Black Canary Book 2: New Killer Star (#8-12, Gotham Academy #17)

"I've been in a real bad situation, making bad decisions.  I didn't want to tell you" - Dinah Lance

Ladies month returns to a happier time with more from the DCYou, yes there is still stuff there I want to cover and no I'm not letting it go, with a look at the second and final volume of Black Canary.  Black Canary is a character with a very long history in the DCU and you can read about it here.  This incarnation actually has Dinah Lance as lead singer of a punk rock band called Black Canary, with her still having awesome martial arts prowess and a superpower in her "Canary Cry" sonic scream.  In the first volume we spent our time showing her on the road with her band and being stalked by a woman in white ninja get-up.  At the end after Black Canary beat an alien called The Quietus the ninja revealed herself to Dinah and that was the cliffhanger of the previous volume.  This final five issues unfortunately tries to wrap up several plot threads that were obviously expected to run over a much longer period than five issues and so everything feels somewhat rushed as the music takes a back seat to Dinah searching for the truth about her monther and unlocking her ultimate martial and sonic art.  There is also a single issue crossover with the wonderful (and cancelled of course), Gotham Academy which was also written by Brendan Fletcher and which shows band member Heathcliffe hooking up with Black Canary.  This volume has a few artists who manage to keep to a style consistent with the prior volume and give the comic a nice punky vibe.  So let's wrap up this incarnation of Black Canary.

We begin with a fanzine article telling us that Dinah is missing, the lead guitarist is presumed dead and the rest of the band is being held for questioning by the police, "it seems like Black Canary is all but done."  We then cut to the interrogation room where we are told the band have been questioned for two weeks and they still say they have no idea where their lead singer "D.D." has gone. 

The lead cop says that their old singer "Maeve Tivana" is behind bars and the promoter is pressing charges, the only reason they are being kept free is the lawyers their record label has sprung for them.   The lawyers finally arrive and Byron says are they free to go now?  The cop says they shouldn't count on being free for long thanks to property damage, injuries, missing persons and possible deaths.  They are not to leave Gotham because they'll want to speak to them again soon.

The band leave and outside the police station one of their lawyers says that Kurt Lance sends his thanks for keeping "Ditto" the lead guitarist out of it.   Ditto is "an alien made of living sound" and is hiding out at Kurt's place.   Kurt is apparently convalescing in a remote area.  He wanted them to have something urgently, it's a message saying Dinah is in Berlin and needs their help.  A cabaret performance will be their cover, all travel and accomodation has been arranged for them.  So they are back on tour.

Dinah fighting ninjas.

We cut to Dinah fighting and beating a whole bunch of attackers.  Then a woman dressed like Adam Ant in the "Prince Charming" video orders her to be sent back to the cells.  Dinah is caged up with a black woman who asks if the woman in charge was wearing her totem necklace?  Dinah gives her a thumbs up, seems she cannot speak.  The black woman is actually a hero called Vixen who wears the totem necklace to give her the power of any animal she wishes.

Dinah has a bad cut on her upper arm so Vixen rips her skirt to bandage her up as she explains about her necklace to her.  Then the white ninja appears on top of the cage saying she could free them right now...

Ninja: " But them my neice might never find out what happened to her mother."

Vixen demands she set them free but the ninja says she has searched a long time to find Dinah and she loves her and trusts her to get the job done.  She had taught Dinah new martial arts forms and "there were times I almost believed I was looking at my sister."

Dinah's aunt.

If Dinah keeps fighting they'll believe she has what they want and they'll bring her before "Headmistress Ravanahatha" and then they can strike and make her talk.  Vixen says she didn't sign up for this "weird ninja-cult family drama" and she is going to get out with them or in spite of them.

The ninja tells Vixen that she doesn't understand what's at stake here.  Before Dinah was born she was one of the worlds most talented martial artists.  She founded this institution with her friends making it a place of learning.  She left it in safe hands and built a family but a terrible evil began to grow up in the school.

She left her family to sort things out at the school, "she never returned."  Her schools former teachers are now turning up dead and these warrior women would not fall easily. The killers were looking for something and they think they have found it in Dinah.   They'll make her fight until they see her use the "Five Heavens Palm.  Her mothers secret technique".   That had something to do with her mother's disappearance.  Dinah allowed herself to be captured to get closer to the truth.  Vixen asks where she had been all these years and the ninja says "family business" and departs.

We then cut to the rest of the band on their way to Berlin by plane.  On board they bump into Maeve who has been released and is also coming to Berlin, she is here to help and make sure no one messes with Ditto who smiles at her.  Back in the jail cell Vixen admits to being a big Black Canary fan. She says they both have a lot in common, both raised in foster family, both with jobs in the public eye as she is a model.  She believes they can be friends.

However when these people came after her they attacked her manager and abducted her in this death cult prison.  She then head butts the bars and falls to the ground yelling that Dinah is trying to kill her.  The guards arrive and call for advice from "Master Greyeyes".  They open the cage and Vixen attacks, knocking them all out.  But before she can escape the ninja kicks her back into the cell telling her to stay put.

The guards keep beating on Vixen and Dinah can't take it so she knocks the rest out and activates a button on the wrist of one which releases the collar round her neck so she can speak.  The ninja says it's good to hear her voice even if "your actions have put all of our work in jeopardy."

