Dinah Lance/Black Canary

Subject Facts

Full Name: Dinah Laurel Lance
Codename: Black Canary
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Archetype: Meta Hero
Aliases: Dinah Drake
Marital Status: Long term relationship w/ Oliver Queen
Affiliation: Birds of Prey / Justice League

Subject Attributes

Meta-Human Abilities:
Canary's Cry: Dinah possesses a metahuman gene that affords her incredible control of her vocal chords, increasing both the range of sounds she can make but also the power of said sounds. Generally, she uses this power to emit high pitched shrieks that damage and stun foes or effect her surroundings in some other way; shattering glass and reverberating surfaces most commonly. At its strongest, her cry has been measured reaching up to 300 decibels. Prolonged use of her cry at this level, however, can seriously strain and damage her vocal chords. Dinah can also, with a little more concentration and fine tuning, mimic certain other sounds and pitch her voice at differing levels only detectable at certain frequencies.

Standard Abilities:
Martial Artist: Thanks of years of training under numerous mentors, Dinah Lance is an incredibly proficient martial artist. Tutored by the likes of Wildcat and Richard Dragon, she is more than competent in Boxing, Muay Thai, Capoeira, Krav Maga, Kung Fu and Pressure Point Fighting. She is also skilled in Savate, Judo, Aikido, Jujutsu and Wing Chung. However, it is not in just knowing these arts where her strength lies, but in reading them in others and combining various forms to her own advantage - something mastered with years of practice. It must be noted that this training also accounts for her slightly heightened reflexes.

Combatant: It is not just in martial arts that her skill lies, but indeed in all combat. Black Canary knows how to handle a variety of weapons and understands enough about fire arms, bladed weapons and explosives to know how best to overcome them when faced with them, even if unarmed. While more than capable of using them herself, she tends to choose not to as she, like many heroes, has a non-lethal policy when it comes to protecting innocents.

Tactician: While not as well-read as Oracle, Dinah is a more than capable field leader. She understands how a team works, knows how best to utilize strengths and weaknesses and is a naturally apt tactician.

Driver: Dinah is a confident driver, especially of motor cycles. She is confident enough to weave in and out of traffic at high speeds and take off road routes.

Physical Conditioning: To be an effective crime fighter, Dinah Lance keeps herself physically very fit, as much as any athlete would. As such, she has incredible conditioning - and is faster, stronger and generally more agile than most humans.

Paraphernalia:
Beyond her Canary costume and communications devices to keep in touch with Oracle, Canary uses very little in the way of additional equipment. She has a motorbike for transport, although is as happy travelling on foot or via rooftops should she feel the need for a more stealthy approach.

Formerly, during the period in which Dinah was without her Canary's Cry, she used small bombs that emitted a loud and high-pitched sonic sound, acting in a similar manner to her lost power.

Subject Weaknesses:
Mortality: Beyond her Canary Cry, Dinah has no superhuman powers. She is mortally durable, and thus is effected by scratches, scrapes and broken bones. She heals no faster than any other human, and can be killed with gunshots, stab wounds and explosions/

Vocal Damage: Excessive use of her Cry can cause Dinah serious vocal stress, especially when using it to create incredibly piercing or loud sounds. If her vocal chords suffer damage, she is unable to use her powers to their fullest and becomes no more than an adept fighter until they are healed. The time if healing varies depending upon the stress.

Emotional Ties: Dinah considers herself incredibly close to a number of vigilantes, from long time boyfriend Oliver Queen to her closest friend Barbara Gordon, and now her adopted daughter, Sin. If those she feels close to are threatened, Dinah can be forced to act out of sorts - even be controlled - in an attempt to protect her loved ones.

Protector: Canary is a vigilante with little qualms breaking bones and leaving people needing medical attention. However, she is not a killer. This means that there are those always willing to 'go further' than her. Her want to protect people also means she is careful using her Canary Cry, knowing that at its loudest it can have incredibly negative effects on those about her - even if they aren't the target of her attack.

Subject History

Dinah Laurel Lance is the daughter of the Justice Society’s Dinah Drake and private investigator Larry Lance, a former acquaintance of James Gordon. Dinah Laurel knew very little of her father as he was killed when she was very young and was thus raised by her mother, surrounded by Dinah Drake’s friends from her time as a hero. The young girl had always been in awe of the tales of their exploits, especially of her mother’s time as the Black Canary, and Dinah desperately wished to follow in their footsteps and become a super heroine herself.

