Canary Comics for March 2014

DC released their solicitations for March 2014.  Black Canary's name only pops up in two items, so if she's guest starring in any of the Forever Evil tie-ins or the latest issue of Injustice Year 2, it's not significant enough to make the solicits.

BIRDS OF PREY #29.

Written by Christy Marx

Art by Robson Rocha and Jonathan Glapion.

Cover by Jorge Molina

On sale March 19.

32 pages. $2.99 US.

Black Canary confronts Ra's al Ghul, who makes her an offer that could save her husband! Is she willing to pay the ultimate price?

Damnit, I just want to wipe my hands of this series and be done, but the story is improving, albeit at glacial pace.  And now Christy Marx is bringing Ra's al Ghul into the mix?  This has me intrigued because of how Dinah is connected to Ra's al Ghul's League of Assassins in Arrow, and how she almost married him way back in the Chuck Dixon era of Birds of Prey.  Grrr!!! I think I may have to stick with BoP after all to see where this story leads.

Also, is Robson Rocha taking over art duties full time or just for this issue?  He helped Romano Molenaar on issues #22 and #24, so he's not coming out of nowhere.

Of course, the biggest and bestest news to come out of the March solicits is for a book that's not even coming out until May...

BLACK CANARY AND ZATANNA: BLOODSPELL HC

Written by Paul Dini

Art and cover by Joe Quinones

On sale May 21

144 pages. $22.99 US.

Two of the DC Universe's brightest stars join forces in this original graphic novel!  A year ago, Black Canary infiltrated a gang of female criminals set to pull a dangerous heist at a Las Vegas casino.  Its leader was skilled in hand-to-hand combat and more than a passing interest in black magic.  Rather than be captured by Canary or the law, she went to her death, vowing to get revenge on Canary!  Now, one year later, death stalks those gang members, and Canary must turn to her friend Zatanna to help investigate.  This title also includes a special sketchbook section.

You could've knocked me over.  I had heard this was out there for a couple months.  I had seen sample pages, even the pre-order page on Amazon.com.  But somehow I didn't believe.  Couldn't believe it.  It seemed too good to be true.  An original Black Canary graphic novel: Holy crap!

And she's not partnered with Green Arrow or Batgirl or anyone else you'd expect.  It's her Fishnet Sister, the Mistress of Magic, Zatanna.  Plus, that creative team!  I first noticed Joe Quinones during Wednesday Comics where he drew the Green Lantern tale.  Great stuff, there.  And Paul Dini, who knows both of these ladies pretty well from his involvement with the DC Animated Universe, fills me with hope that this story will approach the characters from a place of love instead of cynicism.

BIRDS OF PREY #24 (New 52)

Previously...

Black Canary and Condor were captured by Condor's former teammates--Hydra, I mean Basilisk terrorists!  Regulus, the leader of Basilisk, has mysterious plans for Canary.

Birds of Prey #24: "Together Again" is written by Christy Marx, with art breakdowns by Scott McDaniel, pencils by Romano Molenaar and Robson Rocha, inks by Jonathan Glapion and Oclair Albert, and colors by Chris Sotomayor.  Jorge Molina provided the cover art depicting Dinah's agonizing moment of discovery that her husband is alive.

We pick up with Batgirl and Strix scrambling to the roof of the Birds' hideout only to watch their comrades whisked away in an air transport.  They have no idea where Basilisk is taking Black Canary and Condor, which doesn't matter because even if they did they have no means to follow them.

Luckily, there's a storytelling thing called deus ex machina that Marx utilizes effectively albeit overtly right here.

A mysterious stranger in a suit and shades shows up on the roof at that exact moment and offers his help.  Basically, he tells Batgirl, "I know where your friends are going...but I can't tell you how. And I'll help you get them back...but I can't tell you why."  Batgirl is justifiably suspicious, but desperate enough that she trusts this guy who she vaguely remembers as a former Gotham detective that worked for her father once.

Yes, this mysterious "benefactor".  That's a convenient enough cover that never needs to be explored if this plot hole is ignored.  Okay, I'm going to assume that the benefactor is Amanda Waller.  Why?  Well, last issue we saw that Regulus has Kurt Lance's body preserved in a stasis pod, but way back in issue #0, we saw that Amanda Waller was in possession of Lance's stasis pod.  That means, at some point in the last year Basilisk acquired Lance, and I'm betting that Waller wants him back.

We return to Basilisk's fortress in the Andes Mountains, where Dinah comes face to face with the husband she thought she killed five years ago.

Then, after a pretty lackluster kick, Dinah discovers the truth about Regulus!

That's right, Regulus is Dean Higgins...sort of.  Dean Higgins, the member of Team 7 that nobody cared about and that the writer(s) as often forgot about.  The teammate so useless and devoid of character, that he didn't even get a death scene in the final issue.  They just stopped drawing him on the pages!

