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.

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 3

Click here to review Part 1.  Click here to review Part 2.

Earlier in Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell, Black Canary foiled a Vegas casino heist by a thief named Tina Spettro, but not before Tina tricked Black Canary into a bloodspell that binds her fate to the now-dead Tina's ghost.  Needing a magician's touch to get her out of this magic predicament, Dinah recruited her old friend and Justice League teammate, Zatanna Zatara.

Five years ago on the planet Apokolips, the sadistic Granny Goodness and her Female Furies had captured Zatanna, Black Canary, Wonder Woman, and Plastic Man.  The heroes were bound in Granny's gladiatorial arena and subjected to one of her elaborate deathtraps that Mr. Miracle cut his teeth escaping from.

Granny mocks Zatanna's notoriety as the Mistress of Magic's mouth is covered (by part of Plas, no less) preventing her from uttering any of her spells.  But at the last second before the trap is sprung, the captive heroes swap places with Granny and her Furies.

This little three-page vignette has no story connection to the rest of the tale.  Writer Paul Dini just drops it in as a means of showing Zatanna's resourcefulness and quick-thinking.  And it gives artist Joe Quinones a chance to draw our lovely heroines in older costumes, as well as a few more heroes and villains from DC's vault.

Back to the main story, Black Canary and Zatanna are riding to Las Vegas in Zatanna's enchanted trailer, which is being towed by an enchanted car that drives on its own.  Inside the trailer, Dinah takes a nice, refreshing bubble bath while trying not to arouse the displeasure of Zatanna's pet tiger, Sasha.

Zatanna's plan calls for them to travel to Vegas undercover so as to not warn Tina Spettro's ghost that Z is helping Dinah save the other victims of the bloodspell.  But the "undercover" part of Zatanna's scheme involves Black Canary posing as her magician's assistant.  And that involves Dinah wearing an outfit even skimpier and more revealing than most female superheroes wear.  Zatanna casts a magic costume-and-make-over spell and...

The ladies arrive at Xanadu in Las Vegas and meet with the hotel's owner, Dale Hollister, the same man that Tina Spettro planned to rob before she died.

Zatanna fills Hollister in on the situation with Tina's ghost, and in gratitude for Black Canary's earlier service, he offers to book Zatanna and "her assistant" in one of his showrooms to help them set the trap for Tina Spettro.

But as Hollister and Zatanna shake on the agreement, her tiger freaks out and lunges at both of them, slashing at them with his massive paws and drawing blood from each of their forearms.  Z reprimands the animal, which immediately seems confused and unaware of is prior attack.  Zatanna casts a healing spell on herself and Hollister.

That night, Zatanna performs her magic act for a packed house of spectators.  Her tricks include making Sasha the tiger vanish and reappear in a shrunken state.  Dinah watches the show from the wings; while backstage, she's passed a note from Dottie, the second-to-last surviving member of Tina's gang, asking for a meeting at her place that night.

If Dinah and Z were expecting a desperate woman when they meet Dottie, they're a little shocked to find a woman who has, for all intents and purposes, given up.  Dottie explains how crummy her life has been in the past year and, well, she doesn't exactly welcome death from a vengeful ghost, but she doesn't feel her life is all that worth living.  Dottie even goes so far as to ask Zatanna to change her into something else like an animal so she could just move on with a completely different life.

Zatanna refuses to cast that type of magic spell and explains that that sort of transformation spell is nearly irreversible because within hours the human brain begins to cede its faculties to animal instinct.  After a few days, Z explains, what remains of the human mind and soul would be totally supplanted by the animal and Dottie would be, essentially, dead and gone.

Instead, Zatanna plans to cast a protection spell around Dottie, but as she speaks the words, she inexplicably casts a different spell that transforms Dottie into glass.  Dinah reacts to Zatanna's sudden betrayal, an in the moment succumbs to her anger and becomes possessed by Tina's ghost.  Tina/Dinah then tries to shatter the glass Dottie, but Zatanna recovers and casts a protection spell that kicks Tina's ghost out of Dinah.

Tina's ghost curses at the ladies and announces her intention to kill Joy, the last name on her hit list before destroying Black Canary completely.

I guess putting the glass Dottie in Superman's impenetrable Fortress of Solitude is as good a place for safe keeping as any.  I didn't know it was ghost-proof but sure, whatever.

