PERSONAL DATA
Alter Ego: Biri Harper; formerly Black Canary
Occupation: Crime Fighter. Formerly a Florist.
Marital Status: Married.
Known Relatives: Roy Harper (husband), Lian Harper (step-daughter)
Group Affiliations: JSA; Partner with Oracle; former Justice League International
Base of Operations: Worldwide. Currently lives in Gotham City. Formerly of Seattle.
Current Status: Active.
Height: 5'4" (variable)
Weight: 115 lbs. (variable)
Eyes: Brown (variable)
Hair: None (variable)
HISTORY
Things in Star City had become too dangerous for Biri as Dinah; too much risk to her cover identity. Recently, Oliver had just
lost an election as mayor for Star City and the two wanted a change of pace. They
decided to move north to Seattle, Washington.
Dinah purchased a building that resembled a castle from the English Isles. Ollie and Dinah lived together in the
new home which doubled as her new flower shop called "Sherwood Florist". During these first few weeks in
Seattle, Oliver asked Dinah to marry him. She turned him down. Oliver stated he wanted them to start a
family. Dinah said no because she didn't want their children to become orphans of crimefighters. This decision
would forever dominate the remainder of their relationship and their eventual break up.
In the first month while in Seattle, while following a serial killer, Oliver Queen
would meet his archery equal. Her name was Shado. A Japanese assassin who
was killing off a crowd of elder Americans who killed the brother (her father) of
her Yakuza master. Shado went to the United States and one by one through her
skill in archery, killed the men responsible for her father's shame. She carried out
her mission to satisfy her family honor, not simply because she was ordered by
the Oyabun. She killed all the men but one...
During this debacle, Black Canary was investigating drug trafficking there in
Seattle. She was captured by the criminals whom Green Arrow and Shado were
tracking themselves. Dinah was turned over to a torturer name Jankowski. During
one of the worst moments of her life, everything changed. This is what she and her
mother feared but knew it was part of the territory of being a hero in the real
world and could possibly happen. Dinah was tortured, abused, and wanted to die
to escape the pain. Green Arrow managed to break-in to the hide out and seeing
Dinah dangling by changes with a knife at her throat, let loose a razor tipped
arrow with more vengeance than he had ever fired before. Green Arrow killed
Jankowski the Torturer as Shado looked on. She was immediately taken to a
hospital by Ollie in hopes she would recover.
Dinah lost her ability to generate sonic cries when the extra ligaments in her throat were permanently damaged
when she underwent torture at the hands of this sadistic criminal. Dinah was also stricken barren of being able
to have children because of the damage Jankowski did to her. While Green Arrow was off capturing the
remainder of the criminals that had hurt Dinah with the help of Shado, Dinah's mother who was battling cancer
in her final stages, came in secret to hold her daughter's hand as she laid their unconscious. Both of their fears
had become true.
Her spirit broken she found it harder and harder to face the world but with the help of her mother , a
psychologist, Oliver, and a friend named Wren Kole, she fought to recover from her emotional and physical
scars. Once she felt healed ,she returned to crime fighting in Seattle mainly working separately from Green
Arrow. Black Canary also quite the Justice League after her incident and she got rid of the blue jumpsuit
returning to the classic outfit like her mother wore and which she herself began her crimefighting career with.
A year after the torture incident, Dinah Laurel Lance was met by her mother and the two had a long talk. The
senior Dinah told her daughter that it was time for her daughter to retire. The younger Dinah refused saying
that she had to continue. She has to try because if she stopped fighting, she felt she would die.
Very soon afterwards while the active members of the Justice Society were in Limbo fighting
to forestall the end of the world, the original Black Canary finally gave in to the cancer
caused by same entity that had killed her husband years before.
The younger Dinah was rushed to her mother's bedside by Hal Jordan, but it was the
intervention of the Spectre (unseen by the living) who allowed the mother and daughter the
precious last seconds that they needed to make their peace, before conducting her spirit into
the light.
Dinah's and Oliver's relationship crumbled over the next few years. She would decide to try
to have children but also found out that the torture she received ended up making it that she
would be unable to have children. Oliver and Dinah tried to work on their relationship but it
failed. Oliver was always taking Dinah for granted. Oliver got mixed up with another girl
named Marianne (whom Dinah brought into her home) and Dinah caught the two together
kissing on New Year's Eve in a back room. She learned that Oliver and Shado had a child
together on one of his adventures also during this time period. Dinah felt that to Ollie, she
would never be ever to give him everything he wanted. Dinah, unable to bare children,
angered, and cheated on...left Oliver. A little over a year later, Oliver would die in an
explosion inside an airplane over Metropolis.
After leaving Ollie, Dinah would have a few relationships with other men. She also had a
sexual encounter with a young hero named the Ray during one of her adventures where she
had been drugged and had a whopping headache. If anything, she's still a little antagonistic
towards the kid. Black Canary went solo and began changing her look. At one time, she
even ditched her wig and went with a very butch flat top look that showed her natural
brunette hair. She would eventually bring back the wig though.
Dinah heard the news of Oliver Queen's death from his older son she also did not know about until that
moment, Connor Hawke. She gave the remnants of Ollie's possessions she had to his son. She wept for
Oliver. She loved him but Ollie just couldn't be faithful and be there only for her. So Dinah left Seattle and
continued to put her efforts into crimefighting after her Sherwood Florist was destroyed in an explosion.
Black Canary continued operation solo for a while before she was approached by Oracle, she offered her a
new costume and a new direction to her life. Dinah abandoned her wig and dyed her hair blond. She would
team up with Oracle (Barbara Gordon - the former Batgirl) and they continued together as a team these past
couple of years since Oliver's death. Black Canary would also get the chance to work alongside with Connor
Hawke...the second Green Arrow.
Abandoning the Florist trade Dinah now operates as a mobile freelance operative acting in part on the backup
and information of Oracle. The two keep in contact via radio transmitters and have not actually met in person.
In this new international world, Black Canary finds herself running across people such as the Lady Shiva,
Catwoman, and her fellow crime fighter the Huntress.
In recent days, Dinah has been targeted by the martial arts Cult of the Monkey because of her fighting
capabilities and her ties with Green Arrow in the past. She continues to be a formable hero who has entered a
new chapter in her life recently being one of the Birds of Prey with her partner Oracle. Most recently she married long time friend Roy Harper, and with him, rejoined the JLA.
Most recently, the JSA discovered that the Dinah married to Arsenal was not in fact Black Canary; rather she was a Durlan spy posing as Black Canary. It was discovered that the real Dinah, and four other unnamed heroes, were abducted by the Durlans during Invasion! and have yet to be recovered.
SPECIAL POWERS AND WEAPONS
Like all Durlans, Biri was born with the power to alter her own shape and features at will. She is also a master actress, and highly skilled in both unarmed and various forms of armed combat.
