Larry Lance

LARRY LANCE

Real Name: Larry Lance

Class: Human

Occupation: P.I.

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: Dinah Drake Lance (Black Canary, wife, deceased), Dinah Laurel Drake (Black Canary, daughter), Richard Drake (father-in-law, deceased)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Gotham City, 1940s era

First Appearance: Flash Comics #92 (February, 1948)

Powers: Larry Lance was a skilled P.I. armed with a handgun.

History: (Flash Comics #92) - P.I. Larry Lance was a frequent customer of Dinah Drake’s flower shop, and she was always annoyed that he was brash, seemed overly familiar with her and called her baby. Lance bragged that she should show him more respect because he was on the case of the vehicles that kept disappearing on Franklin Turnpike. An armored car was passing through the turnpike, and Canary decided to investigate herself as Black Canary. The armored car saw headlights coming straight at it and swerved into a service road. Black Canary encountered Lance in the dark, and at first each thought the other was the crook behind the disappearance. The actual criminal knocked them out and tied them up. She put them on a log and sent them down the river, but as they rapidly approached a waterfall Canary used her chin to open up a locket she kept around her neck that contained a miniature knife and freed them. Canary and Lance took out the crook and her gang. They realized she kept a giant mirror on the turnpike that reflected the headlights of the vehicles coming through, fooling them into thinking they were about to crash. The service road led to a gang-plank and a large storage unit, effectively disappearing the vehicles. The next day Lance visited Dinah’s shop saying he wanted to buy flowers for Black Canary, who he’d developed a crush on, but Dinah pointed out that he didn’t know where Black Canary lived.

(Flash Comics #93) - Larry Lance walked into Dinah’s flower shop to make a purchase for a new client he was trying to win over. Larry told Dinah his client was helping him expose a new racket in town, and unexpectedly his client appeared. She was fatally wounded and warned Larry he’d be killed next. She was once the member of a cult called the Sacred Order of the Crimson Crystal, led by a mysterious swami. The swami promised the crimson crystal would grant them eternal life, but used his leadership position to fleece the cultists. Lance’s client betrayed the cult and stole the crimson crystal, marking her for death. The cult appeared and dragged Larry away, hoping he had the crystal on him. Dinah changed into Black Canary and realized Larry’s client still had the crystal on her person. The police responded to the hullabaloo and thought Black Canary had killed the former cultist, so she had to fight her way past them. She placed a newspaper ad offering to exchange the crystal for Larry and arranged a meeting with the cult at Marleek’s Bridge. She was ambushed and brought to the cult’s headquarters on Eagle rock Mountain. The swami was pleased to have the crimson crystal back and said it demanded a sacrifice, so Black Canary and Larry Lance had to die. Canary created a smokescreen with capsules hidden in her choker and knocked out the swami, revealing him as crook Bullet Ben under a mask. Canary showed the cultists that the crystal was a phony as well, a hollowed out fake with a battery inside providing its’ eerie glow. Canary told the cultists they shouldn’t be disappointed that eternal life was a sham, they should find something to live for like working for charity. The next day Larry told Dinah about the adventure, but implied he’d saved Black Canary instead of the other way around and Dinah realized he was quite the blowhard.

(Flash Comics #94) - Larry Lance relocated his P.I. office to Dinah Drake’s flower shop, and she suggested he start looking for a real job, like street sweeper. Larry tried to gain Dinah’s favor by buying flowers from flower girl Duchess, but she got annoyed when he told the flower girl Dinah would pay for them. Duchess took the flowers back, saying they were for a regular customer, and when he customer Van Nell arrived she handed them over. There was an explosion and Van Nell perished. Duchess went to the police, saying Dinah and Larry had tampered with her flowers and killed Van Nell. Dinah and Larry fled, realizing they’d been set up. Dinah changed into Black Canary to investigate Van Nell’s home and found that Larry had the same idea, as she found him trussed up by the Duchess and her gang. Duchess had kidnapped the physicist S.N. Lester and duplicated his photon smasher, which she planned on using for a crimewave, starting with the murder of Van Nell. Canary, Larry and Lester were tied up next to Lester’s photon smasher, which the Duchess activated. Fortunately the photon smasher’s light beams hit Canary’s locket, reflecting them back and destroying the machine. Black Canary caught duchess and her gang using their photon smasher to blow up an armored car and apprehended them.

