The Many Looks of Black Alice (or, most of them, anyway)

[kamino_neko]

In response to a request made in the comments to this post... Mostly random panels, but a couple full pages, because they're too awesome to cut to a panel.

For those that don't know - Black Alice, real name Lori Zechlin, is a character created by Gail Simone in Birds of Prey. She's a teenage girl with the power to steal magically-based abilities (including spellcasting) from those that have them for a short length of time.

But that's not the real interesting thing about her powers - the most interesting thing is that when she does that - her appearance changes. Well, her clothes, anyway - she keeps the same face, body, and hair, but what she's wearing changes into her power-donor's costume...as filtered through Lori's own style, and occasionally incorporating what she's already wearing.

I'll be presenting these in more or less alphabetical order, just because that's how I named the files. >_>

Without further ado, the costumes:

For reference, this is what she typically looks like when not channelling someone's power:



Not only alphabetically first, but also the most boring. From Sean McKeever's second arc on Birds of Prey, Alice steals the powers of a magician working for the Silicon Syndicate, a fellow named Arthur.



Not very interesting, and pretty much exactly what Arthur wears (save for Lori's jewelry...and her skirt, not shown in this image) - it doesn't even change colour! - but I really like that she's got the dude's bigass glasses. They're actually kind of cute on her.

Next, from her first appearance, channelling Dr Fate:



Now, that's more like it. The half-helmet is my favourite touch. It's very spikey, to be sure, but, eh, I think it works.

Oh! And Alice can swipe powers from more than one person!

From her last appearance under Gail's pen until her Secret Six guest shot...Felix Faust, and Cheetah.



This one is kind of interesting, although I actually cut off the interesting bit to make sure Lori could be seen properly without making the image too big - when she takes their powers, Cheetah remains in her furry form, suggesting she's still got her powers...but Lori explicitly takes the powers away from whoever she's channelling. I don't know if this was a mistake, if Cheetah maintains that look even without her powers, or if Lori's powers have changed since Day of Vengeance... Oh, well... Onward and upward...very upward.

Upward to...Giganta (who I actually hadn't realized has magically based powers).



Kind of disappointing, but at least it has more Black Alice in it than the Arthur-swiped look. And she's still a giant woman, so that's autoawesome.


And...now we return to her first appearance, and the most familiar outfit...channelling the power of Shazam:



There's some debate of exactly who she's channelling here - apparently Wikipedia claims Black Adam, but, IMO, the evidence leans to channelling directly from Shazam, and the costume being based on Billy or Freddy.

Later on, back in McKeever's BoP, she has a fight with Misfit (another awesome, and visually neat, Simone creation), and swipes her powers...which neither Misfit nor Oracle had known were magical until this point.



Yeah, not much different from Misfit's usual look, really - just lost the leggings and changed the colours a bit - but unlike the Arthur or Giganta costumes, I'm actually amused by that - with the shirt that doesn't really cover her belly, and the frayed skirt, it's not entirely unlike what Lori'd wear anyway.

And another Misfit pic:



Note the addition of the fishnet gloves - she'd been wearing those when she swiped the powers this time.

And here she is channelling Nightshade just before the Arthur and Misfit swipes:



It's too bad, really, that this costume is only seen when it's washed out with the green glow from Oracle's screens. Alice and Nightshade have the same general colour scheme, so I think this would really work well in its natural colours.

And we're coming into the home stretch with...the Spectre in Day of Vengeance:



She's swiping his powers so he can't use them, more than so she can...which works, though it kind of backfires by making him untouchable, as he lacks a host at this point, so without his powers, he's pretty much nothing. Oops.

And back to Simone's BoP, Wonder Woman:



From the powers she uses - specifically the lasso of truth - she's obviously channelling Diana, but I doubt I'm alone in thinking the costume seems to be based more on Cassie's...except for the tiara which really is a clear reference to Diana's outfit.

And the last of the random panels...Lori channelling Zatanna, in her first appearance:



That's Black Canary narrating in the caption boxes...seeing that she's about to get pwn'd.

And Lori flying later on, still with Zatanna's powers, mostly because it shows the fishnets and boots better than the above:



I'm not sure what happened to the gloves in between...

And now to the full pages, starting with a page from Helmet of Fate, where she channels Raven...



I'm actually marginally surprised it changed anything, since Ra and Lori both have the gothic thing going on, and so little was changed in Giganta's. But there's the frayed edges.

Now don't get the wrong idea...Lori's not always very nice... back in BoP, while being taunted by a cheerleader, she drifts off into a daydream...



And, one final page (well, 2-page spread) from Helmet of Fate, giving a different idea of a Lori-ized Fate look, this one if she actually took the helmet...



