Top 10 Black Canary Moments of 2013 Part 1

It's the end of the year, which means it's time for news outlets, pundits, blogs, and well, basically anyone with an opinion and the means to express it to formulate his/her Best of the Year lists.

I didn't think I would make a Top 10 Black Canary Moments.  Despite her starring role in not one but two ongoing series for a chunk of the of the year, there was very little to celebrate about Birds of Prey and Team 7.  If you read those comics or my reviews of them, you understand why I'd find it hard to make  even a Top 3 list.

Then, like a dunce getting whacked in the head, I was reminded that Black Canary's appearances were not limited to those comics, or even just within the medium of comics.  A live-action version of the character made a welcome addition to TV's Arrow this season; a 2-D version continued to guide the young stars of the Young Justice animated series; and a non-playable version provided support in the smash hit video game Injustice: Gods Among Us.  (Note: I haven't seen Young Justice, so I couldn't include it.)

With that in mind, what was good (or great) enough to make the list?

10.  Speaking of Lists...

Black Canary was considered for two different Justice League teams in 2013.  She made neither, of course, but as the saying goes, "It's an honor just to be nominated."

After Atlantis attacked the United States in the crossover event Atlantis Attacks "Throne of Atlantis", the Justice League decided to open their ranks to new members.  Black Canary was invited up to the satellite for a little costumed mixer that ended predictably with a robot trying to destroy all humans.

From Justice League #18, art by Jesus Saiz.

Alas, Batman filled the openings with the precocious Firestorm, the treacherous Atomica, and the heretofore unknown Element-Woman.  Yeah, Black Canary, who chaired the Justice League in another universe, lost her spot to Element-Woman.  I think Batman still had a grudge against Dinah for choosing Poison Ivy for her Birds of Prey.  I mean, who wouldn't question her competence after that?

From Justice League of America #5,
art by Brett Booth.

But that wasn't the only time Black Canary could have been part of a Justice League.  When the inaugural mission of the government sponsored Justice League of America went... well, let's just say "sucky", Amanda Waller wanted to revamp the roster.

The conceit of this JLA is that each member was assigned a specific opponent in the Justice League should the need or event season arise to go to battle.  In a more perfect continuity, Black Canary's fighting ability ought to be superior to Katana's; I'm not sure that's true now.  And if the goal was to pit someone against Wonder Woman, I have to imagine Dinah's Canary Cry would be more formidable against the Amazon than Katana's, um, katana.  (Actually, I think Hawkman would have been a better foe for Wonder Woman, while Canary could have used her sonic powers to disorient Aquaman.)

Again, Dinah was passed over.  The only character Steve Trevor added to his lineup was Doctor Light... who died immediately after, so maybe it's for the best she got snubbed this time.

9. Cry for Help

In November, Black Canary made a guest appearance in Batman: The Dark Knight #25.  I wrote about this cameo when the issue came out, but the gist is that Batman recruits Canary and Condor to help him track down Clayface.

From Batman: The Dark Knight #25, art by Alex Maleev.

She accomplishes nothing in the story and could have been omitted from the script without any consequence to Batman's investigation.  Still, it was nice to see her popping up in better selling and better quality books.  And she gets a motorcycle again!

8. Victory at Last

More than two years into the New 52, Black Canary has fought and beat exactly one real super villain who previously existed in comics.  And it wasn't in Birds of Prey and it wasn't in Team 7.  It happened in the pages of Justice League, where Dinah earned her first credible takedown in a rooftop battle with Copperhead.

From Justice League #18, art by Jesus Saiz. Again.

Oh man... I just realized she didn't even beat him by herself, Cyborg helped.  Jesus!  I know there are characters who have been more blatantly--and possibly spitefully--mistreated by the New 52, but the ways in which everything positive about this once respectable character have been perverted or discarded since September 2011 is utterly depressing.

I'm going to tell you right now that nothing from the past year of Birds of Prey or Team 7 make this list.

To Be Continued...

BIRDS OF PREY #9 (New 52) - Night of the Owls

Previously…

Birds of Prey #9 ties into the "Night of the Owls" event that touched all the Batman-family of books in April-May of 2012.  Rather than summing up the Court of Owls' deadly plot myself, I'll let Alfred Pennyworth explain it in his words, which, I guess, are Scott Snyder's words, really.

