Birds of Prey #4: Just look at that cover. I have some issues with it, but I really dig the coloring on it. And while Canary’s hair looks as if it’s made up of ribbons, at least it’s flying about as if someone just kicked the beautiful lady in the face! This issue we get the origin of the White Canary, starting with the day she was born. Two things about this birth story: 1) I don’t get the “Oh.” dialog box. It appears to be coming from the just lightning-fried corpse of the midwife, but that makes no sense. Doesn’t anybody edit these books anymore? 2) White Canary’s father, callous and hard man that he is, decrees that her brother care for her and that her training begins the next day. What exactly will they do to train a day-old child? It sounds sorta cool and a little ominous, but c’mon, really?
The best part of the story for me, though, was Barbara’s ordeal, mostly because it went against expectations. You’d think, based on last issue, that Savant and Creote have been sent to kill Barbara or at least torture her in some way (I was thinking they were taking to watch her friends being killed while she sits powerless to stop it), and maybe that was the plan, but Savant has his own goal, and Bab’s efforts to keep Savant from killing himself was pretty powerful.
Final tidbits I liked: 1) I loved Dove’s response to Penguin’s babbling about having a plan: she smashes him in the face. Huntress tells her: “You know, for a while, I wasn’t sure you were going to fit in”. :D 2) There’s this great flashback panel of Dinah being carried by Starman and flying with Green Lantern. There’s a blurriness to the panel to suggest memory that I really like. 3) Finally, I appreciate that Ed Benes was able to do all of the art for the Black Canary sequence, and the rest of the birds get the not quite as good as Benes art of Melo, but it’s still pretty good.
Daytripper #9: The penultimate issue. I have to admit, I was starting to think that this was a one-note story that was going on for too long (this would have benefited from an issue or two fewer), but with last issue and now this one, I’m intrigued again. We get a dream sequence story that has echoes of many of the stories we have seen before. There’s also what could be an explanation of what we’ve been reading for the last 8 issues: it’s all a dream (or a sequence of dreams). I hope it isn’t that simple, but I can’t wait to read the final issue to see how this all ties together.
Unwritten #16: Holy cats, the spell has hit the proverbial, well, something. After last issue’s revelation that Tom’s dad is alive, we get some answers, but are left with many, many questions. I get very frustrated with Tom because while he asks a lot of questions of people he deals with, he doesn’t always ask the right questions since he’s so caught up in the emotion of the moment. Once he’s able to look beyond his own limited vision of self, he’ll be a force to contend with. This book keeps getting better and better, but it’s been slow going. Think a fine wine that ages slowly but too perfection. At least, I hope so. I admit I’m a little concerned where Mike Carey is going to take us after this storyline ends, or will we get an unending struggle between Tom and this cabal? I hope not. Those kinds of stories get boring after a while.
Zatanna #4: While it’s interesting that we see the Royal Flush Gang out of costume so to speak, the whole Rat Pack homage was kind of dumb, not to mention: the Royal Flush Gang? Maybe it’s because of that recent JLA story that they were part of, but why does DC keep using these turkeys? They fly around on levitating cards and have pretty low-key powers, yet they keep getting used as if they are more than some hoaky villain group (hint: they’re not!). I liked the bit where the painting spoke, but when it just turned out to be another demon hankering for Z’s soul: yawn. Oh, we finally get the Captain Carrot cameo that was revealed to me at the Spokane Comic-Con back in May. Finally, the whole gag Z so she can’t cast a spell motif is getting very, very old. I was really jazzed about this comic at first, but it’s not doing much for me right now and it’s only issue 4! Pick up the pace, Mr. Dini.
Longbox Review 