As one could imagine, the older Dinah had very little time for her daughter’s dreams when focused on an occupation she knew as dangerous, and attempted to dampen the fire the Justice Society had lit within her.

However, Dinah Laurel rebelled against her mother’s wishes and convinced Ted Grant, the Wildcat, to train her in secret. It was during her teenage years that her training became most intensive and it was through her training that she discovered she had a gift – a Canary’s Cry – granted through the existence of meta-genes within her body. Through a great deal of practice she learned how it could be used to aid her in battle and control its pitch and strength. It only added to the potency Ted’s tutelage provided her.

After years of intense training, Dinah Laurel Lance assumed her mother’s former identity - that of the Black Canary – donning her old costume and a blonde wig, starting her vigilantism whilst maintaining a day job as a florist. Her early forays into heroism were tough and filled with mistakes, but she served to let these further the incredible tuition Wildcat had offered and grew from her experiences like a seasoned professional would. It was during these early years she married, although it was a short lived union that ended in divorce. She wouldn’t see her former husband again until much later on in her adult life.

Following her individual success as a heroine, Dinah was invited to become one of the founding members of the Justice League of America. It was her, in fact, who suggested the newly-formed name of the League, referring to her mother’s former tenure with the Justice Society of America. It was through becoming a key part of this new team that she met Oliver Queen – the Green Arrow – a man with whom she would have an incredibly complicated and long lasting romantic relationship despite their vast age difference. Her tenure with the new league took up a number of years of her life, and it was during this time that her relationship with Queen blossomed. Indeed, when he decided to leave the league to move to Star City, Dinah joined him and began her life again there.

Despite working well in their time Star City and setting up a solid base, taking in the young Roy Harper, the pair eventually moved out to Seattle and set up, thanks to Dinah’s past experience, a shop, “Sherwood Florist.” During this time, Oliver experienced something of a midlife crisis, rather suddenly deciding that he wished to marry Dinah and have children and a family – ignoring their age difference and the different stages of life they were at. Canary turned him down, suggesting their lives were too dangerous, a point proven when she was taken captive by a drug dealer she had been investigating.

Her time in captivity found Dinah tortured and beaten to a point in which she lost her Canary Cry and rendered her incapable of having children. When discovered and rescued by Queen, Dinah was in a rather terrible state, both physically and emotionally traumatized and Arrow killed the man who had hurt her – a turning point in the vigilante’s life. She entered counselling in order to help her overcome the sadness she felt, although oddly it was a small fight with muggers which made her feel most like her old self and convinced her return to her Black Canary persona. It was around this time that Dinah first broke up with Ollie after finding him kissing their young shop assistant Marianne.

She continued to fight crime on and off, shocked upon meeting Connor Hawke and having him explain that Oliver, the man she had not seen in months, was his father and had been tragically killed in a fight over Metropolis. Unsure of how to cope with the news, Dinah accepted an offer from the Oracle, moved to Gotham City and began to work as Barbara Gordon's partner. Despite initial frostiness between the two women, the pair eventually formed a strong partnership and the pair bonded over the fact both had lost their powers (in Barbara's case - her mobility.) She felt as though it opened a new chapter in her life. During this time, she used a weapon that simulated her cry, designed by Oracle, and discarded the blonde wig she had worn as a crime fighter, dying her hair blonde and growing it out. She continued to work with Oracle for sometime, and the pair became incredibly close friends.

A meeting with Ra’s al Ghul, an improbable romance and a relationship gone awry caused Dinah to end up being in the clutches of an enemy again, and once more she found herself badly broken. It was only through the interference of Power Girl, Militia, Blue Beetle and Barbara that she was rescued, even though close to death. In order to save her friend, Oracle demanded that Blue Beetle act against Diana's wishes and place her in one of al Ghul's Lazarus Pits. The short bath within the restorative waters healed her damaged vocal chords and broken body, enabling her once again to use her cry and bear children. Reinvigorated, Dinah returned to Gotham with Oracle.

The pair continued to work together, working around the continent with various operatives. It was their continued operation that drew the attention of international criminals, Savante and Creote. The former captured Dinah, holding her hostage in order to blackmail Oracle; hoping to exchange Dinah's life and freedom in return for Batman's true identity. Obviously, Oracle refused, enlisting the help of the vigilante 'Huntress' in order to retrieve her lost friend. Huntress was successful, Savante was sent to Arkham Asylum and Dinah was returned safely. Realising the young woman could be of use, Dinah was able to convince Oracle to let Huntress become the first steady addition to their 'Birds of Prey.' It was shortly after this that Dinah's coaxing heralded some results - as Barbara was taken captive, along with 9 other women who were suspected of being Oracle. Huntress, a turn-coat Savant and Dinah worked as a team in order to rescue Barbara.

