History
Dinah Lance: 1976 - 2000
According to Dinah, she had a pretty normal childhood, as normal as a working-class family can hope to achieve in Gotham City. Her dad was a cop (actually my dad’s supervisor for a year or so) and her mother was the owner of a florist shop.
Dinah was quite close with her younger sister, Sara, though the two did tend to compete for boy’s affections as they got older. When Dinah was a teenager, her somewhat idyllic life was shattered when her mother was diagnosed with throat cancer; her dad was crippled after being shot during a traffic stop, and to top it all off, the stress of it all caused Dinah’s latent metagene to activate. Dinah’s screams could now render metal, shatter eardrums, and topple over full-size cars. It was Dinah’s sister that helped her realize that her power could be tamed and once she did, Dinah had an incredible degree of control over her vocal cords, allowing her to generate any sound she desired.
At first, Dinah and Sara did their best to conceal Dinah’s metahuman nature, even from their parents. However, after dropping out of school to keep her mother’s shop afloat, Dinah began to look for an alternative to her dire financial circumstances. Using a disguise made from a blonde wig, Dinah applied for a singing job at the Iceberg Lounge. Rumor has it that her tryout moved the Penguin to tears (and having heard his laughs so many times, I’m afraid to imagine what he sounds like crying). Cobblepot hired Dinah immediately, giving her a five night per week contract, and offered a signing bonus large enough to pay off her parents’ outstanding medical bills.
Using the stage name “The Canary”. Dinah managed to maintain an air of mystery despite her near-instant fame and fortune amongst Gotham society’s elite and criminal elements. But even among birds, what goes up, must eventually come down; and down it did go, hard and fast, when Dinah realized that the man who had shot her father was none other than Ignatius Ogilvy, the Penguin’s right-hand man.
What is the say about a woman scorned?[1]
Black Canary: 2000 - Present
Let me tell you something, cops’ daughters know how to kick some serious butt. I can attest to that from personal experience. Dinah Lance is no exception. As a kid, Mr. Lance had both of his daughters in Judo and Tae Kwon Do classes. As a teenager, Dinah and Sara studied Krav Maga, Muay Thai, and Capoeira.
When she started working at the Iceberg Lounge, Dinah expelled the stress she endured working two jobs to provide for her family and keep her sister in college by sparring at the Wildcat Gym with boxing/MMA/Savate world champion, Ted Grant. At least three times she put rowdy patrons at the Iceberg Lounge in the hospital for trying to grab her during a song. Oh, and remembers this is the same woman who can easily blast through a brick wall with the power of her voice alone. So I think I’ve painted a vivid picture of what kind of wrath a woman like this might unleash upon the men responsible for her father’s injury. Hell hath no fury, indeed. I never met Oswald Cobblepot until after his run-in with Dinah, but I like to think that Dinah had something to do with the peculiar way he walks… err… waddles.
Dinah Lance
After giving the Penguin a beating so bad he turned himself in to the GCPD for protection, Dinah decided she would go into busting the heads of criminals regularly. Dinah put what was left of her nest egg from the Iceberg Lounge earnings to build her first costume and moved to Star City to be closer to her sister (who was attending school at Star University). Of course, it didn’t take long for Green Arrow to introduce himself to this hot new vigilante in his turf and the two’s romantic escapades started off with a bang (I know, poor choice of words. Sorry!).
With Oliver taking care of Sara’s education and their father’s medical bills, Dinah did not have to worry about selling flowers anymore and focused on becoming a full-time crimefighter and with all the time spent training, she has honed herself into a fighting machine that does not have to rely on her powers to get by. Seriously, I’ve seen her choke out Double-Dubs, knock Bats on his ass, and even knock out Big Blue (though she used her power for the last bit, but come on, it’s Superman). So yeah, I decided to let her join the Birds with Helena and me. ;)[2]
UPDATE
Oliver Queen proposed again to Dinah July 5th 2017.
