The consequences of Sin

Black Canary 1 of 4

Written by Tony Bedard; Art and Cover by Paulo Sequeira and Amilton Santos

It has been frustrating – after the years Gail Simone spent building up the character, Black Canary is reduced to being knocked out early in a fight (JLA), Ollie’s lover – who after being taught by Lady Shiva’s trainer was made to “swallow” Slade’s sword in a fight (Green Arrow), and Nemesis’s face smacking onto her breasts after being dropped by Wonder Woman (Amazon’s Attack). Meltzer wrote a few “moments” in JLA where Black Canary was the warrior and woman that we knew but aside from that she’s back to being a the girl in the fishnets. (To the DC writers --- “READ Birds of Prey! Goddemmit!!”)

I was afraid that this mini-series would focus on Dinah mulling over whether to marry Ollie or not but this turned out to be more exciting because it’s all about Sin. During Dinah’s training in Southeast Asia, she brought a girl back to the USA. Like Angelina Jolie and Madonna, Dinah by-passed a lot of international adoption laws to save the kid’s life – not from AIDS or poverty or abuse – but from becoming the next Shiva. The League of Assassins have been training the girl – Sin (who was around 10?) - as back-up plan in case Shiva could not find a successor. Dinah was personally chosen by Shiva to be just that. Sin bonded with Dinah when Mother (the assassin trainer) ordered her to shadow Dinah so she will learn how to speak English.

Raising Sin would be a handful. Cassandra Cain who was raised by her father, Slade, to be an assassin was a teen-ager when she stumbled into Oracle and Batman’s lives – they had it easy in spite of her lack of social skills and of well, speech (!) she had a clear sense of what was right or wrong. Sin - who needs to go to school, who needs to play with other children, who still has to go to hospitals when she catches the nasty stuff that children usually get have to be taught – well, everything! This kid has special skills and when she gets bullied – pity the bully. The scene in the “MacDonald’s” play area was expected but I loved it - when Sin tried to make friends and she told the others where she came from and the other kids thought she saw the stuff on TV - it was funny because these spoiled brats - who were in so much trouble - thought they were better than her. I wonder WHO babysits Sin when Dinah is with the JLA or Ollie. I mean she has to know who Dinah is because Sin will definitely talk and tell stories – she’s the kind of kid who likes to talk (like my little brother when he was a kid).

The villains in the mini-series knew how to get to Dinah – blindside her through people she cares about. The ex-hubby working with Black Arrow (tama ba?) was a twist I never saw coming because he was one of Ollie’s rogues. Going after Sin and Dinah does makes sense. Sayang apat na issues lang to….