Vixen busts them out.

Greyeyes appears and Dinah tells the ninja, who she finally names as "aunt Rena" that she is packing away her emotions right now.  And she unleashes her Canary Cry on Greyeyes and knocks her out.   Vixen takes back her totem necklace and unleashes the power of an elephant, smashing her way through the building's wall to the outside.

There are a lot of ninjas outside and before Dinah can shout them down a chain wraps round her neck cutting her off. The chain is held by Greyeyes and she and Dinah trade insults then Vixen takes on a bear's power and punches Greyeyes so she releases the chain.   Greyeyes then powers up a ball of energy which Dinah matches with her cry and she knocks Greyeyes unconcious.  Dinah wants to go back for Rena but Vixn says she is using her and does she even have proof she really is her aunt?

Dinah then takes on the ninjas and beats them all saying she needed to get that out of her system.  Vixen takes on an eagle's power and flies them away.  They land some wayaway and Dinah says she needs to get back to Gotham and Vixen says she needs to get back to Rome and find out if her manager is OK.  She asks where they are and Dinah says outside Berlin.

Dinah says she wishes she could tell the rest of the band where she disappeared to, but she knows they'd come after her.  And "I refuse to put Black Canary in danger.  Never again".  We then cut to them arriving in Berlin missng Dinah as she buys a ticket to Gotham at the same airport.   Maeve is excited that "Izak Orato" the coolest 80's dude ever will be at the club although another one of the band tells her not to get too excited, "this club is not what it seems."

We begin the next chapter with Dinah hanging out with Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl.   Barbara is a big fan of the band, though Dinah says the person on stage isn't her.  Barbara says it is, just another her.  Dinah tries to shut down the conversation about her but Barbara keeps pushing when Dinah admits that meeting aunt Rena.

Barbara: "I get it.  You finally found some real family to hold on to and it's causing you to doubt who you really are."

Dinah doesn't want to talk about it. Barbara says their old team, the Birds of Prey disbanded, she ran out on her band, lost Kurt a second time and finally she's found a relative who redifines who she is as a person. Dinah says it makes her "feel like punching something."

Out on the town with Dinah and Babs.

So Barbara gets dressed up as Batgirl and they go out and punch some criminals.  They fight in a record shop and the gang leader surrenders so his precious records don't get broken.  Dinah then confesses to Barbara about getting suckered into joining a ninja death cult by her aunt and recounts what had happened to the school her mother set up  She had come back to Gotham to figure out what happened to her mother.  When the gang leader realises she is D.D. from Black Canary he asks if she can sign his black eye for him.

Later Dinah asks Barbara to use her photographic memory to think back to her dojo before it burned down and find the photo on her desk.  Barbara says her memory doesn't work that way but she does remember asking about the photo which is apparently the only one Dinah hasd of her mother.  Written on the back was several names, one of which was the name of Vixen's manager and another two had been assasinated in recent months. They need to track down "Judy Slade" another name on the back of the photo, so Barbara gets her friend Frankie on it.

Next day they visit the studio where the picture was taken, it's now owned by a "Juniper Vega" and has left it how it was when the photo was taken.  Barbara asks if her mum was in a band too, Dinah says she wasn't as far as she know so she isn't sure why she and her friends were here.  Then she finds a photo showing her mum as a dancer.  Her teammates too.

Dinah: "This can't be right.  You don't go from teaching martial arts to dancing in videos."

Barbara picks up a picture of a goth looking guy named "Izak Orato" and Barbara asks if she knows who he is.   Barbara remembers her mother saying she didn't like his videos.  They find a bunch of reel-to-reel tapes ad start listening to them.  Babara thinks her mum was right about Izak's music.

Izak Orato

Dinah is watching one of the old Izak videos on Barbara's phone.  It's definitely her mother, she moves just like Dinah and she is in quite a few of them too.  Then Barbara finds something on one of the tapes, Dinah's mother is being threatened by Izak on it but the tape cuts out before they can hear much more.

Dinah ponders that her mum and dad were working somekind of angle with this Izak fellow.   Her father was a P.I. so Barbara figures that her dad was investigating Izak and her mum jumped in to be his inside guy but when they got close things got serious so she called in her old kung fu buddies.  Then Dinah's father was found dead and mum ran off to Berlin to fight a ninja death cult, "it doesn't add up" says Dinah.

Then Frankie calls and tells them Judy Slade was murdered over twenty years ago.  She was alive on the set of a Izak Orato music video one day and a "dry shell of a body the next."  The M.E.'s report says it was liked the life was sucked out of her.

Suddenly a bunch of shurikens are thrown at Dinah and Barbara.  It's Greyeyes who has managed to track them down.   Dinah tells Barbara they are after the Five Heavens Palm her mum made up.  But Dinah doesn't know it.  Barbara is always prepared and has attached a small explosive to the drumkit which she sets off.   There is a mega brawl and Greyeyes manages to get ahold of Barbara and chokes her into unconciousness.

Another ninja brawl.

With Barbara slumped at her feet, Greyeyes says she could kill her right now to provoke Dinah into using the "technique you're going to great lengths to conceal."  Greyeyes asks what it would take, how desperate would she have to be to finally use it.   So Dinah says she gives up, she'll reveal it but Greyeyes must be alone, so Greyeyes orders her ninjas out taking Batgirl with them.

