History ComicBook / BlackCanary

* ColorAnimalCodename: A black canary, whose canary theme comes from her signature [[MakeMeWannaShout Canary Cry]].

* Black Canary made her big screen debut in ''Film/{{Birds of Prey|2020}}'', set in the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse. She is portrayed by Creator/JurneeSmollett. She will return in her solo movie on Creator/HBOMax.

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!

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.

** [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] heroine Dinah Drake begets [[UsefulNotes/TheModernAgeOfComicBooks Modern Age]] heroine Dinah Laurel Lance.

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]]".

Black Canary is a LegacyCharacter crime-fighter, most famous for her leather and fishnets costume, who fights evil with her mastery of multiple martial arts and an [[MakeMeWannaShout ultrasonic scream]] capable of various effects from rendering people unconscious to demolishing robots and buildings.

* ''WesternAnimation/DCShowcaseGreenArrow'': She turned up in the last minute or so of the animated short, where she essentially [[BigDamnHeroes saved the day]].

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.

Most agree that it was in 2003 when Creator/GailSimone took over the writing duties on ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' that Black Canary really began to achieve her full potential as a character. She became the field commander of an expanding Comicbook/BirdsOfPrey team. She continued her martial arts training, becoming a warrior worthy of the respect of Comicbook/LadyShiva -- one of the greatest martial artists and certainly the deadliest assassin in Franchise/TheDCU. Dinah also acted as a trainer to a number of young heroines and briefly tried to care for Sin -- a young girl being trained by the League of Assassins to be their next great warrior. It was also during this period that she rejoined the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica and become their official team leader.

Sadly, this did not last and ''Comicbook/BirdsOfPrey'' was rebooted as part of DC Comics' ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'' line in September 2011, with the team now focusing on Dinah leading a team of anti-heroines while trying to prove herself innocent of a murder charge. The Dinah of the New 52 is Dinah Drake Lance, the original Golden Age character, erasing Dinah Laurel Lance and one of [=DC=]'s few mother-daughter legacies. She still has the canary cry, though.

After the cancellation of ''Comicbook/BirdsOfPrey'', Dinah was a guest character in ''[[{{ComicBook/Batgirl2011}} Batgirl]]'' until she was spun off into her own self-titled series in June 2015. Now the lead singer of a touring band called Black Canary, Dinah joins them solving mysteries and beating up guys on the road. This series was cast in the same fashion-forward, modernized mold as the "Batgirl of Burnside," and shared a writer in Brenden Fletcher.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' [-voiced by-] Creator/VanessaMarshall

* ShesGotLegs: Damn straight. Highlighted by her [[StockingFiller trademark fishnets]].

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]]".

* ShoutOut: An interview with Dinah is published under the title "[[ComicBook/SpiderMan Musical Marvel or Menace?]]"

* ActionGirl: When written properly, Dinah is one of the best in Franchise/TheDCU.
* ActionMom: The Dinah Drake version, though the Dinah Laurel Lance version has an adopted daughter.

* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: A type II "Animal Alias" variation.
* BadassBiker: Both mother and daughter.
* BadassFamily: The second is the daughter of the first. The second is also considered to be a part of the [[ComicBook/GreenArrow Arrow family.]]

* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: One possible use for The Canary Cry.

* BoundAndGagged: One of the few ways to effectively deal with Black Canary. She can easily cripple a man with one limb or her mouth free.

* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: Inverted with her and Green Arrow.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_canary_vol_4_3.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The cover to ''Black Canary'' vol 4 #3 by Annie Wu.]]

The Creator/DCComics character of Black Canary has starred in four self-titled comic books:

''Black Canary'' Vol 1 (1991-1992) was a four-issue mini-series written by Sarah Byam, with art by Dick Giardano von Eeden. Dinah Laurel Lance is having money troubles with her shop, Sherwood Florist, and her boyfriend, Oliver Queen. When she accidentally runs into Gna "Duke" Nguyen, who is having troubles himself with drug dealing gangsters, she finds herself in a spot of trouble.

[[redirect:Characters/BlackCanary]]

[[redirect:Characters/GreenArrowBlackCanary]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/canaryiconic2_9522.jpg]]

->''"That's the thing about me. When I open my mouth... it tends to drown out everyone in the vicinity."''
-->-- '''Dinah Lance''', ''Birds of Prey Vol. 2, #1''

Black Canary is a LegacyCharacter crime-fighter, most famous for her leather and fishnets costume, who fights evil with her mastery of multiple martial arts and an [[MakeMeWannaShout ultrasonic scream]] capable of various effects from rendering people unconscious to demolishing robots and buildings.

''Black Canary'' was created by writer Creator/RobertKanigher and artist Carmine Infantino. She first appeared as a supporting character in ''Flash Comics #86'' (August 1947) where she was seemingly a villain plotting against Johnny Thunder. However, it was quickly revealed that [[TheMole she was actually a hero working undercover]] to expose criminals. Black Canary became something of a sidekick to Johnny Thunder for several stories, using her superior fighting skills to save the [[ComedicHero well-meaning but bumbling hero]] from danger.

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 -- [[ILoveNuclearPower for reasons involving her exposure to cosmic radiation]] -- developed a sonic scream super power a.k.a. "[[MakeMeWannaShout 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!

An Earth-Two SuperVillain called The Wizard used his powers to curse the infant Dinah with an uncontrollable scream (yes, yes... AWizardDidIt) and Black Canary asked her old friend Johnny Thunder to use [[GenieInABottle 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 as a sort of HumanPopsicle in his home dimension until such time as a cure could be found. Years later, during the CrisisCrossover 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 [[MindRape erase everyone else's memories so they wouldn't remember what happened]].

This confusing and creepy chain of events would be {{Ret Con}}ned again not too long after ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''. Now, the Lance family had a relatively normal life together, with the elder Dinah still working as a florist in her SecretIdentity 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 [[DirtyCop 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 Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica and whose sonic super powers were now the result a mutation -- a third vocal cord.

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!]]

She was still dating Green Arrow, though [[MrsRobinson their difference in ages]] was reversed, with a [[DirtyOldMan 30-something Oliver Queen]] having started dating a college-age Dinah Lance several years earlier. For most of this period, she was a supporting character in Mike Grell's Mature-Readers ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' book, where -- in an effort to limit the usual SuperHero elements of comic books and create a more grounded, realistic story -- [[Website/WomenInRefrigerators Grell removed Dinah's Canary Cry]] in ''The Longbow Hunters'' following an extended torture session. She would later dump Green Arrow and -- for a time -- disappeared into ComicBookLimbo.

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.

