This definitely isn't a world where the Justice League is buzzing around!Īfter her brief run of fourteen-page lead features in Adventure (July/Aug.-Nov./Dec. Like a lot of DC features of the time, it's pretty clear that these stories do not take place in the 'DC universe' people are amazed at the Black Orchid's powers, saying it's like something out of comic books. (I always liked his work on DC's horror comics from around this same time period.) My favorite of the original three stories was the last one, 'The Anger of the Black Orchid' in Adventure #430, where she takes on a skeevy nightclub owner running an extortion racket- dark city streets, beautiful women, and unscrupulous men make the perfect venue for the Black Orchid's retribution. Pair this with the lush artwork of de Zuñiga, and you have something special. The reader never learns Black Orchid's civilian identity the viewpoint character is always the criminal. He realizes Black Orchid must a woman privy to his plans, and acts on his suspicions, but it turns out she was a woman he overlooked because she disguised herself as someone close to him. Her first three stories in Adventure Comics follow similar formats: someone is plotting something dastardly, but he gets warned off by the mysterious superhero Black Orchid who has the powers of flight, superstrength, and invulnerability. 1 #428 might be the most expensive single issue I have ever purchased.)Īs originally conceived by writer Sheldon Mayer and artist Tony de Zuñiga, the Black Orchid has an interesting, unusual conceit. As often happens when I read updates of DC characters, it made me want to read the original version, and I eventually acquired all the major pre-Crisis appearances of the Black Orchid, mostly in Adventure Comics and The Phantom Stranger.

Over seven years ago now, I read Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's Black Orchid miniseries, which reinvented the character of the Black Orchid for 1980s.

Black orchid neil gaiman