“Black Canary” Vol 4 issue 9

Written by Matthew Rosenberg

Wildstorm Concepts:   

 

This issue shows us what Dinah has been up to after the Birds of Prey: she occupied herself with a rock band.

During one of their gigs she meets Valentine Chan, whom she recognizes. Apparently, he was in Team 7 with her. It seems likely he was thrown out for being too violent, because his job nowadays is to be an assassin. We don’t find out a lot more, because they only share old memories for one panel before getting on with the story – It’s just a little retcon which adds another Team 7 member.

Next: “Batman & Robin Eternal” issues 23 – 26, written by James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder, Genevieve Valentine and Steve Orlando.

“Ravagers” issues 10 – 12

Written by Michael Alan Nelson and Tony Bedard

Wildstorm concepts:

This is the Ravager’s final story as the book got cancelled. As co-writer Tony Bedard (“Team 7”) joins the book, the links to the Wildstorm universe grow stronger.

In the colony, Deathstroke gets tasked with retrieving all of the escaped kids to Harvest. Deathstroke agrees on the condition that he gets to take his daughter, Rose, with him, plus one kid of his choice. Harvest is okay with these conditions, but he warns Deathstroke that Rose might be about to die… Harvest has sent troopers and robots out to hunt Warblade and Rose after they failed him in their last adventure. The duo manages to overcome their hunters, but they know more will come. If they want to survive, they need to regain Harvest’s favour – by bringing back his runaway kids.

Back in their safehouse, Caitlin and the kids are laughing about their shared memories of the Colony. Caitlin feels realized; she’s finally given them a place where they can feel safe, a place they can call home. She’s made this happen.

Wait, wasn’t she torn about the kids’ destructive nature just a couple of issues ago? This jump on character development is due to the book’s cancellation, things need to be hurried up. All kinds of good things suddenly start happening; Thunder gets over the loss of his sister, Ridge loses his mutant form and becomes human again, Terra and Beast Boy confess their mutual attraction. Niles realizes Thunder’s migraines are caused by his sister’s absence, so he uses him as a sort of quantum anchor and brings her back. Lightning is back! It’s almost too good to be true… Indeed, all this happiness is the calm before the storm.

That night, when everyone’s gone to bed, Deathstroke breaks into the place. Using Harvest’s special Abeo Blade, his first victim is Ridge, who turns to ashes after being stabbed with the knife. At the same moment, Warblade and Rose sneak inside. Rose visits Caitlin in her room, where’s she’s caught by Niles’ cameras, so he activates his security protocol. Just afterwards, though, Deathstroke attacks Niles from behind and turns him to ashes as well.

Meanwhile, Caitlin starts fighting Rose and the fight takes them to the hallway, where they meet the rest of the kids, who were fighting Warblade. The whole cast is surprised by Deathstroke, whose reputation precedes him. Both the kids and the Ravagers understand that they must work together if they want any chance of surviving Deathstroke. Right when the brawl is about to start, though, Niles’ security protocol comes crashing from the ground: The animal-vegetable-mineral man.

This science experiment starts crashing the place, destroying everything in his path. Caitlin attempts to escape, to reach the control room to open an exit for everyone. Rose goes after her, but she’s chased by her father. Getting in the middle, Warblade attempts to buy Rose some time – but he’s no match for Deathstroke. He switches from the Abeo blade to his usual sword, and promptly beheads Warblade. Rest in peace, Reno. You were but a victim of Harvest’s machinations.

Meanwhile, Rose and Caitlin agree that they must join their efforts against the animal-vegetable-mineral man if they want to survive the day. The two of them and the kids join efforts, and everyone throws a combined blow that causes the monster to crumble to dust. When the kids are ready to turn against Rose, everyone is surprised by Warbade’s severed head. Panicked, Rose grabs Caitlin and guides her inside the installations; she knows Niles held something in there that could stop her father.

