Black Canary
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Black Canary is a fictional character, a DC Comics superheroine. Created by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Carmine Infantino, the character first appeared in Flash Comics #86 (August 1947).
Black Canary is noted for her "Canary Cry" – a high powered, ultrasonic scream with the ability to shatter objects and incapacitate villains. However, depending on the era, the Canary obtained the talent in a different manner. Black Canary's regular occupation is that of a self-employed florist, and is best known for her trademark fishnet stockings.
Black Canary was among the first generation of superheroes, and a member of its all-star group the Justice Society of America.
In the 1980s, the character's history was rewritten to make her two entities: Dinah Drake Lance, who took part in Golden Age adventures and married Gotham City detective Larry Lance, and their daughter Dinah Laurel Lance, who appeared in the modern stories. This history was further retconned after Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Dinah Laurel Lance grew up idolizing her mother's superhero friends and (initially against mother's wishes) took up her mother’s crime-fighting mantle at age 19. She joins the Justice League soon after its formation. Dinah Laurel conducts espionage, counter-terrorism, and rescue missions with a group of female vigilantes, and is also a longtime partner/romantic interest of Green Arrow Oliver Queen.
Dinah Lance appears briefly in the television adaptations of Birds of Prey, and the Black Canary appears in a number of episodes of Justice League.
The combination of the Black Canary's courage, fearlessness, and fighting prowess, with her sex appeal (accentuated by the fishnet stockings), has resulted in her also being referred to as "The Blonde Bombshell".
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[edit] Golden Age History
Black Canary first appeared in Flash Comics #86 in 1947, as a supporting character in the Johnny Thunder series. Initially, she seems to be a villainess; Johnny is instantly infatuated with her and is reproached for this by his Thunderbolt. However, she is in fact infiltrating a criminal gang, a modus operandi she would follow throughout her career.
Black Canary proved to be popular enough that in Flash Comics #92, she was given her own anthology feature, Black Canary, replacing the Johnny Thunder feature. The new series fleshed out Black Canary's backstory; in her real identity, Dinah Drake is a black-haired florist whose romantic interest was Larry Lance, a detective on the Gotham City Police Department. Her costume includes a blond wig, fishnet stockings, pirate boots, bustier, and an unbuttoned jacket. Initially, she also wears a domino mask, though this is soon jettisoned.
Black Canary soon joins the Justice Society of America, but ceased being published along with the rest of the team by the early 1950s.
[edit] Silver Age History
Black Canary is revived along with the other Golden Age characters during the 1960s, and was shown as existing on the parallel world of Earth-Two (the home of DC's Golden Age versions of its characters). It is also revealed that Dinah has married Larry Lance during the 1950s. Dinah also took part in various annual team-ups between the Justice Society and Earth-One's Justice League of America.
In a 1969 JLA-JSA team-up against the rogue living star-creature Aquarius, Larry Lance is killed while trying to save Dinah's life from an attack. Out of grief, Canary decides to move to Earth-One to create a fresh start. The Black Canary also joined the Justice League. Sometime afterwards, she begins dating her JLA colleague Green Arrow, and discovered that she had somehow (possibly due to exposure to radiation) gained the ultrasonic scream later dubbed the Canary Cry.
In Justice League of America #219 and #220, it is revealed that this Black Canary is actually the daughter of the original Black Canary and her husband. Born in the 1950s, the infant is cursed by the Justice Society foe the Wizard with the "gift" of a devastating yet uncontrollable Canary Cry. Dinah asked her old friend Johnny Thunder to summon his Thunderbolt in hopes of a cure but it was to no avail. Instead, the Thunderbolt keeps the child in suspended animation (but aging all the while) in his native Thunderbolt dimension, until, the Lances hope, a way to cure or control her power could be found. Seeing his friends in pain, the Thunderbolt decides to erase all memory of the child, letting everyone think she has died. After the battle with Aquarius, Dinah realizes she was dying from the radiation she was exposed to during the battle with the star creature. She discussed possible solutions with the Thunderbolt and Superman of Earth-1. The three arranged to transfer Dinah's memories into the body of her now-adult daughter, still held in suspended animation, while not letting Dinah believe anything unusual had happened to her. (This retcon was written to deal with the fact that Dinah was originally much older than her romantic counterpart, Green Arrow, as well as the rest of the Justice League characters.)
[edit] Modern Age history
Following the retroactive continuity change in 1983, Black Canary became two distinct characters, mother and daughter, named Dinah Drake Lance and Dinah Laurel Lance. Dinah Laurel would become the current Black Canary.
