Posts Tagged ‘ Black Canary ’

You know when a band reforms after a few years ‘pursuing solo projects’, then it turns out that maybe they split up because they had nothing new to offer and we might have been better off with them not getting back together?

That’s kind of how I feel about Gail Simone’s return to Birds of Prey. It’s not bad, exactly, but there doesn’t feel like there’s anything new here. Oracle reassembles Huntress, Black Canary and Lady Blackhawk when she starts receiving blackmail material on all of them and adds Dove and the newly-resurrected Hawk to the team too. While they’re protecting the Penguin the group run afoul of a new antagonist, White Canary, with ties to one team member’s past. Meanwhile Oracle must deal with the return of two of Simone’s earlier creations, Creote and Savant.

Oh, and Lady Shiva shows up too.

There’s a lot going on in the six issues collected here – too much. Hawk and Dove’s presence feels like an edict from above given their exposure in Blackest Night and Brightest Day, but their presence doesn’t really add anything in this arc and they don’t get much to do – well, aside for Dove providing the Penguin somebody else to lust over (and don’t get me started on his dream sequence).

Simone also falls back on the old narrative box trick, with each issue largely narrated by one character – usually Black Canary – but it doesn’t quite work. It’s not bad on the scale of James Robinson’s Justice League of America narration, but it’s distracting and interrupts the flow of the story somewhat.

The book also suffers from choppy pacing as the action switches between wherever the on-the-ground team is and wherever Oracle happens to be. Once the team splits up and we get three separate story threads, it feels even more disjointed. Plot-wise there’s a little bit of a disconnect too; while we get a good feel for the White Canary (even if I can’t really remember the events that lead to her grudge), throwing the Penguin into the mix is superfluous at best. While Savant’s motivation in the plot is clear, the fact that he is instrumental in exposing Black Canary’s civilian ID and life is pretty much ignored once the details are out in the open – although I suppose that may be followed up on later in the run.

And then there’s, Black Canary. Traditionally one of DC’s strongest characters (outside of some really bad decisions when it comes to Green Arrow), Dinah is presented here as someone almost in awe of the newly introduced White Canary’s Machiavellian ways. Yes, her identity is exposed, and yes, her once-almost-adopted-daughter Sin is imperiled, but it feels like Dinah just caves to the White Canary’s demands without even thinking about other options. It doesn’t feel like her.

You may notice I mentioned this being Simone’s return to the book, and not artist Ed Benes. That’s because he manages to turn in only one complete issue here, sharing the art duties on three more with Adriana Melo before moving on completely. Melo then shares the art with Alvin Lee for the final two issues of the volume. While the three have similar enough art styles for this not to be too jarring, the inconsistencies are still apparent and it’s frustrating for the reader.

Just in case it feels I’ve been overly harsh here, let me add that I do enjoy Huntress and Lady Blackhawk. Huntress especially has a few good scenes in the final issue of the book, while Zinda continues to be a joy in every scene.

I don’t know; maybe I just enjoyed Simone’s original run on the book so much that I expected to love this wholeheartedly, especially given her recent excellent work on the much stronger Secret Six – but this just felt like a ‘miss’ to me. I’ll pick up the next trade just to see how her run finishes – and I’m still looking forward to her new controversial Batgirl book – but I honestly don’t think I can recommend this to anyone but diehard fans of BoP.

Probably shouldn’t have called this series of posts ‘recommended reading’, eh?

DC’s had a lot of bright and shiny announcements coming out the past few days. They kicked off with the Brightest Day bi-weekly series, but have followed that up with what amounts to the return of the JLI in the also bi-weekly Generation Lost, and now they’ve announced the return of Birds of Prey under Gail Simone and Ed Benes, the team who gave the original run of the book a kick in the ass a few years back.

They’ve also said that the new Flash book (sadly without the originally promised Johns/Kolins Wally West back-up) and the Justice League of America will carry ‘Brightest Day’ banners, presumably so everybody realizes that the books are relevant and central to the DCU and have to be bought, dammit!

It’s not all shiny though – DC has also confirmed that Deathstroke will be running a team of villains taking over the Titans book (although didn’t Final Crisis establish the new Tattooed Man as a reluctant hero? I’m confused!). As the tag line for the special that kicks off this run is ‘Villains for Hire’, I do wonder how this impinges on the Secret Six book – and whether Gail Simone is returning to Birds of Prey partly because she’ll have a hole in her schedule pretty soon…

Not only that but don’t forget that amongst all the bright and shiny, and even with Black Canary seemingly relocating to Gotham, you get her erstwhile husband apparently descending into villainy – and poor old Roy Harper running around with one arm (well, at least till he remembers that Cyborg can hook him up).

Man, you’d think Roy would get that bandaged up before he goes running around, wouldn’t you?

So it’s not all bright and shiny in the DCU next year – but it does seem like there’s going to be enough to go around…

I’m doing one of those things that I do.

You know, the ones where I put together random pieces of information and postulate on what they mean.

And, more often than not, I’m completely, utterly wrong. In this case, I certainly hope I’m wrong.

Anyway, Dan Didio has been saying for a while now that Green Arrow is a character to watch in 2010. I think he said the same about Blue Beetle in 2005, so take that as you will.

Then in one of his weekly Q&A’s, Didio was asked:

What is the next villain we should keep our eyes on to get an upgrade in the manner which we have been of late with Brainiac and Starro?

DiDio: Let me think. Good question. I mean, Prometheus is front and center because of Justice League: Cry for Justice right now. But that’s a more immediate story, not something that’s playing out in the foreseeable future. Because Brainiac comes back in a big way.

You know, I really can’t answer that question because the person who might be deemed the next villain isn’t actually a villain just yet.

Nrama: So there’s somebody who’s not a villain now that will be an important villain – when?

DiDio: By the end of next year.

A month later, he was asked about the status of some characters in 2010:

Can you give one sentence hints as to what 2010 holds for the following characters?:

DiDio: Wow, and multi-part answer. OK.

-Green Arrow?

DiDio: On the run.

- Black Canary?

DiDio: Reunited with old friends.

Okay…meanwhile the unintentionally amusing Justice League: Cry for Justice has long been said to end with something earth-shattering – and that’s certainly what the new solicit suggests -

JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE #7

This is the big one! After the catastrophes seen in issues #5 and #6, a hero loses control, leading to an unexpected ending that will fundamentally change the lives of the World’s Greatest Heroes forever. This issue launches a major storyline in the DC Universe and is not to be missed!

That certainly looks like Green Arrow on the blacked out cover, doesn’t it? And ‘loses control’, eh?

Meanwhile, over in the regular JLA book that month…

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #42

In the aftermath of the horrific events of JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE, a member is comforted by his friends and fellow Justice Leaguers over his tragic loss.

I’m probably reading too much into this, but still…

- A blacked out Green Arrow who appears to be trailing blood and a hero losing control;

- A JLA’er coping with his tragic loss;

- Black Canary reuniting with ‘old friends’. What, like some dead JLI’ers?

- Green Arrow being a character to watch in 2010, and being on the run in 2010.

- A hero turning into a villain in 2010. Maybe a hero who’s grieving and ‘loses control’?

I mean, I may be adding 2 plus 2 and getting 17. I probably am.

Because there’s no way that DC would kill off Black Canary and spend a while turning Green Arrow into a villain, right?

Right?

You have to love (a) The Sun and (b) the Christian Voice: