Note from Ultraguy: Just letting you guys know not every researcher organizes info the same way. I normally organize my stuff specifically for the sake of posting it as a blog, while Swan often keeps more extensive notes separate while having a more abridged version for brevity. So this doesn't really reflect the episode entirely, or whatever thoughts Swan has on the character.
That being said since DB's only have two weeks, I figured I may get into the habit of trying to through together something for people who like to speculate and make predictions, as they won't have as much time to do so now. Also since I slapped this together I didn't really add pictures.
Background
- Real Name: Dinah Laurel Lance
- Age: ~20s
- Height: 5’5”
- Weight: 128 lbs.
- aka Pretty Bird, Siu Jerk Jai, D.D.
- Member of: JLA, JSA, Birds of Prey, Team 7
- Used to wear a blonde wig, but now dyes it
- Was the inspiration for the Silk Spectre from Alan Moore’s Watchmen
The title of “Black Canary” originally belonged to Dinah Drake a member of the Justice Society of America. She was a martial arts master who patrolled the streets and battled street-level crime alongside her Detective Larry Lance. Dinah and Larry eventually married and had a daughter together: Dinah Lance. Dinah 2 grew up alongside her mother’s friends in the Justice Society, most of whom (almost all men) became her “uncles” and delighted in helping to raise her. Dinah 1 however had to split time between superhero-ing at night and resting during the day, leaving her little time to take care of her daughter. Because of this, the two Dinahs developed a tense relationship, though it also sparked Dinah 2’s interest in following in her mother’s footsteps. Her mother was adamantly against this, though she taught Dinah some of her martial arts for self-defense purposes. Ted Grant (Wildcat), one of her mother’s JSA friends, also taught Dinah on the side.
One day, Dinah 2 discovered she had super powers. The exact origin is unclear, though the current consensus seems to be that she possessed the metagene, a dormant gene held by a small portion of the human population that, should it activate, give its user super powers, that developed by being in close proximity to other superpowered JSA members. This was exactly what Dinah needed to reject her mother’s wishes and become a fully-fledged crimefighter and take up the mantle of the Black Canary.
Dinah would fight crime for many years, strike up an on/off relationship with Oliver Queen (Green Arrow), eventually marrying him and finding herself at the center of the “Arrow family” as well as several superhero teams across all of DC. During the events of The Longbow Hunters, Dinah was captured and tortured, losing her signature Canary Cry ability in the process. However, this did not deter her and she continued fighting crime until a dip in Ra’s Al Ghul’s Lazarus Pit healed her wounds and restored her super powers. At different points in time she’s worked as a covert government agent, an indie rockstar, and a florist, but she’s never stopped her crusade against crime and has always been considered a pillar of the DC hero community.
Experience
Dinah has involved herself in numerous superhero teams over the years, including founding (and later being elected Chairwoman of) the Justice League of America, reforming the Justice Society of America, and serving as the primary field operative of the Birds of Prey, a covert superhero team led by herself and Oracle (Barbara Gordon/Batgirl) that was active all around the world. Overall in terms of team memberships, Dinah is one of the most experienced superheroes around, and is highly respected among her peers. There isn’t any kind of conflict that she isn’t familiar with or hasn’t dealt directly with before, be it mystical, extra-terrestrial, or apocalyptic.At one point, she “switched places” with Lady Shiva in order to better her understanding of martial arts. While Shiva took her place within the Birds of Prey, Dinah trained in Shiva’s home village, and underwent the grueling upbringing Shiva suffered that turned her into the ruthless killer that she now is (though Dinah ended the training prematurely, as she didn’t want to become a heartless murderer).
Arsenal
Dinah usually goes into missions pretty light on equipment, preferring to rely on her martial arts and super powers. However, she has used some weapons/gadgets from time to time.Canary Bomb: When her Canary Cry was out of action, she utilized portable grenades known as “Canary Bombs” which could replicate the ultrasonic shriek of her Canary Cry. It’s unclear in canon if she carries them with her anymore after regaining her Canary Cry from the Lazarus Pit, though she does use them in Injustice 2.
Grappling Hook: A portable grappling hook used for scaling buildings and swinging around town similar to Batman.
Ultrasonic Flight Harness: Although she has shown the ability to fly simply by screaming at the ground, Dinah has also got her hands on a sort of jetpack that is powered by her own Canary Cry. By humming it at low frequencies she can even power it during flight.
Night-Vision Goggles: During her time with the Birds of Prey, Dinah would often go on covert spy missions and carried night vision goggles with her in order to operate in the darkness.
