October 6th marks the death of a DC Hero, Mr. Larry Lance. Who you say? Larry, don’t you know who Larry Lance is. You probably do, but let’s take a few moments to talk about Larry Lance and how he affected the DC Universe.
Larry Lance was the originally the husband of Dinah Lance and first appeared in February 1948 right in the middle of the Golden Age. He often served as a ‘mister in disaster’ (male version of ‘damsel in distress’) for the Canary’s stories and being a very capable detective (and member of Gotham Police Dept) , sometimes partner up with his wife. His relationship with Dinah was much closer to a Steve Trevor, Mera, or even Alfred. Larry was a much more capable detective and individual in general then many classic comic counter parts of the day.
Larry Lance was killed off in issue #73 of the Justice League of America in 1969 by the villain Aquarius. Aquarius was a living star sentenced to wander the universe forever. After acquiring Starman’s rod, he uses his ability to control minds and he seizes the will of most of the members of Earth-Two’s JSA. When help arrives in the form of Earth-One’s JLA a battle ensues in between the two groups of heroes pitting hero against hero. During the battle, Black Canary was about to be hit with one of Aquarius’ yellow energy blasts when Larry shielded her with his body. This saved Dinah, but Larry died.
Finding everything there would remind her of her late husband, Dinah Lance left Earth-Two. Taking up residence on Earth-One and joining that realities heroes to continue her fight. She did still love Larry and actually sought out a relationship with the Earth-One version but this turned out to be a bad idea. Earth-One’s Larry Lance was a fixer for Gotham’s mob called “The Collector”. The relationship was a disaster since he attempted to manipulate Dinah’s feels in an attempt to assassinate Batman.
Interestingly enough, Larry Lance does live on today. If you are a fan of the CW show Arrow you should be familiar with Quentin Lance, Quentin Larry Lance actually. On the show, Quentin is the father of both Laurel (The Black Canary) and Sara (The White Canary). Additionally his wife’s name….Dinah.
Hope you enjoyed our little DC Comics history lesson. Till next time!