The cover is pretty awesome. A Carmine Infantino, Gaspar Saladino and Murphy Anderson piece, it depicts the Black Canary standing triumphantly over the Justice League, basically demanding to take Wonder Woman's place in the Justice League. The message is clear: Black Canary is here, she's kicking down the door to this boy's club, and she's not taking no for an answer!
"In Each Man There is a Demon!"
Writer: Dennis O'Neil
Penciler: Dick Dillin
Inker: Joe Giella
Colorist: Unknown
Letterer: John Costanza
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Executive Editor: Carmine Infantino
The story begins with Oliver Queen introducing himself. "Wait!" you may ask yourself. "Isn't this supposed to be about Black Canary?" Well, don't you worry. This is still her tale, Ollie's just playing narrator to us today. You see, at this time, Ollie Queen was a rather rich man...well, he was a rich man. Thanks to some forged documents, he ended up losing his company.
While taking a walk to think about what to do next, he hears a cry for help. There's a mugging afoot! The Emerald Archer leaps into action and easily takes care of the robbers thanks to a trick arrow and some Mighty Punches. The mugging victim thanks the Green Arrow for the help, remarking that he's the most useful guy in town. However, Ollie doesn't feel very useful.
Black Canary takes over, saying "This is my story Ollie, I got this." The Justice League are debating over whether the bird-themed heroine should join the League. Hawkman points out that Canary may not be ready to face the kind of threats that the Justice League regularly take on. This leads Canary to think back to the events of Justice League of America #73-74 (), in which the Justice League of Earth-One and the Justice Society of Earth-Two joined forces to battle a monster from the stars called Aquarius.
During this conflict, Dinah's then-husband Larry was killed. She felt like she could no longer stay on Earth-Two due to the memories and her grief, so she moved to Earth-One to start over. Yeah, if you've read my Crisis on Infinite Earths reviews, you may be familiar with the old DC Multiverse. The Canary is brought out of her reverie by the argument over her joining the League.
You see, Hawkman and Batman believe that despite her skills in martial arts, she still can't take on the kind of foes the League faces.
...that...is HILARIOUS coming from the two of them. Keep in mind, Batman has no superpowers. He's just a very smart and rich man with martial arts skills and a utility belt filled with gadgets. Hawkman has no innate superpowers, either. He just has a mace and a winged harness made of a fancy metal! Man doesn't even wear a shirt when fighting villains! So yeah, Black Canary can't handle being a Leaguer? Well, by your own logic, neither can you two clowns!
Dinah demands that the two of them stop talking about her like she's not in the room, and discovers that she can make her demand rather...loudly.
Yup, Dinah has somehow gained the power to fire off a mighty sonic scream, strong enough to stagger even Superman himself. Ollie himself wasn't there to see this. He had been feeling a bit down, and he decided to get some psychiatric help. Hey, good on you, Ollie! Therapy is a good thing!
Dr. Oyal believes that Ollie's suffering a bit of an identity crisis. But luckily, the doc is also a bit of an inventor, and he's cooked up this nice little gadget that will help the Emerald Archer out. The device is known as an Id-Actualizer. It's a device that probes the user's subconscious and allows the user to see themselves as they actually wish to be. Ollie gets strapped in, and...the device does its thing.
I love the panel on the left. Ollie's facial expression says it all. Yes, Arrow. You willingly let this man put that thing on your head. The device projects a construct of the Green Arrow. The construct announces that he's the real Green Arrow, the warrior spirit that lies in Oliver Queen's mind. The fake Arrow punches Dr. Oyal and runs off, much to the shock of the doc. After all, that's not what the machine was supposed to do.
Back in JLA headquarters, Superman and the Atom examine Dinah to determine why she is suddenly able to shatter glass with a scream. They discover that her brain was altered somehow, allowing her to generate sonic waves. Batman theorizes that she was mutated by being exposed to mystical forces from battling Aquarius. Hawkman points out that if she was affected, other members of the JLA may be as well. After all, she was not the only superhero there.
But before they can test that theory, the Green Arrow construct bursts in. The League try to restrain him, but...
Yup, the Leaguers end up with their own ids personified. The ids basically trash the place and leave. They also decide to lay a pummeling on Superman, who is seemingly unaffected. The other Leaguers can't seem to fight them. After all, these things are the embodiments of their ids, their most basic drives and desires. It's left them feeling low, but Superman has a plan to perk up their spirits.
