Black Canary: Best of the Best #3 – Tom King, Writer; Ryan Sook, Artist; Dave Stewart, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: It’s always challenging to tell a story with such a limited frame of time and place, and setting this entire series within the bounds of Black Canary and Lady Shiva’s bout is a big example of that. Thankfully, Tom King knows how to flesh out the story by getting extensively into how we got here. This issue features two flashback segments, one set during Dinah’s training as Batman shows up to investigate why she’s violating the JL charter by fighting for money – only to be roped into training. He doesn’t find out the why, but we do – as a battle between Vandal Savage and Green Arrow turns into Dinah parlaying with the immortal criminal and being roped into the deal with the devil she made to throw the fight at the exact right moment. It does a great job of setting up the high stakes when we pick up the bout again with round three – with Dinah again on the ropes.
I’m not sure if King has any fighting background, but it’s pretty rare to see a writer be able to get this much tension out of a staged fight. Shiva continues to be absolutely brutal, landing hit after hit that seems more like it’s intended to kill than incapacitate. The fight seems to go in cycles, with Shiva getting close to the final blow and Canary roaring back – leading analysts to wonder if Shiva is playing with her prey. Things get vicious enough that Ted Grant actually enters the fray and attacks Shiva – only to pay dearly for it. And we know that Canary isn’t trying to win, she’s trying to make it to round six. The only question is if she can survive this long. This works as both a commentary on the state of the healthcare industry that a superhero would need to do this, and an absolutely brutal spotlight for two of the DCU’s best martial artists. Another win for Tom King, who seems to do this with ease.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