"To all the allies of the Bat presently in Gotham, I will send this with the greatest urgency. Tonight, the Court of Owls has sent their assassins to kill nearly forty people across the city.  The Court's targets are all Gotham leaders.  People who shape this city.  I have uploaded a list of targets' names, here.  The Court's assassins, the "Talons," are already en route to their targets.  They are highly trained killers with extraordinary regenerative abilities.  For many of their targets, I fear it may be too late.  I will keep the line open to the cave as long as I can manage.  Good luck to you.  God help us all." (Batman #8) 

Birds of Prey #9: "Gangland Style" is written by Duane Swierczynski and welcomes a new art team onto the book: Travel Foreman on pencils, Jeff Huet on inks, Gabe Eltaeb on colors.  Jesus Saiz and June Chung provide the cover.

The issue opens in Gotham City, the year 1842, amidst what looks like a full-on gang war.  And then everyone's dead.  The street toughs are all wiped out by the Court of Owls' evil enforcer, the Talon.

Cut to present day Gotham, in medias res.  It's 8:20 PM on the Night of the Owls, which is now an official day on the city calendar, like Dia de los Muertos or something.  The Birds have already encountered one of the Talons, and they're not faring well.

I thought Katana's husband could only speak with souls of the dead killed by her sword, so wouldn't he only sense if Poison Ivy was alive or dead if Katana stabbed her?  Or can her husband commune with any dead soul?  

Anyway, Dinah uses her sonic scream on the Talon, which does jack all.  We get a glimpse into the Talon's mind and how he views his current situation.  This allows Travel Foreman to redesign the Birds in Victorian-era garb (Black Canary looks like Captain Crunch, Katana looks like a demon samurai, and Starling looks like, well, like Starling).

Waitaminute, waitaminute, waitaminute!  The Court of Owls dispatched their legion of assassins to murder "Gotham leaders… people who shape the city."  That's what Alfred said; that's what Scott Snyder wrote.  That was the mission statement given to all of the other writers in the Batman family of books.  Gail Simone, Kyle Higgins, they all followed that idea.

Duane Swierczynski…not so much.  Whereas Batgirl and Nightwing and everyone else went to protect Gotham citizens, y'know, like heroes do, the Birds are victims.  They're targets for execution.  WHY?  Why would Black Canary, Poison Ivy, and Katana be on the same list as the Mayor, city planners, religious leaders, and Commissioner Gordon?

The answer is Swierczynski doesn't know or doesn't care.  He isn't writing a "Night of the Owls" tie-in; he's writing a Friday the 13th movie for DC Comics.  Seriously, this issue is essentially an '80s horror movie, with the Talon standing in for Jason or Michael Myers or the Terminator, silently, relentlessly hunting a group of helpless young women.  Let's just acknowledge that and move on.

So Black Canary and Katana run to the same church that Dinah first fought the Cleaners in issue #1.  And just like that time, Starling drives through a door and a wall.

Seriously, how many times is she going to drive through a brick wall in a church?  Is that her super power?  Why isn't the car damaged?  Is it a super-car?  If I had a car that could drive through walls like that, I would never get out?

The Talon is not killed by Starling's Adamantium-Churchbuster-Death-Car, of course, and he gets his hand on her throat with the opportunity to kill her (pleasepleasepleaseplease).  But Batgirl swings down and saves her, because sometimes Batgirl is in this book.  Batgirl knows the trick to stopping the Talon is to freeze him, because she's been paying attention to the other comics.

The Birds lead the Talon to the train yard and throw him into a meat locker car.  Then Poison Ivy comes back.

Ivy locks herself in the freezer with the Talon, claiming that she'll be able to survive the intense cold because of botany-science.  After that, Dinah tells the others that they're going on a trip to South America so she can fulfill her promise to Poison Ivy that totally won't backfire on them or anything.

The Characters

I have complained a lot about the lack of characterization and consistency in this title.  How important concepts introduced in one issue fail to be addressed later on.  Well, this issue bucks that trend by having Dinah finally dwell on the pressure that her husband's murder has thrust on her.  And the horror that her allies may believe she was responsible for it, and maybe she was.

