The DC Comic Review

Super Heroines (cont.)

Black Canary

While not every women in the DC universe had such a beginning as wonder woman, born out of feminist ideals before the word had any real power. Black Canary, also known as Dinah Drake Lance and Dinah Laurel Lance (to be explained later) is a martial arts expert and the latter being the modern Black Canary.

Her first appearance was in an edition of Flash Comics in 1947, as Dinah Drake Lance. She was a supporting character in the Johnny Thunder Series, at first appearing as a villain. It was later revealed that she was merely infiltrating the organized crime ring. As she grew in popularity she over took John Thunder feature and got her own. Thus was written her back story. She was originally a florist, with black hair, that wore a wig to fight crime. Her love interest was Larry Lance, a member of the Gotham city police department  She soon joined the JSA. Sometime in the 1950’s she, along with the rest of the JSA, stopped being published.

Later revived with the rest of the golden age heroes on Earth-2, Black Canary went on to fight along with the JLA in their many JSA/JLA crosser comics. It was also revealed that sometime during the 50’s she married Lance. He was later killed in 1969 when the JSA and JLA fought Aquarius, he died trying to save her life. She then moved to Earth-1, to get away from the grief and have a fresh start. After that she started dating Green Arrow (a legendary relationship in the DC universe.) During this time she also got her famed Canary Cry (blamed on a dose of radiation she received at some point).

In retcon, or retro continuality, it was established that Dinah Drake Lance was really Dinah Laurel Lance, her daughter during JLA issues 219 and 220. Sometime during the 50s, Dinah and Larry, her late husband, had a child. The infant, Dinah Laurel Lance, was ‘cursed’ with the Canary Cry by the Wizard. The problem was that while it was powerful the baby couldn’t control it. Dinah Drake asked her old friend Johnny Thunder (the feature she replaced) hit the babe with a thunderbolt, but it didn’t work. Then Thunderbolt kept the child in suspended animation (but aging all the while) in his native dimension. It was her parents hope that a cure could be found, or at least a way to control it. Seeing how much it hurt the couple to see their child in pain Thunderbolt erased their memories and convinced them they the baby had died. He did this save them from the pain that their child was in pain.
After the battle with Aquarius, Dinah realized she was dying from the radiation she was exposed to during the battle (While not confirmed this was most likely the battle that gave her the Canary Cry to begin with). Thunderbolt, Black Canary and Superman of Earth-1 arranged to transfer Dinah's memories into the body of her now-adult daughter, still in the suspended state in Thunderbolt’s dimension, while not letting Dinah believe anything unusual had happened to her.

This retcon was written to deal with the fact that Dinah was originally much older than the rest of the JLA and perhaps most importantly her romantic interest, Green Arrow.

The Dinah Drake married Lance and still had her florist business. In a Times Past-style story in Birds of Prey, Lance was an acquaintance of Jim Gordon, father to Barbara Gordon. A few years later, their daughter, named Dinah Laurel Lance, was born (The modern Black Canary). Growing up, Dinah Laurel was surrounded by her mother's old friends in the disbanded JSA. Like a surregate family Dinah looked up to them. Dinah wanted to follow in her mothers footsteps. Dinah Drake, didn’t want her to do this, thinking it was to dangerous.

However, Dinah Laurel had her own "Canary Cry" – in this version, the result of a metagene not present in her parents – which she is fully able to control. Unlike her silver age counter part.

Now Black Canary works with the all female superhero team named, Bird of Prey. The team includes, Barbara Gordon, Huntress and others.

Black Canary, or some form of her, has been in the DC universe for quite a long time. While not receiving the top billing of other heroes, or even heroines, she is an important character and interwoven into the fabric of DC.

Vixen
Vixen, aptly named after a female fox, was introduced in Action Comics #521. Her back story is rather simple compared to other heroes. Orphaned, Vixen aka Mari McCabe fled to America where she used her beauty to become a model, and with that wealth travel the world. On a trip back to Africa, she came across her uncle, and got back the Tantu Totem, using its power to become the Vixen.
Though only existing since the early 80’s, she has made a nice impact on the DC universe. Only of the few heroes of African decent, and even fewer African Women (though technically she is African America, but not in the sense you might understand it).
Vixen wears an African artifact object called the Tantu Totem, a fox-head (again the name Vixen)  shaped talisman given to her ancestors by the African trickster Anansi. Vixen can make direct contact with Earth's Morphogenetic field. This allows her to mimic the abilities of any animal she can think of, by simply focusing on a specific animal's abilities and then drawing it directly from the field. Currently, she seems to have to call out the name of the animal she wishes to draw power from in order to use that power such as saying "bear" before she could use the power of a bear.

Huntress

Perhaps the most interesting of all of the heroines I have studied the huntress started out as a villain during the golden age. She routinely battled Wildcat. The Huntress, aka Paula Brooks, first appeared in Sensation Comics #68.

She was later retroactively renamed the Tigress in the book Young All-Stars.

The Silver age version Helena Wayne, the daughter of the Batman and Catwoman of Earth-Two. Earth-Two was also the home of the Golden Age versions of various DC characters. Established in the 60’s as to have a place where the golden age heroes adventures took place.

Created by Paul Levitz and Joe Staton, and Bob Layton she first appeared in All Star Comics #69 (December 1977) and DC Super-Stars #17, both issues came out in the same month. The bulk of her solo stories appeared as backup features in issues of Wonder Woman.

Helena was trained by her parents to become a superb athlete. Helena began her super-hero career when a criminal blackmailed her mother Catwoman. Helena, deciding to bring the criminal responsible to justice, created her custom and weapons. Helena, after being successful decided to continue to fight crime, under the code name the "Huntress."

During the 1985 megaseries Crisis on Infinite Earths, Helena was killed off. After Crisis ended, Helena Wayne's existence, like that of her parents and Earth-Two's Dick Grayson, was retroactively erased from the remaining Earth and the world no longer remembered her.

Following the character's death and erasure from history in Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC created a new Huntress, Helena Bertinelli, whose costume and weaponry are similar to Helena Wayne's.

Following the megeaseries event, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and thanks to the characters popularity she was reborn as Helena Bertinelli. This new Helena was the daughter of Gotham’s mafia bosses. After seeing her family gunned down in a mafia hit she vows vengeance.

Helena is currently a member of the Birds of Prey.

Renee Montoya

Renee, created for the critically acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series is a uniformed beat cop partnered with Harvey Dent. She, like Harley Quinn was one of the characters created by Batman: The Animated Series later introduced into the comic continuity. She first appears in Batman 475 #1992. She is then promoted to homicide detective and partners with Crispus Allen.

She is also an important character in the weekly year long comic title of 52.

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Next Issue: The Villians