's opposite.  Where the mousy Oracle gets hot for software and technology but avoids face-to-face interactions, Black Canary flaunts her sexuality in this issue, even being willing to use it as a tactic to get close to her target.  She also comes off as frighteningly ignorant and, well, frightened of computers.  I guess fifteen years ago this characteristic might have come across as quaint and amusing, but today it makes her look stupid.

The most surprising highlight of the the comic, though, might be the inclusion of Hellhound.  I sort of /kind of remember him from Catwoman, but despite his ridiculous costume, I've always liked him.  And Black Canary has precious few villains that could be considered her rogues.  She needs all the colorful foes she can get.

Come back next Tuesday for a review of Birds of Prey #2.

Black Canary Sketch by Bruce Timm

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

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

Golden Oldie: FLASH COMICS #98

Black Canary's ongoing adventures continue with seven thrilling pages of mystery and suspense in Flash Comics #98.

"The Byzantine Black" is written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Carmine Infantino.

The story begins with Dinah Drake hurrying back to her flower shop, having forgotten to put a shipment of orchids in the refrigerator.  When she returns to her store, however, she is shocked to discover that the outside signage and inside contents have been replaced to look like a small grocery store.  She's in the right place, but her business has been completely changed.

Sneaking through the store, Dinah overhears men in the back room talking about pulling a scam on a millionaire named Roger Steele.  Wasting no more time, Dinah dons the disguise of her crime stopper alter-ego, the Black Canary.

She rushes into the back of her shop to foil the crooks.  They take shots at her, but she avoids the bullets.

Outside the shop, Black Canary finds the body of Roger Steele, thankfully still alive.  Larry Lance arrives and tells Canary that he was hired to bodyguard Steele after the Byzantine Black was stolen.  Lance tells her the Byzantine Black is an extremely valuable stamp.

Black Canary and Larry Lance bring Roger Steel back to his mansion, where the millionaire's niece, Elaine, helps him recover.  She mentions her uncle meeting the crooks at a grocery store, which rings an alarm bell in Black Canary's mind.  But before she can inquire, Canary and Lance are pistol-whipped unconscious because that happens every month.

When the pair of heroic investigators awaken ,they are on a precariously balanced teeter-totter above a pit of quicksand.  Should either of them move too much in any way, the other or both will surely fall into the sand and die.  But Black Canary has a plan.  She dislodges a boulder with a rope vine and pulls it down on her side of the plank.

Black Canary and Larry Lance rush off to pursue the crooks while she makes fun of Larry's clothes.  In no time at all...

Upon reading this story, I'm confronted by one burning question: was this whole contrived plot just a means to encourage kids and readers to collect stamps?  Have stamps ever really been worth anything or is that just a myth?  I don't get it.  The Byzantine Black could have been anything--the whole point of a McGuffin--but why a stamp?!!

Anyway, the plot and Larry's place in the story are pretty thin, but it's nice seeing Black Canary use her mind to figure out traps and the identity of the real criminal mastermind in this story.  Not only is she a superb fighter, she's a smart detective.  She's a better judge of character--by a thousand--than Black Canary in the New 52's Birds of Prey.

Come back next Sunday for another Golden Age adventure of Black Canary in Flash Comics #99.

The Origin of Black Canary: 1983 Part 1 - JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #219

Because I can't help myself when it comes to these little segues, today, April 3rd, is the birthday of the original Flash, Jay Garrick, at least according to the Super DC Calendar from 1976.  That's why I've saved my reviews of Justice League of America #219-220 until now.  The story spanning these issues doesn't just radically revise Black Canary's origin, but also prominently features Jay Garrick and the Justice Society of America.

Justice League of America #219: "Crisis in the Thunderbolt Dimension" is cowritten by series regular Gerry Conway along with Roy Thomas, who'd been writing All-Star Squadron at the time and pretty much owned anything related to the Golden Age heroes.  Pencils and inks on the issue are provided by Chuck Patton and Romeo Tanghal respectively.  The cover, depicting a familiar-looking genie called Thunderbolt attacking the Justice League while their Earth 2 counterparts look on in horror, is drawn by none other than George Perez.  The story came out in October of 1983.

The story begins with a group of heavily armed terrorists taking hostages in a public park in Central City.  While the terrorist leader announces their demands to the police, however, an unseen force begins taking down his cronies and henchmen.  See, in all their scheming, this group didn't count on two scarlet speedsters to interfere with their plans.

Both Barry Allen and Jay Garrick, each known as The Flash, the Fastest Man Alive in their worlds, race into action in a title page that pays homage to the original Flash of Two Worlds story.

