Canary Returns on this Week's ARROW

Sara Lance returns to the present time in this week's episode of Arrow.  And with her return, comes the Black Canary costume!

Caity Lotz as Canary/Sara Lance in Arrow 2.13.

SuperHeroHype has the full plot synopsis, as well as more images and a video clip for Season 2, episode 13 titled: "Heir of the Demon".  Check it out!

Top 10 Black Canary Moments of 2013 Part 3

Click here to review 7 - 4.

Click here to review 10 - 8.

From Injustice: Gods
Among Us Chapter 32.
Art by Jheremy Rapaack.

3. "The Prettiest Girl In the Whole Damn World"

Tom Taylor writes Black Canary better than any writer I've seen since Gail Simone left Birds of Prey.  His depiction is so flattering to the character that sometimes I think he's churning out material specifically for me to geek over.

Of course, that's my overreaction to finally reading a version of the character that doesn't sound like she's only a fraction smarter than the worst dumb blonde joke.

Taylor's Canary is competent, respectable, and a formidable warrior.  She knows Batman's secret identity, and the Dark Knight trusts her to fight against the likes of Superman and Green Lantern, unlike in the New 52 where Batman called Dinah "sloppy and dangerous".

While Green Arrow was undoubtedly the breakout character of Taylor's Injustice: Gods Among Us comic, it was often Ollie's scenes with Dinah that showcased the best of both characters.  Their dialogue was sometimes funny, occasionally sappy, but always playful and honest and true-to-character.

In a world where Superman kills wholesale for "the greater good" and Wonder Woman is basically Lady Macbeth, Ollie and Dinah come off refreshingly familiar.  This is how they should act in the main DC Universe!

From Injustice: Gods Among Us Annual #1.
Art by Bruno Redondo.

Best of all, while Black Canary plays second fiddle to Green Arrow in the first year, she doesn't end that way.  For story reasons, she has to come out of Ollie's shadow, and Taylor has promised that in 2014, Black Canary will take a much more proactive and commanding role.  Bring it on!

From Injustice: Gods Among Us Chapter 33.
Art by Bruno Redondo.

2. The Woman in Black

I started watching Arrow because I knew Black Canary was going to be in it.  I didn't expect to like the show, but I did.  It's not without its faults and I don't think it will appeal to every comic fan, even every Green Arrow comic fan.  It ain't The West Wing or Breaking Bad, but taken on its own it's damn enjoyable entertainment.

And the inclusion of the Canary in the first part of season 2 cranked up the Fun-meter to 12.

Watch.

Campy? Sure, but it's Black Canary and Green Arrow kicking ass together in the flesh!

Also this.

That's just the major action pieces of episode 5, which focuses on the League of Assassins hunting Canary.  Why?  Oh, because she used to be one and trained with either Ra's al Ghul or his daughter (probably not Talia--the other one).

A year ago, my expectations for a live-action Black Canary in a DC movie were zilch.  After seeing how well the creators of Arrow have translated her and Green Arrow for their limited audience, I think there's a very real chance that someday I could see Canary on the big screen.

And now...

1. Unmasked!

Expect a lot of this cosplay next year!

If you were paying attention during the first season, you knew that Dinah "Laurel" Lance could not have become Black Canary, not without years of physical and psychological transformation.  If you were paying even less attention during the off-season hiatus, you knew that Katie Cassidy, who plays Laurel, definitely wasn't going to put on the costume anytime soon.  The big question on fans' minds was: Who is this mysterious Canary?

The secret was out before the sophomore season started for those who knew where to look, but most viewers discovered in the fourth episode that Black Canary was Laurel's sister, the long-thought-dead Sara Lance, now played by Caity Lotz.

I think this was far and away the best Black Canary moment of the year.  Ironically, it deviated quite far from my preferred continuity by putting a brand new woman inside the black leather.  But I like this deviation, and I love how they went about it.  There's the shock value that Sara Lance was presumed dead since the pilot episode.  There's the familiarity that, while believed dead, she is a known character, not someone who comes into Ollie's life for no reason.  And there's the originality to it.  Arrow is not beholden to the history and facts of the comic book Green Arrow; they show that every week.  Sometimes their changes suck, but a lot of times they work for the kind of story they're telling in the medium of television.

