The CONFUSING HISTORY OF BLACK CANARY 

Lol so the reflection from my ringlight is at anime villain level in this video. Sorry bout that everyone, no more 11pm filming for me, as we grow and the set gets built things will evolve and change. Until then i'll keep playing with those angles...and plotting world domination of course.

Y'know Black Canary just being a legacy title passed down from mother to daughter was always my favorite explanation

"It did not need to be as complicated as it got." DC Comics in a nutshell.

I actually liked her wearing a wig. If wearing a small mask across your face or a pair of glasses can hide your identity then a wig also makes sense.

Hawkman: "Sigh. I have the most complicated backstory in all of comics." Black Canary:"Bird please, hold my beer."

I liked the Ollie/Dinah relationship in DCAU and Young Justice. It actually seemed healthy, which is almost unheard-of in comics, especially DC.

My question is, was she a licensed therapist in Young Justice or was she like picked out of a hat full of names as to who would try to make the kids less angsty

The myth, the legend, the one and only Johnny Thunder - forever alive in our hearts...

Um ... That scene of Black Canary putting her memories into her own daughter has a very Palpatine feel to it.

I've never realized how confusing DC has made their universe. The new changes every few years does drive me bonkers. Seeing your video should be 101 for all future DC writers so they stop the madness and just give us good stories.

God, I still miss Oracle. She was one of my favorite heroines, no costume or anything. Now every time I see Batgirl posing for her stupid phone I wanna scream. Freaking New 52.

I like how Dinah and Barbara Gordon are good friends and both of them (at this point anyway) are named after their moms

The salt caught me off guard. That was hilarious.

The Black Canary/Green Arrow relationship can be interesting if it is well written because both heroes mostly have the same standing and neither is big enough to overshadow the other. Of course, it's not always well written - it certainly wasn't in Arrow - but in theory, a couple working together to fight crime is an interesting idea. As for BC, she's one of the rare character in Injustice 2 that comes off as cool. I like her best as her second origin: a kick-ass woman who became a superhero because she idolized her mom. Simple and believable.

You might think that DC MIGHT take advantage of one of their constant stream of company wide retrofits to have two generations of Black Canary. A mother-daughter team of canaries would be a good thing.

Black Canary's real superpower is getting away with wearing fishnets even when they are out of fashion.

"She is her own mother" Ah, so she's doubly immune to evil brains

Larry Lance didn't die. He just ran off with Johnny Thunder.

My favorite versions of Black Canary are the one from Young Justice and DC Green Arrow Showcase where she makes one hell of an entrance.

Removing The Flash from the timeline might fix all these problems. Seriously.

Actually, most golden age comics had generic titles like SMASH or WHIZ. There was no title character. Usually if a comic was one super hero's name, that meant the book was a solo book, and had 3-4 stories of that hero. 'Superman', 'Batman', 'Wonder Woman', 'Captain Marvel Adventures', 'Green Lantern,' 'Daredevil', etc. "Flash Comics" was weird as the book was named 'Flash' before the Flash was created for it; and the Flash's solo book, when he earned it, was called "All-Flash".

Hi! I'm 73, & I loved all this stuff when I read them back then. You do much better than any other site on you-tube to explain the comics of the silver age. Keep up the Good work!

I got to know Black Canary during the early Birds of Prey miniseries era and as a major supporting character in the Mike Grell Green Arrow series. What I liked about that version of the character was, she was a mature and experienced character in a way that few others were. She had been around the block a few times, and there was a little weariness in her character that gave her a lot more depth than most other DC heroines. It also made her relationship with Barbara "Oracle" Gordon make sense and feel organic, because these were two women who had been through a lot and probably understood each other better than many others. Later DC shoehorned just about every female character they had into the Birds of Prey at one time or another. Those relationships always felt forced, but the original team of Dinah and Babs felt real. In my mind, at the time of those stories she was in her late 30s or even early 40s---again, an unusual demographic for a superhero. Another thing that made her interesting. When DC launched the first Birds of Prey ongoing series, they went with a new art style, and she was drawn like a teenager. They brushed aside the "mature, experienced heroine" part of her character and made her much more generic.

