BLACK CANARY (Dinah Lance)
Created By: Robert Kanigher & Carmine Infantino
First Appearance: Flash Comics #86 (Aug. 1947)
Role: Martial Artist, Miss Fanservice
Voice Actor: Morena Baccarin
Finest Moment: Kicking the living crap out of Huntress, Green Arrow and a crapload of punks, all without her powers.
PL 10 (191)
STRENGTH 2
STAMINA 3
AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 12
DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 3
AWARENESS 3
PRESENCE 4
Skills:
Acrobatics 8 (+14)
Athletics 8 (+10)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 4 (+16)
Deception 4 (+8, +13 Attractive)
Expertise (Streetwise) 5 (+8)
Insight 4 (+7)
Perception 4 (+7)
Persuasion 3 (+7, +12 Attractive)
Stealth 4 (+10)
Technology 2 (+5)
Treatment 1 (+4)
Vehicles 4 (+6)
Vehicles 6 (+12) -- Flaws: Limited to Grounded Vehicles
Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Agile Feint, Assessment, Attractive 2, Beginner's Luck, Benefit (League Member), Chokehold, Daze (Persuasion), Defensive Attack, Diehard, Equipment 3 (Motorcycle, Spy Gear), Evasion 2, Fast Grab, Follow-Up Strike, Grab Finesse, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed) 3, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Hold, Improved Trip, Jack-of-All-Trades, Move-By Action, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 6, Set-Up, Takedown 2, Teamwork, Tracking, Uncanny Dodge
Powers:
"Canary Cry"
"Wide Scream" Damage 10 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst, Concentration) (Flaws: Distracting) Linked to Dazzle Hearing 4 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst, Concentration) (Flaws: Distracting, Touch Range) (28) -- [32]
- AE: "Sonic Wave" Dazzle Hearing 10 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone, Concentration) (Flaws: Touch Range, Distracting) (20)
- AE: "Sonic Boom" Dazzle Hearing 10 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst, Concentration) (Flaws: Touch Range, Distracting) (20)
- AE: "Focused Cry" Damage 8 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Line, Concentration) (Flaws: Distracting) (16)
- AE: "Aimed Cry" Blast 8 (Flaws: Distracting) (8)
Offense:
Unarmed +16 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Wide Scream +10 Area (+10 Damage & +4 Affliction, DC 25 & 14)
Sonic Area +10 (+10 Affliction, DC 20)
Focused Cry +8 Area (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Aimed Cry +8 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +3
Defenses:
Dodge +14 (DC 24), Parry +15 (DC 25), Toughness +3, Fortitude +6, Will +8
Complications:
Relationship (Green Arrow)
Rivalry (Huntress)- The two fell into dislike immediately, and they've brawled at least twice. However, they seem to have a comraderie about it, and it eventually becomes a friendly rivalry of sorts.
Responsibility (Wildcat, Her Mentor)- Dinah is still devoted to her mentor-figure, who is "like a father" to her.
Power Loss (Extra Effort)- Dinah can only use Extra Effort on her Canary Cry once- afterwards, it loses it's power for at least a day.
Total: Abilities: 70 / Skills: 54--27 / Advantages: 43 / Powers: 32 / Defenses: 19 (191)
-Black Canary's always been one of the secondary major JLA members in the comics, so it makes sense she'd be one of the bigger cast members once the show got "upgraded" to a fuller cast. Me, I'd've used her instead of Hawkgirl right away for the Big Seven, but that one ended up turning out alright anyways. She of course got hooked up with Green Arrow instantly, but they added a big rivalry with The Huntress, and made her one of the top-tier melee combatants of the League. She practically EFFORTLESSLY beat the crap out of Ollie in hand-to-hand, and beat Huntress up pretty bad in their one fair fight, too. Plus the NASTY beatdown she handed to those thugs in her speaking debut (one of the most well-animated fights of the entire series- my brother was like "OWWWWWWWWW!" when she just STOMPS on that one dude's head). Oh, and the animators seemed to have some fun drawing a "classically" beautiful woman, who had allure and sexiness on her side, rather than just skin-baring costumes (though she had that, too). She was more like a Pin-Up Model than the amazonian Wonder Woman, or the petite and pretty Hawkgirl- a real "1950s" vibe.
-Canary kicks ass. So she's about PL 9 in Melee and on Defense, only making PL 10 because of a Distracting set of Area Attacks, but c'mon- she's one of the top-flight martial artists around (just a tiny notch under Batman himself, and higher than pretty much anyone else), and has Skills & Advantages to the nines. She's good enough to take out most of the other melee fighters, and the Blast can handle alot of top-level guys as well. Note that she can either deafen people with it, or blow stuff apart (such as Roulette's Metabrawl arena- which was obviously Extra Effort of some ludicrous kind, since it covered like 500 feet in a Burst- or Tobias Whale's clothing), but it has the Complication that she'll lose it if she ever goes all-out (which happens a fair bit- she gets a scratchy voice and all afterwards).
About the Performer: Haha, really? Morena Baccarin is best known these days as a slender "Miss Fanservice" type, playing Vanessa in "Deadpool", though she attained fame as Inara the non-quite-prostitute in "Firefly". She was also in all kinds of other nerd stuff like "Stargate" and "V" before working on "Homeland" as The Chick Who Often Gets Naked- I remember her joking on Conan O'Brien's show that when President Obama said he was a big fan of "Homeland", she was at first proud... and then went "Oh my God- the President has seen my boobs". Though she was nominated for an Emmy in 2013 for that show, so it wasn't JUST Fanservice. Her career seems like it should have gone somewhere, but a large number of much younger brunette celebrities have come along right as she was turning forty, so that's probably it, unfortunately.
(From what I've heard his Young Justice cartoon version was probably one of his better incarnations)
Thunderfury Comics >>>>>>> >>>>>>