Well, Marx decides to pounce on that continuity gaffe, by explaining that when Dinah used her sonic scream to level Kaizen Gamorra's palace, Higgins, the Kaizen, and some creepy psychic children all fused into one being: Regulus.

Okay, whatever.  It's strange, it's not clean, but it works and it creates a powerful villain with a genuine tie to Black Canary's history and a personal beef against her and her former teammates.  I'll take the consolation prize over nothing.

Meanwhile, Condor wakes up in another part of the compound.  Like Dinah, he cannot access his telekinetic powers.  Tsiklon leads him around the place where he meets up with Hammerdown and Whipcrack and discovers that Regulus has been kidnapping civilians for some reason.  I guess Condor is like a prisoner but they're not worried about him fighting back or trying to escape.  It's like they've brought him back into the fold on a probationary basis.

Batgirl and Strix parachute down to Fortress Basilisk with a crew of paramilitary soldiers waiting to back them up at the base of the mountain whenever Batgirl calls for help.  The ladies take out the fort's surveillance equipment and then go to work on the guards when they discover the captives Regulus had been collecting.

Back in the, um, stasis room, Regulus tells Dinah that he has learned to control Kurt's brain functions, which means he can control Kurt's powers to augment or dampen superpowers.  That's why Dinah and Condor can't access their abilities.

Regulus' plan revealed.  He can shut down all of the superpowers in the world, making everyone a base-line human like he is was.  But he can also activate them again at his whim, which gives him a lot of power to blackmail or auction his control of the superpowers.

Elsewhere, Condor is mouthing off to his former teammates when he sees Batgirl and Strix.  He leads the Basilisk crew right to his new friends.

Is this another betrayal?  Or is Condor going to help Batgirl and Strix fight the others and save Canary...which, I guess, would be another betrayal...?

The Characters

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by Black Canary in this issue.  Upon seeing her husband relatively alive in a stasis pod, she didn't freak out and start crying.  She didn't try to get him out either, but I'll ignore that for now.  Instead, she was active and tried to fight Regulus.  At this point, it's pretty one-sided, but at least she's taking the fight directly and trying to stop him.

Condor clearly hasn't defected back to Basilisk.  He's playing them so he can help Dinah and Batgirl, though I don't know why Tsiklon gives him the chance to betray them.  I guess everyone in this universe trusts obvious enemies or total strangers with hidden agendas.

Impressions/Questions

I was happy that Dinah's crew were finally getting their own distinct villains, and this issue further solidifies Regulus as a worthy nemesis.  He's not the most nuanced or interesting antagonist (let's be real, he's as cookie-cutter as any '90s hero or villain), but at least he has a layered backstory that is intimately tied to characters like Black Canary and Amanda Waller.  I wouldn't miss him if he was killed, but I kind of hope he survives this encounter to plague the Birds of Prey in the future.

Since the end of the so-called crossover with Talon, this series has picked up a lot of steam (for a series as bad as it was), and Christy Marx is starting to win me over that the book could be salvaged and taken into new and interesting directions.

Of course, next issue is another shameless tie-in to a Batman event.  Oy...

Grade: B+

BIRDS OF PREY #23 (New 52)

Previously...

Not long after taking refuge in Condor's workshop, the Birds are attacked by a group of super criminal terrorists from Basilisk.  Piling one betrayal on another, the attackers reveal that Condor was once a member of their group.

Birds of Prey #23: "Dreams That Never Were" is written by Christy Marx, with art breakdowns by Scott McDaniel, pencils by Romano Molenaar, inks by Jonathan Glapion, and colors by Chris Sotomayor.  Ricken provides yet another misleading cover, depicting a battle we don't find within the pages of this issue.

Before going on, I must say this issue is, by a wide margin, the most pink comic I've ever read.

We pick up with the Basilisk team standing over the unconscious Birds.  The young woman named Uplink is using her telepathic powers to keep Black Canary's team incapacitated, but there seems to be even more than that.  While subdued, each one of the Birds begins to dream of their deepest desires, much like the effect of the Black Mercy plants that Mongul is famous for utilizing.  This effect requires a lot of pink energy.  Seriously.

The team leader, Tsiklon, who is described as sounding Russian, which makes sense given the spelling of her name, prevents the brutish Hammerdown and Whipcrack from killing Batgirl and Strix.  Then she lingers over her ex-lover, Condor, and wonders what he's dreaming of.

(It ain't you, lady!)

Yeah, Condor's deepest desires are cooking for Dinah, massaging her feet, and taking her to bed.

Is she dreaming of him?

Ohh... sucks for Condor; she's dreaming about the time she used her power to destroy Gamorra's palace and maybe possibly buried her husband, Kurt Lance, under the rubble.

