The Black Canary flies into action from her perch at Sherwood Florist.
Artistry, compassion, good-timing, industriousness, and enough forbearance to deal with brides. Such are the mighty virtues of florists. One might add humility, too, since flower shop owners tend to work anonymously, the unobtrusive figures hovering around the edges of every big event.
It only makes sense that this “mild-mannered” trade would make the perfect cover for a superheroine: The Black Canary, outfitted in fishnets and a push-up black bathing suit. Check her out, and hang on to your shears!
Robert Kanigher invented the character for DC Comics in 1947, and Carmine Infantino drew her black curves and blond mane (a wig for disguise). A mere mortal, she used her “Canary Cry” to serve the cause of justice. You’ll have to track down some old issues to figure out precisely how wailing brings the bad guys down.
The story goes that Dinah Lance, the Clark Kent behind our screeching valkyrie, always wanted to be a police officer but wasn’t chosen to join the force. In sadness, she turned to her beloved mother’s occupation and opened Sherwood Florist (get it?). Because florists always know everything that’s happening on the inside of a community, Dinah’s perspective makes her uniquely able to sniff out criminals and, slipping into her fishnets, then swoop into action. This terrific comics site gives plot summaries for every Black Canary episode, including each element of “Forensic Floristry”.
In “The Riddle of the Roses,” a millionaire’s nephew “orders every flower in Dinah’s shop to be delivered to his house. Why?… He stuck an emerald he stole from his uncle to a rose, using chewing gum as adhesive. After the heat died down … the flowers were to be delivered to his house where he could retrieve his emerald.” Not so fast. Dinah becomes the Black Canary and it’s Pop, Zow!
In another strip, “Dinah Drake’s flower shop is converted into a delicatessen by crooks as part of an elaborate scheme to steal a rare stamp.” Huh? Well, anyway…Zzzt! Poing! Truth and fair stamp ownership prevail, thanks to our super-florist.
Did you know about Dinah (a.k.a. The Black Canary)? If not, we hope you get a charge out of her exploits.
One source reports that recently Dinah closed up shop, “abandoning the Florist trade. Dinah now operates as a mobile freelance operative acting in part on the backup and information of Oracle.” Say it ain’t so!
We prefer thinking that she’s still filling orders at Sherwood, that inside every reticent florist is a dominatrix, battling the forces of evil with a scream.
(Originally published January 13, 2007)
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