The unmasking of Black Canary and the reveal that Sara was still alive blew open the doors of possibility in this show.  Anything is possible and no cow is sacred.  We've since seen the introduction of characters like Barry Allen and Solomon Grundy.  A Green Lantern appearance would not surprise me at this point, nor would a connection to the DC Cinematic Universe unfolding in the Man of Steel movies.

So, maybe not all of the Top 10 were great moments.  I could have spared myself the time by cutting this list to six, but I want to get used to the format, because I think next year will be much better.  We'll see more Black Canary in Injustice: Year 2 by Tom Taylor.  We'll see more Black Canary on Arrow, I guarantee.  And we'll get the first original graphic novel with Black Canary's name on it as she teams up with Zatanna!

Looking forward to 2014!

Black Canary on ARROW S2 E4-6

The fourth and fifth episodes of the Arrow's second season are all about Black Canary and she plays a pretty substantive part in the flashback sequences of the sixth.  Needless to say, these were among my favorite episodes of the series.

Season 2, Episode 4: "Crucible"

Because why should Ollie and Malcolm Merlyn
and Shado and the Huntress and Roy be the only
ones who get to have fun with bows and arrows?
I mean, seriously, share the love!

While Oliver has to deal with a sudden flood of military-grade weapons onto the streets of his city, Felicity has an epiphany regarding the woman in black leather.  Both times the Canary appeared--to rescue Green Arrow from a police ambush and to stop the Dollmaker--Laurel was there.  Maybe the Canary isn't following Oliver, but rather Laurel (Katie Cassidy).

So Ollie stakes out Laurel's apartment to find Canary (Caity Lotz) watching her.  He captures Canary in a nifty snare trap.  She drops a sonic grenade like the kind she used to get them out of the police station, but this time, Ollie had the foresight to wear earplugs.

Canary speaks to Oliver very familiarly, even calling him by name, and warning him that her identity will rock his world.  He removes her mask to discover the Black Canary is... Sara Lance, Laurel's sister, long thought drowned on the boat that marooned Oliver on the island six years ago.

Ollie has plenty of questions, but she doesn't want to answer yet.  Her sonic grenade explodes into a smoke cloud; when it evaporates, Ollie is alone on the roof.  When he regroups with Diggle and Felicity, Ollie reveals that he knew Sara didn't drown on the Queen's Gambit, but he still thought she was dead because of something that happened a year after the shipwreck.

Back at her clock tower hideout, Sara talks to her young friend Sin.  They exchange a few cryptic remarks about their past.  Later, Sara goes to Ollie's club, Verdant, to find out if he's revealed to her family that she's still alive.  She stays vague about her whereabouts for the last couple years, only hinting at the kind of rough crowd she fell in with to learn how to fight the way she does.  Before they can say much more, Sara's father, Detective Quentin Lance, shows up to ask Ollie for help with his daughter.  Of course, he means Laurel, who has been having problems with drugs and alcohol since Tommy Merlyn's death and her capture by the Dollmaker.  Sara slips away, unnoticed by her father.

Wait, why is her hair different?  Oh, damn --
 I think this screen grab is from the wrong show!

Ollie recruits Canary to help him take down the episode's villain, a gangster called The Mayor who is running guns into the Glades.  Green Arrow and Black Canary naturally make an effective fighting team, watching each other's back and even trading weapons at one point; he uses her bo staff and she uses his bow.  It's a nice little moment.  Anyway, they stop the Mayor and Ollie convinces Canary not to kill him.

Ollie and Sara meet again the next day when she goes to visit her friend Sin in the hospital.  Ollie thinks Sara should tell her family that she's still alive, but she tells him who she really was died on the island.  She also says everyone would hate Ollie forever if they knew what really happened.

Meanwhile, during the flashback sequence, a younger Ollie has been captured and taken prisoner aboard a freighter called Amazo.  He is taken to the captain's quarters where he discovers Sara alive for the first time.

Season 2, Episode 5: "League of Assassins"

After a flashback sequence revisiting Sara's last moments aboard the Queen's Gambit before it sinks, she wakes up in present day in a guest bedroom of Queen Manor.  Ollie tries to convince her to go see her family, but she still thinks it's a bad idea, that there are things from her past that she cannot reveal because they are unforgivable.

In another flashback, we see Sara lying on a piece of debris adrift in the ocean.  A canary lands beside her, chirps, and then takes off.  She follows the bird's flight path, leading her to see a ship in the distance.