Greyeyes tells Dinah she wants to take her down.  She knows how gifted she is but she watched her every move and knows she can beat her.  The headmistress has commanded Greyeyes get the technique even at the cost of her own life. Now Dinah must perform the Five Heavens Palm or Batgirl dies.  Dinah makes a move but it's the "Silent White Crane kata! Liar!"  Knocked down, Greyeyes yells for Batgirl to be killed but Dinah isn't fazed as Batgirl renters saying Dinah knows she can take care of herself.

Dinah starts punching Greyeyes saying they should fight with no Canary Cry or electric powers, Greyeyes agrees and a physical throwdown starts.  Dinah beats Greyeyes and demands to know who the headmistress is.  Greyeyes says she is  called "Ravanahatha" and many years ago Dinah's mother injured her. Dinah asks if she killed her mother.  Greyeyes says her mother was pushed in the fight into using the Five Heavens Palm which left her mistress broken and she requires it again to make her whole.

Greyeyes them powers the electricity power up, grabbing Dinah's leg demanding she use the move.  Barbara yells at Dinah to get away, Greyeyes is going to blow.  She uses a grappled to swing across and get ahold of Dinah and swing them both to safety as Greyeyes goes boom.

Greyeyes combusts.

They watch the fire from a short distance away.  Barbara can't believe Greyeyes killed herself for kung fu.  Dinah says it can apparently save the life of the person she follows.  She says aunt Rena said the headmistress could tell them what happened to her mum.  Barbara wants to know more about aunt Rena who Dinah never mentioned before. Dinah says she didn't know about her until a few weeks ago and she's a world class fighter.

Barbara is suspicious, referring to a villain who had convinced everyone he was a friend of hers until they realise he was actually rearranging their memories, "people coming out of nowhere tend to be bad news.  I'm sorry Dinah."  They return to Barbara's place and Frankie tells her that the band Black Canary are in Berlin.  When Dinah realises the club they are playing in is owned by Izak Orato, it has to be a trap.  But Black Canary need her and Dinah needs answers so it's back to Berlin with her.

We begin chapter three with Dinah back in Berlin with Frankie on the phone to her. Dinah is outside the club saying the place "reeks of villain's lair."  Barbara is on the line too, they've contacted Vixen to come help but no response from her yet.  The drones they have tapped into have picked up some people, "they appear to be armed and waiting for you."  Barbara pleads with Dinah to wait for Vixen rather than take them on alone.  "Sometimes it's like you don't even know me, Batgirl" grins Dinah.

Jump cut to Dinah standing atop a pile of unconcious bodies. Barbara can't get a scan of what's in the club, they are blocking signals inside  It stinks of being a trap, and Frankie backs her up saying when Dinah walks through the club's door she will be on her own.

Dinah: "Wouldn't be the first time.  Won't be the last.  Thanks for the hand ladies.  Canary out."

And into the club she goes.  She is confronted by Izak Orato on stage with the Black Canary band behind him looking somewhat hypnotised.

Izak Orato and Black Canary.

Izak says that now their vocalist has arrived they are ready to begin their headline performance.  Dinah says she isn't here to put on a show, she's here for a friends.  Izak says they are free to go anytime "but they live to entertain". Dinah says she doesn't entertain, she's a soldier.  But he says he is going to remind her of her true nature.

Izak: "Now, birth sounds that stir the hearts of men to dream memories of stardust newly formed... reveal to me your true heart Dinah".

Dinah gets up on stage and sings, then realises Ditto isn't there.  The rest of the band come around and are surprised to find out where they are and what they are wearing. Apart from Maeve the others hug Dinah, then she tells them they have to go.

Izak says there is at least one song left in the set.  Dinah orders Black Canary to run. As the weird horned ninja attack, Maeve takes the rest of the band to safety while Dinah confronts Izak who says he just wants her and they drop through a trapdoor.  As the rest of the band fight their way out, Byron says that Dinah can look after herself when Heathcliffe says they need to go help her.

Dinah is now in a hall of mirrors. He tells her that he hasn't hurt her friends, she did by abandoning them.  "You truly are your mother's daughter" Izak says. She starts to say she was trying to protect them, then she gets slashed across the upper arm and sees a reflection of her mother in the mirrors, "walking away from little Dinah again... and again.. and again.."

Izak says her blood is delicious, "I need another taste."  Dinah asks if that is why he brought her here to ffed on her like he did on Judy.   He says she was a small morsel,  those women stalked him and pretended to be his entourage, his dancers. He would have given them the world, but then he drank the life of their friend.

He slashes Dinah again, and she tries to goad him into coming out and facing her one-on-one.  He says she sounds like her mother "the women who wanted to destroy me."  Dinah says her mother was not a killer she just wanted to stop him taking more lives.

Izak: "She fought me!  Hurt me in ways I didn't think possible.  For the first time in a millenia I felt true pain. But ancient beings don't falls so easily, nor do we forget."

Dinah asks if killing her is his revenge.  He says no, he wants her to fix him, to heal him.  He needs the Five Heavens Palm.  Her mother tore him apart with it, he needs Dinah to put him back together.