Everyone has a dark side, even the Man of Steel. Unlike the others, Superman eagerly leaps into battle with this embodiment of his basest desires. And like the hero he is, he's triumphant. This gives the other members of the League some much needed inspiration, and they jump into action. The Man of Tomorrow stays behind, revealing the id construct was one of his robots, and that fight was a ploy to perk the League up. Where does Supes go after this? He doesn't go after any of the ids alongside the League? Did he have an appointment or something? GO HELP THEM, YA BIG DUMB BRICK!
The League give chase to their green doppelgangers, but have to split up to find them. Hawkman is the first to find his living id in an abandoned factory. The id-Hawkman rants about how he's superior to the original, but the Winged Warrior is able to dispatch him. Justice League 1, id doppelgangers 0.
Batman finds his alternate self in front of a sleazy diner. The doppelganger demands to be left alone. He's having some dinner, after all. The two of them have a short fight that ends with the Dark Knight literally tossing his id in the trash.
Justice League 2, doppelgangers 0. The Atom manages to chase his doppelganger into a thimble. It's a short fight, as the Atom is able to trick his id into growing and knocking himself out. Justice League 3, doppelgangers 0. Black Canary's id steals a motorbike during a race and Canary gives chase on her own bike. One of the racers, being a macho idiot, decides to pursue them as he doesn't want a woman to win the race. Moron, THEY AREN'T PARTICIPATING IN THE RACE! Canary tries to use her Canary Cry, but she lacks control of it. As such, the macho idiot ends up eating sonic scream.
It's funny not just because he's an idiot getting what he deserves, but also Canary manages to knock him off his bike with her scream without even turning her head in his direction. Oopsie. Seeing her scream as unreliable, Dinah uses her martial arts skills to take down her id. Justice League 4, doppelgangers 0. I think we're going to get a clean sweep, folks!
Back to Green Arrow! Ollie finds his id robbing a jewelry store. This is a nice little subtle touch. Oliie's recent loss of his wealth had been bothering him lately. As such, it makes sense that his id would prioritize regaining that wealth without being restrained by Oliver's morality.
The id taunts the Arrow, saying that he fought criminals not because he wanted to do some good, but it was for the thrill. Ollie got a rush from fighting bad guys, and enjoying the fame that comes from them. Ollie admits this, letting his id get away with the loot. The store owners are shocked, but they understand. After all, they're just regular people trying to get by, not glamorous superheroes like he is.
This makes Ollie pick up his bow and vow to catch his id. He manages to confront the construct. Arrow confesses that yes, he does enjoy the fame and thrill of being a superhero...but he also wants to do some good. The two Arrows fire at each other. Ollie takes an arrow to the leg, NOT THE KNEE. The id Ollie vanishes, as well as the other id constructs. WE GOT A CLEAN SWEEP, FOLKS! JUSTICE LEAGUE WIN, FIVE-NOTHING!
The story ends with Ollie and Dinah finishing up their retelling of the story. Both Ollie and Dinah are hurting in their own ways (Green Arrow from his leg injury, and Black Canary from her grief), but they hope to heal up as JLA members.
This was not terrible, but it doesn't feel like the story I was hoping it would be. I thought this would be a story of how Black Canary got to join the Justice League. Instead, it feels more like Ollie's story. Think about it. It was Ollie's identity crisis that kickstarted the story, and he gets to be the one that saves the day.
I don't understand why they couldn't have had Canary be the one to visit the psychiatrist. I mean, she would have had a reason to visit one. What with her grief over the death of her husband being still rather fresh after all. Perhaps her mental construct could have tried to get her to give in to her despair over it. You could tie it in to her discovery of her new sonic scream. She has trouble mastering it at first, but when she's confronted her own id, she's able to master it and defeat the construct. Feeling stronger from the experience, Dinah believes she is ready to fight evil once more and joins the Justice League. There, that's how I'd do it. Heck, you could even hint at the beginnings of the Ollie Queen/Dinah Drake romance. He's into her, but she's not ready to hit the dating scene yet. I'm not against Ollie getting character development, but the cover promised we'd see Black Canary join the Justice League, and this story seems to treat that as an afterthought.
I also was rather amused that the machine seemed to have no effect on Superman and he had a specially-constructed robot for just such this situation. Maybe he used Wonder Woman's magic sphere. I've read better stories by Denny O'Neil than this.
The art is really good. Dick Dillin turns in some fine artwork for this comic. His rendition of Black Canary is gorgeous, and there's some fantastic storytelling moments in the comic, particularly the faceoff between the two Green Arrows. I got a Western vibe from it, the two gunslingers (or arrow-slingers in this case) facing off for the final showdown. It's great stuff.
If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2006 trade paperback Justice League of America: Hereby Elects... Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off to your friends! Take care of yourself, and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, and wash your hands often! Join me next time when we see the Master of the Mystic Arts debut a new series for the far-out 1970s...
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