Black Canary

"*You know, one day, I'll push you away, don't get used to this.*"
―Black Canary to Oliver Queen[src]
**Dinah Laurel Lance** was one of the world's foremost martial artists. She fights crime under the moniker of **Black Canary**. Dinah has been an important member of the Justice League and the Birds of Prey, and an occasional partner of Batman and the Justice Society of America.

Dinah is a frequent partner of Green Arrow; who she has an on-and-off romantic relationship. They met when she was hired to become his bodyguard by his father. Later in her career she helped him fight against a drug cartel on Starfish Island.

Dinah has a close friendship with Batgirl and frequently met with her to solve crimes, one of which was saving a girl from being used; by Penguin's criminal organization as a living weapon.

Dinah has trained; with the Bat Family several times and was invited to join the Justice League; by Batman.

## Biography

### Early life

Dinah Lance is the daughter of crimefighter Dinah Drake, the previous Black Canary and detective Larry Lance. After the death of her mother, she is assigned by her mother to live with her mother's friend Desmond Lamar, a combat specialist. It was here her life as crimefighter began, despite her mother's wishes that she wouldn't follow in her footsteps. Years she trained with Desmond and another one of the mother's allies, Ted Grant.

### Becoming Oliver Queen's bodyguard

Using her license as a bodyguard, one of her first jobs is to personally protect Oliver Queen, the son of Queen Industries CEO Robert Queen. Spending much of her time with him, they have a relationship akin to best friends.

#### Starfish Island Conflict

In 2007, a business meeting after the death of Robert Queen is a taken place on a yacht. Dinah, not being part of the business, is not allowed to accompany Oliver. Later when they return, she finds out of Oliver's absence. Worried about his safety, she tries to call him only to find his phone still inside the yacht, where he is nowhere to be found.

### Training Helena Bertinelli

Dinah is reached out to by Helena Bertinelli's guardian to train her in martial arts, as Helena is adamant on learning it to one day avenge her parents.

### The League of Assassins

Dinah has associated with the League of Assassins.

### Manhunt of the Birds of Prey

She is contacted by Batgirl to help her in saving a living weapon, a girl by the name of Cassandra Cain from becoming the Penguin's servant.

#### Battle at the Iceberg Lounge

The final fight takes place at the Iceberg Lounge

### Training the Bat Family

She occasionally visits the Batcave where she trains Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, and Cassandra Cain.

### Racketeering infiltration

Dinah, Batgirl, and Vixen were out taking down weapons smugglers when they discover the identity of the man who murdered Vixen's mother. Later on, she and Batgirl sent the information to the Justice League.

### Taken by drug dealers

At the age of 46, she and Oliver is considering retiring from the superhero gig and run a flower shop in Star City.

Dinah investigates a drug related crime when she is ambushed and had her throat punched, damaging her Canary Cry. After some more fighting she is shot and immediately defeated by drug dealers and taken inside their lair.

Sometime later she is rescued by Oliver and kills her captors. After safely taken outside, the building full of drug dealers in which she is kept, is blown up by Shado. She is then taken to the hospital.

### Darkseid's Second Invasion of Earth

Black Canary helps the Justice League in fighting Darkseid's forces.

#### Death

Black Canary lets out one last sonic scream as Parademons swarm the Batcave. A Parademon then shoots her.

## Personality

Dinah is a kindhearted woman, though she can be intimidating if she wants to. She was initially professional in guarding Oliver Queen though in time they became very close friends.

## Powers and abilities

### Powers

* **"Canary Cry"**: Dinah is a metahuman that can produce a powerful **sonic scream** capable of damaging, disorienting, and stunning anyone and anything she uses it on. Through practice, she possesses a incredible degree of control over her vocal cords. This enables her to mimic sounds and generate any sound she desires, even developing several abilities. The Canary Cry has been able to reach 300 decibels, which is enough to make a person's ears start bleeding.
	+ **Sound Immunity**: As a byproduct of her power, Dinah is immune to her own sonic scream, and to any other sound-based attacks and the damaging effects of higher decibles.
	+ **Sound Frequency Manipulation**: A special ability she learned was manipulating frequency of sounds to attack her opponent, the power can make them feel nauseous or lightheaded.

