Back in Action: ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #609

In May, 1988, Acton Comics, the series that birthed Superman and the whole superhero genre and, well, comics as we know them, changed format.  Beginning with issue #601, Action turned into a weekly anthology book showcasing half a dozen-or-so characters in short, serialized adventures.  The stories were as varied tonally and thematically as the heroes included.  Superman, Green Lantern, and Deadman anchored the series, while Nightwing, Phantom Stranger, Wild Dog, Phantom Lady, and groups like The Blackhawks and The Secret Six made appearances over several issues.

Why this is of concern to my blog is, of course, Black Canary had two different backup stories run through Action Comics Weekly.  The ACW format lasted forty-two issues, of which Dinah appeared in nearly half.

Starting today, every Wednesday is Back in Action!  I'll review Black Canary's story and touch on my favorite or least favorite moments from the rest of the issues she appeared in.

Suck it, Stephen DeStefano!

Black Canary's first appearance in ACW was issue #609, which boasts not only one of my all-time favorite images of Black Canary, but one of the best covers to grace Action Comics!  I doubt Brian Bolland was intending to channel Howard Chaykin with this cover, but I see a lot of the latter's style, particularly in the shape and bounce of Dinah's hair and the glint of deadly playfulness in her eyes and smile.  This reminds me of Chaykin's Black Kiss, which would have been coming out around the same time.

As for the content of the cover: I love it!  I never liked Black Canary's new look from Legends and Justice League International.  The design was fine, albeit extremely dated, but it just wasn't Black Canary.  That she's giddily burning that costume and proudly donning her classic fishnets look makes this one of my favorite covers.

Black Canary

"Bitter Fruit" Part 1: written by Sharon Wright, pencilled by Randy Duburke, inked by Pablo Marcos, lettered by Steve Haynie, and colored by Gene D'Angelo.  Mike Gold edited the feature, and I'll be talking about Gold much more when I eventually review Black Canary's mini- and ongoing series from the early '90s.

The first chapter of "Bitter Fruit" opens with Hector and Miguel, a pair of illegal immigrants from Mexico, working in the orange groves of California.  Though there is an inconstancy in the writing and art that makes it difficult to identify which man is which, their scene is fairly simple.  They came to the U.S. for job opportunities, and even if/when they get deported, they will try to return so they can support their families.  This is the positive, uplifting, and inspiring face of undocumented immigration.

The "ugly" face rears up on page 3, where we meet William B. MacDonald, a senior agent at the Immigration and Naturalization Headquarters in Nebraska.  He's on the phone with someone, and it sounds like his agenda to detain and deport illegals extends a little beyond "duty".  He addresses the rest of his staff and shares a list of convicted felons and dangerously disturbed Asians and Mexicans who need to be captured.  I'm assuming that some, if not most, of the names on his list will be innocent migrant workers and not the dangerous criminal caste MacDonald describes.

Somewhere in a different city, a young man named Luis is chased into an alley by two white men who beat him up.  A young woman witnesses the assault from her window and goes outside to protect her friend Luis with a baseball bat.

In the apartment above Sherwood Florist in Seattle, Dinah Lance burns the costume that had been her Black Canary garb for the last couple years.  Dinah explains her cathartic creation of that costume while still holding onto the classic costume to her boyfriend, Oliver Queen.  "I'm going to rely mainly on more functional dress," she says, "but fishnets and black can have some practical applications."

Dinah has invited a girl named Rita over for dinner, and tells Ollie that she hopes to give Rita a job in the flower shop.  Rita is a recovering drug addict who crashed through the window back in Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters #1, and even though she uses the doorbell this time, her arrival is just as shocking to Dinah; Rita's face is bruised and beaten, and we discover that she is the girl who went to defend Luis from the punks who beat him in the alley.

The story ends with the teaser: Next Week: Educating Rita.

Update: PAGES!!!

Click the images below to enlarge.

That's it for the first chapter of "Bitter Fruit".  We never see Black Canary in costume; we barely get to see much of the costume she's incinerating in the fireplace.  Dinah doesn't appear until page 5 of an eight-page story, so most of this is set-up.

Just from reading this first chapter of Black Canary's story, I can tell this tale will play out very similarly to how Dinah's mini- and ongoing books did in the early '90s, despite having different creative teams.  The commonality between them is editor Mike Gold, who tried to make Black Canary a sister title to the Green Arrow book he also edited.  For good or bad--and I think a lot of it was bad--Dinah was a key supporting character in Mike Grell's Green Arrow.

Picking up on the themes from the O'Neill/Adams run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Grell made Oliver Queen a socially conscious hero in a grounded world that tackled current events-style problems, like drug use, human trafficking, rape, post-traumatic stress disorder, things like that.  "Bitter Fruit" feels very much like a one of those stories told from a different perspective.  The topical issue of this story is illegal immigration, and how a privileged white woman will deal with it.  Will the story enrich the characters and entertain the reader without coming across as too heavy handed?  We'll see!

It's hard to gauge much of Wright's, uh, writing based on this small snippet.  Dinah and Ollie's dialogue rings true to their voices established by Grell.  Duburke's art is pretty simple and… I guess "roomy" is the word that comes to mind.  A lot of white space and room in the panels between characters.  Nothing wrong with it; if this were a more action-oriented story, it might fall flat, but as this seems like a much more philosophical and street-level story, it kind of fits.

The Rest

The other five stories in ACW #609 continue stories already started in previous issues.  Having not read those issues, all I can do is comment on what I find in these chapters.

Deadman's chapter was written by Mike Baron and drawn by Dan Jurgens, with Tony DeZuniga inking.  For some reason, Deadman is attending a State Dinner in the body of the C.I.A. Director while looking for Satan.  Yes, Satan.  In this chapter, Deadman and Satan bounce between President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, and then their spouses Nancy Reagan and Raisa Gorbachova.  I have no idea what Satan's goal is in this story, but it's a funny bit of political caricature twenty-five years later.

