The Black Canary
Black Canary
Alter ego: Dinah Drake (later Dinah Drake Lance)
Species: Human
First appearance: Flash Comics #86
Black Canary was created by writer Robert Kanigher 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 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 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 Secret Identity was finally revealed, as was the meaning of her Code Name. 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 Justice Society of America and continued to be a part of that team even after their adventures ceased publication in 1951, at the end of The Golden Age of Comic Books.
In The Silver Age of Comic Books, Black Canary was revived in 1963 as part of some of the first Crisis Crossover stories in comics history. The Justice League of America and Justice Society of America — 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 Justice League of America and — for reasons involving her exposure to cosmic radiation — developed a sonic scream super power a.k.a. "The Canary Cry".
In the early days of The Bronze Age of Comic Books, Black Canary began dating fellow JLA member Oliver Queen a.k.a. Green Arrow. She was a regular part of his adventures with Green Lantern 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 The Bronze Age of Comic Books, 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 Justice League of America revealed that the Black Canary we'd been seeing since the end of the Silver Age wasn't Dinah Drake but was actually her daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance!
An Earth-Two Super Villain called The Wizard used his powers to curse the infant Dinah with an uncontrollable scream (yes, yes... A Wizard Did It) and Black Canary asked her old friend Johnny Thunder to use 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 Human Popsicle in his home dimension until such time as a cure could be found. Years later, during the Crisis Crossover 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 erase everyone else's memories so they wouldn't remember what happened.
This confusing and creepy chain of events would be Ret Conned again not too long after Crisis on Infinite Earths. Now, the Lance family had a relatively normal life together, with the elder Dinah still working as a florist in her Secret Identity 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, Richard Drake, thanks to the then rampant sexism and corruption of the Gotham City Police Department.
After retiring as a vigilante, her daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance, grew up to become the new Black Canary and a member of the Justice League of America. Mother and daughter, however, grew estranged over the years, until finally reconciling on her deathbed in as Dinah Drake Lance succumbed to cancer in Secret Origins #50 (August 1990).
Dinah Drake Lance has appearance in:
- Flash Comics (1947-1949)Black Canary debuts as a side character in the Johnny Thunder back-up feature, and quickly becomes very popular.
- All-Star Comics (1948-1951)Dinah joined the Justice Society of America in issue 38, becoming the second woman on the world's first Super Team.
- Justice League of America (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.
- Infinity, Inc. (1987-1988)
- Justice Society of America (1991-2011)
- Starman (1997-2001) intermittent appearances
- Birds of Prey (2004-2011) intermittent appearances
- JSA (2005-2005)
Tropes for Dinah Drake Lance / Black Canary I (Pre-Crisis)
- Action Girl: An excellent boxer and practitioner of jujitsu.
- Affirmative Action Girl: 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).
- Alliterative Name: Dinah Drake
- The Artifact: Her costume, which was meant to make her seem like a tough girl from the wrong side of the tracks and which she kept after no longer being/pretending to be a villain. We just won't talk about what happened when her daughter tried to change it in the 80's.
- Badass Normal: A non-powered master martial artist who teamed up with and fought alongside very powerful superheroes.
- Battle Couple: Dinah and Larry Lance.
- The Beastmaster: in one of her early appearances, she trained an actual black canary to follow fairly complex orders. In a different one she controlled a flock of them. This didn't stick.
- Characterization Marches On: Her very earliest appearances were in Johhny Thunder's comic, where she was a Catwoman-esque jewel thief who only stole from other criminals, and took action against actual murderers. After the first few appearances she took on a quasi-sidekick role. Pretty soon poor Johnny was kicked to the curb, and she was retconned into having pretended to be a criminal.
- Clark Kenting: A blonde wig, a makeup change, and a costume that took attention away from her face got her pretty far.
- Color Character: Black Canary
- Damsel in Distress: Inverted. In an interesting twist for the time, detective Larry Lance was always getting himself into trouble and Black Canary was the one who kept having to save him.
- Domino Mask: In her first appearances.
- Everyone Has Standards: When she was a Karmic Thief, she admitted she was pretty hardboiled, but after hearing about thugs robbing a charity, she was disgusted.
- Good Bad Girl: Started out this way and eventually became a full-on heroine.
- Happily Married: Though she apparently had an affair with Starman in the '50s.
- Improvised Weapon: A specialty of Dinah Drake in Golden Age stories, particularly with thrown objects. She displayed uncanny accuracy with improvised weapons, no matter how improbable or unbalanced — including footwear
◊, vases◊, bulky cameras◊, 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. - Karmic Thief: In her earliest appearances.
