4 issue Test #9 - Black Canary

Black Canary is a title I picked up because it looked like a fun read, I have little if any affection for the character of Black Canary. outside of her being a Justice League member and her being Laurel on Arrow (oh boy…). Not that I dislike the character and I can't deny her bad-assness, she just didn't grab my attention, especially as I'm fairly recent into comics, while before I only purchased the odd trade. But with the DCYou launching, let’s take a look at Black Canary and see what we’ve got with this one

This cover is somewhat confusing, where the heck is that wire going? Why is Black Canary posing like that? Does she have white hair in this boook? And where is the freaking background!

We open with a newspaper article claiming that a band has come out of Gotham City named the ‘Black Canary’ and wherever they go, trouble seems to follow. The article also shows their title singer ‘D.D.’ (Likely meaning this Black Canary is Dinah Drake, the original Black Canary) kicking a guy’s ass.

The band play another concert in pink lights and we see their manager, Heathcliff (wow, they seem to be using that name a lot, don’t they) argue with the venue manager over the money owed because of the damages done when some thugs attacked DD. The thugs were initially harassing some girls and Dinah couldn’t continue performing in good conscience. When Heathcliff reminds the manager that because of Dinah he evaded a potential lawsuit, he hands Heathcliff the money.

On the tour-bus Dinah is talking to Byron, one of the other artists in the band. He’s worried that all the fighting is giving them a bad name. We also get introductions to the other two members of the band. Paloma who’s doing something involving tools in the corner and Ditto: who’s lying in bed watching a very non-coloured TV wearing a cat suit. Byron pushes Dinah to come clean about her past and why there’s so much violence around her.

At another concert the pundits are wondering what DD, her stage name stands for, when a reporter asks her about the rumours she was once married, Dinah is spooked, Byron fortunately stands in and takes it from there. Dinah opens up to Byron explaining that she’s made enemies in her hard time growing up. She met a sensei and he was like family to her and taught her some moves, just not how to move on stage. Byron hands her a tablet showing her a video of how “Juniper Vega” handles herself to see if she can match it.

Outside their next venue 3 people are watching from a nearby rooftop. If their target is there they will put their plan in motion tonight. Dinah does a sound check with Paloma being a little rude as Ditto shows off his/her guitar skills. Dinah heads back stage where Heathcliff informs her that they’re out of shirts again. Heathcliff asks if Dinah really wants this, Dinah responds that she signed a contract to gain enough money to rebuild her life.

During the 5^th song of the performance the 3 agent guys we saw earlier transform into Black creatures and attack. Dinah uses her microphone as a weapon and somehow merges the creatures together. With no other option, she apologises to her band before using her sonic scream to crush the creatures under some rubble. Dinah asks what they want and they say that they’re coming for her but not Dinah, they are in fact after Ditto. They manage to escape, leaving the manager to tell Heathcliff he’s unlikely to get paid.

After that attack, Dinah warns the others that more might come and urges them to leave and leave the protection of Ditto to her. They refuse (well, Byron does anyway) and Dinah says that they’ll have to start training tomorrow morning. As the tour bus drives off we see the creatures attached to it.

The cover is better but if suffers from the same problems I have with the artwork in general, I'll get to that later

Issue 2 opens with Dinah demonstrating to the others how to shoot. Paloma is initially reluctant to try it but Heathcliff turns her round, saying it can’t be more painful that the hand-to-hand training Black Canary is putting them through. Dinah sits with Ditto and tries opens a little more to him/her before Heathcliff calls her away, he thinks someone is watching them. There is a vehicle cloaked nearby but Dinah might be able to see it.

She returns to tell everyone to leave to see that Paloma’s firing had scored perfect chest-shots. We see Dinah dying her hair to disguise herself whilst they bump into someone inside the bus. It’s Maeve, a former member of the band who was kicked out before Dinah singed on. They talk until Dinah shows up, causing Maeve to leave.

When Dinah enquires further about her, Paloma shouts back, demanding answers from her, and feeling annoyed that Dinah got more or less handed the band. Dinah says she just wants to fulfil the contract and they’re over.

We cut to a music store where Dinah laments she doesn’t know the first thing about instruments. Ditto makes music by slowly vibrating some of the guitars, encouraging Dinah to use a muted version of her sonic scream to do that with multiple stringed instruments at once. A guy cloaked closes in but Dinah can see him. Before she can use her sonic scream she is hit by a vocal inhibitor. This doesn’t stop her from kicking the guy’s ass. She unmasks him to find that the guy was Kurt, her husband.

What the f*cking hell is going on in the background of this comic? 

Issue 3 opens with Dinah performing in Keystone city. We shift back to the bus being attacked by Kurt’s men. Dinah’s taken down several of them already and the others don’t have much of a shot either. One of the men makes it onto the bus and attacks the driver but Byron manages to knock them out. Paloma (her full name is Pomeline, is there any name they’re not stealing from Gotham Academy?) says that her husband was dead and now he isn’t but if he makes it inside he’ll be dead again.

Paloma beings taking out some of the bikes with a gun, to Dinah’s approval as she steals another thug’s bike, she accelerates to the van which Kurt is driving. At the back of the van they find the creatures from the first issue are attacking again, Paloma tries to shoot it. Dinah confronts Kurt who reveals that he’s trying to save the team’s life. Ditto (who is a girl, it’s official) is not of Earth and several stealth agents are here to bring her back. They both head on the bike back to the bus as Paloma runs out of bullets to shoot at the creature.

