Blackfire

Publication history

Blackfire first appears in New Teen Titans #22 and was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez.

Fictional character biography

Komand'r was the firstborn child and eldest daughter of Tamaran's royal family. The first princess born in over one hundred years, she should have been courted and showered with honors. On the day she was born, the Citadel Empire attacked and destroyed the western Tamaranean city of Kysarr and killed three thousand citizens in her name. Though she was in no way at fault for what had happened, Komand'r was for all time inextricably linked with that terrible day. To make matters worse, Komand'r was crippled by a childhood illness that left her unable to absorb ultraviolet radiation to fly faster than light as most Tamaraneans did. Because of Komand'r's naturally grim disposition, a stark contrast to the royal family's generally contented outlook, the subjects of Tamaran hated her. As a result, though first in the line of succession, she was denied her birthright to be the next Princess of Tamaran to maintain the respect and prestige of the royal family. Her privileges, honors, and her royal style and dignity were transferred to her younger sister, Princess Koriand'r (who would later become known as Starfire). Inwardly, Komand'r's rage grew and her resentment turned to hatred for her planet, her people, her family, and lastly her younger sister who, in Komand'r's eyes, made the fateful mistake of being born. Komand'r's hatred continued and intensified when she and her sister were sent, per Tamaran's warlike custom, for warrior training with the Warlords of Okaara. Komand'r's true feeling were exposed when during a sparring exercise she attempted to kill her younger sister. As a result, she was expelled by the Warlords. Humiliated by her own transgression, Komand'r swore vengeance and joined the Citadel, quickly rising through their ranks to become a warrior-maiden fighting against the forces of her own world and, ultimately, her own family.

Komand'r later betrayed her home world with detailed information about Tamaran's planetary defenses to the Citadel. They conquered Tamaran with ease, and the surrender conditions included the enslavement of Koriand'r. Koriand'r was never permitted to return, since that would mean the Citadel would devastate the planet for abrogating the treaty. Komand'r was her sister's master and made the most of her younger sister's bondage with years of horrific servitude and torture. When Kori killed one of her rapists, Komand'r decided to execute her as punishment, but not before the sisters were attacked and captured by the Psions. Psions, largely a species of sadistic scientists, performed a deadly experiment on both of the sisters to see just how much ultraviolet energy their Tamaranian bodies could absorb before exploding from the overload. During the procedure, Komand'r's forces attacked the Psion ship to rescue her and while the Psions were distracted, Kori broke free with her newly developed starbolts, highly destructive blasts of bright green-colored ultraviolet energy, which were a result of the experimentation. Against her better judgment she decided to free Komand'r, who was still absorbing more and more starbolt energy. However, far from grateful, Komand'r had struck her younger sister down with the same (but much stronger and more powerful), starbolt energy and had her restrained for later execution. Kori escaped and stole a space ship to planet Earth, where she met a young group of heroes and helped form the new Teen Titans.

Komand'r appeared in the Rann-Thanagar War limited series, during which she killed Hawkwoman in her pursuit of a New Tamaran. She formed an uneasy alliance with the surviving players of the war in order to deal with more pressing concerns (Infinite Crisis). She was not seen during the Crisis series itself, but was featured in Hawkgirl and Hawkman comics as well as in JSA: Classified, attempting to kill Hawkman and Hawkgirl in order to further her own plans in the goings on & aftermath of the war. The Hawks defeated Komand'r, after which Hawkman used Psion technology to strip the villain of her strength and starbolt powers.

Blackfire has later resurfaced in The Outsiders (vol. 3) #31-32 (Infinite Crisis tie-in issues) with her powers already having been restored by the Psions and enhanced to the point of gaining flight. Further along the line in R.E.B.E.L.S. (vol. 2), When Vril Dox moved the planet Rann into the location formally held by Tamaran in the Vega System, Blackfire arrived with her army in attempt to seize the planet for her own people. Dox was able to quickly stop the hostilities, however, and brokered a treaty allowing Blackfire and her people to settle on the uninhabited southern continent of Rann. During these events, Blackfire gained a newfound sense of respect for Dox, realizing his egocentric personality was very similar to her own. The two went on an unofficial date disguised as a diplomatic dinner and after Dox was captured by Starro the Conqueror, Blackfire joined forces with Adam Strange and other members of L.E.G.I.O.N. to rescue him. Blackfire then subsequently claimed Dox as her consort.