- Ms. Fanservice: She wears fishnet stockings and high-heeled boots to fight crime.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Even though she's a slip of a girl, she can easily pick a guy up above her head and throw him without using jujitsu.
- Non-Powered Costumed Hero: Dinah has no superpowers and has a costume complete with a Domino Mask.
- Sudden Name Change: 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.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: The choker around her neck (opened with pressure from her chin) always had a little gadget of some sort that could get her out of a hairy situation, no matter how improbable. (How'd you cut the ropes behind your back with a tiny blade on your neck?)
- Tap on the Head: 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.
Black Canary
Alter ego: Dinah Laurel Lance
Species: Metahuman
First appearance: Justice League of America #75
Dinah Laurel Lance, daughter of the original Black Canary and Detective Larry Lance, decided to become a vigilante at the age of nineteen. Trained by her "uncle" Wildcat, Dinah eventually took up the same superheroic identity as her mother: Black Canary. The big difference, however, was that Dinah was a metahuman, with the mutation of a third vocal cord, enabling her to unleash a sonic scream.
As The Dark Age of Comic Books opened, Dinah was still a member of the Justice League, now Justice League International. She briefly adopted a new "modern" costume which was quickly abandoned and is widely regard as being an embarrassment — both by the character and by the artist who designed the costume!
She was still dating Green Arrow, though their difference in ages was reversed, with a 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 Green Arrow book, where — in an effort to limit the usual Super Hero elements of comic books and create a more grounded, realistic story — 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 Comic-Book Limbo.
Thankfully, she would return with a vengeance before The Dark Age of Comic Books was over. In 1996, Dinah Lance abandoned her fishnets and wig in favor of shorter hair, a dye job and a Kevlar leotard as one-half of the original Birds of Prey team — the brawn to the brain of 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 Justice Society of America 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 The DCU 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 Gail Simone took over the writing duties on Birds of Prey that Black Canary really began to achieve her full potential as a character. She became the field commander of an expanding Birds of Prey team. She continued her martial arts training, becoming a warrior worthy of the respect of Lady Shiva — one of the greatest martial artists and certainly the deadliest assassin in The DCU. 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 Justice League of America 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 Birds of Prey series written by Gail Simone.
Everything changed with the New 52, however...
Dinah Laurel Lance has appeared in:
- Justice League of America (1969-1986)
- Green Lantern (1970-1985)
- The Flash (1970-2009) intermittent appearances
- World's Finest (1972-1982) intermittent appearances
- Adventure Comics (1972-2010) intermittent appearances
- Action Comics (1973-2010)
- Wonder Woman (1975-1983) intermittent appearances
- Judgment In Infinity (1982)
- Detective Comics (1976-1998) intermittent appearances
- Green Arrow (1983-1983)
- Green Lantern/Green Arrow (1983-1984)
- Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters (1987-1987)
- Wonder Woman (1987-2005) intermittent appearances
- Booster Gold (1987-2010) intermittent appearances
- Green Arrow (1988-1998)
- Black Canary (1991-1993)
- The Ray (1994-1996)
- Final Night (1996)
- JLA (1997-2006) intermittent appearances
- Robin (1998-2003) intermittent appearances
- Arsenal (1998-1999)
- JSA (1999-2005)
- Young Justice (1999-2002) intermittent appearances
- Hourman (1999-2000) intermittent appearances
- Birds of Prey (1999-2011)
- Green Arrow (2001-2007)
- Batgirl (2000) (2004-2005)
- Infinite Crisis (2006)
- Justice League of America (2006-2011)
- 52 (2006-2007)
- Black Canary (2007-2007)
- Green Arrow and Black Canary (2007-2010)
- Wonder Woman (2007-2010) intermittent appearances
- Justice Society of America (2007-2011) intermittent appearances
- Final Crisis (2008)
- Vixen: Return of the Lion (2008-2009)
- Blackest Night (2009)
Tropes for Dinah Laurel Lance / Black Canary II (Post-Crisis)
- Aborted Arc: Dwayne McDuffie initially had plans of Dinah going through confidence issues during his Justice League of America run, only for her to develop into a determined leader. Unfortunately, McDuffie was pulled from the title and the next writer decided to ignore most of McDuffie's storylines leaving Dinah OOC.
- Balls of Steel: 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.
