Black Canary 1-3

Well, this is … odd.

Black Canary has been around for nearly seventy years now. But she’s tended to be treated as an adjunct to someone else – she began as a character in the Johnny Thunder strip, when she first had her own strip it was a back-up in Flash Comics, and she has generally been part of a group, as a member of the Justice Society of America or the Justice League, or as Green Arrow’s lover and partner. She was more prominent in Birds of Prey, but still not someone around whom everything was revolving. There have been Black Canary solo books from time to time, but none have lasted very long, or made much of an impact.

When Batgirl writer Brenden Fletcher came to the character, he evidently decided that he needed to do something completely different with the character. In that he certainly succeeded. This is very definitely not the Black Canary that you’re familiar with. “Black Canary” here is not the name of the character, but the name of a band, of which Dinah Drake is lead singer. The band play riotous gigs, which almost always end in a fight. This really ought to be an Elseworld (remember those, kids?), but apparently it is part of the current DC continuity – not that many people can make much sense of DC continuity these days. There’s a bit more to the story – there are aliens in pursuit of Dinah’s band, and an ex-husband with a commando team also following them. Quite what is going on has yet to be fully revealed.

One of the definite strengths of this comic is the characterization. Having run into trouble with the depiction of a trans character in Batgirl, Black Canary is full of the sort of people you don’t usually see in superhero comics, such as guitarist Ditto, or drummer Byron. The members of the band Black Canary are clearly depicted as some variety of queer – but the precise nature of their queerness is not set out, as if to say “actually, this isn’t the most important thing about these characters”.

Annie Wu’s artwork is rather fantastic. She adopts a different style from that she employed in Hawkeye – here there is a much more overt influence from underground and punk comics. She takes the “Classic” Black Canary costume, fishnets and leather jacket, and turns it into a look rather than a uniform, a look that is entirely appropriate for a punk rock singer. Lee Loughridge enhances the art with moody colouring.

This is probably the weirdest Black Canary comic you’ll ever read. But given the lack of imagination seen in so many superhero comics these days, especially those coming from DC, it’s a refreshingly different comic. How long this ride will last it’s hard to say – there are plenty of hints in the story that it’s time-limited – but it’s a ride worth going along with.