Black Canary (DC Comics) Character Review
Black Canary is the name of a fictional superheroine appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Black Canary was created by the writer-artist team of Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino, and debuted in Flash Comics (August 1947).
One of DC's earliest superheroines, the Black Canary has featured on
many of the company's flagship team-up titles, including both Justice Society of America and the Justice League of America. Since the late 1960s, the Character has often been paired romantically and professionally with the archer superhero Green Arrow. More about Black Canary (DC Comics) Character Review - keep on reading !!
As introduced during the Golden Age of Comic Books,
the Black Canary was the alter-ego of Dinah Drake, and took part in
crime-fighting adventures alongside her love interest and eventual
husband, Gotham City
detective Larry Lance. The Black Canary did not possess superpowers,
but was a hand-to-hand fighter who frequently posed as a criminal in
order to covertly take down criminal organisations. She also featured as
a member of the Justice Society of America, the first superhero team to
appear in comic books. Later stories, published during the Silver Age of Comic Books, depicted the Black Canary as a world-class martial artist with a superpower — the "Canary Cry" — a high powered sonic scream that could shatter objects and incapacitate enemies. DC Comics later twice adjusted its continuity; firstly to explain the two character versions as existing in distinct parallel universes,
and later to depict them as mother and daughter (Dinah Drake becoming
the mother of Dinah Laurel Lance). Stories since then have primarily
focused on the younger Black Canary, ascribing her abilities to a genetic mutation. In 2011, DC Comics relaunched its continuity, and in the process re-established Black Canary as a singular superpowered heroine, Dinah Lance (née Drake).
Black Canary is ranked as the 71st greatest comic book character of all time by Wizard. IGN also placed Black Canary as the 81st greatest comic book hero of all time. She was ranked 26th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.
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Fictional Character Biography
Dinah Drake Lance - Dinah Drake first appeared in Flash Comics (August 1947), as a supporting character in the Johnny Thunder feature written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Carmine Infantino. Initially, she seemed to be a villain. Johnny Thunder was instantly infatuated with her and was reproached for
this by his Thunderbolt. However, she was in fact infiltrating a
criminal gang.
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 was a black-haired florist whose romantic
interest was Larry Lance, a detective on the Gotham City Police Department.
Black Canary was revived along with the other Golden Age characters during the 1960s, and was shown as existing on the parallel world of Earth-Two (home of DC's Golden Age versions of its characters).
It is also revealed Dinah has married Larry Lance during the 1950s.
Dinah also takes 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, who had banished all the inhabitants of Earth-2 to another
dimension except for a JSA group, Larry Lance is killed while saving
Dinah's life from an attack of energy. There is a brief funeral for him
after which Aquarius is defeated. Out of grief, Canary decides to move to Earth-One to make a fresh
start, where she joins the Justice League. Sometime afterwards, she
begins dating her JLA colleague Green Arrow,
and discovers she has somehow (possibly due to exposure to radiation)
gained the ultrasonic scream later dubbed the Canary Cry.
In Justice League of America #219 and #220 (October and
November 1983), it is revealed 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
(aging all the while) in his native Thunderbolt dimension, until, the
Lances hope, a way to cure or control her power can 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 is dying from the
radiation she was exposed to. She discusses possible solutions with the
Thunderbolt and Superman
of Earth-1. The three arrange 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 has happened to her (this retcon
was established in 1983 to deal with the fact Black Canary had been
active since the late 1940s and would therefore have had to been nearly
60 years old by that time).
In 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths
limited series, which attempted to combine the histories of various
multiversal Earths into a cohesive whole, removed the divide between
Earth-One and Earth-Two. It altered the history of the Justice League of America and Black Canary was now a founding member, in place of Wonder Woman. To further expand this revised history, Secret Origins (August 1990) revealed 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.
Eventually 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 (Batgirl). A few years later, their daughter, named Dinah Laurel Lance was born. In Birds of Prey
#66 (June 2004), 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.
Dinah Laurel Lance - Dinah Laurel Lance was born to Dinah Drake, the original Black Canary, and Larry Lance. While growing up, Dinah was surrounded by her mother's friends in the
disbanded JSA and regarded them as uncles and aunts. Dinah wished to
become a costumed hero like her mother before her. Her mother forbade
it, however, thinking the world had become a darker, more dangerous
place than when she herself fought crime, and too dangerous for the
younger Dinah to succeed.
The younger Dinah, however, had her own "Canary Cry" – the result of a metagene not present in either parent – which she was fully able to control. With this weapon, she 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 eventually
took on her mother's mantle, albeit initially against the elder Dinah's
wishes. She took an active role among the 'Silver Age' 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, at a very young age, had been married briefly
before divorcing. Her ex-husband Craig Windrow featured in a storyline
apparently needing her help (Birds of Prey: Wolves), but actually
wanting her to rejoin him after he had stolen funds from the mob. This
marriage and her ex-husband were not referred to again until the 2007 Black Canary miniseries.
