Green Arrow and Black Canary #21

I've been pretty vocal concerning my displeasure over the way Black Canary has been mis-written in this series as of late. Since taking over as the regular writer of this title, Andrew Kreisberg has really played up Dinah as the constant damsel in distress. Anybody familiar with the recently canned "Birds of Prey" comic knows Dinah is FAR from a damsel in distress, and is actually one of the better fighters in all of the DCU. Hopefully, this issue will see Dinah return to her old ass-kicking ways as opposed to her recent descent into incompetency.

-Before I go any further, some background is probably necessary. A bunch of issues back, incompetent Dinah used her Canary Cry on some thug and wound up messing up the hearing of some innocent bystander. Said bystander(now not as innocent)has gotten a hold of some really fancy technology and has managed to take all the sound away from Star City. In layman's terms, nobody in Star City can hear anything. Upon losing the ability to hear, the citizens of Star City have decided it was the perfect time to riot... Yeah sure, that's exactly what I'd do if I lost the ability to hear!

-With that rather lengthy intro out of the way, on with the story. Ass-kicking Dinah(not incompetent Dinah)is running around the streets of Star City, dealing with would be muggers and rapists who are now permeating the streets. While Dinah is dealing with the rioting citizens, Ollie is trying to deal with his crazed stalker, Cupid, who is following him around like a lost puppy dog.

-Dinah heads to a University and finds some professors who have figured out why the city has lost its sound(boy, that sound dumb!). She receives a device from the professors that should allow her to locate the source of the disturbance.

-After a flashback sequence showing Dinah as a teenager dealing with the initial onset of her powers, Dinah manages to track down the source of the mayhem to a rooftop overlooking the city. On the rooftop is some guy with a fancy sound gun attached to his arm. Dinah lunges at the man but he fires a huge blast of sound at her feet, destroying the entire top of the building, and ending this issue.

Hey, you know what? This was my favorite issue of GA/BC since Andrew took over the writing duties! This issue actually focused on Dinah and showed her to be more than Green Arrow's bumbling wife. A few issues ago, Dinah could barely deal with one street thug, but in this issue she was able to take down 6 bozos with ease. The Dinah in this comic is the one who I became a fan of during the "Birds of Prey". Thank you for bringing her back Mr. Kreisberg!

I'm still not sure where Andrew is going with the flashbacks to Dinah's adolescence or what exactly the boy she injured with her Canary Cry means to this story, but at least the main storyline is really picking up steam. I still don't like Cupid and the fact that Ollie is allowing her to run around with him is starting to bother me. She was responsible for several murders over the last few issues, so you'd think Ollie would at least make an attempt to apprehend her... But of course Cupid IS a woman, and Ollie IS Ollie, so I guess that explains his actions there.

In this issue, Cupid thinks to herself that after six of seven archery lessons she's getting pretty good with the bow. That made me smile, because I know firsthand just how difficult it is to learn archery. Last summer I brought myself a bow and arrow, read a few books and web articles on archery and after deciding I knew what was what, I went out, set up a few targets and proceeded to play Hawkeye/Green Arrow. Instead of getting better with each shot, I inexplicably became worse and worse, developing several huge welts and bruises on my arms from the snapping of the bowstring, as well as a grotesquely swollen thumb after I somehow managed to shoot an arrow into the thumb that was holding the bow... I still can't fathom how I managed that... Needless to say, my bow hasn't seen the light of day this summer!

Anyway, back to this comic book. For a score, I'll go with an 8 1/2 out of 10, which is by far the best score I've given any comic in this series for quite some time. Hopefully Andrew can keep up the good work over the next couple of issues.