Zatanna reasons that Tina can now possess both her and Black Canary, but only one at a time, which means they still have a chance of stopping her.  They rush back to the Xanadu showroom, where Dale Hollister has been possessed by Tina's ghost.  She's using Hollister to murder joy with one of Zatanna's stage traps because since Joy switched out for Black Canary during the heist last year, she never actually took part in the bloodspell.

At that moment, however, Black Canary and Zatanna arrive to save the damsel in distress.  Tina was thrilled to possess the body of her billionaire ex-boyfriend, but she gets a much better rush when she takes over Zatanna again.

Tina/Zatanna turns on the machine set to kill Joy, then casts a spell turning Dale Hollister into a toad. Before she can squash him under heel, though, Black Canary jumps her, gagging her so she can't say any spells.  Tina/Zatanna fights her off, but then Dinah releases Sasha the tiger on her mistress.

When the tiger leaps at Tina/Zatanna, the ghost bolts from the magician and takes over Black Canary.  Tina then jumps back and forth between the women, using each one to attack the other, but not being able to say in one form for too long because the tiger can sense which woman is possessed and attacks that woman.

Tina/Canary uses her sonic scream to blow Zatanna off the stage and into the orchestral pit below.  When she follows her down, she finds Zatanna curled up, nearly catatonic.  Tina's ghost then leaps into the prone form of Zatanna... only to discover too late that she's been duped; that wasn't Zatanna's body.

The real Zatanna pops up and casts a containment spell trapping Tina's spirit in the body that was magically charmed to look like Zatanna, but was, in fact, a dove from her performance.  Tina Spettro's spirit is now trapped in the body of a bird.  Before the ladies can rest on their laurels, though, they realize that Joy is still in danger of being butchered by a giant drill.

Zatanna casts another spell reverting Dale Hollister back to his human form.  Luckily, he wasn't trapped in the form of an animal long enough to lose his mind and soul--unlike Tina Spettro.  As the sun comes up over the Nevada desert, Tina is totally supplanted by the bird.  Her spirit, at last, is dead.  They release her to the wind, nothing but a dove now.

Before the ladies can head to a margarita bar, Black Canary gets a call from Green Arrow telling her that Metropolis is under attack from alien robots.  The Justice League needs their help, and the ladies head out to the next adventure.

That's where the story ends, but there's nearly 40 pages of added content in both the hardcover and digital version of the graphic novel.  This includes character sketches and sample pages in various stages of the art process by Joe Quinones, and a copy of Paul Dini's full 94-page script for the book.  It's awesome material that I recommend fans check out.

So.  What did I think of Black Canary's first original graphic novel?

I loved it.  As I said earlier in my review, Paul Dini knows the characters so well that everything they do feels in-character.  Like their characters in the DCAU, these are iconic and timeless versions of Black Canary and Zatanna.  That's what a Dini story feels like, whether it's a cartoon or a book painted by Alex Ross, the characters feel timeless, infused with all the greatest attributes of the Silver and Bronze Age.  But his script moves with a modern, easily readable pace and tone.

My only complaint with Dini's story, though, is that the villain isn't all that memorable.  When I heard about this graphic novel about a year ago, I was hoping it would contribute a real heavy-hitter to Black Canary's paltry rogues gallery.  Tina Spettro is decent, but she'll never be used again after this story.  Her costume was simple, a drab grey jumpsuit--not exactly a visual feast, and for most of the story, she exists solely as a spirit inhabiting other characters.  She'll forevermore be counted as one of Black Canary's enemies, but she won't add a whole lot to that list.

As for the art, Quinones mostly knocks it out of the park ("mostly").  He caught my eye back in Wednesday's Comics a couple years ago, and I was really excited to see what he would bring to this story.  Given Dini's storytelling sensibilities, it seemed obvious that Quinones would bring a lighter, almost animated style like Bruce Timm or Darwyn Cooke to the art.  It fits the story, and Quinones brings an incredible amount of expressiveness to each of the characters.  There's never a question of what the women and men are thinking and feeling in every single panel.

And yet... part of me wanted something a little more from the art.  Black Canary and Zatanna are beautiful women known for wearing fishnets.  They are sexual and sexualized characters, and I kind of expected more cheesecake from the story.  I'm not saying I would have preferred Ed Benes on this book, but I thought there would be more "Good Girl Art"-style imagery.  The only time Dinah's sexuality is really played up in this story is when Zatanna makes her over to look like a buxom assistant that deliberately doesn't look like Black Canary.

