Twelve Brothers in Silk

The Twelve Brothers in Silk, also known as The Silk Brothers, is a group of fictional comic book villains, a family of killers that have fought the Birds of Prey in the DC Comics Universe. They were created by artist Joe Bennett and writer Gail Simone.

Fictional history

The Twelve Brothers, 12 martial artists named after the signs of the Chinese Zodiac, first appeared in the employ of Mister Tan, a Singaporean drug lord. Posing as American mobsters, Wildcat and Black Canary attempted to fool Mister Tan into selling them all of his drugs, which would ultimately cripple his operations while simultaneously depriving the real American mafia of one of their main drug suppliers.

Led by Huang Chao Ran, the brother known as Rabbit, the Twelve Brothers monitored Black Canary and Wildcat during these dealings, attempting to determine if they were legitimate. Their attempts to force Canary and Wildcat to reveal their true identities failed, and culminated in a spar between Rabbit and Black Canary that was interrupted by a furious Mister Tan.

Mister Tan realized that he had been set up after agreeing to the terms Canary stipulated, and in an attempt to avoid being ruined, he arranged for a real mob group to buy his drug shipment. The Twelve Brothers accompanied the shipment to protect it, and met Canary and a group of fighters in America. The two groups agreed to a duel.

Canary's team consisted of Wildcat, Richard Dragon, Green Arrow II (Connor Hawke), Savant, Creote, Huntress, and herself. Before the fight could end in one side's clear defeat, however, Canary signaled her teammate Lady Blackhawk to attack the drug shipment, destroying it. Canary then gave Rabbit an ultimatum: with the shipment destroyed he had already failed in his mission. The only way the brothers could be sure to walk away with their record of never losing intact was to call a draw. Rabbit agreed, and the groups parted ways.

Caity Lotz continues to play her Arrow role as Sara Lance in Legends of Tomorrow, where she takes on the mantle of the White Canary alter-ego. She is also the captain of her team the Legends.

White Canary

During the Birds of Prey relaunch tie-in with the 2010 "Brightest Day" storyline, it is revealed that one of the female children born to Huang was spared after lightning appeared on the day of her birth and killed her midwife, making Huang believe that something powerful wanted her to live.^[1] She was trained by her brothers in the same techniques, and after their defeat at the hands of Black Canary, she hunted them down and killed them for dishonoring their father's name. Now calling herself White Canary, she traveled to Gotham and set to blackmail Black Canary by revealing her secret identity and threatening to kill one teammate for each hour that passed, enlisting the help of Oswald Cobblepot and Savant and Creote.^[2][3][4] Upon being defeated by Black Canary, she denied being responsible for the death of a kidnapper in Iceland to frame Black Canary, claiming that it was in fact Lady Shiva, and offers Black Canary help in killing Shiva if she is set free.

Later, White Canary takes Black Canary to Bangkok and reveals that she is holding Black Canary's adopted daughter Sin as a hostage, and will kill her if Black Canary does not battle Lady Shiva in a duel to the death. Black Canary agrees despite her broken wrist, but at the last minute Helena Bertinelli challenges Shiva in her place, buying Black Canary enough time to find Sin and get her to safety, and Lady Shiva agrees to put their duel off until a later time. White Canary reluctantly concedes, but promises that Black Canary has not seen the last of her.^[5]

Powers and abilities

Each of Twelve Brothers in Silk is considered almost Lady Shiva level in skill. Given that they fight as a group, this makes them one of the most feared forces in the criminal world.

They allow themselves no alcohol, women, or other "vices" except for fighting. They value honor highly, and Black Canary both exploited this and was careful to respect it — they would do anything to avoid "losing face", but to dishonor them would mean making a powerful enemy for life.

Although they fight side by side, their greatest weakness is supposedly that they don't really care about one another.

Other versions

• White Canary appears in the Ame-Comi Girls comic book series. This version is a superheroine instead of a villain and possesses the sonic scream known as the "Canary Cry." Like her previous appearances though, she is still of Asian descent and retains her anonymity.
• A different version of the character appears in the New 52's Black Canary title. Debuting in the fourth issue as an unnamed character in a white costume, she saves Ditto from Amanda Waller and returns her to Dinah in secret. She later reappears stealing a vial of blood from Dinah. Later, the still unnamed woman helps Black Canary defeat a monster and save her band and then appears to Dinah's house, revealing her identity. She is revealed as Dinah's maternal aunt, Rena, who wants to protect her niece from a threat related to her missing mother's past. At the end of the series' run, Rena is revealed as a fake, with the villainous shape-shifting Izak Orato masquerading as Black Canary's "aunt" to trick her. Unlike previous incarnations, the character is depicted as Caucasian and blonde.