Over the next ten years, Black Canary would come to take a more prominent role in Franchise/TheDCU at large. She regained her superpowers after exposure to the alchemical Lazarus Pit (her boyfriend at the time turned out to be the immortal terrorist Ra's Al Ghul) and it healed her injured vocal cords. Shortly after that, she began dating Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) again following his return from the dead. The two would eventually marry and begin to share a title together several years later.

Most agree that it was in 2003 when Creator/GailSimone took over the writing duties on ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' that Black Canary really began to achieve her full potential as a character. She became the field commander of an expanding Comicbook/BirdsOfPrey team. She continued her martial arts training, becoming a warrior worthy of the respect of Comicbook/LadyShiva -- one of the greatest martial artists and certainly the deadliest assassin in Franchise/TheDCU. Dinah also acted as a trainer to a number of young heroines and briefly tried to care for Sin -- a young girl being trained by the League of Assassins to be their next great warrior. It was also during this period that she rejoined the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica and become their official team leader.

Things then took a dark turn for Black Canary's life. Following the events of the ''Justice League: Cry for Justice'' mini-series, she cut ties completely with her adopted family. She was estranged from her husband, having returned her wedding ring. She also apparently washed her hands of responsibility for Roy Harper, who returned to heroin use following the loss of an arm and the death of his daughter Lian in the ''Rise of Arsenal'' mini-series. The one bright side to all of this, from the fan perspective at least, was that Black Canary was now free to star in a new Comicbook/BirdsOfPrey series written by Creator/GailSimone.

Sadly, this did not last and ''Comicbook/BirdsOfPrey'' was rebooted as part of DC Comics' ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'' line in September 2011, with the team now focusing on Dinah leading a team of anti-heroines while trying to prove herself innocent of a murder charge. The Dinah of the New 52 is Dinah Drake Lance, the original Golden Age character, erasing Dinah Laurel Lance and one of [=DC=]'s few mother-daughter legacies. She still has the canary cry, though.

After the cancellation of ''Comicbook/BirdsOfPrey'', Dinah was a guest character in ''[[{{ComicBook/Batgirl2011}} Batgirl]]'' until she was spun off into her own self-titled series in June 2015. Now the lead singer of a touring band called Black Canary, Dinah joins them solving mysteries and beating up guys on the road. This series was cast in the same fashion-forward, modernized mold as the "Batgirl of Burnside," and shared a writer in Brenden Fletcher.

Dinah's fortunes truly changed, however, with the start of ''ComicBook/{{DC Rebirth}}'' in June 2016. As of June 2017, Dinah is a main character in three different titles - ''ComicBook/BatgirlAndTheBirdsOfPrey'', ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaRebirth'' and ''ComicBook/GreenArrowRebirth'', where she teamed up with The Emerald Archer to investigate a human trafficking ring and the two fell in love, restoring the classic relationship between the two.

!! Black Canary has appeared in:
[[folder:Significant Comic Books]]
[[AC:Dinah Drake (original)]]
* ''Flash Comics'' (1947-1949)
-->Black Canary debuts as a side character in the Johnny Thunder back-up feature, and quickly becomes very popular.
* ''ComicBook/AllStarComics'' (1948-1951)
-->Dinah joined the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica in issue 38, becoming the second woman on the world's first SuperTeam.
* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' (1963-1983)
-->When the Earth-One Justice League started regularly teaming up with their Earth-Two Justice Society counterparts Dinah reappeared as a member of the JSA.
* ''ComicBook/InfinityInc'' (1987-1988)
* ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' (1991-2011)
* ''ComicBook/{{Starman}}'' (1997-2001) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' (2004-2011) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''ComicBook/{{JSA}}'' (2005-2005)
----
[[AC:Dinah Laurel Lance]]
* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' (1969-1986)
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' (1970-1985)
* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' (1970-2009) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''World's Finest'' (1972-1982) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''Adventure Comics'' (1972-2010) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' (1973-2010)
* ''ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|1942}}'' (1975-1983) [-intermittent appearances-]
** ''ComicBook/JudgmentInInfinity'' (1982)
* ''ComicBook/DetectiveComics'' (1976-1998) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' (1983-1983)
* ''Green Lantern/Green Arrow'' (1983-1984)
* ''Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters'' (1987-1987)
* ''ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|1987}}'' (1987-2005) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''ComicBook/BoosterGold'' (1987-2010) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' (1988-1998)
* '''''Black Canary''''' (1991-1993)
* ''ComicBook/TheRay'' (1994-1996)
* ''ComicBook/FinalNight'' (1996)
* ''ComicBook/{{JLA}}'' (1997-2006) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'' (1998-2003) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''ComicBook/{{Arsenal}}'' (1998-1999)
* ''ComicBook/{{JSA}}'' (1999-2005)
* ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' (1999-2002) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''ComicBook/{{Hourman}}'' (1999-2000) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' (1999-2011)
* ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' (2001-2007)
* ''ComicBook/Batgirl2000'' (2004-2005)
* ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' (2006)
* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' (2006-2011)
* ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'' (2006-2007)
* '''''Black Canary''''' (2007-2007)
* ''Green Arrow and Black Canary'' (2007-2010)
* ''ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|2006}}'' (2007-2010) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' (2007-2011) [-intermittent appearances-]
* ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' (2008)
* ''ComicBook/VixenReturnOfTheLion'' (2008-2009)
* ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' (2009)
----
[[AC:Dinah Drake (Rebirth and beyond)]]
* ''ComicBook/BatgirlAndTheBirdsOfPrey''
* ''ComicBook/GreenArrowRebirth''
* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaRebirth''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Black Canary made her big screen debut in ''Film/{{Birds of Prey|2020}}'', set in the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse. She is portrayed by Creator/JurneeSmollett.
* ''WesternAnimation/DCShowcaseGreenArrow'': She turned up in the last minute or so of the animated short, where she essentially [[BigDamnHeroes saved the day]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' introduced her as a [[BlondeRepublicanSexKitten conservative radio host]] in her SecretIdentity and a ComicBook/LexLuthor minion in costume, recruited to stop the "terrorist" activities of Green Arrow. She eventually saw the light and joined the fledgling Justice League. She's played by Creator/AlainaHuffman in this version.
* ''Series/BirdsOfPrey2002'' has Dinah Redmond (née Lance), a teenage runaway from foster care who joins with Helena Wayne and Barbara Gordon in the titular team. Played by Creator/RachelSkarsten, she was reimagined as a [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual metahuman]] with TouchTelepathy and mild telekinesis, growing in strength during the series' brief run. Her mother Carolyn Lance, played by Creator/LoriLoughlin, showed up in one episode, going by the name Black Canary and possessing the Canary Cry.
* Creator/TheCW-produced ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' series ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' features the character, given her long association with the character of Oliver Queen. The identity goes through more than two hands, each taking [[CompositeCharacter different]] [[DecompositeCharacter aspects]] of the comics' Canaries.
** Dinah Laurel Lance (played by Creator/KatieCassidy) is a lawyer, and [[MiddleNameBasis mostly goes by the name Laurel]]. Her mother is a civilian named Dinah Drake Lance (Creator/AlexKingston) and her father is a police detective named Quentin Larry Lance (Creator/PaulBlackthorne). In this series Oliver and Laurel are childhood sweethearts, but Oliver cheated on her with...
** ...her younger sister Sara Lance (played by Creator/CaityLotz),[[note]]played by Jacqueline [=MacInness=] Wood in the pilot before [[TheOtherDarrin becoming a regular in season two]][[/note]] in the shipwreck that factors into his origin. Sara was presumed killed like Oliver, but was instead found and recruited into the League of Assassins, going by the name of "[[DecompositeCharacter The Canary]]" and using sonic-based weaponry. By season three, Laurel is inspired by Sara to [[TookALevelInBadass start training to become a vigilante crimefighter]] herself and adopted the name [[LegacyCharacter Black Canary]], using a modified version of her sister's sonic technology on a choker to develop the "Canary Cry" as seen in the comics. After dying (again) and returning, Sara would take on the identity of White Canary, and did not reclaim her sonic technology, becoming a BadassNormal like the earliest depictions of comic Black Canary. As for Laurel, after dying and ''not'' returning...
** ...her villainous AlternateSelf from Earth-2, who instead goes by Black Siren, is immediately introduced in the SpinOff series ''Series/TheFlash2014'' before being {{transplant}}ed to ''Arrow''. Black Siren possesses the Canary Cry due to the [[MassSuperEmpoweringEvent particle accelerator explosion]] in her world, and is a trained and experienced fighter from her introduction. She would later [[HeelFaceTurn make a better version of herself]], eventually becoming the Black Canary of her home universe.
** Dinah Drake (played by Creator/JulianaHarkavy; [[ContrivedCoincidence no relation to Dinah Drake Lance]]) was the "successor" to the original Laurel, as per her DyingWish that the legacy of the Black Canary not end with her. This Dinah shares Black Siren's backstory, being a police officer from Central City with sonic powers derived from the particle accelerator explosion.
** Finally, another AlternateSelf of the original Laurel was introduced in ''The Flash'' season 4, this time from the Nazi-dominated Earth-X following the events of the ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'' crossover.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' [-voiced by-] Creator/MorenaBaccarin
-->Her first speaking role came in the Season Two premiere “The Cat and the Canary”. Black Canary's character here 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 Creator/GailSimone.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' [-voiced by-] Creator/GreyDeLisle
-->Black Canary 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. She later appeared in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndBatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', a direct-to-video crossover with the ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' franchise.
* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' [-voiced by-] Creator/VanessaMarshall
-->The character acts as one of three main mentors and chief combat trainer for the Team. Her prominence is unsurprising given the involvement of Creator/GregWeisman, who has readily admitted that Dinah is his favorite comic book character.
* ''[[WesternAnimation/DCNation DC Nation: Green Arrow]]'' [-voiced by-] Creator/KariWahlgren
[[/folder]]