Jay and Barry take turns redirecting the terrorist's machine-gun spray so that it spells JSA and JLA on the wall.  The Central City spectators and police are a bit slow to recognize Jay, who they mostly know as a fictional superhero appearing in Flash Comics.  'Cause, y'know, that made sense at the time.

After saving the day, the Flashes run to the Justice League Satellite transporter.  Jay lends voice to a concern that I've had for years about the proper naming for Earths 1 and 2.

As they speed up the side of the building and prepare to teleport to the League's orbital headquarters, the two reflect on their annual meetings and how enjoyable it is for them.  However, as they're about to leave, the weather abruptly turns stormy.  And a crackling spike of pink lighting arcs down from the sky toward the speedsters.

Jay recognizes the energy source too late.  The lightning grazes him but turns its full force on Barry.  Even the Flash of Earth 1 can't outrun the bolt that seems to strike him dead.

The Thunderbolt gives no reply.  Jay tries to attack, but it effortlessly knocks him back with a low-level blast.  He looks up just in time to see the Thunderbolt fade away.  Jay crawls over to examine Barry and finds the other Flash barely clinging to life.

Desperate, Jay knows he must get Barry up to the satellite, currently orbiting the Earth at a distance of 22,300 miles above the surface.  There the combined members of the Justice League and Justice Society of America mingle like friends at a company picnic.

I love Black Canary's half-conversation with Huntress and Power Girl.  There's so much innuendo delivered in her line before Power Girl clears up the matter.  And speaking of Power Girl, Firestorm is pining over her like a classic teenager with a crush.  And why wouldn't he?  It's Power Girl!

Green Lantern and Starman talk about boring cosmic stuff, while Elongated Man pulls Firestorm aside so that he, Zatanna, and Hourman can give the kid some dating advice.  Unfortunately, just before Firestorm asks Power Girl to visit the Trophy Room (wink wink), the frivolity is spoiled by the pink lightning bolt crashing into the room.

Black Canary and Starman recognize the energy signature of the lightning bolt, but Firestorm doesn't much care.  Unwilling to be ****-blocked by a light show, the Nuclear Man rushes to confront the lightning.  It promptly shocks him, knocking the life out of him.  Then the lightning takes the familiar form of Johnny Thunder's genie, the Thunderbolt.

Hourman pops a pill and charges the Thunderbolt with his newfound super-strength, but is easily batted away.  Green Lantern attacks with his Power Ring and Starman with his Cosmic Rod (wink wink, wait, that's not a euphemism!)  Thunderbolt absorbs the energy and redirects it, striking Green Lantern with all the power.  The Thunderbolt next turns its attention on Red Tornado, knocking the android across the room, demolishing some of the satellite's dimensional transporter in the process.  It strikes at Power Girl, Elongated Man, and Zatanna before the Mistress of Magic can cast a spell against it.

As the heroes still standing check on their wounded and ask questions, the transporter tube opens to reveal Jay Garrick carrying the unconscious Barry Allen.  The Flash, Green Lantern, Zatanna, Firestorm, and Elongated Man are all taken to the medi-lab, where they remain in critical condition.  It doesn't take long for the survivors to realize what they all have in common: Black Canary, Power Girl, Huntress, Hourman, Starman, and Jay Garrick were all born on Earth 2, and Red Tornado was first assembled there.  The next question, of course, is why does that matter?

For newer readers who might have thought Black Canary was always a native Leaguer, she recounts her story of coming to Earth 1.  It started when Starman crashed through the roof her home with Larry Lance, her husband on Earth 2.

Dinah goes on to remember how on her first day with the Justice League she let slip a tremendous blast of sonic energy.  Batman had explained that her proximity to Aquarius' energy when Larry died and mutated her, granting her a new metahuman power, her Canary Cry.  Dinah admits that Batman's explanation never quite made sense to her (or to Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, I'd bet).

While she's daydreaming about the past, Power Girl and Red Tornado use the satellite's surveillance equipment to confirm that Superman and Wonder Woman have also been rendered unconscious by the Thunderbolt, and Aquaman, Green Arrow, Hawkman and Hawkgirl may also have been taken out like the other League members.

Huntress speculates that the problem might not emanate from a rogue Thunderbolt but from Johnny Thunder himself.  Black Canary refuses to believe her old friend could have betrayed them like this.  At that point, Power Girl reveals that pairs of super villains from both Earths are attacking ancient temples on the planet below.  From Earth 1, Chronos, Dr. Alchemy, and Felix Faust are each partnered with The Fiddler, Icicle, and the Wizard from Earth 2.