- Battle Couple: Green Arrow and Black Canary.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: During The Witch And The Warrior Black Canary saves Oracle's makeshit team from Silver Banshee, who can kill people just by saying their name, by drowning Silver Banshee out.
- Boyish Short Hair: In some versions. It's usually either a fohawk or a Power Hair.
- Brains and Brawn
- She's the Brawn when paired with Oracle.
- While Dinah contributes to every fight "The Orphan Sisters" have on panel, it's stated most of their fights are just Dinah relaxing while she watches Diana dismantle their opponents. When they're not fighting Dinah is the one calling all the shots though, as Diana barely knows legal street life, much less blending in with the illicit actors.
- Brought Down to Badass: 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.
- But Not Too Bi: Dinah was confirmed to be bisexual by Gail Simone, and though this inspired Sara Lance's sexuality in Arrowverse, in the comics proper Dinah's never had an on-screen romance with a woman. There was some Ship Tease between her and Eve Crawford/Starling in the New 52 Birds of Prey run, but this never went further than implication. However, she does have some pretty suggestive moments with Barbara Gordon, like here◊ and here.
- Canon Discontinuity: 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 Ret-Gone 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, the original Starman and Green Lantern took the younger Dinah flying as a toddler◊ in a flashback.
- Conspicuous Gloves: Fingerless gloves, mostly the Dinah Laurel Lance version. Whether it's a motorcycle glove or a gauntlet varies, Depending on the Artist.
- Cool Big Sis: Towards Roy Harper, Conner Hawke, and Mia Dearden, as well as Emiko Queen in Green Arrow (Rebirth), 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.
- Custom Uniform of Sexy: 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.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dinah Lance is especially quick to snark; it's 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.
- Disappeared Dad: Larry Lance is usually dead by the time his daughter becomes the Black Canary.
- Dye Hard: Like her mother, Dinah Lance's natural hair colour is black and traditionally, she subverted Clark Kenting due to wearing a blonde wig, but in the 90s, she did away with the wig and began dyeing her hair blonde because it was more convenient. The New 52 originally retconned Dinah into a natural blonde however later they ended up going back to the original "she dyes her hair blonde" concept.
- Everyone's Baby Sister: 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 Undying Loyalty goes both ways, Dinah being in danger seems to strike the biggest reaction from the others.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Dinah Drake was retconned into one of these in Post Crisis, though it's very Depending on the Writer. Sometimes, Dinah Drake encouraged her daughter's heroics, to the point of being a mild Stage Mom, while others depict her as having been greatly troubled by the Darker and Edgier nature of crime by the time her daughter came of age that she explicitly fought against Dinah following her example.
- Fights Like a Normal:
- 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 Badass Normal she debuted as.
- Gail Simone's 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.
- Friendly Enemies: 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.
- Good Bad Girl: 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 Cool Big Sis to many younger heroes (and something of a little sister to the older ones), and acts as The Heart of the Birds of Prey.
- The Heart: Of the Birds of Prey; while Oracle is the leader and head of the team, it's Dinah who the others rally behind.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: The Dinah Laurel Lance version(s) mostly.
- Hopeless with Tech: Very few things intimidate her. Computers are one of them. Considering the company she keeps, this is often played for laughs.
- Hot-Blooded: Depending on the Writer, 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.
- It's All Junk: 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 Gail Simone run on Birds of Prey.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: 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 realizing the similar circumstances to how/why her mother had cheated on her father, she encourages him to stop neglecting Iris in favor of his superhero life and/or their own growing attraction, and the two settle on being Just Friends. Fortunately, she then immediately bumps into Green Arrow, and the rest is history.
- Jerkass Ball: 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 Birds of Prey, it is revealed Dinah harbors a hug amount of guilt for her actions and regrets abandoning them when they needed her the most.
- Kid Sidekick: 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.
- The Lad-ette: Naturally, being a badass biker Blood Knight who enjoys a bar fight and a Good Bad Girl. As she began dressing in Short Tank for her Civvie Spandex, this has became far more notable in her design.
- Like a Son to Me: 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 Cool Big Sis or mother figure, though she's closer in age to most of them.
- Dinah herself is this to 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.
- Likes Older Men: 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.
- Logical Weakness: 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 Concussion Frags 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 Beam-O-War if matched against another's sonic attack.
- Make Some Noise: During the time when she lost her Canary Cry, Dinah used bombs that could emit powerful sonic frequencies. Her depiction in Injustice 2 has her using these weapons in conjunction with her signature Canary Cry.
- Mama Bear: 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.
