It’s kind of funny that the big mystery posited by this GREEN LANTERN cover is why Green Arrow is appearing here without his trademark beard. I mean, presumably he shaved it off, you know, no big mystery. But in this era in which such changes of costume and appearance were much more rare, I suppose this was potentially a big deal thing. No matter–I know that I’m spoiling things somewhat, but by the end of this two-parter, Ollie’s beard would miraculously be restored going forward. 

GREEN LANTERN was a very schizophrenic comic book during this particular era. Clearly it had been brought back due to the reputation of its previous run (and potentially the belief that affidavit returns were responsible for its premature cancellation.) By that same token, it seemed like nobody involved was very anxious to dive back into the very heavy issue-of-the-issue style storytelling of that celebrated run. So what you were left with was two super hero friends whose natural spheres of operation were completely incompatible with one another. 

And so you ended up with stories like this one, which was mostly a Green Arrow solo caper with Green Lantern in it slightly but then incapacitated. And no particular social issue being dissected at all. In this particular issue, Green Arrow is performing at Carol Ferris’s Thanksgiving party when government agents burst in and accosted him, carrying him off. Green Lantern, returning from space, intercedes, but then he immediately passes out, stricken with some unknown malady.

Figuring that the Lantern may have come down with some manner of space-plague, Green Arrow reaches out to John Stewart, Earth’s back-up Green Lantern, asking him to convey Hal to Oa and the Guardians, who will presumably know how to treat his illness. In the meantime, Ollie intends to track down the Colonel Krisp who was behind the attack on himself–and he’s in luck as one of the agents dropped a handily-labeled route map that he can follow. Ollie says goodbye to Dinah Lance, turning down her offer of help–but undaunted, she is determined to follow him as Black Canary.

Green Arrow makes his way to the compound, and with the unseen aid of Black Canary kicks his way through the outer ring of security guards. In order to sneak into the place, Ollie decides to shave off his beard so he’ll look more like one of the guards. This gambit works for all of zero panels, as the Colonel sees him sneaking in and recognize him immediately despite his lack of chin-whiskers. He also spies the Black Canary, and ambushes her.

Discovered, Green Arrow continues to run a gantlet of attackers, and the mysterious Colonel Krisp is confident in his choice of Green Arrow for “the mission”. Meanwhile, off in space, en route to Oa, John and Hal run afoul of a neutron star, which threatens to suck them into its gravity well and to oblivion. For all that he struggles, John doesn’t have enough will-power to pull them clear of it.

Back at the compound, Green Arrow finds himself face-to-face with Colonel Krisp, who tells him that all of this has been arranged for Green Arrow’s benefit, to test him–that map that he followed was deliberately planted, of course (Stupid Ollie!) Krisp’s got a mission that only Green Arrow can accomplish: he wants Ollie to assassinate the President of the United States. And he’s holding the Black Canary as leverage to get Green Arrow to go along with it–thus leading us back to our cover scene as the issue closes, something I hated when the Marvel books did it and didn’t really like any better here. Anyway, To Be Continued!

I think this was probably my least-favorite issue of SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS. Gone was the overarching threat of Darkseid and his minions from Apocalypse, gone were many of the villains that I cared about and was interested in. Instead, what we got was for all intents and purposes an issue of CAPTAIN COMET. And I liked Captain Comet just fine, but this one was underwhelming. Maybe it was the inclusion of third-stringer Captain Stingaree, I don’t know.

The story opens with the launch of a space-boomerang ship. At the helm are Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, and Captain Stingaree–no idea how the first two hooked up with the last, no clue is given. But they’re on their way to take over a thinly-disguised version of Skylab way up in orbit, for reasons that are somewhat vague. But super-villains, you know, what are you gonna do? Chilling on the Justice League satellite with Hawkman, Captain Comet hears about the invasion of the nearby Space-Lab and flies to the rescue. Hawkman, of course, remains behind on “monitor duty”, that card that was often played in JLA adventures when you wanted to leave a potential guest-star on the bench.

Comet tackles the three villainous Captains, but is unable to prevent their escape, taking the commander of the Space-Lab with them. Returning to Earth, a dejected Captain Comet tries to reintegrate into civilian life in his Adam Blake identity, only to be taken for a mugger and clobbered by and old lady, and then picked up by what appears to be a streetwalker named Debbie. Debbie will be a strange character in the coming months, sometimes changing her name to Camille and clearly having a connection with Star Sapphire. But the switches in writers and the demise of the series prevented any of this from truly being explained.