The Secret Six by Martin Pasko and Dan Spiegle is hard to grasp without reading the previous chapters or prior knowledge of the characters.  My experience with the Secret Six is Gail Simone's book starring Catman and Deadshot, so the only name in this story I recognized was the enigmatic and unseen Mockingbird.  I like Pasko's writing, but this chapter isn't new-reader friendly.

Superman gets a two-page spread by Roger Stern and Curt Swan… or, rather, Clark Kent gets the spread.  Clark talks to a man who was saved by Superman and now believes that the Man of Steel is a messianic god-like being.  It's a really great idea that I'm surprised I haven't seen in a Superman story before.

Wild Dog is a character I barely remember seeing when I first started reading comics.  I knew nothing about him, and had completely forgotten about him until I picked up this issue, which includes the last chapter of his story (for a while).  The thing is, though, I really dug this finale to a story I hadn't been reading.  The look of Wild Dog is perfectly of the time, reminiscent of Casey Jones from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and so many other "anti-heroes" of the era.  Writer Max Collins and artist Terry Beatty, who created the character together, drew me in enough with these eight pages that I look forward to reading Wild Dog's other appearances.

The last story in the issue is a Green Lantern chapter, written by Peter David and drawn by Tod Smith. I figure someone is always complaining that there isn't enough Oprah Winfrey in comics, and Peter David said, We'll see about that!  So, yeah, the Hal Jordan Green Lantern is on Oprah's show trying to justify being sans fear without coming across as a lunatic with zero sense of self-preservation.  It's an interesting question, one that seems to disturb Hal.  The chapter ends with him taking off his ring to fight a madman with a sword, to test, it seems, whether his bravery is the result of the ring's defensive powers or something inside him.

Next week, I'll look at Action Comics Weekly #610, which includes a new tale starring The Phantom Stranger, and, of course, the next part of Black Canary's story!

BIRDS OF PREY #0 (New 52)

In September, 2012, one year after the launch of DC's line-wide altering New 52 initiative, they released a #0 issue for every one of their monthly titles.  Meant to to take place before the events of the first issue released in September, 2011, the "zero" issue was frequently used as an origin story or an early years adventure for the hero of the series.

Considering how much information appears to be missing from the first year of Birds of Prey, a prequel adventure starring Black Canary and the other ladies is the perfect opportunity to flesh out her mysterious past or show how and why she became friends with Batgirl and Starling.

Birds of Prey #0: "First Flight" is written by series scribe Duane Swierczynski, and welcomes the new regular art team of penciler Romano Molenaar and inker Vicente Cifuentes, along with Chris Sotomayor doing colors.  Stanley "Artgerm" Lau provided the cover.

One year before Poison Ivy's betrayal and defeat, Dinah Lance is still mourning the loss of her husband, Kurt, when she busts into The Penguin's Iceberg Lounge.  No longer a bar in the heart of Gotham City, the Iceberg Lounge is now a private club built into what looks like a real iceberg floating a mile or so off the shore of Gotham.  Dinah sneaks past the club's security until she finds the Penguin soaking in a frigid ice-tub.

Dinah is a woman on a mission, and it's not to take down the Penguin.  She wants a job on his security team, and she proves her quality by defeating every metahuman bodyguard he throws at her.

Impressed by her initiative and skill, Penguin gives Dinah the job.  Before long, we get the very first meeting of Black Canary and Starling, who is also working on Penguin's security detail at the time.

We find that the real reason Dinah infiltrated The Penguin's operation was to prevent the mysterious organization called Basilisk from obtaining a biochemical weapon to someone at the Iceberg Lounge.  Just when Dinah identifies the seller, the Lounge is disturbed by a familiar bat-shaped silhouette crashing through the skylight.  But it's not Batman, no, it's Batgirl.

Dinah's first impression of Batgirl is annoyance that the young vigilante is ruining her weeks-long stakeout.  Batgirl briefly scuffles with Starling, and then it's time for Dinah and Barbara Gordon's first encounter.

When Dinah realizes that Batgirl is a more formidable opponent than she assumed and that a continued fight would allow the buyer and seller of the bio-weapon to escape, Dinah reveals her true allegiance to Batgirl.  They take down one of their targets, and then try to convince Starling that they should all be on the same side.

There is absolutely no reason for Starling to join up with Black Canary and Batgirl unless she's planning to spy on them and probably betray them later on down the line.  Does that stop Dinah from pledging loyalty and friendship to her?  Does it ever?

Naturally, the final page of the issue teases the true depths of Starling's betrayal.

Yeah, Starling is working for Amanda Waller.  Skinny-ass Amanda Waller.  And Waller has Dinah's husband alive in stasis.  Shocking!

The Characters

First off, the major continuity snafu with this issue is that Batgirl should not be here.  According to the timeline established in Batgirl's own series--in particular, Batgirl #0, which came out the same month as this issue--Barbara Gordon was still paralyzed one year before the current comic events.  The Joker shot her roughly three years ago, and she didn't start adventuring again until Batgirl #1.  She certainly wasn't in any condition to crash through windows and fight superheroes the way she does in this issue. So, big continuity gaffe, but other than that, her intro is fine.  I'm not sure I feel the love between her and Dinah, though.

That same complaint could and should be leveled against Starling, too.  Swierczynski does the same thing in this issue that he's done for the previous year: establishing characterization by telling rather than showing.  We don't know why Dinah takes a liking to Starling.  There's no reason to trust her, but she does.  And knowing that Starling is secretive and treasonous only serves to make Dinah look foolish.

What else do we learn about Dinah?