The New 52

In The New 52 (a reboot of the DC Comics universe), some people's origins and personalities have been changed to an unknown degree. While never referred to by name, it is said Starfire's sister sold her for the safety of their planet, if this was a malicious way to get rid of her sister or sincere peace offering for the safety of their planet is unknown. It's revealed that a parasitic race known as the Blight has taken over Tamaran, their purpose unknown and Koriand'r fears the worst for her sister. Komand'r appears via flashblack as her sister talks about their relationship, saying that they rarely get along and that Kori is embittered toward Komand'r and the People of Tamaran for letting her be enslaved. After Kori fought her way free, she was praised as a Hero, and given a ship by Komand'r but the rift between the girls was still there. Komand'r appears to a captured Roy Harper, and appears to be working with or under the Blight. Roy's capture, however, was revealed to be a mission to rescue Komand'r, as he successfully teleported her back onto the Starfire. Kom and Kori reconcile in a teary conversation as Kori forgivers her sister, and the issue ends with the sisters preparing to take back Tamaran by themselves. Kom and Kori fight through the hordes of The Blight with Jason, Roy, and a few of the members of Kori's ship. Komand'r is stabbed in the back by a spear thrown by The Blight's leader. Kori's emotions send an energetic shock wave, wiping out everything around her. When the smoke clears she holds the defeated Blight leader. After the battle, Kori is next to the throne, and Kom stumbles next to her. She asks Kori to stay, but realizes she can't. They hug and Kom gives them a ship to get back to Earth.

Powers & Abilities

Blackfire is a Tamaranean like her younger sister meaning her physiology is designed to constantly absorb ultraviolet radiation. The radiation is then converted to pure energy which enabled her incredible feats of strength, speed, durability and the like; all on par or possibly greater than those of Starfire having fought and bested her many times. Par the coarse for flight however as she suffered a sickness in her youth which stripped her of this ability but had found other means of circumventing this handicap. Being of royal blood and having fought in many wars, Komand'r also boasts impressive mortal combat skills superior even to her sibling, be it unarmed or with weaponry on hand having battled and bested the likes of her own sibling who is also a veteran warrior, thanagarian heroes Kartar Hol, Shayera Thal and Shayera Hol either in single combat or in pairs and win. As well as holding her own against the likes of a weakened Starro in his humanoid form (with some assistance from Starfire). Having undergone the same experiments conducted upon her by the alien Psions, Blackfire too has the ability to release her absorbed energy into incredibly powerful blasts called "starbolts." Hers by comparison however are considerably stronger enabling the later to overpower her sisters starbolt energy, for a time Blackfire was stripped of all her powers by Hawkman using the same technology the Psions used in their experimentation upon her. Even without these strengths Komand'r is still a political activist and capable leader, being Queen of Tamaran she has access to a great many facilities be it governmental or military in nature. Like any good Politician Blackfire is a skilled manipulator, able to utilize fear and misdirection to her advantage; even forging alliances with others despite her incredibly sociopathic nature.

When her powers were restored however she not only regained all the abilities she initially lost, Blackfire even gained a capacity she lacked, namely faster than light aviary travel. This accommodates her resilience against Heat, Radiation and the harsh vacuum of outer space coupled with a solar powered self-sustenance eliminating the need to eat, drink, sleep or an atmosphere to breathe, enables the evil queen to travel interstellar distances unaided though she can take in sustenance if she desires too. She also has a unique ability her counterpart does not which is the active absorption of stellar energies to further empower herself, even drawing off new abilities from another person. Like when she drew energy directly from Starfire emulating her omni-directional energy burst, due to her greater steller energy absorption abilities however Blackfire can recover faster than her sister when she uses her powers in such a way. Blackfire like all Tamaraneans, can assimilate languages through physical contact with another person. She also doesn't need to eat or drink though she can if low on energy. In the cartoon of Teen Titans Blackfire could fire her energy reserves as optic blasts, revealed to be facet recived after her changes phase, in the episode Betrothed she had come into possession of a mystical artifact dubbed the Jewel of Charta, which would enhance her abilities several fold turning her normally violet star power bright red.

Television

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Miscellaneous