Justice League #37 Variant by Darwyn Cooke

In December, a whole lot o' DC comics will ship with covers illustrated by Darwyn Cooke.  By then, Birds of Prey will be long dead and I have no idea if Black Canary is slated to end up in another book because I haven't paid attention to the solicits since, um, April...?

However, Cooke included Black Canary in the background of his cover for Justice League #37.

That's her way back behind Superman and Batman.

I wondered if there was any reason for this specific assemblage of of heroes.  Cooke expertly depicts a nostalgic sense of whimsy in his covers, so it makes sense that he uses the seven original members of the Justice League of America--Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and J'Onn J'Onzz.  But he also includes Cyborg, a founding member of the New 52 Justice League.  But what about Green Arrow and Black Canary?  I can't imagine this is the lineup of the team in issue #37 since J'Onn and Ollie are in Justice League United and for some reason I think Hal Jordan is still off the team playing space cop.

I would be happy if Black Canary joined the main Justice League team.  I think she deserve a shot at it, but it might take a creative team shift to get me interested in reading the comic again.  I like most of what Geoff Johns does, but I don't think he ever had a firm grasp on the League like he did with Green Lantern, the Flash or Justice Society.

Black Canary in Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 2: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANNUAL #3

Black Canary left the Justice League of America roughly one year before the Crisis on Infinite Earths universe-altering series when Aquaman took over the team and ushered in the era known as Justice League Detroit.  She and Green Arrow teamed up with Green Lanterns John Stewart and Katma Tui at the beginning of the Crisis event before coming back to the JLA for the series' annual in 1985.

Justice League of America Annual #3: "Force of Nature" was written by Dan Mishkin with pencils by Rick Hoburg, inks by Mike Gustovich, and a cover by Paris Cullins and Mike Machlan.

The story begins with the android Red Tornado alone on the Justice League Satellite.  The satellite is badly damaged and plummeting toward the Earth while inside Red Tornado tries to hold the structure together.  Reddy also questions his humanity, but his existential crisis is interrupted by the satellite exploding.  Pieces of the satellite shower Earth in flames as the debris catches fire on reentry.

Below, Green Arrow and Black Canary have been rescued by Firestorm and ride a--a balloon in the shape of a puppy?  Really, Ronnie?!

In Detroit, Martian Manhunter watches the bulk of the satellite wreckage crashing toward the city's Renaissance Center.  J'Onn grabs Steel and Vibe just as Firestorm arrives with Dinah and Ollie.  Firestorm uses his atomic restructuring power to divert some of the debris, while Black Canary, Green Arrow, Steel and Vibe deal with the bits of fiery detritus that Firestorm misses.

But the largest chunk of the satellite, the command center, is still barreling down on the heart of Detroit.  J'Onn J'Onzz risks his life by throwing himself against the fireball.  Despite fire being his greatest weakness, his superior Martian strength is able to knock the satellite debris some ways from downtown.  Firestorm uses his powers to push the wreckage clear of the city and into the water of one of the Great Lakes.

In the aftermath, the Justice League members past and present begin to bicker amongst themselves with Green Arrow and Vibe about to throw down.  Firestorm separates them and calls their attention to the missing Red Tornado who was still on the satellite.  J'Onn, too, tries to settle the heated tempers and scans for Reddy.

The scene changes to New York City where Kathy Sutton, Red Tornado's boo, comes home from  the grocery store to find Reddy's face haunting her television screen beckoning her to join him.

Across the country, Ralph Dibny, the World Famous Elongated Man, and Zatanna Zatara, Mistress of Magic arrive at S.T.A.R. Labs to investigate a series of freak storms and unnatural weather problems across the globe.  Ralph surmises the influx of anti-matter energy is responsible for the storms, but a scientist confesses that S.T.A.R. Labs has been deploying experimental weather control satellites--weather control satellites that they're no longer able to control.

Elongated Man and Zatanna help the scientists try to override the weather satellites operations but fail to stop the satellites before the lab's control center is destroyed by malfunctioning equipment and another storm caused by a space warp opening up directly above the two heroes.

Back in Detroit, J'Onn brings Black Canary, Green Arrow and the rest of the League members to their current headquarters.  Ollie and Vibe continue to snap at each other.  Then some doctor comes out and describes the fate of Red Tornado.

Firestorm reveals to the others that Red Tornado's body was inhabited by the spirit of the Tornado Champion, but their discussion in cut off by Elongated Man's distress call.  The League watch on the monitor as Elongated Man and Zatanna are caught up in the storm and sucked into the space warp.