The problem is when Swierczsynski finally gives Dinah--and readers--a moment to acknowledge her past demons, it is completely inappropriate for the time and place!  Dinah's being hunted by a faceless, unstoppable killer, and the first chance she gets to catch her breath she starts crying to Katana about the dead husband that never seemed to bother her before.  You know who else has a dead husband?  Katana!  But slice-'em-up girl isn't crying about it; she's trying to keep them alive like Dinah should be doing!

Besides this out-of-place character moment, the issue is short on people, long on plot.  Like every issue of the series.

Thank you, Travel Foreman and the new art team, for allowing Poison Ivy to show a little skin and look a little sexy like she's supposed to for the first time in this series.  You know, before the plants shoot out of her chest again.


Impressions/Questions

One of my other regular complaints with this series has been the amount of story per issue.  Given that these comics used to be 22 pages, and now they're 20, I would think the issue would feel crowded.  That's never been the case with Birds of Prey in the New 52, though.

The first three pages of this story are a prologue showing the Talon slaughtering a whole bunch of people we don't know or care about because it was 170 years ago.  I understand the intention is to show how dangerous the Talon is by showing how easy it is for him to kill a lot of dangerous men before turning him loose on our small band of heroins.  But the precious real estate of page space is wasted.

Page 1 is three panels.  Pages 2 and 3 are a double page splash of dead bodies we don't know or care about.

That's four panels in the first three pages.  Four panels to set the tone and the threat level of this story, but that leaves only 17 pages to tell an actual story.  Those three pages could have/should have shown the Talon killing a contemporary Gothamite and butchering his whole security team before turning his sights on the Birds who arrive too late to stop him.

So how do I feel about this issue?

First, when this issue came out back in 2012, I was thoroughly enjoying Snyder and Capullo's Batman.  It was a consistently great comic and one of my three favorite series out of the New 52 launch.  While I think eleven issues was too much for the opening arc, I really, really enjoyed the Court of Owls storyline.  I read a lot of the tie-ins and I thought they were pretty good.

And as a small cog of the greater "Night of the Owls" wheel, this isn't a bad story.  There are some inconsistencies and some faults, but there's also a lot of treats if you read it as an homage to horror movies like Halloween.  As such, I feel compelled to grade this issue on two different scales: as a part of "Night of the Owls" and as a part of Birds of Prey.

Grade (NotO): B
Grade (BoP): C

BIRDS OF PREY #8 (New 52)

Previously…

It seems like the long, confusing first arc of Birds of Prey volume 3 is finally over.  Was anything accomplished by that story?  Have the characters grown or changed?  Did the finale make sense and feel deserved given the scope of what came before?  No, no, and no.

So let's move on.

Birds of Prey #8: "A Far Cry" is again written by Duane Swierczynski, with pencils by Jesus Saiz and inks/finishes by Javier Pina and colors by June Chung.  Saiz provides the cover, as well.

The issue opens three days ago* at the Cornwell Hotel where the Gotham City P.D. is investigating a brutal murder.  A mysterious man with more clout than the local cops kicks them out, taking charge of the case.  The murder victim's entire face was caved in, including his teeth, which were shattered, making facial or dental identification impossible.  Convenient.  But a fingerprint check reveals that the victim was a member of the investigator's mysterious organization.

The investigator believes that Dinah's sonic "Canary Cry" was the murder weapon.

Cut to Dinah Lance being burned…

In the Cornwell Hotel today, Black Canary, Batgirl, and Katana are fighting for their lives against a team of assassins called the Infiltrators.  The Infiltrators are led by a holographic commander whose name we never learn, because that's how Swierczynski rolls.  Dinah's narration explains that the Birds came here "on a tip" from "a man" who claimed "to have information that would interest [Dinah]."  If there is a lazier way of establishing the situation I would like to see it.

Dinah knows the hologram from her past.  The Infiltrators, however, seem new.  The first Infiltrator we meet is Napalm, who has flamethrowers attached to each wrist.  Napalm is really excited about torching Poison Ivy, and is really disappointed to discover that she's not here.

Next up is Flesh, who looks like a well-muscled sumo wrestler.  His skin is impervious to cuts and damage, so he spends the issue fighting Katana (also 'cuz they're Japanese…?).