Shortly into the League's history, she met Green Arrow
(Oliver Queen). While Dinah at first detested him, they later became
romantically involved, despite the difference in their ages. (In the
Modern Age Oliver was substantially older than Dinah, the reverse of the
earlier depiction. However, the character later died, and later still
was resurrected, at which point he was de-aged by an unspecified
amount.) 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. During that time her mother
died due to radiation poisoning experienced during a 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.
After the breakup of the Justice League, Dinah moved to Seattle with
Green Arrow, opening her own florist shop named "Sherwood Florist". The
move to Seattle brought a string of bad luck for her.
During this period, she took part in a failed operation to bust a
drug ring. Kidnapped, Black Canary was tortured before being rescued by
Green Arrow. The effect was severe: Dinah's vocal cords were mutilated,
she lost her Canary Cry, and she became unable to bear children. She
required extensive counseling afterward, as did Oliver Queen.
Simultaneously, she and Green Arrow had major conflicts in their
relationship. She learned that Green Arrow had fathered a son, Robert,
with the villainess Shado (albeit against his will), and was taking money from the florist business (Black Canary #1). The relationship ended when Dinah walked in on Green Arrow kissing her shop assistant, Marianne.
Later, Sherwood Florist was destroyed, leaving Dinah with no means of paying the debt collectors now calling.
Later still, she learned from Connor Hawke (the Second Green Arrow) that Oliver had been killed (Green Arrow
#101), and that Connor was yet another of his offspring. Although Dinah
and Connor later developed a close friendship, the knowledge that
Oliver had kept his existence from her remained painful.
Though Black Canary continued to fight crime off and on (she became a pen friend of the youthful hero The Ray, who had a crush on her, participating in some of his adventures and even having a brief romance), the effects of her misfortunes took their toll.
Powers, Abilities and Equipment
The original Black Canary possesses no super-powers but is highly proficient in Judo, acting and impersonation. Her costume consisted of a blond wig, fishnet stockings, pirate boots, bustier, and an unbuttoned jacket. Initially, she also wore a domino mask, though this was soon jettisoned. Black Canary soon joined the Justice Society of America, first helping them in All-Star Comics #38 and joining in #41 after helping them when they have been hypnotized by the Injustice Society, but ceased being published along with the rest of the team by the early 1950s.
Dinah Lance, the second Black Canary, possesses a "Canary Cry" – a high-pitched, sonic scream which she can deploy to shatter objects and incapacitate her opponents. Analyzing her capabilities, Dr. Mid-Nite found that she can reach
ultrasonic frequencies outside the audible spectrum which render human
beings unconscious. However, the cry has been shown to be completely
useless when Dinah's mouth is covered with a gag, piece of tape, or any
other means of forcing her mouth closed. When Canary is close enough she
can unleash her cry to literally destroy an opponent but this is an
absolute last resort. She has also been able to convert her sonic powers into brainwave form, resulting in the ability to read others' minds.
Dinah states that her Canary Cry is able to inflict serious damage to beings even as durable as Wonder Woman (she has used this ability to overpower Giganta, blow Amazo's head off, and managed to overscream Silver Banshee). Moreover, in JLA/JSA: Vice and Virtue
it is shown that Dinah is capable of not only creating sonic blasts,
but also could generate an ultrasonic attack, which renders everyone
within an ear range unconscious; this specific use of the Canary Cry
requires the full capacity of Dinah's lungs. Black Canary rarely
utilizes her metahuman abilities during fights, preferring to engage in
hand-to-hand combat. Lately, Dinah uses the Canary Cry only against
considerably more powerful metahuman opponents. Black Canary is one of
the very few characters who chooses not to take advantage of their
superpowers, preferring physical skill over inborn abilities. During
times of extreme stress, Canary has displayed the ability to create
sonic vibrations capable of destroying whatever was obstructing her
mouth.
Black Canary lost the Cry during the Green Arrow series. Although she fought crime without it for several years, she regained it after being immersed in a Lazarus Pit during her time with the Birds of Prey.
Black Canary is extremely proficient in the various styles of martial arts, and is among the world's best fighters (in Birds of Prey #125, Oracle suggests that Dinah could outfight even Batman).
Moreover, Dinah possesses uncanny reflexes, on many occasions showing
the ability to catch or destroy arrows in flight. Dinah is also an
expert motorcycle rider.
Dinah is a strong leader and strategic thinker — qualities recognized
by the other superheroes, who have selected her as the Chairwoman of
the JLA (John Stewart
speculated that Black Canary is "tactically the best chairperson the
Justice League has ever had", placing her strategic skills next to Batman, with charisma comparable to that of Superman). Having fought crime for many years, she also possesses great detective skills, though not on a par with Batman, the Question, or the Elongated Man.
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 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.
For a brief period in the 1980s coinciding with her membership in the
JLI, rather than her traditional skintight black outfit with fishnet
stockings she wore a blue and black costume with a bird motif notably
looser and less revealing than traditional female superhero garb. This
change proved short-lived, and later artists restored her original look.
In The New 52, Birds of Prey #10 (2012), Black Canary glides
across a gorge by rebounding on sonic waves. She explains that she has
been holding back ever since her husband died. In subsequent issues, she
is shown using the Canary Cry to propel herself large distances in the
air.
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