Meanwhile, Kathy Sutton follows Red Tornado's trail through hijacked electronic messages.

Then the Detroit heroes save some people trapped at a hydroelectric plant.  Black Canary, meanwhile, goes to Gotham City with Green Arrow and Firestorm.  They're flying into the city when Ollie spots Kathy Sutton standing on top of a bridge in the middle of the storm.  Kathy is rescued by Geo-Force and brought to Batman and Black Lightning.

Kathy is telling Batman and the Outsiders about following Red Tornado's summons when Dinah and the others land and tell them Reddy is dead.  Then Superman arrives and is unable to travel through the space-warp.  They reason that the rogue weather-control satellites are preventing the heroes from going through the warp, and J'Onn has been unable to destroy the satellites in space.  Superman flies up to help the Martian.

Geo-Force uses his positive gravity power to try and collapse the warp, but it doesn't work.  Instead, it pulls the jet nearly crushing the heroes.

Geo's powers create a crazy kind of backlash effect that sends Black Canary, Green Arrow, Firestorm and Kathy Sutton into the space warp.  Batman and the Outsiders cannot follow, because screw the Outsiders!

In space, Superman and J'Onn destroy one of the weather satellites, while the malevolent spirit controlling voices his rededication to his plan, whatever that might be.

At the hydroelectric dam, one space warp opens dumping Ralph and Zatanna on the Detroit Leaguers.  Another warp opens up dropping Dinah and the others.  Vibe acts like a dick, which is Ollie's thing, so Green Arrow smacks Vibe, calling him a punk.

Zatanna notices that the weather has changed, that something is affecting the wind and air pressure specifically.  In space, Superman and Martian Manhunter destroy the last of the satellites which plays right into the hands of the Tornado Champion that has been causing all of the storms.

The gathered heroes watch as the giant tornado takes a familiar form: Red Tornado.  The tornado spirit explains how Red Tornado's android self was able to interface with the electronic satellites in orbit, and the Champion's spirit overrode their programming making them go bad.

Superman and Firestorm recognize that Reddy had been taken over by the persona of the Tornado Tyrant, who now wants to remake the world in his skewed version of perfection.  While the heroes engage the Tyrant in battle, we cut back to Detroit where Sue Dibny witnesses a whirling wind steal away the broken android body of Red Tornado.

The Justice Leaguers fight Tornado Tyrant but they're not accomplishing much.  Kathy Sutton thinks there is still a semblance of her lover's soul inside the storm and runs away from Green Arrow.  The whirlwind picks her up, and in the eye of the storm Kathy confronts Red Tornado, but his soul isn't the gentle man she loved.  He's crazy and wants her to join him in his quest to conquer the world.

She's able to calm him enough that he lets his guard down.

Superman, Martian Manhunter, Vibe and Firestorm try to contain the Tornado Tyrant but he busts free and rants against them.  Then, like a bratty little kid, he flies off threatening to get them back someday.

I think I would have enjoyed this story if I cared at all about Red Tornado and his history but I really, really don't.  I don't care much about the new Justice Leaguers from Detroit, either.  J'Onn and Firestorm got some cool moments to shine in this story, but Black Canary, Green Arrow, Elongated Man and Zatanna were little more than bystanders for most of the action.

Despite the end-of-the-world style natural disasters and potential for mass destruction that would make Michael Bay squee with delight, the story feels a little too small for a 41-page annual.  Part of that is Hoburg's artwork which never really elevates the dynamic scenes, but part of it, too, is Mishkin's story which is really too straight-and-narrow for a comic of this length.

Team-Up: SECRET ORIGINS #32 (Nov 1988)

I wrote up a nice little introduction for this review explaining how Black Canary replaced Wonder Woman in the Justice League's original lineup after the universe-altering events of Crisis on Infinite Earths.  Then I read Mark Waid's "Secrets Behind the Origins" segment in the letters' column of Secret Origins #32 and realized--to absolutely no one's surprise--that he put it a hundred times more clearly and concisely than I could:

"When the decision was made to retell the origin of the original Justice League of America (first shown in JLA #9, 1962), certain publishing realities affected the story; most important, in DC's post-Crisis universe, Wonder Woman didn't make her heroic debut until long after her former comrades Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Flash and Green Lantern.  Plotter Keith Giffen and editor Mark Waid briefly discussed the idea of simply leaving a female member out of the original JLA but eventually dismissed the idea.  Not only was the League never really a "boys club," but there was something more substantive and--oh, gosh, just more "leaguish"-- about a five-member team... which is how Black Canary ended up being the fifth "mystery" member of the Justice League of America."