Instead of sexiness, Quinones emphasizes the toughness of Black Canary.  Nothing wrong with that; it makes her a more credible hero and probably a more compelling and likable protagonist.  But sometimes, just a few times, she looks a little too square-jawed and so spunky that she's not really all that attractive.  It's not often, but it is noticeable in a handful of panels.  Black Canary should be powerful and beautiful, but Quinones--unlike most people in comics over the years--sacrifices the latter for the former a couple times in this book.

One other interesting note I found while reading the book.  A lot of Justice League members pop up in small roles throughout the story.  Superman.  Wonder Woman.  Green Arrow.  Green Lantern.  Martian Manhunter.  Elongated Man.  Plastic Man.

Know who isn't on that list?  Batman.  Other than a toy in the background of one panel, Batman does not appear in this story, and that's pretty surprising given Paul Dini's history with the character.

I have given up on DC's mainstream comics from the New 52, and the Injustice: Gods Among Us tie-in comic became equally depressing, despite how well Black Canary was treated in the book.  The fact is, DC isn't offering a lot that appeals to me right now, but the books that do interest me are out-of-continuity stories like the digital first Batman '66, Adventures of Superman, the upcoming Sensation Comics starring Wonder Woman, and this original graphic novel.  DC needs to publish more books like Bloodspell.

Girl Power: NEW FRONTIER SPECIAL

Darwyn Cooke is one of my favorite artists and his love letter to the Silver Age, The New Frontier, is one of my favorite stories ever published by Marvel or DC.  There's nothing I don't like about the story, but as the manager of a Black Canary fan blog, Cooke gives me slim-to-nothing to work with.  Black Canary appears in only three panels in the entire story.  She has no dialogue or action; she's merely a background extra.

However, in 2008, DC published Justice League: The New Frontier Special to celebrate the direct-to-DVD release of the animated adaptation of Cooke's story.  (I got a copy of this story packaged with the New Frontier action figure box set, an unexpected birthday present two years ago.)

This special contains some wonderful new material, including a "lost chapter" from New Frontier written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke, showing an amazing battle between Batman and Superman.  There's a one-page prologue starring Rip Hunter.  There's a great six-page Robin and Kid-Flash team-up by Cooke and Dave Bullock.

And then there's a story of Wonder Woman and Black Canary.  Written by Cooke with art by his longtime inker and collaborator, J. Bone, the story puts the Amazon Warrior and the Blonde Bombshell at the forefront of the Women's Liberation Movement.

I love this story!  The portrayal of Wonder Woman is a little more abrasive than I'd prefer, but it's played mostly for laughs so I'm fine with her being so staunchly anti-men here.  Black Canary is little more than a sounding board for Diana's rants, but her occasional commentary is nice and comedic as well.  Dinah's best moment is that her superhero costume with black and fishnets is actually perfect camouflage inside the Playboy Club.

I love the references to historical figures and events, such as buxom Hollywood starlet Jayne Mansfield and feminist journalist Gloria Steinem, the music of Charlie Mingus, the "bra burning" that came to symbolize the movement, even if the historical accuracy is rather dubious.  Then of course, there is the brief and brilliantly awkward appearance of Bruce Wayne, who needs to be shamed out of the club by his female colleagues in crime fighting.

All told, this is a fun and funny story, and it makes me want to re-read The New Frontier for the umpteenth time!

Girl Power: WONDER WOMAN #310

In the previous two issues of Wonder Woman, a gypsy survivor of the Holocaust named Zenna Persik used her powers to swap bodies with Black Canary.  This resulted in Dinah getting captured by a mad scientist bent on world domination yada yada yada, and Wonder Woman and Zenna (in Canary's body) had to go stop him.  The two-part story ended with everyone getting their bodies back and Zenna sacrificing herself to kill the mad doctor.

Wonder Woman #310: "All's Fair" is written by Dan Mishkin with art by guest penciler Mark Beachum and inks by Pablo Marcos.  It was published in December, 1983.

The story begins with Dinah and Diana playing Null-Grav Handball, the kind of competitive sport they don't play at the Winter Olympics because the athletes need access to the Justice League Satellite to play.