While Ollie and Sara discuss Moira Queen's trial, an assassin dressed in what looks similar to Malcolm Merlyn's Dark Archer costume, breaks in and attacks Ollie and Sara.  They fight him to a standstill and he escapes, but not before showing his face, clearly revealing that it's not Malcolm or Malcolm's ghost or anyone Ollie knows.

Ollie takes Sara to the Arrow Cave where she meets Diggle and Felicity.  Ollie gives Felicity some dirt the assassin left so she can trace him back to his hideout, because you know, that's something Felicity can do.

Sara tells the others she doesn't want them involved.  She reveals that the mystery man was gunning for her, not Ollie, and that he was a member of the League of Assassins.  Diggle and Ollie thought the League was nothing but a myth, but Sara assures them it's real and that she is was a member, taken from the island and trained at Nanda Parbat.  This is why Sara cannot return to her family.  She is not the woman they remember; she is a cold-blooded murderer.

Felicity traces the assassin's dirt to an abandoned factory.  Green Arrow and Black Canary confront the man, Al Ow-Al, who claims to have trained Malcolm Merlyn.  Arrow demands that the League stay away from Canary, but that threat doesn't go over very well.  Two more assassins show up and they all begin fighting, with Ollie taking on Ow-Al and Sara fighting the other two.  One of the assassins wounds her, and Ollie breaks off the attack to escape with Sara.

There's already a lot of BDSM stuff going on with that costume, but holding
the bo staff like that just adds layers and layers of subtext.

Oliver stitches up Sara back at the hideout.  He and Diggle reason that Sara's family could become targets if the League really wants her to surrender, so Ollie goes to protect Laurel and Felicity goes to warn Quentin to get out of town... which goes horribly.

Knowing that her father won't take any warning seriously that doesn't come from her, Sara has no choice but to reveal herself to Quentin.  They reunite in a touching embrace and then go to a restaurant.  She doesn't answer his questions about where she's been, but when an abrupt noise startles her, she accidentally exposes her keen reflexes and killer instinct.  Being the good cop that he is, Quentin realizes that she is connected to the Arrow, that she's the Black Canary, and she has been back in the city for weeks.  He realizes that Felicity's warning about him being in danger was true, and that the danger is because of Sara.  He asks if she would have ever revealed herself if her family wasn't in danger.  She says no, and then they leave.

Meanwhile, in the flashback sequences, Sara has been locked in a cage in the ship and abused, until a white man calls the guards off of her.  The man introduces himself as Dr. Anthony Ivo, and claims that he is keeping prisoners in cells as part of his work to save the human race.

Sara brings Quentin to the clock tower, where they are ambushed by Al Ow-Al and the two other assassins.  The Canary has a number of traps set up that throw her enemies off their footing.  Green Arrow arrives in time to stop one of the assassins, while Quentin manages to shoot and kill another one.  Canary fights Ow-Al and kills him over Arrow's objections.  She lets the last assassin live so he can take a message back to Ra's al Ghul's daughter that her family is off limits.

Sara and Quentin have a touching father-daughter moment, but she has to leave in order to keep her family safe.  As long as she's around, the League will keep hunting for her, so she can't be close to her family and friends.  She also can't let her sister or her mother know she's alive because they would never stop looking for her.  Then Sara leaves.

Later, Quentin visits Laurel who is still sheltering an addiction problem.  He promises her things will get better, but he cannot reveal the secret.

Years ago, aboard the Amazo, Ollie is taken to the cabin where he sees Sara who has now been working with Ivo for a year.  She smacks him and addresses him as a prisoner.

Season 2, Episode 6: "Keep Your Enemies Closer"

Sara only appears in the flashback sequences as Ollie tries to understand his new situation as a prisoner aboard the Amazo.  We learn a little bit more about Ivo's plan.  He is looking for the remains of a Japanese submarine crew who were doing genetic experiments to create super-soldiers or super-humans in the 1940s.

Sara appears to want to help him, feeding him information to keep him safe and keeping his identity a secret.  However, she also betrays him, tricking him into revealing that Shado and Slade Wilson are still alive.  However again, she intervenes on his behalf when Ivo is going to kill Ollie, so her loyalty at this stage in the game is entirely unknown.

New Identity/Origin

Obviously, this is not the Black Canary of the comics.  That doesn't bother me, though, because this is not the Green Arrow of the comics.  This show is its own entity with its own rules and history and characterizations and I've grown to both accept and admire that.  So I have no problem with this twist on Black Canary.  Hell, I love it!