What a remarkable comeback!  Dream-Kurt absolves her of the needless guilt over his death, allowing Dinah to redirect her lust on the Condor.  Who still lied to her about being a terrorist, but whatever.

Batgirl dreams of dinner with her family.

In this fantasy, she hasn't killed her brother because he's not a psychopath, and her father, Commissioner Gordon, seems healthy and happy for his kids.

Around this time, the transport arrives to pick up Black Canary and Condor.  Regulus tells Tsiklon that Canary is the real target, which is weird, because I thought the point was to retrieve his wayward enforcer.  What ever could the head of Basilisk want with Black Canary (other than revenge for her integral role in the destruction of the nation of Gamorra and everyone living there)?

Strix dreams of her childhood.

I guess Strix doesn't have happy dreams or memories, because even in this state she cannot escape the trauma that created her.  It's enough to break Uplink's control, resulting in a psychic feedback that knocks Uplink out.

Black Canary and Condor have been loaded onto the transport in capsules to keep them unconscious.  Batgirl and Strix recover and fight Whipcrack and Hammerdown.

Strix's sword does little against Hammerdown, who batters her into a wall.

Their primary objective completed, Tsiklon gets her soldiers out of there and the transport takes off, carrying Dinah and Condor to Basilisk's South American base.  Batgirl and Strix can only stand and watch helplessly, wondering what manner of convenient storytelling will help them find their friends next issue.

The issue ends with Dinah crawling out of her capsule, realizing she cannot use her sonic scream.  But the only thing--the only person--who could dampen her power was her husband.  Dinah wakes to find Kurt's body in a stasis pod, and the evil Regulus looming over them both.

The Characters

The dream sequences are a nice, convenient way to show each of the Birds' personal motivations and desires.  Condor, in spite of his criminal past, seems to genuinely love Dinah and wants to spend his life with her.

Dinah still feels the guilt over Kurt's death, but is it abating so she can move on to Condor?  Also, why does she always talk about how Kurt Lance could control her power.  According to Team 7, she only got her power in their disastrous final mission, and Kurt only boosted her power; he never dampened it.  And he only affected her power twice--once to horrible, horrible effect!

Batgirl wishes her family could be safe and happy.  Heh.  Not in Gotham.

Strix can't sing even in her dreams.  That's rough.

Impressions/Questions

After last issue really impressed me, this one takes a step back.  A lot of that has to do with how little is actually in this issue.  There are nine pages of dreams/flashbacks.  Nine out of twenty; damn near half the issue is pink!  Now, some so-so characterization emerges from these dreams, so it's not all bad, but it felt like so much filler.

What I do appreciate about this story is that, despite continuity errors and gaps in logic, it really seems like Christy Marx is trying to tackle the mystery of Dinah's husband and get it over with.  Thank God, man, it's been two years!

Grade: B-

BIRDS OF PREY #21 (New 52) & TALON #9 (a little)

Previously...

The ladies went to a Court of Owls laboratory to rescue their friend Starling from the cold clutches of Mister Freeze, only to discover that Starling had been in league with Freeze all along.  Words were said, punches were thrown, and it was all very messy.  Mister Freeze escaped, and probably Starling did, too.  Batgirl took Strix to the rooftop where they were confronted by another Talon.

Birds of Prey #21: "Talon vs. Talon" was written by Christy Marx with art by Romano Molenaar and Jonathan Glapion.  Molenaar also draws the cover with Vicente Cifuentes inking.  This issue was hyped by DC in the solicitations as the first part of a crossover with Talon #9.

The issue opens with Calvin Rose, a rogue Talon who has turned against the Court of Owls just like Strix has, attacking Batgirl so he can kill Strix.  I haven't been reading Talon other than the zero issue, because the premise didn't appeal to me (like Strix doesn't appeal to me), so I don't know why he is working for the Court again, but it's kind of explained later.

Anyway, Rose attacks Batgirl, but she senses that he's not bringing his full force to the conflict; it's clear that he's targeting Strix and doesn't want to seriously injure Batgirl.

Rose manages to separate Batgirl by tossing her down the stairs and jamming the roof door shut.  He offers to make Strix's death as merciful as he can.

She responds by tackling him off a roof, because it's been like, three issues since someone fell off a roof in this comic.

Meanwhile, downstairs in the Owls' laboratory, Condor makes himself useful by boosting their computer hard drives to gather valuable intel.  Black Canary is less useful as she continues to fume over Starling's betrayal last issue.

Condor reveals a little more about his mysterious past, rehashing the lines he dropped back in Japan when he told them he used to be part of a team and things didn't work out well.  He tells Dinah he knows how it feels to be betrayed by someone he trusted.

Before they can start making out, Batgirl tells them they have a Talon trying to kill their Talon and they should meet up on the roof.

Meanwhile, on the street down below, Strix and Rose both survived the fall on account of their regenerative abilities.

