History Characters / BlackCanary

* [[SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfUnits Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Units]]: The strength of her Canary Cry has been repeatedly stated to be around three hundred decibels. That is considerably more than the force of a shockwave produced by a megaton-level explosion. If she was actually producing a sound that powerful, it would be able to turn people into red smears and topple skyscrapers. (Mind you, under some writers, she can ''very much'' do those things, and relies on martial arts instead of her powers because she'd rather ''not.'' Needless to say, though, most instances of its use fall very short of that.)

By the end of the year, Black Canary proved to be more popular than Johnny Thunder, and his back-up feature became hers in ''Flash Comics #92'' (February, 1948). It was here that her SecretIdentity was finally revealed, as was the meaning of her CodeName. Dinah Drake was a raven-haired florist, who used a blond wig and flashy costume as a disguise while fighting crime in her native Gotham City. Her path frequently crossed that of her boyfriend, private detective Larry Lance. She also joined the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica and continued to be a part of that team even after their adventures ceased publication in 1951, at the end of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks.

In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, Black Canary was revived in 1963 as part of some of the first CrisisCrossover stories in comics history. The Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica and ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica -- 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 Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica and -- [[RadiationInducedSuperpowers for reasons involving her exposure to cosmic radiation]] -- developed a sonic scream super power a.k.a. "[[SuperScream The Canary Cry]]".

In the early days of UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks, Black Canary began dating fellow JLA member Oliver Queen a.k.a. ComicBook/GreenArrow. She was a regular part of his adventures with Franchise/GreenLantern 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 is a junkie?!" incident.

Toward the end of UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks, 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 Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica revealed that the Black Canary we'd been seeing since the end of the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] wasn't Dinah Drake but was actually her daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance!

* ImprovisedWeapon: A specialty of Dinah Drake in [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] stories, particularly with thrown objects. She displayed uncanny accuracy with improvised weapons, no matter how improbable or unbalanced -- including [[http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/2949/bcthrowingthings1.jpg footwear]], [[http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/4889/bcthrowingthings2.jpg vases]], [[http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/3594/bcthrowingthings3.jpg bulky cameras]], [[http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/3932/bcthrowingthings4.jpg random cutlery, and pies]]. Curiously, while she demonstrates her amazing throwing skills often, neither she nor any other characters ever make particular note of it.

As UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks opened, Dinah was still a member of the Justice League, now Justice League International. She briefly adopted a new "[[TheEighties 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!]]

Thankfully, she would return with a vengeance before UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks was over. In 1996, Dinah Lance abandoned her fishnets and wig in favor of [[DyeHard shorter hair, a dye job]] and a Kevlar leotard as one-half of the original Comicbook/BirdsOfPrey team -- [[BrainsAndBrawn the brawn to the brain]] of ComicBook/{{Oracle}} (a.k.a. former Batgirl Barbara Gordon). Conceived by editor Jordan B. Gorfinkel and written by Chuck Dixon, the two would headline a number of mini-series, eventually being given their only monthly title in 1999. At about the same time, a new monthly ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica title started, simply called ''JSA'', which also featured Black Canary as a member.

* VerySpecialEpisode: Many of the "Hard Traveling Heroes" storylines from UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks.

** Wonder Woman volume 3 has Dinah diguise herself and Diana as "The Orphan Sisters" TagTeam in order to get into the {{fight club|ing}} Doctor Psycho is hiding in and forcing [[DistressedDude a captive Sergeant Steel to work in]].

* BrainsAndBrawn: She's the Brawn when paired with ComicBook/{{Oracle}}.

* SecretIdentity: Despite abandoning any attempt at a disguise years ago and having a very public wedding to another superhero (whose own SecretIdentity was a MillionairePlayboy and former mayor of a major city), Dinah has apparently managed to maintain one. Dinah was outed as Black Canary, as of ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' Volume 2, #2. It seemed that for the most part, it was a case of her secret identity was so unremarkable (a florist in a small shop) she didn't really ''need'' to hide who she was, and pretty much the entire hero/villain community knew 'Dinah Lance' was her name.

The last descendant of the royal family who once ruled over a small eastern Europe country named Vlatava. After being exiled, he turned to crime with the ultimate goal of reconquering his homeland. A long time foe of Batman and Green Lantern, Vertigo also serves as a [[Characters/BatmanRoguesGalleryPart2 Scarecrow]]-style adversary for Green Arrow, as his powers [[KryptoniteFactor effectively void]] Ollie's marksmanship skills.

In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, Black Canary was revived in 1963 as part of some of the first CrisisCrossover stories in comics history. The Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica and ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica -- 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 Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica and -- [[RadiationInducedSuperpowers for reasons involving her exposure to cosmic radiation]] -- developed a sonic scream super power a.k.a. "[[MakeMeWannaShout The Canary Cry]]".