- Master Poisoner: Stinger, who was able to deliver a dose of curare exact enough to paralyze Black Canary's vocal cords without doing any additional harm to her.
- Moment of Weakness: 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 Birds of Prey, it is revealed Dinah harbors a huge amount of guilt for her actions and regrets abandoning them when they needed her the most.
- Not Wearing Tights: 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.
- Official Couple: Green Arrow and Black Canary.
- Old Master: Trained under several in the comics, most notably Wildcat, though she's also studied in East-Asia and was briefly trained by Lady Shiva.
- Parental Abandonment: Dinah Laurel Lance usually dons the costume at the time both of her parents are dead.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Not usually emphasized too much, but Dinah Lance's official height is given by official profiles as 5'4" inches, and she's 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.
- Required Secondary Powers: To prevent going deaf from her own Canary Cry, she has a special membrane in her eardrums that act as a pair of earmuffs.
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: 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.)
- Secret Identity
- Despite abandoning any attempt at a disguise years ago and having a very public wedding to another superhero (whose own Secret Identity was a Millionaire Playboy and former mayor of a major city), Dinah has apparently managed to maintain one. Dinah was outed as Black Canary, as of Birds of Prey 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.
- Wonder Woman volume 3 has Dinah diguise herself and Diana as "The Orphan Sisters" Tag Team in order to get into the fight club Doctor Psycho is hiding in and forcing a captive Sergeant Steel to work in.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: One of the ways Dinah is presented as a foil to Diana in Wonder Woman volume 3, as Dinah is shown researching how to appeal to different demographics and expresses surprise at the lack of concious effort Diana puts into her appearance, at how oblivious Diana is to her own status as a sex symbol, stating Diana should take pride in the fact Wonder Woman had only recently been overtaken by Power Girl in online search trends.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: In JLA: Year One, this is presented as how Dinah used to maintain a Secret Identity; "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 realizes 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.
- Slut-Shaming: 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 relationshipnote , and it seems since then, writers have conflated the two incidents into one.
- Super-Scream: The Canary Cry, one of the Trope Codifier examples of such an ability.
- Token Super: She served as this for the Birds of Prey, 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.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted. After she was tortured, she went through counseling to help overcome the trauma, and the fact she's undergone therapy first-hand sometimes comes up when dealing with other troubled heroes.
- Thong of Shielding: 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.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: 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.
- Trauma Conga Line: She goes through this whenever she pairs with Green Arrow due to their relationship being an infamous case of Masochism Tango 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 Damsel in Distress 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.
- Very Special Episode: Many of the "Hard Traveling Heroes" storylines from The Bronze Age of Comic Books.
- Victory Through Intimidation: Downplayed in Wonder Woman volume 3 when Dinah technically gets the victory over Roulette's Tag Team Champions by making Muck submit when she threatens to use lethal force against him, but Lira keeps fighting anyway and has to be destroyed.
- Villain Respect: Ra's Al Ghul, Bane, Deathstroke, and Lady Shiva have all expressed great respect for her abilities.
- Wedding Smashers: Naturally, villains attacked the Black Canary-Green Arrow wedding festivities.
- We Would Have Told You, But...: 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.
- World's Best Warrior: While certainly a step below Lady Shiva, Cassandra Cain, and Richard Dragon (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, 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.
Black Canary
Alter ego: Dinah Drake Lance
Species: Metahuman
First appearance: Birds of Prey #1
The Black Canary of the New 52 is a Composite Character of Dinah Drake Lance and Dinah Laurel Lance. Her name is Dinah Drake, like the original Black Canary, but she is a metahuman with a powerful sonic scream, like Dinah Laurel Lance. Her mother's name is also Dinah Lance, but her last name also might have come from her husband Kurt Lance (who, curiously, is not named after either the original Black Canary's husband nor Dinah Laurel's ex-husband).
Birds of Prey was rebooted as part of DC Comics' 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.
After the cancellation of Birds of Prey, Dinah was a guest character in 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 changed with the start of DC Rebirth in June 2016, making her more of a central character. Dinah was a main character in three different titles in 2017: Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, Justice League of America (Rebirth) and Green Arrow (Rebirth), 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.
In 2020, as DC Infinite Frontier softly rebooted the universe yet again, the questions about whether or not Dinah's history was restored remain. She is currently a member of Brian Michael Bendis's Justice League.