Yeah, that's better that mine.

Secret Origins #32: "All Together Now" is scripted by Peter David from a Keith Giffen plot based on the original story from Justice League of America #9 by written by Gardner Fox; Eric Shanower drew the heck out of the issue, with Gaspar providing lettering, Gene D'Angelo the coloring, and Mark Waid editing.  Shanower's cover shows the new old League monitored on screen by current members of Justice League International.

On the distant alien world of Appellax, the ruling Kalar has died.  According to Appellaxian custom, whoever assassinated the former Kalar gets to be the new one, but seven different Appellaxians are all claiming credit for the murder.  An Appellaxian official, like a grand vizier or something, explains the other Appellaxian custom that the seven candidates must battle to the death for the right to be crowned Kalar.

The problem is these types of civil disputes have historically decimated Appellaxian populations, so the vizier tells them they will have to fight on planet Earth.  The seven contenders' minds are transferred into host bodies of different forms and rocketed to Earth in seven meteors.

The first of the meteors lands near Middleton, Colorado, where the Martian Manhunter soars high enough over his city that no would can recognize his alien form.  As he wonders doubtfully whether people of Earth would accept him if they knew the truth, he views a bizarre happening down below.

The statues, J'Onn realizes to his horror, are the people of Middleton.  What could have caused this horrific transformation, he doesn't know, but from roughly a mile away J'Onn hears the thudding steps of a giant creature.  Turning invisible, J'Onn follows the sounds until he finds the first contender in the shape of the giant Stone God.

The Stone God shoots eye-beams that change people into stone statues.  The Martian Manhunter flies around using his super-Martian-strength to punch the stone monster.  It has no effect, so he switches tactics and tries probing the Stone God with telepathy.  That, too, fails, and even worse, the psychic backfire hurts J'Onn and gives the Appellaxian the knowledge of his Martian enemy, particularly his weakness to fire.

The Stone God wrecks a gas station and then ignites the gasoline, creating an inferno that threatens to engulf the Alien Atlas (that's for you, Frank).  Still invisible, J'Onn crashes into a fire hydrant, using the water to fend off the blaze and rejuvenate his powers.  The giant walks off, and for a moment J'Onn considers waiting long enough for the fire to burn itself out... But that would put more people in danger.  The Martian Manhunter will not be paralyzed by fear.

With all his Martian might and resolve, J'Onn flies through the inferno and smashes into the Stone God, shattering the Appellaxian's battle form.  The effort, while successful, is enough to knock J'Onn unconscious.  This is a really strong moment for Martian Manhunter and it would be a great, iconic page except that J'Onn is invisible for almost the entire scene.  The drama of the moment is a little undercut when the hero appears as barely any more than thought bubbles.

When he awakens, the people of Middleton have reverted back to normal.  And they're quite intrigued by the green-skinned humanoid among them, meeting the honesty of his Martian origin with incredulity and speculation.  J'Onn doesn't stick around long.  During his brief telepathic connection to the Appellaxian, he learned that six more were bound for Earth.  He takes off looking for the next would-be alien conqueror.

And one of those aliens has landed in the middle of the sea where we find Aquaman who only just found Atlantis earlier that day, putting this story canonically right after Aquaman's flashback tale in Adventure Comics #260.

After the second Appellaxian, the Mercury Monster, transforms Aquaman into a floating blob of mercury, he needs to resist panic and his own insecurities and figure out what to do.  Unable to do anything but ride the currents, Aquaman tries to attack the Mercury Monster, but that proves futile.  His movement is limited and haphazard and the Appellaxian has control over Aquaman and the other fish and sea life it has transformed to liquid metal.  At one point, Aquaman freaks out because one of his arms is almost separated.  This seems particularly noteworthy in hindsight, because writer Peter David would take Aquaman's hand off in a story five years after this.

Aquaman is near despair.  He doubts the formidability of his powers and his status as a hero.  But when the Mercury Monster heads toward Atlantis, Aquaman realizes he must act and defend his newfound home and people.  He spies a nearby whirlpool and suspects that the mercury blob would have no conception of what the whirlpool can do; all it wants is to convert more fish to mercury and bolster its forces.

Aquaman uses his telepathic powers to send the fish toward the whirlpool.  The Mercury Monster follows the fish until it is caught by the whirlpool's force and ripped apart.  The effect of the alien's death transforms Aquaman back to normal.

