Black Canary and Oracle’s most recent investigation might have landed them in the middle of a major brewing conflict.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Urban Legends #4, on sale now
The DC Universe is still recovering from a series of conflicts, including the fires set by the Joker War to the existential crisis of Dark Nights: Death Metal threatening the entire multiverse. But it appears the next major conflict is already brewing — and it could have a lot of players involved, including some unexpected heroes.
In the story “Solo” from Batman: Urban Legends #4 by Joshua Williamson, Trevor Hairsine, Rain Beredo, and Steve Wands, Black Canary gets a new mission from Oracle — and it could draw the Justice League leader into a Shadow War.
Barbara Gordon has been rallying heroes around her recently, positioning herself more as Oracle again instead of just as Batgirl. But she’s also recently been turning to her old Birds of Prey friends — including Black Canary. This is because it turns out that much of Batman’s technology stolen by the Joker during the Joker War was not able to be easily acquired. Instead, some of it has been sold to a British company called T.R.U.S.T. Rather than leave the potentially very dangerous Bat-Tech in the hands of people Barbara is convinced are hiding something, she recruits Black Canary to endear herself to the head of the company — Juliette Ballantine — to be recruited as an agent. This way, Black Canary can sneak in and escape with the tech.
Arriving at a T.R.U.S.T event, Canary easily handles a group of assassins targeting Ballantine and earning her apparent appreciation. She offers Black Canary a position within the organization — revealing the secretive group had actually previously worked with her parents when they were active heroes. Black Canary isn’t even their only recent acquisition from the superhero community, as they’ve also recruited the deadly mercenary Deathstroke to handle the assignments that Black Canary isn’t suited for. But in secret, it appears that Ballantine has been catching more than just the heroes attention.
It turns out the assassins who came after her were sent at the behest of Talia Al Ghul. Currently serving as a member of the secret group known as the Totality, Talia seemingly owed Ballantine a favor — prompting her to lend out assassins to fake an attack, thus luring Black Canary more into her service. Although the debt is repaid, Talia is suspicious of T.R.U.S.T, claiming they’re not who they really say they are. Talia then reveals that power players across the globe are making similar moves, trying to shore up their forces and their weapons ahead of a coming “shadow war.”
Talia’s not wrong to have such suspicions. There have been a number of secretive forces in motion in the DC Universe lately, each of them trying to gain an edge in a world that’s increasingly feeling smaller after the revelations of Dark Nights: Death Metal opened up the entire omniverse and made the multiverse a more publicly accepted idea. On top of Talia’s work with the Totality and the mysterious motivations of T.R.U.S.T, there’s also been Amanda Waller’s restructured Suicide Squad, Green Arrow’s prominent position at the head of Checkmate, the lingering threat of Leviathan, Director Bones and his apparent alliance with Darkseid, the League of Lazarus emerging from the shadows in Robin, and the Owls finally taking a shot at the Clown Prince of Crime AND Oracle in Joker.
Numerous power players seem to be setting themselves up for a coming conflict, and a Shadow War between DC’s most secretive forces could end up being a major source of conflict given the twisted alliances the various organizations have fostered. Oracle and Black Canary might just be the wild cards the world needs to keep things from getting too hectic — or their actions could end up being the spark that sets off a powder-keg.
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