When Strix sneaks back into the building, Rose understands that she wasn't trying to kill him; she was protecting her friends in the same way that Rose is trying to protect two people I've never heard of.

Dinah, Batgirl and Condor get to the roof to find neither Talon around.  Condor does some aerial reconnaissance to confirm they haven't taken the fight to another building.  Batgirl knows they're still in the building so they split up.  She goes back downstairs to find her friend, giving her alone time to think about the mess of her life currently playing out in the issues of Batgirl.

As soon as Dinah and Condor are alone again, they stop caring about Strix or anything other than their raging hormones.

Oh god... Seriously?  You're surprised that he knows your name, Dinah!  You've been working together for three months.  Why wouldn't he know your name?  Why would you keep it from him?  What kind of trust does that build?  What kind of leader are you?  This is why everyone you recruit betrays you!!!

You didn't know his name?!!!  Why are you recruiting teammates you don't know?!!!  The problem isn't everyone you trust lies to you--the problem is you're stupid and you put your trust in villains!!!

The only reason they don't get pregnant in this scene is the interrupting sound of the fight taking place upstairs where Strix is about to be executed.

Calvin Rose chooses not to kill Strix, even at the risk of his own life and the two hostages the Court has taken from him.  Strix shows some sympathy for him, given that she knows a thing or two about being used as a soulless killing machine by the Court of Owls.  She comes up with a plan to help him and the two Talons rush off together.

And the last page says "To Be Concluded in Talon #9" which I will discuss after my thoughts on this chapter.

The Characters

We learn more about Condor in this issue.  His first name is Ben, for one thing, and he knows a lot about Dinah--her name for one thing--including the connection her husband, Kurt Lance, had to her powers.  He suggests that he can be a focus/control the same way that Kurt was.  Is this just a line so he can see her naked, or is there really something about Condor that can help her focus her Canary Cry?

Impressions/Questions

I give Christy Marx credit in this issue for not only delivering an action-oriented script that also moves Dinah and Condor closer together, but also doing her homework about other series.  This issue features two different narrators, Batgirl and Calvin Rose, and each feels relatively authentic and natural.  Clearly, Marx read enough of Gail Simone's Batgirl and James Tynion IV's Talon to get a feel for these characters and present this tale from their differing perspectives.  That's more than I can say for Tynion's script for Talon #9, which I'll come back to.

Most of this issue is about Calvin Rose, which is unfortunate because I don't care about him and I found his part of the comic and the fights with Strix to be a little boring.  I hate that Dinah's incompetence as a leader is reinforced yet again, but at least she's getting some action and some use of out of her lips that don't involve shattering walls.

My biggest complaint with this issue is that DC continues to lock this book into the Batman community of comics without utilizing Batman himself to boost its popularity.  Batgirl, Poison Ivy, Penguin, Mister Freeze, the Court of Owls, Talon... lots of second or third tier Batman characters, but never a substantive connection to Batman or a chance to branch out and form its own identity.

We're almost two years into this series and I still don't know why the Birds of Prey formed or what they're supposed to do.

Grade: C+

But wait, there's more!

Talon #9: "Uneasy" is written by James Tynion IV, with art by Graham Nolan and Miguel Sepulveda, the latter of which provided the cover.  This issue was billed as the second part of the crossover with Birds of Prey.

...

That's a big fucking lie!  The Birds do not "guest-star" in this comic.

Black Canary appears on the cover only.  Batgirl appears in a recap panel on page 1.  That's all the first page is, a recap of BoP #21.  Strix appears in the next three pages and that's it.  She doesn't say a word (because she doesn't say a word) and she doesn't do anything (because she doesn't need to).  She's less than a background characters; she's set-dressing.  The rest of the story is just another chapter in Calvin Rose's normal adventures.

I feel like Christy Marx at least took the time to figure out who Rose is and what his situation was in the current series because she mentions it and even writes from his POV.  Tynion, on the other hand, clearly doesn't give a fuck about the Birds, and if he bothered to put any research into their series, he certainly didn't transfer it into his script.

This issue was a cheap and blatant example of false advertising.  I paid $2.99 for this comic based on the claim that the Birds of Prey guest-starred in it.  They didn't.  DC lied to me and stole my money.

TEAM 7 #8 (Final Issue)

Previously...

The last issue either jumped months of time in the series without explanation... or it jumped the logic train.  (I would say it "jumped the shark", but c'mon, that was in issue #1!)  Team 7 has assaulted the palace of Kaizen Gamorra, who is in possession of the dreaded Pandora's Box.  The team's resident Superman, Majestic, creates a massive tidal wave that is sweeping away the entire island.

Team 7 #8: "Mission 2.4: The Doom That Came to Kaizen" is the final issue of this unwanted, ill-conceived and worse-executed comic book series.  Like the previous issue, Tony Bedard wrote the script over Justin Jordan's plot.  Jesus Merino does the pencil and ink art all himself.  Gary Frank and Cam Smith slum for one more month to provide this issue's cover.

