Luke and Devin are talking about the Y.A. Graphic Novel Black Canary: Ignite to tie into Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn! Teens and bands – two things that Luke and Devin love talking about! Also a surprising amount of talk about Mr. Peanut.
Issues Covered:
- Black Canary: Ignite
The image gallery and show notes are after the jump!
Black Canary Ignite
Writer – Meg Cabot, Illustrations – Cara McGee, Color – Caitlin Quirk, Letters – Clayton Cowles
Dinah Lance and her friends, Vee Ramirez and Kat Van Dorn, are teens living in Gotham City in a nicer neighborhood and playing in a yet unnamed band. Her father, Detective Lance, comes in from trying to find the Joker and isn’t happy to hear her playing music, while her mom is more supportive.
The news comes that Principal Vogel has asked them to play in the battle of the bands at the end of Career Dreams and Pathways Week. Dinah wants to be a cop but her dad doesn’t want her to become one because of how dangerous Gotham City is. Dinah wants to be a hero even though she doesn’t have any powers and her friends agree they all want to help people, through fighting crime, cheerleading, or dentistry. As her friends leave, Dinah is unaware that she is being watched.
At the career fair, Dinah, Kat and Vee meet up. Kat asks Dinah to come to cheer practice before they start discussing band names. Steve, a jerk teen, calls them freaks so Dinah flips him into the trash and when she calls him a freak, the trophy case glass explodes, showering them in glass. Principal Vogel comes out to check the noise and blames Dinah since she was also around when her World’s Best Principal mug broke. Vogel then makes Dinah sweep up the broken glass which is wild to have a teen handle.
At the cheerleading tryouts, Coach Choi has Kat lead the other girls trying out and Dinah gets into the cheering and causes the glass blackboard to shatter and everyone else to fall down when she cheers. Vogel hears and calls her to her office but this time calls her parents. Principal Vogel thinks that Dinah has powers but Detective Lance denies it and Dinah’s mom threatens to call the district attorney Janet Van Dorn, who is also Kat’s mom.
After school, Dinah, Kat and Vee are hanging and talking about how they think Dinah might have telepathy when Ms. Bonner invites Dinah to join choir. When she leaves, Kat wants to prove that Dinah has power and chucks a cupcake at a black canary and Dinah screams and breaks the cupcake up and then she’s angry that Kat would attack a bird.
After school, Dinah is working at her mom’s shop, Sherwood Florist, when a mysterious woman in a cloak comes in asking for Black Canary and threatening to destroy her world. She shoots fire so Dinah yells at the figure knocking her out of the shop as her mom comes up. She reveals to Dinah that she was the original Black Canary who wanted to be a cop but was rejected for her gender so she became a vigilante which is where she met her husband. She explains that Dinah has the same genetic mutation as her and when her dad finds out, he’s excited and they celebrate after putting out an APB on the attacker.
At school, Kat and Vee are suspicious about the attack on the flower shop. Coach Grant pulls her aside while Kat and Vee relax because Dinah’s parents asked him to talk to her. He reveals that he’s Wildcat and he notices that the mysterious figure, Bonfire is about to attack Kat and Vee. Dinah steps in to try and make space and screams causing the bleachers where they were to collapse and they start looking for Coach Grant, who shows up and sends everyone inside. Grant blames the collapse on an earthquake and privately tells Dinah that she needs to learn to control her powers.
Dinah starts practicing combat with Coach Grant and singing with Ms. Bonner, who notices she’s trying to not sing too loudly. Bonner convinces Dinah to sing out which shatters the mirrors in the room and she is excited to help Dinah learn more control. When Dinah arrives late to band practice, she tries to lie about where she was and gets caught by Kat. They then find a box on the patio with a note reading “I’ll get you next.” Inside is a black canary chick and Dinah tries to keep it from her friends who are angry that she isn’t talking to them, so Kat kicks Dinah out of the band the day before the concert. That night, Dinah’s mom comes in to check on her and the baby bird and plans to have her move down to Florida with her grandmother, until Bonfire is arrested.
After Dinah packs, her dad is driving her to the airport with the black canary when they see the flower shop is smoking and find that her mom is missing. Dinah rushes in and finds a note threatening her to come to school so she takes her mother’s costume and puts it on before sneaking to the school. There, Kat is forced to apologize by Vee. Dinah tries to explain she needs to meet someone and her friends try to talk to her when she bumps into Principal Vogel who mentions that she thought she was moving to Florida in front of her friends and drags her to her office. Once there, Dinah sees her mom tied up and realizes that Bonfire is her principal out for revenge on her mom. They get into a fight and Dinah launches her out of the school into her dad’s police car where she gets extinguished.
Meanwhile Kat and Vee are worried about her coming on stage as Dinah runs in to perform with them as the band before them, Green Arrow, wraps up. Dinah explains she isn’t moving now and Ms. Bonner cheers her on, and Coach Grant gives her a guitar from her dad and they rock out after Dinah decides to name the band Black Canary.