Motorcycle: Dinah is a master cyclist and prefers her motorcycle as her primary mode of transportation. It’s not a simple motorcycle, though. Dinah can remotely control it, ordering it to stop and drive to her location.
Earrings/Necklace: Her earrings contain a two-way radio with which to communicate with Oracle, and her necklace serves as a tracer to track her location. These tools have allowed Barbara to communicate with Dinah and feed her intel throughout their missions.
Abilities
Canary Cry
This is Dinah’s most well-known ability: the Canary Cry. With it, she can project ultrasonic waves by screaming, and can use it to deliver serious damage to who or whatever she’s pointing it at. Its maximum known loudness has been stated to be 300 decibels, which is comparable to several volcanic eruptions, including the Krakatoa eruption, an event that caused tsunamis, shockwaves, caused people to go deaf even just 10 miles away from the epicenter, and could be felt across the planet. Dinah rarely causes this level of destruction, however, since she can focus the Cry into smaller projectile-like waves. She often uses this to blow over large groups of people, break down walls, or take on other metahumans. She can even focus it even smaller to block bullets or shatter restraints, and if she points her mouth at the ground, she can even use it to fly. Its range can also be increased to spread across an entire city. She generally prefers not to use the Canary Cry in regular combat, as she wants to keep her martial arts skills sharp, but in desperate enough situations and powerful enough opponents, she’ll let fly.It’s also worth mentioning that Dinah possesses a special membrane in her ears that protects herself from the effects of her own Canary Cry, as well as sonic attacks from other foes.
Martial Arts
Dinah is also known as one of the greatest martial artists in DC Comics. She has been trained by the other greatest martial artists in DC, including: her mother, the original Black Canary, Wildcat, Wonder Woman, Lady Shiva, Cassandra Cain, and Sensei Otomo. She’s on Shiva’s list of the world’s 25 greatest martial artists. The list of martial arts styles she’s trained in includes:- Judo
- Boxing
- Escrima
- Jeet Kune Do
- Jujitsu
- Karate
- Krav Maga
- Wing Chun
- Wrestling
- Aikido
- Capoeira
- Dragon Style Kung Fu
- Hapkido
- Muay Thai
- Savate
- Tae Kwon Do
Her greatest ability in regards to martial arts, though, is likely her ability to learn and grow from fights. Often times she’ll struggle against an opponent initially, then destroy them in a rematch, or even improve enough to defeat them within the same fight. She’s knowledgeable to pick up on minor details about a person’s fighting ability and use their weaknesses against them, as well as recognize when an opponent is doing the same to her. Essentially, any opponent fighting her will have a harder and harder time keeping up as the fight progresses.
Other
During her time with the Birds of Prey (arguably her most iconic team that she was central to, and the one I suspect is the reason we’re doing this episode at this time), Dinah was being guided via radio communication by Oracle.Feats
Strength
Physical
- (Birds of Prey v.1 76) Sent Black Alice flying with a kick and drew blood from her. Black Alice can absorb the powers of other magic users, and at the time had Shazam’s powers absorbed. This would include Shazam’s durability.
- (Green Arrow/Black Canary 22) Smashes Discord’s metal arm.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 50) Briefly stuns Metamorpho with a kick to the face
- (Justice League of America v.1 154) KOs Doctor Destiny with a single uppercut.
- (Birds of Prey v.3 0) Defeats three metahuman guards easily.
- (Green Arrow/Black Canary 3) Overpowered Everyman, who has super strength.
- (Birds of Prey v.3 4) Kicks open a metal door.
- (Justice League of America v.1 77) Uses a guy as a club to beat up two other guys.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 72) Catches herself with one hand after falling off a building.
- (Black Canary v.3 4) Karate chops Merlyn’s wrists in half.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 47) Defeats a dude with a couch.
- (Green Arrow/Black Canary) Swings a grown man around with a chain easily.
Canary Cry
- (Green Arrow/Black Canary 17) Her canary cry can reach over 300 decibels. 2.4 gigatons of tnt)
- (Birds of Prey v.1 50) Lets loose a massive canary cry that can be heard across the city
- (Justice League of America v.1 132) Reaches across Chicago and wipes out a swarm of insects as well as affecting the entire city’s inhabitants.
- (Green Arrow v.6 Annual 1) Interrupts a city-wide brainwashing frequency from Count Vertigo with her canary cry
- (Justice League of America v.1 75) Its power is compared to that of a hurricane.
