I know this is hard to believe … but, growing up, I was a bit of a comic book nerd.  Blame Jimmy Spears.  He’s the one who got me hooked on DC Comics as a small child.  Well, that and I never missed a Saturday morning episode of “Super Friends”.  In my youth, I had multiple subscriptions to multiple DC comics.  I would literally stalk the mailman to see if the new edition of “Justice League of America” or “Green Lantern” was in his bag. 

I was only partial to a few certain superheroes, mind you.  I found most of them boring and trite.  Aquaman … lame.  Hawkgirl … overrated.  Atom … insipid.  Of course, I was always partial to the “Big 3” … Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.  If you liked DC, it was mandatory to like these characters.  They are universally loved – probably because the three of them continue to kick it old school, yo. 

But once I discovered Black Canary … I was in love.  Here was a chick who possessed all the cool abilities I wanted to have.  She was a martial arts expert.  (JUDO CHOP!)  She was unstoppable on a motorcycle.  And she had this ear-piercing shriek called the “Canary Cry”.   (In geek-speak:  the canary cry is a high-pitched, sonic scream which Canary deployed to shatter objects and incapacitate her opponents.  She can reach ultrasonic frequencies outside the audible spectrum which render human beings unconscious.  Got it?) 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7NIv-ftj9k&feature=related

In the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s, Canary could do no wrong.  She was about as high-profile as Wonder Woman … and didn’t bring any of that stupid Amazonian baggage.  She was forever dating the hunky Green Arrow.  And when she wasn’t battling bad guys, she owned and operated a flower shop.  When I grew up, I was determined to be Black Canary.  Plus, we were both blondes – although, caveat, Canary wore a wig. 

Right about puberty, I totally lost interest in comics.  Come to think of it, at age 14, I lost interest in pretty much every thing.  I recently saw that Canary’s character was revived on the CW’s “Smallville.”  And while I had absolutely no desire to watch it, it’s nice to see her getting work.   

I still have all my comics tucked away in protective plastic wrappers in my parent’s attic.  About 90% of them feature Black Canary.  And one of these days I’m going to take a trip down memory lane.  But until then I’m just going to have to live with my youth-obsessed crush on Black Canary and her kick-ass moves.