In post-Crisis continuity, Secret Origins #50 revealed that the first Dinah had been trained by her father, Detective Richard Drake, and intended to follow in his footsteps on the Gotham City police. She was turned down by the force, however, and her disillusioned father (unable to use his connections to change the decision) died of heart failure shortly thereafter. Dinah was determined to honor his memory and fight crime and corruption by whatever method possible. This led to her debut as a costumed vigilante; she would use her inheritance to open a florist shop as her day job.
The elder Dinah married her beau, private eye Larry Lance (still maintaining her florist business). In a Times Past-style story in Birds of Prey, Lance was an acquaintance of Jim Gordon, father to Barbara Gordon. A few years later, their daughter, named Dinah Laurel Lance, was born. (In Birds of Prey #66, which is a flashback to a cold case investigated – but never solved – by the elder Dinah, Laurel was the name of a librarian that Dinah consulted during the case and later befriended.)
Growing up, Dinah Laurel was surrounded by her mother's friends in the disbanded JSA and looked to them as uncles and aunts. Dinah wished to become a costumed heroine like her mother before her. However, instead of encouraging the younger Dinah, her mother forbade it, thinking the world had grown into a darker, more dangerous place than when she herself fought crime, too dangerous for the younger Dinah to succeed.
However, Dinah Laurel had her own "Canary Cry" – in this version, the result of a metagene not present in either parent – which (unlike the Silver Age Black Canary) she is fully able to control.
With this weapon, the younger Dinah next sought out numerous fighters to help her hone her skills, including former JSA member Wildcat. Years of training and intense dedication paid off, and Dinah took on her mother's mantle, even though it was against the elder Dinah's wishes at first. She took an active role in the 'Silver Age' of heroes, operating, like her mother before her, out of Gotham, while maintaining a day job in the family florist business.
In an early issue of Birds of Prey, writer Chuck Dixon established that Dinah had married at a very young age briefly before divorcing. Her ex-husband showed up in a storyline needing her help (Birds of Prey: Wolves), but actually wanted her to rejoin him after he had stolen funds from the mob. This early marriage and ex-husband have never been referred to since this one issue.
Until 2006, the Dinah Laurel was depicted as a founding member of the post-Crisis Justice League, retroactively replacing Wonder Woman in all Silver Age appearances with the team. However, the changes wrought on the DC universe by Infinite Crisis have established that she actually joined the team soon after it was formed (with Wonder Woman a founding member).
Shortly into the League's history she met Green Arrow (Oliver Queen). While Dinah couldn't stand him at first, they later became romantically involved despite the difference in their ages (in the Modern Age Oliver is substantially older than Dinah, the reverse of the earlier characters). Dinah remained a member of the League for roughly six years, including a brief stint with Justice League International (JLI), of which she was a founding member. It was during that time her mother died due to radiation poisoning she experienced during an earlier battle with the villain Aquarius. Her mother's death affected Dinah deeply, and led her to accept that her time in the JLA was over.
She moved to Seattle with Green Arrow after the breakup of the Justice League, and would open her own florist shop, named "Sherwood Florist" (the name is a play on Sherwood Forest, the domain of Robin Hood, who Green Arrow (in costume) somewhat resembles).
[edit] The Despondent Canary
The move to Seattle with Green Arrow would result in a string of bad luck for the Black Canary.
During this period, she took part in a failed operation to bust a drug ring. Kidnapped, Black Canary was tortured (despite popular belief, she was not raped according to series writer Mike Grell) before being rescued by Green Arrow. The physical and mental effects of this experience were severe: Dinah's vocal cords were mutilated, resulting in the loss of her Canary Cry; she also lost her ability to have children (Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters). [issue # needed] She required extensive counselling after this experience, as did Oliver Queen.
Simultaneously, she and Green Arrow would have major conflicts in their relationship. Among other things, she would learn that Green Arrow fathered a son, Robert, with Shado (though Shado had drugged him beforehand), as well as taking money from the business (Black Canary #1). The relationship would end when Dinah walked in on Green Arrow kissing her florist shop assistant, Marianne.
Yet even more bad luck would hit when Sherwood Florist was destroyed, leaving Dinah with no means of paying the debt collectors who were now calling.
The worst blows of all would come when she learned from Connor Hawke that Oliver was killed (Green Arrow #101), and that Connor was yet another of his offspring.