Team 7's founder and leader, John Lynch, narrates this issue in another one of his after action reports. This will be...confusing later on.

The wave of death crashes over the island, destroying the city and killing millions of people while Amanda Waller stares out the window in shock.

The Kaizen's palace is destabilized but not flooded.  Lynch orders Steve Trevor to get the chopper so they can exfiltrate before the building collapses on them.  Even though Trevor stayed on the drop ship when the rest of the team entered the palace last issue, he is here with them now.  I would try and explain this continuity gaffe, but I give slightly less a crap about this comic than the creators did.

Anyway, Lynch tells Slade Wilson and Cole Cash to get Trevor to the chopper while the rest of the team hangs back to fight the super-powered Kaizen.  Lynch then says, "Take Higgins with you."  Dean Higgins then appears in the next panel running beside the others.  That's all for Higgins in this issue.  He's presumed to have died but we never see him again and nobody mentions him.

When the Kaizen threatens to use the power of Pandora's Box, Kurt Lance encourages his wife, Dinah Drake-Lance to use her newfound sonic scream against Kaizen Gamorra.  Kurt apparently has the power to boost or amplify Dinah's powers.  If you were reading Birds of Prey, you kind of knew that already, but this is its first mention in Team 7.

Trevor, Slade, and Cash find a Gamorran helicopter to steal.  Then Majestic comes out of the water and starts attacking the Kaizen.  Majestic accuses Kaizen of killing his family, but I thought the Spartan cyborg did that before turning James Bronson into Majestic.  Wait, did Gamorra create the Spartan cyborg?  That sounds kind of familiar... But wait, Lynch says "we created Majestic".  Who is he talking about?  What the hell is happening?

Majestic picks up Pandora's Box, feeling the lure of its power.  Dinah has a dumb blonde moment where she actually needs Amanda Waller to explain why Majestic using Pandora's Box is a bad thing.  Then Kurt talks to Majestic while "leaching" some of his power.  So Kurt doesn't just affect Dinah, but he can boost or siphon anyone's powers?

Dinah - representing the "boob window" in Power Girl's absence.

Okay.  Dinah joins hands with Lynch, who has telekinetic powers, and Waller, who has... I don't know what powers she has, if any, and then Kurt, who boosts all of their powers.  The result is Dinah's Canary Cry turns into a white that swallows up the palace, the Kaizen, Majestic, and Kurt (maybe).  Dinah, Waller and Lynch are left wandering through the rubble, Dinah looking for her husband, Lynch looking for Pandora's Box.

Lynch grabs Pandora's Box, which immediately begins to corrupt him.  Amanda Waller beats him down and throws the box to Dinah, telling her to get on board the chopper with Slade, Cash, and Trevor.  Lynch starts to pull the chopper down with his telekinetic powers, so Amanda Waller shoots him in the head.

That ends Lynch's after action report.  Because he can't continue reporting if he's dead.

But wait!  First of all, it's an after action report.  He would need to have survived and gotten off the island in order to debrief the situation.  Second of all, he does survive somehow.  We know he's alive in the current time period, so this execution isn't shocking or dramatic, it's just confusing and unnecessary.  Why did his report end so abruptly?  Why was he narrating at all?

Anyway, the last page is narrated by Steve Trevor, who says Team 7 was shut down.  Based on the title of this issue, they were only on their second mission.  Some of the dialogue corroborates that number, but most of Lynch's narration over issues #7 and #8 contradicts it.  Trevor's report says that Waller is believed dead, even though we see her there at the end.

Why did they fly away and leave her there?  She was obviously still alive?  Why didn't they come back for her?  Why didn't Dinah try to find her husband some more?

The Characters

• Dinah Drake-Lance gets a lot of focus on her powers this issue.  She uses her Canary Cry once to knock down Kaizen Gamorra, and again the put down Majestic, with the unexpected effect of leveling an entire building.  Her powers are affected not only by her husband, but by all of the members of Team 7.

• Slade Wilson gets shot but otherwise doesn't do anything noteworthy.

• Amanda Waller might have a power but it's not clearly established or confirmed.  She has become a much more hard-edged character throughout this series, willing to kill to her boss to save the world.

• Cole Cash doesn't do anything noteworthy.

• Dean Higgins is believed dead but that's never shown.  Why did this character exist?

• Kurt Lance has the power to amplify the powers of others, but it works particularly well with his wife Dinah, because of their love and trust.  He disappears for some reason, believed dead.

• John Lynch uses his telekinetic powers a little.  He gets corrupted by Pandora's Box and then Waller shoots him in the head.  Sadly, that didn't kill him.