Dinah Drake (New 52/DC Rebirth) has appeared in:
- Birds of Prey vol 3
- Black Canary vol 4
- Batgirl and the Birds of Prey
- Green Arrow (Rebirth)
- Justice League (Infinite Frontier)
Tropes for Dinah Drake / Black Canary (New 52/DC Rebirth)
- Civvie Spandex: 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.
- Instrument of Murder: 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.
Supporting Characters
Black Canary
- Girl Group: An all-female rock band.
Ditto
The guitarist, a young girl who can also manipulate sound.
Lord Byron
The drummer. Her design was based on David Bowie's Thin White Duke, Grace Jones, and Prince.
Paloma Terrific
The keyboardist. Her design was based on Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead.
Craig Windrow
Dinah Laurel Lance's ex-husband post-Crisis.
- New Old Flame: Turns up out of nowhere, with Dinah never having mentioned being married.
Desmond Lamar
The man who trained an orphaned Dinah Drake in Gotham City.
Heathcliffe Ray
The manager for the band Black Canary.
Kurt Lance
Dinah Drake Lance's husband in the New 52.
Lawrence "Larry" Lance
A Gotham City Police Detective who often worked with Black Canary and had an unabashed crush on her secret identity Dinah Drake. He and Dinah eventually married and had a daughter named Dinah Laurel Lance together who would go on to become the second Black Canary.
- Battle Couple: While not officially a couple in their earliest stories, Dinah Drake and Larry Lance nevertheless end up often fighting the bad guys together and do end up married later on.
- The Charmer:
- The Commissioner Gordon: Larry acts as Black Canary's contact and helper in the Gotham City Police Department even before he learns she is his crush Dinah Drake.
- Disappeared Dad: Larry Lance is usually dead by the time his daughter becomes the second Black Canary.
- Fair Cop: GCPD Detective Larry Lance was an attractive Gotham detective.
- Sleuth Dates Cop: Black Canary, as a street level non-powered "superhero" in the DCU, basically acts like a non-police commissioned sleuth who is able to track down missing persons and violent suspects quickly by using resources and means that don't get tangled in the red-tape of bureaucracy and ends up dating GCPD detective Larry Lance.
Sin
Sin was a young girl being trained as replacement for Lady Shiva should the current Shiva die. Black Canary recused her from her Training from Hell and she became Dinah's ward for time before suitable foster parents could be arranged for her.
- Little Miss Badass
- Training from Hell: Trained from birth in martial arts by a sadistic woman known only as 'Mother'.
Team 7
Wildcat / Ted Grant
Pre-Crisis Enemies
Auntie Gravity
An old hillbilly woman who gained anti-gravity powers after drinking water from a river contaminated with chemical waste, and goes on a crime spree with her three nephews.
- Evil Old Folks
- The Family That Slays Together: Her gang consists of her three nephews.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Smokes a corncob pipe.
- Gravity Master: Has anti-gravity powers.
- Monumental Theft: Holds Star city to ransom by levitating City Hall.
- Punny Name
- Toxic Waste Can Do Anything: Gains anti-gravity following prolonged exposure to chemical waste in her drinking water.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Her powers do not work unless she is in contact with the ground.
Bonfire
- Flaming Hair: Bonfire's hair appears to be one fire even when she is not powered up.
- Playing with Fire: Creates, projects and controls flame.
- Pyromaniac
Count Vertigo
The last descendant of the royal family who once ruled over a small eastern Europe country named Vlatava. After being exiled, he turned to crime with the ultimate goal of reconquering his homeland. A long time foe of Batman and Green Lantern, Vertigo also serves as a Scarecrow-style adversary for Green Arrow, as his powers effectively void Ollie's marksmanship skills.
Harpy
The Harpy is a member of a race of ancient bird women who joined Queen Bee's Anti-Justice League in order to get revenge for her defeat at the hands of Black Canary during a past encounter.
- Harping on About Harpies: The Harpy is a member of a race of ancient bird women.
- Legion of Doom: The Harpy joined Queen Bee's Anti-Justice League in order to get revenge for her defeat at the hands of Black Canary during a past encounter.
- Winged Humanoid
- Wolverine Claws: Has long, razor sharp talons.
Order of the Crimson Crystal
A cult of women obsessed with obtaining a "mystical" crimson ruby given to Black Canary by a dying woman.
- Amazon Brigade: All of the members were female.
- The Corpse Stops Here: Left Canary standing over the body of a murdered member holding the crimson crystal, leading the police to assume she was the killer.
- Cult: A cult dedicated to achieving eternal life.