Damn, Aquaman!  You think your powers are useless and Superman wouldn't have anything to do with you?  Get some confidence already.

Elsewhere, a fledgling hero steps out one one of her first adventures.

Hearing the sound of a scream, Black Canary leaps into action, jumping from a fire escape to the alley before.  She sees someone harassing a woman and--taking a moment to deepen her voice so the perpetrator will take her seriously--demands the mugger surrender.

Except it's not a mugger; it's Glass Man, the third Appellaxian, who uses eye beams to turn people into glass.  The Glass Man tries to shoot Black Canary, but she dives out of the way.  Retreating to the street, she realizes that the monster has transformed even more people into glass.  Also, he's still coming for her.  She leaps away, but the Glass Man's gaze manages to turn one of her legs to glass.

The Appellaxian laughs at his prey, and that's enough to really piss her off.

Black Canary manages to get information about the meteor landing in the Everglades.  Black Canary speeds down to Florida in her car and sneaks past the police barricade.  She makes her way through the dense foliage, crossing her fingers that she doesn't ruin her fishnet stockings.  She spots the meteor... and something more.  A tree in humanoid shape speaking in an alien tongue.  When Black Canary approaches, she becomes frozen and demands the tree-person free her.  Now speaking in English, the tree-person says he is not responsible, that he is as much a prisoner as she.

Meanwhile, Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814, returns to Earth after meeting the Guardians of the Universe and other members of the Green Lantern Corps for the first time.  This would put this story right after the events of Green Lantern #1 from 1960.

Hal's interest in the meteor picks up when he sees it suddenly change speed and direction.  Instead of burning up in Earth's atmosphere like a good meteor, this one crashes relatively safely in Africa.  Hal pursues the object in curiosity, while mulling over a few heroic catchphrases in his head.

From out of the meteorite comes the fourth Appellaxian contender in the shape of a giant yellow bird.  This Golden Roc fires eye beams that, just like the others, transform other people and creatures into beings not unlike itself.  Green Lantern's ring, of course, is useless against the color yellow but he dries some indirect attacks against the Golden Roc.  Faster than he expects the bird to move, it grabs Hal in its golden talons, and its touch begins changing Hal into a gold feathered creature.

Hal fires his ring into a cloud setting off a hail storm that distracts the Golden Roc enough that it lets Hal go.  Still in danger of changing, Green Lantern leads the big yellow bird on a chase into a waterfall.  When the Roc flies into the waterfall, Green Lantern freezes the water.  This destabilizes the Appellaxian's battle form enough that Hal and the other animals changed by the Roc revert back to their normal form.

After taking the animals to a zoo, Green Lantern realizes that more meteors have crash-landed on Earth.  He heads off toward the one meteorite believed to be unopened in the Florida Everglades.  When Hal arrives, voices from the woods try to warn him.

In England, the Flash had been meeting the Queen when he was asked to help put out some fires in the South London down of Croydon.  When the Flash arrives, he is shocked to see a Fire Giant, the fifth Appellaxian in a form that looks like, well, like a fire giant.  Barry Allen tries to blow out the Fire Giant by waving his arms at super-speed, but it only seems to embolden the Fire Giant.

The monster glares at Flash, which causes Flash to begin to transform into flame.  He immediately vibrates his molecular structure at the speed necessary to break the Fire Giant's connection.  Then Flash runs over to a standing body of water and circles it fast enough to suck up the water in a vortex and dump it on the Fire Giant.

When wind, water, and sand fail to extinguish the Fire Giant, Barry remembers the basic Flash Fact that fire requires oxygen to burn.  So he runs around the Fire Giant at such super-speed that he removes the oxygen from the surrounding air.  At last, the Appellaxian collapses, its battle form ruined.  The alien screams to unseen forces that he doesn't want his mind ripped from him, that he wants another chance.  Then he slumps over dead.

The Flash speaks to some of the Croydon citizens and one of them tells Flash about the other alien meteors arriving on Earth.  Flash runs across the Atlantic Ocean to arrive in the Everglades after the other heroes.  But when he arrives, he, like them, is transformed into a living tree.

The heroes banter for a short time and J'Onn tries to understand how they use humor to fend off terror.  Then the meteorite cracks open and the sixth Appellaxian steps out in the form of the Wood King.  This alien reveals to the heroes that he intentionally delayed his arrival, and now, thanks to Aquaman and the others (not that Aquaman and the Others), the alien only has one more contender to destroy before he can become Kalar of his home world.

