How Does the Black Canary Get Her Powers
Black Canary Character Art. BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN.
Birds of Prey: The complex history of Black Canary
Birds of Prey character Black Canary has been around for decades, but there's much more to the Pretty Bird's past than meets the eye.
When Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn flies into theaters on Feb. 7, fans will have a chance to see Black Canary take flight on the big screen. Black Canary has had quite a journey spanning several generations. While DC Comics characters like Batman and Wonder Woman have the same origin story (more or less), Black Canary's story is much more nuanced. There's a lot to know about this complicated hero, and her history is as tangled as they come.
According to IMDb, Jurnee Smollett-Bell's Black Canary alter ego is Dinah Lance. If we can safely assume that there is some semblance of comic book continuity in the story, then Smollett-Bell's character is Dinah Laurel Lance, the daughter of the original Black Canary Dinah Drake Lance.
Black Canary's story begins in 1947 when Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino needed a strong female character to appear in a Johnny Thunder story in Flash Comics. Infantino imagined a strong but very attractive woman in a leather jacket and fishnet stockings who could hold her own in a fight. The character made quite an impression with readers, having been portrayed as a crime-fighting superhero trying to bring down a gang from the inside, hence her tough exterior.
Soon Dinah Drake got her own anthology in 1948 (which replaced Johnny Thunder, incidentally), and fans were treated to a look at her story. Drake was a florist who married a Gotham City Police detective named Larry Lance. Over the years she appeared in the Justice Society of America team-ups, and she joined forces with Batman, Superman and Green Arrow.
Dinah Drake Lance's origin takes an interesting turn in Justice League of America #219 (1983). The story establishes that Dinah and Larry have a daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance, who was cursed with a sonic scream that has the ability to debilitate and even kill her adversaries. Johnny Thunder is called upon to help cure her with Thunderbolt, but all he can do is to place her in stasis. Later on, when Dinah is on her deathbed, Superman and Thunderbolt transfer her memories to her daughter and thus Black Canary is reborn.
By 1986 this story is tossed aside and Dinah Drake Lance is given a new origin story that features her training under her detective father, and when he dies she becomes a vigilante who works in a flower shop. She marries another detective, Larry Lance, and they have a daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance. This is the present-day Dinah Lance that fans are familiar with, and this time around, her sonic scream is the result of a mutated gene.
Dinah Laurel Lance eventually joins the Justice League where she meets Green Arrow, and later Black Canary joins Barbara Gordon's Oracle to form the Birds of Prey. Dinah and Green Arrow's Oliver Queen become an item and share many adventures together.
Later on, in 2011, Dinah Drake returns in The New 52 and in this reboot she is the founder of the Birds of Prey, which includes Katana and Poison Ivy, and eventually Batgirl. She receives an all-new origin story post Flashpoint, and then eventually she is revealed to be the lead singer of a band. Oh, and her sonic scream comes from an alien named Ditto.
By the time Rebirth rolls around in 2016, Black Canary has not yet met Green Arrow but when they do meet they become inseparable. In the Rebirth version of the Birds of Prey, Black Canary partners with Batgirl and Huntress. This is the most recent version of the Birds of Prey team, though it's clearly very different from the team depicted in the movie.
It's not uncommon for different characters to take over superhero roles. Dick Grayson has been Batman and Cassandra Cain has been Batgirl, for example. However, with Black Canary, the waters are muddied as she vacillates between mother (Dinah Drake Lance) and daughter (Dinah Laurel Lance). For the purposes of the Birds of Prey movie, fans might learn more about her history but all we have is that her name is Dinah Lance, which doesn't tell us much.
Though her history takes several twists and turns, Black Canary remains rather consistent in terms of her hero alignment and her canary scream. She's also a very skilled fighter and a master of several martial arts styles that make her a formidable opponent.
When Jurnee Smollett-Bell brings Black Canary to life on the big screen, it will be such an exciting moment no matter which version of Dinah Lance they're seeing. The Birds of Prey team have relied heavily upon comic book canon and fans can safely assume that Dinah Lance is in very capable hands.
Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn opens in theaters on Feb. 7.
How Does the Black Canary Get Her Powers
Source: https://fansided.com/2020/01/23/birds-of-prey-history-black-canary/