The heroes speculate that these combined villains are behind the Thunderbolt's attack on the League.  They quickly jump into action.

I'm going to say it right here, a big part of me has and always will prefer Black Canary and Starman as a couple over Black Canary and Green Arrow.  That these two had a brief but passionate affair was the best retcon James Robinson ever contributed to the DC Universe.  I just love the way these two interact, and you can see the love Ted has for her in the last panel.

Black Canary agrees to Starman's plan to track the Thunderbolt and get answers directly from the source of their problem.  He uses his Cosmic Rod (tee-hee) to transport them through space and into the alternate dimension of the genie: the Thunderbolt Dimension!

While struggling to get their bearings in the topsy-turvy alternate world, they spy someone watching them from a lofty throne.  Before they can react, the Thunderbolt attacks Starman.  Black Canary lets loose a sonic cry, but it has no effect on the genie this time.  Dinah is immobilized and the two are brought before their captor: the Johnny Thunder of Earth 1!

What's with the glass coffin holding Larry Lance and a double of Black Canary?!!  I guess you'll have to wait until next Thursday for my review of issue #220.

This is a great issue, and as one of the annual crossovers with the Golden Age heroes of Earth 2, it's a real treat to see characters like Jay Garrick, Hourman, and Starman get such a worthy place in the story.  True it's at the expense of the titular members of the Justice League, but even they get moments to shine, however briefly.  Everyone gets to use his or her power, mostly to little effect, but it still looks cool.

But naturally my favorite part of the story is the emphasis on Black Canary's pre-League roots.  She originally debuted in the Johnny Thunder strip in Flash Comics, so it's thrilling to see that history play out as her friends are stalked by Johnny Thunder's wayward djinn.  Everyone questions the culpability of Johnny Thunder, but Dinah refuses to believe her old friend could have gone bad like this.  It is more dramatic and powerful then at the end when she learns that a Johnny Thunder is behind her woes, just not the Johnny everyone suspected.

Conway and Thomas' script is impeccable in this issue, filled with nice character beats, like the dialogue between the Flashes and the cops in the first scene; and Firestorm's angst over Power Girl; and Starman coming to Black Canary alone, giving her a chance to resolve this personal conflict for herself.  All perfect moments.  Patton and Tanghal's art, too, is beautiful.  The tension and terror on the characters' face have never seemed so dramatic.  Brilliant stuff here.

In the end, though, this issue is mostly a set-up for the greatness--and wonkiness--that will come with issue #220.  That issue is full of a ton of action and a whole new origin story for Black Canary.  Come back in a week to check out my review!

Back in Action: ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #634

Previously...

For the last couple of months, I have reserved Wednesdays for reviews of Action Comics Weekly issues featuring a backup story starring Black Canary.  Each installment of Back in Action has looked at Dinah's story and touched on my favorite or least favorite moments from the rest of the strips in these issues.  That ends this week, however, as Dinah's second and final story arc comes to a close.  Her next appearance in the comic--the very next issue, as it happens--will be covered at a later date as a team-up review where she partners with Superman, Green Lantern, and the Blackhawks.

I'm not familiar with George Freeman, the artist behind this week's cover, but it looks to me like a convention sketch given full colors.  Sometimes ACW delivers utterly amazing covers, like the two featuring Black Canary, for instance.  Other times, they appeared rushed and lackluster.  Hal Jordan's face looks awkward, his smile strangely forced.  I think he's drunk and trying to sell a smile without laughing or throwing up.

Black Canary

"Knock 'Em Dead" Part 11: 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.  The final part of Dinah's story is printed third out of the six features in this issue.

At long last, Black Canary has traced the killer back to the theatre where she--the killer, not Dinah--starred in a stage production of Peter Pan.  Black Canary sneaks up to where Cat holds her ex-husband, Ken Glazier hostage in the rafters, ready to drop him to his death.

Black Canary dives for Cat and Ken, but the creaky wooden platform gives her approach away.  Easily sidestepping the Canary's attack, Cat orders Ken to tell the story of what precipitated her murderous quest of vengeance.  She tells him to explain why he and his old associates have been targeted for death over the last couple days.

Ken tells Dinah that the story of his contacting AIDS from Deb was true, but the way he discovered his affliction was when he needed to give his daughter, Dannie, a blood transfusion after an accident.  Dannie got AIDS and died when she was eleven years old.  For cheating and effectively condemning their daughter to a horrible death, Cat will kill Ken.

