Despite the creative team's initial distain for guest stars, there was a push for Black Canary to appear on BTAS ... and beyond.
In the early days of the DCAU, the creative team was wary of oversaturating Batman: The Animated Series (BTAS) with guest stars, despite having access to most of them. Said Executive Producer Bruce Timm in a 1993 interview with Animato! magazine, “[e]verybody always wants the Batman-Superman team-up or the Batman-Green Arrow team-up. Those are just too obvious for me. Every time we have come up with one of these guest appearances, we always wanted to make them bizarre” (Kindred). In that same interview, Executive Producer Paul Dini added the following:
To a great extent, we don’t even want to do that. Though we have access to a lot of the DC Comics characters, we have our own special continuity with the Batman series. We don’t feel like violating that. We think that if you bring in Green Arrow or the Flash or somebody, you’re just having them come in and make an appearance. There’s no reason for Batman to seek out those characters. There’s no reason for them to be there except that you are doing a super hero team-up. (Kindred)
Dini later added, in a 1997 interview with Starlog:
The show’s energy is pretty much Batman and his relationship to his other allies. We have to really work to find reasons for other DC heroes and villains not normally associated with Batman to show up. We’re not saying it’s impossible; we’re just saying that, when you do a show like this one, the main focus of your entertainment is on your leads. So, bringing in characters such as Hawkman or Green Lantern gets to be more of a stunt. If there’s a reason for it, fine. If not, it’s a stunt and it tends to detract from your core group of characters. That’s why we don’t do that as often as the fans would like us to do it. (Miller)
So, while not being opposed to having guest stars appear on BTAS per se, they were against having guest stars for the sake of stunt casting. Aside from Superman: The Animated Series (which featured guest stars in 12 of its 54 episodes) and Justice League Unlimited (don’t get me started), the creative team held to this principle quite faithfully.
This is not to say, however, that the series did not use guest stars. Zatanna famously appeared in an episode of the same name, though she appeared as a stage magician rather than a powerful sorceress (she must have discovered her homo magi roots sometime between BTAS and Justice League Unlimited). Western hero Jonah Hex appeared in “Showdown,” an episode featuring very little of Batman and Robin but got made because “Fox loved the idea of doing a western” (Garcia). The series even featured traditional Green Arrow villain [Count] Vertigo in the episode “Off Balance.” So, even with tight borders, the creative team did allow some outside DC characters to visit Gotham City.
And then, or course, there are the characters who were planned to appear … but didn’t.
This is the first installment of They Coulda Been Dark Deco, a series that looks at the DC Comics characters that almost appeared on BTAS. We’ll look at the initial plans, what happened, as well as whether the characters eventually appeared in the DCAU. Today we look at the hypersonic siren, Black Canary.
The Cat and the Canary
Initial reports of a potential Black Canary story can be traced to 1993, when Bruce Timm made the following statement in the animation magazine Animato!: “We had a take on Black Canary […s]he would have been just a private detective who worked with Batman on a certain case” (Kindred). However, nothing became of it, though we wouldn’t find out why until 1998, when Paul Dini reflected on the transition from BTAS to The Adventures of Batman and Robin:
The Fox network, on the assumption that kids won’t watch a kid’s show unless kids are in it, soon began insisting that Robin be prominently featured in every episode. When Fox changed the title from Batman: The Animated Series to The Adventures of Batman and Robin, they laid down the law—no story premise was to be considered unless it was either a Robin story or one in which the Boy Wonder played a key role. […] A potentially intriguing Catwoman / Black Canary team-up was interrupted in mid-pitch to the [Fox] network by their demand “Where’s Robin?” When the writers asked if they could omit Robin from just this one episode, Fox obliged by omitting the entire story. (Dini and Kidd)
And that was that. Unfortunately, we received no further information regarding this denied story premise; as Bruce Timm revealed in a 2004 post on Toon Zone's message boards, "it never got past the 'vaguely-talking-about-the-possibility' stage; nothing was ever even set down on paper." Despite this setback, the character would remain in the public view, as she soon became a popular subject for Bruce Timm’s personal artwork...
…and, as previously stated, when BTAS ended and the creative team began working on a series featuring Superman, one of the proposals was a proto-Justice League show featuring the Man of Steel teaming up each episode with other DC heroes. As seen in the production art featured below, Black Canary was part of the potential cast.
Unfortunately for her, this plan was dropped in favor of a more Superman-centric series. However, even if she was not able to appear on BTAS or STAS, she did make multiple appearances in The New Batman Adventures (TNBA) … in a roundabout way.
Birdwatching
When Batman transitioned from Fox to Kids’ WB! in 1997, a blond character resembling Black Canary began appearing around Gotham City. Her first appearance was in the episode “The Ultimate Thrill,” where Batgirl approached two of her contacts—in the form of a pair of women heavily implied to be prostitutes—for information about supervillain Roxy Rocket, and one of them had the hair and jacket resembling Timm’s earlier artwork. This character would appear again in the 2000 direct-to-video film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and again in Chase Me, the Catwoman short accompanying the 2003 direct-to-video film Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman. While not Black Canary proper, her design frequently crept into the show in the form of a background character.