The "zero" issue of Team 7 billed her as the squad's Infiltration specialist.  She certainly does that here, sneaking into Penguin's gang, ingratiating herself to his staff, playing the role of brutal mercenary enforcer.  But there's nothing especially inspired or original about her approach, and I would rather see her go undercover in a costume other than the one she's had since issue #1.

Impressions/Questions

The highlight of this issue isn't the milestone meeting of Black Canary and Batgirl, nor is it the shocking last page revelation.  No, the best part of this issue is the welcome addition of artists Romano Molenaar and Vicente Cifuentes.

This is my favorite page of the book, and not because Dinah strips down and gets naked.  Well, yeah, actually that's exactly why.  I've said from the beginning that Birds of Prey is steeped in the gimmick of sexy female agents, and needs to embrace that with sexy, occasionally cheesecake art.  I like Jesus Saiz, but he never brought that quality to the book.  Travel Foreman brought the opposite!  But Molenaar gets it; even when his women are fully covered, he makes them shapely and comely enough that you buy into the fun style of the series.

Beyond that, though, the story is pretty simple.  The first encounters don't seem as momentous as they should, and the dialogue never snaps or pops.  Swierczynski isn't very good on this title.  He just doesn't understand the women or he doesn't know how to make them smart and competent.

On the other hand, other than the continuity error regarding Batgirl's timeline, there wasn't anything about the book that I hated or found objectionable, which makes it probably the best issue of the series.

Grade:  B

Canary Cosplay from NYCC '13

Another ComicCon has passed without DC announcing the launch of a Black Canary solo series, so really, the only noteworthy thing about this NYCC is the pics of Black Canary cosplay.

These two pics come from Bleeding Cool.  First is a couples shot featuring a blue-jacketed Dinah with her bow-slinging beau:

And the second is the first cosplay I think I've seen of the New 52 look:

This shot of Black Canary and Wonder Woman comes from Nihongogo:

I hope everyone who got to attend NYCC had a great time!

TEAM 7 #0

In September, 2012, one year after the launch of DC's line-wide altering New 52 initiative, they released a #0 issue for every one of their monthly titles.  Meant to to take place before the events of the first issue released in September, 2011, the "zero" issue was frequently used as an origin story or an early years adventure for the hero of the series.

That month, DC introduced four new series with #0 issues to replace books that had been cancelled.  One of the new series to debut was Team 7, a re-imagining of an Image title from the 1990s that told the story of an ill-fated Special Forces unit comprised of earlier versions of popular characters from the Wildstorm Universe.  DC's new Team 7 was similar-but-different in that it took place five or six years before the current stories unfolding in the rest of the titles, and featured a mixed roster of recognizable DC and Wildstorm characters.

One of the characters on Team 7 is Dinah Drake, she who would become Black Canary.

Team 7 #0: "The Majestic Seven" is written by Justin Jordan, with art by Jesus Merino, Norm Rapmund, and Rob Hunter.  The cover is by Ken Lashley.

The issue begins "Five Years Ago" as most-if-not-all the #0 issues did.  We see a man who will eventually be introduced as John Lynch talking about how the world has changed since the emergence of metahumans.  We get glimpses of vampires, mass destruction in urban areas, and a nice shot of Superman fighting Brainiac, although how Lynch got that footage I don't know, because that fight took place on an alien ship that Superman then took possession of.

We don't see who Lynch is talking to but it's probably some shadowy cabal within the United States government or United Nations, because that's how these stories do.  They reference the Majestic Project, a team of specialists designed to combat or control metahumans.  The shady "World Council" bozos ask Lynch who he has in mind for the team, so the rest of the issue is introducing the men and women who will be Team 7.

Lynch's first recruits, Dinah Drake and Kurt Lance, are tasked with bringing in the rest of the team.  We meet Dinah and Kurt in the process of beating their way through a mysterious "city" hovering over the ocean.  At the center of the city is a barefoot gangster called Mr. Cyr, who runs what looks like nothing more than an elaborate hookah bar.  He mentions wanting to acquire Gen-Factor, but before we learn anything more, Dinah and Kurt rush in, guns blazing.

When it becomes clear that rushing in, guns blazing, was not the best tactical decision on their part, Dinah reveals that some of the gangster's henchmen are actually two undercover operatives, Slade Wilson and Alex Fairchild.  Wilson and Fairchild owe Lynch a debt and turn on Cyr.

Dinah tells Slade and Fairchild that Lynch is no longer working for the Department of Extra-Normal Operations, so whoever is behind this team's formation is bigger and more secretive than any group we're used to seeing.

Next we find Dinah recruiting a man named James Bronson who is climbing a mountain.  Bronson doesn't have the military experience of the others, but he has some freaky DNA.  Stay tuned to see how this mystery plays out.

After that, Dinah and Kurt recruit Summer Ramos, a pilot testing a new jet that's supposed to explode when a bunch of missiles hit it.

In Paris, France, we find Cole Cash getting arrested for being the last man standing in a bar fight.  When the gendarmes take him outside, however, he is greeted by Dinah and Kurt.

Next we find Amanda Waller taking down a terrorist bomber planning to release a biochemical weapon from a blimp hovering over a baseball park.  The terrorist mentions working for someone or some group called Basilisk.  Backing up Waller is Dean Higgins, and backing up them both are Dinah and Kurt, who invite them to join Lynch's team.

Now that the team is fully assembled, we see their mobile base of operations, a preposterous looking red jet craft thing, designed by someone who thought the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier lacked that Futurama touch.  Lynch name drops the American government as the backer for this team.  He also says the superhuman arms race has begun, and equips his new team with the weapons and gear he thinks they'll need to form a group shot on the last page.

Also, somebody gets a robot suit!

