Dinah Lance

Dinah Lance: 1976 - 2000
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 was a cop (actually my dad’s supervisor for a year or so) and her mother was the owner of a florist shop. Dinah was quite close with her younger sister, Sara, though the two did tend to compete for boy’s affections as they got older. When Dinah was a teenager, her somewhat idyllic life was shattered when her mother was diagnosed with throat cancer; her dad was crippled after being shot during a traffic stop, and to top it all off, the stress of it all caused Dinah’s latent metagene to activate. Dinah’s screams could now render metal, shatter eardrums, and topple over full-size cars. It was Dinah’s sister that helped her realize that her power could be tamed and once she did, Dinah had an incredible degree of control over her vocal cords, allowing her to generate any sound she desired.

At first, Dinah and Sara did their best to conceal Dinah’s metahuman nature, even from their parents. However, after dropping out of school to keep her mother’s shop afloat, Dinah began to look for an alternative to her dire financial circumstances. Using a disguise made from a blonde wig, Dinah applied for a singing job at the Iceberg Lounge. Rumor has it that her tryout moved the Penguin to tears (and having heard his laughs so many times, I’m afraid to imagine what he sounds like crying). Cobblepot hired Dinah immediately, giving her a five night per week contract, and offered a signing bonus large enough to pay off her parents’ outstanding medical bills. Using the stage name “The Canary”. Dinah managed to maintain an air of mystery despite her near-instant fame and fortune amongst 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 the say about a woman scorned?

Black Canary: 2000 - Present
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 Maga, 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 boxing/MMA/Savate world champion, 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 remembers 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 to Star City to be closer to her sister (who was attending school at Star University). Of course, it didn’t take long for Green Arrow to introduce himself to this hot new vigilante in his turf and the two’s romantic escapades started off with a bang (I know, poor choice of words. Sorry!).

With Oliver taking care of Sara’s education and their father’s medical bills, Dinah did not have to worry about selling flowers anymore and focused on becoming a full-time crimefighter and with all the time spent training, she has honed herself into a fighting machine that does not have to rely on her powers to get by. Seriously, I’ve seen her choke out Double-Dubs, knock Bats on his ass, and even knock out Big Blue (though she used her power for the last bit, but come on, it’s Superman). So yeah, I decided to let her join the Birds with Helena and me. ;)

Trivia and Notes

 * 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 a 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 Oglivy, 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.

Links and References

 * Appearances of Dinah Lance
 * Character Gallery: Dinah Lance