Powers and Abilities
Black Canary's Stats
Powers
- Canary Cry: Dinah possesses a meta-gene that gives her a potent sonic attack, able to damage and stun foes or objects, to the point of shattering metal. She possesses a incredible degree of control over her vocal cords. This enables her to mimic sounds and generate any sound she desires. The Canary Cry has been able to reach 300 decibels, which is enough to make a person's ears start bleeding even if they're not the attack target. A direct hit from her sonic blast can tear through steel like it was wet paper machete. With significant practice, Dinah has learned to use her Cry for a number of special effects, such as screaming downward while falling to slow her descent and cushion her landing from a fatal height.
- Enhanced Hearing: Dinah possess hearing on par with Superman and has demonstrated herself to be more proficient in the interpretations and recognition of various sounds than the Man of Steel. Another one up she has on Big Blue is that her heightened hearing has a sort of 'sensory shield' which protects her ears from excessive noise (such as her Canary Cry).
- Echolocation: By giving off a supersonic pulse, Dinah has developed the ability to utilize a 'bat-like' echolocation sense, enabling her to get a rough 360-degree of her surroundings, even when visibility is low.
Abilities
- Acrobatics: Through years of training with Team Arrow, the Justice League, and the Birds of Prey, Dinah has conditioned her body to peak fitness and trained in all manner of acrobatic and gymnastic maneuvers.
- Archery: Having been in some sort of relationship with the Green Arrow for over a decade, Dinah has had the luxury of being trained by a master archer and thus is an expert in the use of all archery-based weaponry. Rumor has it she gave Ollie the idea for his infamous "boxing glove arrow".
- Driving: Dinah is a talented operator of most road-based vehicles, including being trained in high-speed pursuit and defensive driving techniques. On a motorcycle, Dinah is practically a virtuoso.
- Investigation: The daughter of a police detective, Dinah had been exposed to police procedure and forensics at an early age. Having worked with Batman, Green Arrow, and myself for a number of years, Dinah's instincts have been refined to make her an excellent detective.
- Martial Arts: Dinah is one of the most skilled martial artists on the planet. She has also been trained by Ted Grant, who is formerly the Heavyweight Champion of the World, in the art of Boxing, Muay Thai, Capoeira, Krav Maga, and Hapkido. She has also been trained in Dragon Style Kung Fu and pressure point fighting by Ricardo "The Dragon" Diaz. Thanks to Wonder Woman, Dinah has also been trained in Amazon martial arts, but is strictly a novice in that kind of fighting style. Other styles she's mastered include Savate, Judo, Aikido, Jujitsu, Wing Chun, and Tae Kwon Do.
- Psychology: Dinah has taken a number of psychology night courses to aid her substance abuse therapy volunteering efforts. Her interest in this field field stems from her father's struggles with alcoholism and substance abuse, a condition which Dinah herself is genetically predisposed to but has never had a problem herself. Dinah used this expertise when Roy Harper returned from his time in the League of Assassins to help him kick his dependence on the drugs which Cheshire had addicted him to and to also recover from the trauma of losing his arm.
- Tactical Analysis: Dinah is also considered a strong leader and strategic thinker, which has led to her being made Chairwoman of the JLA.
- Weaponry: Dinah is highly skilled in the use of bows, swords, knives, batons, and improvised weaponry such as broken bottles and the like. Though she prefers to fight hand-to-hand, she is quite adept at grabbing whatever weapons are available to make use against an armored opponent.
- Multilingualism: Dinah can speak several languages other than English, including Spanish and Japanese. Due to her vocal abilities, Dinah is able to speak with a flawless and convincing accent of any dialect she hears spoken (not to mention can precisely mimic a person's voice after hearing it once).
- Strength level: Black Canary possesses the strength level of a woman her age, size and weight who engages in intensive regular exercise. Dinah can therefore press at least twice her own body weight.