These "Canary sightings" intrigued the fan community and later, on the now-defunct DrawingBoard message boards, Timm explained these Black Canary “appearances”:
The “Black Canary hooker” first appeared in an episode of The New Batman Adventures [“The Ultimate Thrill”]. Batman and Batgirl are on the phone discussing a case, Batman says, “Are you sure your sources are good?,” and Batgirl says, “Depends on your definition of good” as we pan to two sulky prostitutes. [Storyboard Artist] Darwyn Cooke boarded the scene; thought it’d be funny if one of the hookers looked kinda like Black Canary. [Character Designer] Shane Glines did the model based on Darwyn Cooke’s board sketch.
Cut to several years later: I’m getting ready to design Black Canary for [Justice League Unlimited], suddenly I remember the old Black Canary hooker design, dig it up, and, damn, it’s still pretty damn good. Swap the mini skirt for a one-piece, trade in pumps for cuffed boots, [and] voila, one less character to design from scratch.
And for the continuity-minded out there, no, Dinah doesn’t have any street-walkin’ skeletons in her closet. [I] figure Black Canary was already around as a superhero in the TNBA days, [and] the hooker based her look on Black Canary’s. Yeah, that kinda works.
Meanwhile, during the latter part of this period, the portion of the creative team that transitioned from Kids’ WB! to Cartoon Network were hard at work on Justice League and, while Black Canary was not part of the team's initial line up, she did appear in a legendary Season One episode. Kind of.
A Bird in a Guild-ed Cage
During production for Season One of Justice League, the creative team pitched a two-part episode featuring Black Canary, as well as the Justice Society of America, to DC Comics. The episode, called “Legends,” was intended to be an homage to the JLA / JSA interdimensional team-ups that began with Gardner Fox’s “Crisis on Earth-Three!” in Justice League of America #29 (August 1964), allowing the present-day League to appear alongside their Golden Age forebears. And, while not privy to the original script, it would appear the team’s roster was to include the Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick), the Golden Age Green Lantern (Alan Scott), the Golden Age Atom (Al Pratt), Wildcat, and Black Canary.
However, as recounted by Bruce Timm during a 2001 interview with the website Toon Zone (later Anime Superhero), DC had some legitimate concerns:
What happened was this, from the very beginning, we intended our “JSA crossover” to be a modern-day spin on those old Gardner Fox Earth II stories. We wanted to use the Golden Age JSA, rather than the more recent incarnation, to contrast the “old school” superheroes with a more contemporary take on the characters. Teaming up our guys with the current JSA just didn’t seem to make much sense, somehow. What we’d end up with would be just a mega-sized Justice League, with twice as many heroes to deal with.
Now, taking this course with the story meant that we ended up gently (but affectionately!) spoofing the Golden Age guys, with their old-fashioned primary-colored costumes, their roll call, their teen mascot, their too-good-to-be-true personalities, etc. The fun in the story comes from seeing how the Justice League react not only to the Golden Age heroes, but also to the wild, Golden Age villains and the whole Golden Age-styled world they live in, like an incredibly romanticized version of the late 1940s. All well and good, we thought we were on to something. The script turned out well—exciting, funny, charming, and oddly moving in its own way.
However, DC Comics Publisher Paul Levitz had some concerns with the story. He felt the story as written disrespected the JSA and was an overall an inappropriate use of the characters. We pleaded our case, but we could clearly see his point, too. The DC guys have spent a lot of time and effort in revitalizing the JSA recently [referring to 1999’s JSA series, written by James Robinson, David S. Goyer, and Geoff Johns], to the point [where] it’s now one of their most popular titles. We certainly didn’t want it to seem as if we were saying the JSA was a joke. No disrespect was intended on our end—quite the opposite! We wanted the story to be a love letter to the original JSA and a bittersweet nod to simpler times. Paul saw our point and quickly agreed to a compromise: we’d change the names and designs just enough to make them not quite the JSA, but still get the point across. They’re now the superheroes of “Earth Two-and-a-half,” if you will … kinda similar to what Alan Moore was doing in his Supreme run.
We went back and forth on names for our pseudo-JSA: “Justice Battalion,” “Justice Squadron,” etc. before settling on “Justice Guild” as sounding closest to the original, while making it different enough to keep the folks at DC Comics happy.
It did give us a few hairy moments, as all this stuff was happening at literally the eleventh hour. We were actually on the phone with the legal department, awaiting clearances on our new JGA characters’ names, at the voice recording session. We started recording not knowing what some of the characters’ names were going to be!