She’s referring to the cloning room, where Niles grew several bodies for Caitlin. Cait is horrified and confused; why would anyone clone her? Little does she know, she’s not even the original Cait; the original one died in 2006 after Spartan took control of her body, in the “Team 7” book. Rose laughs at Cait’s confusion, taking pleasure in torturing her. The two of them begin to fight, but they fall into the cloning chambers and cause the clone Caitlins to wake up. Soon, all the Cait’s begin fighting each other. But the clones are unfinished, unstable; they keep melting into green goo. The girls get overwhelmed by the number of clones and thrown back into the hallway, where Deathstroke is waiting for them. He’s already stabbed everyone else with the Abeon blade, turning them to ashes. Everyone except for Beast Boy, who was knocked over by a pile of rubble and is presumed dead.

Not wasting any time, Deathstroke stabs his own daughter and then Caitlin, but not without letting her know she isn’t the original Cait. He would know- he killed the original.

After all’s said and done, it is revealed the Abeo blade was nothing but a advanced teleportation device that Harvest had brought from the future; Deathstroke was sending all of the kids back to Harvest’s grasp. In return he gets his daughter, and Terra, and the three of them leave the Colony. Without Beast Boy, there’s nothing to keep Terra in there, anyway. Except Deathstroke’s wrong; Beast Boy didn’t die, he simply passed out. His future will be seen in “Teen Titans”.

So this is where all of the kid’s efforts and struggles led them. To be caught again by Harvest. What happens to Harvest and the kids? The end of their adventure and saga can be seen in “Teen Titans Annual” issue #3, but it doesn’t concern any Wildstorm characters. Bottom line is, Harvest is defeated and every kid is set free, including Caitlin, even if we don’t see her.

Next: Deathstroke Vol.2 issues 19 – 20, written by Justin Jordan.

“Team 7” Vol.2 issues 0 – 7, “Justice League Dark” issue 23.2, “Deathstroke” Vol.2 issue 0 and “Secret Origins” Vol.3 issue 11

“Team 7” written by Justin Jordan with dialogue by Tony Bedard; “Justice League Dark” written by Dan Didio; “Deathstroke” written by Rob Liefeld; “Secret Origins” written by Christy Marx

Wildstorm concepts:

I was torn about the placing of these issues, given that they include a little scene taking place in the present, but I think it is fine to read them this early on. Team 7 in this continuity takes place five years before the “present”, unlike the much older original Team 7. They are the government’s reaction to the appearance of superheroes; they want a team capable of responding to them, of taking them down if need be. So they assemble a team of the best of the best, hoping they’ll be able to develop a metagene.

It all begins after Superman defeated Brainiac and made himself known to the world in the pages of “Action Comics”. The government’s first attempt at creating a super soldier, the Steel Soldier Project, failed during that crisis, so now they’re looking for an alternative. And John Lynch is a man with ideas. After Brainiac the government isolated something in the human genome that gives people superpowers; the metagene. Just like in the Wildstorm universe, there exists a gen-factor that makes people receptive to gaining powers.

Lynch comes up with Team 7 and the Majestic Project; the Team 7 members will be administered drugs and put under genetic experiments hoping that the extreme situations they’re constantly put into will awake any latent superpower in them. A bit like Project Genesis for the Gen13, or like the original Team 7, innit?

A team is put together: Dinah Lance, an infiltrator (who will become the superheroine Black Canary in the present), her husband Kurt Lance, a tracker, Slade Wilson, tactical genius (who will become Deathstroke), Alex Fairchild, weapons expert, James Bronson, a driven utility player, Summer Ramos, pilot, Cole Cash, Special Forces veteran (Grifter), Amanda Waller, NSA analyst and loan to the army, and Dean Higgins, strategy. If they seem like way too many, it’s because they are. There are way too many nobodies on the team and all of them wear generic military costumes. On the cover to the first issue they wear some funny looking armours and masks to help differentiate one another, but it’s worth nothing they never wear them inside. At least we got two recognizable Wildstorm characters in the mix.

There is a tenth team member mentioned in “Black Canary” Vol.4 issue 9: Some guy called Valentine Chan, who apparently was thrown out early on for being too violent. “Deathstroke” Vol.2 issue 0 also includes a consultant called Adeline Kane to the team. This is the woman who will become Deathstroke’s wife in the future. None of these two characters are actually seen during this series.