Dinah Lance

Canary, Blonde Bombshell, D.D. Pretty Bird, BC, Scream Queen, Bird-Lady (Nicknames)
Dinah Drake, Dinah Lance-Queen (Aliases)

### Relatives

Charles Drake (Grandfather, Presumed Dead)
Quentin Lance (Father)
Laurel Drake (Mother, Deceased)
Sara Lance (Sister)
Thea Queen (Sister in Law)
Kurt Lance (Paternal Cousin)
Tim Drake (Maternal Cousin)
Simone Queen (Daughter)
Artemis Crock, Mia Dearden (Adopted Daughters)
Cissie King-Jones (Stepdaughter)
Connor Queen, William Clayton (Stepsons)
Roy Harper, Will Harper (Adopted Stepson)
Jacob Sage (Godson)

### Affiliation

Justice League (Founding Member, Former Leader)
Birds of Prey (Founding Member, Co-Leader)
Team Arrow (Member)
Bat Family / Batman Incorporated (Reserve Member)

## Biographical Information

### Place of Birth

Otisburg District
Uptown, Gotham, NJ

### Residence

Queen Lodge
237 Hatley Road
Damen Hills, Star City, WA

### Occupation

Physical Education Teacher
Singer (formerly)

### Employer

Meadowhill School
Iceberg Lounge (formerly)

## Background

### 1978 - 1999: Dinah Lance

Dinah had a normal childhood in Gotham, being raised by her cop father & her florist mother. Dinah grew up taking lessons from Ted Grant, as he was old friend of her mom.

She would become a big sister when her mother gave birth to her younger sister Sara. The pregnancy allowed the doctors to diagnose her mother throat cancer after conducting various tests on her. The doctors said it was something that been dormant in her system for years. Because of the medical bills, her dad left Dinah to care for her mom as he pulled in multiple overtime shifts. She kept her younger sister busy by playing dress up with her. Whenever played, Sara always made them play the sale role; Dinah was the doctor & Sara was the officer.

As a way to not give her parents more stress, Dinah was always studious and responsible, in contrast to her sister's rebellious nature. From an early age, she had a drive of administering justice & making the world a better place.

To keep herself distracted from her mother's illness, Dinah decided to go out for study body president during her freshman year of high school. She did a great job & was well liked by her peers. She figured if she kept this role throughout high school, she would be a shoe in for Gotham University but she wouldn't get the chance. After driving himself into alcoholism, Quentin left his family when Dinah was just fifteen.

With her mom fighting cancer & her sister being just a child, Dinah decided that summer that she couldn't go back to high school. She began working various jobs full time, becoming a waitress, sales associate & lifeguard to name a few. Though she kept her family away from homelessness, they would have to downsize as her checks weren't that great. The family would receive more help after Ted found Sara after school with a black eye. The kids at school had been bullying her due to their financial status. Upon becoming aware of their situation, Ted gave the girls fighting lessons & money to help them out. Between her job, Ted's assistance & the disability checks, the Lance's were able to stay afloat but nothing more.

In 1996, she began working at the Iceberg Lounge as a singer & waitress to get more money for her mother's treatments. Although she was underage, the Penguin felt her voice was too beautiful not to be heard at his club. She knew who the Penguin really was, everyone did, but couldn't pass up the opportunity for this amount of money. With her new checks coming in, Dinah was able to take care of her mother's medical bills & their apartment rent.

### 1999 - 2002: Black Canary

With the finances taken care of, Dinah finally felt she could rest. All she had to deal with was random patrons at the Iceberg Lounge trying to get too close to her. But one patron wouldn't give up, following Dinah as left the club one night. As he had her trapped & prepared to take advantage of her, Dinah let out a scream that not only knocked the man off of her but knocked him unconscious.

She immediately went home & tried to wrap her head around what had happened. She confessed what had happened to her mother but she did not seem thrown up by anything she said. This is when her mother finally admitted she has the same power & that she used to be a crimefighter, going by the Canary & was a member of the Justice Society of America.