As a Black Canary fan, this video was an absolute delight and was extremely comprehensive and well done! Thank you!! Her post-Crisis and pre New 52 origins are definitely my fave also.

I started reading comics in the 60's, and I remember when Black Canary crossed earths, and I was quite a fan. I also remember when GA & GL traveled across America, and Oliver went from rich to broke. Yeah, I'm old. That said I was a big fan of the romance between Ollie and Diana. And you know what, there are probably as many differing opinions about comics as there are readers, and that's okay. I was also a big fan of the Batman's daughter backup stories, aka Huntress, (which I notice is in your past videos - I only recently discovered 'Casually Comics', and am going through past videos,). As always, thank you so very much for your observations and videos, especially now.

Love Diana with Ollie. She is settling though lol

I kinda miss Black Canary on JLA. Think about it she isnt physically or mentally stronger than Batman neither her powers can be that great standing around The Flash or Zatanna. However everybody treats her as equal and with respect. And she is even chosen to be the leader of JLA. She is liked that only two villains actually dislike her (being Cheshire and White Canary). Even Deathstroke and Lady Shiva risk their life to protect her.

Black Canary: I have such a complicated backstory Legion of Super Heroes: Hold my beer in 5-7 different timelines.

That side story about the band was so Dazzler. I remember that series.

I'll be honest, simply having her mom's memories implanted into her mind isn't nearly as icky as what the title card thumbnail made me think; I was thinking something closer to Loraine and Marty in Back to the Future where Black Canary gets stuck in the past, falls in love with a man in the past, has a daughter by him only to find out he was living under an alias and his real name is her father's ... because he is her father and the daughter she's carrying is going to be her in the future. Okay, so maybe that's also a little bit of Sela from Star Trek: The Next Generation along with BTTF... but with like 1000% more eww.

Readers: so does it mean that she's a- DC: LOOK OVER THERE!

They could have just gone the “clone doesn’t know they are a clone” route. Simplifies everything and similar enough to the original idea

DC's constant reboots have rendered virtually all of their books unreadable. I really tried with a few titles I used to like, and a few that looked fun, but nothing makes sense anymore, and, maybe it's just me, but if felt like a lot of writers aren't even bothering to try to maintain continuity, because they know the execs are just going to decide to make another huge mess again. I don't know if there is an easy solution here, but this reboot thing is not working.

Didn't realize there was anyone with a more convoluted backstory than Psylocke...speaking of, would you do a Confusing History of Betsy Braddock?

Black Canary is My Favorite Heroine She's best in Fighting Skills than Wonder Woman

I've been reading a bunch of the Birds of Prey series that started in the 90's and I love Black Canary. She's one of my favorite DC characters now. :)

I preferred her when she was leading the Justice League. She was not to be trifled with

I love the history lesson. I really like getting these back stories on characters and comics. One that I would like you to tackle would be Zatanna. She has had several changes up to now. 🤔

Yes I called it that black canary would be the next video she's one of my favorite female characters

6:18 Quick plug: the best Johnny Thunder stories can be found in Geoff Johns' run on JSA and the prequel specials that led to the series.

I started reading DC during the new 52. I remember a lot of fans being really angry but I didn't care because it feels like a decent starting point for me. Then Rebirth happened and I got a taste of how the legacy fans must have felt.

Wasn't she on the sweet musical Brave n' the Bold ep where Batman thinks he is Matches Malone? That ruled. And i see you also use that legacy salt... I love legacy salt lol. I have it all over my flashes.

JUSTICE FOR WALLYS KIDS, JUSTICE FOR WALLYS KIDS, JUSTICE FOR JAI AND IREY DAMN IT!!!!! Also same Wally... I ship Ollie and Dinah too...

