ANNOUNCER: "Things are about to get ugly here, folks."
Kind of late for a charity drop-off, isn't it, boys?
[grunts]
[grunting]
When this bird sings, she can bring down the house.
Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we will explore the comic book origins of the Black Canary.
Black Canary. Green Arrow.
I've noticed you around.
I know.
As with most comic book characters, there are often reimaginings and different versions to a character's past.
We have chosen to primarily follow the storyline which
unfolded in 1983's Justice League of America #219 to 220,
which was expanded upon in 1990's Secret Origins #50,
2012's Birds of Prey #0, and 2013's Birds of Prey #25.
When the mysterious Black Canary debuted in 1947, she didn't have an origin.
In her first appearance, she seemed to be a criminal, tricking the bumbling hero Johnny Thunder
into helping her steal from other criminals.
Soon, however, she was revealed to be on the side of good, despite her "bad girl" outfit.
In her secret identity as Dinah Drake, she ran a flower shop.
As Black Canary, she fought bad guys, often with the assistance of private eye Larry Lance,
whom she eventually married.
Black Canary was originally from the alternate DC Comics world known as Earth-2.
When her husband, Larry Lance, was killed fighting a villain named Aquarius,
she moved to Earth-1 to start a new life.
On Earth-1, she soon developed a romantic relationship with the hero Green Arrow.
How about a wager? If I can get out of this hold, you help me.
[Black Canary grunting] Deal.
[grunts]
She also developed the power to produce a high-pitched sonic siren called the Canary Cry.
Added to her already formidable martial arts skills, this made her even more dangerous.
BLACK CANARY: Watch your mouth!
[screams] [Count Vertigo grunting]
[screaming]
[screaming] [Count Vertigo grunting]
A 1983 Justice League adventure gave readers the chance to delve into Canary's origins further.
In this story, Starman took Black Canary to a strange world called the Thunderbolt Dimension.
While there, she received quite a shock, pun intended.
She came upon a coffin that contained what appeared to be the corpses of both Larry Lance and herself.
More surprises awaited her.
It was revealed that Dinah and Larry had given birth to a daughter who was cursed by an evil magician.
When she opened her mouth, an ear-piercing sonic wail was produced.
The baby was brought to the Thunderbolt Dimension and the magical Thunderbolt creature who lived there
altered Dinah and Larry's memories so they believed that their daughter had died.
You know how they say the first thing you forget about somebody when they're gone is their voice?
You can remember their face
and the way they move,
but you can't hold on to the way they sound.
But that wasn't all. When Dinah decided to move to Earth-1, Superman discovered that she was dying
from radiation absorbed while battling Aquarius.
Superman brought her to the Thunderbolt Dimension, where the Thunderbolt transferred her memories
into the body of her now-grown daughter.
This overly complicated origin became even more problematic
after the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline did away with the whole concept of Earth-1 and 2.
That's why, in 1990, the Canary's origin was revised.
[gunshot]
I heard rumors about a mask that's been protecting girls around here.
In this retelling, she had been raised with the intention of joining the police force.
Unfortunately, in the 1940s, women were not routinely admitted into the police and she was rejected.
This inspired her to become the costumed Black Canary,
eventually teaming up with and marrying her father's partner, Larry Lance.
Their daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance, was visited
frequently by Dinah's super-powered pals in the Justice Society.
She longed to become a crime-fighter herself, but her mother forbade it.
The younger Dinah persisted, eventually getting her way and becoming the new Black Canary.
She also developed her now familiar Canary Cry.
In this retelling, the Canary Cry was apparently a side effect of radiation
from her mother's Justice Society colleagues.
When DC rebooted its entire storyline in 2011, Black Canary also got a major overhaul.
Now, Dinah Drake was a street orphan,
who was taken under the wing of a martial arts master and taught everything he knew.
As an adult, she found herself in the middle of
a battle between government forces and a mysterious evil organization.
Impressed by her abilities, the government drafted her to become a special agent for them.
In that capacity, she met her future husband, Kurt Lance.
She also discovered that she possessed a special "metagene,"
which eventually expressed itself in the form of--you guessed it--her Canary Cry.
Black Canary's origins may have been hard to follow at times,
but this hasn't stopped her from taking her place in the pantheon of DC's finest characters.
She's got steely determination, fierce fighting ability, and tactical and strategic expertise.
That's a winning combination for the heroes and a losing one for the villains.
AL-OWAL: You think...
because you are the beloved...
you will be granted your freedom?
There's only one freedom.
Let me grant you yours.
Are you a fan of the dimension-hopping Black Canary?
For more comic book origins, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
The answer is "yes."
[kiss]
[Black Canary moans]