Black Canary...starring in Action Comics Weekly #614

So there's this concept called "the best of intentions."

I had 'em...I swear I did. I seriously didn't think it would take me over a week to get through the six stories in this issue. I mean, they're only 8 page stories...how long could it possibly take to do individual reviews?

The answer? Ten days. Oh well, that's what happens when you have an out-of-state sales conference to attend thrown into the middle of your review schedule. Let's just endeavor to persevere and get the last review wrapped up so we can move on to our 25th issue extravaganza!

Bitter Fruit Part 4

• Writer: Sharon Wright
• Penciller: Randy DeBurke
• Inker: Pablo Marcos
• Letterer: Steve Haynie
• Colorist: Tom Ziuko
• Editor: Mike Gold

There's something magical about a story that has the innate ability to immediately immerse you into the look and feel of the surroundings with which the story take place. This is one of those stories.

Now normally, you'd be transported directly to the author's imagination through the beauty and grace of the words written on the page, or the style and drama of the artwork rendered.

With this story, the creators chose to go with a more direct route to let us know we are smack dab in the middle of the 80's...they decided to whack us over the head with it.

Take a look at the color of that jacket and those shoulder pads...that's pure 80's. Spice it up with a narrow leather tie and an old cell phone brick and I can just hear the Jan Hammer music playing in the background.

So our Don Johnson wannabe is some type of hitman who has just taken his latest assignment. Sometime in the next 48 hours, a federal employee named Ellen Waverly who works for the Department of Immigration and Naturalization is slated for termination.

It would seem that she is handling a case for the family of an immigrant who is in a coma. What makes her a target is that the man in the coma has ties to the corporation that hired the hitman.

We then go to an alley, where a couple of thugs are shaking down an Asian shop owner. Black Canary comes along (at least I think it's Black Canary, as she is never referenced by name and looks absolutely nothing like her current incarnation) and gives the thugs a target who will fight back. She admirably holds her own long enough for the shop owner to get a shotgun and chase the thugs away.

Black Canary then finds out that there was another person with the two thugs at the scene that left before she arrived. It was a man with a cowboy hat who she has apparently had a run-in with previously. She thanks the shop owner for the info and leaves.

What comes next are two pages of benind the scenes corporate shenanigans that I honestly can't make heads or tails of, so that's about all the recap you're going to get.

Finally, we arrive at the Sherwood Florist Shop where Black Canary sits in the dark staring at a phone. She finally picks it up and places a call to who she believes the man in the cowboy hat is. She gets his answering machine, and leaves him a message identifying herself as "Bonnie Cardinal."

I suppose it's possible that this wasn't Black Canary after all, but the martial arts and the florist shop lead me to believe that it was, and that she's just now using a fake name.

Irregardless, she informs him that she has a lead on some of the recent shopkeeper beatings.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

This story was a mess, and I really don't know where to start. I guess the kindest thing to say about it was that the artwork was inconsistent. Some panels were interesting to look at, but the storytelling and style were all over the map.

DeBurke is not helped by the fact that the story is told in nothing but the vaguest of terms. People are referenced by names and descriptions, but the author is using a storytelling style that makes it very difficult to know who is actually being referenced. Most of the behind the scenes interaction is over the phone and the dialogue is very challenging to keep straight.

We never really get too involved with the story, as the 8 pages are used to drive what appears to be three separate tangents. I'm sure they all relate to each other, but damned if I can figure it out from just this chapter.

Oh well, it's a shame that our rather involved review of Action Comics Weekly #614 had to end on a bit of a downer with the last two stories. Both of them didn't really engage me in any way, shape or form. I suppose that they could read better "in trade", but I'm honestly not at all interested enough to pursue either of them at this point.

All characters and artwork reproduced are (c) DC Comics.

Forgotten Series

So I'm just about done with my review of The Spectre (vol. 3) #2, but while we wait I wanted to flag a couple of titles that I noticed in the house ads of this issue. I've been collecting comics for a while now, but I had no idea these series ever existed.


The first one I'm completely ignorant about is World's Finest, a mini-series from 1990.

Dave Gibbons writing! Steve Rude drawing! Karl Kesel inking!

Where was I when this thing came out?

Probably elbow deep in X-Titles, but still...that's no excuse to not now about this creative team on a Superman/Batman title.


The second title that surprised me was a Black Canary ongoing. I knew that she had had a mini-series sometime in the past, but I never knew she actually had an ongoing for a time. Granted, it only ran for 12 issues before it got cancelled, but that's still pretty impressive.

I have no idea who anyone in the creative team is...Sarah Byam? Trevor Von Eeden?

Well actually, Trevor Von Eeden sounds vaguely familiar, but I can't place the title that I would have known him from.

So were either of these titles any good? Should I go back-issue hunting, or just let sleeping dogs lie?