Canary has one desperate play to save Ken's life.  She taunts Cat with a bag of ashes--Dannie's ashes--that she took from Cat's hideout in the sewer.  Black Canary dumps the bag, spilling the ashes over the platform and down onto the stage.  This defilement of her daughter's memory is enough to make Cat forget about Ken and lunge at Black Canary like a wild animal.

Cat is fast, acrobatic, and full of righteous anger, while Dinah is both sleep- and blood-deprived.  For all her training, Black Canary is exhausted and the killer is fighting with the fierce conviction of a mother protecting the memory at least of her child.  So Black Canary changes her strategy and the battleground.

She grabs a rope and swings to one of the other platforms beside a heavy klieg light.  Cat chases her, but when she nears the second platform, Black Canary turns on the stage light.  Blinded by sudden, harsh light, Cat swings directly into the klieg, dying in an explosion of glass and light.

In the aftermath of the fight, Seattle Police Lieutenant Cameron tells Dinah that Ken Glazier is safe.  He tells her to check in at the hospital to treat her wound.  Dinah gives the lieutenant an urn full of Dannie's ashes.  She back she dumped earlier was a fake to provoke Cat into attacking her.  "A flare for the dramatic," Dinah calls it.

[Click the images below to enlarge.]

And so ends the "Knock 'Em Dead" story.  Eleven chapters.  Seventy-seven pages total.  Possibly the best standalone Black Canary story ever published when taken as a whole.  I still can't get over the difference between this tale and the story that proceeded it in ACW #609-616.  "Bitter Fruit" was a solid, fairly conventional mystery with heavy corporate, racial, and political overtones.  But it was a bad comic.  The script was ill-suited for graphic storytelling, the art ill-suited for the ambiguous characters and plot twists.  And it wasn't about Black Canary.  She just happened to be there, and she could have been any private investigator.

"Knock 'Em Dead" on the other hand gets personal early on when a friend of Dinah's is murdered, drawing her into a straightforward murder mystery.  The whys may be kept vague and mysterious until they need to be revealed, but the characters are all pretty well-defined as early as necessary.    Sharon Wright introduces themes of theatricality, disguise, and illusion early on and stays true to them throughout the story.  And Randy Duburke's art just gets better with each chapter.  The panels and character layouts during the action in the final chapters is frenetic, stylistic, and just insane-looking.  But it works.  The battle between Dinah and Cat is all over the place, but never confusing.

And the craziest thing is it's the exact same creative team.  Same writer, same artist, inker, colorist, letterer.  The only difference is in the editor, which is why Robert Greenberger deserves the M.V.P. award for this story.  I don't doubt former Editor Mike Gold's fondness for Black Canary.  He edited her appearances in Green Arrow for years, her first miniseries, and the first issues of her ongoing title in the early '90s.  But she didn't always receive the most flattering treatment in those books, so maybe Greenberger had a better handle on the character.

Or maybe his involvement was minimal after all, and this was just a case of Wright and Duburke finding the story that just worked best for all of them.  Whatever the reason, "Knock 'Em Dead" was a classic Black Canary adventure that deserves to be reprinted and shared with more fans.

The Rest

In Green Lantern by James Owsley and M.D. Bright, Hal Jordan squares off against Lord Malvolio of the Green Flame, who looks like the Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott if Frank Miller drew him for The Dark Knight Strikes Again.  We learn that Malvolio's father was a Green Lantern centuries ago, but Malvolio killed him and took his power.  They fight for several pages and Hal gets the better of him, beating him down and down.  But Hal shows mercy and refuses to kill Malvolio.  When he turns his back, though, the villain draws a gun and shoots Hal's ring, destroying it.

In the final part of The Phantom Stranger's "Cat and Mouse" by Paul Kupperberg and Fred Carrillo,  the Stranger is captured by Tannarak and Tala, servants of the Lords of Chaos.  Doctor Thirteen races to the Empire State Building where Tannarak and Tala are using Phantom Stranger's magics to open a doorway to Chaos.  The giant cat beast is going to kill the Stranger as a sacrifice, but at the last minute, Doctor Thirteen rushes in with a broom... and effectively shoves it up the cat beast's ass, startling it enough that it leaps off the edge of the building.  Phantom Stranger throws Tannarak over the side and the dark sorcerer collides with the cat beast, causing an explosion, because yeah.  Then the Stranger saves Cassandra Craft from the Chaos realm.

