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Dinah Drake became the Black Canary, a costumed vigilante that at first posed as a criminal in order to break up gangs and later joined the Justice Society of America. She was eventually succeeded by her daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance.At her Golden Age debut, the Black Canary was the alter ego of Dinah Drake and participated in crime-fighting adventures with her love interest (and eventual husband), Gotham City detective Larry Lance. Initially, the character was a hand-to-hand fighter without superpowers who often posed as a criminal to infiltrate criminal gangs. Later stories depicted her as a world-class martial artist with a superpower: the "canary cry", a high-powered sonic scream which could shatter objects and incapacitate and even kill powerful foes. When DC Comics adjusted its continuity, the Black Canary was established as two separate entities: mother and daughter, Dinah Drake-Lance and Dinah Laurel Lance. Stories since the Silver Age focused on the younger Black Canary, ascribing her superhuman abilities to a genetic mutation.

Powers and Abilities[]

Dinah Drake is an expert at acrobatics and hand-to-hand combat. She can also train black canaries to do tricks. The origin of the Black Canary's canary cry has been retconned over the course of her character history, with it being originally depicted as magical in origin due to being cursed by the Wizard. Later, the cry is depicted as an inborn metahuman ability. Her superpower, the canary cry, allows her to create ultrasonic vibrations whenever she screams, allowing her to severely damage both organic and inorganic objects. Her canary cry has been depicted as having 10-fold the capabilities of most sonic weapons and has even been depicted as breaking metals and having the resonance to affect and shatter Earth.

In other media[]

  • Juliana Harkavy portrays Dinah Drake, introduced in season 5 of Arrow to carry on the Black Canary mantle after Laurel Lance's death in the previous season. A meta-human, she is a former Central City Police Detective who used the name Tina Boland whilst undercover. She gained her sonic scream when the S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator exploded. She is discovered by Team Arrow in Hub City whilst they are searching for a new Black Canary. After they aid her in taking down the man who murdered her partner/lover, she accepts Oliver's offer. She moves to Star City to become a member of Oliver's new team of recruits, and officially joins the Star City Police Department as a Detective. In season 6, Dinah is seen in a new costume while operating as the Black Canary. She discovers that the crime fighter operating in the city under the alias Vigilante is actually her former partner/lover, Vincent Sobel, who survived his murder because of the particle accelerator explosion and became a meta-human. Dinah initially suspects him because of his association with criminals like Cayden James and Ricardo Diaz but reconciles with him after knowing his true intentions, which leads to a big misunderstanding between her and Team Arrow. Her friendship with them deteriorates after Vince is killed by Earth-2 Laurel (In the Arrowverse Earth-2 has villainous versions of the heroes), leaving Dinah determined to get revenge for his death which reinforces a split between Oliver and new members of Team Arrow. Dinah branches out along with Rene and Curtis to operate as a new team for a while, but they all get back together in the end to battle Diaz. Dinah makes amends with Oliver and puts aside her hate for Laurel. In season seven, Dinah becomes the captain of the SCPD. She is outed as the Black Canary, when she uses her canary cry to save Mayor Pollard's life. When Dinah has her throat slit by Stanley Dover, she loses her ability to properly perform the canary cry. She later starts using an upgraded version of the sonic canary cry device, previously used by Sara and Earth-1 Laurel.
  • Dinah Drake appears in flashbacks in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, voiced by Grey DeLisle, depicting her as a founding member of the Justice Society of America and possessing the same "canary cry" as her daughter. She is killed in action when rescuing people from a burning building.
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