Step into the octagon with legendary fighters Black Canary and Lady Shiva to decide who truly is the best of the best! Check out this review of Black Canary: Best of the Best #1…
Black Canary: Best of the Best #1
Written by: Tom King
Art and Main Cover by: Ryan Sook
Variant Cover: David Nakayama, Otto Schmidt, Chrissie Zullo Uminga, Dan Hipp
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: November 27, 2024
Black Canary: Best of the Best #1 begins with a simple setup: a no-holds-barred match in hand-to-hand combat (no powers) between two lethal ladies! Much like Rocky IV’s Ivan Drago, Lady Shiva has the clear advantage (7-to-1 odds, in fact) and a team of trainers to prepare her. In humbler fashion, Dinah Lance only has her aging mother – the original Black Canary – and a dusty mat in Coupeville, Washington. The whole world (a ridiculous two billion+ viewers on Earth alone) believes Dinah’s defeat is fait accompli. But if that were true, and this match that simple, then there’d be no story – a six-part story at that!
The mega-scale, record-breaking, all-eyes-on fervor of the match parallels flashbacks of Dinah’s training. She returns to her hometown in the Pacific Northwest with a window-seat airplane ticket and a modest rental car. Her mother, a retired superhero herself, now owns and operates a small flower shop on the island but steps into the ring to train her daughter for the upcoming match. One night, in a dimly lit dive bar, Dinah is confronted by a strange man with a proposal to fix the fight and a compelling reward for doing so: a cure for her mother’s cancer. And that merely scratches the surface of what’s at play.
Writer Tom King (Wonder Woman, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow) and artist Ryan Sook (Legion of Super-Heroes) pair up for the new Black Canary solo series. In recent years, King has garnered a reputation for writing emotionally captivating comic books centered around strong women. Noticeably, this first issue passes cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s Bechdel Test, which challenges us to scrutinize fiction for scenes that (a) include two women, (b) have them converse, and (C) talk about something other than a man [you’d be surprised at the rarity of all three].
While the central plot of Black Canary: Best of the Best #1 is focused on a violent cage match, incongruent though it may seem, the crux of the story concerns Dinah’s relationship with her mother, exploring themes of grief, helplessness, and legacy – all very subtly and without pulling too far from the action-packed A-plot. Sook’s artwork (partnered with colorist Dave Stewart) is clean and measured and effectively supports King in differentiating the spotlit Las Vegas arena from the cloudy forests of the PNW.
Additionally, the conceit of a televised fight allows for some fun tropes; King cleverly uses the banter of the ringside commentators to provide a recap on the origins and abilities of our leading ladies, supplementing new readers. If you’re already a fan of Black Canary or were hoping the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson fight had more wallops, then consider this an official recommendation. Black Canary: Best of the Best #1 promises an exhilarating exhibition match with hidden depth.
