Black Canary #1

DC Comics

Writer: Tony Bedard  

Penciler: Paulo Siqueira

Inker: Amilton Santos

Crank the Molly Hatchet and LET'S ROLL!

Here’s a feminist conundrum: a strong female character gets her own miniseries…because a man asked for her hand in marriage.

Thematically, it’s frustrating, as if Black Canary were only interesting because a guy popped the question. It’s symptomatic of a sad trend in popular culture. Most “women’s” media implicitly determine female worth by what women mean to men. Even the vaunted “Sex and the City” is one big example: a group of “liberated” ladies have swanky apartments and lucrative careers… but their lives hinge inevitably on whether men deem them worthy bedmates.

The first issue of Black Canary opens with Dinah and Oliver Queen’s (the Green Arrow’s) first meeting. They fight, they flirt, and he gets under her skin. She obsesses over his marriage proposal. Even Dinah’s ex-hubby makes an appearance, as if volume of men netted denotes worthiness. Sadly, issue #1 does nothing new with the character. Instead, writer Tony Bedard seems hellbent on chronicling the next big development in the DC canon.

I realize that big, sloppy events sell comics, but they aren’t always good for character development. Black Canary #1 is a prime example. Dinah Lance isn’t truly present in the story. She’s a blonde bombshell merely going through the motions, a Magnum P.I. flavor of the week reciting generic dialogue. Character development, where hast thou gotten to…

Penciler Pablo Siqueira, who’s channeling Terry Dodson, fails to deliver this time. His people are well drawn and appealing, and he (thank god) doesn’t make Dinah a total fanservice fetish, but his style’s flat. Maybe it’s writer Tony Bedard’s doing, but scenes that should be exciting are limp.

In closing, allow me to pose a breathtakingly revolutionary idea. Let’s have a story (in comics, or out) about a single woman whose dating career isn’t the sun in her solar system. How about a woman whose career actually takes center stage? As with all media, sex sells…too bad women get screwed.

Worth the money? Unless you’re dying to read it, sit this one out. Hopefully it’ll improve next issue.