Black Canary calls for a timeout so she can catch her breath.  She makes the excuse that her play was disrupted by Wonder Woman dropping the bombshell that she plans to reveal her secret identity to Colonel Steve Trevor.

Woah! Waitaminute... Hippolyta bequeathed the powers and title of Wonder Woman on Artemis thousands of years ago!  Is there some kind of crisis looming in the near future that'll ret-con this little factoid?

Anyway, Wonder Woman continues the tale.  Back in Homeric times when Greece was carved up into city states, a powerful and charismatic ruler name Cleon is leading his forces across the Aegean Sea when angry waves of Poseidon wreak havoc on his fleet.  Cleon's ship is destroyed and all aboard are dumped into the sea sure to drown.

The ancient Wonder Woman, Artemis, helps the storm-tossed sailers and dives deep underwater to rescue Cleon.  She carries him to safety and flies off, but not only does Cleon owe her his life, he's quite infatuated by her beauty.  But one of Cleon's lieutenants has been possessed by Ares, the God of War, who gives him some, let's say questionable advice on romance.

Ares tells the young Amazon princess that she could be the greatest warrior queen with his support, but she rejects him and goes to see Cleon.  Eros strikes the man with an arrow of love and Cleon and Artemis give in to their passions.  They become lovers and conquerors, ravaging neighboring cities and ravishing each other.

Their lust for power consumes them so that Cleon wants Artemis to lead them to conquer her sister Amazons on Paradise Island.  Artemis refuses, though.  She will not willingly betray Queen Hippolyta--"willingly" being the key word there.

Sometime later, while they're getting it on under a tree, the Ares-possessed soldier tells Artemis and Cleon that Hippolyta has fallen in battle.  Distraught with grief, Artemis leaves Cleon and their army to sail back to the secret home of the Amazons.

Once there, she discovers that Hippolyta is alive and well.  And, of course, Cleon's fleet followed her.  The queen demands to know why Artemis would betray her sisters by bringing a hostile force to their shores.

The Amazons defend their island, and though the battle is fierce, they prove to be the superior army, killing most of the invaders.  Artemis is prepared to slay her queen when Hippolyta realizes that an insidious presence is the cause of this battle.

Hippolyta exposes Ares' manipulative involvement in the current strife.  In a rage, Artemis blames Cleon and threatens to kill him despite his protestations that he really did love her.  In the end, she cannot execute him, because she too really did love Cleon.  But the treachery of Man's World has left a permanent shame on Artemis and she flies off, abandoning her home, her people, and her lover.

This is a total filler issue, but it's a pretty enjoyable one.  Mishkin kills some time waiting for Don Heck to return to the main story, and in the meantime tells a nice little parable of love and duty.  Even though the story sounds like a perfect example of why Diana should not commit herself to Steve Trevor, she sees the opposite as true.  She sees the deception between Cleon and Artemis as their downfall.

Mark Beachum's art is pretty great throughout this story.  I can't think of what else I've seen him draw, but his style strikes me as a cross between Gene Colan and George Perez, and that's pretty high praise indeed.  His panel construction and layouts especially remind me of Perez only more freeform and spread out.  Take a look at Page 7 up above and see how he blocks the eight panels on that page.

Black Canary for her part serves as the audience and reader.  It's nice that Mishkin continued to include her after the adventures of the past two months, and Beachum makes her look terrific, but really, Dinah could have been replaced by any League member and the story wouldn't have changed.

Girl Power: WONDER WOMAN #309

Previously...

Black Canary interfered with an angry gypsy woman chasing a Nazi war criminal.  The gypsy, Zenna Persik, used her magic to transplant her mind with the Canary's so Dinah ended up in a stranger's body and captured by the mad Doctor Schlagel.  Zenna used the Black Canary's bod to board the Justice League satellite where she was captured by Wonder Woman and the Elongated Man.

Wonder Woman #309: "The Black Canary is Dead" is written by Dan Mishkin with art by Don Heck.  It was published in November 1983.

While bound in Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth, Zenna recounts how she swapped minds with Black Canary, the unfortunate result of which left Dinah powerless in the clutches of Dr. Schlagel and his army of mutant Bigfoots.  Wonder Woman refuses to believe that Dinah is dead, especially since Zenna didn't see Schlagel kill her.

Wonder Woman and Zenna Canary teleport down to Star City.  Zenna explains that Schlagel converted a warehouse into his lab to continue the inhuman experiments he began under Hitler.  She reiterates how he tortured and killed her people and her hatred for him knows no limit.