In the two-page Superman strip by Roger Stern and Curt Swan, the Man of Steel was transported to some unknown place while trying to stop an energy beam coming from space.  Now, in a bright, airless space, Superman flies toward a strange machine.  He punches through the side of the machine, fighting off tendril-like defenses and removes something "hot" from inside, all while apparently suffocating.  I'll admit, I'm not sure what was going on in this chapter.  It didn't feel like it connected with anything that had previously gone down in this story.

In the finale to Cherie Wilkerson and Tom Mandrake's story of Nightwing and Speedy, all of the bad guys face justice of some kind.  Sepulveda, the bureaucrat in charge of the CBI who framed Roy Harper is sentenced to prison for working with Lord Danvers, who escapes criminal charges but ends up hanging himself to avoid other scandals.  The fedora wearing Detective Hunter writes a bestselling book about the whole ordeal, and the two Irish orphans, Moira and Button, are adopted and happy.  For their part, Dick and Roy beat up some military police.

Marty Pasko and Rick Burchett wrap up their Blackhawk story in fine, action-packed style.  In the nick of time, Jan snaps out of his LSD-induced hallucinations and saves the plane from crashing.  They track the sexy Nazi woman back to an island fortress.  There is some cool action with the Blackhawks fighting Nazis on plane, on jeep, and on foot, before Jan shoots the lady in the head while ripping a Nazi flag down the center.  Nice symbolism, and a nice climax for this adventure.  There is a caption announcing the upcoming Blackhawk monthly book hitting stands soon.

That's it for Back in Action.  If you want to read the continuing adventures of Superman and Green Lantern I guess you'll have to dig up those issues yourself.  But next week I'll take a look at Green Arrow Annual #2, which features a special Black Canary story written by Sarah Byam, and after that I will finally, finally start reviewing Black Canary's solo comics beginning with her first miniseries!

Review: FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MAN #3

Previously...

Teenager Jason Rusch is the new Firestorm, except he has no idea what that means or how to control his unfathomable powers.  What's more, he doesn't have the calm, fatherlike voice of Professor Stein coaching him in his head.  Instead Jason has local Michigan gangster Stevie Golek trapped in his mind.  Golek wants to use the power of Firestorm for his own ends until Jason's consciousness begins eating away at Stevie completely.  Now, all he wants is to get out.

But Jason doesn't know how to separate them.

Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #3: "E.M.Powered" is written by Dan Jolley with pencils by ChrisCross and inks by Bob Stull.  This issue came out in September, 2004.

The third part of Jolley's introduction to the All-New Sorta-Different Firestorm opens up right after last issue.  With the powers of Firestorm, Jason Rusch just blew up a Detroit meth lab full, killing people.  Bad people, most likely, but it's still causing him some emotional anguish.

Inside Jason's mind, reality is no less horrifying.  He's trapped with a gangster who moments earlier tried to murder him, and they're looking out at Jason's body demonstrating the amazing powers of the Nuclear Man.  Also, Jason's mind seems to be devouring the gangster, Stevie, who is understandably desperate to get out of this place.

Stevie might be a killer and drug kingpin, but he's also older and smarter than Jason, and does his best to keep Jason calm during this volatile experience.

Jason struggles to separate himself from Stevie, but nothing's working.  Stevie comes up with the idea of consulting the Justice League.  I guess he really is afraid of dying because that takes some sack for a murderous meth dealer to ask Superman and "the guy who runs fast" for help.  Regardless, Stevie's logic is pretty sound; the JLA is most likely to possess the knowhow and resources to separate.

The only problem is the JLA are headquartered on the Moon, and Jason can't conceive of a way of getting there.  He doesn't have enough faith in his powers yet.

Stevie scolds Jason for being a coward and suggests that Jason's dad, Alvin Rusch, beat all the courage out of him.

Jason, he don't like that.

Stevie reasons that provoking an emotional response in Jason is what causes the Firestorm power to respond, so he keeps poking and prodding, allowing the readers to see Jason Rusch's history play out as painful memories: first the factory accident that took Alvin's hand, then Alvin's depression and violent outbursts, then Jason's mom abandoning the two of them, then Alvin beating Jason.

Jason finally finds the courage and concentration to seize control of the Firestorm.  And once he's done that, it's relatively easy to split his corporeal form from Stevie Golek's.  But Jason's sense of pride and accomplishment is short-lived.

Could be worse, though...

Jason forces himself to rationalize Stevie's death.  Stevie was, after all, a drug dealing killer who stabbed Jason and would have finished the job as soon as he got free.  So maybe his atomization isn't the worst thing in the world.

The worst thing might be Jason's dad, who has a particular way of showing his relief when Jason comes home that morning.