The last Infiltrator we meet is Head (seriously), who has chemicals pumping into his brain that make it impossible to knock him unconscious.  That seems like a really, really super-specific and not-as-useful-as-you'd-think-superpower for an assassin, but whatever, his name is Head.  Head targets Batgirl, apparently, to exploit the weakness that she tends to knock out her opponents.  What a crutch she relies on!

Meanwhile, Starling has gone to an "undisclosed location" in South Dakota, which might be the base of operations for the Infiltrators, or at least close to it.  I guess South Dakota is a big state, but there's not a lot there other than Mount Rushmore.  Starling breaks into a safehouse looking for evidence that will either confirm or clear her friend Dinah of the murder charge against her.  That's when she's met by someone who looks like the investigator from the beginning.

Back in Gotham, the Birds and the Infiltrators have caused so much structural damage to the upper floors of the Cornwell Hotel that the walls are coming down and floors are collapsing.  At one point, another Infiltrator slaps a collar on Dinah, preventing her from using her Canary Cry.  This Infiltrator's name isn't mentioned (because: Swierczynski).  Dinah and Batgirl lead most of the Infiltrators down to the lower levels.  And then Katana joins them by riding Napalm down the elevator shaft.

Yeah, at first I was a little wowed that Katana was so casually killing another one of her enemies, but then I saw that the Birds brought down an entire luxury hotel!  Yeah, that entire damn building came down!  Think there's any chance that innocent lives were hurt or lost by that stunt?!!

But there's still another wall to knock down!

Next issue: Birds of Prey ties-in with the "Night of the Owls" crossover in all the Batman books.

The Characters

This version of Black Canary was married.  She was Dinah Drake, the name of the original Golden Age Canary.  Lance is her married name, but she didn't marry Larry Lance, as the original Dinah did.  She married a guy named Kurt Lance.

Also, she killed him.

Starling used to work for the Penguin.  We've been told that Starling is a spy, so maybe she was undercover at the time she was working for him.  Maybe not.

Katana kills.

Poison Ivy only appears on the cover of this issue.  She's not in the story.  This is a good thing.  Although, wasn't she dying at the end of issue #7?!!  Shouldn't that be addressed?

Impressions/Questions

This issue is a vast improvement over the last handful of installments of this series.  It still suffers from a lot of the same problems as before, though.

Swierczynski sets the table with the "anonymous tip" reference that is so cliche, so lazy, so stupid that it makes the characters seem dumb for going along with it.  As usual, the "mystery" element of these stories only works because the characters aren't smart enough to solve it.

There's also some confusion about the timing of events.  The opening is tagged as "three days ago", but Dinah killed her husband three years ago.  The impression I got was that the investigator in the opening scene was discovering Kurt Lance's body, but he says, "Dinah Lance has struck again."  This suggests she killed her husband and then three days ago killed someone else in the same way.  But his hair in the opening scene is a lot shorter than it is later on when he meets Starling in North Dakota.  So what's going on?  I'm assuming the caption on the first page is wrong: that it should have said years, not days.

The issue has some strong qualities, too.  Despite being really simplistic baddies, the Infiltrators are decent villains.  Flesh has a cool gimmick, and Head at least looks interesting.  I'm not saying these guys deserve more than one issue, but they're fun for these pages.  The action keeps the story moving at a pretty good pace.

Starling isn't annoying in this issue.  That's good.

Best of all, we're finally--finally--acknowledging the murdered elephant in the room.  Why is Dinah wanted for murder?  Did she actually kill someone?  Who and why?  I guess we'll find out next issue.

Oh, wait.  Next issue they fight the Court of Owls.  Damn.

Grade:  C-

BIRDS OF PREY #7 (New 52)

Previously…

I'm not even going to pretend like I care about what's happened in the first six issues.  This opening story arc has been horrible and simultaneously over-complicated and under-developed.  The characters act and sound like stupid imitations of people.  But at least this issue is supposed to be the climax of the story arc.

Birds of Prey #7: "Brain Damage" is written by Duane Swierczynski, with art by Jesus Saiz and colors by June Chung.  Saiz also provides a pretty good cover for the book.

New 52 Batgirl has nipples on her forearms.