Johnny Thunder needs more love. He's a charming character who wouldn't last long in today's "everything's gotta be as gritty as possible, no fun allowed 'cause we're too good for that" comics climate, but... basically, he's the luckiest man in the world, and also none too bright. So, he's the worst and best hero ever, bumbling around cluelessly but always saving the day anyway by pure luck. As for the Thunderbolt, well, he ends up connected to this genie who will appear whenever you say his name, Cei-u. So, Johnny would often yell "Say! You!" at whoever he's chasing, and accidentally summon the genie, who he didn't even know about for the longest time. While he was (as mentioned here) too silly to support his own title even in the Golden Age, I could imagine him appearing now and again in anything like "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" or "Justice League Action," some tongue-in-cheek self-referential series that knows how to balance silliness and seriousness.

I wanna hear these reasons for the GA/BC shade. Not pro or con myself, but now I'm curious on your take...

Black Canary has one cluster truck of a back story to sift through here. So glad you were able to put it in a way that I can at least get a handle on it.

People can believe a man can fly, bullets can bounce off a man’s body, two men can survive a nuclear explosion by bonding together, a man can run faster than light, a man can make a costume out of pieces of dwarf Star and a man can live underwater; but they can’t believe a character can stay young.

This is a cool look at Canary. That said, I think the people want to know: did our man Sonny finally relax?

When I was doing research for my Black Canary video, I came across evidence that BC was based on actress Veronica Lake at some point. Regarding the JLA revelation in 83, DC was also paving the road for Crisis during this time by ironing out loose continuity threads, putting them to bed, before Crisis retcons took over.

The saltiness is real. I absolutely love legacy characters, and it makes me so sad whenever they are made dirty by comics... Speaking of which, I would love to see a video about Thomas toro Raymond, since he is one of the first legacy characters and marvel really tends to forget about him. And a little bit of topic, but a video about Jenny Quantum would be great, or the Authority in general.

I know comics is your focus, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the DCAU handled the characters in JL and JLU.

Whatever you may think of Black Canary's story at the time, they did produce some kick-ass 80's style music for her a few years ago.

In the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold season 2 episode 5 “The Golden Age of Justice”, golden age Black Canary died in the line of duty when a ceiling collapsed on her. Her dying request was that the JSA watch over her daughter who grew up to become the new Black Canary. In this story they both have the power of the sonic scream. Was this story-line adapted from any of the existing comic book stories? The show aired between 2008-2011 thanks

One of my favorite heroes. Love her in Birds of Prey and love her under the writing of Gail Simone. You are great with these. I'm a fan of yours now.

"You have your mother's sense of fashion." jay Garrick to black canary ( injustice 2)

Loved the original Black Canary's origin. You should do a video on if Crisis on Infinite Earth was necessary. It messed up a lot of origins like Power Girl, Huntress, The Legion of Super-Heroes. I heard many were confused who was on what earth. From what I heard from other comic book fans, they got it, but it was the comic book writers who were confused because they just didn't do their homework.

New 52 confused the canaries more cus the og canary and her husband in the present timeline but they wrote her as the second one

Thank you for your content, I found it interesting. I have only a **casual** acquaintance with DC comics . It exists primarily from reading my friends' comics in the late 60's and early seventies combined with recent CW programs. I always liked Black Canary, and was unaware of her involved backstory and rebootery.

Whew, it can be ponderous at times. I am glad I discovered your channel; you give a concise synopsis, and save one literally thousands of dollars in the process. My comic days from the 60's up to the 90's were to be treasured, but they were getting so convoluted in the 90's that one just had to step away. Your take and obvious love of them shows through. You derive genuine pleasure from them; one can see that, which makes your channel so enjoyable.

I loved the old comics with multiple stories. Even Bat, Supes, etc Family books.

Green Arrow & Black Canary = Hawkeye & Mockingbird

Fantastic video, great knowledge on the subject! Would love to see more of these deep history dives, subbed!

