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Black Canary: Difference between revisions

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In [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]], Black Canary was revived in 1963 as part of some of the first [[Crisis Crossover]] stories in comics history. The [[Justice League of America]] and [[Justice Society of America]] — two similar groups belonging to two similar Earths — would join forces to face threats to both their realities. It was during one of these adventures that Larry Lance (whom Dinah Drake had married sometime in the 1950s) gave his life to save Dinah's. Desiring a fresh start, Dinah decided to leave her home-dimension behind to start over on Earth-One. She joined the [[Justice League of America]] and — [[I Love Nuclear Power|for reasons involving her exposure to cosmic radiation]] — developed a sonic scream super power a.k.a. "[[Make Me Wanna Shout|The Canary Cry]]".
 
In the early days of [[The Bronze Age of Comic Books]], Black Canary began dating fellow JLA member Oliver Queen a.k.a. [[Green Arrow]]. She was a regular part of his adventures with [[Green Lantern (Comic Book)|Green Lantern]] and was developed by writer Dennis O'Neil into a more proactive, feminist character — one who ran her own business, had her own solo adventures and chided Green Arrow for his possessive attitude and referring to her as "his girl". Indeed, she was so much a part of Green Arrow's life that she became a foster mother to his sidekick, Roy Harper a.k.a. Speedy, and it was she who got Roy treatment for his heroin addiction during the infamous ''My ward Speedy is a junkie?!" incident.
 
Toward the end of [[The Bronze Age of Comic Books]], in an effort to explain why Dinah Drake didn't appear to be a day over 30 despite being well into her 60s, a [[Retcon]] in [[Justice League of America]] revealed that the Black Canary we'd been seeing since the end of the [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]] wasn't Dinah Drake but was actually her daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance!
 
An Earth-Two [[Super Villain]] called The Wizard used his powers to curse the infant Dinah with an uncontrollable scream (yes, yes... [[A Wizard Did It]]) and Black Canary asked her old friend Johnny Thunder to use [[Genie in Aa Bottle|his magical genie pal The Thunderbolt]] to end the curse. The Thunderbolt was unable to break the spell, but was able to place the infant Dinah in a sort of [[Suspended Animation]] in his home dimension until such time as a cure could be found. Years later, during the [[Crisis Crossover]] that killed her husband, Dinah Drake was critically injured by the radiation and The Thunderbolt then used his magic to put Dinah Drake's memories in the still-sleeping-but-now-adult body of her daughter (which had since then learned how to adapt to the once uncontrollable scream) and [[Mind Rape|erase everyone else's memories so they wouldn't remember what happened]].
 
This confusing and creepy chain of events would be [[Retcon|Ret Conned]] again not too long after ''[[Crisis Onon Infinite Earths]]''. Now, the Lance family had a relatively normal life together, with the elder Dinah still working as a florist in her [[Secret Identity]] and Larry still a private eye. Dinah Drake was also given further motivation for having chosen the path of the vigilante, having tried and failed to follow in the footsteps of her cop father, thanks to the then [[Dirty Cop|rampant sexism and corruption of the Gotham City Police Department]]. But the greatest changes were reserved for the Dinah Laurel Lance who was now a founding member of the [[Justice League of America]] and whose sonic super powers were now the result a mutation — a third vocal cord.
 
As [[The Dark Age of Comic Books]] opened, Dinah was still a member of the [[Justice League]], now Justice League International. She briefly adopted a new "[[The Eighties|modern]]" costume which was quickly abandoned and is widely regard as being an embarrassment — both by the character ''and'' by [http://stephendestefano.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html the artist who designed the costume]!
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Alternately, Black Canary was a major, if secondary, character in the ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' animated series, where she was voiced by Morena Baccarin (a.k.a. Inara from ''[[Firefly]]''). Appearing without a voice several times in the first season as an object of [[Green Arrow]]'s attraction, her first speaking role came in the Season Two opener ''The Cat and the Canary''. Black Canary's character in the three episodes she appeared in seemed very close to her portrayal in ''[[Birds of Prey]]'', which is not surprising considering that one of these episodes ("Double Date") was written by [[Gail Simone]].
 
Black Canary has also shown up several times in ''[[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'', where she is voiced by [[Grey DelisleDeLisle]]. She had starring roles in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" and "The Golden Age of Justice!", and had a lead role in "The Mask of Matches Malone!", which features an approximation of the Birds of Prey and was written by Gail Simone.
 
