Cover Story - Top 10 Black Canary Covers

Edited by Robert Beach

Hello, and welcome to Cover Story, diving as little into the world of comics as we can. Legends of Tomorrow is still blowing up our screens, and as such, we’ve got another Cover Story to celebrate their team. This week’s episode had a major emphasis on White Canary. Because that character doesn’t exist in the comic, I’m showcasing Black Canary, which is pretty much the next best thing, especially for Arrow fans.  

While Black Canary has only enjoyed an ongoing comic once in the history of DC, she’s been featured on plenty of Justice League and covers and throughout the Birds of Prey book that helped make her a standout name in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. With that said, let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on one of the biggest female heroes of DC comics. 

10.

A good chunk of these covers will be drawn from the recent, DC You Black Canary comic. Partially this is because this latest comic is the most consistent ongoing Black Canary’s ever enjoyed, yet it’s mostly because they are just damn good. I haven’t read the series myself, but it seems to recast Canary as some kind of superhero/punk rocker as well as total badass.  

The cover comes to us courtesy of Annie Wu, who finds that perfect sweet spot between the jagged edges of a punk rock dive bar and the grimy streets of a vigilante story. Wu is also the colorist for the cover and does an amazing job. She's masterminded all the Black Canary covers, and she is just an astounding double threat with a wonderfully unique artwork style with a sleek color palette to match. The steely soft blue gradient mixed with the bright, popping neon pink absolutely makes this cover. This one only ranks so high because there are so many other great ones to go. 

9.

Not going to lie, this one made the cover specifically because of that kid with the giant, Frank-esc, bird head standing behind Canary.  Again, this is a perfect example of Wu's coloring skill and the way her heavy use of bright pink never feels diluted or distracting from the golden yellows and standout blacks.  I really like how Black Canary is drawn with the white and pink design to pop more against the rest of her team.  I also really like the blend of influences and reference elements drawn from the ‘70s in this cover.  

If you don’t know, the song ‘Search and Destroy!’ is from Iggy Pop’s band the Stooges, release in 1973.  It’s a great indicator of the punk inflections that so dominate these covers while at the same time, the ‘70s setting conjures up its own unique blend of gritty urban vigilante stories like Deathwish or various grindhouse films.  It’s a visual tapestry that uses grounding in the grimier tropes of the past as a way to greater evoke a mood and feeling from the image in a spectacular way. 

8.

While not Black Canary’s first appearance, this was her first major debut on the cover of a comic, in particular Flash Comics #92.  While I acknowledge this cover isn’t as stylish as the previous 2 it still stands up as a very important and unique cover for Canary.  The style was actually a direct reference to Robin’s first appearance and ended up really cementing this particular design as a way of introducing new characters.  

A couple decades later this would be the basic set-up of cover used by the Justice League to introduce major new members.  This is also a pretty good way to introduce people to Black Canary’s classic costume  While there aren’t a whole lot of difference I’ve always liked that she seems to be wearing blue tights under his fishnets, that’s pretty great. 

7.

Action Comics Weekly was, as this cover should indicate, a weekly 48 page comic DC began running in the ‘80s to showcase a lot of folks who weren’t appearing in their own weekly comics at the time.  The idea was that the comic told multiple stories revolving around several characters, some of them big names like Superman to draw in readers, while others were obscure heroes like Wild Dog or Secret Six.  

This issue featured Black Canary returning to her classic “fishnets over tights” costume instead of her giant shoulder pad costume that had punctuated her run with the Justice League International through most a good chunk of the ‘80s.  I really like the visual design of heroes lamp-shading their changes and this is a great example of it, especially with how smug and smirky Black Canary looks in this cover.  Overall as a character Black Canary works well as kind of a smug bastard, it’s the role that best fits her indomitable skill and super style, remember she’s someone who can hand Batman his ass 9 times out of 10, she’d be pretty cocky. 

6.

If I ever make a Bane list this cover is going to be on that one too because it’s just great.  Firstly we get tiny shirt Bane, the best version of Bane, but the visual of him trying to woe Black Canary with that box of chocolates is just amazing.  This is part of what I mean about Canary working well as a smug and more comedic character.  

There are plenty of heroes caught in the brood cycle, especially the urban vigilante sort that Black Canary originated as, so shedding that skin is a great way to set her apart from the Batmen and Daredevils of the world.  I really like her pose here because of the sense of how much she’s playing up her swooning.  Like, you know there’s 0 chance of Bane ever getting with her but it’s fun to indulge.  This is Black Canary’s 4^th costume and one of the better ones though I think the most modern redesign is still the best, I definitely miss the leather jacket. 

