Black Canary #4
DC Comics
Writer: Brenden Fletcher
Artist: Pia Guerra
Colors: Lee Loughridge
I have a problem with the way DC has been doing things since the New 52 reboot of 2011. There is an almost arrogant presumption that I am supposed to know why various characters, especially the supporting cast and villains, are important. People pop up in scenes and just start blabbing, as if I am supposed to a give s*** about what they’re saying. I don’t know you from Adam, dude! There is a bit of that in Black Canary #4. Here’s a character who is already not well known. Now she’s been rebooted and her storyline partially altered in this incarnation. Not that I would know an alternate Black Canary back-plot from the “true” one by any means. I hate to ask for a return to exposition, but we may have swung past that happy medium where now there is none. Here’s to hoping that this book figures it out, before it gets sucked down the well of winter cancellations.
Canary #4 finds our favorite bird at odds with one Bo Maeve, another singer who was jilted out of a gig by the titular hero. Bo decides to take it out on Dinah by capturing a kid and delivering her into the hands of someone sinister. Canary and her team launch an intense manhunt whereby they shakedown every goon that they know until they pick up the trail.
Guerra’s art on this did not do a lot for me. Clothing and hair is mostly shellacked, with little true responsiveness to the environment as they are moved through it. Other than that, the art does not do anything inherently wrong, it is just that it is a bit pedestrian and not very compelling.
Fletcher’s story did generate some interest in me for this character’s adventures. though. Let me skip to the end and say that a certain head of an organization shows up and that signals that this is an important story arc. Despite the number of transitions that occur in this book, it is pretty light in its overall activity, and you’re not made to feel like you are being overwhelmed to multi-task all of the various story threads. The scenes with Bo and her kidnapee are endearing, despite the Stockholm Syndrome it represents. Dinah and Bo never fight, so my hope is that that is coming in a BIG way!!!