Paraphernalia
- Body Armor: Dinah may be sporting her signature fishnets for style but the rest of her outfit, including the leather jacket, have been designed with state-of-the-art armor that protects her against impact-based attacks and affords a limited amount of protection against ballistics and edged weaponry.
- Canary Cycle: Dinah has a Harley-Davidson 883 Sportster but with custom handlebars and tank, with reinforced frame, souped-up Kord Automotive Engine, and armored plating.
- Belt Pouch: Dinah has hip slung pouch which she uses to stow a grapnel gun and a small number of smoke bombs and flashbang grenades, which she uses to give herself a tactical edge against multiple opponents (not that she necessarily needs it).[3]
Weaknesses
- Confidence: Dinah's superb martial arts experience often causes herself to overestimate her capabilities and jump into a situation before properly assessing the best tactical approach. Usually, this only happens when Dinah is working solo or with her lover, the Green Arrow. When acting as the field commander of the Birds or with a team of Justice League operatives, Dinah usually makes a conscious effort to rein herself in. In the past, however, she has shown herself to be easily provoked into making poor decisions by criminals aware of her relationship with the Green Arrow.
- Throat-Strikes: A sufficiently powerful and accurate blow to Dinah's throat can cause her to lose the ability to use her Canary Cry effectively.
- Vanity: Dinah often favors looking cool over a practical solution. That said, she usually has enough sense to recognize this as a problem and does not let it consume her entirely.
Trivia and Notes
Trivia
- BC's scream has been shown to be strong enough to make Superman's ears bleed so I took some liberties and decided a combination of a direct hit at full power, with the sensory overload of a guy with superhearing... yeah, that could knock out Big Blue.
- Black Canary hooked up once with Batman but keeps the secret from Ollie. As B.C. put it, that's a pot of drama that shouldn't be stirred up. Oliver is a billionaire that's not as rich as Bruce Wayne. Oliver is a unpowered vigilante determined to clean up his city that is considerably less iconic than Batman. Oliver even had his lair called the "Arrow Cave" despite the fact that it makes no sense (and as Harley Quinn pointed out a better name would be 'The Quiver'). Oliver has villains that get bored of Green Arrow and go to Gotham, case in point: Onomatopoeia. So if G.A. learned that his own gal-pal got chummy with the Bats, well... The Justice League might get called in to break up an epic fight in the midst of Gotham.
- Batman supposedly keeps Black Canary from killing Penguin; But she wouldn't really kill him. She crippled him for crippling her father... but Penguin doesn't know that and if that fear keeps him in check, then that's what they use. On the other hand, she, with Oglivy, she nearly killed him but at the last second thought better about it and let him live. Still, she has to constantly remind herself not to go too far whenever she encounters him in the field.[4]
- In her "Canary" persona, Dinah wears a blond wig to hide her identity and mislead her enemies. This is something she did back as a nightclub singer at the Iceberg Lounge.
- In her early career, Dinah wore a mask but has since given up on it, though the fact that Huntress' own mask resembles her old one has not gone unnoticed by her and serves as a constant source for friendly banter.
- Dinah plays a harmonica which she uses to strengthen her breathing and vocal cords.
- Dinah's blood type is AB-, the same as Oliver Queen's.
- When not active as a hero, Dinah works a physical education volunteer instructor for the Meadowhill School District here in Gotham City. She also volunteers as a substance abuse treatment coach in both Gotham and Star City.
- Dinah and Zatanna have went into together to purchase a considerable bulk supply of fishnets.
- Dinah had Ollie buy the location where her mother's Sherwood Florist was located. While it remains closed, Dinah has outfitted the backroom of the shop into an emergency armory and field supply station.
- She has a "relaxed" approach to her identity.
- Her archenemy is Lady Shiva.
Notes
- Her enhanced look is inspired by Injustice 2 video game.
Links and References
- Appearances of Dinah Lance
- Character Gallery: Dinah Lance