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This One Character Is Among DC’s Best So Why Isn’t She More Popular?
As comics characters go, DC has some great ones. While big names like Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman immediately come to mind, the heavy hitters aren’t the only great characters that make up the vast DC Universe. Characters like Martian Manhunter, various Green Lanterns, and more help to flesh out the overall world, giving fans interesting and layered heroes to root for. But when it comes to the best of DC’s characters, not all of them have achieved the popularity that others have and there is one hero in particular who more than deserves to be a top tier player.
Dinah Lance/Black Canary is by no means an unpopular character. She’s been part of man important stories in DC Comics, has been a major character in a live-action film, and even appeared in live-action television as well. Her powers easily put her on the list of DC’s most powerful heroes and she has major connections to some significant other heroes, cementing her importance to the universe overall. Despite this, she’s just not that popular—which begs only one question: why?
Black Canary Is Unfairly Overshadowed By Other Characters
The biggest reason Black Canary isn’t a more popular character is probably the most simple: she’s overshadowed by other characters. When most people think about Black Canary, they do so in the same conversation as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow. For a lot of comics fans, Dinah is seen as being a supporting member of Oliver’s stories because of their romantic and personal relationship. On some level there is no denying the significance of their relationship; it’s one of the most complex and interesting superhero relationships in comics. But it is also unfair to simply relegate Dinah to a backup player for Green Arrow. From a pure abilities standpoint, Dinah is the more interesting character. Not only does she have her metahuman abilities, but she’s also an imposing hand-to-hand combatant—better than even Batman. She is easily one of DC’s best and most capable fighters, but that is never really highlighted.
And it isn’t just Green Arrow that Black Canary ends up being in the shadow of. If she’s not backing up Oliver, she’s supporting the Justice League. If it’s not the Justice League, she’s taking charge with the Birds of Prey. While other major DC characters get to have solo stories and solo adventures, Black Canary is almost always paired with a team, never really giving her a chance to shine on her own. It’s that placement, with her efforts being in furtherance of other characters or teams, that don’t really allow her to get the appreciation she deserves. Instead, she remains a part of Green Arrow’s world rather than having a place of her own.
Live Action Adaptations Have Done Her No Favors, Either
There’s also the matter of how Black Canary has been portrayed in live action adaptations. While Jurnee Smollett’s performance as Dinah Lance in Birds of Prey was great and one can even make the case for that movie being far better than it was given credit for, that film was really mostly focused on Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn making it another situation where Dinah is overshadowed by a “bigger” character. But even beyond that, the other major live-action portrayal of the character hasn’t helped Dinah, either.
While Laurel Lance was one of the main characters in The CW’s Arrow, how the character was treated in the series was not only controversial among audiences, but detrimental to Black Canary’s popularity over all. Arrow opted to take away the core romantic relationship between Oliver and Laurel in favor of pairing Oliver with Felicity Smoak and while that alone isn’t necessarily a problem, Laurel’s story arc beyond that was full of weird story shifts, awkward and half-hearted development and then the character was senselessly killed off only for an “evil” version to take her place in the overall series. The result was a muddling of the character that was already portrayed in a way that was much less capable than her comic book counterpart. While Arrow’s poor adaptation of the character isn’t the reason she’s not a major comics star, it certainly hasn’t helped to endear the character with fans coming to the comics from the screen.
DC Needs to Give Black Canary a Real Chance to Shine
With serious combat prowess and a very cool metahuman ability, Black Canary is easily one of DC’s best characters. She has a complicated but interesting story, and she’s more than proven over the years that she can stand with the biggest heroes in the DC Universe. She’s a character with great potential and one that deserves to have a real chance to shine on her own and without being the support system for the other heroes. After all, if she can give Batman a run for his money in a fight, she could probably give him a run for his money in terms of popularity as well. She only needs a chance.
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