Black Canary (Dinah Drake)


Black Canary is a fictional superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by the writer-artist team of Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino, the character debuted in Flash Comics #86 as the first Black Canary in the Golden Age of Comic Books. Strong, mysterious, gutsy and romantic, she has been called "the archetype of the new Film Noir era heroine."
One of DC's earliest super-heroines, Black Canary has appeared as part of the Justice Society of America. She participated in crime-fighting adventures with her love interest, Gotham City detective Larry Lance. She and Larry are also the parents of Dinah Laurel Lance, who succeeds the former as the Black Canary in the post-Crisis narratives. Initially, the character was a hand-to-hand fighter without superpowers who often posed as a criminal to infiltrate criminal gangs. However, since the launch of the New 52, the two identities of the Black Canary legacy have been merged, with Dinah Drake possessing Dinah Lance's metahuman cry.
Dinah Drake is portrayed by Juliana Harkavy within the Arrowverse.

Publication history

Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino created the character in 1947 to be featured in Flash Comics as a supporting character. Appearing first as a clandestine crime-fighter who infiltrates criminal organizations to break them from the inside, Black Canary was drawn with fishnet stockings and a black leather jacket to connote images of a sexualized yet strong female character. She appeared as a character in a back-up story featuring Johnny Thunder:
According to Amash & Nolen-Weathington, Black Canary is "really" Carmine Infantino's "first character." According to the artist:
"When Kanigher gave me the script, I said, 'How do you want me to draw her?' He said, 'What's your fantasy of a good-looking girl? That's what I want.' Isn't that a great line? So that's what I did. I made her strong in character and sexy in form. The funny part is that years later, while in Korea on a National Cartoonists trip, I met a dancer who was the exact image of the Black Canary. And I went out with her for three years.
Bob didn't ask me for a character sketch . He had a lot of respect for me, I must say that. He always trusted my work... Bob loved my Black Canary design."

Fictional character biography

Dinah Drake made her debut in Flash Comics #86 as a supporting character in the "Johnny Thunder" feature, written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Carmine Infantino. She initially appeared as a villain. Johnny is instantly infatuated with her, and is reproached by his Thunderbolt. Dinah is later revealed to have been infiltrating a criminal gang.
In Flash Comics #92 she has her own anthology feature, "Black Canary", replacing "Johnny Thunder". The new series fleshed out Black Canary's backstory: Dinah Drake was a black-haired florist in love with Larry Lance, a Gotham City Police Department detective. She first meets the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics #38, joining them in All Star Comics #41. Black Canary's foes include criminal circus act Carno and His Masked Riders, and the Sacred Order of the Crimson Crystal.
Black Canary was revived with the other Golden Age characters during the 1960s. In these stories, it is retroactively established she lives on the parallel world of Earth-2. Married to Larry Lance since the 1950s, Dinah participates in annual team-ups between the Justice Society and Earth-1's Justice League of America.
In a 1969 JLA/JSA team-up against the rogue star-creature Aquarius, who banished Earth-2's inhabitants to another dimension, Larry Lance is killed saving Dinah's life and Aquarius is defeated. Grief-stricken, Canary moves to Earth-1 and joins the Justice League. She begins a relationship with JLA colleague Green Arrow and discovers that she has developed an ultrasonic scream, the "canary cry."
Black Canary teams with Batman five times in The Brave and the Bold and once with Superman in DC Comics Presents. Appearing frequently as a guest in the "Green Arrow" backup feature of Action Comics, she was a backup feature in World's Finest Comics #244 to #256 . Black Canary's backstory was featured in DC Special Series #10. After the "Black Canary" feature in World's Finest Comics, she appears as a guest in its "Green Arrow" feature and in Detective Comics.
A story in Justice League of America #219-220 served to explain the origin of Black Canary's new sonic scream powers, and further, why she continued to appear youthful despite being active since the late 1940s. It was established that during the 1950s, she and Larry had a daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance, who was cursed by the Wizard with a devastating sonic scream. Her mother hoped that Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt could cure her, but the Thunderbolt was only able to keep the younger Dinah in suspended animation in his own dimension. To ease their pain, the Thunderbolt altered the memories of the tragedy, leaving all to believe Dinah's daughter had simply died. Following the battle with Aquarius, Dinah discovered she was dying from radiation exposure, and she asked to see her daughter's grave one last time. Shown the body of her daughter—still in suspended animation, but now grown to adulthood—Dinah wished that she could somehow be her successor. The Superman of Earth-1 and the Thunderbolt conceived a solution and transferred Dinah's memories into her daughter's body so that she could continue fighting as the Black Canary.
A Black Canary miniseries by writer Greg Weisman and artist Mike Sekowsky was planned in 1984. Although its first issue was pencilled, the project was shelved due to the character's use in writer-artist Mike Grell's high-profile ' series. Elements of the project were used in Weisman's short film, '.

The New 52

Dinah Drake assumed the mantle of Black Canary again in 2011, when DC rebooted its continuity with The New 52.

Golden Age bibliography

The Black Canary appeared in:

In other media

Television

Live-action

In the 2012 television series Arrow and other series set in its fictional universe, In its fifth season, Arrow introduces Dinah Drake as a new Black Canary. Unrelated to the Lances, she is a former Central City Police Department officer who possesses a metahuman hypersonic cry similar to Black Siren's.

Animation

The Dinah Drake version of the character is the basis of the character Donna Nance, the Black Siren, in the Justice League animated series episode "Legends".
The Dinah Drake version of Black Canary makes a cameo in DC Super Hero Girls, graduating from Super Hero High.