Post by DiscipleofBob on Sept 4, 2015 22:50:04 GMT -5
As it says, go ahead and review a comic book.
I've got a confession to make. Despite my continued interest in all things superhero, I don't actually read a lot of modern comics. Not just because of money, but it seems like every time I try to jump in on a story, I end up being disappointed and sometimes even too disgusted with the title to continue. It happened with Civil War and AvX in Marvel, it happened with a lot of New 52 titles, and every time it makes it that much more difficult to invest more money in what appear to be perpetual disappointments. I've since found an... 'alternative' method for reading comics. The downside is that they're mostly random.
Since I'm looking for jumping on points for comics, I'd consider myself the type of target audience DC should be looking for: someone who's interested in the whole universe from other adaptations and looking for a way to get into the comics.
So, here's a review of one of their newer titles from the perspective of someone I would think they'd like to get to pick up future titles.
BLACK CANARY #1 (2015)
Written By Brenden Fletcher
Art by Annie Wiu
New 52 wasn't working, and Convergence didn't make nearly as big of an impact as DC hoped, so this was supposed to be part of the DC YOU, another questionable naming convention, but at least it's not named something that will feel awkward in six months when the 'New' part actually becomes false advertising. At this point DC is trying new things and seeing what sticks, something I can appreciate the effort of, but still questioning if some of these titles are just a little *too* avant-garde.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
After watching the character get thoroughly eviscerated for two straight seasons on Arrow, Black Canary is a character in particular I would like to see some justice done towards. With a pre-n52 legacy that goes back to the Justice Society, over multiple dimensions and generations, there are a lot of characters that got the shaft in New 52, but Black Canary in my opinion deserves a comeback the most. The cover's art style is... interesting. Very modern pop. I'll hold judgment on the art style until I see more of it in action.
THE COMIC:
We begin with a series of in-universe articles about the indie band "Black Canary" (really?) and their front singer D.D. (really?!) and her tendency to go violent at concerts and start bar fights. It took me a little bit to put together that D.D. stands for Dinah Drake, not Dinah Lance, which tells a few things:
- This is Black Canary I, who in pre-new52 universe was Dinah Drake Lance. JSA gal who did not have the scream but still rolled around with the JSA. Black Canary II is the one we all remember with the sonic scream, and the romantic interest to Green Arrow.
- This version goes by her maiden name, Dinah Drake. Her husband's some kind of asshole for whom rumors of his death may have been greatly exaggerated.
- Since I'm not doing a play-by-play of the comic, this version has the sonic scream.
- Black Canary II, the one we all know and love, does not exist in this universe, unless there's some long-lost daughter subplot, but I doubt it at this point.
- While I don't get an exact age, the circumstances and backstory tell me that Dinah Drake is waaay too old to be singing in an indie rock band with a bunch of teens and dropouts.
- Isn't 'Black Canary' already known in this universe? And from what I can tell she joins the band late.
- While I dig the idea of Black Canary being a rock or alt singer as part of a secret identity, being in a band called 'Black Canary' is not only improbably coincidental, but a really bad idea for a secret identity.
It looks like Dinah keeps getting into fights, mostly protecting girls from drunk guys getting too handsy during the concerts. We have a few introductions of the other band members, but between the art style, the odd fashion choices, and the stage names, it takes a few pages of playing the pronoun game to try and guess everyone's gender. I guess it's all-girl except for the token scrawny white guy whose job is to try and fail to get paid by bartenders.
Exposition: Dinah has a past and doesn't want to talk about it. She gets violent on stage
The art style ranges from tolerable to stick figures. I'm trying to keep in mind that the format I'm looking at this might exaggerate certain details, but we're talking the rough sketches of a 70s Disney animation movie. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in the action scenes which look like they were scrawled on a napkin five minutes before homework was due.
I will say her costume, which is admittedly a stage costume, once she loses the cape, is spot on Black Canary, fishnets and all.
The villains for this issue are some strange creatures which are disguised as men in black. Said strange creatures are the worst looking things in the comic, which says something. They're black blobs of ink that look exactly like stains that spilled on the canvas. I'm fine with odd shapeless abstract lifeforms, but all these do is highlight how lazy the art is.
The odd thing is from everything I've heard previously about this comic, Wiu is some kind of celebrated artist who brings a lot of hype to the comic, bit this is just bad to the point where it distracts from the comic.
The monsters are after some other girl in the band for mysterious reasons that will hopefully get some explanation next chapter, but I'm not going to fault the book for leaving some mysteries for the reader. The action looks sloppy, and mostly involves Dinah swinging around the microphone like a flail. All I can think of is how the mic should immediately snap off and otherwise be ruined. The mic as a weapon should be impossible unless this is some high-tech extremely durable mic AND wire, which I doubt given the premise being a cheap band that rarely gets paid.
Dinah cautions the band to break up and walk away to keep the monsters from going after them, but since they're resolved to stay together, Black Canary says she'll be teaching them all self-defense. I appreciate bringing Black Canary back to her roots as a mama bird who teaches and protects. The issue ends with the van driving off and the weird black ink monsters latching on. Either issue 2 starts with another fight with ink monsters or this is some kind of metaphor.
CONCLUSION:
The art ranges from tolerable to ugly, and that was supposed to be one of the selling points of the comic. It's scratchy and rough and not in a good way. Only Dinah herself looks good with the jacket and ripped fishnets. Dinah as a rock singer isn't a bad idea thematically, but she still seems way too old to be in a band of college dropouts. There's enough plot to keep me interested, both in Dinah's backstory (which granted part of comes from previous titles) and in the monsters tracking down the eccentric girl in the band. It's not something that I would spend money on, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone as a DC comic, but I'd read more for the time being.