The Wood King psychically commands the five heroes to follow him to Antarctica to battle the last Appellaxian.  Aquaman has no desire to walk from Florida to Antarctica, and little desire to serve as a tree soldier for the Wood King.  Using his own telepathic abilities, he is barely able to control his own physical body; it's not much, but it's enough to knock into Martian Manhunter who knocks into Green Lantern.  Using his own mental abilities, J'Onn is able to resist the Wood King's influence enough that he scrapes off the wood around Hal Jordan's ring.  Green Lantern only has enough will and aim to shine his ring's light on Black Canary's head, freeing her from the Wood King's power just temporarily.

Black Canary uses her Canary Cry on the Flash, pitching it at just the right frequency that it shatters the wood around his body, freeing the Fastest Man Alive.  The Flash launches himself at the Wood King with a volley of "a million high-speed punches".  He basically beats the Wood King to splinters, destroying the penultimate Appellaxian's battle form.

The five heroes agree to work together in bringing down the final Appellaxian.  Green Lantern and J'Onn J'Onzz fly, with Hal carrying Black Canary, Aquaman and the Flash in a bubble created by his ring.  During the journey south, Martian Manhunter notes that Green Lantern seems to be the only one completely at ease with an alien in their ranks.  Green Lantern, who just hours ago discovered he was part of an intergalactic peacekeeping force full of aliens, shares his first name, "Hal" to which the Manhunter from Mars says, "J'Onn."

When the group finds the meteorite in Antarctica, the Crystal Creature has already freed itself.  But it also ran afoul of Superman who has just destroyed the last Appellaxian.  The Man of Steel dusts off his hands and takes off, seemingly not noticing the heroes behind him (although with his super-senses, that seems nearly impossible).  The group is bummed out by their non-brush with celebrity and Black Canary mentions she was looking forward to working all together to fight the Crystal Creature.  "Safety in numbers," she says.  That lights up a bulb over Flash's head and he gets an idea.

Flash pitches the idea of working together as a team.  J'Onn is reluctant because it would require him to publicly out himself, but Barry counters that revealing himself in the context of joining other heroes would be good publicity for the Martian Manhunter--and for all of them.  Black Canary, as the youngest and least experienced of the group, says she loves the idea, that it would feel like a return of the old Justice Society of America.  Hal Jordan floats the team name Justice Society II, which gets shot down, and Barry floats the idea of The Avengers, but Dinah tells him they'll be confused by the TV show about British spies.

Finally they come to the name...

Within the clouds of future members of the Justice League of America are The Atom, Batman, Elongated Man, Firestorm, Green Arrow, Gypsy, Hawkgirl, Hawkman, Phantom Stranger, Red Tornado, Snapper Car, Steel, Vibe, Vixen, and Zatanna.  The notable absences are, of course, Superman who we saw earlier this issue and Wonder Woman, who we established was no longer part of the Justice League and wouldn't encounter the other heroes until the Legends miniseries event.

Peter David is one of the best writers in comics of the last twenty-five years so he's not going to script a crappy Justice League comic.  Keith Giffen and Mark Waid took Gardner Fox's decades-old story and fluffed it up a bit, and David added the right voices and little details that made the characters resonate so well.  With the exception of Aquaman being so down on himself, every character feels pretty right for the time.  J'Onn is a little paranoid of himself and stays hidden until he's encouraged by Green Lantern and the Flash.  Hal Jordan feels appropriately cocky given the weight of their situation, and Black Canary has the spitfire of a young woman looking to prove herself to her mother.

Eric Shanower's art is fan-freaking-tastic in this comic.  I've never really noticed his work before this issue, but it blew me away, particularly his rendering of human faces and expressions.  There's something similar to Mike Allred in how Shanower draws Aquaman and Hal Jordan, and most of his depictions of Black Canary are lovely and luscious.

So did I have any problems with this?  Well, not the issue so much as the effect Crisis on Infinite Earths had on the issue.  This may sound absurd coming from a guy who runs a Black Canary blog, but I don't think she should be a founding member of the Justice League of America.  I love Dinah, but she's not a heavyweight of that caliber.  Wonder Woman should always be one of the original members of the Justice League, as should Superman and Batman.  And their absence is noticeable in both this story and in JLA: Year One, the maxi series that serves as a sequel to this book.  In both of the stories, the League members seem a little rudderless; they lack leadership.  If Wonder Woman was part of this issue or Year One, the League would never feel leaderless.

Speaking of JLA: Year One, I suppose I should review that series sometime soon but there's a lot of other stuff I'm more excited about first.  Hopefully, before the year is over.

