Sasha Bordeaux

Superherobox|

caption=Sasha Bordeaux. Art by Lee Bermejo.
character_name=Sasha Bordeaux
real_name=Sasha Bordeaux
publisher=DC Comics
debut="Detective Comics" #751 (December 2000)
creators=Greg Rucka
Shawn Martinbrough
alliances=Checkmate
aliases=Black Queen, Black King's Bishop
powers=An OMAC cyborg independent of Brother Eye, also infrared vision in cybernetic eye, resistant to telepathy|

Sasha Bordeaux is a fictional character in the DC Universe. She was at first primarily associated with Batman, and has subsequently evolved an association with Checkmate in two of its incarnations. She was created by Greg Rucka and Shawn Martinbrough, and first appeared in "Detective Comics" #751.Citation | last = Wallace | first = Dan | author-link = | contribution = Sasha Bordeaux | editor-last = Dougall | editor-first = Alastair | title = The DC Comics Encyclopedia | pages = 58 | publisher = Dorling Kindersley | place = London | year = 2008 | ISBN = 0-7566-4119-5]

Fictional character history

Bodyguard, superhero

Sasha Bordeaux first appeared as an attractive young martial artist who was hired as Bruce Wayne's bodyguard by WayneCorp's second in command, Lucius Fox, albeit, against Wayne's wishes. Wayne at first tried to avoid her, but she kept on doing her job, with an almost obsessive attitude (even threatening several of Bruce's close friends when they approached him at a party). Though still relatively inexperienced in dealing with supervillains, Bordeaux made a foolhardy attempt to stop Harley Quinn and her gang from robbing Wayne Manor during a costume party. This unfortunately ended with Sasha (who had been been restrained and gagged with duct tape) being forced to watch live security footage of Harley and her crew looting the mansion, after knocking her out and leaving her in a security control room. She was eventually rescued and untied when the superheroine known as Big Barda arrived and chased the robbers out of the mansion.

Though greatly embarrassed at her defeat, Sasha began to train harder and started acting even more overprotective of Bruce. She eventually became suspicious of his constant late-night disappearances and did some searching, and was shocked to find that Bruce Wayne was secretly Batman. Knowing he couldn't legally fire her for knowing of his secret identity, Batman began training her to become his apprentice. After weeks of hard work, she became fit enough to go out with him on patrol in a suit, though he still treated her as a total stranger both as Batman and as Bruce Wayne. During this time, she fell in love with him, even as he insisted on having her around while he dated other women.

Framed

One night, while Batman and Bordeaux were out on patrol, the assassin David Cain lured Wayne's girlfriend, Vesper Fairchild to Wayne Manor, and then killed her in a way that framed Wayne. Both Wayne and Bordeaux were charged with murder, and Sasha refused to exonerate herself by giving up Wayne's secret. They were both arraigned and held without bail while awaiting trial. After a while, Batman escaped to leave his alter ego behind, leaving Bordeaux inside Blackgate prison. Batman eventually confronted those who framed him, and Wayne and Sasha were cleared of all charges.

Checkmate

While in prison custody, Sasha was severely wounded by another prisoner, and would have died had the government agency Checkmate not given her medical treatment. They faked her death and offered to give her a new name and identity (complete with plastic surgery) if she would work for them. With no other options, she agreed.

Batman tirelessly searched for Sasha, not believing she had died in prison. To facilitate this, he disrupted all of Checkmate's operations in Gotham City. The group eventually organized a meeting between the two, where Wayne confessed he loves her. Sasha, though feeling the same way, realizes that her new life will prevent the two from being together, and tells him to let her go.

Over time Bordeaux rose through the ranks of Checkmate to become right hand to Maxwell Lord, the group's leader. Lord later hijacked the Brother I satellite that Batman had created to monitor all superhuman activity. Brother I itself had recently become sentient due to the actions of Alexander Luthor, Jr., as a part of his plans for the Infinite Crisis. He also created an army of cyborgs known as OMACs (who are originally human, transformed when needed by a virus) programmed to hunt and kill all superhumans and or specific targets. During his rule, Lord killed all who opposed him, assisted by Brother I who monitors for rebellion. Sasha feigns loyalty to stay alive, but breaks this when Lord kills his former ally Blue Beetle, and orders Sasha to dispose of his corpse. Filled with hatred for herself and Lord, she sent Kord's trademark goggles to Batman as part of a message detailing Lord's madness.

