Black Orchid (comics)

Black Orchid
Black Orchid illustrated by Dave McKean.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	(Linden-Thorne) Adventure Comics #428 (July 1973) (Black) Black Orchid #1 (December 1988) (Suzy) Black Orchid #2 (January 1989) (Garcia) Justice League Dark #9 (July 2012)
Created by	(Linden-Thorne) Sheldon Mayer Tony DeZuniga (Black, Suzy) Neil Gaiman Dave McKean (Garcia) Jeff Lemire Mikel Janin
In-story information
Alter ego	- Susan Linden-Thorne - Flora Black - Suzy - Alba Garcia
Team affiliations	(Linden-Thorne) Suicide Squad (Black, Suzy) Parliament of Trees (Garcia) Justice League Dark A.R.G.U.S.
Abilities	- Human plant hybrid with superhuman strength, speed, agility and durability - Ability to fly, including into space - Capable of reincarnation by mental transference to host bodies growing in stasis - A master of disguise capable of altering her appearance and voice - Mystical connection to the plant world through the force of nature called the Green

Black Orchid is the name of four superheroines published by DC Comics. The original version of the character first appeared in Adventure Comics #428 (cover-dated July 1973).

Although she has a number of superpowers (including flight, super-strength, and invulnerability to bullets) her main ability is a mastery of disguise. She often spends an entire investigation impersonating a seemingly insignificant female background character (e.g. a maid, a secretary, someone's girlfriend) and the other characters only discover her involvement at the end of the story upon finding the bound and gagged woman she impersonated, and an abandoned disguise with her calling card, a black orchid.

After appearing in Adventure Comics #'s 428–430, a backup feature starring the character ran in The Phantom Stranger #31-32, 35-36, and 38–41 (1974–1976). Black Orchid subsequently appeared sporadically, including occasional cameos in the Crisis on Infinite Earths 12-issue limited series, Blue Devil Annual #1, Deadshot #1, and Invasion! #2. She had a slightly larger role in Suicide Squad as a member of the team in issues #4, 7, 11-12, and 22 (1987–1988). She also had an appearance in the non-continuity children's comic book Super Friends #31.

While Adventure Comics #428 proclaimed on its cover that it was an "origin issue," almost no background on the character was given, not even her name. Until Neil Gaiman described her origin, the character was known for her lack of an origin. Instead, writers teased the audience with several possible origins, all refuted. In Adventure Comics #429, Barry DeMorte hypothesizes that either yoga master Lucinda "Cindy" Harper or anti-gravity specialist Daphne Wingate is Black Orchid, and he kidnaps both. When Black Orchid comes to the rescue, he learns otherwise. In The Phantom Stranger #38, writer Michael Fleisher posited racecar driver Ronnie Kuhn as a possible secret identity for Black Orchid. In the next issue, Kuhn is revealed to be simply an admirer of Black Orchid, who is soon seduced into "The Black Orchid Legion" (molecular chemist Karen Jensen, astrophysicist Stefanie Tower, Olympic gymnast and acrobat Barbie Henderson, criminologist Janet Grant, and psychologist and martial artist Lisa Patrick), a group of criminals who developed suits that would mimic Black Orchid's powers, because of her father's status as president of the World Bank, claiming that they are helping her to protect it from Communists. They bind her to the safe door, which they have set with explosives. Black Orchid rescues her, and when the police arrest the Legion, one mistakes Kuhn for Black Orchid, claiming to "know how it is with you super-heroes." Although Super Friends was never considered canon, writer E. Nelson Bridwell made it fit, anyway. His story had Lisa Patrick purchase a large chunk of kryptonite on the black market, convinced that Black Orchid is a Kryptonian. Patrick tries to lure her to the meteorite display at the Gotham City Museum of Natural History, attracting the Justice League. Black Orchid places a force field around the kryptonite to protect Superman, but the force field harms her instead, further convincing Patrick that she is Kryptonian, not noting the lack of effect on Superman. Superman takes the kryptonite into space, and Black Orchid follows him to take it as a brief hand-off so that the fragments will not kill him. When she survives the explosion, Superman inquires where she is from and how she acquired her powers. She answers, "Earth".