DC’s Young Adult line of graphic novels continues to be one of the brightest divisions under its umbrella, and now Dinah Lance is getting the spotlight in the newest addition to the line Black Canary: Ignite. The new graphic novel follows a thirteen-year-old Dinah who loves being in a band with her two best friends, but she also aspires to become a member of the Gotham City Police force, something her dad isn’t thrilled about, and that’s before she discovers just how powerful she is. ComicBook.com had a chance to talk to Ignite writer Meg Cabot and artist Cara McGee all about the book, including the key element they wanted to get across from a character and visual perspective.
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“When I heard DC was doing this project, I was really excited and I wanted to get involved, though I was not as familiar with the character of Black Canary,” Cabot said. “When I found out about her, what really drew me to her was the fact that her superpower is her voice, and I was the kid in school who was always told I was too loud and I needed to shut up, and teachers would put me in the back row for being so loud. I just love that here was this superhero who had this amazing ability, that was celebrated for being loud. It was so amazing to me.”
Black Canary has had a variety of looks over the years, and McGee tried to find a modern and fun take on the traditional costume, which was challenging in some ways.
“My biggest task with it I think was taking the traditional Black Canary look, which is very traditionally sexy and revealing, and I don’t know how she fights crime in those heels, which seems like another superpower,” McGee said. “But taking that, and making it more age-appropriate for a younger audience, and trying to figure out how to make this younger Dinah actually look like Black Canary without having those hyper-sexualized elements to her costume. So I did a lot of research as far as finding out what kids these days are wearing, and current fashion and stuff, and figuring out how to translate that into a newer look for her. I got rid of, or at least temporarily got rid of that motorcycle jacket, the leather jacket, which I don’t feel like a lot of 13-year-old kids would necessarily wear on a daily basis, and replaced it with a bomber jacket with Black Canary embroidery on it, which I would kill to own. And then still keeping the fishnet stockings, but torn like the punk aesthetic, with the biker shorts over them to make them a little bit more modest, and giving her Doc Martens instead of the thigh-high heel boots and stuff. So yeah, just making her still cool and hip, but for a 13-year-old.”
As for Cabot, while she wasn’t as familiar with Canary at first, she quickly got up to speed, and there was quite of bit of history to sort through.
“I did get a lot of questions when people heard that I was joining the project and they… It’s a lot about the coma,’ Cabot said. “There’s a long coma sequence where Laurel is in a coma, and I definitely did not want to get into that. I think her parents, both of them die at some point in one of the universes, and I just was like, I want this to be a happier story, at this point. I think I was just going to have them both be alive in this version, and she’s going to middle school, because to me that seemed really interesting, to have her be going to middle school and have both her parents be dealing with having a kid. Because I love the scene where she’s in the principal’s office, and the principal handed them a pamphlet on how to deal with having a kid who has a superpower. Because it’s so common in Gotham City.”
“I just thought that was the most interesting and fun take for it,” McGee said. “So I like that Dinah doesn’t have a tragic backstory, and that has parents who are trying to help her deal with having powers.”
There’s a lot you can take from Black Canary: Ignite, but one of the main takeaways Cabot sees is learning to use your voice. “I think that what is such a great part of the story is that it’s about finding your voice, and having a voice, and using your voice in a literal way,” Cabot said. “Because that is her super power, is that she has this loud voice. But we all have a voice, and we can all use it to make change. So I know that sounds kind of drippy, but it’s actually literally true. I mean, use your voice.”
“This is going to also sound very cheesy and I don’t know if this is something Meg did intentionally or not, but today, just in the news these days, there are so many young women using their voice in this way, like Greta, and just to make a positive change in the world,” McGee said. “And it’s probably one of the most important things that I think kids Dinah’s age can do, is just making themselves heard. Because people are going to listen to them, as long as they’re speaking out and being honest. And it’s important to have people, like other young women, that girls can look up to.”
Using your voice is an important element of Ignite, but so is friendship and conflicts with friends, and it’s one of the most requested themes that Cabot gets from fans.
“You know, I’ve been doing this for a long time,’ Cabot said. “I’ve been writing books for kids for so many years, and I get a ton of mail from my readers, and the one thing they always ask for more of is stories about friendship and fighting because that’s something that happens a lot when you’re in that age category. One day your best friend is your best friend and the next day they’re not, and so they always want more stuff about friendships. So I thought it was very important to show Dinah in a friendship group, and maybe having problems with that. Not stuff about boyfriends or romance, but really they want more stories about friends, and having problems with friends. There’s a conflict because of course, Dinah has this big secret that she can’t share with her friends, or she feels that she does, and then there’s a fight. I have 13 nieces and nephews, and all I ever from them is problems they’re having with their friends. So it just seemed like something that I needed to put in there because it’s relatable.”
“I think that’s something Meg does so well, is showing those struggles that teenagers have with their friends, and dealing with schoolwork and juggling all of these problems and stressful situations, that I think we take for granted as we get older, and we start to forget how hard it is to deal with those things at that age,’ McGee said.
When you mention Black Canary, more often than not Green Arrow isn’t far behind, as the two have always been intrinsically linked. Ignite does feature two references to the character of Oliver Queen, but there’s a specific reason why we don’t see any more than that.
“I really wanted it to be Dinah’s story,” Cabot said. “I feel like, the way that this generation that we’re writing for is aware of Dinah, for the most part, is through the show Arrow, and so they have so much Oliver and very little Dinah. I thought ‘well this should be the opposite. So much Dinah, very little Oliver.’ I really wanted it to be her story, but I couldn’t help but slip a tiny little bit, because you know, he could be around. I know probably in his real back story he wouldn’t be, but I let him just be kind of working on the outskirts. It’s a probability. You never know. They could cross paths.”
McGee enjoyed this nod too, but for a different reason. “I will say I definitely did put a bit of thought into drawing Oliver and doing their band shirts because I was like, ‘Man I would really like to draw more of this cute shirt.’” We hope she gets to as well.
You can check out our full review of Black Canary: Ignite right here, and you can pick up the book in stores now.