- (Green Arrow v.6 12) Diggle could be joking, though he seems to commit to it by going in more detail: Dinah’s canary cry can be heard across the world.
- (JLA Year One 9) Casually blasts apart a massive glacier.
- (Green Arrow/Black Canary 30) Vaporized Black Lantern Green Arrow.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 61) Stops a speeding car. The damage is reminiscent of a severe car crash.
- (Green Arrow v.6 34) Stopped a speeding train.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 78) Defeats Harvest, a villain whose power it is to absorb attacks, with her Canary Cry
- (Birds of Prey v.2 2) Blows away several cop cars (and cops) with her canary cry.
- Metahumans she’s affected with her Canary Cry include:
- (Justice League of America v2 24) Amazo, specifically, exploding his head. At the time, Amazo had absorbed all the powers of the entire Justice League of America, including heavy-hitters like Superman.
- (JLA Year One 2) Solomon Grundy
- (JLA Year One 9) Martian Manhunter
- (Birds of Prey v.1 76) Black Alice (w/ Shazam’s powers absorbed)
- (Birds of Prey v.1 36) Joe Gardner, who could survive missile blasts and satellite lasers no problem (#11)
- (Birds of Prey v.1 68) Although not proven in the moment, Dinah says that a full force Canary Cry might do some real damage to Wonder Woman.
- (96) This is later proven when she hurts Black Alice who had absorbed Wonder Woman’s powers at the time.
- (Birds of Prey v.2 10) Mammoth
- (Justice League of America v2 15) Giganta
Speed
- (Birds of Prey v.1 68) Spars with Wonder Woman and claims she can perceive time down to the nanosecond.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 11) Reacted to Superman flying at her and Joe Gardner at super speed from Metropolis (they’re in a fictional European country) within at most twenty seconds. (Mach 1106)
- (Justice League of America v2 3) Stabs a Red Tornado-esque android with an arrow so quickly and so many times that she finds its weakness faster than Hal’s Green Lantern ring can analyze it.
- (Justice League of America v.1 109) Dodges a blast from Eclipso’s black diamond. She refers to it as a “ray blast” and later in the issue is confirmed to be a ray of light.
- (Justice League of America v.1 112) Tripped up Amazo, who was running at half of the Flash’s speed.
- (Birds of Prey v. 76) Reacts to a bullrush from Black Alice (who had absorbed Shazam’s powers at the time).
- (Birds of Prey v.1 96) Dodges a punch from Black Alice (who is using Wonder Woman’s powers).
- (Birds of Prey v.1 64) Outraced a kerosene explosion. Based on the last page, she notices the kerosene before it explodes, which would usually imply aim-dodging (leaping out of the way before the explosion initiated) but it’s pretty clear from the top panel that she’s leaping in sync with the explosion (the flames are right behind her sneaking on from off panel), making this a legitimate speed feat.
- (Green Arrow/Black Canary 28) Legit bullet timing, she leaps over two guys firing their assault rifles and then lands as their bullets hit each other.
- (Black Canary v.3 3) Caught an arrow from a few feet away.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 23) Dodging laser blasts from Grodd’s soldiers.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 14) Dodges whip strikes from Lashina.
Durability
- (Justice League of America v.2 4) Hit by the equivalent of Flash and Superman (aka Amazo utilizing their powers).
- (Justice League of America v.2 24) Survives her own canary cry right back at her.
- (Green Arrow/Black Canary 21) Survived an explosion that took out the top of a building unscathed.
- (Green Arrow/Black Canary 27) Survived being in an exploding building
- (Green Arrow/Black Canary 28) Survived another huge explosion.
- (Birds of Prey v.3 1) Survives a point blank explosion.
- (Birds of Prey: Revolution) Survives a fall into the ocean head first from (as Oracle states) a “thousand feet in the air.”
- (Birds of Prey v.1 38) Hit so hard she cracks a wall.
- (Birds of Prey: Manhunt 2) Thrown from a speeding car and smashed into pavement.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 49) Falls off a bridge along with a minivan into a river.
- (Birds of Prey v.2 4) Falls several stories onto a van hard enough to crumple its roof.
- (Birds of Prey v.3 4) Dinah has taken such a regular beating and survived that Starling broke her hand knocking her out.
- (Green Arrow/Black Canary 30) Took an arrow through the shoulder and recovered immediately.