This issue picks up where the last issue ended: Black Canary, Katana, and Poison Ivy are fighting a whole bunch of office workers who have been brainwashed by the mysterious mind-controller known as Choke.  Meanwhile, down in the basement, Batgirl, Starling, and Dr. Trevor Cahill are monitoring the situation.  Dinah understands that aside from being investment brokers, these people are mostly innocent.  They're not in control of their minds or bodies, so the Birds need to show restraint when subduing them.

Hmm… I wonder if the crazy, super villain Poison Ivy is going to have a problem with not killing her attackers…

So Black Canary and Poison Ivy fight, which is usually what heroes and villains do, so this is a surprise only to Dinah.  Why she ever thought Poison Ivy would make a good fit for her team is a mystery that only the writer (or more likely the editor) will ever know.

Poison Ivy gets the upper hand in their fight.  Dinah is saved, though, when Choke orders one of his zombies to target Ivy, presumably to save Dinah.

Down in the basement, Starling reveals that Cahill is Choke because she caught him using his iPad to send messages to his mindless drones.  Somebody here is mind-achingly stupid.  I don't know if it's the bad guy or the ersatz good guys or the storytellers, but somebody's stupid.

They know that Choke specializes in brainwashing and that the cue can be something as simple as a word or phrase.  Why didn't anybody prepare for that?!!

So Batgirl has to fight off Starling, which gives Cahill time to bolt.  Upstairs, Black Canary uses her sonic scream to incapacitate everyone, including her allies.  She then joins Batgirl in the hunt for Cahill.  They track him down in the alleyway where Batgirl finally uses those brains she's famous for.

Batgirl shuts him up before he can literally talk his way out of captivity.  This action is so decisive and so rational that I'm pretty sure Gail Simone wrote these panels without credit.

Dinah tells Batgirl that she had suspected Cahill was Choke for some time based on absurdly flimsy evidence, and chose to endanger many more lives in an effort to smoke him out.  Then the dumbest thing in a long history of dumb things in this series happens.

Ev is the only one Dinah trusts?  WHY?!!  Also, Batgirl has a gunshot wound in her arm.  And Dinah knows--from first hand experience--that Choke can manipulate and brainwash people!  And Choke has ALREADY gotten in Starling's head, sending her into an ambush just last issue!  Why, Dinah?  Why is it so difficult to believe she's been mind-controlled again?

(I now want to bunch this comic book in the face.)

The Birds sans Batgirl take Cahill to their hideout… in the sewer… to get answers.  Wait, what are the questions you need answered?  Cahill mentions sort of off-handedly that Dinah killed her husband, which seems to surprise Katana and Starling.

Forgetting for the moment how dumb she looks by saying she knows everything about him and then immediately asking a question about his motives, Dinah is shocked for the umpteenth time when the bad guy--who specializes in mind control--using voice commands--compromises both Poison Ivy and Starling by speaking.

Poison Ivy's own biology is attacking her and Starling starts trying to shoot her allies almost exactly like Batgirl said had happened.  Dinah has just enough time to look like a moron before--

Pictured above: Katana's application for membership in the Justice League of America.

Katana says that her husband, whose spirit inhabits her Soultaker, can now interrogate Cahill and get the answers they seek.  Dinah reprimands Katana for murdering their prisoner and for how silly her strategy sounds.

Then the next dumbest thing in a long history of dumb things in this series happens.

Starling, you've already been manipulated by Choke before!  Remember when you went to the wrong rendezvous spot!  I hate everyone and everything about this book!

So Black Canary goes to Cahill's apartment to trash his place and bust his TV.  Then Batgirl shows up, because, you know, whatever.

Wait, Cahill wasn't Choke?!!  You mean this story isn't over yet?!!


The Characters

Poison Ivy and Katana both kill people in this issue.  Starling tries to kill her teammates.  Dinah has the nerve to wonder what has become of her wonderful, non-homicidal team.

This seems like the issue where we should have discovered why Cahill/Choke did what he did, who he was, all the classic villain exposition stuff.  We get none of that.  He might have been doing it for fun, but who knows.


Impressions/Questions

WARNING: I'm gonna drop a couple F-bombs here.

