Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Some Thoughts on GA/Black Canary

I was going to save most of my comments for when the first issues came out, but since the previews are out and I've found something that inspires me to write, I have decided to let inspiration run wild.

http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/july07/previews/previews.html

Dear GOD, the Black Canary book looks awful. I don't usually notice the art on some books but this... oh, the opening splash page made me snap to attention.





She looks like a ship's figurehead and he looks like he should be wearing a diaper and standing before a pink heart.

I'm also distressed that, after the image in 52's Origin Of The Justice League, that this story suggests that Dinah WASN'T a founding JLA member.





And naturally, I'm worried that Ollie is being written as a jerk. I mean, even accepting the fact that he's old-school Ollie... he's too much of a jerk. I wonder why that could be? Well, an interview at Wizard On-Line sheds some light.

“Why on Earth would Dinah marry Ollie? Considering that he’s cheated on her at least twice, three times—I’ve lost count—does that make her a weak character if she would go back with him after all that? - Tony Bedard, Writer of the Black Canary mini-series.

For the record, Ollie has only cheated on Dinah ONCE. And that's under really iffy circumstances. But hey, I've already written the book on that one - no need to repeat myself.

The rest of that interview is worth reading though. You get to read how every major writer who has worked with Ollie and Dinah in the last 40 years feels about them and the upcoming wedding. I find it interesting that out of all of them, Mike Grell is the most hopeful and even he thinks they'll have a rough time of it and Judd Winick is unable to talk intelligently about marriage, and instead says something regarding exactly how Dinah and Ollie are... well,

They’re randy. They’re tough. They are a couple, like, “Let’s get boozy and do it in the kitchen!”

Which explains a lot of this weeks' Green Arrow #74... ah, but I'll save that for the column.

8 comments:

  1. Until I realized her boots had flaired tops in the splash page...I thought her pants had fallen down and bunched around her ankles. Hideous!

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  2. He slept with Black Lightning's niece. And he and Dinah were definately together at that point. Or are you just blotting all Winnick Green Arrowness from your mind?

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  3. Actually, they weren't. I was refering to the one kiss between Ollie and Marianne during the Grell run.
    Dinah's appearance in the end of Meltzer's Archer's Quest seemed to suggest that while Dinah and Ollie had gone out a few more times after "The Riddler Incident", they were not an item again. At the very least, Dinah didn't seem to be as positive about where things were going as Ollie was. Hence Ollie's chickening out of his planned attempt at a proposal.
    Not one word was said about Ollie and Dinah as a couple in Winick's run until AFTER Ollie had slept with Jeff's niece and there was much confusion among some of the fans as to why Connor and Mia were so upset unless it was because they were holding out for an Ollie/Dinah reunion.
    And then when Dinah finally showed up in the book... it was to dump Ollie, even though there had been nothing about them being an item and Dinah hadn't even been mentioned, apart from some vauge talk about Dinah having called for Ollie while he was helping Jeff's niece with her business. The way it was written it came off more like "Parent-Trap" cuteness than "Hey.. you have a girlfriend, rememember, Jackass?" Given Mia's usual bluntness, I think she'd go the later route if Ollie and Dinah were an item.
    As far as anyone can tell, Winnick brought them together off-camera so he could break them apart because the idea of a single, promiscous Ollie was far more interesting to him than a devoted family man.
    Funny thing - the recent recaps of that whole storyline in GA and Outsides don't mention Jeff's niece or the one-night stand. Some take it as a sign that Winick is retconning his own continuity. I take it as a sign that even he is too lazy to research even his own comics for continuity.

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  4. You know, if I didn't know that Dinah never wore pants except as part of her hideous 80's costume, I could totally see that...

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  5. Argh. GA/BC relationship makes my head hurt...

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  6. I say twice. Shado and Joanna Pierce. One for each attempt at the relationship.

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  7. That's why you need geeks like me to keep it straight. :)

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  8. Uh... two points.
    1. Ollie was raped by Shado, while he was hallucinating and had no idea that Shado's kid was his own until a few years later. Dinah knew about it before he did. And his and Shado's relationship was limited to them both being master archers who felt a certain kinship.
    Grell did PLAN a sort of romance between Ollie and Shado that would end quickly as they both realize there's too many differences and Ollie really loves Dinah and close with Ollie and Dinah winding up back together stronger than ever. Sadly, Grell was forced off the book by editorial before that could go into action.
    2. Putting aside my own issues with how out-of-character it is and admitting it's been a while since I read it, I don't recall Ollie having any intent of starting a relationship with Joanna. I thought their one-night stand was just something that happened suddenly.
    And logically, if he WAS in a committed relationship with Dinah, why would he be looking to start a relationship with Joanna? Unless you mean relationship in some obscure or euphmestic meaning that escapes me.

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