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| As a result of the New 52 in 2011, the entire line of DC characters was relaunched, incorporating properties belonging to the company's imprints: Wildstorm, Milestone, and Vertigo. As such, elements of this character's history have been altered in some way from the previous incarnation. For a complete list of all versions of this character, see our disambiguation page. |
All right. If you won't listen to Lori--maybe you'll listen to Black Alice. 
- — Black Alice src
Black Alice is a teenager gifted with the power of stealing magic from others and briefly making it her own. With the potential to wield a tremendous amount of power and single-handedly affect the balance of magic, she was once considered by the arcane community to be a world-level threat.
Contents
History
Origin
Not much is known about Lori's past except that she became an orphan after being involved in a car accident that killed her family. The injuries would have killed her, too, but in her dying moment, she called out to pagan gods and demons asking to be spared. One of them answered. Though she ultimately survived, she wasn't aware that the price to pay was becoming a vessel to this ill-intentioned demon. That bond is also what gave her the ability of borrowing power from magic users. Hoping that this much power in her hands would lead to catastrophic consequences, the demon found amusement in the irony of a death-worshiping goth girl becoming the very thing she claims to crave most. [3]
Secret Six
The Riddler threw a lavish party on a yacht to show off a particularly expensive diamond in his possession, the India Star, and Lori crashed the party with the intent of stealing the jewel. She wasn't the only one with similar intentions, however, and during a brief blackout, someone stole the diamond from its display case. All hell broke loose, the ship exploded and the Riddler never found his prized possession. [4] Furious, he managed to later capture Black Alice along with other suspects who also attended the party: Big Shot, Strix, Porcelain, the Ventriloquist and Catman. They were trapped in a coffin-shaped prison under the sea and forced to participate in a deadly game that the Riddler dubbed an "experiment." [5] However, despite being total strangers to one another, the prisoners cooperated rather than playing the Riddler's game, and even though it cost Alice being electrocuted by a trap built into the prison, they managed to escape. The Riddler was nowhere to be found. [6]
Big Shot, or Damon Wells, brought the group to his home in the suburbs just outside of Gotham. He was particularly protective of Alice, making sure that she could heal in the comfort of his home, for which she was grateful. [7] However, when Catman saw a picture of Big Shot's wife and recognized her as the woman who was responsible for his capture, Wells was forced to reveal the truth: his real name was Ralph Dibny and he had been working for the Riddler all along. [4] However, he was forced into this situation by being led to believe that his wife Sue was being held hostage, and understanding his motivations, Alice and the team forgave Wells even after he led them into an ambush set by the Riddler. Wells was being played, too: the Riddler's intention was to take Sue from him, and he manipulated her into becoming his partner-in-crime after she lost her memory in the yacht's explosion. Immediately following their showdown with the Riddler, Alice mysteriously passed out, and Big Shot noted she wasn't breathing. He took her to a hospital. [8]
Black Alice had become a problem to the magical community. Concerned about how she affected the arcane network, draining their magic and crippling their ability to defend the White Gate that prevented eldritch cosmic deities from invading and destroying Earth, a gathering of magic users led by Doctor Occult debated on what should be done about her - and even though eliminating her seemed to be the most rational option, Klarion proposed an alternative: exiling her to Limbo for eternity. [9] A failed attempt to capture her was made by Klarion, Cheetah, Felix Faust and Black Orchid, and that, along with a group of cultists who called themselves the Children of Arion tricking the rest of his team into believing that the four columns that composed the White Gate had to be destroyed to save Alice, drove Big Shot and the others to unwittingly start awakening the dark gods. [3] The White Gate crumbling with each destroyed column also induced Alice to lose control over her power, weakening magic itself by continuously draining it. Having become aware of the dire consequences of their misguided attempt at saving her, Lori asked Scandal Savage to kill her rather than risking dooming the world. [10] However, being stabbed in the heart wasn't enough to kill Alice - the demon she was a vessel to didn't want her dead since dooming the world was its goal all along. In the end, the crisis was solved with a revitalized Alice convincing her friends that she was alright and Doctor Occult reburying the alabaster columns somewhere even deeper with Superman's help. [11]
