Well, I might as well get this out of the way before I get called out in the comments: this week’s NovelTEA features an older book. (It’s new to me!) But, the recipe is still fresh. Pitched in 2005, announced in 2006, and then delayed until 2014, Paul Dini (yes, Harley Quinn’s co-creator) and Joe Quinones’s Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell was a long-awaited project that survived a lot of changes.
Swapped artists was one of them. Originally, husband-and-wife super-team, Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, were lined up to bring The Fishnets Brigade to life. Eventually, the baton was passed to Quinones.— an editorial mandate— remember The New 52?— and the test of time.
Even with the (loooong, holy crap) wait: it’s a lot of fun!
Bloodspell is about 95 pages of badass women. And rampant ass-kickery. And a solid female friendship between our two leads. It works on the premise that, while operating undercover to fit into a criminal girl gang and stop a huge Vegas heist, Dinah Lance— AKA, Black Canary— gets tricked with a simple finger-prick. Not in the Sleeping Beauty way (that would have made for a much different story). But in the black magick sort of way.
Black Canary successfully stops the heist and saves the day. But, Tina Spettro, the leader of the aforementioned girl gang, will stop at nothing to wreak havoc and get her revenge. This is made 1000x creepier by the fact that she’s doing it from beyond the grave. Suddenly, the ladies enlisted in Spettro’s Vegas heist are taking their own lives in increasingly gruesome and horrific ways. And Spettro is the one making them do it.
Aware of the huge, canary-shaped target on her back, Dinah calls for help. She enlists the one and only Zatanna Zatara to break the spell and stop Spettro’s scorned spirit before it’s too late.
Admittedly, I did cut this one some slack. It was pitched in 2005 and even with the delays, it’s a little product-of-its-time-y.
But, I’ve learned that being hyper-critical of my reading material basically ruins any and all enjoyment I can derive it. So while there were a few things that irked me, they’re too minor to mention or even stew over.
For me, the hardest thing to get over was the fact that we could’ve had Palmiotti and Connor on this book.
Quinones’s style grew on me eventually. It helped reinforce the GN’s inherent campiness while emphasising the more serious scenes and highlighting Dini’s humour. I absolutely adore Dave McCraig’s vivid, expressive colours. They’re perfectly suited for this tale, and wouldn’t look out-of-place in a Saturday morning cartoon.
Dinah and Zatanna’s friendship— developed over a 15-year period in the graphic novel, with the older Dinah acting first as a mentor, then as an equal, to the Mistress of Magic— was pretty solid. I enjoyed the flashbacks and the cameos from other characters. (These included Green Lantern, Elongated Man, and Superman himself). I enjoyed the girls’ banter (though I would have enjoyed it more in 2005). And I found that I enjoyed the little, heartfelt moments Dini managed to slip in best of all.
But perhaps the most dynamic duo in this fun frolic is Dinah and Oliver Queen, AKA, The Green Arrow.
Their easy, snappy back-and-forth was worthy of its own graphic novel. I chuckled a few times while reading this. Every single unexpected burst of giggles happened when Oliver and Dinah were interacting, whether as a couple, or as Black Canary and Green Arrow, off to save the world.
I’m not always a fan of how their relationship is handled (or not). But, Dini pulled it off exceptionally well. If you haven’t read this one yet, or you’re looking for a self-contained story that doesn’t rely on a whole extended universe’s worth of continuity, I highly recommend you check out Bloodspell.
Since our lovely leading ladies are well over the drinking age and can knock back a beer with the best of ‘em— and my weekend just-so-happened to include a girls’ night— I decided to pair Black Canary and Zatanna with a recipe for Oreo pudding shots. Recipe credit goes to Katherine Gawell over at Kate’s Cakes & Catering.
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