Looker

Current Events

New 52

Looker made her post-Flashpoint debut in Batman Incorporated as a member of the new Outsiders. It is revealed that she and the others survived Lord Death Man's attack after Metamorpho used his body to shield the team from the explosion the villain caused.

She has joined with other members of a group calling themselves The Dead Heroes Club, an off shot of Batman Inc.The other members are Freight Train, The Hood, Wingman, Gaucho, and Batwing, and Halo.

National Comics

In her National Comics One-shot, Looker's origin was completely changed. She was originally a model who was full of herself, but was attacked one night by a Vampire. She now misses her days as a model and envies those who have the privileges of being in the spotlight. She has started her own modeling agency called "Looker", which is basically ran by Roma and Charles. She recently fought Simon Glass after he abducted two of her models, who turned out to be an Incubus. He told her he knew who turned her after she pulled out his heart.

Origin

With an "ugly duckling" view of herself and growing up having a massive inferiority complex due to her plain appearance, Emily Briggs always longed to one day be beautiful. One day her dream would come true as she was kidnapped by emissaries from the lost underground colony of Abyssia. Revealing to Emily she was actually the next in a line of generational structured governing house for the throne of their nation through her paternal grandfather, who fled Abyssia decades ago for the surface world. Overwhelmed by the destiny which was unveiled to her, Emily was taken against her will to Abyssia, Emily was told that by once having been exposed to the rays of a fragment of Halley's Comet that fell over two thousand years ago she would undergo a transformation. Finally becoming a swan Emily would gain formidable powers of the mind and incredible beauty.

Emily was than transformed by the comets fragment and quickly became the pawn of two warring factions from two hateful siblings in a plot to wipe out the entire population of Earth's surface. Since Emily had met Katana earlier on and the two became friends, Katana attempted to side her during the kidnapping but failed. Contacting her fellow Outsiders, together with Batman planed to track and rescue Emily who with their help and her new abilities defeated the warring siblings and won her freedom. Delighted when she found her transformation was permanent she went home with the Outsiders and returned to her husband. Gregg was astonished at Emily's new appearance and extreme self confidence, almost becoming self centered after the transformation. Emily started calling herself Lia, once a childhood nickname that she believed to be more suited to her new self.

Lia took to the day with a new zest for life, endlessly shopping and pampering her new looks. She also became much more sensual and aggressive than her former mousy self. This all left Gregg very uncomfortable with their marriage, quickly realizing this wasn't the same girl he had married.

Creation

Looker was created by Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis in Batman and the Outsiders #28.

Character Evolution

Originally, Looker was very self-conscious and quite. She had terrible self-esteem and wasn't happy in general. After obtaining her powers and looks, she became very self-centered about life. She is often aggressive and ruthless towards others. She likes to use her sex appeal against her opponents.

After losing her powers, she reverted back to that same shy girl that wasn't happy. After being turned into a Vampire, a new dimension was added to the character. She hated having the thirst for blood and many other curses that came with being immortal.

Major Story Arcs

The Outsiders

Lia would soon use her new mental powers against the mercenary group of meta-humans calling themselves the Masters of Disaster. The Outsiders whom she had been rescued by earlier in Abyssia now needed her to free them from the Masters of Disasters clutches. Creating a provocative costume from her many new outfits and using blue eyeshadow as a mask she went forth and both freed the Outsiders and defeated the villains. She eventually was asked to become an Outsider and joined the Katana as the newest active member of the Outsiders, choosing "Looker" as her nom du guerre.

Looker than shared a very brief relationship with her teammate fellow teammate Geo-Force but ended the affair to be with her husband Gregg. After a return trip to the underground city of Abyssia, Looker then lost her mental abilities and enhanced beauty. Now left with none of her formidable powers she accepted her new condition and resumed her identity as Emily, returning to Gotham City with her husband.

The Outsiders Again

Some years later Emily and her husband decided to go on trip to Markovia which had been under attack by a group of vampires charged by a vampire named Roderick. While trying to find a way to escape and get help from her former teammates Emily was about to be killed by a vampire when her former psionic abilities kicked back in, allowing her to destroy the vampire. With her psionic abilities now returned to her, Looker joined her former teammate in battling the vampire invasion. During the Outsider's battle, Looker was killed and transformed into a vampire by Roderick, the leader of the vampire invasion and Looker became a Daywalker. Roderick then mentally took control of Looker and made her his consort. Sometime afterward Looker battles her former teammates and after being reminded of her husband, she used a time window to kill Roderick. Sadly after her ordeal, Looker was soon served divorce papers by her husband Gregg. She later resurfaced as one of the hosts of "The Scene," a talk show she co-hosted with Lois Lane, Linda Park, Vicki Vale and Tawny Young.

Infinite Crisis and Batman

During the story arc of Infinite Crisis Looker made several minor appearances, such as when all the mystically powered heroes came together. She was presumed dead after being caught in an explosion caused by Breach.

However Looker would later come back somehow, not to Batman's surprise. Batman took a man who didn't know what happened to him in a park. Here Looker formed and read the man's mind to find out his mind was switched with an alien's consciousness. She didn't feel well after reading the mans mind and the man died after it. Batman took her to her house. Looker then told Batman that something bad is going down in Gotham and that even those she hangs out with are not pleased at the soon to come events.