Dinah says she doesn't know it.  Izak tells her it taps the very fabric of the universe on a microscopic scale. Vibrating in perfect harmony manipulated with great power and cocare by a master artist.   He knows Dinah is such an artist but she might need careful influence to find her power, he thought performance might be the key but perhaps it demands something more traumatic.

Dinah gets pissed.

He then shows Dinah how he killed and fed on her father, taunting Dinah by saying how he still dreams of the taste of his blood and watching the life flow from him.  Dinah throws Izak's aura off her and powers up as he is finally revealed.  They fight and Izak opens his chest vertically to reveal a mouth full of spiked fangs. 

She escapes from him to where Vixen and her manager, one of Dinah's mother's friends Sandra McCanlies, are battling the horned ninjas.  Then aunt Rena appears, accusingly she says Dinah betrayed her and turned her bac on the mission. She was guiding her down a path that would have led them to uncover the Five Heavens Palm.  Vixen then drops a bombshell:

Vixen: "That woman is not Dinah's aunt!  That's one half of the demon Ravanahatha."

And the demon imapales Dinah through the stomach with a katana.  As Izak appears behind her along with the not-aunt they hiss that now she has no choice but to use the Five Heavens Palm and it will make Ravanahatha whole again.  It tells her she is all alone, but as she lies dying, Ditto comes up to her and whispers "you're not alone.  You've never been alone."

That's no aunt!

We now go through a voyage into Dinah's psyche.  We see her performing her final gig saying it's the last they'll ever do.  One yea later, she is being interviewed on TV, the presenter says she's lost a lot of her glitter in her new act with Izak Orato.  He says that having met her she feels more like an off-duty superhero.

Dinah says that isn't too far off, the presenter says that he knew a lady who said she didn't want to meet Dinah feeling that she is into kung fu magic and it would make her nervous and others she her as a skilled performer who changes from time to time.  Dinah says she was picking up the pieces her mother left behind, "she was a performer in another life..." The interviewer asks if she taught her the moves she uses, Dinah just says she's putting on a show. The interviewer asks if it wouldn't be better to use those skills to help people, "why keep singing when the world is falling apart around us?"  Dinah is silent.

Another year later Dinah is in the studio with Izak, and various groupies lounging around, who says that music gives them meaning, "there's little more we can do for a fellow sentient being than bring them joy."  Dinah says nothing.  Then mumbles they need to go and Izak says she doesn't need the distraction of flesh, "let me bring you back to life."

Two more years later, Dinah is solo now and listening to playback on a track he just recorded.  Then Wonder Woman teleports in looking beaten up.  She asks Dinah to come and command them in battle "save the world".  There is a war going on between the Justice League and a villain called "Ravedeath".  They need Dinah, but she says that she can't help.  What she is doing now is important, Wonder Woman says "your friends will die.  You'll be alone".  Dinah just says she has to get back to work because her future depends on it.

Dinah refuses to superhero.

Six more years later, Dinah has had her first mainstream hit with her first dance album, "Scream Heels".  Her past work has been critically well received but didn't breakthrough.   Dinah appears at a press cobference. She tells them that times are hard in the world, so if her music can bring joy then she's done her job. She tells them she won't go back to experimentally stuff, nothing but hits from now on.

Four more years later, she is being interviewed over the phone about her recent albums, her most recent being "like your first peice of purely commercial art."  When the interview starts probing into her past work saying they sounded like she was searching for for a way to connect with her mother after all these years. The interbiewer says that she told a magazine in the past she had found a frequency that allowed to communicate wth her mother.  Dinah snaps that this interview was supposed to be about her new record.  The interviewer presses her saying did she find out Izak Orato wasn't responsible for her death and that's why she agreed to work with him. And was there any clue he'd become Ravedeath in the early days with him?  Then the interveiwer asks her about the new album.

Six more years later, Dinah has Paloma and Byron round to ask if they want to reform Black Canary.   She says she hasn't been feeling the music in so long, "so many soulless stadium shows."  We wants to feel the energy again.  She snuck into Gotham to watch them play saying it took all her willpowet not to run up to the stage and do a song.  Paloma gets up to leave and Byron apologises saying it's not the right time for any of them.  Dinah asks where Ditto is, Byron says she has no idea who she is talking about.

Seven years later on, she arrives heavily pregant meeting with Barbara and Diana (Wonder Woman).  They have a serious message for her though.  Her husband Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow was serving the Justice League again at Barbara's request.  Ravedeath was spreading throughout the universe and they didn't want it to strip other planets like it did Earth.  And Ollie was killed in deep space, when he was supposed to be with his family.  "I'll never forgive your for this Babs.  Never" she says coldly.

Sixteen years later, her daughter is a teenager and tells her mum she is not supposed to be out of bed.  Dinah eppears to still be recording despite being ill.   She gets into bed and her daughter tells her to "leave the music now.  Just close you eyes." Dinah says when she closes them her daughter isn't there. Suddenly the rest of Black Canary appear and tell her she is not alone and never have been.  Ditto appears and tells her "time is flexible".

Black Canary surround her saying she's alive and she is going to be OK.  Dinah remembers that they are in so many places at once and there is that hum again, "everything's buzzing".  Then a vision of her mum appears and clasps her hands.  She tells Dinah she remembers how powerful she was when she left, "that power inside your cry is everything, love." The vibration is the music of the heavens and the music of the universe and she taught her to channel it.