I'd rate this overall as a 2/5. There's some value here, but I hope this isn't the best that DC You or whatever has to offer.
I've got a confession to make. Despite my continued interest in all things superhero, I don't actually read a lot of modern comics. Not just because of money, but it seems like every time I try to jump in on a story, I end up being disappointed and sometimes even too disgusted with the title to continue. It happened with Civil War and AvX in Marvel, it happened with a lot of New 52 titles, and every time it makes it that much more difficult to invest more money in what appear to be perpetual disappointments. I've since found an... 'alternative' method for reading comics. The downside is that they're mostly random.
Since I'm looking for jumping on points for comics, I'd consider myself the type of target audience DC should be looking for: someone who's interested in the whole universe from other adaptations and looking for a way to get into the comics.
So, here's a review of one of their newer titles from the perspective of someone I would think they'd like to get to pick up future titles.
BLACK CANARY #1 (2015)
Written By Brenden Fletcher
Art by Annie Wiu
New 52 wasn't working, and Convergence didn't make nearly as big of an impact as DC hoped, so this was supposed to be part of the DC YOU, another questionable naming convention, but at least it's not named something that will feel awkward in six months when the 'New' part actually becomes false advertising. At this point DC is trying new things and seeing what sticks, something I can appreciate the effort of, but still questioning if some of these titles are just a little *too* avant-garde.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
After watching the character get thoroughly eviscerated for two straight seasons on Arrow, Black Canary is a character in particular I would like to see some justice done towards. With a pre-n52 legacy that goes back to the Justice Society, over multiple dimensions and generations, there are a lot of characters that got the shaft in New 52, but Black Canary in my opinion deserves a comeback the most. The cover's art style is... interesting. Very modern pop. I'll hold judgment on the art style until I see more of it in action.
THE COMIC:
We begin with a series of in-universe articles about the indie band "Black Canary" (really?) and their front singer D.D. (really?!) and her tendency to go violent at concerts and start bar fights. It took me a little bit to put together that D.D. stands for Dinah Drake, not Dinah Lance, which tells a few things:
- This is Black Canary I, who in pre-new52 universe was Dinah Drake Lance. JSA gal who did not have the scream but still rolled around with the JSA. Black Canary II is the one we all remember with the sonic scream, and the romantic interest to Green Arrow.
- This version goes by her maiden name, Dinah Drake. Her husband's some kind of asshole for whom rumors of his death may have been greatly exaggerated.
- Since I'm not doing a play-by-play of the comic, this version has the sonic scream.
- Black Canary II, the one we all know and love, does not exist in this universe, unless there's some long-lost daughter subplot, but I doubt it at this point.
- While I don't get an exact age, the circumstances and backstory tell me that Dinah Drake is waaay too old to be singing in an indie rock band with a bunch of teens and dropouts.
- Isn't 'Black Canary' already known in this universe? And from what I can tell she joins the band late.
- While I dig the idea of Black Canary being a rock or alt singer as part of a secret identity, being in a band called 'Black Canary' is not only improbably coincidental, but a really bad idea for a secret identity.
It looks like Dinah keeps getting into fights, mostly protecting girls from drunk guys getting too handsy during the concerts. We have a few introductions of the other band members, but between the art style, the odd fashion choices, and the stage names, it takes a few pages of playing the pronoun game to try and guess everyone's gender. I guess it's all-girl except for the token scrawny white guy whose job is to try and fail to get paid by bartenders.
Exposition: Dinah has a past and doesn't want to talk about it. She gets violent on stage
The art style ranges from tolerable to stick figures. I'm trying to keep in mind that the format I'm looking at this might exaggerate certain details, but we're talking the rough sketches of a 70s Disney animation movie. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in the action scenes which look like they were scrawled on a napkin five minutes before homework was due.
I will say her costume, which is admittedly a stage costume, once she loses the cape, is spot on Black Canary, fishnets and all.
The villains for this issue are some strange creatures which are disguised as men in black. Said strange creatures are the worst looking things in the comic, which says something. They're black blobs of ink that look exactly like stains that spilled on the canvas. I'm fine with odd shapeless abstract lifeforms, but all these do is highlight how lazy the art is.
The odd thing is from everything I've heard previously about this comic, Wiu is some kind of celebrated artist who brings a lot of hype to the comic, bit this is just bad to the point where it distracts from the comic.
The monsters are after some other girl in the band for mysterious reasons that will hopefully get some explanation next chapter, but I'm not going to fault the book for leaving some mysteries for the reader. The action looks sloppy, and mostly involves Dinah swinging around the microphone like a flail. All I can think of is how the mic should immediately snap off and otherwise be ruined. The mic as a weapon should be impossible unless this is some high-tech extremely durable mic AND wire, which I doubt given the premise being a cheap band that rarely gets paid.
Dinah cautions the band to break up and walk away to keep the monsters from going after them, but since they're resolved to stay together, Black Canary says she'll be teaching them all self-defense. I appreciate bringing Black Canary back to her roots as a mama bird who teaches and protects. The issue ends with the van driving off and the weird black ink monsters latching on. Either issue 2 starts with another fight with ink monsters or this is some kind of metaphor.
CONCLUSION:
The art ranges from tolerable to ugly, and that was supposed to be one of the selling points of the comic. It's scratchy and rough and not in a good way. Only Dinah herself looks good with the jacket and ripped fishnets. Dinah as a rock singer isn't a bad idea thematically, but she still seems way too old to be in a band of college dropouts. There's enough plot to keep me interested, both in Dinah's backstory (which granted part of comes from previous titles) and in the monsters tracking down the eccentric girl in the band. It's not something that I would spend money on, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone as a DC comic, but I'd read more for the time being.
I'd rate this overall as a 2/5. There's some value here, but I hope this isn't the best that DC You or whatever has to offer.