### Abilities

* **Master Martial Artist**: Trained from her younger days by combat specialist Desmond Lamar, she has become one of the most formidable martial artist known to man. Her fighting style emphasizes on speed and accuracy, incorporating Aikido, Tae Kwon Do, Muay Thai, Capoeira, Wing Chun, Silat, Savate and many more martial art variants.
* **Peak Human Condition**: Even after passing her prime age she is still able to defeat enemies stronger than her.
* **Tactical Analysis**: Dinah is also considered a strong leader and strategic thinker.
* **Archery**: She is skilled enough in archery to impress the Green Arrow himself.
* **Investigation**: Black Canary is a skilled detective.
* **Firearms**: She knows her way around firearms as well, having been trained by Desmond Lamar.
* **Multilingualism**: Dinah is proficient is several languages other than her native English, mainly Russian, Ukrainian, German, French, Italian, and Spanish, with some knowledge of Japanese, Mandarin, and Cantonese.
* **Music**: Dinah is a talented singer, she occasionally performs in clubs, particularly the Iceberg Lounge. She can also play the harmonica, as a way of controlling her breathing.
* **Driving**: Dinah can drive motorcycles and cars.

### Weakness

* **Throat Damage**: If her throat is maimed, this can lead to her losing her Canary Cry powers and render her mute for a while.

## Equipment

* **Outfit**: Dinah wears a jacket and a body armor beneath it. She also wears fingerless gloves with metal knuckles.
* **Various Martial Arts Weapons**: Black Canary can operate all kinds of weapons that are used in martial arts, such as bo staffs, escrima sticks, swords, etc.
	+ **Tim Drake's staff**: She usually overpowers Tim Drake and is able to take his staff during training sessions.
* **Firearms**: Dinah knows how to use guns.
* **Motorcycle**: Dinah owns a Honda Rebel 300 motorcycle.
* **Car**: Dinah owns several cars.

## Relationships

* Larry Lance - father

Allies* Desmond Lamar - guardian and father figure
* Ted Grant/Wildcat
* Oliver Queen/Green Arrow - boyfriend
* Roy Harper/Red Arrow
* James
* Birds of Prey
	+ Barbara Gordon/Batgirl/Oracle
	+ Helena Bertinelli/Huntress - trainee
	+ Stephanie Brown/Spoiler/Batgirl
	+ Cassandra Cain/Orphan/Black Bat
	+ Mari McCabe/Vixen
* Justice League
	+ Bruce Wayne/Batman
	+ Clark Kent/Superman
	+ Diana Prince/Wonder Woman
	+ Barry Allen/Flash
	+ Arthur Curry/Aquaman
* Hal Jordan/Green Lantern
	+ J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter
	+ Wally West/Flash
	+ Billy Batson/Shazam
	+ Patrick O'Brian/Plastic Man
* Batman Vigilante Family
	+ Dick Grayson/Nightwing - trainee
	+ Tim Drake/Robin/Red Robin - trainee
	+ Damian Wayne/Robin
* Justice Society of America
	+ Carter Hall/Hawkman
	+ Sheira Hall/Hawkgirl
	+ Michael Holt/Mister Terrific
	+ Kara Zor-L/Power Girl
* Hackett - former friend
* Penguin's criminal organization
	+ Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin - employer
	+ Cluemaster
* Legion of Doom
	+ Lex Luthor
	+ Slade Wilson/Deathstroke
	+ Cheetah
* Sandra Wu-San/Lady Shiva
* David Cain
* League of Assassins - former employer
	+ Ra's al-Ghul
	+ Talia al-Ghul
* Star City Gang - victims
* Darkseid's Elite
	+ Darkseid
	+ Intergang
	+ Parademons - killers

## Trivia

* In the DC Comics universe, Black Canary is the most popular female martial artist and the love interest of Green Arrow.
* Vanessa Kirby, Jurnee Smollett and Jodie Comer were considered for the role before Katheryn Winnick was cast.
* Like Dinah, Katheryn Winnick is also a licensed bodyguard.

## References

1. ↑ *Birds of Prey* Casting Rumors
2. ↑ 20 Suprising Facts About Katheryn Winnick

## External links

* Black Canary on DC Database
* Black Canary on DC Extended Universe Wiki
* Black Canary on Wikipedia