These panels amuse the ten year old boy in me.

Meanwhile, in Schlagel's lab, Dinah has been sneaking around in Zenna Persik's body.  She might not have her sonic scream or Zenna's gypsy magic, but she still has years of martial arts training locked in her mind.

She lets the villain monologue so he can reveal that he's been kidnapping children to tap into their latent psychic abilities to feed his powerful machine.  With gypsy telepathic and telekinetic powers feeding him, Schlagel will be able to destroy America and take over the world.

While he's rambling, Dinah notices her own face looking down from the skylight.  Wonder Woman and Zenna Canary are on the roof, preparing to act.  Wonder Woman uses her lasso to stun two of Schlagel's mutant servants, and Zenna reverses the mind-swap with Black Canary.

Dinah cautions Wonder Woman against treating the monsters too roughly--they are children after all--while Zenna uses her new spacial position to try to kill Schlagel.  Unfortunately, his machine is working, giving him enough superpowers to hold them off.  "Even if you were men, you could not reach me!" he taunts.  (Sexism from a Nazi?  Now I've seen everything!)

Wonder Woman punches through the psychokinetic shield, slowly forcing her way to Schlagel despite his powers and protests.  "It is impossible!" he shouts.  "They don't teach us that word on Paradise Island," Wonder Woman responds.  At the second-to-last second, Schlagel teleports himself, his machine and Wonder Woman with him.

And at the very last second, Zenna uses her powers to swap bodies with Wonder Woman so that she travels with Schlagel, leaving Diana trapped in her gypsy body.

Across the country at Walter Reed Army Hospital, Colonel Steve Trevor is about to be discharged.  On the phone with Etta Candy, he learns that the general sent someone else to an assignment in the Caribbean that was supposed to be Steve's.  Before leaving, he's visited by Lisa Abernathy and her daughter, Eloise, thanking him for saving their dad.  They know he knows Wonder Woman and hope they get a chance to meet her someday.

Wonder Woman in Zenna's body and Black Canary fly across the ocean in the Invisible Jet to where Schlagel is going to sabotage the United States' new missile defense system.  Zenna in Wonder Woman's body is trapped in a psychic cage, unable to use any of Diana's powers.

The missile turns right back into the machine killing Schlagel, and appearing to kill Wonder Woman in Zenna's body.  As Black Canary and the Army search the area, Wonder Woman comes ashore.  And it is the real Wonder Woman, who explains that Zenna swapped minds with her so that she could sacrifice herself to kill Schlagel and stop his weapon.

Hey, wait... Wasn't that machine powered by a bunch of children strapped down to it?  Did that missile blast just murder a bunch of kids?  Huh, I guess it was fully powered and Schlagel no longer needed the kids anymore.  Maybe I missed something.

Anyway, that's the concluding half of the crazy gypsy body thief.  Dan Mishkin delivered a fun little story that shows how obsessed Zenna became with revenge to the point that she endangered the others and had to die to fulfill her mission.  Black Canary gets some decent action in this issue, but as a character she's mostly a spectator this time around.  Her body at least appears on almost every page.

Black Canary returns in Wonder Woman #310 as Diana tells her a story of Amazonian glories past.  Come back next Thursday for that review!

Girl Power: WONDER WOMAN #308

Once more, I draw inspiration from the 1976 Super DC Calendar for a segue into the day's post.  According to said calendar, February 6th is the birthday of the lovely Sue Dibny, wife of Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man.  Though Sue does not guest star in this issue of Wonder Woman, Black Canary and Elongated Man do, so that's what I be reviewing this morning.

Wonder Woman #308: "Heritage" is written by Dan Mishkin with art by Don Heck.  It was published in October 1983.

The issue opens with Wonder Woman on Paradise Island, being led in chains to an altar by her mother, Hippolyta.  The goddess of love, Aphrodite, is summoned to pass judgment on Diana, who must pass the test of steel.

After breaking the shackles, Diana freely dons the Bracelets of Submission, pledging herself to Aphrodite and the Code of Love.  This ceremony is done to replace Wonder Woman's usual bracelets, damaged in the issue before.  Queen Hippolyta then calls upon Athena, goddess of wisdom, to repair Diana's Lasso of Truth.  Once done, Diana is dismissed so her mother can talk about her to the goddesses behind her back.

