It's been a while since I read any superhero graphic novels, and sometimes I miss them. Granted, I used to read far too many, but "none at all" is not the proper extreme for me, either. Dipping my toe back in the genre, I opted for a book featuring two B-level heroes that I've always enjoyed, yet never focused upon.

Black Canary & Zatanna: Bloodspell is a stand-alone tale featuring the eponymous martial artist and magician, both of whom wear fishnets, along with a brief cameo from Green Arrow and a few other DC heroes. It begins 15 years in the past, where a very young Zatanna is taking a magical test with her proud parents in the Himalayas and meets Dinah Lance, who's practicing tai chi on a snowy mountaintop. It begins a lifelong friendship.

Then we move to one year before the present, and a bunch of ladies are engaged in a casino heist. But one of the ladies is Dinah in disguise, and another is a sorceress of sorts who's planning a betrayal using a binding bloodspell. The villain seemingly dies in the scuffle that follows, but she reappears a year later, in ghostly form, to invoke her bloodspell and seek revenge on the ladies one at a time. She saves Dinah for last, hoping to watch her suffer through her inability to save them. Dinah, recognizing her shortcomings against a magical foe, calls in Zatanna for aid.

But it still doesn't prove easy, and more of the erstwhile gang fall to the sorceress's villainy before the end.

The book features some classic humor, pleasant banter between the title characters, in jokes and cameos that will please comic-book fans and, of course, plenty of action. Paul Dini has crafted a good story that doesn't break new ground or anything, but it's entertaining. The art by Joe Quinones is bold and brightly colored, the action is vivid and the facial expressions are (for the most part) realistic. I feel like Joe let us down a bit with the faces, though; Dinah and Zatanna sometimes look a bit odd and misshapen, like wax sculptures that got a little too close to a flame.

Overall, though, I enjoyed Bloodspell, and it's a good reintroduction to superhero comics.