As soon as I heard that Dinah's last name was originally "Drake" I googled an obvious question and found a reddit thread asking if she's related to Tim Drake and suggesting an AU where he becomes her sidekick instead of Batman's and develops a bird call of his own.

Thanks for this, I've always been a Black Canary fan, but when I tried to research her history back in the day, I had trouble getting my head around the whole thing. You've managed to make a nice and concise explanation that is really easy to follow.

I'm honestly expecting a full on reboot with no "story" reason, just a 100% reboot

Decent recapitulation of a complicated history. Got to say, though, I like Dinah with Ollie.

Started watching this channel yesterday! It is amazing!

How about doing a video on how Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)'s son became his own father and raped his mother!! Yup, comics can be awful lol.

great video full of history which I always enjoy keep up the great work

Sasha! great video! Just subscribed to your channel after watching a few episodes. Okay I am an old/older guy. The comic where you mentioned the origin with her going into stasis and the mother taking the daughters place...I have it! I like her origin where she was raised by her mom -the original Black Canary - and because of being around the members of the JSA and all their super/mystical energy she developed the sonic scream. Di you know that in some of the earlier stories when she first came to earth 1 she could not control the direction of the scream. Also they had her being overly emotional...a lot! There is a Brave and Bold story where she gets upset with Batman because Batman suspects a guy she likes of wrong doing. A far cry (pun intended) from the Canary have today. Great job...looking forward to more videos.

I feel compelled to write a lengthy defense on behalf of Johnny Thunder against that old meanie Carmine Infantino. In the first place, I'm not sure how Infantino would know if "nobody" missed Johnny when he was gone, since not only was there no internet back then, but DC's Golden Age Comics didn't have letters pages, so it probably never even occurred to most readers that they could write in to DC and express their opinions on who they'd "miss" if they were gone, not without some encouragement in the comics themselves asking readers to write in and express their opinion. Such encouragements did happen within the pages of DC's Golden Age comics, but they were few and far between. Second, Black Canary debuted in Johnny's feature in Flash Comics in issue # 86. Know when Johnny's feature in Flash Comics began? Ever since issue # 1, way back in 1939. 8 years. That's an awful long time to feature a "loser" that "nobody" would miss. And there's actually some evidence in one of those few and far between encouragements for readers to write in that readers actually did like Johnny Thunder, or at least they did at the start. As you probably already know, the Justice Society of America debuted in All-Star Comics # 3. Which begs the question, what were All-Star Comics #s 1 & 2 like? The answer is that they were anthologies, just like other comic books. Unlike other comic books, all of All-Star Comics' features were of characters who were already in other comics. This was done to increase their exposure and see if any of them could be popular enough to get their own series. Johnny wasn't in All-Star Comics # 1, but there was a coupon readers could cut out and write in the 3 characters they'd most want to see added to All-Star Comics they could then mail in to DC. When All-Star Comics # 2 came out, it was announced that the winners of this contest were Green Lantern, Dr. Fate...and Johnny Thunder. GL and JT got their own features in All-Star Comics # 2, while it was announced that Dr. Fate would get his feature in issue # 3 (which ended up being as a founding member of the JSA). The most likely explanation for why DF didn't get his feature in issue # 2 is because he didn't get as many votes as GL and JT. So some objective evidence that in 1940 Johnny was either more popular than, as popular as, or almost as popular as Green Lantern (enough to not make a difference) and probably more popular than Dr. Fate. Johnny Thunder was the creation of writer John B. Wentworth and artist Stan Aschmeier (who drew under the pen name of Stan Josephs). They worked on JT's feature together for nearly all of the first 85 issues of Flash Comics, Wentworth writing all the stories and Aschmeier drawing most of them. This kind of long term collaboration between writer and artist was rare in the Golden Age. Their JT stories stood out for their cartoony aspect always played for laughs, with characters sometimes leaning on or even breaking the fourth wall. Johnny did often fight criminals in his feature, but he'd just as likely be blundering into a job he was woefully unqualified for, in either case, getting by with the help of his Thunderbolt. One thing that made Johnny's feature rare and unique for the time is that there were often continuing storylines. Not so much multi-part stories, but often the conclusion of one JT story in Flash Comics would directly lead into the JT story in the next issue. The JSA's first major writer, Gardner Fox, also seemed to have taken a shine to Johnny. The brief framing stories in the JSA were often told through Johnny's POV, and it's clear to see why. Johnny was the member least like any other JSA member- no costume, no secret identity, no powers of his own, not very bright, no more than an average fighter at best- yet, paradoxically, with the command of his Thunderbolt, one of the JSA's most powerful members. In Fox's JSA stories, Johnny functions not just as comic relief, but as a kind of inept Everyman, often providing crucial help at the story's climax (frequently by having his Thunderbolt get the JSA all in one room to face the main villain). Johnny could've been the world's greatest superhero or supervillain if only he wasn't such a total dunce. 1947 seems to have been a year of upheaval behind the scenes at DC that nobody talks that much about. DC fired Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. That same year, Wonder Woman's creator William Moulton Marston died. Gardner Fox was abruptly taken off his three main features, Flash, Hawkman, and the JSA. Alfred Bester was taken off of Green Lantern (Bester didn't create GL, but he'd been GL's main writer for the previous four years and created two of the most frequently seen Golden Age villains Vandal Savage and Solomon Grundy to fight GL). And of course, Wentworth and Aschmeier were taken off of JT. Flash Comics # 86 wasn't just the debut of Black Canary, it was also the first JT story written by Kanigher and drawn by Infantino, a character whose past success these two had nothing to do with and a character they cearly had no respect or interest in. I don't begrudge Black Canary or her success. She is a great character. But to see Johnny badmothed here raised my indignation. And I, for one do miss Johnny Thunder, particularly during the second half of the JSA's original run. The JSA meant less laughter and a more literal uniformity once Johnny was no longer a part of it.