The Outsiders One Last Time

Later Looker resumed her career as a model, while she hunts and kills vampires in Gotham. The vampires, decided to get rid off Looker, hired a vampire hunter to kill her. Both Looker and the Vampire fought in a disco where Lia forced the hunter to run away. Later he decided to go and kill Lia's ex-husband, but Looker was able to find him and kill him. It seems that Lia still has feelings for her ex but she decided to travel to Markovia to join Geo-Force's Outsiders and help them. She tried to help the team against Doomsday, but she was defeated alongside the rest and Eradicator was captured. During the invasion of Markovia by Black Lightning's team she fought Grace Choi.

Along with the rest of the Outsiders, she was apparently killed during an encounter with Lord Death Man.

Batman Inc.

Looker was revelaed to be alive and working for the Dead Heroes Club alongside The Hood, Freight Train, Batwing, El Gaucho, Halo. This team is lead by Wingman.

New 52

Looker made her post-Flashpoint debut in Batman Incorporated as a member of the new Outsiders. It is revealed that she and the others survived Lord Death Man's attack after Metamorpho used his body to shield the team from the explosion the villain caused.

She has joined with other members of a group calling themselves The Dead Heroes Club, an off shot of Batman Inc.The other members are Freight Train, The Hood, Wingman, Gaucho, and Batwing, and Halo.

Weaknesses

When Looker was bitten by a vampire the transformation had some unexpected results due to a combination of her meta-gene attributes. Unlike most vampires Looker is a Daywalker, hence most vampire afflictions against sunlight, holy symbols, and other such typical limitations Looker only has one major issue. She suffers from bloodlust, and has an dependence on human blood to keep up her strength and is the only nutrition able for her "undead" form.

Powers and Abilities

The original set of Looker's power are psionic in nature, and are manifested by a soft blue glow around her eyes, she is one of the most powerful mentalists on Earth. Her psionic abilities are varied in disciplines, including telepathy which allows her to enter and read the minds of others, communicate mentally with others over long distances, set up mental blocks, or emotional influences, stun the minds of others with powerful "mental bolts" which shock the minds of others into unconsciousness, control the minds of others thereby commanding their actions, and create complex and believable illusions in the minds of others. She also possesses telekinesis which she use for levitation and the construction of psionic force shields which have a high degree of imperiousness. The effectiveness of her power depends on her physical condition, distance to be traveled and other consideration.

Looker has been cursed with vampirism and is no longer aging now seemingly immortal, supernaturally strong, has inhuman stamina, and superior reflexes and speed. She has many of the classic vampire attributes however due to her meta-human physiology her newer abilities of as a vampire are much more unique. Looker has a certain degree of transformative powers and can now change her shape from solid to a gaseous mist, encompassing a relatively midsized area while in her gas state. Another vampire ability is the summoning and mental control of vermin, able to call forth large amounts of a multitude of the diminutive terrors. Both these last abilities can only be utilized when it is limited to night time.

She also has fast regenerative prowess, especially when she has just feed on a blood source. She has craving for fresh blood and when needed can extend her canine teeth into long fangs for penetrating a new source, usually at the neck. She has been able to regenerate from several severe beatings, stabbings, and some say even resurrecting from an explosion which destroyed her form. It is the combination of her psionic abilities and her vampire attributes give her a certain immunity to things that would traditionally destroy most other vampires. Unlike her vampire brethren, Looker can withstand daylight and has used her telekinetic abilities to quickly repair her heart after it was stabbed with a wooden stake.

Looker relies on her psionic powers and her vampire attributes in battle and mostly sees forms of hand-to-hand combat as beneath her, despite constant teasing and influence by her friend and former teammate Katana.

Since transforming into a vampire Looker also has pronounced canine teeth which she can retract so she is able to appear to be a normal human-being.

Other Media

Live Television

Black Lightning

Looker appears in season 2 and 4 of Black Lightning. She's a villainous meta-human responsible for turning the white citizens of South Freeland into the Sange, who possess superhuman strength and speed.

Animation

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

An alternate version of Looker based on Earth 3's world appears in the film named Model Citizen. She is a part of Owlman's team which consists of alternate versions of the Outsiders members and Justice League Detroit. Model Citizen and her teammates were the first to battle the Justice League with Model Citizen trying to mind control Flash into joining their side. Her telepathy is shown to be somewhat weak allowing Flash to at first awaken from it and say "Hey, this is like the Jedi Mind Trick". Model Citizen was then knocked out by Wonder Woman.

Young Justice

Looker appear in the 19th episode of Young Justice: Outsiders. She made her debut at the beginning of the episode. She attacks Donna Troy with her psychic powers. However, she is confronted by Miss Martian. She proves no match for the martian. She is later revealed to have being mind control and proclaim not responsible for the attack. Miss Martian asks her if she would accept help from the Young Justice Team and she accepted. At the end of the Episode she is one of the people shown on Eyespasm (A similar social media site like Twitter) supporting the Outsiders. It is important to note that later on she is wearing a similar outfit from her comic counterpart. It is safe to assume that she is now part of the team.