Dinah and Kurt drop in and Dinah uses her sonic scream to dispatch the creature. They arrive just in time to perform. After the concert Bryon wants to talk, he says the government wants her back to use her, like they used both of them. Dinah’s scream came from Ditto (eww). Kurt volunteered from the job to help Dinah and warn her. Dinah says that after his coma he was a blank slate and doesn’t remember what they had together. Kurt says he knows her well enough and realises Ditto means a lot to her. As Dinah wants to know everything Byron calls her alerting her to Ditto being gone.

We cut to a highway where we find out Ditto’s kidnapper was none other than Maeve. She’d stolen a car because she deserves it.

The ideas are there with these covers, it's the artwork itself that's the problem, why is everything coloured purple or blue?

Issue 4 opens with Maeve obnoxiously narrating her back story, we got the gist of it last issue, so I’ll skip over it Dinah interrogates some people, including Kurt but they don’t know where Ditto is being taken and despite the obvious beating Dinah handed to them (or maybe because of it) they promise to do what they can. Heathcliff calls Dinah over and sees an article of clothing belonging to Paloma by Ditto’s gear. Dinah wants everything they know about Maeve

Maeve has stopped at a gas station and bought Ditto some ice cream as she makes a call on a payphone. We get another obnoxious flashback about Maeve, this time about her learning some moves and joining the band. We cut to a motel room where Maeve shares some moves with Ditto.  Dinah has tracked down the gas station where Maeve made a call, she thanks a friend, ‘Frankie’ for her assistance. She asks the owner if he’d seen anyone like them but he hadn’t. He would need credentials to show her the security footage

A woman is pulling a thief out of her car and calls out for help. Dinah easily takes down the thug and insists he pays for the woman’s fuel. Maeve gets a call at the Motel and she and Ditto head out, following another obnoxious flashback they arrive where Amanda Waller, who agrees to fulfil her part of the bargain (to give Maeve the same vocal talents as Dinah)

A white cloaked figure wielding dual swords drops and takes out the agents, rescuing Ditto. Frankie has tracked Maeve to the motel and Dinah refuses to believe this is another dead end. As Dinah’s about to smash something in frustration Ditto just appears. They hug and prepare to head out as the woman in white watches from afar.

So that was Black Canary, what worked and what didn’t, let’s take a closer look

The story has a few problems but Brendan Fletcher is competent at story-telling and keeps the book light-hearted, well-paced and fun. There isn’t a lot of development for the band however, at the moment it’s merely hints at what might be to come, especially with Paloma’s near perfect shooting score. But they’re given enough character that I’m content with the book in that respect.

Maeve as a villain is boring. Her obnoxious flashbacks are annoying, and her whiny attitude is annoying. This is especially the problem in issue 4 where she gets a lot of focus. I’ve yet to see a legitimate reason to like her as a villain, her motivations are selfish, the flashbacks don’t portray her as anything otherwise. The black monsters and government agents are more your standard cannon fodder so little really to explain.

I love how Fletcher managed to capture Ditto. Having her be mute but able to communicate through music perfectly ties in with the theme of the book. Having her be an alien who was tested on by the government adds the necessary drama to the book. Her character is adorable and it’s hard not to get sucked in by her.

It seems quite clear to me that Dinah does not want to be in this band which makes me wonder why she was in the first place. Clearly she has singing talent but there are other ways of making money and some that are considerably lower profile given her habit of trouble following her.

It’s quite clear this book is taking advantage of being in a ‘continuity bubble’ it doesn’t draw reference to any goings on in the regular DCU and that is a good thing for the title, although it does make me question its viability in the long term. I can certainly understand if people don't like this book because this character doesn't feel like the Black Canary we're used to (how often has she ever used guns in normal continuity)

But by far the biggest issue of this book is the artwork. Guys, this doesn’t look good, at all, it looks terrible. The white border issue I’ve brought up before is in full effect here, and some of the images are so small you can’t tell what’s going on and there is a lack of any detailed backgrounds in some frames. But Annie Wu who drew #1-3 and is the regular artist of the book and Pia Guerra who did issue 3 (and did one of the few pages that didn’t have stupid borders) are not entirely to blame. The problems of this book seem to almost entirely be down to the inking by Lee Loughridge, which is a crying shame since he's done much better work on other titles. Every panel is in some sort of filter, every f*cking panel. Sometimes you can’t tell whether you’re looking at the same character because the colours of their face and hair change depending on the filter. 

I sort of understand what they're trying to accomplish but it is possible to create that kind of atmosphere without draining colour from the objects themselves. I seem to be in the minority in disliking this artwork, so it may end up being a draw to you, it really, really isn't for me.

Unfortunately, this kills the book for me. Plus #2 has another problem. It’s only 16 pages of content! 6 pages of this issue are expanded content, 2 pages form a previously on segment and the other 4 form a pull out guide. It’s LAZY!

Rating

#1: 6/10

#2 4/10

#3 6/10

#4 4.5/10

Overall: 5.125/10

Recommendation: I can’t recommend this book, it’s a crying shame. I’m gonna give Anne Wu the benefit of the doubt and see how Archie #4 (yeah, I’ll be doing a 4 issue test on Archie in December) looks, but I’m not picking up any further issues of this series and I can’t recommend it.

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Images used in this review are from Black Canary and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use