Though Black Canary would continue to fight crime off and on (at some point Black Canary became a pen pal of the youthful hero known as The Ray, who had a crush on her, and she participated in some of his adventures, even having a brief romance) [issue # needed], the effects of her misfortunes were taking their toll.
[edit] Oracle and the Birds of Prey
Finally, Oracle asked Black Canary to become an operative for her.
Black Canary took to this role with great satisfaction (making one major change in her wardrobe by abandoning the blonde wig, instead choosing to bleach her hair blonde), although in the beginning there were a number of disagreements between the two. Eventually, the two would meet (Birds of Prey #29) and become best friends, both having a common background – both lost their original abilities and entered a period of depression, yet managed to overcome.
In Birds of Prey #7, Oracle would provide Dinah an electronic version of the Canary Cry. Later, in Birds of Prey #34, Black Canary (who was dating a mysterious European named "Raymond", who Oracle guessed – correctly – was actually supervillain Ra's Al Ghul) was seriously wounded and then was immersed in a Lazarus Pit. Birds of Prey #35 shows that the Pit restored her metahuman Canary Cry (as well as the ability to have children — this had been impaired several years earlier; the recovery is implied but not explicitly stated in the issue).
For a brief period of time Black Canary was a member of the newest incarnation of the JSA. In fact, she is one of the few heroes in the DC Universe to hold memberships in both the JSA and the JLA.
Working with Oracle, Black Canary cultivated a covert team of female operatives in the series Birds of Prey whose members include Huntress, Gypsy, and Zinda Blake (the original Lady Blackhawk). In Issue #64, Oracle would show Black Canary an empty retail building, which would later house a reopened Sherwood Florist.
Since they were both trained by the same sensei, Black Canary has fostered a friendship of sorts with Lady Shiva. Shiva, impressed by Black Canary's formidable martial arts prowess, offered to provide her with further training. Black Canary turned down the offer, thinking it would compromise her morality. Still, they kept an ongoing correspondence, with Shiva conveying recommendations to assist Canary in honing her skills.
In comics, Black Canary had her own four issue mini series titled New Wings as well as a twelve issue ongoing series, both written by Sarah Byam.
[edit] Infinite Crisis
The events of the Infinite Crisis led to a re-creation of Earth with a new timeline. After the Crisis, Alexander Luthor, Jr. reveals that Wonder Woman is once more a founding member of the Justice League; what this means for Black Canary's founding member status has yet to be explained.
[edit] One Year Later
During the publication of the Infinite Crisis limited series, the majority of DC Universe comic books skipped forward one year in their narratives. Following the "One Year Later" jump, Dinah trades life experiences with Lady Shiva in hopes of softening the warrior, undertaking a harsh training regimen in an unidentified Vietnamese bidonville, or shantytown. The regimen replicates Shiva's early life and training; Shiva, meanwhile, assumes Dinah's role in Oracle's group and demands that her associates call her the "Jade Canary".
When Dinah realizes following Lady Shiva's path will require her to fundamentally change who she is as a person, she ends the training and returns to the United States. She brings with her a little girl, Sin, who also had begun the harsh grooming process to be Lady Shiva's successor (Birds of Prey #95; the now resurrected Oliver Queen uses his connections to allow Sin to immigrate into the country). Dinah hopes to balance her duties as a superhero with the responsibilities of being a surrogate mother/sister to the child.
In Birds of Prey #99 Dinah informs Oracle that she is quitting the team, deciding instead to devote all her time to raising Sin. Issue #100 shows that Dinah and Sin are moving away from Metropolis; their final destination is not stated but hinted that it may be Star City as Dinah tells Sin (jokingly) she can rip Ollie's beard out if he isn't nice to her.
In addition to her appearances in Birds of Prey, Black Canary is also the Chairwoman of the Justice League of America.
[edit] Powers & Abilities
Black Canary is best known for her "Canary Cry" – a high-pitched, ultrasonic scream which enables her to shatter objects and incapacitate villains. (The ability was lost in the Green Arrow series, but was restored in the Birds of Prey series.)
In addition to the Canary Cry, she is proficient in the martial arts and an expert motorcycle rider. Notwithstanding her often heated arguments with Oracle, she serves as a peacemaker between the sometimes disagreeing team members and other superhero groups, as well as trying to instill a sense of humanity within some of them (most notably Huntress, who is quite prone to use of excessive force).
A running gag in the Birds of Prey series is Black Canary's lack of proficiency with computers (and very little interest in them). She is the polar opposite of team leader Oracle (who is a computer genius). The very first page of Birds of Prey #1 features Dinah's desire to have a distasteful item removed from her presence – the next page shows the object of her dislike to be a desktop computer.