The Characters

Dinah Drake:  The New 52 Birds of Prey hasn't revealed much about Dinah's past other than she was married and she killed her husband and she might have had a military background.  Here we get to see that special ops background put on display.  I don't know if she's one of the world's greatest hand-to-hand combatants in this new universe, but I guess working with this kind of team will explain some of her skills since DC hadn't introduced Richard Dragon or Lady Shiva in the New 52 at the time of this issue.  Dinah's specialty is billed as Infiltration.  I'm not sure what to do with that or how to feel about it.  I guess I'll have to wait and see if that affects her stories going forth in this series and Birds.

Kurt Lance:  An original character created for this series, though first mentioned in Birds of Prey, Kurt  will become Dinah's husband.  They clearly have a working relationship, but it's hard to see anything beyond that because their dialogue is pretty generic buddy rapport.  His gig is Tracking and Operations.

Slade Wilson:  Tactical genius, according to Lynch's files.  Of course, we know Slade is or will become Deathstroke: The Terminator.  I have never cared about Deathstroke or found him an interesting villain or foil.  He's really, really, reeeaaallly flat and voiceless in this first issue, so we'll see if later issues can change my mind about him.

Alex Fairchild:  An original member of Team 7 from the Image/Wildstorm days, Alex is most noted for fathering the lovely Caitlyn Fairchild.  Caitlyn appeared in Superboy as a scientist working on the cloning project that created the Boy of Steel.  Alex Fairchild's specialty is Weapons Expert.

James Bronson:  Another brand new character.  His character is pretty thinly drawn.  It seems like he's just really athletic and hardworking, but there is something unusual, unquantifiable about his genetic makeup.  He'll either die horribly in the series or he'll turn into a Mary-Sue super soldier.

Summer Ramos:  Pilot, maybe a bit of a daredevil.  Lynch describes her as "probably crazy", except I'm pretty sure they don't let you fly if you're crazy.

Cole Cash:  Another veteran of the original Team 7, Cole Cash will eventually become Grifter, the Jim Lee-created embodiment of all things "kewl" from the '90s--guns, trench coats, and masks with jagged scar-like eye lines.  His specialty is underworld infiltration, um, I guess.

Amanda Waller:  *sigh*  Amanda Waller has long been one of the most fascinating characters in comics, and a lot of that owed to her unconventional appearance.  Where most women have impossibly proportioned bodies created for nothing more than arousal, Amanda Waller was a big, fat black woman.  Well, not anymore.  Now she's just like all the rest.  Damn you, New 52!  Damn you!

Dean Higgins:  A new character.  He's different from Slade Wilson in that Slade's specialty is tactics while Higgins' specialty is strategy.  Also he's black.  Probably gonna die badly.

That's the team, but we also get John Lynch, another first gen. Team 7 character.  It looks like he's just the handler, the Nick Fury sending them on missions and keeping secrets from them, same thing.

Impressions/Questions

I'm reading and reviewing this series because Black Canary is in it.  That's the only reason.  The premise is plenty intriguing, but the writing in this issue is pretty cookie-cutter.  I worry that the cast is too large to adequately flesh out their characters well in just twenty pages a month.  We'll see how it goes.

The first year of Birds of Prey failed to explore Dinah's past in any way other than frustratingly failing to explain her culpability in her husband's death.  If Team 7 comes even remotely close to any of those concepts, I'll call it a win.

Grade: B

Dinah and Babs by Chris Samnee

Whoever "Patrick" is, he's lucky to have this awesome sketch of Black Canary and Oracle from a couple years ago.  If you follow Mark Waid's Daredevil--and there's no reason you shouldn't--you know the amazing art of Chris Samnee.  Oh, how I wish he would draw Dinah and Babs on a regular, professional basis!

Check out more of Samnee's work at his official website right here!

Fan-Casting DC's JUSTICE LEAGUE: Part 21

Previously…

So far:

Years ago, Colonel Steve Trevor of U.S. Air Force Intelligence crash landed on an uncharted island populated by Amazon warrior women.  The queen's daughter, Diana, came back to America with Trevor to help him bring peace to the world as Wonder Woman.

Washington, D.C.  The Goddess Outreach Center for Women and Children.  The architecture inside and out is heavily influenced by Ancient Greek culture, lots of columns, statues, etc.  There is a floral garden/playground in the center of the building.  Children--boys and girls--play while women watch.

Etta Candy is counseling a woman, a battered wife, while she watches her kids play.

Etta Candy (Rebel Wilson)

Etta Candy is the first real friend Diana makes after leaving Paradise Island.  She was everything Diana wasn't: raucous, undisciplined, not-conventionally attractive.  In her earliest appearances, her size and weight were played for laughs.  The current comics have made her as skinny as any costumed super heroine, but I don't think the publisher is trying to promote a healthier lifestyle; I think they're ashamed of fat.

In a modern cinematic take, I think Etta's size and its obvious contrast to Diana's beauty can be played as social commentary, but I'm not going to get into that because it doesn't matter now.  I went with Rebel Wilson in the part because Melissa McCarthy is too old and there aren't a lot of other overweight actresses getting jobs in Hollywood at the moment.

Etta's conversation with the woman is interrupted by a phone call.  Caller ID says it's The Pentagon.  She says, "Oh, crap…"

Intercut with Steve Trevor's office at The Pentagon.

Colonel Steve Trevor (Daniel Sunjata) is surrounded by frantic staffers and officers.  He is either in a private office or The Situation Room; either way, it's a veritable stirred hornet's nest.  Uniformed men and women running around, handing briefings to each other, checking maps, tablets for info.

Steve tells Etta he needs to talk to Diana and her phone says it's out of service.  Etta tells him she got a new cell phone or something to that effect.  Steve really needs to talk to her now, but Etta claims she was instructed not to give Steve the new cell number.  Steve says lives are in danger.

