Hero Profile: Black Canary

One of the more interesting aspects of the DC-universe is that they have several “legacy” characters. Let me explain, while most of Marvel’s characters have been the same from their start, (Spider-man has been the same guy since the 1960’s, the original five X-men have been operating for about as long) as the different comic ages have gone on different characters have retired, had children and said child has replaced their predecessor. Black Canary would be one of the most prominent examples. Sure, Superman, Batman and several others have been around since the start, but the idea that they’re trying a few different things is refreshing.

I wonder if she ever considered
a career in Opera

Dinah Laurel Lance is the daughter of the original Black Canary Dinah Drake Lance. Yes, the similar first names get a little confusing. While Mama Canary was out doing the superhero thing, and Papa Detective Lance was out doing the cop thing, Dinah was often babysat by her mother’s former teammates from the defunct Justice Society of America. The older heroes regaled little Dinah with tales of her mother’s heroism, instilling a strong desire in the little girl to be a superhero too. Mama-bear was not pleased with this, but you left your child with old superheroes Mama-Dinah, what the heck did you expect? She tried very hard to discourage her daughter from pursing the superhero life, knowing its many dangers and difficulties. They don’t mention how her father reacted to this, but I can’t imagine Detective Lance was encouraging of his daughter’s aspirations either. It was like Daedalus trying to tell Icarus to not fly towards the sun. Ha, mythology reference, bet you didn’t see that one coming.

Dinah worked hard to be in the appropriate condition to be the next Black Canary. She trained with a number JSA members, most notably Wildcat who taught her how to Box. He’s an old school Batman. She very quickly masters Judo fighting, and is very proficient in Boxing. Young Dinah also had a slight leg up from her mother, a metagene (DC X-gene for those just joining us) that gave her a powerful scream she dubs the Canary Cry. After several years of dedication and training, body, mind and voice, Dinah took up the mantle of Black Canary. Her mother, and assumedly her father, still objected but she was over eighteen at this point, not much they could do to stop little Dinah.

Cross her at your own risk.

She operated out of Gotham, yes its big enough for more people than just Batman, working during the day at her mother’s flower shop. There were probably a lot of awkward conversations involving the bruises little Dinah received the night before. After stomping on and deafening thugs and gangsters for a while, (seriously why don’t these guys move with guys like Batman and co. and Black Canary running around?) she is invited to join the new Justice League and also starts her long standing relationship with the dashing but damaged archer Green Arrow. She helped found the larger Justice League International and served for about six in universe years before retiring due to her mother’s death. She moves to Seattle with Oliver Queen and opens a new flower shop, giving it the giant clue of a name Sherwood Florist. Bet No one would think Green Arrow is connected to that place. She eventually gets out of retirement to be one of the primary operatives of Barbara Gordon’s Birds of Prey covert ops team, and later rejoins the League. Can’t keep a good bird down.

Kiss your eardrums goodbye.

Dinah is a proficient hand to hand fighter. She was seen as a gifted judo fighter from a young age and learned boxing from her “Uncle” Wildcat. She’s been shown to be as skilled in a fight as Batman on a few occasions. Her Canary Cry is powerful enough dent steel or shatter concrete. As I mentioned in Zatanna’s profile, both characters used to be rather easily disabled if their mouths were obstructed. Which is weird when you consider that a scream starts in the throat. Whatever. She’s also an expert motorcyclist.

Again, I’m a pretty against her costume, for functionality reasons. Sure, she looks good in fishnets, but they really don’t serve any practical function to her and just make her legs a big target with the words “shoot me” written across it. I know, I didn’t say anything about Zatanna and her fishnets, but again she’s a former showwoman and entertainer, plus she has magic. Black Canary is a mortal woman with a powerful voice, this does not make her immune to bullets. Just saying.

Black Canary is one of the most proficient women of DC, I’d say just under Wonder Woman in terms of popularity.

Little Sister Sarah as the Canary.

She was a major character in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008-2011) TV series. They delve heavily into her background, which included training with the JSA members in her teens with Batman. The older heroes pull the whole, Canary hears nothing but how great Batman is at his training while Batman hears how great Canary is at hers, as a means of getting them to train harder. She seems to have a bit of an attraction to Batman, something I haven’t seen before, which is eventually dropped when she realized how, well, nuts Batman is and that Green Arrow was interested in her. She, Catwoman and another hero named Huntress form the Birds of Prey in another episode. Which is odd, since there’s only one bird themed character here…

Dinah also appeared in Young Justice (2010-13) which featured her in several episodes. She served as the combat trainer for the teen heroes, and also their psychologist a few times. Her big thing is emphasizing technique over powers, as she was able to easily disable Kid Flash and Superboy, despite being without physical superpowers and a having a broken rib. In the episode “Disordered” she helps each teen process what happened in the previous episode. They’d been put into a telepathic simulation, it didn’t go well and they were each killed. She quickly deduces the attraction between Kid Flash and Artemis, hears about how Superboy feels very detached from his teammates and friends, the weight of command that is wearing on Aqualad, Miss Martian’s shame at nearly hurting her friends since she was creating the simulation, and Robin’s revelation that he “doesn’t want to be Batman” any more.

Big sister takes up the role.

She’s also a major character in Arrow. This version goes by Laurel. She’s the former girlfriend of Oliver Queen, whom had to hear the heartbreaking news that her boyfriend had “died” when his yacht was destroyed, and that her sister died too, and that Oliver was cheating on her with her sister. I think that qualifies as the one of the worst days ever. She and Oliver have a kind of on again off again for most of the first season after his return. They break things off after their mutual friend, and Laurel's most recent boyfriend, Tommy Merlyn is killed in the first season finale. In the second season, she has to deal with a lot of her own demons. In the form of her sister being shown to be alive, and dating Oliver, her sorrow with Tommy's death and her indirect hand in it, and with the realization that she has addictive tendencies, chiefly booze and stimulants. It's a rough time for her but she comes out of it stronger than before. The third season has her taking on the Black Canary mantle from her sister and starting training with Ted Grant, civilian ID of Wildcat.

She appeared in several episodes of Smallville (2001-11). She appears in the episode Siren. In it, she’s hired by Lex Luthor to act as an enforcer, hired under false pretenses. After duking it out with Green Arrow and Superman, they convince her of the illegality of Lex’s dealings and she switches teams. She appears in a few more episode, and it’s interesting to note that this is the one version of the character that doesn’t have an existing or past relationship with Oliver Queen. They have a mildly flirtatious relationship, but Smallville’s Ollie ultimately gets into a relationship with Superman’s longtime friend Chloe Sullivan.

I like Black Canary. She’s a very capable character with a surprising amount of depth. As a legacy character, she’s got to live up to the high standards of her mother. Which is a lot to deal with, regardless of occupation.  She’s got an excellent combination of brawn, brains, and power that make her a unique character. I especially like the Arrow interpretation, she’s not a hero right away, she’s a normal human that needs to get over her own personal grievances and demons before assuming the mantle of the Superhero she was born to be. She’s the Beautiful, Booming, and Boisterous Black Canary. Next time, we’ll cover one of Superman’s most dangerous foes, The Parasite.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Canary

 http://youngjustice.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Canary

 http://dchallofjustice.wikia.com/wiki/File:Sc-blackcanary.jpg

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/78/Canary_%28Caity_Lotz%29.jpg

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/53/Black_Canary_%28Katie_Cassidy%29.jpg