Alvin comes within inches of punching his son in the face, and Jason does nothing but stand there trembling.  The phone rings, disrupting Alvin's rage.  Jason goes upstairs to take the phone call from his friend Mick.  While talking to him, Firestorm seems to formulate a plan to settle things between he and his father.

And that concludes the three-part series opener for the latest Firestorm: The Nuclear Man!

I'm still not wild about ChrisCross' art on this series.  His figures and line-work are decent, but his panel breakdowns are so, soooo boring.  This is probably the worst issue yet for layouts.  Twelve of the twenty-two pages are arranged in simple four panel quadrants.  There are some truly awesome visuals to enjoy in this comic that are being wasted by a layout design that went out with the Silver Age.

I want to like Jason Rusch but he still feels way too passive in these early issues.  For most of this chapter, the driving force is the "villain" trying to save himself by giving Jason what he wants.  Almost every notable thing Firestorm does is accidental or incidental, including killing Stevie and bringing down the meth lab.  And it ends with him crying in bed about not having the guts to stand up to his father... Not exactly the stuff of classic superheroes.

And yet... there is something refreshingly classic about Firestorm in these issues: he doesn't want to see anyone die, and he shows emotion when they do!

Remember when superheroes were preoccupied with saving lives--even the bad guys?  I have a tough time believing that Superman would regard the chemists burning to death in the meth lab.  I have a tougher time believing a writer or editor in the DC offices today would even consider those implications.

Come back next week for a review of issue #4, where Jason Rusch meets members of the Justice League for the first time, and meets his first super-powered supervillain!

Black Canary on ARROW S2 E17

Once more, I defer to the website GreenArrowTV for their in-depth reviews and spoiler-filled summaries of Arrow episodes.  Head over there to check out the review for the season 2 episode, "Birds of Prey"!

My Commentary

This episode certainly wasn't what I expected.  Based on the title, I assumed we would see Huntress, however reluctantly, working alongside Green Arrow and Black Canary.  Instead, she is the villain of the episode, and they take her to extremely dark territory.  She's basically psychotic.  Her motives aren't to punish criminals and gangsters; they're fiercely personal.  She wants to murder her father and she's willing to kill innocent people to do it.  I don't know if they can ever bring the character back, but in my opinion she's beyond redemption.

Considering Sara Lance trained with the League of Assassins for years, the first Black Canary vs. Huntress fight should have been a lot more one-sided.  As their scuffle goes down, though, Canary gets the drop on Helena, who still manages to fight her off and throw her out a window.  I didn't care for that bit of action choreography.  The only way Huntress ought to be able to take Black Canary in a real straight-up fight is if Helena was trained by Bruce Wayne.

When the ladies scrap for the second time, Sara "doesn't hold back" but it still takes her a little too long to get the edge.

The other major hangup in this episode is Roy Harper.  Ever since he was injected with the superpower serum, he has struggled with this insatiable rage building inside of him.  Unfortunately, neither Ollie nor the producers of the show will let him vent that rage.  So all that happens with Roy most of the time is him shaking his fists and looking mad but not doing anything.  It's effectively ruining his character slowly but steadily.

Beyond those complaints, this episode had as many faults in logic as any episode of the series.  There were fun, entertaining parts, but the problems were too noticeable for me to favor this one.

Golden Oldie: FLASH COMICS #97

Black Canary's ongoing adventures continue with seven thrilling pages of mystery and suspense.  Carmine Infantino's pencils get better every month as he experiments with bold new panel layouts that make the action in Flash Comics #97 some of the best yet.

"The Mystery of the Stolen Cloth" is written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Carmine Infantino.

The story opens with millionaire CEO Donald Swain being dumped from a moving car.  Swain rolls to a stop at the feet of Larry Lance.  The dying Swain recognizes Lance and gives him a piece of cloth, claiming that it's worth millions and the mob is willing to kill for it.  Then Swain dies.

At the Eastern Textile Mills warehouse, Black Canary spots the car used to kidnap Larry.  She slips inside where she finds Larry tied up by some low-level thugs answering to a known gangster named Threads.

Canary throws a bucket of chemicals at some of the gangsters, blinding them, and jumps around, dodging Threads' gunshots.  But when she leaps onto a conveyer belt, Threads turns on the belt, causing Black Canary to loser her balance.  She's pistol-whipped, because that has to happen in every issue, and tied up beside Larry.

Threads puts Lance and Canary on turning bobbins and has them wrapped in cloth until Larry will reveal what he did with Swain's piece of cloth.  When the detectives refuse to cooperate, Threads leaves them to be wound with cloth while he leaves the room, presumably to go to the bathroom or something.

