Dinah Lance

Dinah Lance: 1976 - 1993
According to Dinah, she had a pretty normal childhood, as normal as a working-class family can hope to achieve in Gotham City. Her dad Quentin Lance was a cop (actually my dad’s supervisor for a year or so) and her mother Laurel Lance was the owner of Sherwood Florist, Gotham’s premier floral shop at the time. When Dinah was eleven, her somewhat idyllic life was strained by Mrs. Lance’s unexpected pregnancy. A few months later, after having given birth to Dinah’s little sister Sara, Laurel was diagnosed with throat cancer. As the florist shop was the family’s primary source of income, the family’s financial stability dissolved. To make up for this setback and to help cover medical costs, Quentin left Dinah to care for her mother and Sara as he pulled in multiple overtime shifts. This may have kept the family afloat for a few years but it also stressed Quentin to drinking and eventually caused him to work the shift in which he was shot and crippled, only exacerbating his alcoholism.

Dinah Lance: 1993 - 1997


To help support her family as her mother was still recovering and her father was now confined to a wheelchair, Dinah dropped out of school at seventeen and began working full-time at the florist shop, running the shop (with Sara chipping in after-school) while her mother handled the clerical and other management related tasks when her health permitted. Eventually, the stress of all this got to Dinah. After dealing with a problem customer, Dinah let out a scream that shattered every window in the shop, in front of Sara. The two sisters blamed the windows on hoodlums and since it’s Gotham, the Lances believed the girls. Practicing in secret with Sara acting as a cheerleader and coach, Dinah learned to use her power to render metal, shatter eardrums, and topple over full-size cars. But the gift was not purely destructive, with Sara’s help, Dinah developed an incredible degree of control over her vocal cords, allowing her to generate any sound she desired. Dinah and Sara kept this secret for four years.

Dinah Lance: 1997 - 2000
At twenty-one, Laurel’s cancer returned more server than before, Dinah needed to look for an alternative to the dire financial circumstances Using a disguise made from a blonde wig, Dinah applied for a singing job at the Iceberg Lounge. Rumor has it her audition moved the Penguin to tears (and having heard his laugh so many times, I’m afraid to imagine what eh sounds like crying). Cobblepot hired Dinah immediately, giving her a five night per week contract, and offered her a signing bonus large enough to pay off her parents’ outstanding medical bills. Using the stage name “the Canary”, Dinah managed to maintain and air of mystery despite her near-instant fame and fortune among Gotham society’s elite and criminal elements. But even among birds, what goes up, must eventually come down; and down it did go, hard and fast, when Dinah realized that the man who had shot her father was none other than Ignatius Ogilvy, the Penguin’s right-hand man. What is it they say about a woman scorned?

Black Canary: 2000 - 2004
Let me tell you something, cops’ daughters know how to kick some serious butt. I can attest to that from personal experience. Dinah Lance is no exception. As a kid, Mr. Lance had both of his daughters in Judo and Tae Kwon Do classes. As a teenager, Dinah and Sara studied Krav Mag, Muay Thai, and Capoeira. When she started working at the Iceberg Lounge, Dinah expelled the stress she endured working two jobs to provide for her family and keep her sister in college by sparring at the Wildcat Gym with a world champion fighter in boxing, mixed martial arts, and savate (among others). Yes, I’m talking about Ted Grant. At least three times she put rowdy patrons at the Iceberg Lounge in the hospital for trying to grab her during a song. Oh, and remember this is the same woman who can easily blast through a brick wall with the power of her voice alone? So I think I’ve painted a vivid picture of what kind of wrath a woman like this might unleash upon the men responsible for her father’s injury. Hell hath no fury, indeed. I never met Oswald Cobblepot until after his run-in with Dinah, but I like to think that Dinah had something to do with the peculiar way he walks… err… waddles.



After giving the Penguin a beating so bad he turned himself in to the GCPD for protection, Dinah decided she would go into busting the heads of criminals regularly. Dinah put what was left of her nest egg from the Iceberg Lounge earnings to build her first costume and moved her family to Star City to get away from the stink of Gotham. Of course, it didn’t take long for Green Arrow to introduce himself to this new vigilante in his turf and the two’s romantic escapades started off with a bang. With Oliver taking care of Sara’s education and the Lance medical bills, Dinah focused on becoming a full-time crimefighter and with all the time spent training, she honed herself into a fighting machine that does not have to rely on her powers to get by.