We cut to Diana (Bridget Regan) driving down the highway in a nice town car.  She wears a fashionable raincoat, black, grey or white.  There's another woman riding in the passenger seat.  She has a bruise on her face.  Not to be insensitive, but for the purpose of this write-up, she'll just be referred to as the Wife.

The wife tells Diana they don't have to do this.  Diana says yes they do.  Her phone rings, she checks the ID, and answers, grumbling.

Steve: "Before I ask why you're screening my calls, I need you for a mission."
Diana: "I'm busy."
Steve: "Three American hostages in Santa Prisca.  Contractors with Agency ties.  Intel says they could be executed anytime--"
Diana: "Before you reveal anymore classified information, Steve, you should know that there's is a civilian in the car with me."

Trevor grits his teeth and nearly bangs the phone on his head.  Diana introduces him to the woman by name and describes how she came to the Goddess Outreach Center in an extraordinary act of courage.  Diana describes how the woman's husband is abusive and hits her in front of her children.  Steve is sorry but he needs Diana now.

Steve: "This is a hostage situation."
Diana: "So is this."
Steve: "I'm serious, Diana.  This is a job for Wonder Woman."
Diana: "So is this."

Diana pulls the car to a stop near the Mount Vernon trail along the Potomac.  There's a company picnic nearby full of K-Street lobbyists.  Diana encourages the wife to get out of the car with her.  As they step out and gaze at the picnic, a rough wind picks up, along with the whup-whup-whup of propellers.  Diana and the wife look up as an unmarked, military helicopter lands on the grass near them.

Steve Trevor gets out of the chopper and approaches Diana.  Everyone at the company picnic has taken notice.  The wife shrinks back by the car.  Steve runs up to Diana and tells her he needs her immediately.  He puts a hand on her arm as if to grab her.  Something flashes in her eyes, something fierce and dangerous.  Steve releases her instantly, says, "Please."

Diana: "Are your agents' lives worth more than hers?"
Steve: "Their lives are in immediate danger. Hers isn't."
Diana: "You and I disagree on the qualities of life."
Steve: "Being mortal does that."

The wife tells Diana she should go with Steve and save people.  Diana walks over to her, holds her hands, says she knows what her husband has done, what he's said to her, what men have said to her all her life, but what does she have to say?  When will you speak for yourself, she asks?  The wife nods her ascent.

Can't you hear that boom, badoom, boom,
boom, badoom, boom bass? You got that
super bass!

A crowd of onlookers from the picnic have gathered because of the noise of the military chopper.  Diana walks by Steve, tells him if he wants to be useful he can hold her jacket.  Then in dramatic fashion, she whips off her raincoat, revealing the full garb of Wonder Woman.  Everyone responds.

Wonder Woman walks up to the lobbyist crowd at their picnic tables and singles out the Husband who looks startled and a bit scared.  (Maybe for fun she snacks on some kind of dip that's really good during this scene--could be a way to lighten the mood or disarm the rest of the people while she questions the husband.)  She explains in front of everyone that the husband's wife didn't come to the picnic like the other spouses because the husband wouldn't let her.  He was afraid they'd all notice the fresh bruises that he administered last night.  But the wife is here now seeking justice.  The husband denies doing anything, maybe even tries to push her away.

Wonder Woman is physically stronger.  She says his wife will no longer submit to his abuse.  Instead, the husband will submit to Wonder Woman.  She pulls out her lasso, which glows slightly.  "Now," she says, "How will you confess your crimes--of your own will… or mine!"

Cut to a few minutes later.  The husband is talking to the police, crying, confessing, with a blanket over his shoulders.  Diana tells the wife she needs to press charges, none of this matters unless the woman is willing to liberate herself of the slavery imposed on her by this man.  The wife, Diana says, must break the chains of abuse herself, then go back and take care of her kids.

Wonder Woman walks over to Steve, saying she's ready now.  Steve says she's too late.  "They were executed?" Diana asks.  "No," Steve says, "someone else saved them."

Cut to a quick succession of shots of soldiers on Santa Prisca--an island nation in Central America--firing weapons in the air.  Superman flies fast over the beach, dodging bullets and artillery.  He slams through the wall of an old colonial fort.  Prisoners in a cell look up as Superman opens the wall and offers his hand.

Back at Washington, D.C./Mount Vernon, Steve gets back on the chopper, looking back at Wonder Woman.

Cut To: Goddess Outreach Center.

Diana brings the wife back to the women's center; Steve Trevor is with them.  She's greeted by Etta and the children.  The kids encourage Diana to play with them and she indulges.

From the hallway or foyer, Steve watches Diana play in the garden with the kids.  Etta Candy comes up beside him.

Etta: "It can't be easy being in love with her, can it?"
Steve: "I'm not her boyfriend.  She's a foreign ambassador and I'm her advisor to the United States."
Etta: "Yeah, I said it can't be easy being in love with her, can it?"

Steve watches for another moment… and we flash back to his first encounter with Diana.

Steve is lost on Themyscira after just surviving a plane crash.  He makes his way through the jungle and comes upon a glade by a waterfall.

Diana is naked, washing herself in the cool water.  Steve stares for a while.  Eventually, she notices him and reacts, but doesn't cover herself up.  Having never seen a man before, she has no concept of modesty or shame about her body.  Also, physically speaking, she has no reason to.

Suddenly, Steve is surrounded by Amazons with swords and spears at his neck and genitals.  Diana approaches him, scrutinizing everything about him.  She stands before him, and reaches out to touch him.

Cut back to the outreach center.  Steve shakes his head.

Diana steps away from the kids and meets Steve in the hall.  She is no longer dressed as Wonder Woman, but wears a simpler gown.  Their conversation is heated, emotional.