Wow, it seems like Black Canary always has exactly the right tool in her choker for whatever perilous situation she finds herself in.

And she managed to start a fire with flint and steel using only her chin!

Black Canary and Larry Lance escape, fight their way past Threads' goons and kick open the door to his office.  He drops a giant blanket on them and bolts, but they're quickly on his back again.

Another simple but funny story, a bit more wild than most with the action beats.  The reason this story feels so much more fun is that Black Canary seems to have a real villain to oppose.  Threads is newly created for this story, but their dialogue suggests a previous encounter.  He could have been her first recurring rogue if they ever used him again.

Black Canary has never had a real rogues gallery of her own.  Most of her most interesting enemies are borrowed from other characters.  In her ongoing series from the '90s, she maybe had two baddies who would qualify as super-villains.  But most of her solo stories involved unnamed or unknown street-level crooks.  It's not a bad thing, but when heroes are measured by their villains, Black Canary has never measured up.

Come back next Sunday for another Golden Age adventure of Black Canary in Flash Comics #98.

This Week in Black Canary

I spent a whole lot of last week traveling and only managed to post my reviews of Action Comics Weekly and Flash Comics because I wrote them in advance.  As such, I don't have a review for what would be today's "Pretty Bird" installment.

But, hey, there is plenty of Black Canary news to appreciate this weekend!

First, there's this little bit of info that comics gossip publication Bleeding Cool ran last night, alleging that Black Canary's face will be grafted to Frankenstein's chest during Future's End!  As I tweeted, if this rumor turns out to be true, it's still not the worst treatment Black Canary's been given in the New 52.  Should I review those old Duane Swierczynski issues again?

Next, if you're able, check out the most recent episode of Arrow entitled "Birds of Prey" for the first meeting of Canary and Huntress!

Finally, if you read digital comics, or even if you just want to support Black Canary, her solo books are finally up on ComiXology--and for the next couple days, they're only 99 cents each!!!  There are also tons of great Green Arrow, Suicide Squad, Huntress and other books in the sale that goes for the rest of the month!

Also, according to the 1976 Super DC Calendar, today is the birthday of Ray Terrill...

Happy Birthday, Ray!

Black Canary by Marcos Martin

This gorgeous image originally graced the cover of Green Arrow #40 from September 2004.

I've enjoyed Marcos Martin's work since Batgirl: Year One, but I really, truly grew to love his work in recent years on Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man and Mark Waid's Daredevil when Martin's work evolved into what I can only describe as a "Modern Ditko".

Back in Action: ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #633

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.

This week's cover by Swanderson, that is the art team of Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, delivers one of the classiest, most iconic covers of the whole series.  The Blackhawks form up in the skies as their leader appears majestically, almost ghost-like in the heavenly clouds.

Black Canary

"Knock 'Em Dead" Part 10: 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.  Again, Black Canary's story is printed second out of six features in this issue.

The penultimate chapter to the mystery of the actress hunting her ex-husband and his friends opens with a shocking and bloody image of Ken Glazier.  It's hard to tell if he's alive or dead, but either way he doesn't look good since he was captured by his ex-wife, Cat, last time.

While Black Canary receives treatment for her wounded arm, Seattle Police Lieutenant Cameron tells her that his men searched the theater and found no trace of Cat.  She escaped somehow.  Canary refuses to see a doctor or get actual stitches until the killer is found.  An officer tells Cameron that a boat team found a body dumped in the water that matches the description of Deb, the prostitute who was the police's original suspect in the killings.  Since Canary actually saw Deb a week ago, Cameron asks her to come with him to identify the body.

When they arrive at the waterfront, Black Canary confirms that that the dead woman is Deborah.  Cameron and the police speculate how the body was dumped since it was found in an unusual location, the type that would have left plenty of witnesses.  This leads Black Canary to suspect the body may not have been dumped into the water from the dock or a boat at all.

She walks along the sound until she comes to a sewer outlet.  Then she realizes that Cat escaped the police cordon at the theater by slipping into the sewers.  She follows the tunnel past rats and other vermin with blood on their teeth.  At the edge of the tunnel, she finds a lair, what she describes as a shrine or altar constructed by the killer.  And the altar was dedicated to Cat's daughter.  Her dead daughter, apparently.

Then she learns that Ken Glazier didn't make it to a hotel.  He's caught and hurt bad, but still possibly alive.  She anticipates that Cat will return to the theater with Glazier.  Canary doesn't have much time to save him, but she does have the will to see this to the end.