With Oliver, Dinah was invited to join the Super-Friends and she was the one who got the finishing blow on Prometheus in the proto-League’s first encounter with that menace. While with the Super-Friends, Dinah did have a traumatic event. In 2003, Dinah went missing while on patrol. The clues pointed to the League of Assassins being behind the abduction and as a result, Bruce and Oliver were especially worried. This prompted them to finally came out as being former assassins. So the “big capes” launched an intensive search. Eventually, Dinah was found by Oliver in some warehouse lab in Evergreen City and by the time the others had arrived, there was no one left to question about why Dinah had been take, Dinah herself was unable to shed any light, having been sedated most of the time. The trauma of the event left Dinah left without her Canary Cry for a few months, but when Brainiac invaded Earth, Dinah found her voice once more. I don’t know about this “fat lady” everyone’s always on about, but when the Canary sings, it’s over.

Black Canary: 2004 - 2016


After Dinah and her Super-Friends beat down Brainiac with the help of the Martian Manhunter and the sacrifice of the independent hero known as Triumph, the survivors were approached by representatives of the U.S. Government and offered a chance to become legitimate. In exchange for appearing at some big federal events and the occasional mission, the United States funded the heroes and built them a state of the art training facility and operations center in National City which came to be known as the Hall of Justice. Dinah was one of the seven founding members of the Justice League of America and assigned the designation as JL-005. Still considered to be the “rookie” of the team due to her perceived low power-set and status as a woman, Dinah quickly proved herself to be a vital member of the JLA in her first year with the team, so much so that when the second Founder’s Meeting happened, Dinah was chosen by the majority of the team to replace Superman as Chairman… err… woman. This has been a position she has since often held.

In her personal life, Dinah and Oliver Queen were first married November 7th, 2005. Though the two had a very passionate courtship and were very much in love and faithful to one another (somehow Dinah has that effect on the usually-philandering Ollie). Ollie’s ex Nyssa al Ghul could not help but interfere in their lives. Just months after Dinah and Ollie were wed Nyssa had manipulated Sara, spiking her with a toxin that fueled Sara’s resentment of Dinah for not allowing her to be an active member of Team Arrow. The result of this was Sara and Dinah having an intense fight where Sara nearly killed Dinah when her own meta-gene activated and Sara fled. The loss of Sara destroyed Dinah for a while and just when she was recovering, a brutal three hit combo rocked her world. The death of Jason Todd had been felt through the hero community but it was followed by Roy Harper quitting the team and then Nyssa al Ghul drugging Ollie and orchestrating him to be found by Dinah sleeping with Sara Lance on Christmas Eve!

Quitting Team Arrow and with the JLA disbanding, Dinah disappeared for close to a year. Dinah doesn’t have much of a digital footprint (due to her distaste for computers), but acting on a hunch, I found her in self-imposed exile. She was working as a trainer at Ted Grant’s gym. Since I was a former student of Ted Grant, he invited me to join them for dinner. Dinah trusted me with the secret as to why she felt the need to disappear. Then within a week after having dinner with me, the Cataclysm hit Gotham and the Canary was trapped like a bird in a cage. But the thing is… the scum of Gotham were trapped in the same cage with Dinah. To help Gotham in the absence of Batman, Dinah joined up with Helena Bertinelli’s new guise as the Huntress and with yours truly to form the Birds of Prey.

After restoring order to Gotham and the Justice League reforming under the United Nations banner, Dinah began to split her time between Gotham and the Watchtower. Over time she slowly began to add Star City, as she and Ollie slowly began to patch things up.

Dinah Queen: 2016 - Present
Missing Data

Supplemental Reports

 * (Resources Submitted by Oracle) "World-Class Martial Artist" doesn't really do Dinah's fighting skills justice. I've seen her take down every one in the "Trinity" in a fight. And for two of them, she didn't need her powers!!!
 * (Resources Submitted by Sweetness) Just adding to Oracle's comment on Dinah's fighting chops. Diana has told me that no other Justice Leaguer gives her quite the same level of workout as Dinah when the two spar.
 * (Submitted by Radar) I'll admit it. When Vic brought her over with Helena, I got a bit of a crush on Miss Lance. If I was a year or ten younger, Queen would be old news... If her breaks her heart again, I swear...