----
!!Black Canary provides examples of the following tropes:

* AbortedArc: Creator/DwayneMcDuffie initially had plans of Dinah going through confidence issues during his ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' run, [[CharacterDevelopment only for her to develop into a determined leader]]. Unfortunately, [=McDuffie=] was pulled from the title and the next writer decided to [[CanonDiscontinuity ignore most of McDuffie's storylines]] leaving Dinah OOC.
* ActionDressRip:
** She did this in the first ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' comic, a one-shot.
** She did again with her wedding dress when the wedding ceremony with ComicBook/GreenArrow is interrupted by ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} and his gang.
* ActionGirl: When written properly, Dinah is one of the best in Franchise/TheDCU.
* ActionMom: The Dinah Drake version, though the Dinah Laurel Lance version has an adopted daughter.
* AdaptationalModesty: Adaptations vary between given her a leotard or fishnets, but rarely both at the same time due to the needs of being able to perform action scenes. ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' simply replaces it with a SpyCatsuit, "The Canary" uses a corset with a jacket to still bare some cleavage while "Black Canary" includes a turtleneck. In animation, Canary generally wears gray tights or stockings instead of fishnets, due to the difficulty of animating fishnets.
* AdaptationDyeJob: Many versions drop the dyeing or the "wearing a wig" aspect altogether and just make the character a natural blonde.
* AdaptationNameChange: In cases where both the Dinah Drake Lance and the Dinah Laurel Lance versions will appear together in a work, one will inevitably have to compromise their canonical name;
** In the short-lived ''Series/BirdsOfPrey2002'', Dinah Drake Lance became Carolyn Lance. Her daughter Dinah also went by with her adoptive family surname of "Redmond" instead of Lance.
** Averted but still pretty much played with in ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. They both retained their original names, but the younger goes by her middle name (Laurel) to avoid the OneSteveLimit with her mother. We've got:
*** Dinah Drake Lance (Creator/AlexKingston) as the mom, with no super-heroing as far as we know.
*** Sara Lance (Creator/CaityLotz), the first Canary, and after her death and return, the White Canary.
*** Dinah Laurel Lance (Creator/KatieCassidy), called Laurel, as Sara's successor, and the first to actually call herself ''Black'' Canary.
*** Dinah Laurel Lance, Laurel's [[HeelFaceTurn initially]] EvilTwin from a ParallelUniverse, as Black Siren. She implies that she goes by Dinah on her home world, but came to answer as Laurel due to her DeadPersonImpersonation of her late Earth-1 counterpart. She eventually becomes Black Canary herself, mainly operating on her home universe.
*** Dinah Drake (Creator/JulianaHarkavy), called Dinah, with no connection to the Lances, as the second Black Canary (and thus third Canary.)
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: In ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', even with the DecompositeCharacter aspect in play, ''none'' of the Black Canaries really reflect the comic version much in personality.
** Sara is probably the closest, especially when she joined [[Series/LegendsOfTomorrow the Legends]] and cooled a little, mostly due to matching comic Dinah's warmer disposition, fighting ability, and CoolBigSis personality. She didn't have her comic self's powers though, had a much angstier backstory, and though she was bisexual as well, she seemed to be more fond of girls whereas comic Dinah is definitely more fond of guys.
** Laurel (Earth 1), despite being the only one to keep her full name, is actually probably the ''least'' like her. She struggles with [[CantCatchUp catching up to the much more skilled Team Arrow members]], is more of a DramaQueen who has struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse, and was a DaddysGirl. The few traits from the comic version she did keep, she took from the characters more [[CanonDiscontinuity negative depictions]].
* AdaptationalVillainy: Pretty much ''every'' live action adaptation (save the ''Series/BirdsOfPrey2002'' series) has made Dinah a much more morally grey character, despite being easily the most straight-forward heroic member of the Birds of Prey and Hard Travelling Heroes.
** ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' initially introduces her as a conservative mercenary who believed left-wing media has unfairly painted the rich in a negative light, causing her to work for Lex Luthor. She goes through a HeelFaceTurn in her first episode, though, but still remains one of the more willing to use lethal force among the Justice League.
** ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' goes through several Canaries; the first is a former member of the League of Assassins who hates herself and is depicted as being MoreDeadlyThanTheMale next to Oliver, and treats herself with a MadonnaWhoreComplex. The second has issues with self-destructive behaviour and mistreats several of the people she cares about in ways Dinah in the comics never did. The third spends significant time as a HeroAntagonist and is presented as having issues with holding grudges. The fourth is a straight up monster when first introduced, casually killing for fun and revelling in the destruction she causes, but goes through a HeelFaceTurn.
** ''Film/BirdsOfPrey'' starts Dinah off as a ReluctantHero who looks at her mother's heroism as a mistake, has an antagonistic relationship with law enforcement, and willingly works for Roman Sionis, being complicit in several of his crimes. She betrays Sionis when she hits a DespairEventHorizon but still willingly acted as his henchmen. She also hesitated to interfere when seeing Harley was about to be raped, and later sits back in fear as Roman sexually humiliates a woman, two things that Dinah would ''never'' do in the comics.
* AdaptationalWimp: As with the above, in ''Arrow'', only Sara and Earth-2 Laurel come ''close'' to matching Dinah Lance's capabilities in the comics. Sara probably the most, though she lacks her comic self's powers, and her WorldsGreatestWarrior status is downplayed due to the fact Oliver Queen received severe AdaptationalBadass treatment.
* AgeLift: Due to CompressedAdaptation almost always being in play, when Dinah's been adapted she's generally been raised to Oliver's age or otherwise depicted as being in her mid-late 20s at youngest, even when the overall setting is much "younger", and characters who she was typically younger than end up the same age as her, if not younger.
* AffirmativeActionGirl: Back in the day, Dinah Drake joined the Justice Society to add a woman to the team, and later she (or her daughter, as was retconned later) jumped to Earth 1 and joined the Justice League. In Post Crisis, Dinah Lance became this via retcon, originally taking Wonder Woman's place as the female founding member, but later retconned to have instead been an eighth member (either founding, or the very first new recruit to join).
* AlliterativeName: Dinah Drake and her LoveInterest Larry Lance.
* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: A type II "Animal Alias" variation.
* BadassBiker: Both mother and daughter.
* BadassFamily: The second is the daughter of the first. The second is also considered to be a part of the [[ComicBook/GreenArrow Arrow family.]]
* BadassNormal
** Dinah Drake, who earned JSA Membership with no special powers whatsoever.
** Dinah Lance, when she didn't have powers, also qualified.
* BallsOfSteel: In the Black Canary / Green Arrow wedding issue, Canary manages to land a kick on Deathstroke, but this trope is used as he angrily says that he's wearing over 50 pounds of body armor, so of course he's wearing a cup.
* 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.
* BattleCouple
** Green Arrow and Black Canary.
** Dinah Drake and Larry Lance could also count. Not officially a couple in their earliest stories, they nevertheless end up often fighting the bad guys together and do end up married later on.
* BigBraToFill: The character is [[ShesGotLegs also]] renowned for her BoobsOfSteel, but of the seven {{Live Action Adaptation}}s of the character, only three actresses[[note]]Danulta Wesley, Creator/AlexKingston, and Creator/CaityLotz[[/note]] have somehow matched the character's endowment, and one of those three[[note]]Kingston[[/note]] is an AdaptationalWimp.
