Black Canary is canonically the second best fighter in the DC Universe, and she's about to challenge the very best - Lady Shiva - to a one-on-one brawl to win it all to claim the mantle of the number one hand-to-hand combatant in the DC Universe. For Black Canary: Best of the Best , writer Tom King, whose comic book accolades are too numerous to list but who is best known for stories like Mister Miracle, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and the current ongoing Wonder Woman series, is teaming up with artist Ryan Sook, who may just be the perfect collaborator for a story focusing on Dinah Laurel Lance and her mother Dinah Drake Lance. The story takes Black Canary and Lady Shiva and traps them in, in King's words, the "four corners of a ring" for a knockdown drag out fight that hides a deeper core of the emotional reckoning between a mother and daughter as they both face their own life-defining stakes.
Newsarama spoke with King and Sook ahead of the November 27 release of Black Canary: Best of the Best #1, digging into the reasons why Black Canary is one of the most dynamic and interesting DC heroes, the influence the WWE and MMA had on the depiction of the big fight, and why King promises "you'll fucking cheer" by the time the limited series - and the fight - are done. Newsarama: Tom, Ryan, first off, I just want to say, I got to read the first issue of Black Canary and I loved it. So the first thing I want to ask is Tom - Tom King: Why so many words? Why so many words? [Laughs] N.