This solidified the new 'trio', and in order to aid her team mates, Barbara was able to obtain and secure a shop so that Dinah could re-open Sherwood Florist, and battened down a job as an elementary school teacher for Helena. They continued their operations from Oracle's Clock Tower until a fullscale gang war engulfed Gotham, causing Oracle to raze her base of operations, in doing so losing all her files, affects and the computer system she had spent so long constructing. Offering her support, Dinah aided Barbara in moving the Birds of Prey tech support to the 'Aerie One' aerial base - hi-tech stealth jet. With this move came the Birds fourth permanent member: Zinda Blake, alias Lady Blackhawk, a legendary Word War 2 pilot displaced from her time period following the events of Zero Hour.

Following their move, the team of four continued their work, although various ups and downs saw the Huntress briefly leave and cease contact with the team - disapproving of Oracle's early choice of missions. Indeed, Helena believed they were 'trials' for heroes who had hit hard times and resented being seen as such a person. Dinah continually offered her support to Barbara through this, both following Oracle's discovery that she had been infected with a technological virus and upon her going to apologise to their friend.

Barbara was able to overcome the technological virus with the help of some of the world's best medics, and established herself and her team a new base of operations - one a little closer to the ground and thus more economical - Dalten Towers in the City of Metropolis. It was around this time that Zinda Blake officially christened the group 'The Birds of Prey' and as they continued their heroism, Black Canary emerged as something of a field leader.

Upon Oliver Queen’s resurrection, Dinah travelled to Star City and they were briefly reunited as lovers. However, it was short lived, and Canary returned to Gotham worrying that Oliver had feelings for his youngest and newest protégé, Mia Dearden, due to his former relationship with Marianne. Attempting to distance herself from that part of her life, Dinah decided to stay in Gotham and work with Oracle, fully embracing her key role in the Birds of Prey.

During 'One Year Later', Dinah made it her personal mission to soften the world renowned assassin, Lady Shiva. To do so, she proposed that they trade places, showing Lady Shiva what it was to be a hero, while undertaking a harsh training regimen in an unidentified Vietnamese bidonville herself. The regimen replicated Shiva's early life and training, enabling the Canary to better understand her point of view. Shiva, meanwhile, assumed Dinah's role in the Birds of Prey and became known as the "Jade Canary".

When Dinah realized that continuing to follow Lady Shiva's path will require her to fundamentally change who she was as a person, she ended the training and returned to the United States. She did not return alone. Indeed, Dinah was accompanied by little girl who also had begun the harsh training process inflicted on Dinah, the girl raised as Shiva's successor. Named Sin, Dinah reached out to Oliver Queen for the first time since their split, and used his connections to allow the child to immigrate into the country. In doing so, Dinah adopted the child as her daughter and surrogate sister, and briefly left the Birds of Prey, returning to Star City to live with Oliver once more in hopes of giving the young girl a family.

However, unable to stay away from heroics, Dinah became the chairwoman of the reformed JSA, and used her strategic mind to spearhead a number of missions, and Oliver proposed - adamant that the Canary's return had made him a better man. Dinah did not instantly give her long-time love an answer immediately, but after he, Connor Hawke and Mia Dearden helped rescue Sin following her abduction at the hands of Merlyn, she agreed. Dinah also parted ways with Sin, realising her link to the girl put her in as much danger as she faced when she'd trained under Lady Shiva. She took the child to a hidden monastery, and vowed to visit as often as she was able.

The pair were married in a somewhat fraught ceremony, and spent the months following their wedding fighting crime as a team. However, their marriage was by no means perfect, and Dinah was devestated that Ollie started his own Justice League with Hal Jordan, having not spoken to her about its creation (and with her still serving as head of the JSA). Their argument was concluded when Prometheus attacked their headquarters, and during the battle, destroyed a great deal of Star City, severed Roy Harper's arm, and killed his daughter Lian. Dinah delivered the news to Oliver's protege.

During the events of Blackest Night, Dinah fought her own husband, of whom Nekron had managed to gain control. With the help of Mia and Connor, Dinah was able to overcome Oliver and freeze him solid - though he was restored to life following the defeat of Nekron and the Black Lantern Corps. It was following this that the Arrow Family was rocked by the revelation that Oliver had killed Prometheus following his attack on Star City. Having left the villain's body to rot in his own headquarters, Green Arrow went on the run, and it was left to Dinah to help find him.