Diana: "You confirmed that the hostages are safe?"
Steve: "Yeah. Diana, the government gives you a lot of leeway to operate within its borders with the understanding that in a crisis you follow orders and do what I say."
Diana: "There's always a crisis, Steve.  Every day, around the world, and while you're trying to fix those problems, good people fall between the cracks.  What would you have had me say to that woman--wait another hour when her emancipation is more convenient?  A day?  A week?  And in the meantime, how many more bruises and broken bones must she suffer?  What about her children?"
Steve: "I'm not indifferent to that, Diana, but I had men in danger."
Diana: "I don't prioritize your soldiers over any woman in need."
Steve: "I thought you understood when I brought you here.  You came here on a mission of peace, right?  You think World Peace starts with stopping some K Street lobbyist from beating his wife?"
Diana: "Has your way made the world more peaceful, Steve?"
Steve: "I'm a colonel in the United States Air Force, Diana.  I don't set my own priorities.  I follow orders."
Diana: "And I follow my heart."

Steve leaves, a little heartbroken.  Being around Wonder Woman tends to give you an epic case of blue balls in the heart, soul, and, um, the other.  And Diana knows this.  She knows how Steve feels but she does not reciprocate in this case.  

Diana suppresses a tear, then goes back into the garden to play with the kids.

To Be Continued…

(This entire sequence came with a slight bit of hesitation.  I wanted to establish Wonder Woman's daily life and status quo without the benefit of a movie or contemporary origin story to reference.  So I had to imagine a Wonder Woman origin film to use only as background material.  Thankfully, my best friend Frank put forth some ideas on his Wonder Woman fan-blog that closely reflect my tastes.

The most difficult thing to decide was who is Diana when she's not being Wonder Woman.  Throughout her history in the comics, she hasn't always had an alter-ego, and when she has, it was often embarrassingly sexist.  I wanted to keep her ties to the U.S. military, but I didn't want her being an office clerk, nor a full-time super soldier.  I liked how Diana served as an ambassador and advocate during Greg Rucka's run.  I wanted to embrace her feminist origins in as modern a way as I felt comfortable with.  This led to my idea that Diana would function as Wonder Woman when the military needed a superhero, but the rest of the time she would run a healthcare or treatment center for battered women and children, and exact her own brand of justice on men who hurt or mistreated women.

Sounded simple enough until I had to choose which was more important to her.  In this first scene, the scene that is supposed to tell us who Wonder Woman is and what's important to her, I chose to have her  ignore American hostages in favor of taking down a wife-beater.  In the grand scale of things, it didn't seem very heroic, and I still fear that it would turn the audience against her right away.  But it was important to show two things about Diana: she is not from here, and she is not a soldier.  Diana comes from a culture pretty alien to modern Western civilization; our values are not her own.  She has different beliefs and different priorities, chief among them is the empowerment of women and the punishment of men who abuse them.  She is also fiercely independent and doesn't acquiesce to the whims of Steve Trevor and his government.  She serves the United States of America at her pleasure, no one else's.  Hopefully, the audience could grasp this internal struggle in Diana, especially as it influences her decisions throughout the rest of the movie.)

What's In The Box?

Delivered today…

…the remaining issues of Action Comics Weekly featuring Black Canary's backup strips.  My goal is to start reviewing these every Wednesday.  Can't wait!

Got them relatively cheap from MyComicShop.com!

Black Canary to Debut on Tonight's ARROW

I was under the impression that Black Canary would not appear until the end of Arrow's second season, but I guess I had her confused with The Flash.

According to an article on Bleeding Cool, Black Canary will appear in tonight's season 2 premier episode.  The article also discusses the possibility that a version of The Birds of Prey could appear on the show, but a lot of that depends on the availability of the woman who played Huntress in season 1.

This is the right show, yeah?

BIRDS OF PREY #12 (New 52)

Previously…

Poison Ivy betrayed the Birds, infecting Black Canary, Batgirl, Katana, and Starling with a toxin that will release plague viruses if they don't help her environmental crusade.  Couldn't you just die?

Like the first eleven issues of this wretched series, Birds of Prey #12: "Heartbreak and Vine" was written by Duane Swierczynski.  Cliff Richards comes aboard this issue for art duties, with colors again provided by Gabe Eltaeb, and a cover by Stanley Lau.

Sadly, most of us knew this team/book was finished long before Starling poisoned a murderous corporate fat cat because Poison Ivy made her.  I've had misgivings since the first ish.

Despite not having any apparent leverage, the Birds managed to convince Poison Ivy to not kill anyone in her quest to rid the world of polluters.  Ivy has the CEO poisoned, just like her "teammates" claiming he'll die horribly if he doesn't change the awful drilling practices of his company.

"We're not friends," Dinah thinks, in what might be the understatement of the first year of the New 52.  It's true, friends don't try to kill each other.  At the height of the original Birds of Prey, the ladies were really, truly friends.  They cared loved each other.  They spent time with each other.  Dinah, Babs, and Helena didn't just look out for each other during field ops, they took care of each other's personal lives, too.  Do the new Birds even have personal lives to protect?

Thank you, Mister Swierczynski, for once more reminding us that this series is nothing more than a handful of mediocre action sequences strung together by the thinnest of cliched plots.  And then this happens:

To recap: If the Birds don't do what Poison Ivy says, they'll die in six months, releasing a cataclysmic airborne virus on the planet.  If they die before then, the same result will occur.  So Black Canary starts to fight Ivy while they're in a Gulfstream jet!

Dinah, Batgirl and Katana all attack Poison Ivy because she violates their "no killing" policy, even though, as Ivy points out, Katana has a sword that she routinely uses to kill people, and Black Canary confessed to murdering her husband.  Starling, who is piloting the jet, spins it around upside down a couple times to break up the fighting, and then tells them to get ready for their next target.  Said target is an offshore oil drilling platform.