- Immortality Seeker: The cult was dedicated to achieving eternal life via the crimson crystal.
- Mineral MacGuffin: Sought a mystic crimson crustal which supposedly grant eternal life (but was actually a fake created by the Swami).
Pyra-Maniac
- Playing with Fire: Has flame-based powers.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Only appeared in one issue, and then only in flashback.
Steel Claw
When crime and corruption threatened to engulf Star City, Mayor Thomas Bolt was determined to do something about it. He created a mechanical claw and adopted the identity of Steelclaw. While he allowed the city’s heroes Black Canary and Green Arrow to handle the more powerful criminals, he struck out at more common street criminals. He forced information from them about underworld activities that he hoped he could then act upon in an official capacity. What he didn’t expect was an encounter with Green Arrow and Black Canary, who were suspicious of his vigilante acts. He narrowly escaped them, but in doing so found himself tied in with a gang of criminals. Other criminal networks felt threatened by Steelclaw no matter what side of the law he was on, and gangland officials had him executed at the earliest opportunity.
Swami
A petty crook disguised as a swami and leader of the Order of the Crimson Crystal cult.
- Human Sacrifice: Persuaded the members of the cult that they needed to sacrifice Black Canary and Larry Lance in order to achieve immortality.
- Latex Perfection: Concealed his true identity beneath a lifelike rubber mask.
- Phony Psychic: Posed a psychic and founded the Order of the Crimson Crystal to con money out of gullible women.
Post-Crisis Enemies
Big Game
Big Game was a super-villain and enemy to Green Arrow. He models himself as a big game hunter. Eventually he was murdered by Cupid, who was eliminating all of Green Arrow's old enemies. His son Blake took over the legacy to take revenge on Green Arrow and Cupid.
Blynde
Blynde is professional thief who is a Master of Disguise and who possesses a Invisibility Cloak. She is the sister of the assassin Tyson Klick, and targets Black Canary after Canary takes Klick down; hospitalizing him in the process.
- Classy Cat-Burglar: Is an international thief-for-hire.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Is the sister of the assassin Tyson Klick, and targets Black Canary after Canary takes Klick down; hospitalizing him in the process.
- In the Hood: Wears a white hooded cloak.
- Invisibility Cloak: Wheres a white hooded cloak that allows her to turn invisible.
- Master of Disguise
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Her codename is Blind spelled with a 'y' instead of an 'i', and a superfluous trailing 'e'.
Cupid
A special ops soldier working for the secret program known as Cobalt, Carrie Cutter came back from a mission very disturbed. As a result, she volunteered for a program intended to make her fearless. While the treatment was a success, and increased her strength in the process, it also caused her memory loss, and most importantly made her love-related emotions turn up a notch. Believing her husband had abandoned her, she tracked him down to Star City and killed him. Green Arrow was involved in this, and she started developing an obsession for him.
Dark Arrow
Part of Lex Luthor's Everyman Project, Hannibal Bates was given the ability to eat living matter and almost perfectly replicate the being it belonged to. He took the place of Oliver Queen on his wedding night to Black Canary but when he tried to kill her due to his impotency, she instead killed him. However, he survived. Still believing himself to be Oliver Queen, he joined with Cupid as Dark Arrow.
- Amnesiac Costume Identity: Having 'died' while impersonating Oliver Queen, Bates believes he really is Queen when he revives.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: A shapeshifter who has to consume pieces of the people he turns into is unlikely to become a hero.
- Bald of Evil: In his natural form, Bates is bald as an egg.
- Evil Counterpart: To Green Arrow.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: When impersonating Green Arrow on their wedding night, Bates found himself physically unable to consummate the relationship.
- Meaningful Name: It is probably not a coincidence that his name references two of film's most infamous psychotic Serial Killers: Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: As Everyman, Bates was originally a Superman villain.
Discord
Sean Sonus was a music teacher who was deafened by a misdirected sonic scream from Black Canary, which also destroyed his priceless collection of musical instruments. Seeking revenge, he became the hypersonic villain known as Discord.
- Alliterative Name: Sean Sonus.
- Arm Cannon: Discord wears a hypersonic cannon mounted on his right arm.
- Create Your Own Villain: Sonus became a supervillain after being deafened by Black Canary's Canary Cry.
- Gale-Force Sound: His cannon produces devastating waves of sound.
- Handicapped Badass: Discord is deaf.
- Make Some Noise: His hypersonic cannon produces devastating waves of sound.
- Meaningful Name: Sonus is Latin for 'noise' or 'sound'.