* HurtingHero: Becomes this whenever she pairs with ComicBook/GreenArrow due to their relationship being an infamous case of MasochismTango where they continually bring out the worst in each other. Their first pairing? Kidnapped by drug lords in a botched sting operation and physically tortured so badly she loses her fertility and her powers (which would eventually be restored). Rejoins Ollie after he gets resurrected? Her adopted daughter is kidnapped and Ollie himself makes her believe she's dead. Despite that, she still marries him - and proceeds to be reduced to a DamselInDistress whose Canary Cry accidentally causes an innocent bystander's hearing loss. And then Ollie leaving to form a second Justice League team somehow devastates her so much that she breaks up the primary team that she the leader of. Suffice it to say, there are likely a lot of ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey fans who really really don't like seeing Dinah and Ollie together.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Her very earliest appearances were in Johhny Thunder's comic, where she was a Catwoman-esque jewel thief who only stole from other criminals, and took action against actual murderers. After the first few appearances she took on a quasi-sidekick role. Pretty soon Johnny was kicked to the curb, and she was retconned into having ''pretended'' to be a criminal.

* MakeMeWannaShout: The Canary Cry, one of the TropeCodifier examples of such an ability.

* BareYourMidriff: Not typically part of her costume attire, but generally her civilian attire, at least from the 2000s-onward, tend to be almost exclusively shirts that don't cover her navel. Which somewhat makes sense since that was fashion of the time and she was a woman in her mid-20s.

* BareYourMidriff: Vicious' costume consists of a boob tube and PaintedOnPants; leaving her midriff exposed.
* PaintedOnPants: Wears extremely tight tights.

* ButNotTooBi: Dinah was confirmed to be bisexual by Creator/GailSimone, and though this inspired Sara Lance's sexuality in ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'', in the comics proper Dinah's never had an on-screen romance with a woman. There ''was'' some ShipTease between her and Ev Crawford/Starling in the New 52 Birds of Prey run, but this never went further than implication. However, she does have some pretty suggestive moments with Barbara Gordon, like [[http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss175/galateus/comics/babsdinah-25uo2a0.jpg here]] and [[https://gailsimone.tumblr.com/post/28133569000/ealperin-gailsimone here]].

* MasterPoisoner: Stinger, who was able to deliver a dose of curare exact enough to paralyse Black Canary's vocal cords without doing any additional harm to her.

* PintsizedPowerhouse: Not usually emphasised too much, but Dinah Lance's official height is given by official profiles as 5'4" inches, and she's [[DependingOnTheArtist usually drawn]] significantly shorter than the people she fights (and quite often who she fights alongside). This actually works to her advantage as, besides the fact it means she's frequently underestimated, but it meant she was at a significant size disadvantage when being trained by Wildcat, so from the beginning she was trained to punch above her weight and make use of her small stature.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. After she was tortured, she went through counselling to help overcome the trauma, and the fact she's undergone therapy first-hand sometimes comes up when dealing with other troubled heroes.

* LatexPerfection: Concealed his trues identity beneath a lifelike rubber mask.

->'''Debut:''' ''Green Arrow & Black Canary'' (Vol 1) #15

* ItsAllAboutMe: Is self-obssessed to a ridiculous degree.

In UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, Black Canary was revived in 1963 as part of some of the first CrisisCrossover stories in comics history. The Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica and ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica -- 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 Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica and -- [[ILoveNuclearPower for reasons involving her exposure to cosmic radiation]] -- developed a sonic scream super power a.k.a. "[[MakeMeWannaShout The Canary Cry]]".

* ButNotTooBi: Dinah was confirmed to be bisexual by Creator/GailSimone, and though this inspired Sara Lance's sexuality in ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'', in the comics proper Dinah's never had an on-screen romance with a woman. There ''was'' some ShipTease between her and Ev Crawford/Starling in the New 52 Birds of Prey run, but this never went further than implication.

* TheLadette: Naturally, being a badass BikerBabe BloodKnight who enjoys a bar fight and a GoodBadGirl. As she began dressing in ShortTank for her CivvieSpandex, this has became far more notable in her design.

* AwesomeAnachronisticApparel: Often wears a mariachi-inspired outfit. She seems to particularly like the NiceHat.

* NiceHat: Wears a Cordovan hat.

A special ops soldier working for the secret program known as Cobalt, Carrie Cutter came back from a mission [[ShellShockedVeteran very disturbed]]. As a result, she volunteered for a program intended to make her fearless. While the treatment was a success, and increased her strength in the process, it also caused her memory loss, and most importantly made her love-related emotions turned UpToEleven. Believing her husband had abandoned her, she tracked him down to Star City and killed him. Green Arrow was involved in this, and she started developing an obsession for him.

->See: Characters/GreenArrow.

->See: Characters/GreenArrow.

->See: Characters/GreenArrow.

->See: Characters/GreenArrow.

* WhoWearsShortShorts: During the ''DC YOU'' ongoing, it became common for Dinah to wear short-shorts and would frequently fight in them. After ''DC Rebirth'', this became her default look, alongside a corset top and her usual jacket/fishnets, in order to maintain her classic aesthetic with a Burnside-like improvisation.

* TheCorpseStopsHere: Left Canary standing over the body of a murdered member holding the crimson crstal, leading the police to assume she was the killer.

* ImmortalitySeeker: The cult was dedicated to acgieving eternal life via the crimson crystal.
* MineralMcGuffin: Sought a mystic crimson crustal which supposedly grant eternal life (but was actually a fake created by the Swami).

* PhonyPsychic

''See Characters/JusticeSocietyOfAmericaVillains''

* BaldOfEvil: A bald woman who can kill with a touch.
* BaldWomen: Appears to be bald beneath her bandana. (Her entire look invokes the appearance of a chemotherapy patient.)

* BraidsOfAction: Wears her long hair in a single braid with [[UnusualWepaonMounting a blade mouunted on the end]].