Looker (comics)

Superherobox|

caption=Looker's latest outfit from "Outsiders #9".
comic_color=background:#8080ff
character_name=Looker
real_name=Emily Briggs
publisher=DC Comics
debut=(As Emily Briggs) "Batman & the Outsiders" #25 (Sep 1985)
(As Looker) "The Outsiders" #1 (Nov 1985)
creators=Mike W. Barr
Jim Aparo
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
status=Unknown, presumed deceased
alliances=
previous_alliances=Outsiders
aliases=Lia Briggs
relatives=Greg Briggs (husband)
powers=telepathy, telekinesis, psychometry, enhanced metabolism, superstrength, and enhanced healing, control over vermin as well as the ability to turn into vapor at night.|

Looker (Emily "Lia" Briggs) is a fictional character, a superhero in the DC Universe of comic books. The character's first appearance was in "Batman & the Outsiders #25".

Character history

Emily Briggs

Emily Briggs was a mousy bank teller who lived a quiet life with her husband in Gotham City. That all changed when she was kidnapped by people from the underground civilization known as Abyssia. The Outsiders set out to rescue Emily. After a battle with the people of Abyssia, Emily's heritage was revealed to her and as Halley's Comet passed by the Earth, Emily underwent a metahuman transformation, as well as becoming more conventionally attractive.

Joining the Outsiders

After leaving Abyssia to its people, Emily returned with the Outsiders and an astonished husband. She soon took on the name "Lia" as well as a more confident, yet self-centered, personality.

Emily's first outing as Looker occurred after the Outsiders had been captured by the Masters of Disaster. After defeating the Masters of Disaster, she freed the Outsiders and was welcomed into their ranks.

Her first tenure with the Outsiders showed how much the mousy Emily Briggs had changed, as she became obsessed with her beauty, something that usually created some tension between her and Katana. The tension was only heightened with the budding friendship between Looker and Halo, where the more free-spirited Looker was in sharp contrast with Halo's stricter legal guardian, Katana.

Looker shows a deep current of intelligence, when she defeats an intelligent virus inhabiting her then-friend Doctor Helga Jace. The sentient virus, believing that Looker was injecting Jace with a vaccine to which Jace was allergic, fled the body and died upon contact with the air. The vaccine was in fact, harmless glucose and Looker herself was already immune because she was not allergic. Unfortunately, Jace would later go on to willingly betray the Outsiders to the alien Manhunters.

Lia became one of the few Outsiders to bond with Batman on a personal level as she was forced to enter his mind in order to aid him during the events of the Mud Pack. During this process she was able to see many of Batman's inner troubles previously thought to be private.

Looker's role as somewhat of an outsider amongst Outsiders continued to worsen, especially when Windfall joined, a former Master of Disaster and peer of Halo, and the two were constantly involved in a rivalry of sorts. On top of that, Looker started a short affair with the team-leader Geo-Force during a time that they were stranded on an island but which continued when they returned. Eventually though, there came a mutual decision to call it quits, it being unfair not only to Gregg (Looker's husband) but also to Denise (Geo-Force's girlfriend).

Some time later, Looker received a call for help from Abyssia. Traveling to the underground city, Looker discovered that Abyssia had been taken over. Looker invoked a challenge on the despot, and in the course of the battle, she was stripped of her beauty and much of her power. Shortly afterwards, Geo-Force disbanded the Outsiders, and Lia returned to her previous life in Gotham City.

Becoming a vampire

When Geo-Force's homeland Markovia was overrun with vampires, Emily's powers returned, and Looker was back in action alongside the Outsiders. An attempt by Queen Ioana to kill Geo-Force leads to Looker running into their leader, Roderick. Instantly enamoured by her, Roderick transforms Lia into a vampire in the hopes of Lia becoming his bride. After the transformation into a vampire, Looker's existing powers were joined by some new abilities. Due to previously being a metahuman, Emily was able to bypass some of the traditional vampiric weaknesses such as resistance to sunlight.

The Outsiders are forced to become fugitives, due to Roderick having framed Geo-Force for the murder of Queen Iona. Looker helps the team face many adversaries, including the new Batman, the Eradicator, Halo's alien relatives and Islamic super-terrorists. Once the vampires were defeated and the Outsider's names restored, the team 'unofficially' disbands. They now work solely out of Markovia, which Geo-Force now rules over.

Served with divorce papers and now living under the vampiric curse, Lia has apparently broken all ties with her past life.

Retirement

Lia at some point after this may have cut her ties with her vampire coven as well as she became more independent in her choice of actions. She eventually became one of the hosts of the television program "The Scene", similar to "The View". Her co-hosts included Vicki Vale, Tawny Young, and Linda Park. Two episodes were shown in which they interviewed Wonder Woman on her career, which were shown in that title comic. During taping Lia would wear a scarf around her neck to hide the vampire bite wounds.

Infinite Crisis and World War III

Looker's next appearance would be in "Infinite Crisis" #7, where she was part of the army of super-heroes gathered by Oracle to defend the city of Metropolis against the super-villain army of Alexander Luthor during the Battle of Metropolis. At the climax of the battle, the insane super-villain Superboy-Prime abandoned the fight in order to try and destroy the entire universe via destroying the planet Oa. Looker was one of many super-heroes with flight power who attempted to stop Superboy-Prime from leaving Earth. During the mid-air battle that ensued, Superboy-Prime destroyed the containment suit of radioactive super-hero Breach. Both Looker and fellow Outsider Technocrat were near Breach when the hero exploded.

Looker later reappeared during the events of "World War III", to help fight Black Adam. She was shown in the pages of World War III #4, alongside Halo and Black Lightning, in the moments before the final battle with Adam.

Batman and the Outsiders (Vol. 2)

Looker has since re-appeared in the current volume of "Batman and the Outsiders", starting with issue #9 (July 2008). She is still depicted as a vampire, but it is implied she is no longer immune to sunlight or is at least weakened in its presence. She now lives alone in a large, elaborately decorated mansion in Gotham City filled with framed photos of herself taken during Looker's modeling days.

Powers and abilities

Looker possesses the full spectrum of psionic abilities: telepathy, telekinesis, psychometry, enhanced metabolism, mind-control, psionic energy blasts, levitation, the creation of force shields, remote vision, and enhanced healing. Due to her vampiric nature, Looker can turn into vapor, but only at night. She also has the vampiric ability to mentally command vermin such as bugs. Due to possessing psionic powers, Looker does not share the vampire weakness to sunlight; however, she presumably requires blood as other vampires do.

In her earlier appearances, besides having psychokinetic powers, Looker is also a lucid dreamer, as evidenced in "Detective Comics" #604.

Her original costume was manufactured from a material unique to Abyssia; "one way fabric", which was invisible from one side. This allowed her to keep her costume handy but not visible. She would turn the clothing the right way round to make it visible.

External links

* [http://www.dcuguide.com/chronology.php?name=looker DCU Guide]