(Flash Comics #95) - Dinah Drake went to work at her flower shop only to find Larry Lance had moved in and set up his new P.I. office. there. Larry said he couldn’t pay his rent because he only wanted to take big cases, and even though Dinah objected vehemently to sharing office space with her he managed to sweet talk her in his own charmless way. Someone claiming to be Black Canary placed a phone order for a black orchid to be delivered to the Lake Drive estate of Andrew Masters. Dinah mailed out the order but wanted to investigate who was posing as her so she sent Larry out to deliver a bouquet while she changed into Black Canary. Canary arrived at the estate and was detained by security, who said she’d killed Mr. Masters after threatening him with a black orchid. Masters’ niece Miss Masters wept, asking Canary how she could kill someone who looked up to her so much. Larry, curious about the Masters delivery as well, showed up, giving Black Canary a distraction so she could escape. She knew she was being framed by her impostor, and was going to tell the D.A. her side of the story, but when she scaled his office building she overheard him on the phone, and he was convinced Canary was guilty because Masters had just left his fortune to her in his will after the fake Black Canary saved him at Gargoyle Head Lake. Canary and Lance found the impostor at the lake, and she turned out to be Miss Masters. Miss Masters was always a disappointment to her uncle, who’d cut her off from his fortune. She impersonated Black Canary and framed her for murder because with her ineligible to receive Masters’ fortune the money would default to her, his closest living relative. They fought and ended up in the lake, where Masters panicked because she couldn’t swim, and agreed to confess to the authorities if Black Canary saved her.

(Flash Comics #96) - Dinah and Larry went to a soda shop for ice cream sodas and discovered the druggist murdered. Dinah said she was going to fetch the police, but used the opportunity to change into Black Canary away from Larry. Larry found a newspaper clipping on the druggist about a society horse show where Mrs. Gorham was having the last public showing of her famous topaz brooch before selling it for charity. The crooks that killed the druggist returned and knocked out Canary and Larry, but fled as the police arrived. Canary and Larry revived and fled when the police accused them of the murder. They knew they’d have to clear themselves and went to the horse show, where the crooks reappeared and stole Gorham’s brooch. Canary and Larry pursued them on Canary’s motorcycle to a hideout outside of town where the crooks took off in a plane. The heroes leaped aboard the plane, and when the crooks couldn’t shake them they parachuted out. The heroes jumped onto the parachutes and made short work of the crooks, wo confessed that the druggist was actually a fence trying to pull the same job they were.

(Flash Comics #97) - On his way to Dinah’s flower shop Larry Lance witnessed Donald Swain, the president of Chemical Alliance, being tossed from a car. Swain was dying, and took a piece of cloth from his mouth, and asked Larry to hide it, saying it was worth millions. When Larry told Dinah what happened she advised they go to the police, but when they left the shop the same car that dumped Swain grabbed Larry and sped off. Dinah changed into Black Canary and traced the car’s license plate to T. Tate, an employee of Eastern Textile Mills. At the mill she found Larry held captive by criminal Threads and his gang. They subdued Canary and tied her and Larry up with thread and bound them to bobbins, spinning them around and demanding to know where the cloth was. When they refused to talk Threads and his men walked away, saying he’d give them time to reconsider. Canary used a miniature flint in her choker to start a small fire that burned the threads that bound them and let them escape. Threads panicked when he realized they were free, and tried to flee, but Canary stopped him in his tracks by throwing a large bolt of cloth at him. He confessed to killing Swain for the cloth, which had a priceless formula for a new type of dye, and Larry revealed he’d had the cloth all along, which he’d fashioned into a tie. Larry returned the formula to Chemical Alliance and later bragged to Dinah about his adventure.