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: One possible use for The Canary Cry.
* BlondeRepublicanSexKitten: Black Canary on ''Series/{{Smallville}}''. Ironically she's almost exclusively written on the left in the comics.
* BloodKnight: Dinah definitely loves a good brawl and is all to willing to use violence when it suits her needs or even if she annoyed enough. She'll invoke her affection for combat when she starts [[ArrogantKungFuGuy boasting about how well she can cripple someone.]]
* BoundAndGagged: One of the few ways to effectively deal with Black Canary. She can easily cripple a man with one limb or her mouth free.
* BoyishShortHair: In some versions. It's usually either a fohawk or a PowerHair.
* BrainsAndBrawn: She's the Brawn when paired with ComicBook/{{Oracle}}.
* BroughtDownToBadass: Many stories have Dinah Laurel Lance lose her screaming powers for different reasons, which is far from a terrible thing since she's perfectly capable of whooping asses without it.
* 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.
* CanonDiscontinuity: Andrew Kreisberg's RetCon of Dinah Lance's origin and Dinah Drake's feelings about her life as a superheroine had been steadily ignored by every writer to touch the character since. Indeed, his {{Retcon}} is officially RetGone as of ''Birds of Prey, Vol. 2, Issue 4'', which says in no uncertain terms Dinah Lance knew about her mother's life as a superheroine and that Dinah Drake was proud of it. Indeed, [[http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/2434/bop1.jpg the original Starman and Green Lantern took the younger Dinah flying as a toddler]] in a flashback.
* CaptainErsatz: Dinah has inspired quite a few of these.
** Black Siren in the "Legends" episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''.
** Lady Lark from ''ComicBook/SquadronSupreme''.
** Marvel's ComicBook/{{Mockingbird}} is often assumed to be one, but in actuality its a bit more complicated[[note]]to make a long story short, Mockingbird was originally a minor SHIELD agent character who was merged with an unused Spider-Woman villain concept. Beyond the superficial elements of being a blonde heroine named after a bird and dating a male archer and a similar personality, the two have little in common[[/note]].
** As detailed below, Silk Spectre owes some to her, too.
* {{Chickification}}: Occurred under the pens of Creator/JuddWinick and Andrew Kreisberg.
* CivvieSpandex: In her post-Flashpoint solo ongoing, she began wearing just her regular clothing and stage outfits to fight, rather than a costume. It still retains her classic look though, thanks to the fact her 'regular clothing' is exclusively made up of leather jackets, leather short-shorts and/or pants, fishnets, and boots. It works surprisingly well as a means to justify the Stripperific nature of her attire.
* ClarkKenting: You wouldn't think a blonde wig would really be that effective of a disguise. Later on she ditches the wig and just dyes her hair blonde, and all-but abandons any notion of a secret identity.
* ColorAnimalCodename: A black canary, whose canary theme comes from her signature [[MakeMeWannaShout Canary Cry]].
* ColorCharacter: '''Black''' Canary.
* CombatStilettos: 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.
* CoolBigSis: Towards Roy Harper, Conner Hawke, and Mia Dearden, as well as Emiko Queen in ''ComicBook/GreenArrowRebirth'', not to mention Sin. Thanks to the significant age gap between her and Oliver, she was actually closer in age to his ward and son, so while technically she's their adopted stepmom, they generally saw her as more like a sister. She was also this to Stephanie Brown briefly, though her relationship with the Batkids hasn't been as explored.
* DeadpanSnarker: Dinah Lance is especially quick to snark; its been something she's done since the beginning, but it became especially prominent by the ''Birds of Prey'' era. Of course, she'd need to be snarky to match Green Arrow.
* DependingOnTheArtist: Flats vs. heels, cleavage vs. no cleavage, jacket vs. no jacket vs. bolero jacket vs. longcoat.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Black Canary's level of competence. Primarily, she's written as being one of the best fighters on the planet, though there's plenty of writers who depict her as "relying too much on her Canary Cry" and depict her skills lacking next to other veterans.
** Her relationship with Green Arrow. Either they are one of the most loving, passionate couples in DC who have had a few bumps but worked through it, or they are a toxic and mutually abusive mess who treat each other horribly. It happens frequently enough shippers have to ignore significant portions of their history together.
* DisappearedDad: Larry Lance [[DependingOnTheWriter is usually]] dead by the time his daughter becomes the Black Caanary.
* DominoMask
** Dinah Drake's original costume had one, but it was abandoned early on.
** The ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' version uses make-up around her eyes that is basically a painted DominoMask.
** Post-Crisis, pre-ComicBook/New52 comics will use the domino mask as a quick way to distinguish between Dinah Drake and Dinah Laurel Lance. In the ''Birds of Prey'' issue where Dinah Laurel closes one of Dinah Drake's unsolved cases, she wears her mother's costume to bring the crook in, and it includes the mask. (As well as a regular leotard and stiletto-heeled boots, as opposed to her usual leather and flat-soled boots.)
** The ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' version of the LegacyCharacter has them.
* DyeHard:[[invoked]] Since the start of ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'', Dinah has dyed her hair blonde rather than use a wig. Adaptations and the ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'' have made her a natural blonde, though the latter was seemingly later retconned where one panel has her bleaching her hair to re-dye her roots.
* EveryonesBabySister: Among the Justice Society of America, as most of them have known her since she was born, so they see her as their niece. In ''JLA: Year One'', her status as the only girl on the team and her youth (she was 19 at the time, while the others appeared to be in their 30s by comparison) lead to this, something she was ''vocally'' annoyed with as she frequently told them off for treating her like a damsel they had to protect. In ''Birds of Prey'', though the UndyingLoyalty goes both ways, Dinah being in danger seems to strike the biggest reaction from the others.
* {{Expy}}: Silk Spectre from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' was one for Black Canary. While primarily based on the old Creator/CharltonComics heroine ComicBook/PhantomLady, 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).
* FantasyForbiddingFather: Dinah Drake was retconned into one of these in Post Crisis, though it's very DependingOnTheWriter. Sometimes, Dinah Drake encouraged her daughter's heroics, to the point of being a mild StageMom, while others depict her as having been greatly troubled by the DarkerAndEdgier nature of crime by the time her daughter came of age that she explicitly fought against Dinah following her example.
* FauxActionGirl: Black Canary at her lowest points. The Judd Winick run in particular being notable for it.
* FightsLikeANormal:
** She very rarely actually uses her sonic ability. Occasionally the writers like to justify this with things like "it makes her throat hurt" or the fact that it has a high chance of affecting innocent bystanders due to being, well, a ''scream'' that breaks windows. Some writers, such as Mike Grell, even outright just pretend it doesn't exist and write her as the BadassNormal she debuted as.
** Creator/GailSimone's [[http://gailsimone.tumblr.com/post/155635488880 take on the subject]] is that Dinah's ''passion'' is being a martial artist, whereas the Cry is more of a happy accident. She's not going to use it unless she has to, both out of sportsmanship and the real risk of outright killing her opponent.
** In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' this is justified by her mentioning that it would be lethal to most opponents (especially at close range) and that would of course go against the League's ThouShaltNotKill rule.
** In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', she is the combat trainer for the teenage heroes. Lines like "Did Canary teach you that?" or "Thank you, Black Canary!" will occasionally pop up after a character has pulled off a particularly impressive bit of hand-to-hand combat.
* FingerlessGloves: Mostly the Dinah Laurel Lance version. Whether it's a motorcycle glove or a gauntlet varies, DependingOnTheArtist. Also carries over into ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', with her netted fingerless gloves.