Skill
Physical
- (Birds of Prey v.3 4) Defeats White Canary, one of the best martial artists in the world. For reference, she was the only sister of the Brothers in Silk. The Brothers were able to defeat their sensei who could kill people in his sleep. It took a group of the best martial artists in the world (Dinah included) to draw with the Brothers. White Canary killed each one of them individually, and Dinah defeated White Canary.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 94) Takes on a small army by herself, defeating most of the soldiers in hand to hand and stealth
- (Birds of Prey: Manhunt 4) Briefly fights Lady Shiva, one of DC’s greatest martial artists, in hand to hand.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 58) Later sparred with her and adapted against her mid spar, learning to take her blows after ten minutes and not to miss blocks after twenty.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 63) Canary is on Shiva’s list of the 25 greatest martial artists in the world (explained in the previous issue) and her vicious side led her to getting upgraded several positions.
- (Justice League of America v.1 132) Narration states that Batman would envy Dinah’s acrobatic skills.
- (139) Narration states that Black Canary had yet to meet anyone who could match her in martial arts -- this includes Batman and Wonder Woman.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 125) Barbara Gordon states Black Canary should be able to take on Batman.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 50) Narration also describes her as having “unparalleled martial arts skills.”
- (Birds of Prey v.1 68) Duels with Wonder Woman with bo staffs and ends up winning. Dinah suspects Diana let her win, but Diana refuses (and had a reason to want to win against Dinah).
- (Birds of Prey v.1 61) Spars with Cassandra Cain, one of the best martial artists in the world. Cassie even compliments Dinah on her skill.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 90) Plans out an entire fight against Deathstroke, including tricking him into thinking she’ll use her cry and letting him break her arm, just to get one hit on his eye.
- (Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Special) Fights Deathstroke to a standstill after he literally crashed her wedding and stole her wedding ring.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 82) Battles Rabbit, one of the disciples of Huang, a martial artist who could kill people in his sleep.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 20) Defeats Lady Vic, a master martial artist and one of the greatest assassins in the world, in a couple of moves.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 36) Defeats Shadow Thief by deducing his weakness in the middle of the fight and exploiting it.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 49) Fights evenly with and defeats (although the finale was an accident) Talia al Ghul.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 56) Fights evenly with Savant, who she says is as good as Connor Hawke, and maybe even Batman.
- (Black Canary v.3 3) Easily defeats Green Arrow even after he had trained for a year with Natas.
- (Justice League of America v.1 98) Can put a victim to sleep instantly by finding one of their “nerve centers” and pinching it. She does it to Starbreaker here, a cosmic vampire and one of the strongest beings in the universe.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 74) Knows a nerve cluster that can cause instant death if she presses hard enough.
- (Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey) Fights and defeats Lynx. Does so again later in the issue, this time effortlessly. Dinah improves and learns from previous fights.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 93) She’s able to describe the entire fight she just had, listing every move of herself and her (seven) opponents, and describe what martial arts school each move was from.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 61) Beats up guys with escrima sticks while in a wheelchair.
- (Justice League of America v.1 80) Is able to utilize her judo in zero gravity.
- (Justice League of America v.1 75) Knows a “sleeper hold” that can immediately put someone to sleep.
- (Green Arrow v.6 15) Acrobatically flips and leaps off a crashing car.
- (Birds of Prey v.3 2) Can detect invisible assassins just by a minor distortion of light.
- (Birds of Prey v.3 8) Subjected to something similar to the Penance Stare, except instead of the pain you’ve caused others, it’s the pain you’ve experienced throughout your entire life. By page 17 of the next issue, she’s broken out of it by her own accord, something that should have been impossible.
Canary Cry
- (Green Arrow v6 10) Shatters every glass in the room without damaging anyone or anything or shattering the glass of the train’s windows. Indicates a pretty insane level of precision.
- (Birds of Prey v.1 62) Precision canary cry: destroys just a baseball without affecting the hand holding it.
- (Green Arrow v.4 14) Blows up a gun with her canary cry, high precision.
- (Green Arrow/Black Canary 16) Can snap an arrow in flight with her canary cry, precision feat.
Weaknesses
Dinah is headstrong and emotional. Often during Birds of Prey missions, Oracle would have to corral Dinah’s fiery temper and desire to rush into battle without thinking things through, something that led to friction in their partnership. However, it should also be noted that she was elected to lead the JLA due to her strong leadership skills, so it’s possible her bullheadedness has cooled over time.Her biggest weakness relates to her Canary Cry. Specifically, if she is gagged or her throat is injured in some way, she’s unable to produce it. This happens a lot, and is why she relies on her martial arts skills so much.
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