The next day, the trio of Captains perform some piracy on the high seas, attacking the S.S. Sunset and making off with her Captain as their captive. These events are recounted on the evening news, where they’re viewed by a number of interested parties. First are the Wizard and Funky Flashman, who have been a running plotline these past few issues. The moment is really nothing more than reminding readers of who they are, as they play no further role in the proceedings. But at this point, Funky is both looking and sounding a bit more legitimately like Stan Lee. 

The other spectators are Green Arrow and Black Canary, who are being visited by Captain Comet in Star City. When he last encountered the Captain Trio, his telepathy picked up an impression of Star City and so he figures it’s the criminals’ next target. Green Arrow is his typical abrasive self and refuses to help, but Black Canary goes all-in with Captain Comet. Good thing, too, as the three villains next attack Star Stadium, where they’re after the captain of the Star City team.

Captain Comet and Black Canary make the scene, and it becomes a free-for-all, one that also involves the players. Stingaree once again tries to use the captive football captain as a shield, but Comet isn’t having any of it and knocks him flat. But as they mop up, Comet’s telepathy picks up an impression of the other two captives of the villains, strapped to a giant metronome that lowers the temperature surrounding it with each passing tick. The two men are in dire jeopardy.

In order to save them, Comet uses his mental powers to slow down all of the machine-works in the area, giving Black Canary enough time to locate them. Which makes you wonder, if he can do such a profound thing, why doesn’t he use that ability in battle more often? But no matter. In the wrap-up, the heroes comment on the fact that the villains’ plan makes absolutely no sense, a moment of very strange self-awareness on the part of either scripter Bob Rozakis or the book’s new editor Jack C. Harris. And the issue closes out back with the Wizard and Funky watching the wrap-up, only to be interrupted by the return of Copperhead and his shadowy benefactor–who declares that he’s taking over the Secret Society! Who could he be? We’d need to wait for the next issue to find out.

Birds of Prey: Art History Edition

The Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli (c. 1485)
The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci (1495-1498)

dcbicki:

9KCELEBRATION
➤ anon sent: timestamp roulette + BirdsofPrey(andtheFantabulousEmancipationofOneHarleyQuinn)

Isn’t this fun? It’s just like a sleepover. We should order pizza, make Cosmos…

taryndraws:

Black Canary!

DOUBLE BLACK CANARY!!!

Sara Lance

Introducing the Blonde Bombshell and the ‘Mean one’

and I don’t mean Black Canary and Huntress. 

One of the most memorable ‘things’ to come out of Gail Simone’s run on the Birds has to be Savant and Creote. I remember that first issue and being bothered that my first “real” monthly arc I was going to be reading of the Birds, Oracle and Canary were already getting their butts handed to them. But I quickly got over it. I was so interested to see how the girls were going to show them how bad an idea it is to mess with the Birds of Prey.  Little did I know how much I would end up loving Creote and Savant by the end of series. 

Birds of Prey Group Shot from Wondercon 2010

going through the old albums

Pictured: Gypsy, Power Girl, Raven, Huntress, Blackhawk, Supergirl, Batgirl, Black Canary and last but not least Spoiler.

‘Birds Of Prey: Harley Quinn, Black Canary & Huntress’ by Tula Lotay.

Officially licensed giclee prints, in signed limited editions of 300 on paper each, and signed and numbered HD Aluminum Metal limited editions of 75 each.

On sale Friday May 13 at 9am PT through Sideshow Collectibles.

Justice League International:   by Greg Smallwood.

twitter dump, some of these are old and some of them are from TODAY

kate-siegel:

@creatorsofcolornet event 6: heroes of color

“If you don’t stand up and fight for what’s yours, you won’t have anything left worth fighting for” - Dinah Lance

BIRDS OF PREY
2020 | dir. Cathy Yan

This poor babysitter

Rumor is that Jurnee’s Black Canary will also show up in the Batgirl (2022) film! I’m really hoping it’s true, but just in case, I’ll reserve excitement until I officially see her show up in set photos or a trailer! 

But I did base this off a sneaky set photo someone took where a Black Canary poster is present in the movie! Fingers crossed!

–

Check out more of my work on other platforms!

https://www.instagram.com/dommnics/

https://twitter.com/Dommnics