Forgotten Justice League - Day 11

Day 11 - Forgotten #JusticeLeague

Black Canary

 

Forgotten Justice League members:

 

The cinematic debut of The Justice League is in 11 days, and to countdown let's take a look at members of the Justice League most have forgotten or never knew about.

 

Black Canary first appeared in Flash Comics issue 86 in August of 1947 after being created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino.  One of DC Comics earliest heroines, she has appeared in many of the company's team-up titles and since the 1960s has most often been paired with Green Arrow.  She joined the Justice League in Justice League of America, volume 1, issue 74.

 

At her Golden Age debut, Black Canary was the alter ego of Dinah Drake and participated in crime-fighting adventures with her love interest (and eventual husband), Gotham City detective Larry Lance. Initially, the character was a hand-to-hand fighter without superpowers who often posed as a criminal to infiltrate criminal gangs. Later stories depicted her as a world-class martial artist with a superpower: the "Canary Cry", a high-powered sonic scream which could shatter objects and incapacitate enemies (even ones powerful enough to kill Kryptonians such as Superman). When DC Comics adjusted its continuity, Black Canary was established as two separate entities: mother and daughter, Dinah Drake and Dinah Laurel Lance. Stories since the Silver Age have focused on the younger Black Canary, ascribing her superhuman abilities to a genetic mutation.

 

Black Canary's first live-action appearance was Danulta Wesley's 1979 portrayal in NBC's two Legends of the Superheroes specials. The character appeared in the short-lived 2002 television series Birds of Prey, an adaptation of the comic book. Dinah Lance became Dinah Redmond played by Rachel Skarsten, a teenage runaway with psychic powers. Her mother Carolyn Lance played by Lori Loughlin was Black Canary with a supersonic Canary Cry.

 

In 2008, Smallville introduced Black Canary played by Alaina Huffman as an assassin who is recruited for Green Arrow's team of superheroes. She appears in a number of episodes, including several season premieres and finales.

 

In the TV show Arrow, and other shows in its fictional universe, Dinah Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) is an attorney who commonly goes by the name Laurel. Her sister, Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) returns in Season Two after a six-year absence as a trained assassin for the League of Assassins who works alongside the Arrow (Stephen Amell) to protect Starling City as the Canary. When she dies, Laurel trains to honor her, operating as the Black Canary until her own murder in Season Four. In the spin-off show Legends of Tomorrow a resurrected Sara Lance resumes heroism under the moniker White Canary as prompted by Laurel. Cassidy also portrays Laurel's villainous Earth-Two metahuman doppelgänger, Black Siren, on The Flash, and also in the fifth season of Arrow. Cassidy will reprise her role as Black Siren on Season Six of Arrow as a series regular.  In Season Five, Arrow introduced a new Black Canary in Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy), a former Central City undercover cop with the alias of Tina Boland and possessing a metahuman Canary Cry, who continues the Canary legacy.  Harkavy was promoted to series regular for Season Six.

Sent from Arkham Asylum