(Flash Comics #98) - Dinah went to her flower shop only to be mystified that it had been converted into a grocery store. She spotted men setting up the shop back to normal bragging about how they’d hoodwinked millionaire Roger Steel, and that the police would think he was nuts if he said he met them in a grocery store that was really a florist shop. Dinah changed into Black Canary and chased them away only to find Steel, shot and wounded out back. Larry Lance arrived, telling Canary he’d been hired as Steele’s bodyguard, and she told him he was doing a pretty crummy job. Crooks had stolen Steele’s priceless stamp the Byzantine Black and had lured him to Dinah’s shop before Larry could stop him. The returned Steele to his mansion, where his niece Elaine doted on him, but the crooks returned and knocked out Canary and Lance. The heroes found themselves on a board balanced by a rock in a quicksand pit and the crooks bragged that if one of them moved the other would go in the quicksand. Canary grabbed a nearby vine to swing herself to safety and brought down a rock that catapulted Larry away from the quicksand. They caught the crooks, who protested that they weren’t the ones who shot Steele. Canary and Lance returned to the Steele mansion, where Elaine was trying to brain her uncle with a pistol. She admitted she tried to kill him because she was impatient for her inheritance.

(Flash Comics #99) - Dinah mistakenly received a package for neighboring florist Danny Deake, and she ran into Larry who wanted to talk to Deake about a lead in a case he was pursuing, tracing a million dollars of stolen radioactive vinium. Deake arrived to take his package when a car full of goons pulled up, gunned him down, took the package and grabbed Larry. Dinah changed into Black Canary and followed them to the Modern Glass Company. Deake’s package contained a vase with some of the stolen virium, which the crooks were fencing using flower shops. They knew they had to eliminate Deake when they learned he was going to spill to Larry. The criminals knocked out Larry and Canary, placing them in a giant hourglass which would suffice them once the sand ran into the bottom. Black Canary used her locked, which was decorated with a canary with a diamond beak, to cut a hole in the hourglass and them. They mopped up the criminals, and Larry asked Canary why she always disappeared right after they finished a case. She promised she’d see him soon, and back at the flower shop Dinah was amused that the forlorn Larry seemed to be counting the minutes, hoping black canary would show up.

(Flash Comics #100) - Dinah and Larry were entranced by a music shop’s window display of a music box with Pierrette figurines, but were startled when the Pierrette shot Pierrot, causing him to fall over. Dinah wanted to know more about the music box, and when they entered the store a customer rushed out and the shopkeeper soon keeled over, dead. Dinah told Larry to get the police, giving her time to change into Black Canary. She examined the peculiar music box, and found it was made by Rex Clay and Pottery. She went to the address and saw Rex, recognizing him as the customer she’d encountered, and his gang filling pottery with stolen diamonds. She went on the attack, but Rex knocked her out with gas that was a non-lethal version of what he’d used to kill the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper was one of Rex’s fences who’d threatened to double cross-him. When Canary awoke she found herself tied to a pole on an enormous music box, with Larry, who’d also tracked down Rex’s address, on another pole. Rex was a sculptor turned criminal and enjoyed making figurines depicting his crimes, so he’d already produced a miniature version of black Canary and Lance, and told them the music box was set to spin them around until they faced each other, at which point it’d explode. Rex and his gang left and when they were back to back Canary grabbed Lance’s hands, and the pressure snapped the poles. They deactivated the explosives and found a miniature of Martier’s Jewelry Shop, and knew it would be where Rex and his gang would strike next. Canary’s judo easily dispatched Rex and his gang. Back at the flower shop Larry bragged about his latest adventure to Dinah and gave her one of her own roses as thanks for setting him off on such an intriguing adventure.

Comments: Created by an unnamed writer & Carmine Infantino.

In the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths DCU Larry Lance lived on Earth-2.

Larry Lance's appearance in Flash Comics #92 was reprinted in Detective Comics I #442, Flash Comics #95 was reprinted in 100-Page Super Spectacular #DC-20.