Night Force
When ancient entities called Shadow-Riders started reemerging to hunt down arcane practitioners, Baron Winters decided to form a new Night Force in other to contain the threat. Black Alice was the first person he tried to recruit, believing her taking the powers of a Shadow-Rider could allow them to learn how to defeat them, but she rejected him despite getting involved on her own later, leading him to suspect she had her own agenda. Shadow-Riders had almost killed her years earlier, and they almost killed her a second time when she was exploring the Pyramid of the Crocodile in Uruguay. Luckily for her, Baron Winters sent one of his recruits, Raven, to rescue her in the nick of time. Rather than going with her, Alice simply took part of Raven's power and teleported elsewhere, leaving her behind to only barely escape the arcane-hunting entities. Soon after, she used Raven's power again to abduct Skye, a girl who had a connection to the Shadow-Riders that she couldn't fully grasp due to her having lost her memories. [12]
In reality, Alice had made a deal with the Shadow-Riders, promising to turn Skye over to them so they would spare her life - but even though she fulfilled her end of the bargain by bringing Skye to the pyramid, the Shadow-Riders betrayed her anyway. Anticipating this possibility, Alice escaped and reached out to the Night Force to finally lend her aid in their effort, revealing that Skye was actually not just a Shadow-Rider, but their firstborn. [13] The team rescued Skye before the Shadow-Riders could restore her memory, taking her to Azarath. There, during one last battle against the the arcane hunters, Skye urged Alice to siphon her aerokinesis and use it against them before she sacrificed herself to foil the Shadow-Riders' plans. [14]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Magic Absorption: Black Alice can steal the magical power of any magic user, rendering them helpless while she gains their power for a limited amount of time. She is not restricted by distance and can draw magic from several different sources simultaneously [9], having once drained enough power to weaken magic all over the world. [11] She is able to steal only a limited, specific portion of someone's magic as well; for instance, she once restricted herself to only stealing Raven's ability to open teleportation portals. [12]
- Memory Absorption: In the process of siphoning magic, she also absorbs knowledge from her victims. She may be capable of absorbing memories permanently. [12]
Abilities
Weaknesses
- Power Instability: Depending on how much magical power she wields, she may have trouble controlling herself. Alice acknowledges she can only barely handle her power. [11]
Notes
- Black Alice was created by Gail Simone and Ed Benes, first appearing in Birds of Prey #76. However, in the Prime Earth continuity, Black Alice first appeared as part of the New 52 DC Universe in Secret Six (Volume 4) #1 by Gail Simone and Ken Lashley.
Trivia
- In this continuity, Black Alice has been shown borrowing the powers of Zatanna [5][10][11], Etrigan [6], Hawk [4], Black Orchid [8][9], Cheetah [9][15], Eclipso, Swamp Thing, Blue Devil, Felix Faust [9], Giganta, Raven [16] and John Constantine [17], among others.
Related
- 30 Appearances of Lori Zechlin (Prime Earth)
- 8 Images featuring Lori Zechlin (Prime Earth)
- 1 Quotations by or about Lori Zechlin (Prime Earth)
- Character Gallery: Lori Zechlin (Prime Earth)
Footnotes
- ↑ Wonder Woman and Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour #1
- ↑ Raven: Daughter of Darkness #10
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Secret Six (Volume 4) #8
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Secret Six (Volume 4) #5
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Secret Six (Volume 4) #1
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Secret Six (Volume 4) #2
- ↑ Secret Six (Volume 4) #3
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Secret Six (Volume 4) #6
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Secret Six (Volume 4) #7
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Secret Six (Volume 4) #9
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Secret Six (Volume 4) #10
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Raven: Daughter of Darkness #9
- ↑ Raven: Daughter of Darkness #10
- ↑ Raven: Daughter of Darkness #11
- ↑ Secret Six (Volume 4) #11
- ↑ Secret Six (Volume 4) #14
- ↑ Convergence: Wonder Woman #2