• James Bronson/Majestic, after murdering an entire nation, fights Gamorra and takes Pandora's Box.  Note: he has already destroyed an entire nation and killed all those people, the vast majority of them being innocent civilians, but the team is worried about what will happen when he gets possessed by the evil of Pandora's Box.  He disappears.

Impressions/Questions

Lynch is shot in the head by Waller at the end of this issue.  But back in issue #5, we saw that Lynch was very much alive in the present day DC Universe.  Slade went to kill him, but Lynch used his powers to defend himself.  Lynch was searching for Majestic in the ruins of Gamorra at the bottom of the ocean.  And we saw Majestic's hand coming out of the cracked ocean floor.

None of this is every addressed in this issue, and it left unresolved.

Kurt Lance disappeared when Dinah used her scream to create a white hole.  Then Amanda Waller was left stranded on a piece of rubble in the middle of the ocean.  But we know that Amanda Waller makes it back to the states, becomes a very powerful player in the military, and creates both the Suicide Squad and Justice League of America.  In Birds of Prey #0, we saw that as of four years after the end of Team 7, Waller has Kurt Lance preserved in stasis, so at some point she found his body.  Dinah probably could have found it, too, if she hadn't runaway so easily.

And back to Dinah and Birds of Prey.  The first two years of that series were bogged down by this underdeveloped mystery that Dinah killed her husband.  The awful, awful, dreadful writer who shall not be named created the impression that Dinah used her powers to kill her husband, that it was face-to-face and personal.  She was wracked with guilt and emotionally lost.  Here, Kurt's disappearance is almost incidental, and unexplained; she ought to be more curious and desperate than guilty.

Also, at the beginning of Birds of Prey, Black Canary is wanted for murder--the implication being that she's wanted for the murder of her husband, but that's a little vague because the writer did such a shitty job.  But here, Kurt's "death" is an accidental casualty of war.  That only one other living soul witnessed!  So if Dinah was wanted for murdering Kurt, the charge had to come from someone very high up in the military, someone who would have known better and not wanted to expose any information about Team 7.

I'm assuming Tony Bedard never read an issue of Team 7 or Birds of Prey before he wrote issue #7 and this one.  He may not have even read issue #7 before he wrote this one.  The questions and contradictions raised by the stupid and aborted series are too numerous and unfulfilling to spend any more time on.  I hate this.

Grade: F

BIRDS OF PREY #19 (New 52)

Previously...

Mister Freeze attacked the Birds in order to capture the silent assassin Strix so he can crack the secret of the Court of Owls' regenerative process.  The Birds defended their new teammate, but Mister Freeze captured Starling and escaped.  He demands a trade--one bird for another.

Birds of Prey #19: "A Cold Day in Hell" is written by Christy Marx with art by Romano Molenaar and inks by Vicente Cifuentes and Julio Ferreira.  Ardian Syaf provided the foldout cover in the same fashion as all of DC's "WTF" comics from April, 2013.  In this case, like many of the covers from that month, the foldout spoils the big cliffhanger moment of the issue, making reading the twenty pages in between kind of pointless.

Mister Freeze has given Black Canary's crew one hour to hand over Strix in exchange for Starling.  The tradeoff is to be at the Court of Owls lab where Strix was revived.  Condor acts overly defensive, insisting that he's not a traitor when neither Dinah nor Batgirl accused him of anything.  However, this is as good a segue as any to reveal what the ladies know about Condor for his benefit as well as that of the readers.

Condor might be Native American?  So, I guess this is the New 52 Black Condor... Okay, I'm cool with that, but I still don't like his costume any better.

Also, this characterization is clearly for the readers who never learned a damn useful thing about Condor back when "the other guy" was writing this comic, because all of this intelligence should have been shared by Dinah and Batgirl back when Condor first joined the team weeks ago.

While the ladies provide a Who's Who entry for Condor, Strix runs away in fear of returning to the mad scientist lab that spawned her.  Condor and Batgirl track her down, while Dinah "puts some gear together" and reflects on the first time she met her late former missing husband, Kurt Lance.

Two things.  First, she says she first met Kurt after she and Amanda Waller joined Team 7.  Well, that don't square with Team 7 #0, in which she and Kurt were already a couple when Lynch recruited them for the team, and Dinah and Kurt recruited Waller together.

Second, if she hated her codename "Canary" she probably didn't come up with it herself.  That means she was assigned that codename.  Um... Canary's are known for being sacrificial animals that go into dangerous situations to die.  I would have some concerns if that was my assigned codename.

Elsewhere, Batgirl finds Strix on a rooftop crying like the tortured little girl that she is.  Strix is afraid of going back to the lab.  Batgirl plays big sister and assures her that she will be protected.  And Stryx is all like, okay, let's go, but in a totally silent way!

Condor carries Black Canary, who can't help but enjoy the feel of being in a man's arms.