Powers

 * Metahuman Physiology:
 * Canary Cry: Dinah possesses a meta-gene that gives her a potent sonic attack, able to damage and stun foes or objects, to the point of shattering metal. She possesses a incredible degree of control over her vocal cords. This enables her to mimic sounds and generate any sound she desires. The Canary Cry has been able to reach 300 decibels, which is enough to make a person's ears start bleeding even if they're not the attack target. A direct hit from her sonic blast can tear through steel like it was wet paper machete. With significant practice, Dinah has learned to use her Cry for a number of special effects, such as screaming downward while falling to slow her descent and cushion her landing from a fatal height.
 * Enhanced Hearing: Dinah possess hearing on par with Superman and has demonstrated herself to be more proficient in the interpretations and recognition of various sounds than the Man of Steel. Another one up she has on Big Blue is that her heightened hearing has a sort of 'sensory shield' which protects her ears from excessive noise (such as her Canary Cry).
 * Echolocation: By giving off a supersonic pulse, Dinah has developed the ability to utilize a 'bat-like' echolocation sense, enabling her to get a rough 360-degree of her surroundings, even when visibility is low.
 * Ear for Languages

Abilities

 * Acrobatics: Through years of training with Team Arrow, the Justice League, and the Birds of Prey, Dinah has conditioned her body to peak fitness and trained in all manner of acrobatic and gymnastic maneuvers.
 * Archery: Having been in some sort of relationship with the Green Arrow for over a decade, Dinah has had the luxury of being trained by a master archer and thus is an expert in the use of all archery-based weaponry. Rumor has it she gave Ollie the idea for his infamous "boxing glove arrow".
 * Driving: Dinah is a talented operator of most road-based vehicles, including being trained in high-speed pursuit and defensive driving techniques. On a motorcycle, Dinah is practically a virtuoso.
 * Investigation: The daughter of a police detective, Dinah had been exposed to police procedure and forensics at an early age. Having worked with Batman, Green Arrow, and myself for a number of years, Dinah's instincts have been refined to make her an excellent detective.
 * World-Class Martial Arts: Dinah is one of the most skilled martial artists on the planet. She has also been trained by Ted Grant, who is formerly the Heavyweight Champion of the World, in the art of Boxing, Muay Thai, Capoeira, Krav Maga, and Hapkido. She has also been trained in Dragon Style Kung Fu and pressure point fighting by Ricardo "The Dragon" Diaz. Thanks to Wonder Woman, Dinah has also been trained in Amazon martial arts, but is strictly a novice in that kind of fighting style. Other styles she's mastered include Savate, Judo, Aikido, Jujitsu, Wing Chun, and Tae Kwon Do.
 * Novice Psychology: Dinah has taken a number of psychology night courses to aid her substance abuse therapy volunteering efforts. Her interest in this field field stems from her father's struggles with alcoholism and substance abuse, a condition which Dinah herself is genetically predisposed to but has never had a problem herself. Dinah used this expertise when Roy Harper returned from his time in the League of Assassins to help him kick his dependence on the drugs which Cheshire had addicted him to and to also recover from the trauma of losing his arm.
 * Tactical Analysis: Dinah is also considered a strong leader and strategic thinker, which has led to her being made Chairwoman of the JLA.
 * Weaponry: Dinah is highly skilled in the use of bows, swords, knives, batons, and improvised weaponry such as broken bottles and the like. Though she prefers to fight hand-to-hand, she is quite adept at grabbing whatever weapons are available to make use against an armored opponent.
 * Multilingualism: Dinah can speak several languages other than English, including Spanish and Japanese. Due to her vocal abilities, Dinah is able to speak with a flawless and convincing accent of any dialect she hears spoken (not to mention can precisely mimic a person's voice after hearing it once).
 * Strength Level: Black Canary possesses the strength level of a woman her age, size and weight who engages in intensive regular exercise. Dinah can therefore press at least twice her own body weight.
 * Boundless Rage
 * Indomitable Willpower
 * Master Motorcyclist
 * Peak Physical Conditioning