First video I saw from you, will definitely stick around!

I really liked how Black Canary was retconned as one of the founders of the JLA post-Crisis as a side-effect of Wonder Woman's reboot. (because ya *gotta* have a girl in there!) "JLA:Year One" was a great mini and really set up her new status. She served as a bridge between the JSA and JLA and it was a well-deserved status upgrayyyde! Even when Wonder Woman was softly rebooted back to being one of the founders, they didn't necessarily say that Dinah wasn't anymore. She had a good run there between her prominence with the League and featuring in BoP. Oh well.... Flashpoints gonna happen...

4:15 Mark Gruenwald said almost the same thing nearly 30 years ago: "1. Don't get married. 2. Don't have kids and 3. Don't say I didn't warn you."

I remember first hearing the background of her years ago. And then trying to read the new 52 and then being even more confused. She’s one of my favourite characters and I have to laugh how much they kept changing things about her. I like the rebirth version. Ps love the salt. You’re one of my favourite youtubers so it’s great watching you talk about my favourite comic characters. Keep being salty it’s great 😘

The most egregious New 52 part for me is how she got to serve on an elite team of Operators due to "martial arts skills." Even in comics, that's not how that works. Great video 👍😁

I love your channel! Thanks for your content. :)

The really bizarre thing here is how close the current CW Canary matches this in absurdity.

I think just the simple explanation mom Canary gave birth to a daughter who also became the Black Canary was what made the most sense to clean things up. In Gilmore Girls, Rory is actually Lorilai just like her mom. She was just called Rory instead of Lorilai. I don't know why people get so weird about daughter named after their (living) mother. If the mom is deceased and it's an inherited name for girls, it seems to gel better. But women giving their daughters their name for someone confuses people more then sons having their dad's name.

13:00 The new 52 wasn't sure what to do ~with her.~ It just didn't know what to do in general.

Came across your channel by chance but I'm glad I did! You seem cool. Very thorough info too, appreciate it! Subscribed :)

What a wonderful channel! So cool that comics fandom has opened up to include fresh, original takes on some very old characters.When I was a kid, we didn't have comic book stores, so we would run down to the news stand and hope for the best. Now you have a really engaging, international venue with good production values. You are awesome!

