Black Canary

Black Canary is a female superhero published by DC Comics.

The Black Canary was originally a non-superpowered crimefighter who relied on martial arts and detective skills to combat crime. Later the character was given a superhuman sonic "Canary Cry" that could be used to shatter objects or disable opponents. She has often been referred to as "The Blonde Bombshell" due to her extraordinary beauty and sex appeal, which have been accentuated by her trademark fishnet stockings (which have come and gone through the years in various forms via costumes, but which she currently wears). In later years the character was shown as having dark hair and donning a blonde wig as part of her costume, though more recently the character has bleaching her hair.

As a result of Justice League of America issues #219-20 and the limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Black Canary was retconned into two characters, 'Dinah Drake Lance' and 'Dinah Laurel Lance'. The elder Dinah married her beau, Larry Lance, and when her daughter came of age she took over her mother's costumed identity (against her mother's wishes). Even though the elder Dinah began fighting crime in 1947, it has been established that the younger Dinah has been active for 12 years in the 'DC Comics Universe continuity', which is a fixed timeline DC Comics uses when discussing its modern heroes.

Dinah Drake Lance replaced Johnny Thunder as a post-World War II member of the Justice Society of America.

Dinah Laurel Lance was a founding member of the post-Crisis Justice League, a position she took at the age of 19. Unlike her mother, she has a super power, her famous "canary cry." At first, she was easily frustrated by the teams inexperience, recalling stories from her mother about the Justice Society's glory days. Shortly into the League's history Green Arrow (Oliver Queen). joined. While Dinah couldn't stand the emerald archer at first, they quickly became involved (despite him being roughly 35 years old when she was about 20). Dinah remained part of the league for about five or six years before it was dissolved by Aquaman and reformed in Detroit. During that time, her mother died, which affected her deeply.

Dinah was the primary supporting character in the first Green Arrow series while under the direction of writer/artist Mike Grell (the first 75 or so issues). Grell wanted to detatch Green Arrow from the rest of the DCU in order to make it more mature and realistic. The intro to the series is the three part Longbow Hunters trilogy. In that story, Oliver asks her to marry him but she says that marriage and children can't be in the cards for the life they lead. Shortly after, she was kidnapped and brutally tortured (possibly raped) and subsequently rescued by Green Arrow (who killed for the first time). Dinah's injuries removed her canary cry ability and also made her unable to have children. Opening a flower shop in Seattle with Ollie, she was more or less out of the super hero game for a while.

Dinah eventually broke up with Ollie after their long relationship. She could no longer handle the strain of his wandering eye in addition to other problems. Shortly thereafter, Oliver was killed in Metropolis and his son (not Dinah's) Conner Hawke became the new Green Arrow. Dinah, devastated by the loss of the man she still loved, was one of the few people at his funeral.

After hooking up with Oracle to found the new Gotham City-based superhero group Birds of Prey, alongside Oracle and the Huntress, Dinah was fully restored physically after a dip in a Lazarus Pit . This restored her canary cry.

She was highly honored to be a member of the newly reformed JSA. As of this writing, she holds reserve status in both the JLA and the JSA.

When Oliver Queen was restored to life, he and Dinah shortly resumed their relationship. He came close to asking her to marry him, but chose not to at the last moment, believing she would say no again. Their relationship has had some bumps (he cheated on her with Black Lightning's niece who was killed shortly thereafter) but they're working on it.

A modified version of Dinah Laurel Lance, Carolyn Lance aka The Black Canary (played by Lori Loughlin) made an appearance on the WB television series Birds of Prey as the estranged mother of regular character Dinah Redmond. Early publicity for this series suggested that the teenaged Dinah, who possesses mental powers, would be a reimagined Black Canary; fan outcry resulted in producers stating that Dinah Redmond would not be referred to as Black Canary. The version of Black Canary played by Loughlin is apparently killed at the end of her only appearance on the series, though the possibility of survival was suggested in order to allow the character to return had the series continued.