* FriendlyEnemies: Black Canary is sometimes depicted as getting along fairly well with some of the less-evil villains. Lady Shiva and herself seem to have something almost approaching a legitimate friendship, despite Shiva being a remorseless assassin, and its only hampered by Canary's refusal to accept her offer to turn her into the world's greatest killer.
* GoodBadGirl: She's a very sexually-forward woman and doesn't really feel shame in how she dresses. She's also one of the most moral and friendliest heroines there is, is a CoolBigSis to many younger heroes (and something of a little sister to the older ones), and acts as TheHeart of the Birds of Prey.
* GroinAttack: One of Black Canary's favorite moves. Cheap, but effective.
* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: Inverted with her and Green Arrow.
* HartmanHips: One of the most frequent examples in comics, which is generally complimented by her usual outfit choices. Especially notable in Ed Benes artwork, though ''Green Arrow: Rebirth'' often used Dinah's larger hips and backside to contrast with the tiny and flat Emiko.
* TheHeart: Of the Birds of Prey; while Oracle is the leader and head of the team, it's Dinah who the others rally behind.
* HellBentForLeather: The Dinah Laurel Lance version(s) mostly.
* HopelessWithTech: Very few things intimidate her. Computers are one of them. Considering the company she keeps, this is often played for laughs.
* HotBlooded: DependingOnTheWriter, Dinah is prone to reacting quicker than she thinks. It caused her to butt heads with Oracle more than a few times when they first started working together, and she's generally not afraid to jump into the thick of it.
* 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.
* 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.
* InstrumentOfMurder: In #6 of the 2015 series, Bonfire - the guitarist in Bo M - attempts to barbecue Dinah with a flamethrower hidden in her guitar during a battle of the bands.
* ItsAllJunk: 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 Creator/GailSimone run on ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey''.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: In ''JLA: Year One'', a 19-year-old Dinah finds herself crushing quite hard on the older Barry Allen, The Flash, and the two ended up growing quite close in the early days. However, upon discovering Barry was engaged and realising the similar circumstances to how/why her mother had cheated on her father, she encourages him to stop neglecting Iris in favour of his superhero life and/or their own growing attraction, and the two settle on being JustFriends. Fortunately, she then immediately bumps into Green Arrow, and the rest is history.
* JerkassBall: {{Deconstruction}}. During the Cry for Justice & Rise and Fall storyline, Black Canary (Dinah Lance) abandons her husband Green Arrow I (Oliver Queen) and her adopted son Speedy I/Arsenal/Red Arrow I (Roy Harper). When Oliver is in prison for the murder of Prometheus, she returns her wedding ring and declares their marriage over. When Roy goes back to using heroin after the pain in his right arm becomes too unbearable because of the infection and the horrible prosthetic Cyborg made, she officially considers him a lost cause. It is implied that Dinah was traumatized because of the events of the story and was lashing out at them. In ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'', it is revealed Dinah harbors a hug amount of guilt for her actions and regrets abandoning them when they needed her the most.
* KickChick: Canary's fighting style uses a lot of kicks and sweeps, which highlight her shapely [[StockingFiller fishnet clad legs]]. This was even more obvious during the period when she did not have her Canary Cry.
* KidSidekick: Roy and Mia have acted as this to her as much as they did to Oliver. Later Dinah took in Sin, though she wasn't really a sidekick so much as a girl Dinah planned to raise as her daughter.
* 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.
* LegacyHero
** [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] heroine Dinah Drake begets [[UsefulNotes/TheModernAgeOfComicBooks Modern Age]] heroine Dinah Laurel Lance.
** Additionally, an [[AffirmativeActionLegacy African-American Black Canary]] appears as part of an alternate-future Justice League in Creator/JuddWinick's ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueGenerationLost'' series.
** Interestingly, there's an African-American Black Canary in ''Supergirl & Batgirl: Elseworlds' Finest''.
** In ''Series/{{Arrow}},'' the role is handed down first from sister to sister instead of mother to daughter, and then to a non-relative who has the right stuff (and coincidentally, the right name.)
* LeotardOfPower: Her main costume.
* LikeASonToMe: To the point she tried to adopt Sin. She's also expressed this towards Oliver's kids and wards, who in-turn tend to look at her as a CoolBigSis or [[ParentalSubstitute mother figure]], though she's closer in age to most of them.
** Dinah herself is this to [[ComicBook/{{Wildcat}} Ted Grant]], who's repeatedly expressed how he often saw her as practically being his daughter, especially as he trained her in combat and was the first to encourage and support her heroics. For her part, Dinah considers him practically her father.
* LikesOlderMen: Dinah Lance was 19 when she met Green Arrow, who himself was in or near his 40s. He's been deaged since, but is still old enough to have a son who's only a few years younger than Dinah. When he was dead, she also briefly romanced Ra's Al Ghul (who is several ''centuries'' her senior), who though she didn't know it was him at the time, she still thought he was a man who had a daughter her age.
* LogicalWeakness: If her throat gets injured, she won't be able to use her Canary Cry. Being well-aware of this weakness, she chooses to compensate with physical training, martial arts, and using ConcussionFrags that emit powerful sonic bursts to ensure she couldn't be taken out of the fight that easily. It's also shown that her Canary Cry is vulnerable to a BeamOWar if matched against another's sonic attack.
* MakeMeWannaShout: The Canary Cry, one of the TropeCodifier examples of such an ability.
* MakeSomeNoise: During the time when she lost her Canary Cry, Dinah used bombs that could emit powerful sonic frequencies. Her depiction in ''VideoGame/Injustice2'' has her using these weapons in conjunction with her signature Canary Cry.
* MaleGaze: Frequently. As strongly written as she was in ''Birds of Prey'', she also spent the entirety of the run pretty much constantly with a wedgie so that her ass popped out of her leotard better.
* MamaBear: Dinah has a soft spot for children in general and will give extra helpings of pain to anyone responsible for endangering or harming them. But that's nothing compared to what she did and was ready to do for the League of Assassins members responsible for kidnapping her adopted daughter Sin.
* 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.
* MomentOfWeakness: [[ImpliedTrope Implied]]. During the ''Cry for Justice'' & ''Rise and Fall'' storylines, Dinah abandons her husband Oliver and her adopted son Speedy I/Arsenal/Red Arrow I (Roy Harper). She left the both of them because Oliver murders Prometheus for destroying Star City and causing the death of his adopted granddaughter Lian, while Roy goes back to using heroin after the pain in his right arm becomes too unbearable because of the infection and the horrible prosthetic Cyborg made, with Dinah officially considering him a lost cause. However, it is hinted that Dinah was traumatized because of the events of the story and was lashing out at them. It is also hinted that Dinah was subconsciously looking for an excuse to abandon them and leave the painful tragedy behind her. In ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'', it is revealed Dinah harbors a huge amount of guilt for her actions and regrets abandoning them when they needed her the most.