Black Canary & Zatanna: Bloodspell Part 2

Click here to review Part 1.

The Black Canary and Zatanna original graphic novel, Bloodspell, opened with a prologue showing the ladies' first meeting as precocious and strong-willed young women.  We then jumped forward a few years to a second prologue showing Black Canary disrupting a casino heist by a thief named Tina Spettro.  Prior to the heist, Tina forced Dinah and the other women in her gang to pledge a loyalty oath that included drawing blood from their fingers and reciting an ominous-sounding Latin spell.  Black Canary chased Tina across Las Vegas; the pursuit ended with the thief dying in a fiery head-on collision.

Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell is written by Paul Dini, who earned a lifetime supply of geek-adoration from his days on Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited.  Art for the book is provided by Joe Quinones, who did a masterful job on the Green Lantern feature of Wednesday's Comics.

The story picks up in present day with Dinah and Oliver Queen in bed after making loud, passionate love.  Whatever kind of move Ollie uses results in a climactic (heh-heh) "canary cry" of ecstasy that shatters a flower vase in another room.

Dinah and Ollie's relationship has always been highly sexualized, but I don't recall ever getting a masturbation joke as overt as this one.  Dini may have cut his teeth writing cartoons, and Quinones' art feels like a cousin of Bruce Timm's DCAU house style, but the tone of this book doesn't feel like it's for young kids.

Anyway, Dinah recognizes the name of a suicide victim.  Meghan Taylor was one of the girls in Tina Spettro's gang who called Black Canary for help.  Immediately after the story breaks on TV, Dinah gets a phone call from Betty Jo, yet another one of Spettro's accomplices.  Dinah gets dressed while Betty Jo explains that Meghan left a suicide note apologizing for her betrayal in Las Vegas a year ago.  Then, abruptly, Betty Jo's tone of voice changes and she tells Dinah she intends to throw herself off the harbor ferry.

Black Canary jumps on her motorcycle and roars down the highway.  She ramps the bike up and over the side of the bridge, coming down on the ferry and skidding to a halt against the fender of a parked car.

Black Canary finds Betty Jo leaning out over the railing.  She warns the girl what will happen if she goes over the side, a prospect that seems to excite Betty Jo for a moment.  Then, all of a sudden, Betty Jo seems to snap out of it and wonder where she even is.  She's so distracted that she loses her grip on the railing and falls, and Black Canary watches the girl get dragged beneath the boat.

Dinah noticed the change in Betty Jo's character on the phone and in the moment before she died.  And she's afraid that the late Tina Spettro is responsible somehow.

Later that night, Black Canary picks up Ollie, who has now donned his Green Arrow costume and rides on the back of her motorcycle.  She makes fun of him for getting rid of his old Arrowmobile because Batman gave him a hard time about it.

They ride out to a mobile home community to find Lauren, another member of the Spettro gang.  Lauren isn't answering her phone or knocks at the door.  Green Arrow notices a power strip leading from the house to the swimming pool, and when they investigate, they find the pool filled with electrical appliances... and Lauren's lifeless body.

One other thing Ollie notices: a bizarre tattoo on Lauren's arm.  Black Canary doesn't recognize the tattoo, but she knows someone who might.

We catch up with Zatanna in the present day summoning... monkeys?  Yep, monkeys.  For kids!

Dinah recalls Zatanna's first day aboard the Justice League Satellite ten years ago and how green Zatanna acted at the time.  From describing the League's teleportation effect as "tingly" to making a nerd-fool of herself in front of Martian Manhunter, the auspices of Zatanna's debut with the Justice League aren't terribly impressive.

And that's when bells and sirens go off.  The dastardly villain known as The Key is lose in the satellite and looking to spring other super villains from the satellite's prison.  Black Canary and Zatanna are the prison's last line of defense, something Z doesn't feel quite ready to handle.

When Elongated Man gets knocked out, the Key confronts the ladies, mocking Zatanna's attire and their attempts to stop him.

Having magically stolen The Key's keys, Zatanna doffs her cap and takes a bow.  At which point, all of the keys fall out of her top hat and clatter on the floor.  But while The Key scrambles to pick them up, Green Lantern catches up and knocks him out with a power-ring punch.

I haven't talked a whole lot about Quinones' art and I will definitely delve into it in greater detail tomorrow, but I do want to touch upon one of the things I really enjoy about his work.  Bloodspell takes place over five different eras, and Quinones delineates each time period expertly by changing up the ladies' costumes and hairstyles.