Motivated by this revelation, she took her mother's old costume out of the closet & began donning it at night as a crimefighter. Following a rigorous training program under the watchful eye of Ted, Dinah tweaked her mother's identity to become Black Canary. She didn't go out as much as her days were spent with her mother & her nights at the Iceberg Lounge.

In 2000, she started doing random patrols whenever she could. While knocking in some heads one night, she was spotted by Green Arrow, who was in Gotham on business with Batman. He believed she was outnumbered so he though he was coming to her rescue but she quickly subdued all the criminals. Though they bickered upon meeting each other, the two would end getting along well.

It became obvious to anyone with eyes that she was the reason for Green Arrow's growing presence in Gotham. Even villains would make jokes about it from time to time but Dinah always took care of them. After working sporadically for some months, they became intimate & revealed their identities to each other. Learning she was dating none other than THE billionaire Oliver Queen came as quite a shock to Dinah. It didn't help her shock when he decided to pay off all of her family's bills. Dinah was against it as she didn't want him to take care of them but how could she refuse. With the bills paid & Sara's education taken care off, she quit working at the Iceberg Lounge & began working as a full time crimefighter. She handled all the Gotham scum that roamed around her neighborhood & would frequently make the trip to Star City to do the same.

Other than working with Green Arrow & the Bat Family, Dinah wouldn't become part of an official team until the Appelaxian Invasion in 2002. Dinah, along with Oliver, was one of the eight superheroes that sprang into action to defeat the invading aliens. After defeating them & receiving a sanction from the President of the Unites States, the eight of them founded the Justice League.

## Romantic Relationships

* Oliver Queen: Boyfriend (2001 - 2005); Fiancée (2005); Husband (2005 - )

## Powers & Abilities

* **Metahuman Physiology**
	+ ***Canary Cry*:** Dinah possess a extreme level of control of her vocal cords. She is able to mimic sounds, generate any sound she wants. The Canary Cry can reach 300 decibels, which is able to make people ear's bleed & its rumored she can even cause them to go deaf.
	+ ***Sound Immunity***: Her eardrums have a thick membrane which makes her immune to the effects of her own powers as well as other loud noises.
* **Peak Human Condition:** Dinah is in top physical condition due to months of training with Ted Grant. She later received additional training from Batman, further improving her abilities, soon able to flip & even hurl her opponents through the air. Her strength allows her to take on & swiftly incapacitate much larger adversaries. She is even strong enough to flip her opponents over her shoulder & her reflexes allows her to easily dodge sonic screams. Dinah has remarkable durability & resilience since she was able to recover with no visible injuries after being knocked down by an explosion from a sonic scream battle & pinned underneath heavy rubble. Her conditioning allows her to recover from most injuries very quickly, though not superhumanly.
	+ ***Acrobatics*:** She is very nimble, having developed free-running & acrobatics skills. She can drop from a height of several feet without injuring herself.
	+ ***Hand to Hand Combat/Martial Arts:*** Dinah is one of the most skilled martial artist on the planets. She has been trained in a dozen different styles & even learned some Amazon martial arts from Diana. Some styles that she is skilled in are Boxing, Escrima, Jeet Kune Do, Jujitsu, Karate, Krav Maga, Wing Chun & Wrestling.
	+ ***Honed Senses*:** Dinah has sharp hearing & sight, as well as keen skills of perception. She is able to pick up an incoming danger & react extremely quickly.
	+ ***Pain Tolerance*:** She has a very high tolerance for pain. After crashing into a rail with pottery due to a sonic scream shockwave, Dinah soon got back up on her feet & continued fighting alongside her team.
	+ ***Stealth*:** She can quickly vanish from sight after disorienting her enemies with her sonic scream. She can just as easily catch her enemies off-guard without her powers.
* **Archery:** She's skilled enough to impress her partner Green Arrow & can fire arrows with precision.
* **Firearms:** Although she prefers not to use guns, she is more than capable of using them.
* **Indomitable Will:** In spite of Dinah's personal demons, she is a very resilient & driven women.
* **Multilingualism:** Dinah is fluent in English, Japanese & can understand French.
* **Tactical Analysis:** Dinah is considered a strong leader & strategic thinker, which has led to her being the leader of Justice League for a time.
* **Canary Cycle:** Her go to means of transportation is her motorcycle.
* **Oracle Tech**: Her necklace & earrings are used as communication devices from Oracle.
* **Expandable Batons:** As Black Canary, Dinah uses a pair of black expandable batons in battle, which are capable of combining into a bo staff. She is able to wield this weapon proficiently while fighting enemies.

