Black Canary #1 Review

Black Canary has been “Batgirled,” or so they say. With the first issue officially out, we can now dig into what that actually means for this fan favorite character. If you’ve been reading Cameron Stewart’s and Brenden Fletcher’s Batgirl, you might have a good idea already. Fletcher, on his own here, takes much of the style and sensibilities he’s infused into Batgirl, and done much of the same thing to her once-bestie, Black Canary. Fletcher quickly establishes the new status quo, and launches our titular star on a personal and unexpected new journey.

The new run of Batgirl has a youthful sensibility that Fletcher borrows from heavily here. This should come as no surprise to readers as Fletcher helped to set up Black Canary’s new status quo in Batgirl some months back. This new series now gets to focus on Canary’s new life, and much of the style used to reintroduce Batgirl is being used here. However, while Canary and Batgirl used to be best friends, they were certainly not the same people. With that, Fletcher smartly tweaks the sprightly stylings seen in Batgirl to better reflect Canary’s personality. If Batgirl is a hipster, then Black Canary is totally punk rock.

Another thing that sets this series apart from Batgirl is that the Gotham-centric title took a bit of time to really heat things up as far as the overall plot was concerned. Here though, Fletcher explodes out of the gate by delivering a story that gives readers a perfect sense of exactly what this series, and the first arc, will be about. Things quickly became complicated for Black Canary after the launch of the New 52, with a number of stories tying into her less-than-perfect past. Fletcher, seemingly, is not shying away from any of this. If fans are wondering why Canary is suddenly in a rock band, Fletcher actually creates a reason for this that ties back into her superheroic aspirations.

Though she may have a new life and a new supporting cast, Fletcher quickly makes it clear that he will not be letting her run away from her past. Fletcher paints Canary as a deeply troubled young woman willing to go to some extremes to get back to her old way of life. Here, the issue becomes deeply personal. Fletcher doesn’t get too far into the past, but implies enough to create a clear impression of the complex nature of our main character. That’s not all there is to this story though. Fletcher surprises by creating a fun and surprising story that ties our main character to both a rock and roll lifestyle and a galactic-sized plot that puts the lives of all of the characters featured in some pretty serious danger. That said, some might find this sci-fi plotline to be a bit out of place with everything else.

Annie Wu, fresh off the pages of Hawkeye, has the perfect sensibilities to bring this new book to life. Wu has a style that easily complements those of Batgirl artist Babs Tarr. However, just as Fletcher tweaks the style found in Batgirl to fit Black Canary, so does Wu. While her artwork is certainly infused with a youthful zeal, it’s also a bit more rough. Her frenetic layouts and at-times intentionally messy linework create the perfect visuals to back up Fletcher’s script.