I don't like using the word retarded as a pejorative.  I know people with mental disabilities and it's an ugly, often hate-filled word, and everyone deserves better than that.  But all I could think of when I read this issue was the characters are all fucking retarded.  Is there a better word I can use?  I can call them fucktards, right?  That's not offensive to anyone other than the desired target, is it?


Grade: F (for "fucktard")

BIRDS OF PREY #6 (New 52)

Previously…

This series is an absolute mess!  I've hated the last three issues, especially the last one, which ended with Starling, a character I don't like, being set up, ambushed, and leaping off a bridge into the river and being shot!

But she seems okay on the cover of Birds of Prey #6: "Clean Getaway".

Jesus Saiz provides the best cover of the series so far.  It has a bit of action, a sense of place and background, and most of all: context.  It actually tells you a little bit of what the issue is about.  Sadly, though, Black Canary is not on this cover.  For the first time, Saiz does not provide interior pencils for the issue.  Last month's inker, Javier Pina, gets full art duties here.  I'm not sure if this is a compliment to Pina or a slight against Saiz, but it took me a couple pages to notice the difference.

Issue #6 opens up with a very different feel from the last couple issues.  We meet Brendan Bowman, a statistical analyst for an investment group or insurance company in Gotham City.  He's having a good day at work, and when he goes to get a coffee, there's a gorgeous blonde checking him out.  Before Bowman tries to pick her up, however, he realizes that his phone has been lifted by a brunette with bandages on her wrist and leg.  (So, Starling didn't die. Pshtt…)

Bowman follows the Starling outside to an alley, where he's ambushed by the blonde from the bar--Black Canary, of course.

Bowman pushes them away and rushes back to his office.  Dinah tells Katana to get ready.  This part is unclear whether Dinah wanted the target to escape her or not.  I don't think she did; I think they just did a horrible job of capturing the guy.

Anyway, Bowman gets back to his cubicle and decides to post his experience on something called The Hive before he calls the police.  Is this writer Duane Swierczynski's commentary on social media addiction, or is The Hive something more insidious?  We'll have to wait to find out, because we abruptly jump ahead forty minutes to Bowman being restrained by Katana.

I posted the three pages above because I want to point out that it takes three characters to subdue Brendan Bowman over the course of three pages.  Katana is a world-class martial artist who would eventually be selected by the U.S. government to take down $@#%ing Wonder Woman!  And she can't stick a syringe in an accountant's neck!  And we've seen Poison Ivy enthrall a Cleaner before, so what takes her so long this time that Batgirl shows up to finish the job?  The only reason Batgirl gets it done is because Bowman thinks she's there to rescue him.

So, yeah, three damn pages just to render this guy unconscious after he's captured.  Swierczynski and Pina spend the first eight out of twenty pages capturing this guy and he's barely capable of defending himself!  Yes, he is a sleeper agent for Choke and he can be "activated", becoming somewhat of a deadly stealth-suited warrior.  But that doesn't happen.  The first forty percent of the issue is a bunch of awesome female "superheroes" stalking and beating up an accountant.

Bowman wakes up in whatever compound the Birds are holed up in, and he's not alone.  The ladies, with help from Dr. Trevor Cahill, have neutralized half a dozen Cleaners, "deprogramming" them so they're no longer under Choke's influence.

This is the best explanation for who the Cleaners are and how they operate that we've gotten so far.  It's clean, simple, and relatively efficient as far as exposition goes, but we should have gotten this page back in issue #2 or #3.  This isn't revealing information for a mystery; this is clarifying poor storytelling.

After Bowman agrees to help the Birds take down Choke, we're finally shown the fallout of last issue's cliffhanger.  Starling survived her fall, bandaged herself up, realized her memory was altered by Choke, and rejoined her friends.

WHAT?!!  Okay, I accept the comic book physics of her survival, but as she was leaping into the river to save herself, she thought that Dinah had set her up.  Where did that fear go?  Why didn't we get a chance to see her confront the other Birds and have her altered memory fixed by Cahill?  When and how was her memory modified by Choke?  And why was she the only one led into a trap?  Who are the mercenaries trying to kill her?

The only thing I like about this is Black Canary making fun of Starling's "Uncle Earl" wisdom, because seriously, it's really annoying.

