Black Orchid is a DC Comics superhero from the seventies, who originally had no origin until Neil Gaiman gave her one in 1988 with this miniseries. A master of disguise with some super powers, Susan Linden excels in infiltrating criminal organizations and then taking them down from the inside. This goes great, until a mission goes wrong and she's killed. Then, in Phillip Sylvain's greenhouse, another Black Orchid awakes. Searching for her identity, she learns from Phil that Susan was childhood friends with him. Suffering from her father's abuse, she ran away and eventually married Carl Thorne, who later killed her. "But didn't she just die?" you might ask. And the answer would be yes, which is when you realize that the Black Orchid we met in the beginning wasn't originally Susan, but a plant-human hybrid created by Phil to essentially keep her alive. I won't give away anymore, but Gaiman manages to deftly insert Susan into the world of capes and tights. We see familiar faces like Lex Luthor, Batman, and Poison Ivy, and go to familiar locations like Gotham City. But the best part about this book is Dave McKean's absolutely stunning artwork. This is not your typical comic book art, with its lettered sound effects and motion lines. McKean applies a paint-like effect (and really, for all I know, maybe he did paint these panels) to our characters, giving them an ethereal quality, especially in the early moments of the comic when the first Black Orchid is killed and when the new Black Orchid meets with Poison Ivy. It's simply gorgeous. While this story is great, the downside is that it's probably going to be the most appealing to veteran comics readers. Black Orchid is a fairly minor character (the fact that she was around for fifteen years before someone decided to give her a definitive back story says a lot), and unless you've encountered her elsewhere, this story probably isn't going to mean much to you. But the art alone is enough to merit checking it out.
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