Or, in other words, "Behind each man with a demon, there's a chick!" Poor Black Canary. That her above, standing over the bodies of her fallen Justice League compatriots. For those of you who think, wow, there's going to be a great story inside, showing this sexy gal in the fishnets knocking the crap out of Superman and his buddies, well, you'd be mistaken.
As is the norm in the Justice League comic book, the story where a new character is inducted into the ranks usually focuses on the new member's significant contribution to solving the case. There's a crest at the start of the story listing the privileges and tokens you get with membership, including a key to the secret hideout, which, at this point, was a satellite high above the Earth. (They used to converge in a cave decked out with sexy mod furniture, and you know that place was spic 'n' span, because Wonder Woman had cleaning detail).
This story, however, is significant because not only is there no formal announcement of Black Canary joining the League, the story instead focuses on Green Arrow and his identity crisis, with Black Canary doing nothing more significant than any other Leaguer, and the event that literally knocks her fellow heroes on their feet is beyond her control. By some unknown occurrence, Black Canary is suddenly able to emit sonic waves from her throat, but can't control it, so this ability is viewed more as a menace than helpful.
Like I said, poor Black Canary. Maybe she's not a household name, but she's a significant heroine in comic book lore because, unlike the more popular Supergirl and Batgirl, she's not a rip-off a male character. So why do they stick her with Green Arrow, himself a rip-off of Robin Hood, down to his "steal from the rich and give to the poor" politics? To be fair, Green Arrow wasn't always a political character, not until he was undertaken by Denny O'Neil, who wrote this story, and was putting his stamp on many of the big DC Comics heroes at that time, like Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman.
O'Neil's "stamp" on Wonder Woman is the reason she's missing from the Justice League at this point, and the need for another broad to replace her-- in O'Neil's Wonder Woman comic, she loses her powers, job, and star-spangled underoos; her homeland of Paradise Island vanishes from the face of the Earth, her longtime boyfriend Steve Trevor is killed, and, as plain "Diana Prince," she learns kung fu and becomes an apprentice to a blind Oriental mentor, I-Ching. Basically, she stopped being Wonder Woman and became Emma Peel of the "Avengers."
As you can probably tell, and as Gloria Steinam later attested, Denny O'Neil was not interested in writing strong, independent women. In O'Neil's first Wonder Woman story, for instance, Wonder Woman gets groped at a party and needs Steve to defend her. When Steve later tells Wonder Woman he's mad enough to kill the guy, and the guy winds up dead, it is Wonder Woman's testimony that puts Steve in jail. Steve is so inconsolably mad at Wonder Woman-- instead of the ludicrous story convention that would put America's top war hero in jail on such flimsy evidence-- that he basically tells Wonder Woman to get lost. Yet another ludicrous story convention-- instead of saying "screw you," Wonder Woman is mad at herself! She's so upset that she's hurt her asshole boyfriend she does whatever it takes to get him out of jail, which involves turning her plain-Jane Diana Prince persona into a sexy, swingin' bachelorette.
Having cleared Steve of the charges, the penitent Wonder Woman cuddles up with Steve, begging his forgiveness, as Steve notes the credit belongs to Diana Prince, and maybe he'll ask her out on a date. The story ends with Wonder Woman musing she's going to have to do something different to keep the attention of her man. Her asshole jerk of a man. Yeah, you've come a long way, baby.
It's no surprise, then, that a writer subjecting Wonder Woman to such humiliation wouldn't have much regard for a second-stringer like Black Canary. In the previous issue, Black Canary watched her husband murdered by an interstellar villain, and distraught and adrift, she left behind her former life and world to join the Justice League-- and yet, the distress and hand-wringing in this issue belongs to Green Arrow, who's having a case of the humdrums, wondering whether he's actually useful as a hero. Okay, there are other factors as well-- he lost his fortune, in another ludicrous story convention that occurs within a panel-- but, compared to Black Canary, Green Arrow's distress is pure 70's self-indulgence.
Green Arrow's identity crisis propels the story. Is he Green Arrow or Oliver Queen? In his own words, "Is a part-time crime-fighter really useful?" Visiting a therapist with a revolutionary new therapy, Green Arrow (in his identity as Oliver Queen) gets strapped into the "Id Actualizer," which is meant to show the patient his true self. Instead of tearful self-realizations, a big green version of Green Arrow emerges from the machine and declares himself Arrow's "fighting spirit," the "warrior" within. He punches the therapist and takes off to the Justice League satellite.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Justice League-- a bunch of guys-- are arguing over whether Black Canary is worthy of the Justice League, even though she had served many years in a more august crime fighting organization, the Justice Society. It is only when Canary opens her mouth to protest that the event pictured on the cover occurs, and the Justice Leaguers are "flung about like leaves in a hurricane." Watch out when a woman opens her mouth! Black Canary herself explains, she's "unable to even guess what had happened."