The character also appears regularly in ''[[Young Justice (Animationanimation)|Young Justice]]'', voiced by Vanessa Marshall, as one of three main mentors and chief combat trainer for the Team, and turned up in the last minute or so of the [[Green Arrow]] [[DC Showcase: Green Arrow|animated short]], where she essentially [[Big Damn Heroes|saved the day]]. Her prominence in both works is unsurprising given the involvement of [[Greg Weisman]], who has readily admitted that Dinah is his favorite comic book character.
 
In early 2012, it was announced that [[The CW]] would be producing a pilot based on several of the [[Green Arrow]] characters called ''Arrow''. While Dinah Lance is a character in the script, there is no indication that she has super powers or martial arts training, prompting fears that she will once again be a regular [[Damsel in Distress]] for [[Green Arrow]] to save.
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* [[Color Character]]
* [[Combat Stilettos]]: Very much a part of the original costume, the modern Black Canary has thankfully stuck to more sensible flat boots for the most part, although she is sometimes still drawn with them.
* [[Depending Onon the Artist]]: Flats vs heels, cleavage vs no cleavage, jacket vs no jacket vs bolero jacket vs longcoat.
* [[Depending Onon the Writer]]: Black Canary's level of competence.
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: Andrew Kreisberg's retelling of Dinah Lance's origin in ''Green Arrow/Black Canary''. It was fairly apparent that Kreisberg hadn't even read even a summary of the character's background, much less the fairly recent [[Birds of Prey]] stories which established Dinah as being aware of her mother's double life as the original Black Canary.
** Most fans were not amused that Dinah Drake was depicted as having quit superheroics to become a housewife or that she [[Old Shame|was ashamed of having been a superhero and hid that part of herself from her daughter]]. They were also less than pleased that the elder Dinah - who had worked with numerous superheroes during her time with the [[Justice Society of America]] - was horrified at the idea of her daughter being "a freak" (i.e. having super powers) or that she would call in one of the few non-powered members of the JSA (i.e Wildcat) to try and help her daughter get control of her powers.
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** The [[Smallville]] version uses make-up around her eyes that is basically a painted [[Domino Mask]].
* [[Dye Hard]]: Since the start of [[Birds of Prey]], Dinah has dyed her hair blonde rather than use a wig.
* [[Expy]]: Silk Spectre from ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]'' was one for Black Canary. While primarily based on the old [[Charlton Comics]] heroine Nightshade, Alan Moore said that he took the idea of a mother/daughter superheroine legacy from Black Canary and based the younger Silk Spectre's name (Laurie) off of the younger Black Canary's middle name (Laurel).
* [[Fan Service]]: The Fishnets. Dear gods, The Fishnets.
* [[Faux Action Girl]]: Black Canary at her lowest points.
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* [[Groin Attack]]: One of Black Canary's favorite moves. Cheap, but effective.
* [[Guys Smash Girls Shoot]]: Inverted with her and Green Arrow.
* [[Irony Asas She Is Cast]]: In an episode of the Brave and the Bold cartoon, Catwoman mockingly says that Black Canary being gagged is a good thing, as she apparently has a lousy singing voice. In real life, her voice-over actress, [[Grey DelisleDeLisle]], is a professional singer.
* [[It's All Junk]]: In ''Action Comics #609'', Black Canary burns her (admittedly ugly) Eighties costume. Oddly, the costume had been established previously as fireproof.
** There were also several references to the awful Eighties costume in the [[Gail Simone]] run on ''[[Birds of Prey]]''.
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** And [[The Nineties]] costume for that matter.
* [[Official Couple]]: [[Green Arrow]] and Black Canary.
* [[Old Master]]: In the ''[[Young Justice (Animationanimation)|Young Justice]]'' animated TV series, she's the team's official combat trainer. Old only relative to the teenaged heroes, of course; [[Word of God]] puts her at 24 in that universe.
* [[Retcon]]: Used to create the two separate Black Canaries.
** Also used to great effect in [[Birds of Prey]], by Gail Simone, to establish the origin of Dinah Laurel Lance's middle name and to give Dinah Drake a proto-Oracle sidekick in the form of Laurel - a librarian who helped the first Black Canary in a manner similar to how Barbara "Oracle" Gordon helps the new Black Canary.
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