Dodger
Dodger is a thief who deals in high end merchandise. Operating from London, England, he will steal and/or sell anything from information to advanced technology.
- Dating Catwoman: Speedy appeared to have something of a crush on the suave and casual Dodger. They later started a romantic relationship. Dodger appears unfazed by Mia's HIV-positive status.
- Enhanced Archaic Weapon: Dodger employs a unique mace which generates a field of electrical energy.
- Lovable Rogue: Mia certainly thinks so.
Jakob Whorrsman
Jakob Whorrsman heads the 'Northwest Acquisitions' department of TryTelesaur, and he is unafraid to bolster his profit with criminal activity. He tried to gentrify areas of Seattle, and he was willing to resort to any tactics necessary to buy up the land.
- Big Bad: Of the 1993 Black Canary series.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite being the Big Bad of Black Canary's first solo series, Whorrsman has not been seen post New 52.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Will do anything to make a profit and is not above hiring super-villain or professional criminal talent to carry out his plans.
- Evil Redhead: Strawberry blond in his case.
- Fad Super: Whorrsman combines several late 80s/early 90s social trends: 'Greed is Good' capitalism, Tony Robbins-style motivational speaking, the AIDS scare, inner city gentrification...
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Whorrsman was an HIV-positive teenager when he was groomed by a Tony-Roberts-type motivator into seizing success for himself.
- Meaningful Name: A character whose sole motivation is greed is named 'Whores Man'. And shares his first name with the Biblical character who tricked his brother out of his birthright.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Whorrsman was last seen 'dealing with the devil' when the evil entity Nyi'tarla tried to take control over America by absorbing several companies into the Inter Sect corporation. this plot line was never resolved.
Pete Lomax
Pete Lomax was a criminal living in Star City who developed exceptional talent at archery. It was suggested to him that he could go on to become a super-villain and he considered getting a costume. However, he instead set out to prove that ordinary people like himself could take down super-heroes if they were smart enough.
- Delinquent Hair: Sports a mohawk.
- Inexperienced Killer: Set out to prove that an ordinary person could take down a superhero, but froze when he got into a face-to-face confrontation with Green Arrow.
- Not Wearing Tights: Considered getting a costume but instead fought Black Canary and Green Arrow dressed in street clothes.
Prime Number
Ravens
The Ravens is a villain team originally created by Cheshire to help her on a mission. Its name was supposed to be a contrast to the name of their main enemies' team - Birds of Prey. The team had four members at the start: Cheshire, Pistolera, Vicious and Termina. Termina betrayed the team shortly thereafter. Cheshire went forward with only Vicious and Pistolera after that, and has lead several missions with them in pursuit of her goals.
- Amazon Brigade: An all-female villain team.
- Hired Guns
- Only Known by Their Nickname: With the exception of Cheshire, the real names of the other members weren't revealed.
- The Psycho Rangers: Created as a villainous counterpart to the Birds of Prey.
Cheshire
Cheshire is one of the deadliest assassins in the DC universe. She is an expert in both martial arts and the use of poisons.
For details, see Teen Titans: Cheshire.
Pistolera
Using the name Gunbunny, Pistolera used to be the partner of Batman villain Gunhawk. Eventually, Gunbunny left Gunhawk because she felt his reputation was overshadowing her own talents. She decided it was time for her to forge her own rep as a mercenary firearms expert before Gunhawk’s rep became too poor. Changing her code-name to Pistolera, she abandoned the matching green uniform she wore as Gunhawk's partner and adopted a Western-themed cowgirl outfit.
- Atrocious Alias: Pistolera deeply regrets once having called herself 'Gunbunny'.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Often wears a mariachi-inspired outfit.
- Goggles Do Something Unusual: For a time, Pistolera kept the visor she used to wear when she was Gunhawk's partner, which granted her low-light vision and acted as a targeting scope for her firearms.
- Gun Nut: Like her former partner Gunhawk, Pistolera is obsessed with firearms.
- Guns Akimbo: She often fights with a pair of high-quality pistols, and usually can engage different targets with each handgun.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Her former codename of 'Gunbunny' remains a constant source of embarrassment to her.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Tends to be more concerned about everyday girly things that most adventurers.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Vicious. Pistolera likes to badger Vicious by making herself sound more intelligent and educated than Vicious is.
Termina
A professional killer with a lethal touch power. She plotted against her team to try to find a cure for the virus that gave her her meta-human power.