Zatanna's hair gets longer as she ages while Black Canary's hair seems longest during this satellite era.  It seems just shoulder-length during the main, contemporary part of the tale.  I think she looks a little like Elizabeth Shue in some of these scenes; not sure why.

Anyway... Dinah comes out of her reminiscence as Zatanna concludes her performance for the kids.  She can tell that something is bothering Dinah, so they do what women do to feel better.  They go shopping.

Paul Dini treats us to a rather obviously expected joke as the ladies restock on fishnet stockings, but Joe Quinones really sells it with the storefront design that feels like a Victoria's Secret sister store called Seams & Dreams.  It gives an extra umph to the fishnet gag that works wonders... but then the women are harassed by some mallrats who holler at them.

This is the obvious fishnet scene and it's pretty uncreative, even as Zatanna magically--and temporarily--transforms the men into goldfish for the pool.  I wasn't as enthusiastic about this scene, nor why Zatanna bothered with the guys at all instead of ignoring them.  But Dini and Quinones follow it up with another scene of fan-service as Dinah and Z visit a toy store with a window display of Justice League merchandize.

Yeah, that's toys for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the satellite, Doctor Fate, Plastic Man, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and... Miss Martian?  Okay.  But the real treat are the vehicles and playsets that Quinones adds to the display.  Along with the classic Batmobile are straight-up cameos by the Super Powers line such as the Supermobile, the Lex-Soar 7, Hall of Justice and Tower of Darkness.  Awesome!

After teasing each other about their merchandizing choices, Dinah and Z head to a T.G.I. Friday's-style restaurant where the wait staff are covered in flair.  Dinah shows off some of the worthless trinkets and charms that Lauren had when she died, and a photo of the tattoo on her arm.

While Black Canary looks amused by the result of Zatanna's time freeze spell, the Mistress of Magic is dead serious.  She tells Dinah that she didn't pledge a loyalty oath; Tina Spettro tricked her and the other girls into a bloodspell.  The fact that Dinah was undercover using a different name may give her some leeway in the spell's hold, but Zatanna doesn't know enough about the basic mechanics of this type of magic.

She calls on her greatest resource, summoning the ghost of her father, Giovanni Zatara, for guidance.

Zatara tells Dinah that the more lives Tina's spirit claims, the more powerful she'll grow until she's capable of possessing Black Canary.

Zatara and Zatanna agree that to break the bloodspell, Tina Spettro's spirit needs to be contained or destroyed and that means capturing her, which means catching her in the act of possessing or trying to kill another one of the girls in her gang.

After Zatara bids them luck and vanishes, Dinah and Zatanna agree to head out to Las Vegas to put an end to Tina's bloody trail of vengeance.

Continued in Part 3.

Fan-Casting DC's JUSTICE LEAGUE: Part 18

Click here to review Part 17.

So far:

Umm… the movie.

Epilogue(s)

We move from a three-shot of Batman, Superman and Lois Lane outside the Middleton Space Center to a montage of quiet, somewhat slowed down shots revealing the aftermath of the robot attack on Metropolis.

We see people tentatively coming out of their homes or buildings, surveying the devastation, and looking up at the sky as if for answers.  Police and firefighters help people trapped under debris.  Jimmy Olsen finally puts his camera down to console a frightened kid.

We see rows of hospital beds with people lying on the fronts or sides.  Each of the people in bed has a starro implant on his or her neck.  A team of doctors and nurses in hazmat suits attempt to remove one of the starros surgically.  It's not going well.  They shake their heads in frustration.

We see Bruce Wayne (Richard Armitage) walking beside a medical gurney which carries Lucius Fox (Ernie Hudson) toward the Wayne Enterprises private jet.  A trio of nurses and medics push the gurney.  We see the jet take off and leave Metropolis.

Running over these images is a monologue spoken by The Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief, Perry White (Tim Matheson).  Perry gives us numbers for the dead and wounded, the collateral damage to property and infrastructure, and recounts the tales of heroism, not just from Superman, but the everyday citizen, in the face of inexplicable horror.

He ends the monologue saying, "Your name is all over this mess, Mister Wayne," and we cut to inside Bruce's private jet.  Perry White is on speaker phone.

Perry (phone): "You may own this paper now, sir, but if you think for a second that I won't pursue this story every bit as aggressively as--"
Bruce: "Stop there, Perry.  If you soften your coverage of this horrible tragedy at all, if you hide anything to help me save face… I'll fire you."
Perry (beat): "I'm glad to hear that, Mister Wayne."
Bruce: "My press office will release a statement later.  After that, if you need any further statements, have Clark Kent call me."