When Brother I revealed Sasha's betrayal, he sent out an OMAC squad, who find Sasha and Batman in an abandoned warehouse just after they share a kiss. The OMAC's goal of killing Batman and taking Sasha only partly succeeds as Batman escapes. Lord, realizing he cannot get any information out of Sasha, imprisons her and brainwashes Superman in an attempt to kill Batman. To stop this, Wonder Woman snaps Lord's neck, killing him instantly.

Cyborg

With the help of another imprisoned agent, Midnight (who had attempted to assassinate Lord earlier), Bordeaux escaped and set out to kill Lord, unaware he was already dead. As they were on their way out, an OMAC attacked the two, and impaled Bordeaux. This attack somehow activated her latent inner programming, turning her into an OMAC cyborg. However, she retained most of her human features, although her skin now resembles a metallic coating and one of her eye sockets is empty. She also found that she retained her free will; unlike the other OMACs, she was not under Brother I's control.

Brother I, with Lord's death, rechristened itself "Brother Eye" and activated all the remaining OMACs to kill Earth's superhumans. Bordeaux contacted the other various factions of Checkmate who had left when Lord took over, apologizing for Lord and asking them to rejoin.

She then created a computer virus and hooked herself up to the Brother Eye satellite; the virus, along with a massive EMP blast that the various superheroes create, disabled the majority of the OMACs. Brother I escaped with 200,000 OMACS.

She later reunited with Batman, who comforts her when she tells him she was now a machine.

Infinite Crisis

Eventually, with the aid of the new Blue Beetle, Batman located Brother Eye. He then gathered a team of heroes, including Bordeaux, to attempt to destroy it ("Infinite Crisis" #5 and #6). The attack sent Brother I crashing to Earth, but the satellite's central memory remained intact. With the various superheroes needed elsewhere, Batman tasked Bordeaux with destroying Brother Eye once and for all. Sasha resisted the machine's brainwashing long enough to blow it up. She survived the blast, albeit at the cost of the majority of her OMAC shell.

One Year Later

One year after "Infinite Crisis", Bordeaux became the "Black Queen" of the Checkmate organization. In the first issue of the new "Checkmate" comic series, she leads a group of operatives into a Kobra stronghold. As the new series began, Bordeaux was depicted as a cold-blooded killer; it remains to be seen whether this is an after effect of her conversion to cyborg, or due to events of the previous year. Her "the ends justify the means" attitude towards the success of Checkmate missions has put her into conflict with Alan Scott. She is also in conflict with several of her Checkmate colleagues, particularly Fire and Mister Terrific, with whom she is romantically involved. As the series progressed, this aspect of her personality was rarely referred to again. In a 2007 story arc involving The Outsiders, Bordeaux suffered extreme torture at the hands of Chang Tzu who wished to lean learn more about her cybernetic implants. Although she survived this encounter (barely) subsequent issues have had her fighting to regain her confidence (similar to her fight to rebuild her confidence after the early humiliation she suffered at the hands of Harley Quinn), especially when the healing process results in even more of her body becoming cybernetic.

In "Manhunter" (#27, January 2007), Sasha intervened in the trial of Wonder Woman (for murdering Maxwell Lord) by secretly delivering exonerating evidence to Wonder Woman's lawyer, Kate Spencer.

Powers and Abilities

Even before her transformation, Sasha was a skilled hand-to-hand combatant and marksman. She was skilled enough that Batman allowed her to serve as a sidekick of sorts.

When Sasha was captured by Chang Tzu and studied [Checkmate #15] , he discovered that she had the following abilities:

* "A rough ten-to-twenty percent enhancement over even an Olympic level athlete across the board--in strength, stamina, endurance, speed, dexterity...". During the procedure, she also demonstrated a rapidly increasing tolerance to the sedatives being used to keep her unconscious.
* "(Via Sasha's) ocular implant, the whole of the visual spectrum and more, revealed to you". Earlier in the same storyline, Sasha demonstrated the ability to see in the infrared spectrum.
* "Optimized targeting optics...you must make a terrifyingly accurate sniper..."
* "Body parts encased in the OMAC composite shell...nanobot scabs covering your weaker flesh."

Sasha also has the ability to turn her nanorobotic components on and off at will, and they also help her to regenerate from damage she sustains, particularly to those non-biological parts of her body.

References