So, after fourteen pages, seventy percent of the issue, the Birds finally take the fight to Choke by sending Brendan Bowman back to work at his office.  Starling, Batgirl and Dr. Trevor Cahill are the security team, controlling the elevators.  Before long, all of Bowman's coworkers begin reciting nursery rhymes, revealing an entire office full of Cleaner sleepers.  One woman is about to execute Bowman when Dinah springs into action!

Katana and Poison Ivy join Black Canary in fighting the brainwashed investment brokers.  Choke, speaking through the Cleaners, asks Dinah how much she trusts her team.  She responds:

The Characters

We don't learn anything new about the characters from this issue, other than Starling's Uncle Earl maybe tried to kill her.  (Who wouldn't?)

Once again, the script makes it impossible to tell whether Black Canary's strategy is carefully crafted and multi-layered, or whether each member of this team is atrocious at her job but somehow manages to luck into accomplishing something.

Impressions/Questions

This issue is leaps and bounds better than issue #5, but it still fails on many levels.  We finally get the exposition I've been wanting from the beginning, but at this point it's just too little, too late.  The characters still come off as stupid and their actions nonsensical.  The end of the issue should be thrilling, but it only serves to remind how much time was wasted on the first two-thirds of the issue.

The capital crime of Birds of Prey #6 is the ridiculous decompression.  This issue did not have twenty pages worth of story.  I would be generous in saying there was enough plot and characterization here to fill out six pages.  The rest is filler.  A lot of filler.

Grade: F+

BIRDS OF PREY #5 (New 52)

Previously…

Birds of Prey #5: "Chokepoint" is written by Duane Swierczynski and drawn by Jesus Saiz, who uses an inker for the first time in this series.  The inks by Javier Pina, though, is pretty sparse.  June Chung is back to provide colors.

David Finch provides the cover, which for the first time gives a sense of context and background.  The image depicts Black Canary, Starling, and Katana squaring off against some unseen enemy in what looks like a warehouse.  There is a painted finish to the cover that gives Finch's lines an anime style that is quite different than previous covers.  Also, Dinah's back is about to snap from the weight of her breasts.  Maybe that's Power Girl in Canary's clothes…

Issue #5 opens with the Birds--like me--trying to understand what's happening.  The ladies had been   infiltrating the lair of Choke, a mysterious bad guy who can turn people into walking bombs.  They were surrounded by an army of Cleaners--soldiers with "stealth-suit" technology--when they abruptly "skipped ahead" to a daytime city street with no memory of how they got there or what happened in between.

And suddenly they're being attacked by soldiers who aren't wearing stealth-suits.  As the Birds fight back, they realize that their memories conflict with each other.  For instance, some remember sneaking into the building, and others don't.  Some remember Batgirl being with them; some don't.  And some have mysteriously healed from wounds.

We don't know who these soldiers are, and if the Birds know they don't say so, but, whatever, Starling shoots them, so I hope they weren't U.S. Army or a local S.W.A.T team just doing their jobs.  Katana, for her part, only slices their ankles with her husbandsword so as not to kill them.  After the soldiers are incapacitated, Black Canary orders the team to fall back to safehouse down the street because police cars are en route.

The only thing the ladies agree on is that their memories are full of gaps, so Dinah suggests they all split up, take time to recuperate, and meet again in twenty-four hours.  This makes no sense, but I don't have the energy to delve into why right now.  Dinah writes the name of their rendezvous location on each woman's forearm.  Is it because she doesn't trust texting?  Or she thinks the room is bugged and doesn't want to say it out loud?  Whatever.

The story then follows Starling during her time off.  Starling gets to narrate a few pages, which is great because we really need more insight into her character.  I want to believe there is more to her than shooting, drinking, and thinking about sex.  Unfortunately, from her narrative captions and the action on these two pages, "shooting, drinking, and thinking about sex" is really all there is to her.

Later that night, Dinah meets with Batgirl on a rooftop.  Batgirl restates her objection to working with the Birds that she voiced in the first issue and completely ignored in the fourth.  She also denies having met with them last night, so either her mind has been wiped, or the other women have been incepted.

