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The Black Swan: Vigilante
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The Black Swan is a fictional vigilante comic book hero. The character was created by story writers Keith van Kessel, Morgan Gee and artist Heidi van der Meer. The character was originally modeled after a personal friend of the writers. Van Kessel and Gee saw the character as growing up in the wild and having an extreme connection to nature, especially towards ducks, as the original name of the vigilante was Duck Girl. However, in the process of creating the character's back-story, van der Meer came up with the name The Black Swan because the Duck Girl did not have enough intimidation to represent the darker version the character had become. The Black Swan originally was to take part in many personal vendettas against forces that would damage nature unnecessarily; this includes logging companies and chemical companies. The character kept her abilities throughout the process, some of which include abnormal speed and agility. She uses these abilities in conjunction with her weapons which the writers wanted to include such as a "shock-staff" and several daggers. She has three main associates with whom she deals with throughout the series: Jason Strijder, Jake Morgan and Scarlett Wake; except for their names all remained nearly the same as the original characters. Sitting down and hashing out ideas, Gee and Van Kessel came up with a character that mysteriously wakes up in a lake nearly drowning. Back Story The series began with Amy Lawson feeling an electric shock and waking up underwater. Being severally disoriented and unaware of which way to swim to the surface she panicked thinking that she would drown. Lawson then saw a large group of small black objects and instinctively swam toward them. She surfaced and was surrounded by several swans. Even in her current state, she had known that if she had not seen those swans, she very likely would have drowned. Oddly, the birds did not stir as she took ragged breaths above the water while treading. As she regained her co-ordination she swam toward the shore of what appeared to be a small lake surrounded by a forest. Recovering on the shore for a short while, heart still racing, she realized that she could not remember anything. Finishing her recovery, she heard a loud gunshot just to her left, clearly being fired from a distance away. Not knowing what to do in her shocked state, instead of taking cover, she just ran. Several more shots were fired but with her adrenaline pumping she was able to keep running to evade the shooter. She ran for some time, and eventually came across a camp site in the woods. A man was sitting on a rock beside a fire, shotgun just to the left of him. Not knowing who this man was or his purpose, she quietly found a knife sitting beside the mans tent. Picking it up, she deftly snuck without making any sound to put it on the mans throat. As she did this the man was able to immediately remove her arm and put her in a hold on the ground before she could have done any harm. He quickly grabbed and pointed his shotgun at her and looked at her with an inquisitive eye. She then realized what she was wearing, what looked to be a prisoner's jumpsuit. He lowered his gun and asked what the hell was going on, and seemed to trust his instinct in not shooting her. After questioning her he wasn`t able to turn her away, so he brought her to Toronto with the intention of putting her back on her feet and to help her discover her past. When she was originally brought back to the city, not remembering her family or where she was from, Strijder was able to contact Jake Morgan to get her fake i.d's, credentials and passports. Having known the sense of vulnerability and victimization, Lawson became the Black Swan in order to protect people like she should have been protected. This however is ranked second to her need to find out the truth. Becoming the Black Swan was a very trial and error process in discovering what weapons to use, what her opponents would be and gaining battle prowess. Eventually, Strijder pointed out that after only a relatively short time at being a vigilante, she was already becoming extremely proficient at accomplishing her goals. Morgan eventually heard about The Black Swans exploits and figured out her true identity through his various contacts and many weeks of piecing together carefully crafted covers and lies. Knowing what happened to her, Morgan attempted to find out what happened in her past but in the meantime provided weapons and support for her missions. After years of schooling to become a lawyer, training to to control her hidden abilities, and discovering the information necessary to figure out what was done to her, she finally got a clue through Scarlett Wake into her unknown history. After 10 years of learning and training, she finally might have a clue into her past. Associates Jason Strijder Jason Strijder is a criminal lawyer and partner based in Toronto's largely successful law firm: Gill, Motum, Duffin. He is ex-military, having been on missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. His wealth is mostly due to a large inheritance from his parents who died in a terrorist bombing when he was younger, this being the cause of him joining the army at a young age. He met Amy Lawson when she needed defense for her damages of a logging company in her youth. Jason was successful in her defense and eventually taught her how to live in the city so she could continue her vendetta with less risk of being caught. Amy became both a lawyer and a vigilante crime-fighter, which Jason assists with in the courthouse and behind the scenes, respectively. Jake Morgan Jake Morgan is a professional net-worker based in Toronto, Ontario, and has virtually limitless contacts and resources. He grew up on the streets in the Greater-Toronto-Area where he had to fight to survive. As he grew older he formed a reputation as a skilled negotiator and ended up becoming a well known money-launderer making large amounts of money. He