After watching the pilot episode, I had a difficult time believing Laurel could ever become Black Canary.  Well, problem solved: she doesn't.  Instead, it's her long-thought-dead sister who trained with the League of Assassins to be one of the best, most cunning warriors in the world.  Halle-freaking-lujah!

Each episode of this new season is as good if not better than the one before, so there is plenty to get excited about.  This mini Black Canary saga, though, has been my favorite storyline in the series.  Obviously, I'm biased about the character, but it feels like a dramatic twist that was earned instead of forced.  The shock of Sara being alive is unexpected, but not ludicrous, and making her a darker, even more tragic reflection of Ollie, adds new dimension to both of their characters.

I hope she comes back again in the second half of the season.

Black Canary on ARROW: S2 E1-3

I had a lot of problems with the first couple episodes of the CW Network's Arrow.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to sit through the whole first season.  But after episode four or five, something just clicked.  I don't know if the show "found itself" or if I just stopped minding the deviations from comic book continuity--maybe both--but I really started digging the series.  All of the supporting cast started to shine (except for Tommy Merlyn), but never at the expense of Oliver.

So I got really excited when I finally finished the first season, knowing that my pretty bird, Black Canary, would finally get a real appearance in the second season premier.

Season 2, Episode 1: "City of Heroes"

This image brings me back to elementary school.

Black Canary shows up toward the very end.  Thea Queen's boyfriend, Roy Harper, is patrolling the Glades, looking to play hero and probably die young.  After saving a potential rape victim, he is outnumbered by the assailants, when all of a sudden, a blonde woman in black leather comes to his rescue.  The Canary uses a bo staff that separates into two batons.  She wails on the would-be rapists and runs away without a word to Roy.

It was already confirmed that this Canary isn't Dinah "Laurel" Lance (played by Katie Cassidy) or her mother (played by Alex Kingston).  This Canary is played by Caity Lotz, and aside from being a different woman, she is clearly better trained than Laurel.

So who is the mystery woman?  Someone brand new?  Or someone we've met before...?  The only other mention we've ever heard "a canary" was a pet bird given to Laurel's sister, Sara, when she was a kid.  That episode, notably, was written by Geoff Johns.

Season 2, Episode 3: "Broken Dolls"

When Oliver is lured into an ambush by Laurel, the Canary comes to his rescue.  Using a sophisticated sonic device, she incapacitates an entire S.W.A.T. team and leads the Arrow to freedom.  Then she disappears.

The Arrow recruits Roy Harper to find this "blond in black leather".  Roy tracks down a woman named Cindy--who goes by "Sin"--and followers her to a clock tower above a church.  The Canary knocks out Roy and questions him, thinking he has been sent by a cryptic "them" to bring her back.  She lets him go when she realizes he's not working for who she's running from.

Later, the Canary shows up to help Arrow stop the Dollmaker.  She's nearly killed when a lucky break drops a bunch of steel pipes on her head (d'oh!), but she turns out fine.  Ollie wants to take the man alive, but Canary kills him before vanishing again.

When Canary returns to her hideout, a man is waiting for her--a man dressed similarly to the Black Archer from season 1.  This isn't Malcolm Merlyn, however, just an assassin dispatched by none other than Ra's al Ghul to bring Canary back.  She says she's never going back and gives the assassin the chance to leave.  When he pulls a knife, she takes it and kills him.

So... Black Canary was trained by the League of Assassins and is on the run from Ra's al Ghul...?

I freaking love that!

Is it too early for them to get married and her to stab him
through the eye during sex like in the comics?

The preview for this week's episode shows the Canary revealing her identity to Oliver, and it looks like it blows his mind.  Who could it be?

...

Okay, enough sources have already revealed that Canary is Sara Lance.  That might explain how she happens to be around whenever Oliver or Laurel are in trouble.  How Sara survived drowning and what happened to her over the last five/six years is a mystery we'll have to watch unfold.

The Costume

I have zero complaints and actually a lot of affection for this costume.  I miss the fishnet stockings, but the stitching in her leather pants at least gives an impression of that cross pattern--a very nice touch.  As for the rest: I really like the mask, and... well, let's not mince words, I appreciate the cleavage.

I'm not crazy about the bo as her weapon, but it's not bad.  And I love her "Canary Cry" being a sonic weapon used to escape the police trap.