BMG: Analysis Black Canary (The Animated Series)

Hello Batfans, Can I get a coo coo?

As expected, after having met the Green Arrow from animated world, it was only a matter of time before the character that... feels... a special affinity to him returns to the nest in the form of Black Canary. It is not only at a rules level that this version is 19 points cheaper (50 rep 0$) than before but that she is only available for the band Emerald Archer. She has Free Agent status and although restricted to Green Arrow crews she can also work in the new team rules as part of the Birds of Prey which will allow you to team up her with other members of this famous group of heroines.

We start as always with Movement, this caricatured version stands out not only because she has Acrobat, but also by combining this with a movement value of 4, this then has a huge impact on being shot at due to her ability to Dodge up to four ranged attacks! If you think she’s fast, being Undercover intensifies this fast advance among her crewmates thanks to the extra 20 cm at deployment and the ability to position herself on the table after objectives. The bad point of all this is that Green Arrow, with whom she has Teamwork, "only" has a movement 3 and isn’t Undercover. Although this is perhaps an ideal situation for his new single strategy Adaptable Plan (1/E) to bring him to her and not lose her forward deployment, In addition, with the recent change to Spring into the Air it makes Acrobatic characters able to reach high areas by paying 1 MC and then moving as many CM as your jumping capacity. In the case of such acrobatic characters this means that Black Canary could jump up to 30 cm.

Offensively she is not a character that will be very useful in face to face attacks or distance, with strength 5+ and Attack 3 being effective is very circumstantial, and although her Canary Cry (2SC) itself causes blood to each of those affected, she has bigger use in areas of Support/Control.

Defensively, despite having only Endurance 5 she combines this with Defence 4 and with the immunity to situations of numerical inferiority being a Martial Artist, probably due to all that rough housing with Oliver! As mentioned before, her Acrobatic, Movement of 4 together with her value of 4 in Defence makes her a hard target to shoot, in addition with up to 4 chances of avoiding ranged attack with 67% chances on each roll. In melee she’s a tough egg to crack having up to 4 counters to block, plus counters from Oliver using Teamwork/2.

Finally, Support/Control is the strong point of this Black Canary, as its already known Canary Cry (1SC) is an assault on the ears and makes all those affected under the template suffer  and loose the use of counters until the end of round, although someone with Teamwork itself could continue to use them. Her impressive danger now, is that her Teamwork/2 with Green Arrow may allow you to perform this special action twice in the same round! which of course gives rise to various combinations

• Shout 2 times to the same group of people cause , although the Stunned effect applies only once.
• Shout - Move - Shout, hitting several enemies in the same round, although in both cases must be 10 cm or less than Oliver.
• Move to stay between two group of people and shout once each, but must be 10 cm or less than Oliver.
• There is a combination, although a little beardy, that would allow you to even use her cry up to 3 times, using a Titan Dose, so that she bumps her SC to 4, she could then borrow 2 from Oliver making her a cacophony of pain in one round.

In addition, the Sonic trait has a special impact against certain characters such as the "twins" Tweed (immune to Stun effect), the Symbyote (they will suffer double damage: ) or Daredevil (he will also suffer the Enervating/1 effect). Although the Stun already prohibits the use of counters, the Sonic itself also causes loss of 1 SC to those immune to the stun effect.

As is the case with Green Arrow, your Teamwork is not focused to capitalize offensively. It can be raised so that Black Canary can use up to 6 counters for movement and is able to cover a huge amount of ground in a turn. This though would lead her away considerably from Oliver and leave her without counters for anything else (1SC + 1MC to run and other 3MC to increase the distance). She could use them to defend up to 6 times, in fact the two together with 4 DC each can be really difficult to make them fall in melee. Or, as has commented and what seems more than worth it, scream twice either at separate groups stunning a potentially huge amount of your opponents crew or twice at the same target causing 2 blood damage and the loss of a counter!

To sum up, we are faced with a character that is worth 50 points, and 50 + 77 as it is with the Green Arrow, and encouraged to reach their full potential they can make use of her Canary Cry (2SC) twice (3 if she is powered by Titan), and he doesn't need more than 2AC and 2SC for shooting.

In addition to her impressive lungs she has great mobility and protection from shots with values of 4 in movement and defence, combined with Acrobat to dodge. She also has the advantage of deploying last after objectives due to Undercover.

As a short reference, her Teamwork/2 Green Arrow can mainly be used for:

• Move With up to 6 counters in movement (one to run and 5 to increase the distance 29-54 cm).
• Defend as if there were no tomorrow, with up to 6 options to block (could be combined with MC to also defend against shots).
• Blast her enemies with her audible cry twice, which could be broken up with a movement Cry- move –cry a little more.

Now, I hear the coo coo of the pigeons in the south wing and Master Wayne won’t be impressed if his new yellow Lamborghini is a mess when he wakes up...