... The helmet doesn't want her as a host, and has an interesting defence mechanism. I'm amused that she's still got the same look in the 'absence of identity' teases.

Edit - added one more half page, from Villains United.




The original Black Lantern!

Not her best look, and I don't think Eaglesham was really trying when he designed it.

So, yeah. I love Lori's powers just for the visual possibilities - well, and the rest, too, but the visuals are just truly awesome.

From various issues of Birds of Prey, one of Day of Vengeance, and Helmet of Fate: Black Alice. Most from any issue is 3 and a bit pages from Helmet of Fate.

Comments

[darkblade]

Someone needs to make a collection of Alice taking the powers of every magic character in the DCU maybe even Vertigo too. It could just be a trade sized artbook, no plot, dialouge, ryhme or reason. I'd totally buy it.

[kamino_neko]

Yes, that would be awesome.

And a few pages of the people she's swiped from looking disgruntled, too! After a page of Alice taking the power of Shazam, a page Billy and Adam playing cards. After one of her taking the power of Fate, one of Kent Nelson standing there, making funny hand gestures in his pyjamas and the helmet... Not for every swipe, of course, just the ones that could be funny.

[halialkers]

I would love it if she steal's Raven's powers and Raven starts laughing and says "Good luck, sailor" and walks off merrily. I mean, seriously, she'd be stealing the Antichrist's powers there.....

[cmdr_zoom]

"Well you got it, and everything that goes with it! Phenomenal cosmic power..."
"NOOOOO!"
"iiiiiiiiitty bitty living spacepain, angst, and did I mention the literal Dad From Hell?"

[ravenous_raven]

hm, that may be the wake-up call several users want for Black Alice...

[kintotech]

This would be really neat to see.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

Would she just look like she's buried under a Hot Topic explosion, then?

[darkblade]

Doesn't she always?

[leikomgwtfbbq]

Yeah, but I have the image of Black Alice literally buried under a pile of Hot Topic clothes. She tries to borrow everyone's powers and POOF! All of their costumes are heaped on top of her.

Or she winds up looking like Ralphie's little brother from A Christmas Story, when he's wrapped up in all those winter clothes.

"Okay! I have more power now! Don't move, I'm gonna try to zap you with some magic lightning! If I can see under all these scarves and cape collars and the Stranger's shady-hat trick..."

"...You can't move and you can't see."

"No, I can't. It's 'cos I have too much power."

"...In which case I guess I'll just leisurely stroll away. *whistles obnoxiously loud tune while strolling*"

"Bitch, get back here! I'm Black Alice! I need to blather on about how preps are evil and parrot back some Nietzsche I read the other night!"

(Sorry, resorting to Hot Topic Goth stereotypes. XD)

[darkblade]

I didn't mean all at once...everyone, one at a time.

[jaybee3]

The problem with Lori is that she has the potential to be ridiculously over-powered to the point of being Spectre.Which limits how she can be used because like Jakeem Thunder she can pretty much do anything she wants (depending on whose power she takes).

As for the Shazam garb, I'm leaning towards Freddy. The roped cape and the lightning bolt that DOESN'T start at the top of the shirt sort precludes Black Adam and at this point in time in JSA Billy was wearing the side-button/military costume IIRC.

[q99]

Though like she said in Secret Six, the more power, the less control she has, and it may pop out mid-fight without warning, and leave her powerless.

It's just easier to do, say, Blue Devil than Phantom Stranger.

So, no relation to Black Adam, then?

[nefrekeptah]

This makes me wonder if you saw the new Secret Six issue, and what you thought about it if you did.

Third time's the charm?

[kamino_neko]

I haven't read it yet - only seen the preview, yet - in fact, only the page icon_uk posted of Lori in the Phantom Stranger's getup.

After I've read it, I'll reply on my thoughts. (Probably a few hours from now, I'm sick as a dog, and need to hit the doctor.)

Re: So, no relation to Black Adam, then?

[kamino_neko]

OK, read it...I'm not entirely sure what I think of everything done with Lori, yet.

I'll have to mull it over a bit, but as an initial thought I can't say I have any real issue with it.

[majingojira]

I honestly really hate the change in her powers from "Copy" to "Steal."

It takes her from "Fun" type broken character to "Wank" type broken character.

Still, I'm a sucker for Goth designs and I like her "Get out of my face" style to the subject of superpowers.

[toasty_fresh]

I agree- "copy" was much better.

[pyrotwilight]

? But she's always been a power thief/borrower, not a copier.

[majingojira]

IIRC, the "Steal" aspect did not appear until post-gail BOP and "Reign in Hell"

And Given Lori's treatment in both, I'm inclinded to ignore it when I can.