To their surprise, they don't find Mister Freeze waiting for them in the lab, just a couple of cosplayers from San Diego ComicCon wearing Owls masks.  The lab is still being used for the Court's crazy experiments.

Yeah, Dinah, thank God it's not your friend, just some random dead girl.

Batgirl realizes they weren't meeting Mister Freeze here, they were leading him.  That's when he attacks.  He freezes Strix and Condor with his cold gun, but when Dinah gets the edge in their fight...

...she is ambushed by...

Yep.  Starling is a traitor working with Mister Freeze.  Total shocker, right?  Unless, of course, you looked at the cover.

The Characters

We get more characterization for Black Canary, but once again it's a little forced, a little cliched, and not that compelling.  She "met" her husband by fighting in a training session.  Okay, been done, but not awful.  They had a competitive relationship, I guess, but we've never seen anything like that because despite his eight or nine appearances in Team 7, we still never really knew anything about Kurt Lance or cared about him.

Strix shows some emotional depth, some fear, some courage, some rage.  That's about it.

We know more about Condor.  He's probably the best character in the book by default just because he doesn't act like a fool, just sort of a cavalier macho cowboy type of superhero.

Starling's betrayal is surprising only in that she claims to be working with Mister Freeze.  But we already knew she was a traitor...except she was working with Amanda Waller.  I'm glad her duplicity has been exposed because I don't like her and I want her to leave the book, so...whatever.

Impressions/Questions

So far, the two Marx-written issues have been vastly superior to those written by "the other guy".  I get the sense that Marx really wants to flesh out Dinah and the others and make them deep, interesting characters.  That's great, but it shines a harsh light on how horribly mishandled the comic has been since the start.  That's not all on the previous writer; a lot of that is on the editor(s).

The threats seem forced or lacking or boring, and the characters still feel off.  Mostly, this book has yet to find its identity.  Why does this comic exist?  Why are these people a team?  What are they fighting for?  Why are they together?  Why should I care about them?  Because I don't!

Grade: B for boring.

TEAM 7 #7

Previously...

Team 7 went to the Advanced Prosthetic Research Center where Doctor Henshaw's pet project, Spartan turned everyone into robo-zombies.  Two members of the team were killed.  Henshaw was turned into a robo-zombie, as was his intern, Caitlin Fairchild, who also appeared to die, but will years later appear in Superboy, so I don't know what's up with that.  Also, team member James Bronson was transformed by Spartan into a superman-level metahuman called Majestic.

Team 7 #7: "Mission 2.2: Majestic" was plotted by series writer Justin Jordan, but scripted this time by Tony Bedard.  The first eight pages were drawn by Jesus Merino with the rest of the issue done by Pascal Alixe.  Ken Lashley drew the cover which sports a foldout in the style of all of DC's so-called WTF covers from the month of April 2013.  Here's what's stupid about the cover: the text on the front page reads "Pandora Against..." with the foldout page revealing "...The Rage of Majestic".  Aside from how misleading this tag is, they've completely screwed up the surprise element.  Any reader following the series ought to know that Majestic would be in this issue because that was the cliffhanger from last month.  The bigger shock is the fact that Pandora, whom we have never seen or heard anything about in this book, appears in this issue and is fighting Majestic.  See, whoever thought up this design for their WTF teaser... was stupid.

Let's proceed to find out what else is stupid about this comic.  C'mon, it'll be fun!

The issue opens up five years ago with Majestic invading the island nation of Gamorra, which we've been told is a bad place.  We've never really seen any evidence of that, but we keep being told that it's bad and that the leader of Gamorra is bad.  And they have Pandora's Box.  That's bad, I know, from Trinity War.  If you open Pandora's Box a bunch of dumb ideas come out that make me stop reading DC.

Way back in issue #0, we were told that James Bronson didn't have the meta-gene, but something else that made him special.  Well, whatever he had, the Spartan project activated it and turned him into a superhero.  And now he's a Superman-level military asset, flying around and blowing stuff up for Team 7.

According to John Lynch's narration, it's still five years before the current era in the comics, but obviously some time has passed, because Majestic has scared the crap out of America's enemies on a number of occasions.  Wait, though... According to the issue's title, this is still Team 7's second mission!  That doesn't make sense; their mission to the APRC shouldn't have even been the second mission, but speaking of that: what happened there?  What happened to Henshaw?  What happened to Caitlin Fairchild?  How did the team exfiltrate and stop all of the mindless robo-zombies that were killing their teammates?

Why does every book I review leave me pounding my head in frustration trying to figure out what's going on?

Anyway.

Team 7 follows Majestic to Gamorra because, whatever, they're invading an entire island.  Since the team's pilot died last issue, Lynch recruited Steve Trevor to fly them in their ridiculous looking ship.

