Warning: The following feature contains SPOILERS for Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Last Stories of the DC Universe #1.
The latest chapter of Dark Nights Death Metal finds Black Canary wishing that she had an oath like the Green Lantern Corps that she could say before going into battle. Strangely enough, Black Canary did have an oath back in her earliest days in the Golden Age of Comics, but it was forgotten after appearing in a single story.
"Dust of a Distant Storm" finds Green Arrow and Black Canary on the island of Themyscira on the night before the final battle against the Batman Who Laughs to save what remains of the multiverse. The two lovers spend what might be their last night together discussing their regrets and everything they wish they had had done, as they attempt to have the first proper date they never got around to having during their whirlwind courtship. As they share a meal of Amazon rations and take a walk on the beach, Black Canary admits to one oddly specific desire; an oath of her own to say while suiting up, like the one Green Lanterns said while charging their rings.
This secret wish may be a clever nod to the reality of DCeased, where Black Canary became a Green Lantern after the death of Hal Jordan. It may also be a nod to a rather obscure fact; Black Canary briefly had a magical oath like the Green Lantern Alan Scott, which allowed Dinah Drake to summon flocks of black canaries to do her bidding. This ability, and the related oath, were only seen once in a one-off story published in February 1948 in the anthology series Comic Cavalcade #25. This was, it might be noted, a scant six months after Black Canary's first appearance in Flash Comics #86.
"Tune Of Terror" found the Mistress of Judo stepping in to help a country boy named Phil Martin, who became the target of gangsters after inheriting a night club from his rich uncle. After Phil survived a number of unlikely death traps, including a mailbox full of toxic gas and a fire hydrant that belched flames, the gangsters decided, rather than simply shooting a helpless Phil and bound Black Canary, to place them on a giant record player and spin them around, launching them into the air, where they would eventually die from the resulting fall. It was here that Dinah Drake said her oath and called a flock of black canaries to carry her and Phil to safety. She also sent the birds after the gangsters, who were pecked and clawed into submission as the Bird of Prey finished them off with her martial arts mastery.
While this isn't quite as weird as Superman's ability to shoot a smaller, more powerful Superman out of his fingers, it's typical of some of the shenanigans that occurred in the Golden Age, as the writers experimented with new character concepts to see what worked and what didn't. Thankfully Dinah's magical bird-summoning powers and Green Lantern Corps-style oath didn't take. Black Canary would spend the next two decades as a pure martial artist with no superpowers, only developing her signature sonic scream ability, the Canary Cry, towards the end of the Silver Age of Comics.