Time gets wobbly.

She was shown how to use it as a child and she learned though she did not know, "use it.  Fight for your life and the lives of your friends and family."
Dinah: "The Five Heavens Palm!"

And with that she returns to the present, she pulls the katana out of her belly and stands with Ditto putting her hand on her wound and it heals up.  Black Canary all give her a big group hug as Maeve notes Ditto brought them back to save Dinah.

But there is still the matter of Ravanahatha to deal with.  Both halves, Rena and Izak say they will become whole again now she has unlocked the power. The demon joins together although not fully, they are still powerful though when attached to each other.  A big brawl ensues with Black Canary joining in as well as Vixen and her manager.

Ravanahatha: "Youuuuuu can't win. If you use the Five Heavens Palm we will let you live. We will even give you yor hearts desire.  Fame!  Fortune! Family!  We can make sure you're never alone again."

Dinah says she has never been alone and if it wants her power it can have it. But she warns it that the Five Heavens Palm won't put it back together it will be it's death.

The Five Heavens Palm.

Five Black Canarys appear with they palms all pointed inward.  Ravanahatha lets out a terrible scream and disperses.  The rest of his ninja cult run when they realise their master is gone.  Dinah asks if she did that and Vixen says she defeated an ancient kung fu demon with a secret technique her mum buried inside her, so yeah she did do it.

She accomplished what her mother didn't.  It would have sucked the world dry, and her mum split it in half but Dinah actually destroyed it.  Sent it to the place between time and space. Dinah says she saw her mother and other instances of herself. She is told to trust what she knows and that she is a superhero.  Dinah apologises to the band for getting them involved. Byron asks if the can go home now.  Then Dinah thinks about her husband Kurt.

We cut to her laying a flower on his grave.  Amanda Waller, she of the Goverment superhero black-ops agencies arrives to pay her respects.   She asks what the future holds for Black Canary.  Dinah says she has her eye on a new pair of boots.  She asks Amanda what her intentions with Ditto.  Amanda pretends she doesn't know about her and just says "who?"

We end this story and this truncated series with Dinah announcing at a concert that she is quitting the band. It woun't be the end of Black Canary, they will be having their original vocalist back, Bo Meave. She and Bo are going to duet but before they do she says she knows there are many possible futures but nothng can stop her "loving these women like my own flesh and blood.  Aren't they incredible?"  She counts the song in one last time and sings her final song.

She walks down backstage and changes her high boots for a part of buckled combat boots. As she walks out of the venue the narration asks who is Dinah?  A singer.  A daughter.  A  friend.  A fighter. Each tones of a complex chord.  Made stronger by those ringing with it.  Made stronger still by those against it.

Narration: "That's the power behind the voice of Dinah Lance.  That's the sound of Black Canary."

The end of this chapter of Dinah's life.

The end.  Well not quite, there is issue #17 of Gotham Academy included in the trade, which recounts how Heathcliffe hooked up with the band.  But as I am also covering that series on this blog it makes more sense to write about it when I reach that volume of Gotham Academy.  There is also a sneak peek of Dinah taking the Black Canary identity and  becoming part of The Birds of Prey again as part of the DC Rebirth.  All very safe and samey and typical of DC to try something new with a character like this version with Black Canary being a band and Dinah its lead singer, then panic and pull their head back into their shell and just return to the same old, same old stuff.  Oh well.  Anyway as for this story, it does indeed suffer from obviously having to resolve itself in too few issues, but it still manages to be remarkably coherent.  I'm a huge martial arts buff so I enjoyed the fight scenes and of course the search for a super special technique that was in you the whole time is a martial arts movie trope it was fun to see used here.  I'd like to have seen more of the band as they were definitely sidelined in the issue, although the team-up with Batgirl made up for it.  Also nice to see Vixen again, she is one of those charaters who has bounced round the DCU for a long time, never finding a comic of her own just guest starring in other peoples.  The rushed ending also meant we didn't get to see  Ravanahatha do something more heinous that would really warrant revenge, I mean it was evil don't get me wrong but I feel it could have been shown to have done even more eveil things than just snacking on Dinah's father.  And interestingly she never actually tracked down her mother, only seeing her in her vision.  That seemed to satisfy her at anyrate, but maybe they'll continue her hunt in Birds of Prey, though that's doubtful considering the clean slate approach the DC Rebirth took. The art was excellent all the way through, Sandy Jarrell, Moritat, Annie Wu and Wayne Faucher all worked hard to keep the style consistent and writer Brenden Fletcher's writing was naturalistic despite having to contain some egregiously huge infodumps.  I could have read a lot more of Dinah the lead singer of Black Canary but alas it was not to be.  Anyway, join me again on Valentine's Day when Squirrel Girl has to deal with her toughest adversary yet.  A Nice Guy...