While Gamorra's dictatorial ruler, Kaizen Gamorra, powers-up for battle with Majestic by siphoning off the powers or life-forces of some teenagers, Trevor pilots the team to the back of the royal palace or wherever.

First, Lynch says this was "the last time Team 7 operated as a unit", but again, according to the chapter title, this is only their second mission!

Second, Gamorra's army is called Basilisk, or made up of Basilisk soldiers, or Basilisk supplements Gamorra's army, or...something.  I remember that Basilisk is a terrorist organization like Cobra and Hydra, except with a different serpent name that wasn't already taken, but I don't remember if I knew that from this series or from Birds of Prey.  Nothing about either of these books leaves a lasting impression.

Third, Dinah is identified by her maiden surname "Drake", but last issue Cole Cash made an offhand remark that suggested she had already married Kurt Lance.  We know that she does take his name eventually, so is this an oversight on Lynch's part, or did Dinah not take his name yet, or are they not married yet, or did Tony Bedard not read/care about what happened in the last issue?  I kind of think all four possibilities are the right answer.

I've grown out of my adolescent craving for blood and gore in entertainment, but I confess to getting really excited when members of the team started getting shot.  I'm still crossing my fingers that everyone will die in the next two issues, even though I know that can't happen.

Of course, seeing her boyfriend/husband/man-toy wounded activates Dinah's super-human ability, her sonic scream, and in the next page we get an explanation that doesn't explain it.

So, according to Lynch, Dinah was born with the meta-gene, and the genetic technicians activated it during her medical checkups between missions.  But then, what was the trigger?  It seemed to come out of her because of stress or panic or some strong emotional reaction.  Why would the geneticists "switching her on" make something so random and uncontrollable the catalyst for something so deadly?  Also, why didn't Lynch tell her about it?  Why would he go into the field with a soldier who was capable of doing damage that hadn't been field tested or studied yet?  What a horrible goddamn operation he's running!  Lynch is a moron, and I hope he dies, even though I know he doesn't.

So then the team finds a group of precognitive children who show everyone a vision of the future that includes Majestic fighting Pandora, Slade Wilson looking like Deathstroke, Dinah looking like Black Canary, and Cole looking like, well, he always looks like Grifter, but yeah.  Lynch makes it sound pretty bad but I don't really get it from the art.

This is what will happen if Kaizen Gamorra opens up Pandora's Box.  Majestic don't like that none too much.

He flies up into space and then comes back down rocketing at super speed, crashing into the ocean next to Gamorra, creating a huge tidal wave that threatens to wipe out the entire island and everyone there, including Team 7.

The last page says, "To Be Concluded".  Somehow I doubt many of my issues will be resolved.

The Characters

• Dinah Drake (or Lance?) has activated her superpower.  She was born with the meta-gene, so there wasn't some special thing that gave her the "Canary Cry", unless you count unseen, unknown scientists performing unseen, unknown procedures to activate the power... even though it seems like it was turned on because of her emotional state.

• Slade Wilson doesn't do anything noteworthy.

• Amanda Waller doesn't do anything noteworthy.

• Cole Cash gets shot but otherwise doesn't do anything noteworthy.

• Dean Higgins gets shot but otherwise doesn't do anything noteworthy.

• Kurt Lance gets shot but otherwise doesn't do anything noteworthy.

• John Lynch narrates the story and takes part in his first field operation that we've seen.  Still doesn't feel very noteworthy.

• James Bronson/Majestic flies around destroying stuff that we never really see or care about until the end when he creates a deadly tsunami.  For a character this powerful, who was just activated in last issue's cliffhanger in such a traumatic fashion, I would be curious to know more about how he thinks and feels, but we never get any insight into his state.  He doesn't even speak in this issue.  He certainly doesn't display any "rage" as the cover text would suggest.

Impressions/Questions

The first thing I noticed was that Tony Bedard wrote this issue over Justin Jordan's plot.  I haven't been very enthusiastic about Jordan's writing up to this point, so I was hoping for a stronger finish from Bedard.  Unfortunately, I had a whole new group of problems.  Clearly, this story had to rush to the finish because of its pending cancelation, but it does feel like we just skipped over two or three issues to get to this point.  It also feels like Bedard was brought in tell a particular story that the editors wanted told that hadn't been adequately set up by the previous seven issues.  There are a lot of splash pages and a lot of time spent with Kaizen Gamorra and the pre-cogs and Majestic and Steve Trevor, all characters that we've never spent any time with before, and the result is that we don't get much from the actual Team 7.  Is that because Bedard didn't feel comfortable with the characters, or he didn't care?

Issue #5 was framed by a meeting between present day Lynch and Slade.  We still haven't gone back to that situation.

This is the issue where Dinah finally experiences her sonic scream for the first time... but of course that doesn't make the big game-changing foldout cover image.

This book is dead and it knows it.

Grade: D