BIRDS OF PREY #36
"Canary Caged"
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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DC Comics
Writer: Chuck Dixon
Pencils: James Fry
Inks: Andrew Pepoy
Colors: Gloria Vasquez & Digital Chameleon
Letters: Albert T. DeGuzman
Editor: Matt Idelson
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
Though this story spotlights the resourcefulness and resiliency of a great character, in the end, it really served little purpose. Those of us following the Joker: Last Laugh crossover mini-series have already covered this territory, while those not following the event will be at something of a loss when reading this issue.
The Joker has managed to chemically alter the metahuman criminals of the Slab to look and behave like him, and the Black Canary must make her way through a gauntlet of Joker-ized villains in order to avert disaster. Her sonic powers help her out, but she must also contend with villains with no conventional sense of hearing (Copperhead and Hellgrammite) and the untouchable Shadow Thief.
James Fry does a decent job of the fill-in art. Sure, I miss Butch Guice's sketchy but realistic style, but to be honest, this is some of the strongest, most focused work I've seen from Fry. There are a lot of characters running around this story, yet we get a clear visual sense of just about all of them. I think Fry's rather conventional super-hero style meshes nicely with Pepoy's inks. His art looks a lot cleaner here than I remember it being in the past.
Seeing Canary take on a variety of villains -- usually when she's outmatched in power -- was a lot of fun. Dixon's script conveys the gravity of the situation, and the brutal on-panel murder of a minor character really drove home the seriousness of the plot. That's actually something we really haven't seen in other Last Laugh books so far (at least none of the ones I've read, and I've read most of them).
In the end, though, there's not much in the way of plot. The entire story is a flashback; Last Laugh readers already know how things will play out. Furthermore, no plotline -- either from the crossover or from the series itself -- is advanced, no character developed.
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