Wednesday, December 10, 2008

JLA#27: Why Black Canary = Awesome

I had to work late today and couldn't get to my local comic store. However, I came across the following scan when I perused Scans Daily. It's from JLA#27. Here, Black Canary is calling the Big 3 on their shenanigans, namely, holding secret meetings in their other-dimensional "room":




Say what you will about Dwayne McDuffie's handling of the JLA book, but he absolutely nails this scene, especially with Dinah. Since Canary became JLA chairman, we've seen the twin subplots of her continuing evolution as leader versus the continuing machinations of the Big 3. Mc Duffie's been building up to this conflict slowly, with little things like the Vixen secret (originated by prior scribe Brad Meltzer but advanced by McDuffie), Batman's pursuing the Joker against orders, and the establishment of the secret room. But in JLA#27, it comes to a head.

One of my favorite aspects of Dinah's personality is that, quite frankly, she doesn't take any guff, no matter who directs it at her. In part this has been a necessary skill, considering she lives with Ollie. But to see her call out the "Trinity" like this is really impressive. She deals with their actions sternly, but also with a great deal of maturity. She doesn't display a bruised ego like, say, Hal or Ollie might. Instead, she logically argues how their actions undermine the team.

It's obvious to anyone reading JLA that Dinah is almost 100% correct here. There can only be one leader, and she was the one elected. I say "almost 100% correct" because of the line where she mentioned the OMAC's and Max Lord and that Superman just let them happen. Considering all those Satellite League mindwipes that she just "let happen", Dinah may be throwing stones from a glass house here.

Nonetheless, this scene stands out in my mind as one of Dinah's best moments ever. And this is coming from someone who's read the entire Gail Simone BIRDS OF PREY run.

5 Comments:

At 2:47 AM , Blogger snell said...

Ah, but you fail to mention the previous page, where Dinah's conversation with them is undercut because Ed Benes decides to make Dinah's ass the focal point of the page.

I mean, sure, Canary's leadership skills are important, but with Benes, nothing will get in the way of his ass shots. NOTHING!!

 
At 8:18 AM , Blogger Sea-of-Green said...

All those years of keeping Ollie and Hal in line really paid off for Dinah in the long run. ;-)

 
At 8:24 AM , Blogger SallyP said...

I did enjoy this scene for the very reasons that you give. It's about TIME that Dinah gets to put them in their places. And considering how guilty they all act, they know perfectly well, that she's right.

And yes, living with Hal and Ollie HAS to be good for developing a forceful personality.

 
At 12:34 PM , Blogger notintheface said...

Snell, I didn't mention the previous page because I didn't SEE it yet. I only saw a post for the issue in Scans Daily, and whoever posted it there did not scan the page you mention. But after seeing the previous issue where Benes took what was supposed to be a double-page spread of the JLA fighting their doppelgangers and turned it into a Wonder Woman pin-up complete with ass-shot and a bunch of JLAers and their doppelgangers in the background, nothing Benes does surprises me anymore.

 
At 4:16 PM , Blogger Saranga said...

I bought this issue on the strenght of your review and I liked it! Can't remember an as shot, but I was reading it in public, so maybe I blocked it out.

 

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