The Birds parachute out of the jet, while Starling ensures that it crashes into the platform.

Okay, I gotta call bullshit on this right away.

1. They crashed their plane?  How are they planning to escape?  They mention that the explosion is meant to scare away the crew so presumably the lifeboats and escape craft will be taken by the time the ladies conclude their mission.  So what's their exit strategy?
2. Why did they parachute so far from the rig?  It might take them an hour to swim towards their target while emergency response vehicles--as well as news helicopters--will fall on the drilling platform like something in an analogy.  What if not all of them are strong swimmers?  Any of them could drown and release their plague virus?
3. Starling crashed the plane into the drilling platform?  The platform that drills for oil?  First of all, causing a major explosion on a big rig like that would endanger every life on the facility.  In fact, it would be miraculous if every crew member wasn't blown to hell, so the Birds' ban on killing is a sham.

Whoever came up with this strategy is a goddamn moron, and I'm not talking about Poison Ivy or one of the other characters.  I'm referring to the so-called talent who thought up this sequence.  Whoever it was did absolutely zero research into this kind of attack.  And the reason I know he/she did absolutely zero research is that any research, any at all--the bare minimum--would have show how impossible this strategy would be.

While sabotaging the drill, they find unexpected survivors trapped onboard, probably because the fiery debris of a jet airplane just dropped onto their break room.  Starling refuses to go ahead with their plans while innocent lives are at risk.  Poison Ivy knocks her out and blows up the rig.

Somehow, everyone gets out alive.  Ivy even carries Starling outside.  I guess she wanted her alive instead of releasing the virus that would make the world exactly the way she would like it.

After that, they return to Gotham so Poison Ivy can recuperate in a weird chemical bath being operated by someone who looks vaguely doctor-ish.  The "doctor" doesn't give a name, because who cares what his name is and Swierczynski couldn't think of anything.

I don't know if the image of Batgirl tugging on her glove like she's about to perform a rectal exam on someone is the creepiest panel of this series or the best, but it's one or both of those.  Then she flashes her gang sign which is the cue that they're not going to take being used by Ivy any longer.

Wait.  Batgirl is… going for help?  What is she six years old?  She's a superhero!  She wears the bat symbol.  She is the help people seek!  I get that she's presumably running to Batman so he can work on a cure for the toxin in their system, but this could have been handled in a less spastic, juvenile manner.

The others fight Poison Ivy again.  Starling gets her wrists possibly broken or hurt.  Doesn't matter.  Katana slices up Poison Ivy's back severely enough to take her out of the fight and maybe even kill her.

Black Canary questions Katana's methods, which once again calls everything about this team and its nature into question.

The Characters

Black Canary acknowledges that she was a fool to ever trust Poison Ivy.  Admitting it is the first step, I guess…

It sure seems like this is the last time we'll see Poison Ivy in this series.

Impressions/Questions

This issue begins and ends with Black Canary addressing questions that point out the faults in this series.  "This is not why I formed this team," Dinah says at the end.  Probably true, but the fact is, we don't know why she formed the team.  We still don't know the team's agenda or their purpose.

Maybe those questions will be answered in issue #0 that comes next, but I doubt it.

Grade: F

Next week I'll start pulling double duty on my coverage of Black Canary in the New 52.  I'll continue to recap this series every New Fifty-Tuesday, but before that, come by over the weekend when I review Team 7 #0.

Fan-Casting DC's JUSTICE LEAGUE: Part 20

Click here to review Part 19.

So far:

A joint project by Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp to create robotic construction drones was weaponized and released on Metropolis by the Martian shape changer, Bel Juz.  Though Superman and Batman kept the casualties to a minimum, the public blames both companies, including Batman's alter-ego Bruce Wayne for the disaster.  Also, Lucius Fox was infected by the alien Starro, but Superman managed to remove the starfish-looking creature from Fox.

Act 1

After the prologue which introduces us to some of our new heroes, we return to familiar faces from the first movie.  The media is blasting Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp for their culpability in the death and destruction at Metropolis.  Different news outlets cover the fallout of this event and its worldwide effects--plummeting stocks, federal investigations, protests outside corporate offices.

Batman/Bruce Wayne (Richard Armitage)

(I've already covered my reason for casting Richard Armitage as Batman waaay back in the first part of this epic.)

Bruce Wayne rides in the back of his limousine watching the news unfold, flipping through channels, most of which are blasting him.  He hovers for a second on the roundtable discussion show, You're All Wrong, hosted by Jack Ryder.

The Creeper/Jack Ryder (Colin Morgan)

I chose Merlin star Colin Morgan because I think he has the wild gangliness of the Creeper, even though he won't ever play that role in this movie.  For The Brave and the Bold, Morgan really just needs to play a douche bag TV show host.

Bruce changes the channel to local Gotham City news.  Vicki Vale is one of many reporters doing a standup outside the luxury apartment of Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox.  We segue from the back of Bruce's limo to the street where Vicki reports that Lucius Fox has been released from the hospital after sustaining a "mysterious injury in Metropolis just prior to the rogue drone attack".

Vicki Vale (Sarah Chalke)

For the purpose of this movie, I went with the on-camera reporter Vicki Vale from the video game, Batman: Arkham City.  For this tiny cameo, the role doesn't require much more than a pleasing face, but if expanded to further appearances, Sarah Chalke is an actress I've always liked.

Vale observes Bruce Wayne's limousine arrive.  Police usher the car past reporters and down into an underground garage so Bruce doesn't have to face them or take questions.

Cut to: Upstairs, in the penthouse apartment of Lucius Fox.