It's up to the guys to figure it out. Canary sits back, strapped to the Justice League computers, showing complete bafflement as the guys posit what might have happened. They surmise she became an instant mutant in the attack that killed her husband; additionally, Canary not only has no control of this new ability, but, according to the Atom, she generates these sonic waves "without... willing it."
Strangely enough, this ends the debate. Canary's on the team. A hero with a brand new ability she cannot control, or even will into existence; an ability that can send even Superman reeling; a character who has gone through recent changes that would make even the most stolid hero a loose cannon-- but who cares? What is it? "We need another broad and what broad isn't unstable?" Or-- "who cares-- what about Green Arrow's pain?"
Because once again, we're brought back to the main conflict-- Green Arrow has to fight a figment of his inner self, and how can he do that? For as the text states, "no man can battle himself!" (shudder!) The phantom Green Arrow arrives at the JLA satellite, and touching the other heroes, they, too, are suddenly shadowed by their own destructive duplicates. Is it up to Black Canary, as a woman, to show the guys how to do it? A woman who's been through so much turmoil that confronting her own ugly inner self shouldn't be too difficult? Nope. Superman saves the day, as usual.
For some reason, Superman was not duplicated when touched by Green Arrow's phantom, so while the rest of the Justice League sit in existential despair as their duplicates wreck havoc, Superman secretly paints one of his trusty Superman robots green and has it crash the meeting, masquerading as his own unchecked id. Kicking and punching the hapless robot until it's out of commission, Superman exhorts the others: "See, if I whipped my own bad side, so can you!"
The League is inspired, and off they go to tackle their counterparts. Although the actulaized ids are meant to commit the acts the heroes "dare not do," as the Batman duplicate notes, each seems to represent a paranoid and insecure vision of themselves. The Batman and Atom clones each proclaim their physical and scientific superiority to their counterparts. The Hawkman clone proclaims the real Hawkman is too old-fashioned to prevail. (?) And the Black Canary clone flirtily steals a motorcyle by knocking the rider from his seat. Are we to assume the clone is suggesting Black Canary never shows her sexy side? Or does Canary feels guilty about her own motorcyle, given to her earlier in the story and "specially built by Superman" --as though she's thinking she needs to "repay" him for the gift?
In any case, the real Canary feels the "strange singing building in her head" (again, she doesn't seem to be willing it) --but she can't control the direction, and knocks a rider from his bike behind her. She has to rely on her "old skills," jumping the "hussy" and applying a judo choke hold.
But for Green Arrow, "It's different." He can't attack his doppelganger because the phony speaks the truth-- that Arrow only wanted to be a hero for the fame, always more interested in his wealth than heroism. It's only when he's confronted by shop owners who have been robbed by the phony Arrow that he finds a new impetus- guilt. He did nothing to stop the phony Arrow from looting a jewellery store, and now the elderly proprietors have lost everything. Since that's something he can understand, he's able to find his motivation, facing down his doppleganger and shooting him with an that dissolves not only his own doppelganger, but the doppelgangers of the rest of the Leaguers as well.
"Well... I don't!" Black Canary replies. "I still don't belong to this time, this place! But I'll try..." She says they're both crippled: "you by your wound, me by my loss, my doubt--"
So, Green Arrow has "found himself" and Canary has even started looking, and somehow that makes them even? Green Arrow has spent the entire issue working through his "issues," and has come back from existential crisis full of life, and a few weeks wearing a band aid on this leg. Somehow, that's equivalent to the issues Black Canary has yet to face. "But with some luck and some love, maybe we can find peace..." Is O'Neil suggesting that all Canary needs is a boyfriend, and by hooking her up with Arrow, all will be fine? Green Arrow simply needs to find himself, and Black Canary simply needs to find a man.
So, in a story traditionally meant to highlight the abilities of the new recruit, what have we seen? Black Canary did nothing special. When she tried to use her fantastic new power, she finds she cannot direct it, knocking out an innocent guy behind her ("Oh dear!" she muses). We never see the League actually coming together and voting on her behalf; the members who were doubtful showing reason for why they've changed their mind. Of course not-- because they'd be out of their mind to do so. Unless, that is, they're scared to have say "no" to a loose cannon broad who can knock them on their asses without even willing it. 
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