Black Canary: Best of the Best #2: Legacy of Honor

Black Canary: Best of the Best #2 picks up as the match between Black Canary and Lady Shiva continues. The theme of this issue is definitely legacy, as much of the issue showcases flashbacks of Dinah’s childhood, growing up with her mother as the original Black Canary. These events help shed light on why this fight is occurring in the first place, in addition to the reveal at the end of the first issue that Dinah is working with some sort of benefactor who promises to cure her mother’s cancer.

The topic of legacy in comics is something that constantly comes up. Many heroes and villains, Black Canary included, have come about with some sort of connective legacy involved. Whether it is Batman and his various Robins, or The Flash and his family of speedsters, legacy is a constant theme in DC. Tom King has been no stranger to this, and in Black Canary: Best of the Best #2 that relationship between the two Canaries is explored to a fascinating extent.

A lot of times the death of a family member leads to everyone expressing their happiest stories of the person; however, no one ever talks about the negatives or the trauma. Black Canary: Best of the Best #2 reveals that Dinah’s mom was not simply a superhero who passed on her legacy to her daughter. Instead, Dinah was forced to train under intense circumstances on a daily basis and had to witness the horrors that her mother endured as she was injured on the job. In many ways this is the legacy that made Dinah as powerful and successful in her superhero role as she is, but at the same time it paints a picture of the legacy she may not want to live.

From that foundation comes the crux of the story, which showcases Dinah participating in this fight purely to save her mother/give her mother the satisfaction of knowing that she raised her daughter to be as powerful as she is. This is juxtaposed with the fact that Dinah thus far has not been very successful in this battle. In fact, it is only her goal and resolve that is keeping her alive at all. At some point she is going to have to gain the upper hand, but for now, this mirroring of her trauma and this drastic one sided fight is enough to keep readers on the edge of their seats, like any good fight should.