[Click the images below to enlarge.]

This chapter is mostly about setting the stage for the grand finale.  Deborah is dead.  The true killer, Cat, is revealed, but she has a hostage, her real target all along.  Black Canary knows where she is, and what's more, she may know how to defeat the killer.

Other notes of interest: In case anyone is unsure about Black Canary's public identity, Lieutenant Cameron calls her Dinah.  While she didn't really have much of a secret identity for a lot of her Bronze Age appearances, at least her police liaison knows who she is at this point in the game.

Something else: Dinah looks tough as hell on page two when she's getting her arm treated by the paramedic.  She doesn't always need a black jacket to look badass, which is reinforced during the Ed Benes era of Birds of Prey when she mostly went sleeveless.  But this is added confirmation.

The Rest

Green Lantern by James Owsley and M.D. Bright features a lot of Hal Jordan fighting Malvolio, Lord of the Green Flame, who looks a lot like early Image Comics' version of Alan Scott.  Hal and Malvolio fight a lot and Malvolio is so obviously overpowered that he punches Hal into the center of the planet, where Hal discovers a gold space station (?) full of Malvolio's followers.  Then there's more fighting.

Cherie Wilkerson and Tom Mandrake finally bring Nightwing & Speedy back to the United States as--hey, wait!  What happened to Roy's daughter?  Did I miss something important a couple issues ago? Where the hell is Lian?  Anyway, they head to Washington with the C.B.I. jackass who fired Roy a while ago.  They're also being followed by Hunter, the mysterious cop in the fedora, who is captured by agents of Lord Danvers, who seems to be the evil power behind the drugs and guns going through Northern Ireland.  Nightwing and Speedy make a deal with Sepulveda, who then seems to betray them and it looks like they're getting arrested.

In the two-page Superman strip by Roger Stern and Curt Swan, two armies clash in the desert as the super-powered Followers who believe Superman is a god wage holy war against the super-powered bad guys who believe Superman is the Devil.  Superman can't stop them, but he figures he can knock out their power source if he can find the object that is emitting radiation to both groups.  He flies to space looking for it, then appears to be atomized by something.

The Phantom Stranger continues to fight the Lords of Chaos and their agent Tannarak in the third chapter by Paul Kupperberg and Fred Carrillo.  The Stranger fights Tannarak and his giant liger monster, then Tannarak appears to capture Cassandra Craft and hold her hostage.  But when Tannarak threatens to kill her, Phantom Stranger has an epiphany and attacks her first.  He reasons that it's not actually Cassandra Craft, but his other enemy, the sorceress Tala in disguise.

Martin Pasko and Rick Burchett have some fun in this installment of Blackhawk, as the drug that the Nazi babe slipped into the crew's coffee turns out to be the same L.S.D. that the government was developing.  After she shoots and wounds Olaf, she parachutes from the plane.  Meanwhile, Jan, Weng and everyone else aboard start tripping balls and seeing all sorts of amusing hallucinations that put them in serious jeopardy.  Olaf, despite his gunshot wound and blood loss is the only one capable of landing the plane safely.  That is, until he's attacked by Jan who has jealous visions of Olaf with Natalie Reed.  Will they all crash and die?  I guess we'll find out in a week.

Next week, I'll look at Action Comics Weekly #634, which continues Superman and Green Lantern's adventures while wrapping up the current sagas of Black Canary, Phantom Stranger, Blackhawk, and Nightwing & Speedy.

Black Canary Digital Sale on ComiXology

ComiXology is having a seven-day sale on DC comics related to Green Arrow and the characters appearing in the CW Network's Arrow this season.  This includes current and past Green Arrow comics, Roy Harper stories from Secret Origins and Titans, Deathstroke miniseries, the first Huntress series featuring Helena Bertinelli, some Suicide Squad issues, and, of course, a ton of Black Canary books that previously were not available digitally.

For the rest of the week, you can pick up Black Canary's "New Wings" miniseries from 1991, her twelve-issue ongoing from 1993, and her miniseries from 2007 that led up to her marriage to Green Arrow.  There are also a couple of issues of Birds of Prey and The Brave and the Bold included in this sale.

This sale is awesome because it means DC have finally gotten hip to the fact that Arrow is making Black Canary a high(er) profile character than she has been in forty years.  I've spent months tracking these comics down so I can blog about them in the future--and I will--so I was a little mad that now they're all cheaper and easier to buy digitally, but this will at least save me the time of scanning the pages I want to use for my reviews.

Anyway, quit reading this post and click over to ComiXology and go shopping!