Lawrence “Larry” Lance

This day, we’re talking about another member of Arrow‘s recurring cast, Paul Blackthorne‘s character Quentin Lance. In the show, he is a police officer of Starling City and the father of Laurel Lance, Oliver Queen‘s ex girlfriend and actual love interest. He investigates on the masked vigilante who’s hunting down many rich criminals in the city and, despite disliking his methods, he ends up helping him on several occasions. The character is quite different in the comics, starting from the name.

Lawrence “Larry” Lance is a classic character, first appeared in the historical series Flash Comics. He is introduced as an officer of Gotham City Police Department, a subordinate of the well known Commissioner Gordon. At a certain point of his career, he left his job, becoming a private detective. He had a strong sense of justice, and accepted only cases that didn’t clash with his moral code. He often helped his former colleagues in the resolution of hard cases. In Gotham, he met Dinah Drake, whose sense of justice was just as strong as his own: she tried to become a policewoman, but, since she was a woman (it was 1947, after all…) she was refused. The two of them fell in love and got married, and, when Dinah decided to become the masked vigilante Black Canary, her husband supported her.

Dinah and Larry became quite a couple, and Lance often helped his wife’s team, the Justice Society of America, in their struggle against criminals. In the 1950s, Dinah got pregnant, and had a daughter, who they named Dinah Laurel Lance. Unfortunately, an old foe of the JSA, the Wizard, cursed the child, and Dinah and Larry were forced to put the baby in suspended animation until they could find a cure to their daughter’s disease, which made her destroy everything every time she screamed. Another misfortune, their final one, happened when a rogue member of the Council of Living Stars (a group of sentient, near omnipotent living constellations), Aquarius, arrived on Earth. After defeating Star Man and stealing his Star Rod, Aquarius attacked the other Justice Society members, engaging a battle that literally shattered their universe (which in the Pre-Crisis DC Universe was known as Earth-Two). During the battle, Black Canary was defeated, but when Aquarius was about to finish her, Larry protected his wife, shielding her with his own body. The hit was more than enough to kill a normal human as Larry Lance, but his sacrifice allowed the Justice Society, now teamed up with Earth-One‘s Justice League of America, to defeat Aquarius and to restore their universe to normal. After Larry’s hero-funeral, Dinah decided to leave her universe and to move in Earth-One.

Larry Lance has always been portrayed as a good-hearted man, a rare feature in his profession. Although he was a normal man, he fulfilled his training and his physical capabilities and, despite his limits, managed to stay for a while toe to toe with the most powerful heroes of his reality. There is also another Larry Lance in the DC Universe, the Earth-One counterpart, whose personality is very different from the original and who became the criminal known as The Collector, a villain of both Black Canary and Batman.