Cut to the LexCorp Factory.

Lex Luthor (James Nesbitt) watches a group of technicians tend to John Corben (Michael Biehn).  They use a jaws of life-like device to remove the chest plate from the Metallo armor.  There is a medic there, telling him Corben is alive.  Luthor doesn't care; he's far more interested in the kryptonite, shards of which are imbedded in Corben's chest, heart, lungs and throat.

We hear Clark Kent (Jon Hamm) and Bruce Wayne speaking over the end of this scene, as Luthor turns around to take in the damage done to his factory during the the battle.

Clark states the obvious fact that Luthor built the combat drones in violation of his contract with Wayne Enterprises.  Luthor also built the battle armor and had Corben steal the kryptonite from S.T.A.R. Labs Gotham.  Bruce tells him none of that will hold up.  Luthor is protected by Mercy Graves' treachery.  Every illegal thing Luthor did can be laid at the feet of his shape changing alien secretary, who has vanished.

Luthor's crimes will go unpunished, but Mercy/Bel Juz succeeded in damaging the LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises brands.  Stocks are plummeting.  Congressional committees are convening.  People are panicking.

Cut To: The Kent Farm, Smallville.

"So I held my hand up like this, but with my
X-ray vision, I could still see you and Ma
having sex before breakfast."

Clark Kent sits in the kitchen of his parents' home.  The robot attack is covered on the TV news in the background.  Martha Kent (Candice Bergen) squeezes her son's hand.  "The news is saying some horrible things about Bruce Wayne," she says, "but I can't say an ill word about him.  Did you hear what he did?"

Clark says he heard Wayne bought the local bank.

"Not just that," Martha says.  "He picked three farms at random and paid off the existing mortgages.  We own the farm now, Clark."  Ma Kent beams, overwhelmed with pride.  Clark is stunned.

He steps out onto the porch where Jonathan Kent (Robert Forster) stares out at his fields.  Pa Kent says, "I guess I'll be able to afford some more help around here now."

Clark smiles.  The smile fades.  "You know I'll visit you every chance I get," he says, as Martha joins her husband and son on the porch.  "But I think I'm going to be busy for a little while."  Clark's parents, with arms around each other, exchange a knowing, troubled look.

Cut To: The Batcave

The extra crispy body of J'Onn J'Onzz (Giancarlo Esposito) lies on a table in the Batcave.  Superman and Batman stand over the body.  

Batman: "Are you a Martian?"
Superman: "No."
Batman: "Would you submit to a few tests to prove it?"
Superman: "What are you going to do, shoot me with a flame thrower?"
Batman: "Not now." (walking away from J'Onn) "But you understand the concern."
Superman: "I told you where I'm from."
Batman: "A planet no one's ever heard of, and you just happen to look human."
Superman: "You're going to have to trust me."
Batman: (unintelligible grumbles)
Superman: "I didn't hear you."
Batman: "I do trust you."
Superman: "I know, I heard you the first time. I hear everything.  But it doesn't explain why you gifted my parents their farm."
Batman: "When I found out who you were, I couldn't comprehend someone with your powers needing to hide his identity.  Then I found out about your parents."

Batman looks away, remembering Thomas and Martha Wayne, remembering how he saw them in Bel Juz's psychic attack.

"They'll always make you vulnerable," he says.

"My parents aren't a weakness, Bruce," Superman says.  "They're my strength.  Just like yours."

Batman calls up a map of the Earth on the computer.  There are several targeted locations on the map representing the places where the space station's escape pods touched down.  They agree that every one of the pods might have contained starro creatures that escaped to infect indigenous populations before Superman recovered the pods.

"This is big," Superman says.

Batman taps a button on the computer.  The map of the Earth is replaced by multiple images and videos of other superheroes.  Wonder Woman.  Aquaman.  Green Lantern.  The Flash.  The pictures and videos are of different quality--mostly security camera or smartphone--and some are just headlines in tabloid magazines.  But we know who they mean.

Batman says, "We could use some help."

Pull back on Superman and Batman studying the others and--

Fade To Black

End of first movie: Justice League: The World's Finest *

* WAIT!

That was the last scene of this movie, but you may not have read the first scene yet.  If you've been following this story for the last three weeks, please go back and check out Parts 1 and 2 again because I have rewritten the opening of World's Finest.  It now features a prologue showcasing the iconic origins that our two heroes deserve.

Happy Fourth of July from Alex Ross and the JLA

Playdate #14: Black Canary & Martian Manhunter