left the "undeground" behind and eventually made his way to more legitimate businesses and becomes a self made millionaire. His ambition is virtually limitless and because of this he developed many contacts in ruthless job management and business arrangements. Morgan provides resources for The Black Swan in many in Having to defend himself on several occasions, Morgan has learned hold his own and is remarked as being quite skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Scarlett Wake Scarlett Wake is a highly trained renegade spy and covert mission specialist who sells information on the black market to whomever is the highest bidder. Her origins are vastly unknown, however, from what Jake Morgan could gather, it is likely that she is from somewhere in western Europe. She chose her life not out of callousness, but out of need in having large debts to pay that are at the moment, unknown to the reader. This debt is largely mysterious throughout the series and is implied that only with The Black Swan's help can she find an alternative way out of her debt. Wake provides information on individuals with less than reputable business habits for The Black Swan to observe and eventually intervene. She is never known to be without both of her silenced 9mm handguns. Villains Daniel Hawthorne Owner and CEO of Hawthorne Industries, an inventor of industry leading technology in the Nanotechnology and Microelectromechanical (MEMS) systems sector. He is considered to be one of the most intelligent men of the modern era, creating new technologies that some consider will be life changing in the near future. During the last few years however, it has been noted that he has become increasingly unstable due to what seems to be a type of psychosis. He saw no improvement in condition even with world class doctors providing assistance, and recently has gone missing, along with several dangerous technologies. His whereabouts are currently unknown even to Jake Morgan. Capacitor With Black Swan's rising success in her vigilante work, Daniel Hawthorne augmented his personal mercenary, Mark Slater, with a different version of MEMS, and sent him to capture or kill Black Swan. The MEMS allow him to convert various types of energy, such as heat, into others, such as pure light energy. However, Slater must use the energy that he converts or it is lost. He called himself Capacitor to fit his new role. Hawthorne's control over Capacitor however is that his MEMS can remotely be deactivated. Erik Shaw New York State senator, Erik Shaw is a very influential man. He is also one of the most corrupt men the United States has ever seen. Dealing in weapons, drugs, and shady business deals Shaw has become a very wealthy man. According to Jake Morgan, Shaw has dealings with several dangerous groups throughout the world, one being a known terrorist organization. His motivations are uncertain, greed appears to be only a secondary factor. The Black Swan has dealt with several of Shaw's business deals, bringing his wealth, power and anger together to try to have his revenge on her annoyance. He is also well known as a master swordsman, the origin of his skill is said to be quite interesting, although that information is still yet unverifiable. Kaida A chemical weapons engineer, his wife was inadvertently killed by The Black Swan. She was taking down a weapons shipment from a large smuggling ring overseen by Erik Shaw when in a last defense against her several explosives were set off remotely to trap and kill her. In the process of doing this, several civilians were killed including Kaida's wife. Seeking retribution he created several new weapons with the intention of killing The Black Swan painfully. Supporting Cast Sonya Markov aka Alexis Shaw Erik Shaw's invaluable secretary, she is also his sister, although not many know this secret. She is considered to be one of the world's foremost hackers and she uses her skills to find and or alter information for her brother's various enterprises. Devin Cooper An advanced weapons manufacturer, Devin Cooper designed and built Black Swan`s various weapons. His main front his serving contracts to the American army in building armor, guns and missiles. ===The "Watcher"=== A mysterious figure who has been seen watching The Black Swan during her latest missions. He doesn't interfere, he merely observes. His identity and purpose currently remain unknown. Powers and Equipment The Black Swan, with help from Jake Morgan and Jason Strijder has accumulated several weapons that she uses on a regular basis in conjunction with her special abilities. Vehicles As a part of the Black Swans front of being a lawyer, she has to look the part. She has a black Lexus that she uses on a day to day basis and an armor re-enforced black Mercedes-Benz. The car has several custom made features. Shock-Staff The Black Swan tested several electric based weapons such as Taser's, but she wanted some thing that was more effective. She helped to design her Mark II-Vindicator Shock-Staff which acts as a quarterstaff with both ends electrified to incapacitate her targets. Only killing when absolutely necessary, The Black Swan is quite satisfied with what the staff can accomplish. Daggers The Black Swan likes to make quiet kills when she has to, and found that daggers make for excellent weapons. Having several on her body, she has become quite adept at using them on opponents. She has also been known to put a heavy sedative on the edge of her blades so one quick non-lethal strike on any body part will incapacitate almost any opponent instantly. Powers The Black Swans special abilities were barely even known to her for weeks after the drowning incident. It was first pointed out to her by Strijder that she was abnormally fast, and agile. After several experiments, it was shown that she was on average twice as fast than a highly trained individual, but only for a short period of time. Using this ability with her set of weapons, and a heavy amount of training, Black Swan had become an almost unstoppable force. 
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