Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #8: Black Canary
"Daiya Dewa was the daughter of Ryunosuke Dewa, a decorated lieutenant with the Hakone Police Department; their family, as she determined from some genealogical research, was found to be descended from a ninja clan going all the way back to Japan's feudal era. In 1979, Daiya, then in her early twenties, had been trained by her father to apply to be a police officer herself, but was refused a position due to the sexism of the time. Undaunted, Daiya decided to fight crime in a more unorthodox manner, especially after acquiring skills she studied from old texts belonging to her ninja ancestors. By day, she became the owner and proprietor of a small florist shop; by night, she donned a costumed identity (made up of a blonde wig, face paint, and a figure-hugging jumpsuit) inspired partly by her family name: Black Canary.
Black Canary's modus operandi originally revolved around her infiltrating criminal gangs and taking them down from within, usually working with a young police detective named Reiichi Rakuyama, with whom she developed a close relationship with. She eventually abandoned the infiltration conceit and became a full-on vigilante, one who became a hero to the female population of Hakone for her targeting those committing crimes against women and children. During this time, she and Reiichi married, and had a daughter, who they named Daika. Her tenure as a crimefighter lasted well into the early 1990s, until a particularly harrowing incident with a notorious human trafficking syndicate shook up Daiya enough that she decided to retire as the Black Canary. It was a decision that was made all the more easier when Daika had been cursed by the Wizard, an American super-criminal who operated during the 1940s and had been in hiding for some time. Before she hung up the Black Canary mantle for good, Daiya donned it one last time to go after the Wizard, aided in her efforts by a young sorcerer named Takeshi Ibuki (who utilized his mystic abilities as a stage magician). After dealing with the Wizard, with Ibuki keeping her from killing him in revenge, Daiya asked Ibuki to help with the curse inflicted on Daika, which gave the little girl a powerful sonic scream. With his abilities, Ibuki was able to help bring the sonic scream under control for the time being, but could not rid Daika of it altogether. Daiya and Reiichi, in spite of this, were grateful and kept in touch with Ibuki in the years that followed. They would then take some time to help Daika further control her power out in the countryside.
When Second Impact struck, Reiichi wound up a casualty as he helped civilians get to safety, leaving Daiya to raise Daika alone. Eventually, Daiya became an empty-nester once Daika left for college and from there, law school, while the majority of Hakone became the fortress-city of Tokyo-3, which would serve as the location of the main headquarters of NERV, a U.N. special agency formed to fight the otherworldly menaces codenamed 'Angels'. Daiya's shop stuck around, right on the border between Tokyo-3 and the rest of old Hakone. By 2015, when the battle against the Angels truly began, the now middle-aged Daiya was a well-venerated figure within her community, but even she wasn't immune to the street crime that would befall the poorer parts of the fortress-city. On one such night, her shop was targeted by a group of armed hoodlums out terrorizing the neighborhood. The thugs had Daiya cornered, and any temptation she had of taking them out herself was quashed due to their weapons being trained on her. Luckily for her, she was spared from a grisly fate thanks to the arrival of a fledgling costumed vigilante known as Green Arrow (secretly American NERV Evangelion pilot Marie Vincennes), who took down the goons with her archery skills and trick arrows.
Impressed by the young woman's bravery and determination, Daiya offered to repay Marie in kind by helping her refine her hand-to-hand combat skills, an offer Maria took up after learning of Daiya's past as the Black Canary. Daiya became something of a surrogate mother figure to Marie, who in turn helped her reconcile with Daika after the two became distant for a number of years. It would later be revealed that Daika, currently working as an assistant to the district attorney of Tokyo-3, had secretly taken up her mother's mantle and became the Black Canary when she joined up with a team of female vigilantes in high-tech power armor calling themselves the Birds of Prey."
*Author's Note(s)*
For this new round of Superwomen of EVA allies, the spotlight this time falls on more street-level heroes, and for the first of the two, I also introduce another legacy hero into the DC-based side of SWOE in Black Canary, following Mike giving us the Flash legacy in the Mari Makinami-centric "The Ultimate Rush" and Maya Ibuki following in her father's mystic footsteps with "The Magic Touch". Based on those two alone, I thought it would be an interesting angle to have a costumed crimefighter who operated in the future Tokyo-3 long before the idea of NERV was a twinkle in someone's eye, and given that the fanfic series is titled 'Superwomen of EVA', Black Canary seemed like a great fit for this role. (Plus, her interaction with Marie/Green Arrow is an interesting twist on the usual GA/BC connection.)
The visual inspiration for the Deviation I crafted came from when I began watching the anime series Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings, based on the Capcom video game series of the same name. It was one character from that series, in particular, that spurred in me the idea for this take on Black Canary: Kasuga, the right-hand ninja for Lord Kenshin of the Uesugi Clan. One look at her and in an instant, I thought 'anime Black Canary'. (Or rather, for narrative intents and purposes, 'anime Black Canary I'.) From there, the Photoshopping began...Her outfit was tweaked to both fully cover her feet and resemble, ironically, the outfit Dinah Laurel Lance (Black Canary II) wore from 1996-2001, while the black facepaint is meant to evoke the look for the version of Black Canary from the live-action Smallville TV series. For her biographical details, her father Ryunosuke is based on Richard Drake (Dinah Drake's father), while Reiichi is based on Larry Lance (Dinah's husband).
And for those of you curious, Daika will get her artistic due in a future entry for the SWOE Birds of Prey.