You should do a thing on why you don't like Black Canary's relationship with Green Arrow. Like do you have an issue with in in universe or just on a meta level? I think it's nice that they both get to actually be happy with each other and recently I think it's been done decently but I do remember reading a few older Green Arrow comics and wondering why she seemed to be reduced to just a love interest for him.

Discovered this channel today and im like 5 videos deep. love your takes keep up the great videos thank you for sharing.

Your content is amazing and I am so happy to have found your channel! Super informative stuff :)

I am a diehard Post Crisis Canary fan, loved the Mark Waid JLA Year One story, and how much it embraced Canary as one of the founding five. Plus, it had seeds of her and Ollie’s love story...

Thanks for the fun video about one of my favorite characters! I actually kind of liked the Black Canary mini after the New 52, but it certainly wasn't for everyone. But, explaining her backstory to people is certainly a challenge. I worked at a comic store for years, and part of our job was to "educate," patrons about characters/books etc. I loved this part of the job, but when someone would ask about her (which was fairly often, thanks to Arrow), I would just say, "Uh yeah, so she's kind of her own mom, and has been around for ages, but now she's a kung-fu guru who's in an emo band." I wish this video had been around back then, so I could tell them what to watch.

Loved post-Crisis BC; I didn't really stick around for New 52/Rebirth versions (I saw the writing on the wall almost immediately)...

Thank you for getting the history (both in the comics and behind the scenes) right! Excellent research ...although I would have liked to have seen the Veronica Lake association mentioned in the original character design part. Weird factoid about the original (and best) Canary: in virtually all of her solo stories (14 of 16, IIRC) and some JSA adventures, at some point she is knocked unconscious. If the creators wanted to dispose of her believably, a brain hemorrhage or chronic traumatic encephalopathy would have been the ticket. I can send you a PDF of her "greatest hits" panels if you like.

You're great. I hope your channel grows like a weed cause people are gonna love you, I feels that shit

I have a suggestion Make a series about forgotten characters from DC and marvel

Great video! I recently got into Hellblazer and I'm slowly reading all of the 1988 series. Could you do a video on Constantine? I'd love to hear you talk about him you make everything so interesting.

“R.I.P. Johnny! You died as you lived. Maybe. I don’t know.” Thank you for giving me so many spit-up-and-scream laugh out loud moments! I live for your videos!!!

Thank you for this. Black Canary is one of my favorite characters, and your channel is my favorite youtube channel for comics. Your take on the comics is the best and most interesting that I've ever seen.

Carary Arrow are a mutch healthier parting then Lana Lang & Lexx Luther whom still end up married in a lot of contenuities.

One of my favorite characters who I gave up on with the advent of New 52. Love the post, as always!

I just found your channel this week. You do nice work.

This channel lets me freak out about characters when they are going thru a crisis Thanks!

I never knew u had ur own channel now I'm going to subscribe for sure

Thanks for making this video! You brought up some interesting points. I loved the post crisis origins of the mother inspiring the daughter better than the new 52 one. It's a shame that the TV series Arrow never went this route. I was okay with Sara Lance being the first "Canary" on the show too. However, when Sara was telling Ollie how she came up with the name, I wish it was her MOM, Dinah Drake-Lance who gave her the "Canary" nickname as a child instead of the dad. To introduce the character of Dinah Drake-Lance and have her with no ties to the Black Canary name was stupid on the writers' part. Furthermore, did you noticed how Ms. Drake-Lance all of a sudden disappeared from the series once Dinah Drake#2 show up in season 5???🤔👀 Btw, Quentin Lance is actually supposed to be Larry Lance. I believe his name is Quentin Lawrence Lance. Which is why they named their daughter, Laurel( in honor of her father). One last thing, it's funny how Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino gave the character the name Black Canary although her costume up until 1989 was always blue? I'm sure the Blue Canary didn't sound to good? 😂