* Main/MostCommonSuperPower: Dinah is one of the bustiest females in comics.
* MrsRobinson:
** Dinah Drake; when originally dating Green Arrow in the Silver Age, she was the older of the two. She was a cougar before they had a word for it!
** Dinah Lance, in the Bronze Age onward, is typically depicted as being only in her twenties, so she's usually [[LikesOlderMen the opposite.]] She ''did'' express interest in Nightwing (who isn't ''that'' much younger than her, roughly no more than five years), and [[spoiler:probably slept with The Ray]] who was roughly the same age as Nightwing, but besides that isn't shown dating anyone notably younger than her.
* MsFanservice: The Fishnets. Dear gods, The Fishnets. As noted in DependingOnTheArtist, some artists have her outfit showing plenty of cleavage. Occasionally the bottom of her uniform will be drawn as either being a thong at the back, or at the least be shown to be riding up quite a bit to emphasis her behind.
** In the last issue of the first volume of her solo series, she ditches her jacket, boots and fishnets, remaining in just her bodysuit for the reminder of the issue.
* NotWearingTights: Frequently. The Mike Grell run of ''Green Arrow'' is probably the first occasion, though her costume has often turned into just streetwear. In the 2010s, this became pretty much official as her default look became just a shirt and short-shorts over her usual fishnets.
* OfficialCouple: Green Arrow and Black Canary.
* OldMaster: Trained under several in the comics, most notably Wildcat, though she's also studied in East-Asia and was briefly trained by Lady Shiva.
* ParentalAbandonment: Dinah Laurel Lance [[DependingOnTheWriter usually]] dons the costume at the time both of her parents are dead.
* PerkyGoth: Downplayed and not really drawn on, but Dinah's fashion sense (all black plus fishnets and combat boots) ''is'' very goth-adjacent. This became more apparent during her [=DCYou=] series when she was a rock performer, and her stage outfits became more fashionable and experimental, and generally looked like something Creator/TaylorMomsen would wear. None of this detracts from the fact Dinah is typically one of the warmest and friendliest superheroes in DC.
* 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.
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: To prevent going deaf from her own Canary Cry, she has a special membrane in her eardrums that act as a pair of earmuffs.
* {{Retcon}}: Used to create the two separate Black Canaries. Also used to great effect in ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'', 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.
* [[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.)
* 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.
* SheCleansUpNicely: In ''JLA: Year One'', this is presented as how Dinah used to maintain a SecretIdentity; "Black Canary" was seen as something of a superhero sex symbol by the general public because of the blonde hair, fishnets, and leather leotard, but "Dinah Lance" had short black hair and dressed in a more homely and tomboyish fashion. Dinah laments being dateless because she's straight-up invisible to guys who are openly lusting after Black Canary from seeing her on the news. Eventually she realises that "Black Canary" is who she really is inside, and she should embrace it, casting her later abandoning of her secret identity as something of a coming of age sort of thing.
* ShesGotLegs: Damn straight. Highlighted by her [[StockingFiller trademark fishnets]].
* SlutShaming: Her reaction to Oliver being raped by Shado has been written like this, though it was more a case of the writers at the time trying to retcon the instance as being Oliver consensually cheating on her. Shortly after the rape, Oliver ''did'' cheat on Dinah with their friend, Marianne, which is what wrecked their relationship[[note]]though she was hurt, it wasn't because she saw what happened with Shado as cheating; Ollie wanted a child and the rape sired one, while Dinah was left unable to have kids after being tortured, so the incident with Shado essentially served to be a cruel reminder to Dinah of this fact[[/note]], and it seems since then, writers have conflated the two incidents into one.
* StockingFiller: Black Canary wears fishnets.
* StrawFeminist: Depending on the writer, Dinah can come off as one. This was her entire gimmick during her time in ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueInternational''. When written properly, she tends to be more realistic in her views and how she acts on them. During Kevin Smith's run, her feminism is contrasted with Oliver's social liberal views to paint them as BirdsOfAFeather.
* StuffedIntoTheFridge: In ''The Longbow Hunters'', Black Canary is captured, tortured and depowered solely for the purpose of giving Green Arrow a story-arc where he angsts over killing the men who were torturing her. Interestingly, though it was to serve Green Arrow's angst, Dinah's recovery from the ordeal is given just as much focus, and one detail often forgotten is that some time after, Ollie ''himself'' ended up being kidnapped and tortured, in the same warehouse, and Dinah had to save him.
* SuddenNameChange: The original ''Black Canary'', Dinah Drake-Lance, was later referred to as ''Diana Drake'' by some writers (Chuck Dixon in particular), presumably to differentiate her from her daughter.
* TapOnTheHead: EVERY SINGLE ISSUE of her Golden Age series. At some point in the story, Black Canary will be hit on the head and knocked unconscious.
* TokenSuper: She served as this for the ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey, being the only long term metahuman member of the team. Other members with superhuman powers have since come and gone on short stints (such as Power Girl, Little Barda, Hawk and Dove and Misfit), but Canary is pretty much the most steady member with this advantage.
* 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.
* ThongOfShielding: At some point, Dinah's leotard became so skimpy she was almost always fighting crime with her backside out. A team-up with Wonder Woman, Dinah explains that her costume just always rides up, and she's often too embarrassed to fix it in front of other heroes.
* ThouShaltNotKill: As with all good heroes, Dinah is an idealist who believes strongly in not killing her enemies. Interestingly, she doesn't force this ideal onto others, and happily tolerates working with Huntress and Shiva (though in the latter case, she doesn't stand much choice). For her sake, the two even tend to hold back the lethal force when its not required, too.
* VerySpecialEpisode: Many of the "Hard Traveling Heroes" storylines from UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks.
* VillainRespect: Ra's Al Ghul, Bane, Deathstroke, and Lady Shiva have all expressed great respect for her abilities.
* WeddingSmashers: Naturally, villains attacked the Black Canary-Green Arrow wedding festivities.
* WeWouldHaveToldYouBut: Ollie fakes the death of Sin, Black Canary's adoptive daughter, and has her shipped off to a monastery, without telling Dinah so that her reactions will look natural. Never mind that Dinah's been established to be a better actor than he is. It also didn't help that Dinah -- granting that she was under a good deal of stress -- was portrayed as being irrational to the point of attacking her comrades when they suggested she needed to hold still for a moment and help them come up with a plan of attack. Ollie's plan wasn't a great one but he never got a chance to run it by Dinah before hand.
* 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.
* WorldsBestWarrior: While certainly a step below ComicBook/LadyShiva, [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Cassandra Cain]], and ComicBook/RichardDragon (though she could certainly survive a direct confrontation with any of the three without resorting to her abilities if she absolutely had to), she is, along with Batman, Bronze Tiger, Conner Hawke, and possibly Catman, up there as one of the absolute best non-augmented combatants in the mainline DCU. While she does have a gigantic innate advantage by way of her abilities, [[FightsLikeANormal she refuses to use them in straight fights]]. Lady Shiva also sees Canary as one of the best contenders for surpassing her, and tried to groom her into following in her footsteps.

