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| Comic trade paperback, n.pag. Published 2016 (contents: 2015-16) Acquired July 2016 Read December 2016 |
Written by Brenden Fletcher
Color by Lee Loughridge
Letters by Steve Wands
I've been a fan of Black Canary since I first encountered Dinah in Green Arrow comics and fell in love. I followed her from there into Birds of Prey, which continued to develop her and her history-- but I felt she was immensely poorly served by the "New 52" reboot, which replaced her long history with a dull one. But from the moment I saw a cover of her New 52 solo series, I was excited. This looked like the Black Canary I knew, in that her visuals had returned to their fishnets-and-leather-jacket roots, but it also looked different, in that Dinah was now the punk-styled leader of an alternative band, spinning out of events in writer Brenden Fletcher's excellent Batgirl series.
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| And cue! from Black Canary vol. 4 #1 (art by Annie Wu) |
In Kicking and Screaming, Fletcher and artist Annie Wu create one of those perfect comics books, one that is wholly itself. It's hard to put into words how much I liked this, especially the first few issues, because there's nothing for me to compare it to-- this is the lone exemplar of the superhero-and-rock-band comic book. Panel after panel provides delights. Wu's Dinah is sexy and stylish without being objectified, and completely kick-ass. Usually too kick-ass, as the concerts of Black Canary (here the name of the band; Dinah is just "Dinah" or sometimes "D.D.") often end in violence when Dinah has to fight off government agents and/or protestors. Like I said, I've loved Dinah ever since I first encountered her, but this is the most I've loved her; she's everything I want my female superhero characters to be, violent and attractive and in charge.
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| Musicians sure are violent. from DC Sneak Peek: Black Canary #1 (art by Annie Wu) |
Wu's art is amazing, and Lee Loughridge-- always the best colorist in the business-- adds so much to the book's aesthetic too. A couple issues are also drawn by Y: The Last Man's Pia Guerra, who is an excellent artist but maybe not as "punk" as this book requires; her linework is a little too straightforward, while Wu's is dynamic and energetic.
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| DD: The Last Woman. (Okay, not exactly.) from Black Canary vol. 4 #5 (art by Pia Guerra) |
The book's plot is kind of weird, but honestly it's one of those books where I don't care, because it's all about hanging a wacky music-based adventure off it. It's filled with great stuff: Dinah's bandmates include characters named Byron and Heathcliff who actually do look like contemporary kids, one of Black Canary's enemies is the band's disgruntled former singer who now has superpowers, the issues are interpresed with excerpts from a self-produced Burnside music zine, and there's an issue where three "enemy" bands turn up to challenge Black Canary to battle for no readily apparent reason.
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| Fun fact: you can actually buy "Fish out of Water." And it's actually good! from Black Canary vol. 4 #6 (art by Annie Wu) |
I was surprised that this book actually drew on continuity established by the New 52 Birds of Prey and Team 7: Dinah's ex-husband Kurt Lance turns up, as does Amanda Waller, and the book picks up on their situations as of Soul Crisis. Even more surprisingly, the book does more emotionally with Dinah's raised-in-a-dojo backstory than Birds of Prey itself did. There were also some appreciated tie-ins to the Burnside-era Batgirl comics, including an appearance by Operator.
It's not a flawless book (I found the last couple issues, resolving the big ongoing storyline, not entirely satisfying), but it is a unique one, in a way that few DC superhero comics are, but all ought to be. I loved this book despite its flaws, and I'm really looking forward to reading volume 2.
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| I'd be a Black Canary groupie. from Black Canary vol. 4 #1 (art by Annie Wu) |
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