Last month, we saw the debut of the new Black Canary comic, which took the familiar story of Dinah Lance and turned it on its head. No longer is Dinah alone the Black Canary: the moniker now belongs to her entire rock band, a group of misfits who all seem to have their own secrets, especially the quiet Ditto, who never speaks.
The end of that first issue saw a dark something coming after the band, particularly Ditto. In Black Canary #2, Dinah has now taken it on herself to train her band members in hand-to-hand combat and shooting guns so they can protect not just themselves, but also Ditto, from whatever evil is after her.
The opening panel begins in a desolate part of the desert, where Dinah is showing her fellow bandmates how to use a gun: some are reluctant to handle weapons. Before they can finish their training session, though, Dinah sees something and tells everyone to run.
The band eventually gets back on the road and starts playing gigs again, although media rumors speculate that Black Canary's members no longer get along well anymore and that tensions are high in the band.
Brenden Fletcher's writing is as solid in Black Canary #2 as it was in the first issue and the story of the evil after the band continues to build to a crescendo in this issue. When we get to the reveal of the bad guy, it's a good surprise, but makes you wonder a lot about Dinah's history, or the history Fletcher has in mind. It's likely that we're getting a new origin story here with the Black Canary title, and this issue promises an interesting future for this new series when we see the band continue training and eventually become a force to fight evil.
Annie Wu's artwork remains strong in this issue, as well, including some interesting diagrams that show Dinah in action. The panels of Dinah's fight in the music store are particularly good, but Wu has also elegantly captured the secrets that lie behind Dinah's eyes in those panels that feature her face. We can only wonder what those secrets are at this point, but we hope to find out more. Dinah's outfits change when she's not on stage, too, which is always a nice change from comic books where the superhero always wears the same thing.
Black Canary #2 is a good follow-up to the first issue and, at this rate, this title will quickly become one to put on the subscription list, especially with all the interesting questions it raises: Why are these people after Ditto? Who are these people? And why is the band's ex-lead singer suddenly showing up at Black Canary's gigs?
Black Canary #2 is available now in comic book stores, as well as on ComiXology.
Story
★★★★★
Art
★★★★★
Overall
★★★★★
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