It’s funny how things work out. At first, we were still kinda disappointed that we couldn’t use the “real” JSA, but we’ve come to realize that the story actually works better this way. The “Green Lantern,” “Flash,” and “Black Canary” doppelgängers are fairly close to the originals, but the “Wildcat” clone is almost a Batman / Wildcat hybrid, and the “Atom” character has quite a bit of classic Superman in him as well. So, in effect, we’re not just spoofing / paying homage to the JSA, but also to the Fox-era Silver Age JLA, too. Sweet! (Harvey)
And so, to protect DC Comics’ intellectual property, the Justice Society of America became the Justice Guild of America, a variant League from a parallel Earth. And, as part of this deal, Black Canary became Black Siren, which appears to be a combination of the Golden Age Black Canary (who was the mother of the Silver Age Black Canary) and the Golden Age Wonder Woman. One can see the latter in the scene with Black Siren serving milk and cookies, which is reminiscent of how Wonder Woman—easily the most powerful member of the 1940s Justice Society—was an “honorary member” who served as secretary for the Golden Age team (McGuire).
However, while the homage to the early, more innocent days of comic book past was apparent in “Legends,” it didn’t do Black Siren any favors. Harkening back to a time when female characters were often utilized as sidekicks, eye candy, or damsels in distress, Siren managed to be all three—serving in subordinate roles in the Guild, flirting with Flash, getting captured by Dr. Blizzard, and using her combat skills in largely defensive capacities. In fact, the only exception to this dismal showing was during the final fight with Ray Thompson in Part Two. Just like in the BTAS, STAS, and TNBA days, we get an attempt at a Black Canary appearance, but again it didn’t stick the landing. Fortunately in the DCAU, for her, the fourth time was the charm.
Free as a Pretty Bird
Finally, when Justice League was rebooted as Justice League Unlimited in 2004, Black Canary finally made her debut as part of the expanded team, where she was voiced by Firefly’s Morena Baccarin. Featured in cameos in the first season, she was featured prominently in Season Two’s “The Cat and the Canary” and “Double Date” episodes, as well as Season Three’s “Grudge Match.” Drawing heavily from Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone’s powerful portrayals of the character in the Birds of Prey comics series, she was depicted as one of the finest hand-to-hand combatants on the team in addition to her metahuman abilities. She gained an ongoing adversary in the form of Roulette, the criminal entrepreneur who founded Meta-Brawl—the underground, illegal metahuman steel cage matches that she needed to rescue her mentor, Wildcat, from participating in. And her initially flirtatious, later romantic, partnership with Green Arrow—mirroring their long-term relationship from the comics—was a highlight of Season Two.
Looking back on her lengthy gestation process, it is interesting to note how her character profile tracks pretty well with her planned BTAS backstory. For example, in “The Cat and the Canary,” the character shows an aptitude for detective work, and she could very well be a working private detective in addition to being a superhero. For example, she was able to research both Meta-Brawl and Roulette in a relatively short period of time, and she also researched Oliver Queen to see if he was a worthy ally to turn to. And, for those of you who say that it would be a simple matter to background check a fellow League teammate, writer and producer Dwayne McDuffie revealed on his now-defunct Delphi message boards that “[m]embers don’t know each other’s secret IDs unless someone chooses to tell them” (I suspect that doesn’t include the original seven, as Batman is a meticulous paranoid and they were just betrayed by Hawkgirl in “Starcrossed,” but that’s neither here nor there). Finally, in “Grudge Match,” it is revealed that Black Canary is a resident of Gotham City (note the trademark red skies, as well as the immediate proximity to Blüdhaven).
And that’s it. It only took three networks, two pitches, an interdimensional variant, and a questionable connection to the world’s oldest profession until we got a Canary that we could take home to Oracle. However, while her long road from pitch to finished animation ended well, she coulda been Dark Deco.
Works Cited
Dini, Paul and Chip Kidd. Batman: Animated. New York: HarperEntertainment, 1998. Print.
Garcia, Robert T. “Things to Come Second Season.” Cinefantastique. Feb. 1994. 103-105. Print.
Harvey, Jim. “Bruce Timm Talks Justice League: ‘JGA.’” Anime Superhero. XenForo Ltd. 19 Dec. 2001. Web. 23 Dec. 2022. <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/bruce-timm-talks-justice-league-jga.2873701/>.
Kindred, Christopher. “Fox Moves Batman to Saturday Morning.” Animato!: The Animation Fan’s Magazine. Fall / Winter 1993. 29-34. Print.
McDuffie, Dwayne. Untitled. Dwayne McDuffie. N.p. n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2006. <http://forums.delphiforums.com/Milestone/messages?msg=1281.50>.
McGuire, Liam. “Why the Original Justice League Made Wonder Woman Their Secretary.” Screen Rant. screenrant.com. 13 May 2020. Web. 5 Sept. 2023. <https://screenrant.com/justice-league-wonder-woman-secretary/>.
Miller, Bob. “Metropolis Daze and Gotham Knights.” Starlog Presents Batman & Other Comics Heroes. 1997. 36. Print.
Timm, Bruce. Untitled. Anime Superhero. XenForo Ltd. 27 Nov. 2004. Web. 12 Sept. 2023. <https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/once-and-future-thing-on-ytv-tonight.3761531/page-3#post-56040841>.
Timm, Bruce. Untitled. DrawingBoard.org. N.p. n.d. Web. 20 Aug. 2005.
Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and DC Comics.