Flashback Friday: Brave and the Bold 100. Feb/Mar 1972

Okay, I really hadn't planned on making this week's Flashback another Black Canary post, but Sea of Green's comment regarding Hard Traveling Heroes reminded me of this "gem."

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THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #100 (Feb/Mar 1972)
"The Warrior in a Wheel-Chair"
story: Bob Haney
art: Jim Aparo

On page one of this story, Batman gets shot and incapacitated. The problem, besides the obvious, is that he's just become aware of a huge heroin deal about to go down in Gotham City and he can't leave his wheelchair to stop it!! What to do!? So he pulls together Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary and Robin to track down the details and prevent the event, while he coordinates it all from the wheelchair. (Hmmm, that's an interesting concept!)

This story came out right at the tail-end of Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams classic GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW run. So -- Bob Haney picks up on the strong-heroine vibe that O'Neil gave Black Canary and gives her classy dialogue like:She mocks Ollie, as if she isn't involved, aware or even cares about Speedy's drug problem. It's not helpful that the art in that panel makes her look pretty vacant.

But it gets better.

When it comes time for Black Canary's part of the plan...they can't raise her on the wrist-radio!! Batman sends Robin out. Robin refers to her as a "flippy female." In the Bob Haney universe, Robin's not far off the mark...And just in case you missed it:Yes, Black Canary is so out of touch with reality, that not only do her priorities jeopardize the mission because "the rain ruined my hair..."

But -- she's such a complete freakin' idiot, that she forgot she wears a wig!!

It's hard to believe that Bob Haney had read none of Denny O'Neil's stories, but how else can you explain him writing Black Canary as such a dip?

Flashback Friday: Black Canary 2. September 2007

Here's a new thing I'm going to try and do every week. We'll see how that goes.

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I love Black Canary, always have. Maybe not so much when Mike Grell took away her sonic cry. Or when she went all butch leather-biker. But even as a kid, I used to draw Black Canary comics.

So, it's been kinda frustrating to watch Andrew Kreisberg turn Black Canary into a moron (she's leader of the JLA for crying out loud!):

GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY 16 (March 2009)

Especially when just 2 pages before, she was knocking an arrow out of the air with her sonic cry, and now suddenly she's just overwhelmed!? WTF!!?

That got me thinking back to better times. There's the obvious run in BIRDS OF PREY, where Gail Simone practically turned her into a top-tier A-lister. Even Judd Winnick didn't do too poorly with her on his GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY run. But inbetween, she turned up in a self-titled mini-series. Not that it was spectacular or anything, but Tony Bedard gave me, literally, a jaw-dropping, OMG, no way!! moment:

BLACK CANARY 2 (September 2007)

It starts off looking like one of those "oh, he's a misogynist, having the man overpower the woman by cutting off her power" bits. Then he turns around and gives something so original and unexpected that it's almost flooring, while coming across as an obvious "duh, of course she could do that" type thing.
I'm not lying when I say, my jaw literally dropped when she snapped the bow string. I was shocked and awed. I love that scene. Tony Bedard made Black Canary even more awesome.

Now she's a bumbling buffoon.

Sigh.