All throughout December, we will be examining comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically "overturned" by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent). Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of The Abandoned An' Forsaked. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Today we look at a fairly odd change in the Pre-Crisis history of Black Canary, based on a suggestion from commenter ink-stained dude..

Enjoy!

In Justice League of America #74, Denny O'Neil has Dinah "Black Canary" Lance lose her husband while the members of the Justice Society are brainwashed into fighting the Justice League...

At the end of the issue, Canary makes a decision...

The next issue she develops her sonic scream power.

Years later, Black Canary became a bit of a problem, continuity-wise. It had been determined that the JSA would be built around World War II (when Justice League #74 came out, the JSA were definitely older than the members of the Justice League, but it was unclear just HOW much older), so now the various members were a good deal older than their Justice League counterparts. But why, then, isn't Black Canary older?

In Justice League of America #220, Roy Thomas (inspired by a Marv Wolfman idea) explains it all...

The whole "Black Canary is her daughter" thing was dropped after Crisis. Now Canary's mother was in the JSA while her daughter is the one in the Justice League. That's been Canary's origin ever since.