Once captured, Queen was jailed for his actions. Dinah visited him,and left her wedding ring with him, explaining that until he had atoned for his sins and proven he could be the Oliver she loved, their marriage was over. She returned to Gotham City, to her old apartment, and rejoined the Birds of Prey.

Subject Interview

The moon’s midnight shine was all but blotted out by dark, endless, foreboding clouds, and what little light crept through the thick layer of smog bore down upon the city of Gotham, illuminating the sidewalks and alleyways in a bone-pale glare. Away from the brightness of the street lamps and car headlights, shadows cast by the Earth’s satellite stretched and twisted unnaturally, forming into eerie shapes, monstrous in their appearance – like most of the creatures that rose the moment the sun set upon the city. The forms of already malformed gargoyles curled in upon themselves, making the buildings that bore them appear like giant mausoleums and tombstones, the demons sat atop their protectors. The distant rumble of traffic and wailing of alarms formed a near constant pulse, as if Gotham were alive, the echoing sounds the throes of a failing heart, heard clear and distinct down every artery and vein- the streets themselves.

From her perch upon the top of the GCPD building, the sprawling city spread out around her. She felt like she was on a raft, risen high above the putrid waters below, ready to extend a helping hand to those flailing to stay just above the surface, to keep themselves drowning in the filth and mire of crime, corruption and no doubt worse. She had never much cared for Gotham, but knew after only a few visits her presence would be more welcomed there than anywhere else upon Earth, even if its other protectors weren’t quite as convinced on the matter.

Indeed, despite a previously decent working relationship, she had found the vigilante known as Batman incredibly curt since she had moved cities in order to take some time away from Star City. Having chosen to live in his domain, she had expected the pair to work side by side in order to help control Gotham’s ever rampant crime rates. However, the opposite was true – The Dark Knight had kept her at an arm’s length and let her work upon her own cases unaided, adamant that she not interfere with his. Dinah Lance had little choice – she knew full well that he never willingly sought help, even when he knew he needed it. She had no want to contend with the brooding and stubborn crusader. It would have been a waste of both their time.

She would have been happy to leave the situation thus, until she had rather accidentally stumbled across something she knew that she needed help with, and unlike Batman, Dinah wasn’t afraid to ask for help. She wasn’t afraid to bounce her thoughts off others – so long as ideas and opinions weren’t forced upon her, merely suggested for the blonde to mull upon. In this instance, the Black Canary had stumbled across a ring of child smugglers operating between Gotham and Star City – his and her homes respectively. She had the names of a few of their lieutenants, and Gotham’s Police Department was sadly lacking in information on any.

She wanted to know if they had any known associates, if there were links to the mobsters that ran Gotham’s streets. Once she had that information – she could continue alone. The real question was how ready Batman would be to volunteer what it was she wanted. He was, after all, just as likely to take what she knew and venture forth to finish things without her as he was to surrender his own intelligence. The young blonde just prayed he’d be a little more forthcoming than in previous meetings – not that she had much hope.

Dinah knew that she could have asked Oracle. Barbara Gordon would have easily found her the answers she sought, time and time again. But that wasn’t the point. Asking Barbs for aid was common place. Asking Batman? It was different, new, and she believed it might build bridges between them, show the grim hero that she was willing to work to support him, rather than take his spotlight or reputation.

Not that Batman classically seeks either of those things…

Stretching a gloved hand out to her right, she drummed her fingers on the large metallic machine at her side – a giant spotlamp that, when illuminated, summoned Batman to the very rooftop on which she stood. Or so it was most commonly thought. She made her way around it twice, staring off into the dark, almost wondering where he was, what he was doing.

Not that she let it plague her too long – she had more pressing things on her mind.

Circling the giant structure twice more, she finally came to the lever she believed operated it. Taking it in both hands, she cranked it hard to her left, and within moments the generator within whirred to life. After a short sputter, a bat symbol adorned the sky – a beacon projected onto the darkness that hung over the city. Satisfied it worked, she folded her arms and leant against the modern torch she had ignited, watching the skies.

“Come on, Bats. Let’s see how effective this thing is,” she muttered to herself. “I should start testing for an average response time.”

Author's Notes

Player Alias: Star / Kory

Other Characters: Koriand'r/Starfire, Cassandra Sandsmark/Aquagirl, Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn, Stephanie Brown/Batigrl, Lorena Marquez/Aquagirl, Jade Nguyen/Cheshire

How did you find ARFD?: Long time member.