In other media

• The White Canary appears in the Arrowverse, first in Arrow and later in Legends of Tomorrow.
  • Her real name is Sara Lance. She is the younger sister of Laurel Lance, daughter of Quentin Lance and Dinah Lance, and one of the love interests to Oliver Queen. Sara Lance first appears in the pilot episode of Arrow as the younger sister of Laurel Lance. It's shown that five years prior to the beginning of the series, she was having a secret affair with her sister's boyfriend Oliver Queen and was with him on his family yacht when it shipwrecked. Everyone on board was presumed dead but flashbacks in season two reveal that, like Oliver, Sara actually survived the experience. She was rescued by a research boat, the Amazo, and when Oliver was captured by the ship's crew, Sara helped him escape. Together, along with Oliver's friend Slade Wilson, they attacked the ship. Due to Slade's love for Shado, an ally who was killed indirectly because of Oliver's feelings for Sara, Slade betrayed Oliver and took over both the ship and Oliver as his prisoner. Oliver and Sara confronted him on the freighter and Sara was swept away in the current, causing Oliver to believe that she died once again. However, Sara was found by Nyssa al Ghul who took her to Nanda Parbat. She and Nyssa became lovers, and Sara became a deadly fighter with the League of Assassins under the name Ta-er al-Sahfer, roughly translated to "Yellow Bird" or "Canary" from Arabic. In season two, Sara returns to Starling City after a six year absence as The Canary to protect her family. In keeping with a promise, she also befriends wayward teenager Sin and watches over her. Oliver manages to capture and unmask The Canary, revealing Sara to be alive. She eventually informs her father, SCPD Detective Quentin Lance, and looks after him and Laurel (who also later discovers she’s alive as is a vigilante). Sara joins Team Arrow and revisits a brief relationship with Oliver. She aids him and his colleagues Felicity Smoak, John Diggle, and Roy Harper in taking down a drug-enhanced Slade Wilson, with help from the League of Assassins, which requires Sara to return to Nanda Parbat. In season three, Sara is killed on a rooftop with three arrows to the chest. Some time later, it was revealed that Thea Queen killed Sara after being drugged by her father Malcolm Merlyn/Dark Archer as part of a plot to pit Oliver against Ra's al Ghul. Meanwhile, Laurel takes up Sara's mantle to fight crime as the Black Canary. In season four, Laurel resurrects Sara using the League's mystical Lazarus Pit. The process is successful, but Sara is brought back to life without a soul, making her feral and dangerous. Oliver calls his old friend John Constantine to assist them in restoring Sara's soul. Days later, Sara aids in rescuing Ray Palmer/The Atom from the hands of Damien Darhk, before leaving town to find herself, eventually joining the Legends along with Ray. During her time away with the Legends, Laurel is killed by Darhk and she is later made aware of it by Quentin when she briefly returns to present-day Star City at the end of season one of Legends of Tomorrow, where she and Quentin mourn her together. Sara, along with Ray and the rest of the Legends, return for the season five crossover “Invasion!” when Barry Allen/The Flash and his team contact her, informing her and the Legends that them and the rest of the heroes in the present day need help fighting an invasion from an alien race known as the Dominators. The Legends arrive and meet up with Team Flash and Team Arrow, then introduce themselves to Barry’s friend from Earth-38 Supergirl, whom he had brought over to help combat the Dominators. After Oliver appoints Barry leader of the group, they all spar with Kara to practice fighting aliens, and are repeatedly defeated, while Sara develops an attraction to Kara. When Barry is forced to reveal that he had went back in time to save his mother then reversed the decision which now altered some of the group’s lives a bit, Sara scolds him and everyone except Oliver and a few others lose faith in him. Kara leads Sara and the others while Barry and Oliver stay behind to rescue the president from the Dominators, which ends up with the president being killed and the Dominators using a device to mind control the entire group. She returns with the rest of the mind-controlled heroes and attack Barry and Oliver, until Barry tricks Kara into destroying the device, freeing them. They regroup and after they reaffirm their faith in Barry, five of them (Sara, Oliver, Ray, Thea, and Diggle) are abducted by the Dominators and placed in pods which puts them in a shared dream world, where Sara, Oliver, and his father never got on the Queen’s Gambit and all of Oliver fallen friends including Laurel are still alive. Oliver and Laurel are engaged and Sara helps Laurel get ready for their wedding, and begins having memory flashes of her actual life. She later saves Oliver and Diggle from a manifestation of Deathstroke, and the three realize that the world they’re in isn’t real. They later rally Ray and Thea and attempt to leave, but are forced to fight manifestations of Malcolm, Slade, Darhk, and their mercenaries before killing all of them and Sara and Oliver share a heartbreaking goodbye with Laurel. They wake up on the Dominator ship in the real world and escape in a pod before being rescued by the Legends’ timeship Waverider. They conclude the dream world was a distraction meant to keep them busy while the Dominators probe their minds for information on metahumans. They return to earth and as some of the Legends along with Felicity and Cisco Ramon head to the past and attempt to