Once Diana has left, the queen expresses her concerns about Steve Trevor to Athena and Aphrodite.  They mention that Trevor has twice been brought back from the dead.  This revelation is shocking to Sofia Constantinas, the young Amazon (or woman living among the Amazons) who has been eavesdropping on the ceremony.  Just then, she's caught spying by Wonder Woman.

Meanwhile, Black Canary is on patrol in Star City when she finds a young woman accosting an old man.  When Dinah tries to intervene, the woman conjures a wall of fire!

When the seeming attacher is felled by the Canary Cry, the old man calls in some backup, which happen to be hairy Bigfoot-lookalikes.

Black Canary realizes she attacked the wrong person with her cry, but before she can correct her mistake, a mysterious and unseen event changes the game.

Back on Paradise Island, Diana walks with Sofia, explaining how she used to spy on her mother, too, and that it will take time to grow used to Amazonian customs.  Sofia seems receptive to the idea, but she asks Diana about the deaths of Steve Trevor.  This causes Wonder Woman distress, and she seems to forget where she is and what they were talking about for a moment.

Diana leaves Sofia so that she can take up monitor duty at the Justice League Satellite.  When she arrives, though, she finds Elongated Man knocked out on the floor.

Not the best endorsement for one of the world's best detectives to be caught unawares by Black Canary acting so out of character.

Planetside at the Pentagon, Etta Candy is disturbed to learn that another Air Force major is getting a high profile assignment that was supposed to go to Colonel Steve Trevor, who was wounded.

Back in the satellite, Wonder Woman and Elongated Man use the security monitors to track Black Canary to the League's arsenal.

With the hull breached, the artificial gravity fails.  "Black Canary" is sucked up toward the hole that would shoot her out into space.  Wonder Woman rips a piece of metal from the wall to create a patch, and Elongated Man stretches up to the hull to seal the hole.

Once they have Black Canary captured, Diana knows she's not the real Canary.

"Concentration camp... Then you're Jewish?" Ralph exclaims.  Man, again with the awful, awful detective skills on this guy.  Anyway, Zenna Persik explains that she is a gypsy.  Using her psionic powers that people call Gypsy Magic, she swapped bodies with the Black Canary, putting her mind in Dinah's body and Dinah's mind in hers.  Then Zenna was able to tap into Dinah's memories in order to get access to the satellite.  She needs a weapon that can destroy Dr. Schlagel.

Wonder Woman is more concerned with the fate of her friend, Dinah Lance, the real Black Canary.  Zenna suspects that as soon as Schlagel had her captured, he probably killed her.

However, back in Star City, Dinah wakes up in Zenna's body.

Dinah sneaks around the dark looking for an escape.  What she finds, though, is a nightmarish invention: Schlagel has a dozen children strapped to a machine that draws energy from their life-force.  At that moment, she is captured by the Bigfoot goons.  Schlagel comes at her with a syringe, threatening to kill her.

Next issue: Three women against a madman's menacing scheme, and a battle that must end with... "The Death of a Hero!"

The ceremony scene that kicks off this issue is a little confusing if you didn't read the issue before it, which I didn't.  But once Black Canary and Zenne Persik enter the story it's nonstop fun and adventure.  

Black Canary gets plenty to do in this issue, whether she's in the right body or not.  I love that the Canary is considered one of the two heroes of Star City, as if she gets equal billing with Green Arrow in that department.  I always love seeing her cruise around on her motorcycle, and later, when she's trapped in Zenna's body, she still manages to escape captivity and find the villain's weapon.  Her body sees some action, too (teehee), when Zenna uses it to attack Ralph and Diana.

I really like Zenna.  Her background as a gypsy's whose people were butchered during the Holocaust is terrific motivation, and her psionic powers are great for story and visual purposes.  Dr. Schlagel could be a worthy mad scientist when we learn what he's doing with the kidnapped children.  In any event, he's got hairy Bigfoot goons.  That's cool.

There's nothing really to complain about Don Heck's artwork.  His rendition of Black Canary looks good, though not as good as how Mike Grell, Mike Nasser/Netzer and other artists drew her in the '70s and '80s.  His Ralph Dibny seems to be lacking the signature schnoz that made Elongated Man so distinguished.

All told, a really good story.  I'll post the next chapter, Wonder Woman #309 next Thursday.