[edit] Other versions
In JLA: The Nail, Black Canary leads the Outsiders. She forms the team after Oliver Queen is crippled at the hands of Amazo. However, they break up after Queen admits to feeling like the team's mascot. It is also revealed that in a prior battle Canary's sonic scream, coupled with Black Lightning's blasts, vapourised Brainiac.
In the DC Elseworlds comic Kingdom Come, Black Canary sides with Batman and acts as one of his generals. In this future world, the longtime romantic partners have a daughter, who also operates under the name Black Canary.
In All-Star Batman and Robin #3, written by Frank Miller and drawn by Jim Lee, the Black Canary's name is derived from the seedy bar she works in; the clothes she wears while tending the bar comprise her costume. The male patrons of the bar relentlessly harass her verbally. Deciding that she has finally had enough, Black Canary beats up all of the male patrons in the bar. When her boss asks her what got into her, she simply replies "Batman," and then leaves the scene on a motorcycle stolen from one of the men she has just battered.
In the Amalgam Comics title JLX #1, Black Canary and Mockingbird are merged together as Canary.
While not an actual version of the Black Canary, the mother-daughter relationship of the two Silk Spectres in Watchmen was in part inspired by the character, as were their costumes.
[edit] Other media
[edit] Live action
In 1979, the character appeared in two television specials Legends of the Superheroes, where she was portrayed by Danuta Wesley.
A modified version of Dinah Laurel Lance, named Carolyn Lance made an appearance on the 2002 WB television series Birds of Prey, where she was played by Lori Loughlin. The character was depicted as a former member of the team and the biological mother of Dinah Redmond (played by Rachel Skarsten), a teenager with psychic abilities who has been taken in by Oracle/Barbara Gordon after running away from her adoptive parents. In her only appearance, her "canary cry" is portrayed as being activated by whistling, rather than screaming. This version of Black Canary appears to be killed off at the end of the episode, though the writers left her fate ambiguous in order to allow a possible return later. When Birds of Prey was first announced, the producers indicated that the teenaged Dinah Redmond would be a re-imagined Black Canary (with early publicity material referring to her directly by that name), but outcry from fans led to the character being modified. In fact, the character was repeatedly modified with changes in name, history, and powers as writers struggled to define her during the short-lived series.
[edit] Animation
- Black Canary (or someone with a similar look) can also be seen briefly at the party Bruce Wayne is attending in the Catch Me short from the straight-to-video film Mystery of the Batwoman. As well, a likely prostitute interrogated by Batgirl in the unrated version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is based on an early Black Canary design.
- On the Justice League episode Legends, the League teamed up with the Justice Guild of America in an alternate universe. The Guild member Black Siren was based on the Golden Age Black Canary, Dinah Drake. She was voiced by Jennifer Hale. The Siren's real name was given as Donna Vance on her tombstone.
- On the animated series Justice League Unlimited, Black Canary was voiced by Morena Baccarin. She was first seen in a small cameo at the end of "Initiation", where her looks are enough to convince Green Arrow to stay in the League. Later, in The Cat and the Canary, she stars as a fearsome physical fighter (as well as sporting her sonic cry). She was vexed because her old mentor, Wildcat, had been obsessively engaging in underground fighting tournaments, and she convinced the smitten Green Arrow to help her convince Wildcat to return to the League. The two start a relationship, as seen in Double Date, thereby paying homage to their famed romance in the comics.
In the third-season episode Grudge Match, Black Canary found herself and several other female members of the League forced to do battle with each other in underground tournaments run by the same promoter (the villain Roulette) who had earlier exploited Wildcat. The final challenge pitted the team of Black Canary, Huntress, Vixen, and Hawkgirl against Wonder Woman.
Black Canary's final animated appearance (to date) was at the conclusion of Destroyer, the series finale of Justice League Unlimited. She helped defend the world from the invading parademons of Darkseid, and then made her swan song (along with almost every other member of the League) racing to her next adventure.
[edit] External links
- Canary Noir
- JSA member profile
- The Black Canary at Toonopedia
- Black Canary's secret origin on dccomics.com
Categories: Comics articles needing cleanup | Cleanup from March 2007 | Comics articles needing issue citations | DC Comics martial artists | DC Comics titles | Fictional Americans | DC Comics supporting characters | Fictional mutants | Fictional torture victims | Fictional orphans | 1947 introductions | Earth-Two