----

Sadly, this did not last and ''Comicbook/BirdsOfPrey'' was rebooted as part of DC Comics' ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'' line in September 2011, with the team now focusing on Dinah leading a team of anti-heroines while trying to prove herself innocent of a murder charge. The Dinah of the New 52 is Dinah Drake Lance, the original Golden Age character, erasing Dinah Laurel Lance and one of [=DC=]'s few mother-daughter legacies.

* AdaptationalWimp: As with the above, in ''Arrow'', only Sara and Earth-2 Laurel come ''close'' to matching Dinah Lance's capabilities in the comics. Sara probably the most, though she lacks her comic self's powers.
* AgeLift: Due to CompressedAdaptation almost always being in play, when Dinah's been adapted she's generally been raised to Oliver's age or otherwise depicted as being in her mid-late 20s and youngest, even when the overall setting is much 'younger' and characters who she was typically younger than end up the same age, if not younger than her.

* 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.
* CanonDiscontinuity: Andrew Kreisberg's above-mentioned RetCon of Dinah Lance's origin and Dinah Drake's feelings about her life as a superheroine had been steadily ignored by every writer to touch the character since. Indeed, his {{Retcon}} is officially RetGone as of ''Birds of Prey, Vol. 2, Issue 4'', which says in no uncertain terms Dinah Lance knew about her mother's life as a superheroine and that Dinah Drake was proud of it. Indeed, [[http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/2434/bop1.jpg the original Starman and Green Lantern took the younger Dinah flying as a toddler]] in a flashback.

* LogicalWeakness: If her throat gets injured, she won't be able to use her Canary Cry. Being well-aware of this weakness, she chooses to compensate with physical training, martial arts, and using ConcussionFrags that emit powerful sonic bursts to ensure she couldn't be taken out of the fight that easily.

* BlondeRepublicanSexKitten: Black Canary on ''Series/{{Smallville}}''.

* DependingOnTheWriter: Black Canary's level of competence.

''Black Canary'' was created by writer Creator/RobertKanigher and artist Carmine Infantino. She first appeared as a supporting character in ''Flash Comics #86'' (August 1947) where she was seemingly a villain plotting against Johnny Thunder. However, it was quickly revealed that [[ReverseMole she was actually a hero working undercover]] to expose criminals. Black Canary became something of a sidekick to Johnny Thunder for several stories, using her superior fighting skills to save the [[ComedicHero well-meaning but bumbling hero]] from danger.

* ''Series/BirdsOfPrey'' has Dinah Redmond (née Lance), a teenage runaway from foster care who joins with Helena Wayne and Barbara Gordon in the titular team. Played by Creator/RachelSkarsten, she was reimagined as a [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual metahuman]] with TouchTelepathy and mild telekinesis, growing in strength during the series' brief run. Her mother Carolyn Lance, played by Creator/LoriLoughlin, showed up in one episode, going by the name Black Canary and possessing the Canary Cry.

** In the short-lived ''Series/BirdsOfPrey'' TV Series, Dinah Drake Lance became Carolyn Lance. Her daughter Dinah also went by with her adoptive family surname of "Redmond" instead of Lance.

[[folder:Live-Action Television]]

* ''Series/BirdsOfPrey'' has Dinah Lance, a teenage runaway from foster care who joins with Helena Wayne and Barbara Gordon in the titular team. Played by Creator/RachelSkarsten, she was reimagined as a [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual metahuman]] with TouchTelepathy and mild telekinesis, growing in strength during the series. Her mother Carolyn Lance, played by Creator/LoriLoughlin, showed up in an episode, revealing she by the name Black Canary and was a metahuman with the Canary Cry.
* Creator/TheCW produced ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' series ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' features the character, given her long association with the character of Oliver Queen. The identity goes through more than two hands, each taking [[CompositeCharacter different]] [[DecompositeCharacter aspects]] of the comics' Canaries. Played by Creator/KatieCassidy, Dinah Laurel Lance is a lawyer, and [[MiddleNameBasis mostly goes by the name Laurel]]. Her mother is a civilian named Dinah Drake Lance, played by Creator/AlexKingston and her father is a police detective named Quentin Larry Lance, played by Creator/PaulBlackthorne. In this series Oliver and Laurel are childhood sweethearts, but Oliver cheated on her with her sister Sara Lance played by Creator/CaityLotz,[[note]]played by Jacqueline [=MacInness=] Wood in the pilot before [[TheOtherDarrin becoming a regular in season two]][[/note]] in the shipwreck that factors into his origin. Sara was presumed killed like Oliver, but was instead found and recruited into the League of Assassins, going by the name of "[[DecompositeCharacter The Canary]]" and using sonic-based weaponry. Despite being the original Canary with Laurel as successor, Sara is actually the ''younger'' sister. By season three, Laurel is inspired by Sara to [[TookALevelInBadass start training to become a vigilante crimefighter]] herself and adopted the name [[LegacyCharacter Black Canary]], using a modified version of her sister's sonic technology on a choker to develop the "Canary Cry" as seen in the comics. After dying (again) and returning, Sara would take on the identity of White Canary, and did not reclaim her sonic technology, becoming a BadassNormal like the earliest depictions of comic Black Canary. As for Laurel, after dying and ''not'' returning, her villainous AlternateSelf from Earth-2, who instead goes by Black Siren, is immediately introduced in the SpinOff series ''Series/TheFlash2014'' before being {{transplant}}ed to ''Arrow''. Black Siren possesses the Canary Cry due to the particle accelerator explosion in her world, and is a trained and experienced fighter from her introduction. She would later [[HeelFaceTurn make a better version of herself]], eventually becoming the Black Canary of her home universe. A "successor" to the original Laurel was chosen (as per her DyingWish that the legacy of the Black Canary not end with her) - Dinah Drake (no Lance; her name is a [[ContrivedCoincidence coincidence]]), a police officer from Central City with sonic powers similar to Black Siren derived from the [[MassSuperEmpoweringEvent particle accelerator explosion]] that created the Flash and most of his RoguesGallery, played by Creator/JulianaHarkavy. Another AlternateSelf of the original Laurel was introduced in ''The Flash'', this time from the Nazi-dominated Earth-X.

* BroughtDownToBadass: Many stories have Dinah Laurel Lance lose her screaming powers for different reasons, which is far from a terrible thing since her combat prowess is her ''true'' weapon per WordOfGod.

* EthicalSlut: When Dinah and Ollie are together, they have a very active sex life, and in times where they're not together she's often shown to have an active dating life. However, though their relationship has been rocky from both sides, its notable she's never been anything but faithful and honest even when he's not been. Even the time when she [[SlutShaming blamed Ollie]] for [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale his own rape]], it was such a blatant case of the writer making a CriticalResearchFailure describing the situation that they probably didn't realise it was rape.

* MakeMeWannaShout: The Canary Cry practically makes her The {{Trope Namer|s}}. As it is, her picture is next to the definition.

* OldMaster: In the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' animated TV series, she's the team's official combat trainer. Old only relative to the teenaged heroes, of course; WordOfGod puts her at 24 in that universe.
** She herself has trained under several in the comics, most notably Wildcat, though she's also studied in East-Asia and was briefly trained by Lady Shiva.

* AgeLift: Dinah Drake's age fluctulates anywhere from her early 20s to her mid 30s.