The next morning, Dinah goes to her dojo to clear her mind by training.  Katana arrives and they spar while talking about how lonely Dinah is, how tough their lives are, and joking about how they shouldn't trust Poison Ivy.

Speaking of Ivy, she spends her morning in the park soaking up foliage or something.  She is met by a mysterious man carrying a mysterious suitcase.  From the sounds of their conversation, Ivy has a hidden agenda and isn't that loyal to Dinah and the others.

I know.  I was shocked, too.

Later, Dinah is sitting in a coffee shop, reading the paper, like any other fugitive wanted for murder.  She comes across a startling headline that we don't see.  This causes her to rush out of the diner can call Dr. Trevor Cahill, a neuro-chemist who she has flirted with over the past few days.

We then cut to the rooftop rendezvous the Birds had arranged the night before… so Dinah's date with Trevor… didn't matter?  Anyway, Starling doesn't show up but %@$#ing Batgirl does!  What the hell, Swierczynski?

Dinah explains that Choke, in addition to turning people into walking bombs and transceivers, has been making Cleaners out of everyday people.  She wants to locate one of these "sleeper agents" and follow them to Choke's lair.  Hang on, didn't they already find Choke's lair?  They went there last issue.  Why didn't they return to the last place they remembered instead of splitting up for twenty-four hours?

At the same time, Starling is on a bridge because she believed that was the rendezvous point.  So did Dinah set her up and write the wrong location on Ev's arm?  Or is her memory/perception being altered by Choke?  Then she is ambushed by yet another group of gunmen who don't look like the stealth-suit Cleaners and don't look like the soldiers from the beginning of the issue.

Starling dives off the bridge into the river below--because that's something she would do.  And of course she survives the fall into the river--which isn't something anyone would do.  She also gets shot in the hand and in the leg.

Falling from a bridge into the water below--if it didn't kill you instantly--would certainly knock you unconscious, leaving you to drown quickly.  Couple that with broken bones in the hand and leg and the accompanying blood loss would either weaken you to the point of drowning, or send you into shock, leaving you to drown.

So… I guess this is how Starling dies.  And if she doesn't, I'll be pissed come issue #6.


The Characters

Everyone acts and sounds stupid in this issue.

At first, Batgirl claims to want nothing to do with Black Canary's team, contradicting everything she said in issue #4.  But by the end of the issue, she joins them again just because she has the free time.

"ABILI"?  You mean alibi, Babs?  I thought you were smarter than that.

Poison Ivy is obviously plotting some kind of betrayal, and everyone suspects it, but no one does anything about it.  Only Batgirl openly voices her distrust of Ivy, and Dinah responds harshly to Batgirl for it.  This makes Dinah look foolish.

Calm down, Dinah.  Batgirl's concerns are valid; Ivy's a bad guy!

We learn a little more about Starling in this issue.  She has an Uncle Earl who taught her lessons about paranoia.  And goons have been trying to kill her for years.  And she's gay.  And, um… she likes shooting stuff and drinking stuff.


Impressions/Questions

I have expressed my fondness for Jesus Saiz's art in previous reviews, but I have also questioned what appears to be a disconnect between what is being told and what is being shown.  This feeling is exacerbated in issue #5.  The opening "action" scene is awful because the art and dialogue don't match.  There is no tension in this sequence.  You could take the dialogue in pages one through five and put it in any other scene or location.  The fight doesn't matter.

I "hear" gunfire SFX but don't see any.  Who is shooting?

I haven't read anything else written by Duane Swierczynski so I can't compare his writing on this title to his body of work as a whole.  I have read other books illustrated by Saiz, though, and I never felt like there was a disconnect between the writing and the art.  That's is all I feel while reading these issues.  And that tells me the problem is the script or the editing.

But there is no shortage of other flaws in this issue.  It moves like the trailer to a suspense movie, with characters and scenes only glimpsed, out of sequence, undeveloped, and entirely out of context.  That's how this issue felt: bereft of context.

All the momentum of what could charitably be called the "investigation" part of this story arc that was built last issue is tossed out when the ladies literally choose to take a day off.  This series is incapable of maintaining focus, building character, and building tension.  If I hadn't bought the rest of this series at a discount I would have blotted this issue out of my memory and shut down this blog.

Grade: F (as in f*** this comic!)