PERSONAL DATA

Alter Ego: Dinah Laurel Lance-Harper
Occupation: Crime Fighter. Formerly a Florist.
Marital Status: Married.
Known Relatives: Dinah Drake Lance/ nickname:"Diana" (Mother-deceased), Larry Lance (father-deceased),Roy Harper (husband), Richard Drake (grandfather-deceased),Craig Windrow (ex-husband/divorced)
Group Affiliations:JLA; Partner with Oracle; former founding member of the Justice League of America; Justice League International
Base of Operations: Worldwide. Currently lives in Gotham City. Formerly of Seattle. Formerly of Star City.
Current Status: Active.
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 115 lbs.
Eyes: Blue-Grey
Hair: Natural Brunette. Dyed blond. (Formerly used to wear blond wigs)

HISTORY

Dinah Laurel Lance was the daughter of Gotham City detective Larry Lance and Dinah Drake Lance. Her father had worked with her grandfather... police detective Richard Drake. Her mother was a former member of the Justice Society of America who fought crime as the original Golden Age Black Canary in the late 1940s and 1950s.

As the first Black Canary's experience grew she began to team up with other mystery men and often worked with Johnny Thunder. He was a member of the Justice Society of America and when he left she replaced him, stayed with the JSA for four years until it was forced to disband under pressure from the House of Un-American Activities Committee. The elder Dinah married Larry Lance who was a detective and now had his own Private Investigating firm. They would work together in a P.I. firm as Lance & Lance. During her marriage to Larry Lance, the elder Black Canary would have an affair with the original Starman...Ted Knight. (The elder Dinah would later reveal this to her daughter once the younger Dinah became a member of the newly formed JLA.) As the JSA retired in the 1950's, so did the original Black Canary soon afterwards. Dinah Drake Lance hung up her tights and resigned.

Ten years later the Justice Society briefly came out of retirement in the wake of the appearance of the Reaper in Gotham City, however Black Canary was not one of them. Dinah Drake Lance had settled down in the suburban Bay Ridge outside of Gotham City when she gave birth to her only child, Dinah Laurel Lance.

The youngest Dinah was raised being surrounded by her parents' super-hero friends from the Justice Society of America, rocked to sleep at night by bedtime tales of her mother's heroic exploits. Dinah grew up in the magical world of winged men and cosmic avengers and was fascinated by her mothers former crime fighting life. Young Dinah dreamed of one day becoming a hero in her own right, although her mother was dead set against the idea, wanting her child to lead the normal life without living in constant danger that her crimefighting career had denied her in the JSA.

The appearance of the Batman in Gotham City renewed the dreams of the teenaged Dinah Laurel Lance. Despite her parent's disapproval, Dinah Laurel Lance trained in secret behind her mother's back with her "uncle" Ted Grant, the former JSA member known as Wildcat. When her mother found out, the stress of an argument brought forth the manifestation of a super power in the younger Dinah for the first time. This super power was the Sonic Cry. The source of her Sonic Cry was speculated by Doctor Fate to have been that her metagene was activated by radiation from exposure to Green Lantern's power ring or perhaps Johnny Thunders T-Bolt. Dinah's Sonic Cry was a result of an extra ligament in her throat from the metagene.

At an early stage in Dinah Laurel Lance's life, she entered Gotham University where she met Craig Windrow, a much older returning student who studied accounting. Dinah was swept away and married Craig. She attended Gotham University for one year, but problems came about and she dropped out after her freshman year, and soon got divorced. The young Dinah looked for a new direction in her life and (like her mother before) opened a Flower Shop in Star City (which happened to be the stomping grounds of Green Arrow and Speedy at the time).

Dinah Laurel Lance decided to pursue her dreams, and like her mother, she became the second generation of Lance women to adopt the identity of the crimefighter, the Black Canary. She donned a near exact costume as her mother and relied upon her motorcycle, her detective skills, her martial arts abilities, and her sonic cry.

At the age of nineteen, Dinah Laurel Lance became a founding member of the Justice League of America with members Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter. At a media blitz press conference during the JLA's first year, Dinah Laurel Lance met the Green Arrow who showed up to wish the new heroes well. At first, Dinah loathed the arrogant archer with is initial pick-up lines. During the latter part of JLA's first year, Green Arrow became the first non-founding hero to join the Justice League.

Dinah's mother would don her original outfit one more time when the JSA came out of retirement and joined up with the Justice League. Afterwards the tragedy the elder Dinah had always feared happened when Larry Lance was killed while saving his wife from an alien entity called Aquarius, its radiation also caused a cancer in the original Black Canary. Dinah Drake Lance became more bitter with the world and pleaded with her daughter to retire.

During the second year of the JLA, Oliver Queen would lose his fortune. After a stormy courtship, the younger Dinah became interested in the cocky Green Arrow. Then Green Arrow and Green Lantern decided to go on a six month "Quest for America" in which the two did not return to the JLA until the team's third year. During their travels, Black Canary joined the two Emerald Crusaders and one of the Guardians of OA on some cross country adventures. These adventures drew the heroes closer together and Green Arrow and Black Canary fell in love.

As Oliver and Dinah were adjusting to each other having ups and downs, Oliver Queen paid less attention to his ward Roy Harper (Speedy) and paid more attention to Dinah. Roy got involved with the wrong crowd and became a junkie hooked on heroin. Oliver and Roy had a major falling out and it was Dinah who looked out for Roy and helped him through his major withdrawals and release from heroin. Roy Harper would always be grateful and would consider Dinah one of his best friends for life.

After Ollie and Hal joined back up with the JLA during the team's third year, Dinah announced her love for boyfriend Oliver Queen and the two became lovers and partners for many years afterwards. They would constantly have arguments but they loved each other dearly and would have a relationship stronger than most marriages. The two would eventually move in together in an apartment in Star City. Oliver would at first open a public relations office to help support them above Dinah's Floral shop. She would continue pulling in most of the income more than Oliver over the years as he worked at different ever changing jobs.

In the JLA's fifth year, Green Arrow had had enough and resigned from the JLA. Dinah decided to stay on for another year listening to her lover gripe during the entire year about his former JLA team mates. Briefly Green Arrow would reluctantly join again but other decisions lead Black Canary and Green Arrow with other JLAers to resign when the JLA satellite was destroyed in an alien invasion. The JLA was in flux during the sixth year and Ollie and Dinah continued to live together where she continued to operate as a florist while dabbling in fashion design over the past couple of years. The break from the JLA gave time for Black Canary and Green Arrow to work close together as a pair of crime fighters sharing in many adventures fighting foes such as Count Vertigo and Slingshot.

Eventually, while looking at a scrapbook of her mother's cases, Dinah looked for a change and wanted to get out of her mother's shadow. Dinah Laurel Lance adopted a new costume around the time she was fighting a villain named Bonfire and continued to fight crime as the Black Canary with a renewed vigor. Soon afterwards, during the JLA's sixth year, Dinah rejoined the newly revamped Justice League with Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle II, Guy Gardner, Batman, Dr. Fate, and Captain Marvel.

It was sometime shortly after the League's new formation, and just prior to Ollie's failed bid for Mayor of Star City that Dinah was abducted by Durlans and successfully replaced. She spent the next five years a captive on the Dominion planet of Elia.

SPECIAL POWERS AND WEAPONS

Dinah was born with the ability to produce a Sonic Scream that can cause physical damage to others. She was born with an extra ligaments in her throat that was activated by her metagene. She is a superb athlete, acrobat, and detective. Black Canary is also a Judo Master and an expert at other Martial Arts. Black Canary used to have the ability of a Sonic Scream that could incapacitate her opponents.

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