Comic Book Review: Birds of Prey #13

TITLE: Birds of Prey #13

PUBLISHER: DC

COVER DATE: January 2000

COVER PRICE: $1.99

22 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

I already talked a little bit here, about the two main writers who drove this series for most of its issues. There was one or two artistic heavyweights that contributed to this title as well. First, and arguably foremost among them, is Greg Land.

I'm beginning to think that the Randomizer has a keen sense of humor. It remembered the rather cheap shot that I took at Greg Land's expense in my review of Ruse. The truth is, I'm not that big of a fan of his. In fact, his art is more than likely enough to make me stop reading a book these days. To each his own, and his style is definitely not my own.

It wasn't always that way though, as I used to be a huge fan and it started right here in these pages. I remember positively loving his work on these issues for the first few years. It was his art, that got me to start reading CrossGen books when he started on Sojourn. Something happened when he left that title, however. He changed his style, and with it went his sense of storytelling and dynamism.

With that said, let's travel back to when men where men and pencils were drawn and not traced...

Apokolips Express

• Writer: Chuck Dixon
• Pencillers: Greg Land, Patrick Zircher
• Inker: Drew Geraci
• Colorist: Gloria Vasquez
• Separator: Digital Chameleon
• Letterer: Albie DeGuzman
• Assistant Editor: Frank Berrios
• Rockin' The Fourth World: Joseph Illidge

We open up with Black Canary riding as part of a convoy of S.T.A.R. marshals as they are transporting super-villains under heavy guard. We don't get too much of a chance to catch our breath as their train is sent through a boom tube and crashes on the surface of Apokolips.

Dinah and the marshal in charge crawl from the wreckage to assess the damage. They look up to notice they're not in Pennsylvania anymore, as an ominous statue of Darkseid stares down at them.

Already, I'm getting that old Greg Land feel back and I can see what I really liked at the time. His linework and characters have a good presence on the page, and in no way feel traced or overly posed. I don't want to turn this into a dissertation on Greg Land, so I'll just leave it at I really like the old Greg Land and wouldn't be disappointed to see him back again. Back to the story...

It turns out that someone has been targeting and kidnapping supervillains, and that someone just brought them to Apokolips. One of the supervillains on their list was Catwoman, who has taken advantage of the situation to break out of her holding cell.

This is the 90's version of Catwoman with the violet and purple costume. I would imagine that this has to be near the tail end of this incarnation, as it couldn't have been too much longer before Ed Brubaker got ahold of her and brought her into the next millennium with a serious change of direction.

The kidnapper makes a play to return Black Canary and the S.T.A.R. marshals to their world in exchange for the prisoners. The lead marshal lets her gun do the talking for her and cuts the kidnapper down. This is not any ordinary kidnapper however, as he scrambles leaving his severed legs behind.

The marshals secure the crash site against the expected Parademon onslaught as The Black Canary and Catwoman give chase to the torso of the kidnapper. Oracle makes her only appearance in this issue as she enlists the aid of Power Girl to help search for the train, which has mysteriously disappeared.

Dinah and Selina catch up to the torso to find that it's a mechanical exo-skeleton. Their perp is getting smaller and smaller.

At this point in the story, we have an artist change. Patrick Zircher steps in, and it's a credit to Drew Geraci and his inks that the flow between artists is relatively smooth. Greg Land would leave this title with next issue, but he definitely left his mark before he went.

Dinah and Selina push on, deeper in the bowels of Apokolips. Selina does a little digging and it's revealed that at this point Dinah has never met Oracle in person. I had forgotten that at the beginning of this title, they didn't really interact face-to-face.

They finally catch up their quarry and find out that he is a parademon, but obviously the runt of the litter. He explains that he wanted the super-beings to help lead a revolt against his masters on Apokolips. How he ever thought he could get super-villains to cooperate is never explained here. Black Canary doesn't really care, she just wants his mother box so that they can get home. Oops! You mean the one with the bullet hole?

Unaware of their inability to get home, the head marshal has already written off their chances of escaping Apokolips. The only chance they have, she thinks, is to work together. That means freeing their prisoners. The issue ends with a nice of shot of Shrapnel, Mammoth, Spellbinder, Sudden Death, and Joe Gardner being deputized at the barrell of a gun.

Really! Joe Gardner?! You're going to put your life in the hands of Joe Gardner? Who the hell is Joe Gardner?

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

I can't help but compare this version of the Birds of Prey to Gail Simone's, since her fantastic run is still fresh in my memory. This is definitely different, but it's still just as fun. It's just a more action-packed type of fun.

This issue still holds up, and I wouldn't mind cracking open a few more of these early issues. Especially since we are currently without this title at the moment, and quite frankly, Babs has been ill served of late with the last year or so of stories.

All characters and artwork reproduced are (c) DC Comics

Related links for your surfing pleasure

• So this is who Joe Gardner is
• The official website of Chuck Dixon
• I guess Greg Land doesn't have an official website. I tried to find one but got lost in all of the websites devoted to trying to find the source images for his artwork.
• The official website of Drew Geraci