She is one of the greatest martial artists in all of DC Comics. Her legacy is one of the few mother/daughter mantles in American comics. And yet, despite having seen more live-action adaptations than any other superheroine, Black Canary is still somewhat obscure.
This is partly due to how DC treated Black Canary as a second-stringer for years. Despite proving popular enough to merit her own feature, most of her publication life has been spent in team books. What few solo series she’s had have been short-lived and of highly erratic quality.
Despite this, Black Canary has developed a loyal following. Fans may disagree on which incarnation they like the best; the spy on the run, the aspiring rock star, or the JSA scion. They all agree, however, that Dinah Drake and Dinah Lance are amazing heroes, regardless of whoever they are in the current universe.
Best Black Canary Comics as of 2025
While the constant shifting of DC Comics’ timeline has changed some characters’ histories, Black Canary started over from scratch several times. Indeed, her status as a mother/daughter duo was brought about because of a retcon. This constant change, coupled with many of her most famous stories being set in team titles, makes it difficult to find a good starting point for her adventures. Thankfully, the past few years have seen an effort to publish more comic collections that spotlight both Dinah Drake and Dinah Lance.
The Black Canary: Bird of Prey
Created by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Carmine Infantino, Black Canary first appeared in 1947’s Flash Comics #86. Originally introduced as a femme fatale to hero Johnny Thunder, she was ultimately revealed as a hero posing as a supervillain. She served as Johnny’s sidekick for several stories, bailing the hapless hero out of trouble with her superior fighting skills.
Within six issues, Black Canary proved more popular than Johnny Thunder, and his feature in Flash Comics became hers. It was here she was given a secret identity, as florist Dinah Drake. She went on to join the Justice Society of America, and quickly became one of DC‘s most prominent heroines. This coincided with an effort to appeal to the growing demographic of women reading comics following World War II. There were several new heroes who shattered the damsel-in-distress tropes common to comics of the time, and Black Canary was one of the most prominent.
The Black Canary: Bird of Prey collects the earliest appearances of Dinah Drake from Flash Comics. It also contains several stories from other action anthology comics of the era. Chief among these is an odd story from 1948’s Comic Cavalcade #25, where Dinah Drake manifests the ability to summon a flock of birds to save her from falling. (Obviously this amazing power didn’t stick beyond that one story.)
JLA: Year One
DC found themselves in quite a pickle in 1987 when rebuilding their reality following Crisis on Infinite Earths. In the classic Earth-1 timeline, Wonder Woman was one of the five founders of the Justice League of America. However, in the new Post-Crisis timeline, the Amazon princess did not leave Themyscira until five years after the JLA was founded. For some reason, Black Canary was substituted for Wonder Woman, though an exploration of this new history would not come for another decade in 1998’s JLA: Year One.
Spread out over 12 chapters, the story introduces Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, Dinah Lance, Arthur Curry, and J’onn J’onzz. These five radically different heroes originally joined forces to repel an alien invasion. This leads them to make the partnership a permanent organization. Inspired by the example of the Justice Society of America, this new Justice League set a new standard for the second wave of superheroes.
JLA: Year One is notable for how it offers thoughtful examinations of many classic heroes. It is most notable, however, in how it defined both versions of Black Canary for future writers. Dinah Drake has mixed feelings about her daughter taking on her mantle. Dinah Lance is similarly conflicted about honoring her mother and her uncles in the JSA, while still making a name for herself. No other storyline has truly examined their legacy with this kind of nuance.
Black Canary: Ignite
13-year-old Dinah Lance has two dreams; follow in her father’s footsteps as a police officer and become a rock star. Unfortunately, bad luck keeps getting in her way, and things keep breaking around her. Throw in a principal who has it out for her, and its no wonder Dinah feels like screaming sometimes.
Little does Dinah realize that all of her problems stem from a family secret and her mother’s life from before Dinah was born. When things come to a boil, it will fall to Dinah to save her family. It won’t be easy. But with the help of her friends and teachers, the young Black Canary may become a bigger hero than she ever dreamed possible. And a rock star!
2019’s Black Canary: Ignite was written for the DC Zoom line of graphic novels for middle-school readers. Despite this, it is easily the best origin story ever written for the Dinah Lance version of Black Canary. The script is full of nods to the classic comics, like Ted “Wildcat” Grant being the gym teacher who trains Dinah in fighting. Beyond that, it’s another great examination of the complicated mother/daughter relationship between the two Dinahs.
Birds of Prey: Murder and Mystery
In 1996, editor Jordan B. Gorfinkel decided to team Black Canary and Oracle in a series of specials. Dubbed the Birds of Prey, the duo proved an effective team, with Dinah Lance as the muscle to Barbara Gordon‘s brain. The duo got a monthly comic in 1999, but it wasn’t a big success critically or commercially at first.
That changed in 2003, when writer Gail Simone took over the title. Simone had turned around the near-cancellation Deadpool series at Marvel Comics. DC hoped she might do the same with Birds of Prey. Simone delivered, to put it mildly.
Beyond further developing the Oracle/Black Canary friendship, Simone introduced Huntress and Lady Blackhawk into the mix. It was her work with Black Canary, however, that many fans found most enthralling. This was largely due to the opening story arc, ‘Of Like Minds,’ which reestablished Dinah Lance as a capable heroine in her own right. This was welcome after years of her being “the girlfriend” or “the sidekick” in earlier comics. Simone’s Birds of Prey run has been reprinted several times, with “Murder and Mystery” being the first volume of the most recent TP collection.
Birds of Prey Vol. 1: Megadeath
One storyline from Simone’s Birds Of Prey that was abandoned in between reboots involved a young girl named Sin. Sin had been chosen by the League of Assassins to be trained as their next great warrior. Black Canary stole Sin away and adopted her as her younger sister. However, she was forced to put Sin into hiding to keep her safe.
The 2023 Birds of Prey series reintroduced Sin into the DC All-In timeline. The opening arc, ‘Megadeath’, found Black Canary assembling a team of women to help her rescue Sin from Themyscira. It seemed the Amazons had a prophecy that Sin would endanger the world. This left Dinah Lance racing against time to save her sister while trying not to spill Amazon blood.
While meant to set up Kelly Thompson‘s Birds of Prey, Megadeath is a Black Canary story through and through. It offered numerous nods to Gail Simone’s take on Dinah Lance, which pleased fans of the classic series. It is also an interesting look at how Dinah tries not to emulate her overprotective mother in her treatment and training of Sin.
How we chose the best Black Canary comics
These comics were chosen to showcase a wide scope of Black Canary stories across time. An effort was also made to choose stories featuring both Dinah Drake and Dinah Lance, which explore the mother/daughter relationship. Accessibility to new readers was also a factor. In the case of the Birds of Prey collections, however, the books chosen focus on Black Canary over the rest of the ensemble.
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