Review: Black Canary: New Killer Star by Brenden Fletcher, Sandy Jarrell, Moritat, Annie Wu, et al.

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2016 (contents: 2016)
Acquired November 2016
Read December 2016

Black Canary, Volume 2: New Killer Star

Written by Brenden Fletcher, Matthew Rosenberg, Julie Benson & Shawna Benson

Art by Sandy Jarrell, Moritat, Annie Wu, Wayne Faucher, Claire Roe
Color by Lee Loughridge, Serge LaPointe, Allen Passalaqua
Letters by Steve Wands, Marilyn Patrizio

New Killer Star just isn't as good as Kicking and Screaming. Part of this is that it's kind of a hodgepodge: one four-issue story arc, one side story of the band visiting Gotham Academy, one flashback story (set before Kicking and Screaming), and one part of a story about Dinah being (re)united with Batgirl and Huntress to (re)form the Birds of Prey.

And part of that is that none of these components are particularly satisfying. The main four-part story is about Dinah being kidnapped by a ninja clan or something who want to know the martial art secret previously known only to Dinah's mother. There's a lot of backstory invoked here, some of it new (I don't think the New 52 Birds of Prey ever said a thing about Dinah's parents) and some of it old, but all of it isn't very illuminating to the Dinah of the present. I want to read about the band having wacky martial arts adventures on the road! But mostly the band is separated from Dinah during this adventure, and the story feels like it's ignoring the premise of the book more than it's using it.

It's kind of weird how this reinserts Dinah's post-Crisis backstory into the New 52, kind of, after Birds of Prey spent so much time developing her orphan backstory.
from Black Canary vol. 4 #10 (script by Brenden Fletcher, art by Sandy Jarrell)

The art, too, is disappointing. Sandy Jarrell isn't a bad artist, and neither is Moritat, but neither of their work compares to that of Annie Wu, the primary artist on volume 1 of Black Canary, who only draws two issues here-- they just lack the dynamism, fun, and sexiness that Wu brings. I know Wu did some well-received Kate Bishop Hawkeye comics for Marvel, but I don't know what else. She's clearly an up-and-coming dynamo (or ought to be), so I'll have to keep on top of her work.

Review: Black Canary: Kicking and Screaming by Brenden Fletcher, Annie Wu, Pia Guerra, et al.

A few reviews of Big Finish audio dramas to catch up on: the Fourth Doctor Adventures The Movellan Grave, The Skin of the Sleek, and The Thief Who Stole Time and all of the third series of Torchwood audios: Visiting Hours, The Dollhouse, Corpse Day, torchwood_cascade-CDRIP.tor (yes really!), The Office of Never Was, and The Dying Room. Whoa!

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2016 (contents: 2015-16)
Acquired July 2016
Read December 2016

Black Canary, Volume 1: Kicking and Screaming

Written by Brenden Fletcher

Art by Annie Wu, Pia Guerra, Sandy Jarrell
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.

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.