DC Just Brought a Fan-Favorite Arrowverse Character Into the Comics

DC’s Infinite Frontier initiative has taken a unique approach to the superhero landscape, weaving in aspects of decades of comic lore while telling a trailblazing new story. As fans have already seen over the past few months of comic releases, that includes introducing or further canonizing some surprising elements from the DC Comics multiverse. That proved to especially be the case in the pages of this week’s Suicide Squad #5, which — in addition to giving Bloodsport a new costume that mirrors his aesthetic in the upcoming The Suicide Squad movie — happened to include a character that fans best know from The CW’s Arrowverse of shows. Spoilers for Suicide Squad #5 from Robbie Thompson, Dexter Soy, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, Joe Prado, Alex Sinclair, and Wes Abbott below! Only look if you want to know!

A good chunk of the issue consists of Bloodsport on a mission on Earth-3, as Amanda Waller has tasked him with learning about the multiverse and potentially bringing new recruits from other Earths. On Earth-3, Bloodsport runs into the Crime Syndicate, and realizes that all of the heroes he’s gone up against have some sort of counterpart on the existing team — except for one, Black Siren. Quickly dubbed “a Black Canary knock-off” by Bloodsport, she is shown robbing a bank while using her version of the Canary Cry.

Waller tasks Bloodsport with apprehending Black Siren, and he uses a Starro attack as an opportunity to do so, before she fights back with her Canary Cry. The two of them continue to battle — Bloodsport using a sonic-powered weapon — until their fight is interrupted by Ultraman.

This serves as the first major comic appearance of Black Siren (although the character technically appeared in April’s Crime Syndicate #2, but was possessed by Starro and wasn’t referenced by name), who was previously introduced in both animated and live-action television. Initially known as Donna Nance (a play on Black Canary’s real name of Dinah Lance), Black Siren appeared in a 2002 two-part arc on the Justice League animated series, as a founding member of the Justice Guild of America, an alternate version of the Golden Age Justice Society of America.

The Black Siren moniker was later repurposed within the Arrowverse, as a way to reintroduce Katie Cassidy’s Laurel Lance following the Earth-1 version of the character’s shocking death on Arrow. Black Siren was first introduced as an Earth-2 villain working alongside Hunter Zolomon/Zoom in Season 2 of The Flash, before she found her way to Star City on Season 5 of Arrow. Black Siren operated as a criminal and an adversary of Team Arrow, before undergoing a redemption arc and beginning to operate more heroically. She then returned to Earth-2 to operate as that Earth’s version of the Black Canary, but returned back to Earth-1 just before the Crisis on Infinite Earths occurred.

While Black Siren is far from the only alternate iteration of Black Canary, she’s arguably the best-known one thanks to her appearances in the Arrowverse. This makes the circumstances surrounding her official debut all the more exciting — especially as it seems like the stories DC is telling on Earth-3 are far from over.

What do you think of Black Siren making her official comics debut in Suicide Squad #5? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!