Black Canary Book 1: Kicking And Screaming (#1-7)

"They rode through hell to get here, Keystone! Get ready to scream for Black Canary!" - Dinah Drake

Oh man it's getting depressing blogging about DCYou series with fresh and fun takes on old characters that are either getting outright cancelled or most likely won't make it through the DC Rebirth without being reverted to a more traditional version.  Black Canary as a character has been around since comic's Golden Age.  Like most characters who have been around that long Dinah Lance nee Drake has been through quite a number of revamps and retcons including crossing over to Earth One from Earth Two.  Possessed of a powerful super-sonic cry she is also a skilled martial artist and is probably best known for her time with the "Birds Of Prey" both pre and during the New 52..  However in this version the Black Canary in question is the name of a rock band of which Dinah is the lead singer of.  The sneak peak from Convergeance shows her being head hunted by mysterious looking executives with the implication they want her in the new band to be built around her.  The story proper starts with the band on tour and already with a reputation for trashing venues.  Written by Brendan Fletcher, who is also responsible for Gotham Academy (and indeed one of his Gotham Academy characters is a regular here now) and fantastically drawn by Annie Wu and Pia Guerra I'll admit this is a very different and possibly fan alienating take on a long established character but as someone who was never really interested in her before, I actually impulse bought this in my LCS on the strength of the art and don't regret it.  So lets check it out in more detail.  If you're wondering where this month's Alan Moore comic is, I'm making this a month devoted to either female led comics or teambooks with prominent female members and I am saving The Ballad Of Halo Jones for next months UK comics month.

Dinah and Heathcliff

We begin with Heathcliff, he of Gotham Academy, asking a venue manager for the money the band is owed for a performance.  The venue manager is refusing to pay up as Dinah, here going by the name "D.D." kicked the arses of some men who were harrassing some women fans who were very grateful to her.  Then Dinah appears behind him and the venue manager coughs up the money in fear.

On the tour bus we meet Byron the drummer, Paloma the keyboardist and Ditto, a child progedy guitarist who is mute.  Byron asks of Dinah:

Byron: "What's the deal?  Why is there so much violence around you?  Are you going to come clean about your past, or should we just call it quits now before we all get killed?"
She hasn't even told them what "D.D." stands for and there is a rumour she used to be married.  Dinah explains that she's "lived hard" and maybe karma is catching up with her.  Byron says she can't change her past but maybe she doesn't need to fight so much.

Paloma, Dinah, Byron and Ditto.

Dinah says her sensei would tell her to handle conflict without violence, "I think I lost that path when I lost him".  Of all the things he taught her he didn't tell her how to move on stage.  So Byron shows her a video of another singer to give her some pointers.  Outside as the tour bus is unloaded, some mysterious men watch and speak of a plan to be enacted "tonight".

At the sound check, Paloma grumbles about Dinah blowing the system with her scream.  Ditto strums her guitar and can tease sounds from it the way Dinah can use her voice.

Byron: "Sometimes when people are able to do something brilliant, you just have to go with it and you don't ask questions."

Backstage Heathcliff says to Dinah he senses she is not sure she wants this life.  Dinah says she'll honour her contract, use the money to rebuild her team and her dojo.  She is good at what she does, but does she like it?

Attack of the scribble aliens.

The show begins and gets off to a good start, then suddenly Dinah notices some black scribble monsters in the audience.  Using the mike and lead as a weapon she jumps down and attacks them.  Apologising to the band she uses her sonic scream to defeat them, before they slither off, one of them says:

Alien Thingy: "He will come for her!  He knows.  And he will come! And when he does you will all die!"

Realising it was talking about Ditto, Dinah gives the rest of the band an ultimatum.  They can split now or stay and help her protect Ditto.  They choose to stay and also to keep gigging in the hope Ditto will open up to them.  Dinah says "fine" but starting tommorrow they are all learning self defence, hand-to-hand first then weapons.

Next day the band is out in the desert being taught how to shoot.  Paloma refuses at first and Dinah goes to check on Ditto.  She tells her she was married once and her husband showed her how to shoot.  But Ditto has more secrets, "like your real name.  Or where you come from.  Or why those creatures are after you."  She starts to ask Ditto about the noises she can make with a guitar when Heathcliff calls to her that someone is watching them.

Training in the desert.

Dinah has a check round then says it's time to leave, but not before noting the perfect target shooting as done by Paloma.  The tour continues, with the band keeping a low profile between gigs.  One day while they are practicing their martial arts moves, they hear someone on the bus.  Byron surprises the person who turns out to be Maeve their original singer.  "It didn't work out" snarks Byron.

Maeve says it was because someone decided having a lead singer who was loud rather than good was in the best interests of the band.  After exchanging death glares with Dinah, she runs off.  Paloma says she has every right to be upset, Dinah was "handed this band on a silver platter.  She didn't work for it.  She doesn't know music".  Yet she knows how to shoot and kill a dude with her bare hands, so what's all that about?  Dinah says that's enough.

Dinah: "We've got a few more shows to go to fulfill this contract.  Let's play the gigs and cut our losses.  I'll move on and rebuild my life.  You can have your old band back.  Cool?"

Introducing Bo Maeve.

Later she and Ditto go to a shop selling musical instruments.  Ditto strums a guitar and Dinah says she can feel it like in her vocal chords.  She quietly uses her power to hum and sets the guitars thrumming. 

Then a masked man appears and attacks.  He has a vocal inhibitor so she can't use her voice on him, so they throw down hand-to-hand.  Dinah knocks him out and when Byron asks who he is, Dinah takes off his mask and reveals her husband, Kurt Lance.  And if the people he works for are after them, "we're in greater danger than I thought."

