What's so hard to understand about 'Black Canary'

Having this poster on my office wall sometimes gives rise to comment



...and the majority of these run along the lines of 'who's the one on the end?'



I don't think this necessarily means that visitors know who all the others are, and just want to plug a gap in their knowledge. Something about this drawing causes more comment than the rest put together. Perhaps having a picture of a fishnet-stocking-wearing female on my wall seems less appropriate than the rest of them - even the equally sexed-up Wonder Woman image might have the redeeming power of kitsch to justify it being in an office (as one of those 'look, I really do have a personality' accessories), whereas Black Canary could conceivably be the deranged passion of a middle aged man with a crumbling social facade, bleeding through into the professional arena.

Still, it could be worse: she sometimes get drawn in a rather cheesecaky style:



Excellent though they are, pictures of real people in her costume might look less like suitable decor for a business office:



and it would be naive to deny any subtext whatsoever in images like this:



One problem with the poster is the unappealing look of all of the superheroes, as painted with admirable realism by Alex Ross.



A group of smug, violent characters dressed in weird costumes: variously, aristocrats, plutocrats, driven outsiders, hotshots, firebrands, geniuses and a goddess. An unaccountable elite comprising new money, old money, unassailable ability and the demiurge-like embodiment of extreme qualities. No necessarily people you'd want to spend time with. In fact, Black Canary (real name: Dinah Lance), who runs a shop called Sherwood Florist, may be one of the more accessible personalities. But lovely though she might be, in this picture she looks sneery as well as sexy, in a 'come and have a go if you think you're hard enough' way...

Perhap I should pin up a short biography of her for the benefit of visitors - explaining the origins of her 'Canary Cry' with which she incapacitates criminals, and describing her martial arts talents. Or would that be digging myself in deeper?

Let's just say she's great kick-ass drawn character and leave it at that...

SuperChristmas through the round window

I love this picture, which I came across via the redoubtable Dial B for Blog. The great Alex Ross painting shows the Silver Age JLA having a Christmas party.

There's Wonder 'Donna Reed' Woman, decorating the tree using her 'decorate with eyes shut' power;



J'onn J'onzz and Red Tornado toasting with whatever beverage a Martian and an android would choose;



Black Canary looking hot (or 'demented' according to Jennie);




Plastic Man up to some mischief which requires him to brace himself on Green Lantern's shoulders...



But wait, what's that shadow at the window? It's Batman, 'like some jungle animal drawn to the light and looking in'.




Superman has spotted him and... gives him the finger?!



Perhaps saying 'Get away you moody caped bastard'... No, on closer look he's gesturing for him to come in.

This makes this an interesting piece of art. Most Yuletide imagery is about bringing the light in to counter the darkness, but in this picture it's the dark being invited in to join the light and love... The super-pantheistic-panentheism of DC mythology is interesting like this - as well as opposites, the avatars of dark and light can also be allies and friends, redeeming each other...

Of course, Batman wasn't always so sinister. Time was, it was hard to stop him donning a Santa beard and handing out presents



along with the rest of the Trinity



One time, he even sang carols all night with the boys of the GCPD Choir.

Crime was suppressed that night, not because Batman is such a badass that he can defeat superstitious, cowardly criminals by singing carols at them, but through the operation of the 'spirit of Christmas'.



Here's praying something like this happens this season. God bless us one and all, superchums...

NB: Most images come from the aforementioned Dial B for Blog where the iridescent depths of comicdom are plumbed in fine style; I'm a Ray Palmer on their giant shoulders. Copyright belongs to the originators, natch. Religious ideas, thought forms, archetypes etc copyright the theologoumenon from which all reality flows, authors and readers included.