Just a curious question regarding this character.
Just a curious question regarding this character.
Younger, why? we are never told her age but we know Ivy was already working with the Floronic man when "The Gardener" joined the group and she looked up to Ivy in that group (I doubt somebody would look up to somebody younger). Current Ivy does not age (or does so very slowly) so we can't really go by looks. These are all assumptions of course.
How do I know this? I read Batman: Secret Files when I saw Ivy on the cover while scrolling through DC Universe Infinite (paid the membership, might as well use it). I usually don't read Batman comics but I really like Ivy so if I know she is in the story I tend to read it.
@Fear Sage Fair enough.
Batman Secret Files is the only mention of Dr Philip Sylvian in PE, and originally he was the NE creator of Black Orchid. The PE Black Orchid (Alba Garcia) was created by ARGUS. The fact that in PE, the Hollands, Poison Ivy, Sylvian and the Gardener all fell under the tutelage of Jason Woodrue, this makes me wonder how much of the Gaiman scripted Black Orchid Vol 1 is back in continuity. NE Black Orchid was (more or less) a copy of Susan Linden; who’s not mentioned in PE, as far as I know.
I can see how the NE Black Orchid could lead to an ARGUS created Black Orchid (as Lex Luthor went looking for the research that created the first Black Orchid) but my question is:
Is there any further basis in PE for Black Orchid Vol 1 to be canon?
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Black%20Orchid%20Vol%201
It looks like Phil is in a few issues of Poison Ivy, too. That's where I would look for references to the pre-Flashpoint Black Orchids. The Black Orchid who appeared in Absolute Power recently isn't named, but uses the original design instead of the New 52 version.
This is a barely-related tangent, but it bothers me a bit that the original Black Orchid is listed as Susan Linden everywhere online. She's a plant-based clone of Linden, but so are the other Black Orchids from that book. She's no more Susan Linden than they are, but she's treated as if she were the same character and they aren't.
Thanks for the reference for Phil.
There was a Susan Linden, and she was killed by her husband Carl if I remember correctly, and the Black Orchid (in NE) always was a hybrid created by Sylvian, as you say. Black Orchid was always properly identified as Susan Linden II or Flora Black.
The Black Orchid seen by Lois in Lois Lane #10 should prolly be Linden II, not Susan Linden.
The Susan Linden II on this site is Suzy, the young Black Orchid from the miniseries. The original Orchid, from Adventure Comics, Phantom Stranger, Suicide Squad, etc. is just listed here as Susan Linden, as though she were the same person as Carl's wife.
Yeah it’s crazy making. Some of it stems from the merger of the wikipages for Earth-One Black Orchid with the New Earth Black Orchid. I assume that she was straight-up Susan Linden before she was reimagined in NE by Neil Gaiman. Sometimes shoe-horning pre-and post-Crisis doesn’t work.
And thinking about it, I see what you mean. Linden II was actually Linden III, and the plant-woman that was killed by Luthor was Linden II.
The only comparison I can make is that Swamp Thing is refered to as Alec Holland; when Alan Moore established that he was not.
I think the name Susan Linden came from Gaiman's miniseries, her true secret identity was a big mystery before that.
Swamp Thing is a good comparison. Wasn't the Anatomy Lesson retcon undone, at some point?
I didn’t realize Gaiman made up her real name.
I know that they’ve brought back Alec Holland a few times but am way behind in my reading. Usually he’s battling swamp thing. It would be interesting to know.
What do you think?