Book Review: Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell

Book: Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell by Paul Dini with illustrations by Joe Quinones and color by Dave McCaig

Edition: Hardcover

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

I dusted off my Twitter account and posted a quick tweet to the author, Paul Dini to say how much I enjoyed this book. 

Now for my review, I absolutely loved this book for so many different reasons, but here are my top four:

First, it's a totally cool, kick-butt buddy comic featuring two of my favorite characters Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance) and Zatanna Zatara.

Second, this comic featured Green Arrow. Now a days, as a Green Arrow and Black Canary fan, it's so rare to see anything that features their relationship. Which is why I was so surprised when it was shown in this book. Ollie wasn't in the entire story but it was still nice to see the two of them together.

Third, the story. It was very well-written and a fun read. I thought the author balanced the humor and drama perfectly.

Fourth but certainly not least, the artwork. It was bright and clear as it highlighted both the serious and humorous parts of this story.


In Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell, the story opens in the past with the first meeting between Zatanna and Dinah back when they were teenagers. The story then followed Black Canary who was undercover trying to stop Tina Spetto, the leader of gang from robbing a casino but Tina wasn't planning on surrendering and killed herself to avoid being arrested. But that wasn't the end of Tina's story, because although Dinah was unaware of the consequences she and the rest of Tina's gang had unknowingly taken a blood oath.

Now a year later in the present, Tina's spirit was seeking revenge against her former gang because they were the reason Black Canary was there to ruin her plan in the first place. Her plans also included destroying Black Canary as well.

After seeing a brief news segment, Dinah found out about the death of one of the women from Tina's former gang. Then she received a phone call from another former member who sounded a little off. Leaving her bedroom fun time with Ollie, Dinah went to see if she could help but by the time she got there, there was no way to save her. From there Black Canary and Green Arrow went to check on another former member but again they were too late. But this time Dinah did find a clue which had her seeking a little magical help from Zatanna.

Even with all of Zatanna powers, the duo had a difficult time trying to stop Tina due not only to the blood oath but a few other tricks. They had to come up with something truly on the spot to stop her.

I really liked this because you get a great fast-paced story that showed this two amazing characters doing what they do best being superheroes but you also get some fun flashback scenes. This is definitely one of my new favorite books.