DC Database
Register
Advertisement
Riddler 0008
Citation Needed
"When? How? Where? What? Why? - Life's full of questions, isn't it?"
This article contains information that has not been verified. You can help the DC Database by adding reliable sources in order to bring this article to a higher standard of quality.

Quote1 They haven't hurt me, no, but -- they won't let me GO! They put me in this ... this ... awful COSTUME, and they won't tell me WHY! Quote2
Emily "Lia" Briggs src

Emily "Lia" Briggs is Looker, a member of the Outsiders. She was a champion of the subterranean people of Abyssia and had telekinetic powers. She later became a vampire.

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.[1][2] The Outsiders set out to rescue Emily, but after a battle with the people of Abyssia, Emily's heritage as part of their race was revealed to her[3] and as Halley's Comet passed by the Earth, Emily underwent a metahuman transformation to regain her heritage, which in turn made her more conventionally attractive. With her new appearance, Emily also gained special powers and abilities and she started calling herself Looker.[4]

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 showed a deep current of intelligence, when she defeated an intelligent virus inhabiting her then-friend Doctor 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.

Looker's role as somewhat of an outsider among 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.

Around this time, Looker learned that one of the Outsider's former enemies known as Lady Clay was impersonating her and creating chaos in Gotham.[5] Looker went into action using a new costume to set herself apart from the impostor and she assisted Batman against the Mud Pack, a gathering of all criminals who've used the alias of Clayface.[6] Looker's assistance was important as she saved Batman's mental health and also stopped Basil Karlo, the original Clayface, once he had become the Ultimate Clayface, by overloading his powers and causing him to plunge downwards to Earth's core, where he remained trapped for years.[7]

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 Ilona to kill Geo-Force leads to Looker becoming a victim of their leader, Roderick. Having become 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 Ilona. 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. Her co-hosts included Vicki Vale, Tawny Young, and Linda Park. Two episodes were shown in which they interviewed Wonder Woman on her career. During taping Lia would wear a scarf around her neck to hide the vampire bite wounds.

Infinite Crisis

Lia was last seen as Looker during the Battle of Metropolis, in which the heroes of the world fought against the assembled army of the Secret Society of Super-Villains.[8] It appeared she was caught up in a massive explosion involving Breach, but she had a telekinetic shield around her body at the time.

She is later shown to have survived the encounter when she briefly aids Batman and the Outsiders in tracking down a mysterious alien conspiracy believed to have something to do with a rogue Parasite from the same universe as the ones who came to Earth during the events of Bloodlines.[9]

Powers

  • Psychokinesis
    • Telepathy: Her 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.
    • Telekinesis
  • Vampirism: In addition to the various mental and physical benefits that vampires are heir to, they also possess the ability to turn others into vampires as well. Each new vampire is traditionally subservient to the one who "turned" them, but some strong-willed vampires have been known to rebel against their masters.
    • Enhanced Senses: A vampire's senses are enhanced far beyond those of a normal human being.
    • Immortality: So long as vampires continue to consume blood, they will not age beyond the physical state they were in when they first became a vampire.
    • Invulnerability: Vampires are invulnerable to most forms of injury (certain exceptions apply). Bullets, blades and blunt objects do little to no damage to a vampire's body.
    • Regeneration: In addition to being virtually indestructible, whatever damage a vampire does in fact suffer can be healed through the consumption of human blood.
    • Superhuman Strength: A vampire's strength level is several times that of a normal human being and they are considered superhuman.
    • Superhuman Speed: A vampire's speed level is several times that of a normal human being and they are considered superhuman.
    • Superhuman Stamina: So long as they continue to consume human blood, a vampire can function tirelessly without rest or relaxation. However, a vampire's stamina wanes the closer it is to sunrise.
    • Psychokinesis: Most vampires possess some form of psychokinesis. Some are clairvoyant, others can communicate telepathically, some possess mind control. Particularly powerful vampires can control the minds of several people at once.
    • Transformation: Vampires often possess the ability to transform into a variety of creatures or effects such as bats, wolves, rats or even mist. While their physical attributes may fluctuate during such states, a vampire's mental acuity is the same as that when they are in their human shape. A vampire who transforms into an animal may also benefit from that particular animal's attributes including razor-sharp claws, fangs or the ability to fly. Vampires also often demonstrate the ability to alter their appearance at will.

Weaknesses

  • Thirst for Blood: Although Emily does not share many of the same weaknesses as regular vampires, thanks to her psionic powers, she does have the need to feed on human blood.


  • Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.

Related

Footnotes


Outsiders 0001
Outsiders member
DC Rebirth Logo

This character is or was a member of one or more of the teams known as the Outsiders. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Outsiders members" category.

Wikipedia This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Looker (comics). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Advertisement