Paraphernalia

 * Body Armor: Dinah may be sporting her signature fishnets for style but the rest of her outfit, including the leather jacket, have been designed with state-of-the-art armor that protects her against impact-based attacks and affords a limited amount of protection against ballistics and edged weaponry.
 * Customized "Canary Cycle": Dinah has a Harley-Davidson 883 Sportster but with custom handlebars and tank, with reinforced frame, souped-up Kord Automotive Engine, and armored plating.
 * Belt Pouch: Dinah has hip slung pouch which she uses to stow a grapnel gun and a small number of smoke bombs and flashbang grenades, which she uses to give herself a tactical edge against multiple opponents (not that she necessarily needs it).

Weaknesses

 * Confidence: Dinah's superb martial arts experience often causes herself to overestimate her capabilities and jump into a situation before properly assessing the best tactical approach. Usually, this only happens when Dinah is working solo or with her lover, the Green Arrow. When acting as the field commander of the Birds or with a team of Justice League operatives, Dinah usually makes a conscious effort to rein herself in. In the past, however, she has shown herself to be easily provoked into making poor decisions by criminals aware of her relationship with the Green Arrow.
 * Throat-Strikes: A sufficiently powerful and accurate blow to Dinah's throat can cause her to lose the ability to use her Canary Cry effectively.
 * Vanity: Dinah often favors looking cool over a practical solution. That said, she usually has enough sense to recognize this as a problem and does not let it consume her entirely.

Trivia

 * BC's scream has been shown to be strong enough to make Superman's ears bleed so I took some liberties and decided a combination of a direct hit at full power, with the sensory overload of a guy with superhearing... yeah, that could knock out Big Blue.
 * Black Canary hooked up once with Batman but keeps the secret from Ollie. As B.C. put it, that's a pot of drama that shouldn't be stirred up. Oliver is a billionaire that's not as rich as Bruce Wayne. Oliver is an unpowered vigilante determined to clean up his city that is considerably less iconic than Batman. Oliver even had his lair called the "Arrow Cave" despite the fact that it makes no sense (and as Harley Quinn pointed out a better name would be 'The Quiver'). Oliver has villains that get bored of Green Arrow and go to Gotham, case in point: Onomatopoeia. So if G.A. learned that his own gal-pal got chummy with the Bats, well... The Justice League might get called in to break up an epic fight in the midst of Gotham.
 * Batman supposedly keeps Black Canary from killing Penguin; But she wouldn't really kill him. She crippled him for crippling her father... but Penguin doesn't know that and if that fear keeps him in check, then that's what they use. On the other hand, she, with Ogilvy, she nearly killed him but at the last second thought better about it and let him live. Still, she has to constantly remind herself not to go too far whenever she encounters him in the field.
 * In her "Canary" persona, Dinah wears a blond wig to hide her identity and mislead her enemies. This is something she did back as a nightclub singer at the Iceberg Lounge.
 * In her early career, Dinah wore a mask but has since given up on it, though the fact that Huntress' own mask resembles her old one has not gone unnoticed by her and serves as a constant source for friendly banter.
 * Dinah plays a harmonica which she uses to strengthen her breathing and vocal cords.
 * Dinah's blood type is AB-, the same as Oliver Queen's.
 * When not active as a hero, Dinah works a physical education volunteer instructor for the Meadowhill School District here in Gotham City. She also volunteers as a substance abuse treatment coach in both Gotham and Star City.
 * Dinah and Zatanna have gone in together to purchase a considerable bulk supply of fishnets.
 * Dinah had Ollie buy the location where her mother's Sherwood Florist was located. While it remains closed, Dinah has outfitted the backroom of the shop into an emergency armory and field supply station.
 * While Dinah is a social drinker, she doesn't indulge as much her husband does. In fact, due to her father's disability following his run-in with Ignatius Ogilvy and his subsequent dependency on his pain medication, Dinah has developed a paranoia regarding narcotic drugs. She's even been known to reject painkillers for work related injuries.
 * She has a "relaxed" approach to her identity.
 * Her archenemy is Lady Shiva.
 * Oliver Queen proposed again to Dinah July 5th 2017.

Links and References

 * Appearances of Dinah Lance
 * Character Gallery: Dinah Lance