Kurt Lance.

We cut to Black Canary's next concert, interspersed with Dinah taking down government goons.  They chase the bus on motorbikes, but Paloma's sharp shooting fends them off.  They capture one of the goons and bind and gag him on the tourbus.  While Dinah confronts Kurt the others hear him spluttering and go and check on him only to find an oily alien about to bite his face off.  Paloma empties a clip in it but it has no effect.

Kurt and Dinah talk.  He tells her Ditto isn't from Earth and people will kill to get hold of her.  The oily aliens are from her planet and they are on the bus right now.  He and Dinah drop through the bus roof and Dinah shouts the alien to death.  They make it to the gig in time.

Dinah and Kurt to the rescue.

Afterwards Kurt says he and Dinah need to "really talk".  He says he had no intention of showing up in her life again.  Ditto is dangerous.  His people - the government - want her back.  Dinah was treated with genes taken from Ditto, "you get your scream from Ditto".

He doesn't want the government to have her back though.  He voluteered for the "retreival" mission so he could help Dinah instead.  "I know you're a good person and this girl means a lot to you".  Then Byron rushes in and says Ditto has gone missing.  We join her in a car being driven by Maeve who gleefully says:

Maeve: "Now that I've got you, nothing will stand in my way of getting what I want.  Watch out Black Canary fans.  You're about to meet Bo Maeve".

Maeve tells Ditto that she was "born to entertain".  She is bitter that Paloma and Byron didn't stand by her when the record company dropped her.  Dinah is freaking out when Heathcliff finds Maeve's shawl and at that, Dinah sets off alone on motorbike in pursuit.

Mave and Ditto bond.

Maeve and Ditto are getting along, Maeve tells her that she was a stage school brat who left home when her parents were exploiting her badly and made her own way in the world.  The only thing that mattered was "Be the best.  Always be the best."  She called the band "Alias Insane" after a derogatory nickname her father gave her. 

In their hotel room Maeve teaches Ditto some stage moves as they bounce on the beds.  Still tracking them after calling for the assistance of a tech geek, Dinah foils a mugging outside a shop she believes Maeve and Ditto visited.  Next day Maeve and Ditto leave the motel and Maeve says, "if I didn't have other plans I think we could make something awesome together".

We get another flashback, this time to when Maeve was dropped from the band.  She says how awkward and horrible she thought Dinah was when she saw her on stage in Her clothes and singing Her songs.  So she set the clothes in the dressing area on fire out of spite, and witnessed first hand Dinah using her power to blow the flames out.

Maeve: "She had a genuine talent of her own. A gift that she kept a secret.  Something I thought I could never possess until very recently."

Maeve drives herself and Ditto to a meeting with Amanda Waller, the DCU's resident black ops executive.  As part of her agreement with Maeve, Waller will have her taken to a facility and given a power of her own in return for Ditto.  Then a white clad ninja armed with a katana drops down and disarms all the soldiers.  It takes Ditto away and delivers her safely to Dinah.  Meanwhile Maeve is in a lab being upgraded with a superpowered voice of her own.

Ninja!

Another concert ends and Dinah pays tribute to her bandmates and they have a group hug onstage.  In the bus afterwards Kurt apologises to her for letting her down after he had his memory erased.

Kurt: "I'm really happy you've found something here, with this band.  But it's not safe for them, Dinah.  Out here with people like us."

Dinah starts to tell him to be straight with her, but is interupted by Heathcliff saying they have arrived at the campsite they'll be spending the night at.  After they set up, Kurt goes to check the perimeter.

Byron is excited that the next town is where the family are, although it's also Maeve's hometown so they better be on their guard.  The debate if it was Maeve who took Ditto.  Paloma is unsure, but Byron and Dinah believe she did.

Dinah reassures Ditto.

Dinah is curious as to how much they know about their record company A&B Records who put them together.  Dinah was approached to do one record and one tour and as she was broke at the time would have been dumb to turn them down.  But being put in a band with Ditto who has similar powers makes her wonder if there is an ulterior motive going on.  She says they should pay the label headquarters a visit soon.

Later Dinah is sleeping in her tent when the white ninja reaches in and extracts a vial of her blood.  This wakes Dinah up and she immediately goes on the offensive but the ninja gracefully knocks Dinah down and makes her getaway.  Dinah gives chase but loses her in the night time woods.

Next day the band meet Byron's family in a diner.  After the meet and greet an speaker is tossed through the store's window.  Dinah goes outside and is confronted by a woman who is backed up by several bands with grudges against Black Canary.  She challenges her to a "Battle Of The Bands" which Heathcliff says he's agreed to.  He whispers to Dinah that it was the only way to pay back the organiser for trashing their last venue.

The gauntlet is thrown.

The band make themselves ready, then Heathcliff comes in and says Maeve has a band which has just taken to the stage, "Bo M" it is called.  They go out and take a look at her and even Dinah grudgingly admits Maeve has some cool moves.  Then Maeve lets out a shattering cry just like Dinah's.

The crowd are superhyped by Maeves performance, Dinah says they need to pull out of this Battle right now.  Kurt agrees but says Maeve was probably a distraction by Waller and there are likely to be soldiers lurking around the place.  "All the more reason to get out while we can" says Dinah.

