I'm a huge fan of Black Canary. I was first introduced to her in the Birds of Prey movie and then dove into the comics of 2000s and early 2010s. And as a completionist I felt the urge to go back to the very beginning of the character. This collection was my first experience with Golden Age comics and I'm happy to say it was a largely positive one. Diving into the history of Black Canary as a character and seeing the elements of her character that were there from the very beginning and endure to this day was was fascinating.

This volume can be split into three distinct periods. The first is Black Canary's origins as a supporting character in the Flash Comics series Johnny Thunder. These comics were the most tedious to get through but only because Johnny Thunder himself is a very uninteresting lead. Regardless in these early outings it's easy to see why Black Canary was spun off into her own solo series. Here she plays the familiar role of the femme fatale and her hyper-competence and take no shit attitude made for an exciting counterpart to Johnny Thunder who was solely defined by his bumbling ineptitude. 

We then move on to Black Canary's solo adventures where Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino establish her backstory as florist Dinah Drake who as solves crimes as vigilante Black Canary. Dinah as Black Canary frequently teams up with perpetually broke private detective Larry Lance to solve murders, thefts and other crimes. Her villains include standard 1940s mobsters and the occasional mad scientists. And while these stories were a tad repetitive (especially when read back to back) there was an undeniable charm to them. 

A lot of it comes from Dinah's dynamic with Larry. I love the way Kanigher often inverted gender roles having Larry be the damsel in distress while Dinah's quick wit and convenient escape tools in hidden her canary shaped collar got them out of snags. Beyond that Larry and Dinah's rapport in and out of costume was pure fun. Their back and forth banter was always a delight to read. And the stories often played with Dinah's secret identity in fun ways. She always knowingly teased Larry about his relationship with Black Canary as Dinah with a wink and nod to the audience about the irony of it all. 

The latter half of the volume sees some of Black Canary's adventures in the 60s and 70s and it was fascinating to see her recontextualized in the Silver Age. In Gardner Fox's stories we see Black Canary team up with other Golden Age heroes Starman and Wildcat to defeat Sportsmaster and Tigress, two supervillains on a crime spree, and Starman's old rival the Mist. I really appreciated seeing the care Fox had for Dinah as Kanigher wrote her. Not only did he maintain original elements of her backstory like her running a flower shop, he even expanded her character with her and Larry getting married off-screen which as a huge fan of the couple was a sweet thing to see.

These team ups were also interesting to read because its the first time in this volume we see Dinah face on true supervillains. Sportsmaster and Tigress were delightfully campy as crime-loving couple cooking up the most hair-brained schemes. Dinah gets to show off her martial arts against Tigress and her rapport with Starman both here and in their team up against the Mist was a fun time and introduced and endeared me to Ted Knight. 

Unfortunately, I didn't love the final story in the volume by Denis O'Neil. This adventure from the 70s is really out of place in the collection as a story about Dinah Lance, the more famous second Black Canary. And placing them side by side the differences between the two characters is jarring. O'Neil here introduces Black Canary as obsessed with Green Arrow in a way I didn't like at all. Dinah Drake in the Kanigher stories in the 40s and Fox's work in the 60s works with men but never feels subsumed by them. But here Dinah gets kidnapped and only finds the strength to escape by remembering some inspirational words from Green Arrow. It felt like such a jarring character regression that didn't sit well with me. 

But overall despite ending on a bit of a dud I'm so glad to have read this collection. I loved learning about the history of one of my favourite superheroes and a had a great time with the adventures of the Black Canary.