[kamino_neko]

It was first made explicit in Day of Vengeance - her second appearance - but it's not contradicted by anything in BoP 76, or any other appearance save for the fact that Cheetah still has her cheetah form in BoP 97 (although in the next few pages Faust says that she stole their powers, and Cheetah's human, so that seems to be a momentary art-glitch). She also explicitly calls her powers 'stealing' in this week's Secret Six.

[stubbleupdate]

Where's her Alan Scott costume?

[kamino_neko]

She doesn't leech Alan in any issues I have. There's a few appearances I know of, but don't have (Reign in Hell, for instance), and possibly a few that I don't know about.

[stubbleupdate]

Get the Villains United one-shot.

Apart from anything else, it's excellent.

[kamino_neko]

Oh, I do have that! I just had forgotten she appeared in it, apparently. I'll have to dig it out...

[kamino_neko]

Added the half-page where she does that - thanks for reminding me of it.

[q99]

-Upward to...Giganta (who I actually hadn't realized has magically based powers).-

In Blue Beetle when Jaime fights Giganta Peacemaker comments that giant people are almost always magic, as just sizing up bone and muscle wouldn't have the strength and would break messily supporting themselves. But with magic, you have skin reinforced like a tank and all that. Hence being able to fight with Diana.

Giganta got her growth powers by taking over a body with said growth powers, and the origin of those were completely unmentioned, so magic works.

[kamino_neko]

Roger that...and you've just jogged my memory about her appearance in All New Atom, where she represented the magic/chaos side of the conflict between the forces of order/science and chaos/magic.

[koschei]

Well, that was pre-Crisis. Post-Crisis, we've never been given an origin story about how Dr Doris Zuel, stuck in the body of a she-ape through Science!, becomes the smokin' hot Giganta and decides to embark on a career of costumed crime.

All we do have is that she and Cheetah have the same jungle-print on their costumes, and that post-crisis Giganta debuted in a story side-kicking for Cheetah. From this comes the inferrence that Cheetah is somehow involved in the transition and is extracting service as payment, a supposition the power-change being being magic in nature only strengthens.

[espanolbot]

I think that it's funny that she has to point out to both Misfit and the Secret Six that her normal style of clothes isn't Emo, it's Goth.

Nto that that stopped them from calling Raven's series that, but still.

[kamino_neko]

That cracked me up, for being very true. I'm not really in either subculture, but have several gothy friends, and...well, I've seen that correction made more than once.

[kingrockwell]

She was somewhere else too, during ICk, with Alan Scott's power, because it was my first time encountering her. I wanna say the Villains United Special.
Lemme check.

[kamino_neko]

Already been reminded of that one, and added it. Thanks, anyway, though.

[kingrockwell]

Yeah, I guess I left the tab sitting here too long.

[kingrockwell]

Nevermind, looks like you got that between the time I clicked the link and when I finally read the post.

[thosefew]

Could she steal the Shade's power? He's always seemed depressingly unchallengable.

[kamino_neko]

Unless they've retconned Shade's connection to the shadows as being non-mystical, there's no reason why not.

[darkblade]

I just realized. She can steal any magic powered person's powers. So she could take Magog's powers when the JSA is in the middle of a big fight and he can die and never come back plz?

[proteus_lives]

Kinda sexy in the Marvel outfit.

But I'll always think she looks like Klarion's big sister.

[capnduckman]

I seem to recall her grabbing a good couple in Reign in hell, but i don't remember which ones.

[kamino_neko]

I encourage anyone who's actually read Reign in Hell to post them.

[capnduckman]

She pulled Etrigan at one point, didn't she?

Also, somehow in reign in hell, she pulled Lobo. But I think that's only because he was dead at the time, so she could copy him due to being a soul? I dunno.

Actually, the more I look through reign in hell, the less I see Alice, the more I see "Hey, we need a power leecher with magic, OOH, let's use Black Alice!"

[gailsimone]

WOW.

Kamino, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS.

This is actually REALLY helpful! Thanks! :)

[kamino_neko]

^__^ Always happy to promote and educate about cool characters. (I'm just glad Lori's had few enough appearances to make this practical.)

[ravenous_raven]

thanks very much for positing these, my first ever request that was granted!

that being said, I loved the redesigned outfits to fit Black Alice's style, especially the Shazam, Spectre, Raven, and Zatanna. a little iffy on the Wonder Woman version, mainly because it seems a little too busy and the tiara looks cheap, but I still enjoy the effort

[tahngarth.livejournal.com]

One thing that always amuses me was how she in Day of Judgment commented that Nightshade looked like "a stripper" (which was also weird because Eve was wearing a very covering outfit) and yet -most- of Lori's own outfits are skimpier versions of original hero with those powers. I dunno, it always made me chuckle.