abduct a dominator, Sara, Barry, Oliver, and Ray confront a group of secret service agents who attempt to kill them, but are defeated. Their leader informs them that the Dominators are after metahumas due to being aware Barry’s changing of the timeline and perceive them as a threat. After Barry attempts to surrender himself to the Dominators in exchange for them leaving earth, Sara and the rest of the heroes persuade him not to, and she pilots the Waverider with Cisco to hold the Dominator’s freefalling metabomb in place using a tractor beam while Jefferson Jackson/Firestorm transforms it into harmless water and the heroes on the ground use a pain-inflicting device to force the Dominators to flee. Sara and the other heroes are honored by the new President later that night and celebrate, before sharing a hug with Oliver and returning to the Waverider with the rest of the Legends. She briefly returns in season six when she receives a call from her sister’s doppelgänger, the recently reformed criminal from Earth-2 Laurel Lance/Black Siren, who informs her that Quentin had been seriously injured in the battle against Ricardo Diaz and is in the hospital. Sara arrives and meets her deceased sister’s doppleganger (whom had developed a genuine father-daughter relationship with Quentin and they refer to each other as such), and she thanks Earth-2 Laurel for calling her after Laurel thanks her for coming. Laurel tells her that the doctors are optimistic he’ll make it and asks Sara if it’s weird seeing her which she replies that it is a little. Sara asks if she’s like her Laurel, which Laurel replies she hardly is at all, visually disappointed with herself. The two witness Oliver being arrested for being the Green Arrow per the condition of his agreement with the FBI in exchange that they help fight Diaz and his allies. The doctor comes and informs everyone present that Quentin had died from lack of oxygen in his head during surgery, leaving Sara, Laurel, Oliver, and the rest of Team Arrow devastated. Later as Oliver (under the direction of the FBI) announces to the world he is the Green Arrow on live TV before being taken to prison, Sara and Laurel mourn together over Quentin’s body.
  • In the spin-off series, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Sara is recruited by Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) to a time travelling team of rejects aimed at defeating the immortal villain Vandal Savage (Casper Crump). Before she departs, Laurel gives Sara the White Canary name and outfit to signify her new start. Over the course of the first season, Sara continues her battle with blood-lust; sets in motion the events that will lead to her own rescue by Nyssa; romances many women throughout history; and develops a flirtatious relationship with Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller), with the two sharing a kiss in the penultimate episode of the season before Snart sacrifices himself for the team. The Legends return to 2016 a few months after they left and Sara is devastated to learn of Laurel's murder. Sara wants to go back and save her sister but Rip tells her that would only get herself and her father killed. In season two, Sara becomes captain of the Waverider and leader of the Legends following Rip's disappearance. She mercilessly hunts her sister's killer, Damien Darhk, throughout history before accepting that she cannot bring Laurel back due to the delicacy of time. In the "Invasion!" crossover event, Sara and the Legends return to 2016 to aid Team Arrow, Team Flash, and Earth-38's Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) in repelling the Dominators' alien invasion. In the second season finale, Sara is forced to use the Spear of Destiny to save reality from the Legion of Doom. While tempted to rewrite her own tragic history, the Spear briefly reunites Sara with a projection of Laurel, who encourages Sara to do what's right and make peace with her death. Sara then chooses to render the Spear itself inert, foiling the evil plans of Eobard Thawne (Matt Letscher) and allowing him to be killed by the Black Flash, who has been hunting him all season. In season three of Legends, Sara continues to lead the Waverider crew as they track down and repair anachronisms throughout time, working in an antagonistic partnership with Rip Hunter's new bureaucratic organization, the Time Bureau. In the four-part crossover "Crisis on Earth-X," Sara travels to 2017 to attend the wedding of Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Iris West (Candice Patton), where she has a one-night stand with Supergirl's adoptive sister Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh). The assembled heroes work together to repel an invading Nazi army from the alternate world of Earth-X. While confronting the demonic entity Mallus (John Noble) alongside her old friend John Constantine, Sara and Constantine hook up, despite her ongoing romantic tension with Time Bureau agent Ava Sharpe (Jes Macallan). Ava and Sara become girlfriends in subsequent episodes, but break up after Sara is temporarily possessed by Mallus through the death totem and reasons that, given her history with death and destruction, she poses a danger to Ava.
• White Canary made her playable debut in the mobile-exclusive edition of Injustice 2, s an alternate skin for Black Canary.
• The character also features in the tie-in novel Arrow: Fatal Legacies which was released in January 2018. The novel focuses on events between the fifth season finale and sixth season premiere of Arrow[10] and is co-authored by Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim and author James R. Tuck.[11]

References