Black Canary (Prime Earth)

Origins


Dinah Drake was a vigilante and former special operative who was once a member of Team 7 and led the Birds of Prey with distinctive sonic scream known as the Canary Cry.

Dinah grew up as a street kid in Gotham City, until she was caught dumpster diving by Desmond Lamar, the owner of a local dojo. Taking pity on her, he allowed her to stay at the dojo in exchange for helping with the building's maintenance. This went on for years, and she grew to think of him like a father as he took her on as a student at his dojo. When he discovered that he had terminal cancer, he left the care of the dojo to Dinah in his will, and she took up instructing his classes. Unfortunately, he had been keeping the local gangs from muscling in on the dojo for protection money. When the power outage that hit Gotham prior to super-storm René's arrival left the city in the dark, Dinah had been away from the dojo, and happened to encounter an injured man working for John Lynch. The man gave her a device before dying, and she soon found herself being chased by a gang of ninjas who sought to take it for themselves. She fought them off for a while, but was eventually overwhelmed. Fortunately, John Lynch and his men arrived in time to save her life. When he returned her to her dojo, she found it had been destroyed during the riots. Realizing she had nothing left, Lynch offered her the chance to join him in Team 7.

Team 7
Dinah Drake and Kurt Lance were selected by John Lynch to form a government-run team meant to police Metahuman threats. That team would become known as Team 7.

With Team 7, Dinah and Kurt were sent to first recruit the others. Once assembled, their first mission was to investigate the movement of a floating prison ship called "The Float" which had been over-run by its prisoners following exposure to a virus derived from the Black Diamond. Their mission would take them to Sentinel Island, where the Black Diamond was protected by the ghosts of all of those who died there. Unfortunately, they were not the only ones looking for the diamond. Despite Slade Wilson becoming possessed by the Diamond's dark prisoner for a time, they managed to recover it. After that mission, Dinah realized that John Lynch's plan for the team was to put them through the wringer, and essentially give them powers.

Eventually, Dinah would come to marry Kurt, but soon after, she would come to believe he had been killed by her own hand.

Birds of Prey
A year after leaving Team 7, Dinah was still searching for remnants of the metahuman organization known as Basilisk. She had a lead that pointed to the Iceberg Lounge, and so got a job as a bouncer in the employ of the Penguin. There, she met and befriended Starling, and was given the codename of Black Canary. When her investigation was compromised by Batgirl, the three women joined forces in catching the Basilisk agent. This experience led Dinah to feel the need to be on a team again.

Dinah contacted Ev Crawford, and the two of them formed the Birds of Prey, an all-girl team of vigilantes. After an encounter with a group of near-invisible martial artists known as the Cleaners, they discovered a mind-controlling villain called Choke had been creating sleeper-agents who could fight, or even explode if the correct mental trigger was heard.

Dinah also recruited Katana and Poison Ivy, but things got worse when it became clear that Choke had managed to infiltrate Dinah's own mind. Dr. Trevor Cahill determined that the mind control was facilitated by an experimental anti-stroke drug, which begged the question as to how Dinah had come to have it in her blood stream. Choke's influence was much more pervasive than that, though, as the entire team began experiencing strange lapses and inconsistency in their memories. Eventually, suspicion was cast on Dr. Cahill, but after Katanna killed him against Dinah's wishes, it became clear that he was not Choke, and the mind-controller had escaped for the time being.