Why thank you, I FEEL fabulous too!

[icon_uk]

One page from preview of "Secret Six #16" currently visible here at Newsarama (But be warned that the preview pages are out of order)

And here we see the Phantom Stranger's new look, and he's never been happier



Okay, I'm fibbing, it's the return of Black Alice!

Comments

[catbird]

Haha, I totally bought that and thought, wait, why is the Phantom Stranger dead, isn't he immortal?

Interesting look for Black Alice, though, since it's so obviously inspired by the Phantom Stranger. Despite the hotpants, this is more grown-up and less skanky than BA used to be.

Is this still Mary, or a different BA?

[icon_uk]

The same one, and as she's channelling the powers of the PS, I imagine that a small illusion/transformation spell to model his "look" is hardly going to be a problem for her.

[stubbleupdate]

Inspired by the Phantom Stranger?

You do know how Black Alice works, right?

[catbird]

LMAO, thank you for asking me that! Because I just went to wiki to check it out and realised that I've been hilariously wrong all this time because all I know about Black Alice I learned from s_d - I thought Mary Marvel (after getting her powers from Black Adam) and Black Alice were the same person.

[kamino_neko]

Are you confusing Black Alice with Black Mary?

Black Alice's name is Lori Zechlin, and she's a power stealer - only magical powers. Her 'costume' is a variation of the costume the person she swiped the powers from wears. She has, over the years, grabbed Raven, the Spectre, Dr Fate, Wonder Girl, Misfit, Zatanna, the Marvels... and I'm sure there were others, but I'm blanking on any right now. She TOTALLY rocked the Spectre and Fate looks.

[catbird]

Yeah, that bit where she stole the Marvel powers (and Mary's costume?) made me think she *was* Mary, and that Black Alice was what evil!Mary was called.

[kamino_neko]

I think her Marvel costume was based more on Billy's or Freddy's - she wore pants rather than a skirt, and the sleeves look like they'd have been full length if they hadn't been shredded. (Of course, being black, it looks more like Black Adam's, but he doesn't have a cape....)

[icon_uk]

As she was channelling Black Adams powers (and hence her more destructive outlook) it pretty much has to be based on his.

[kamino_neko]

I think wires are crossed again - it sounds like you're talking about Black Mary before the Darkseid connection. In which case, yes, Mary was totally based on Black Adam at that point.

But I was referring to Lori's Marvel costume, being based on the boys, not Mary - she seemed to be just channelling Shazam's power generically, rather than filtered through any of the specific champions, but her general costume design - pants, cape, what once might have been full sleeves - speaks to Billy or Freddy's design more than Mary's - although she shares colours with Adam, the cape suggests a lack of direct influence from him.

[icon_uk]

I was going by her wikipedia entry which says "Black Canary and Huntress unite to tail Kyle in the hopes of rediscovering Lori, and instead find that Kyle is two-timing Lori with Dawn. Lori discovers the same thing shortly afterwards and prepares to destroy a shopping mall (having now manifested the powers of Black Adam) in her efforts to avenge herself on Kyle."

I presumed there was a reference to her using Adam within the story.

[kamino_neko]

I think whoever wrote that part of the article was just assuming based on the colours - aside from that nothing particularly suggests Adam, and the cape argues against it, as Adam doesn't wear a cape as part of his regular costume. (He may have pre-Crisis or in the 90s, but I'm not really familiar with him before his appearances in JSA, since which he's only worn a cape as part of his formal attire.) Adam's powers aren't really any different than Billy, Freddy, or Mary, and she's certainly no more aggressive than when she was leeching off of Nabu, earlier in the issue, and she's only marginally less aggressive using Zatanna's powers in between the two, so that really seems to be all Lori, not the power. So, barring Adam being shown losing his powers, but the regular Marvels still having theirs, the evidence leans towards drawing from Shazam, directly, and Billy/Freddy's costumes being the most direct influence on hers.

[jaybee3]

Black Alice's "Black Marvel" look would have been a HUGE improvement (and more age appropriate) to what they really put poor Mary in.

I've always suspected the proof that DC/Didio won't let Gail use Mary Marvel (who she loves) is that I can't imagine a writer like Gail passing up the opportunity of having Lori (who she created) and Mary in the same panel/story together. Direct opposites but I personally think they would get along great.

[koschei]

Got scans?

[jaybee3]

Of Black Alice's "Shazam" look?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/43/Blackalice.png

I would have much preferred to see Mary in something like that.

[koschei]

That is kinda sexy

[icon_uk]

Except that that is evil/sexy, whereas Mary was evil/corrupted and so sort of had to look twisted. It was OTT because she was corrupted by Darkseids power, making her look sexy would have been A) cliched as hell and b) against everything we know about Apokalips, it's not just evil, it's the embodiment of corruption.

I don't like the Mary Dark-vel look at all, but I can sort of see what they were aiming for.

[jaybee3]

I understand the Darkseid Mary from Final Crisis look (I don't like it but I understand it) and the fact that it was so different from her normal appearance (as seen when she turned back) made it more striking.

What I personally was freferring to was the black gloved/fingered mini-mini-mini-skirt and black outfit they gave her in Countdown (where she was NOT controlled by Darkseid). Which served no other purpose but to expose flesh and give the (bad) artists of Countdown an excuse to do at least one panty shot of a minor child everytime she appeared.

[kingrockwell]

Wonder Girl? You're not talking about the time in Birds of Prey, right? Because I'm pretty sure that was Wonder Woman!

[kamino_neko]

Hmm...going back and rereading (rather than just skimming to look at the costume), she does seem to have Diana's powers, but the costume still looks like it's based primarily on Cassie's.

[kingrockwell]

The belly-shirt says Cassie, but the fact that it's more of a corset says Alice. The tiara points right to Diana, though. the fact that she had no bracelets was just weird
Maybe it was both?

[kamino_neko]

Also a possibility, certainly. This is the same arc where she swiped both Felix Faust and Cheetah's powers, so it's not like she couldn't do that if she wanted.

[ravenous_raven]

wow, that sounds /awesome/! almost like her superpower is to cosplay! (and no, that wasn't sarcasm, I'd love to have a power that switched my outfit for me...)


that small bit of fashionista over with, could we have scans of some of those outfits? It would be interesting to see new (and teenage) takes on these costumes.

[kamino_neko]

I'll have to dig around a bit, but I'll try to post what I can find later today.

[ravenous_raven]

thanks very much! :)

[kamino_neko]

Done.