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Even before Dinah knew she was a woman, she knew she wanted to be just like her mother. She grew up being regaled with stories about her mother’s time as the legendary Black Canary. Who wouldn’t want to be like Black Canary?
Dinah could still remember being eight years old, sneaking into her mother’s bedroom, and finding her old costume in the back of her wardrobe. What could it feel like, to wear something like that? To become a different person? A different woman?
In that moment, holding onto that old costume, Dinah realized exactly who she was, and who she wanted to be.
She was a girl. She would become a woman.
And she was going to be Black Canary one day.
Things were complicated between Dinah and her mother.
On one hand, her mother supported her during her transition, and even gave her full support when Dinah asked to take her name as Dinah Lance Jr..
On the other hand, her mother didn’t agree with her becoming Black Canary. She said it was dangerous; that the world had changed since she was Black Canary, and she didn’t want Dinah to get hurt in a way she couldn’t come back from.
When her mother found out that Dinah had been training with her Uncle Ted, they’d argued until Dinah felt like screaming.
Then, she did scream, and her Canary Cry shook both the walls of the house and her relationship with her mother.
Dinah loved her mother, but she couldn’t give up on the dream she’d been working towards since she was a child. She was just as much of a hero as her mother had been.
She was power, and fury, and femininity, and grace.
She was Dinah Lance.
She was Black Canary.
For better and for worse, she was her mother’s daughter.