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: Wears a bandana and can kill with a touch. (Perhaps not coincidentally, the bandana also makes her resemble a chemotherapy patient.)
- Bald of Evil: Appears to be bald beneath her bandana and she can kill with a touch. (Her entire look invokes the appearance of a chemotherapy patient.)
- Blessed with Suck: Can kill with a touch, but her powers are slowly killing her.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Is desperately looking for a cure for the virus that gives her her powers.
- No Honour Among Thieves: Betrayed the rest of the Ravens when an opportunity for a cure presented itself.
- Poisonous Person: Her body houses a virus that allows her to kill with a touch.
- Tattooed Crook: It is not clear if the black lines on her face are tattoos or a result of the condition that grants her her powers, but the effect looks like tribal facial tattooing.
Vicious
Vicious is an amoral mercenary, specialized in knife fighting. Vicious is the wildest and most impulsive of the Ravens.
- Painted-On Pants: Wears extremely tight tights. And boob tubes.
- Psycho for Hire: Was a psychotic mercenary even before she joined the Ravens.
- Psycho Knife Nut: Vicious is an expert knife-fighter and knife-thrower. In melee she usually fights with a pair of blades.
- Psycho Party Member: Has a definite psychotic streak; making a lot of jokes about killing people for no reason, carving people up for fun, etc. and being amused by morbid sights. She likes killing people with her eyes going wild and excited when she gets to murder someone.
- Third-Person Person: Vicious frequently refers to herself as 'Vicious'.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Pistolera. She likes to badger Pistolera by calling her 'Gunbunny' and makes remarks implying that Pistolera is a wuss and too brainy.
Sniper One
Palmer Cokes is a professional hitman with ties to a subversive organization known as the Echo Initiative.
- Cold Sniper: Palmer Cokes is one of the deadliest snipers in the entire world.
- Cool Boat: Shado provided him with a ship that could travel undetected by most sensors.
Tigress
Artemis Crock is the daughter of Paula Brooks - The First Tigress - and Lawrence Crock a.k.a Sportsmaster. She was taught her skills by both of her parents so she could continue their legacy. When she first appeared she simply went by Artemis, but she would go on to take on the Tigress name.
For details, see Justice Society of America: Villains.
Twelve Brothers in Silk
About twenty-years ago there was an allegedly unbeatable fighter named Huang. The older he got the more the thought of being defeated angered him. He wanted to pass his skills on to twelve sons, one for each sign of the Chinese Zodiac which he believed in. Sons born in the wrong year and any daughters were instantly killed. Children that met all the criteria were branded and brutally trained. Huang pushed and nurtured hatred which made all of the brothers essentially sociopaths. To ensure Huang would never be beaten, he had them all kill him before their thirteenth birthdays.
- Animal Theme Naming: The brothers were named after the animals of the Chinese Zodiac.
- Hired Guns: A criminal mercenary team.
- Siblings in Crime: The twelve brothers form a criminal mercenary team.
- The Spartan Way: How the brothers were trained.
White Canary
The White Canary is a powerful martial artist, the only sister to the Twelve Brothers in Silk. As his family needed powerful martial artists, Master Huang made a habit of killing his daughters. However, as he went to kill one daughter, lightning struck nearby. Seeing it as an omen, he kept her alive and trained her as a son, but separate from her brothers.
- Braids of Action: Wears her long hair in a single braid with a blade mounted on the end.
- Color Animal Codename: White Canary
- Evil Counterpart: To Black Canary.
- Honor Before Reason: After the defeat of her brothers at the hands of Black Canary and her friends, White Canary tracked all her brothers down and killed them for causing dishonor to their father's name.
- I Have Your Wife: As part of her plot against Black Canary, she kidnapped Black Canary's daughter Sin and held her in Bangkok.
- Training from Hell: Was subjected to the same hellish training regime as her brothers.
- Unusual Weapon Mounting: Has a blade/spike mounted on the end of her long braid.
New 52 Enemies
Bo Maeve
Former lead singer of the Black Canary band who resents her former bandmates and Black Canary in particular.
- It's All About Me: Is self-obsessed to a ridiculous degree.
Greyeyes
Greyeyes is the leader of a mysterious German fight club who kidnapped Black Canary and Vixen in an attempt to force Canary to teach her the Five Heavens Palm technique.
- Fight Clubbing: Runs a fight club in Berlin.
- Forced Prize Fight: Kidnaps Black Canary and forces them to fight against her without their powers.
- Shock and Awe: Can generate and fire blasts of electricity.