In the dressing room, Paloma and Byron are pondering a wave form scribbled on the mirror by Ditto.  They use Paloma's smartphone to decrypt it and it plays back Dinah's words when she paid tribute to her bandmates.  Ditto is trying to tell them something, but what?  But before they can make their getaway they discover their stuff has been loaded on stage and Maeve is calling them out.  So they go ahead and play.

Black Canary versus Bo M.

Side-by-side on the stage, Bo M and Black Canary face off against each other.  They begin to play hard, Black Canary have the upper hand then Bo M's guitarist slashes the cable to Paloma's keyboard.  Byron and Bo M's drummer clash as well.  Dinah notices Ditto has gone and bears down on Bo M's drummer demanding to know where she is.

The drummer zaps Dinah with her drumstick and their guitarist's guitar belches flames.  Dinah hurls a cymbal at her to disable it.  There is more fighting and Bo M are defeated.  Maeve completely loses her shit:

Maeve: "Pick up those instruments or I swear I will scream out the organs of everyone in this room".

The crowd are on Dinah's side, "they don't even care about the music anymore" says Byron.  Both Dinah and Maeve aim one last mighty scream at each other when Ditto wanders in between them.  Kurt rushes to save her and he and Ditto are exactly where the two screams meet and they are sent into oblivion which distresses both Maeve and Black Canary deeply.

Ditto and Kurt are screamed away.

In the aftermath Black Canary slip away, outside is a limo from A&B Records who are going to take them to headquarters and answer all their questions.  They head up to the top of the building and find Mr. Pike, an elderly man running the show.  He is also... Kurt.  Much aged and wheelchair bound now.  He introduces them also to the "composer" of the symphony they have been part of.  Ditto.

Kurt tells them "vibration creates life".  There is a sentience in the movement between entropy and vibration.

Kurt: "Life as pure signal.  The timeless movement of the firmament strings.  The universe's perfect harmony."

But there is something called "The Quietus" which swallows sound, "that is what's coming for us here and now, Dinah".  When he was hit by the screams he ended up everywhere and everywhen.  The past, present and future the same to him.  Ditto is a "sentient sound given material form".  The screams disrupted her and him with her.  And the things he saw on his way back to this time and place...

The aged Kurt, part of the mystery that created Black Canary.

Ditto is special among her people in that she can hold a stable matter form, "they see her as a threat.  They want to destroy her."  Kurt has seen the end of all things and Ditto bought the band together, and made it so he had a huge record company that had it's own stadium full of amplifiers and speakers.

Kurt: "They are your holy weapons in this war for the living universe.  Black Canary".

Ditto's people have unleashed The Quietus, it'll be attracted by the stadium.  They will lure it there and destroy it.  Dinah tries to send the others away, "I'm not a musician.  I'm a warrior" as she comes clean about her past as a crime fighter alongside the likes of Wonder Woman.  But the others say they will stay, Kurt said it needed all of them.

Maeve has her part to play also.

"I'll scream louder" comes a voice, and Maeve shows up.  When she realises Ditto isn't dead she hugs her with great relief.  Dinah tries to tell her to shove off but Kurt says she is part of the plan.  She was picked to provide an oppositional frequency to Dinah's.  When the screams collide they alter reality, "it's the only way to defeat The Quietus.  The only way to save Ditto."

Then Amanda Waller appears and tries to take Ditto and Dinah into her custody.  Kurt tells her to wait until after they defeat The Quietus, then all her questions will be answered.  The band strikes up and starts to play with Dinah and Maeve on vocals. 

The Quietus defeated.

A huge black oily alien appears, the music starts to take it apart, but it manages to grab Dinah.  But in the nick of time the white ninja appears on stage and throws a couple of cymbals at it and it drops Dinah before finally being shouted apart by the noise.

After all that, Waller says she wants Ditto.  Kurt says everything that Ditto has, he has now and he doesn't mind going with her instead.  Waller agrees, then notices Dinah has disappeared.  We end the book on a page of Dinah remembering her past and the white ninja coming up to her and pulling off her mask, but we don't see who it is... cliffhanger into next volume.

Who is that masked woman?!

Well I'm sold.  I shall definitely be getting the volume when it comes out so I can mourn the loss of a good comic after the DC Rebirth no doubt sucks.  Rebooting Black Canary as a band is a very clever idea, because the character has such an amazingly convoluted story just in the New 52 alone, having her start with a blank slate though still haunted by that past is a compelling narrative choice.  Brendan Fletcher has a real ear for rhythmic naturalistic dialogue and writes convincing young people as well.  The art is magnificent.  Annie Wu and Pia Guerra's styles mess very well. It's unusually styalised for a "superhero" comic, but funky to look at with crisp well choreographed fight sequences and excellent facial detailing.  If I have one criticism it is that the ending of The Quietus arc lent a bit heavily on telling and not showing, but otherwise this is a great comic, very female friendly.  Black Canary's traditional fishnet outfit works far better as a punky lead singer's style rather than a serious crimefighter.  The characters are all nicely sketched in and having Heathcliff pop up again after having left Gotham Academy was a good idea.  Overall, thumbs up for this unusual looking tale of aliens, sentient sounds and a band that can't help trashing it's venues when it plays.