Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Black Canary #12

By Hervé St-Louis
June 10, 2016 - 16:19

Black Canary experiences her life, going fast forward in one moment as it shatters and reveals a series of lies about herself and who she is as a singer, a heroine, and as a person. Who is Black Canary?

I’m not sure that I understand what I read. That’s the problem with comics that are so focused on their own little world, that they forget that every issue is someone’s first or in my case, my first in a long time. I have read nothing but good things about this series and was wondering if this issue would tie-in with Rebirth. I have no clue and neither do I know what I have read. Dinah Lance seems to age and have a child at 47 and to renounce her role as a heroine.

But it’s all a lie, an illusion of a make-belief life that Dinah could have if she does not shatter the lie today. I understand that this issue serves as an epilogue to this current incarnation of Black Canary and as a jumping point to her future with Green Arrow and the Birds of Prey but I had no clue about anything. Reading this comic book was a waste of my time, and this is a long time Black Canary writing this.

Annie Wu’s pencils are solid and her storytelling simple, yet effective. In this issue, she packed on many frames per pages, yet they did not feel crowed and were easy to read visually. Brenden Fletcher is one of those writers who is very wordy but Wu’s layouts give him more than enough space to express himself without submerging the visuals. Her inks which were to crystal-like rendition of a clean and cartoony style.  It felt like looking at a piece of glass that could shatter at any time. Perhaps in hindsight, given the character, this was done on purpose.

Sandy Jarrell’s section relied on less blotched inks than Wu’s while using repletion as a storytelling device more often. There was less motion in the action but yet it was easy to understand what was happening. Jarrell’s lines are cleaner than Wu’s. There is also less backgrounds in these pages.

I hope that DC Comics doesn’t give up on Black Canary.

Rating: 6 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12