5.

Another comedy cover coming from Chuck Dixon’s Birds of Prey run.  A lot of covers from this run had the tendency to slip into cheesecake with Canary but thankfully the comedy ones completely avoid that and come out the strongest covers as a result.  This one holds a special place in my heart for two reasons.  Firstly, there’s Canary’s completely exasperated eye-roll at the absurdity of both the situation and the “history lesson” title.  Like I said, I like Canary best when she’s getting her snarky on and this is a perfect example of it.  

What’s more, I absolutely love the Viking border design and the cameo by the Viking Prince up there to the right of the cover.  Viking Prince was a very old DC character from the late ‘50s who co-starred in Brave and the Bold with Silent Knight right when DC was getting back into the game of adventure stories in addition to their weird science and horror comics.  He pops up in comics from time to time and I’m always glad to see him. 

4.

Okay, first things first; yes Black Canary’s waist is ungodly small in this shot and her legs look mind bogglingly long.  What’s more, I’m pretty sure she’s breaking her neck to get the right angle on that hat.  However, Cover Story is about the covers I think are best not the ones that are technically most proficient and I really love this cover.  My favorite part is the idea that Canary somehow missed this giant dinosaur footprint when laying out that blanket on whatever random beach she’s decided to vacation at.  

I actually really question the logistics of this vacation.  Like there is an island in the DC universe full of dinosaurs, that’s fine, but it’s literally called dinosaur island so…did she specifically seek out dinosaur island just for this vacation?  Maybe she did and Canary is just an irresponsible thrill seeker come to experience the dizzying high of being chased by T-Rexs with an exotic drink in your hand.  I’m willing to bet that kind of thing happens way more often in the DC universe than anyone would care to admit. 

3.

Hey the giant shoulder pad suit made the cut.  Admittedly, the shoulder pads weren’t as prominent at this point in its history but that bird insignia is still pretty bizarrely pronounced on her chest.  I actually really like the design of Canary’s boots and turtle neck set-up as that’s pretty unique among heroes and it’s still pretty definably her despite the new elements of the costume.  I’d rank this as better than her Birds of Prey swimsuit but not as good as the DC You punk redesign.  

Still, this is a great cover and another perfect example of Canary mercilessly screwing with her fellow heroes.  The look on her face and cavalier attitude implied through that word balloon imply she has exactly no plan for where that crate is supposed to be, she’s just screwing with Booster and Beetle there because of how heavy it is.  What’s more; Booster Gold has super strength, that crate must be just crushingly heavy if he’s having trouble holding it up.  Also, if it is so heavy not even super strength helps that’s got to be hell on poor Blue Beetle, normal human that he is. 

2.

They couldn’t all be comedy covers, especially because damn Canary looks pissed in this cover.  This is from one of the handful of mini-series she enjoyed back in the day and I absolutely love it, especially the superimposition of the crosshairs over the image.  Covers that emphasize that kind of perspective are always a blast and this is one of the best visualizations of it.  The photorealistic background is a nice touch as well, especially that imposing cloud line like an atom bomb drifting over the metropolis.  

This is one of the better realizations of Canary’s costume as well, the black gloves and kick-ass boots are a nice addition to the classic Silver Age design and she’s finally decided it’s warm enough out to wear just the fishnets and ditch the tights.  Most of all, I like the idea that these criminals settled on sniper rifle to try and take out Canary because anything closer and she’d just destroy them with but a word.  She’s still about to crush this sniper into regretful criminal goo it’ll just take her marginally longer. 

1.

Never have I ever heard a better description of Black Canary than one-woman army.  In case it wasn’t clear from this list I’m a pretty big Black Canary fan, mainly from her role in the Justice League International.  One of the whole jokes of the JLI was that a lot of the male heroes like Booster and Beetle were lovably incompetent fools while Black Canary could pretty much crush the planet if she wanted to.  

That’s admittedly colored my perception of the character but it’s a very valid idea and this cover perfectly embodies that interpretation of Canary, especially the mic stand.  The whole series revolves around what Canary will do to protect the literal band of misfits she’s fallen in with and the fact that she’s actually picking up the symbol of her new found team to defend them is absolutely great.  I like how much it keeps her from falling into the role of “grumpy group mom” and more of a sarcastic older sister, snarky and bad ass but with a heart of gold deep down underneath; that’s Black Canary. 

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