Lucius recovers in his own bed.  His wife, along with Bruce's butler, Alfred Pennyworth take a tray of food and medication out of the room, leaving Lucius alone with Bruce.

Alfred Pennyworth (Ian McElhinney)

Lucius Fox (Ernie Hudson)

(I've similarly already discussed the casting of McElhinney and Hudson here and here.)

Lucius says his wife won't let him watch TV or read the news.  He asks Bruce how bad their stock got hit.  Bruce tries to deflect, but Lucius knows it's bad.  Bruce asks him about the effect of being possessed by the alien.

Lucius: "It felt like my body was hijacked, like I was shoved in the backseat while it drove.  It wasn't just my body, though, it got in my mind… every thought, every memory… It knows you're Batman."
Bruce: "I know."
Lucius: "The cave, the company, your whole life is compromised."
Bruce: "That's why I need to find Mercy Graves, or whatever she really is.  When she was in your mind, were you able to…look back?"
Lucius: "I saw…"

Rapid fire shots of Mars, different aliens, and a giant humanoid in shadow.

"There's something… bigger than her," Lucius says, "something worse."

Images of countless little starros flying through space, they begin to descend on a world that is dominated by one giant Starro wrapping its tentacles around the planet.

"All those creatures," Lucius continues, gazing out at nothing, "they're one… one massive and horrible mind… Starro!"

Cut to Bruce standing on the veranda outside the penthouse, playing with a smartphone/tablet.  It's day but fairly overcast--never sunny in Gotham City.

There's a sudden gust of wind behind Bruce.  Without looking up from his phone, he asks, "How do you like Gotham?"  Clark Kent, standing behind him on what had just been an otherwise empty veranda, tells him it's nice.  Bruce almost rolls his eyes.  "I'll bet my salary against yours that you're the first person in a hundred years to describe it that way," he says.

Superman/Clark Kent (Jon Hamm)

(Once again, go back to the first post in this series for my reasons why Jon Hamm should play Superman.)

Bruce shows Clark something on his phone.  It's a very high-tech mapping software that shows a line from the sea to an island/coast in Southeast Asia.  Udon Khai, he identifies the place, and goes on to describe how one of the escape pods was picked up by a ship, and after Superman retrieved the pod, the ship made an unscheduled detour to Udon Khai, where the crew abandoned the ship and disappeared into the city.  The crew was brainwashed by this "starro" thing.  Bruce also explains how Udon Khai's government is a joke, completely bought out by cartels that traffic in women and child slavery.

"I'm going to Udon Khai to pick up the trail," Bruce says.

Clark points out the sizable drop in his company's stock.  "Without Lucius, who else can run Wayne Enterprises? Clark asks.  "You need to be here right now.  People depend on you."  They argue.

Bruce: "Who am I speaking to at the moment?"
Clark: "What?"
Bruce: "Am I talking to the Man from Krypton or am I talking to the reporter who's under deadline to file a story about me?"
Clark: "A reporter whose newspaper you bought four days ago--hang on…"

Clark looks off at the city.  Close up shot on his ear, and we hear, faintly, the ringing of an old-fashioned alarm.  "Jewelry store robbery," Clark says.  Bruce tells him to go ahead.

Clark jumps off the veranda.  Bruce just stands there, unaffected.

In a different part of Gotham, a man runs out of a jewelry store with a bag of loot.  As he's running, he is clotheslined by Superman.  The Man of Steel walks into the jewelry store where two more robbers are shocked to see him.  Superman quips, "Unless you're planning to marry every single lady in Gotham, I'd put the diamonds back, fellas."

Clark Kent pops back onto the veranda, back in his mild mannered reporter look.  He's cinching his necktie.  "Mercy got what she wanted," he tells Bruce.  "Your company is discredited.  If you want to beat her, you need to fix your good name."

"I'm going to beat her by beating her," Bruce says.  "At first she wanted me under control, but when she couldn't do that, she decided to ruin my reputation.  Because she knows I can stop her.  So she wants my attention elsewhere.  That's not going to happen."

Clark is going to respond, but he hears something else in the distance.  He bolts. 

On a street corner, two rival gangs are shooting each other with semiautomatic guns.  Superman lands in between them.  A teenage banger comes out of hiding and unloads on Superman.  Superman melts the bullets with heat vision so they boil and liquify even as they're coming out of the barrel.  Then the gun overheats and the kid drops it.

Back on the veranda, Clark says, "Listen… no, hang on."  Then he's off again.

In a city park, Superman has already taken out several goons dressed like Alice in Wonderland characters.  The Mad Hatter curses at him.  Superman claps his hands and the shockwave knocks Mad Hatter down, blowing his hat off.  Superman picks it up, pulls out the mind control band, and crushes it while Hatter whimpers on the ground like a child.

Mad Hatter/Jervis Tetch (Michael Sheen)

Michael Sheen made the short list for a lot of villains in my DC fan-casting.  Perhaps unfortunately for him, most of them were unattractive oddballs, like Scarecrow, Toyman, Mr. Mxyzptlyk, even the Joker.  Eventually, I settled on him playing the Mad Hatter in this briefest of cameos.

Back on the roof, Clark looks somewhat disheveled--shirt unbuttoned, tie loose.

Bruce: "Still think it's a nice city?"
Clark: "I'm not used to teenagers shooting at me with machine guns."
Bruce: "They're not afraid of you."
Clark: "I hear screams every minute, gun shots on the hour.  How do you fight crime here when it feels like everyone wants to kill everyone else?"

Bruce stares at Clark, wondering if the irony of his question has dawned on him.  "I prioritize," he says very measuredly.  "I can't move faster than a speeding bullet, so I have to pick my battles very carefully."

Translation: Wayne Enterprises will endure. I'm going to Asia.

To Be Continued…