### Weaknesses

* **Throat-Strikes:** If hit with a powerful & accurate blow, she can temporarily lose her Canary Cry.
* **Stubbornness**:To say Dinah is stubborn is like saying the sky is blue. Once her mind is made up, there's no going back for her. She will play things out to its consequences before she changes her course.
* **Loved Ones:** She is extremely protective of her family & close friends. She'll go to extreme lengths to protect her own. But beware... she's trained herself into one of the best martial artists in the world.

### Ratings

* **Intelligence:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Strength:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Speed:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Occult:** 1 - Nonexistent
* **Weapons:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Range:** 6 - Expert / Advanced
* **Strategy:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Combat:**  7 - Master / Elite
* **TOTAL:** 160 - Threat Level 4 / Moderate Threat

## Trivia

#### General

* When the Titans was formed, she was like their den mother. Because many of the members didn't have moms or parents, they came to view Dinah in that way.
* Despite her den mother persona, Dinah was never afraid to tell it like it is. She is very straight-forward & becomes blunt when her patience is ran out.
* Though she identifies as Christian, she states its complicated.
* Dinah plays the harmonica to strengthen her vocal cords for her Canary cry. Oliver says that it help in other departments as well.
* Dinah's mother, Laurel Drake, was a member of the Justice Society & operated as the name Canary before retiring.
* Described as a pure force of nature, she's utterly unstoppable when innocent lives are on the line.
* She has a rare Rh-negative blood type, same as her husband.
* Her maternal grandfather Charles Drake was quite the man. He has a notorious history of metting a young lady, quickly marrying her, having a kid (maybe two), getting divorced then dropping off the radar to do it all over again. One of his other children is Jackson Drake, Tim Drake's father. Charles is also the brother of Rachel Drake, Rita Farr's mother.

#### Relationships

* Her best friend is Helena Bertinelli. Despite their distinct personalities, they get along well as neither holds their tongue with the other. Together with Barbara, they started the Birds of Prey.
* She looks to Ted Grant as her father figure.
* Though her dad was a good father up until her mother got cancer, she said that none of that mattered once he left & that she could never forgive him for leaving their family in their time of need.
* Roy once said, "When I was little, I used to think of the three, Ollie was the toughest. I was wrong," as a reference to Dinah.
* Dinah was the leader of the Justice League for May 2009 until February 2018.
* While Simone is her only biological child, she does not differentiate between her & her adopted children when discussing them.
* Dinah has been around Artemis just as long as Oliver, becoming her surrogate mother. Even after Paula was released from jail, their relationship didn't change. Her kids even call her grandma.
* At the Iceberg Lounge, she became good friends with Evelyn Crawford aka Starling. Evelyn got involved with of the workers named Wendell Sharp & the two got married. When Dinah discovered he was hitting Evelyn, she handled him herself. After the beating she gave him, he was crippled.

## Notes

* The quote by Roy was actually said in *Justice League of America (Vol 2) #3.*
* Her dad's name is a nod to the *Arrowverse* while her mom's name comes from the comics.
* Dinah's job as a PE Teacher is from *Green Lantern* (Volume 2) #83.
* Being related to Tim Drake is a nod to roysovitch's Earth-27.