Blackbriar Thorn
448 - Blackbriar Thorn is born in Wales to the Druids of Cymru.
461 - 13-year-old Blackbriar Thorn becomes one of the singers of the Druids of Cymru.
481 - 33-year-old Blackbriar Thorn assumes leadership of the Druids of Cymru.
490 - 42-year-old Blackbriar Thorn and the Druids of Cymru do not participate in Arthur Pendragon's rebellion against the Saxons.
491 - 43-year-old Blackbriar Thorn forbids Jason Blood from joining Arthur Pendragon's rebellion, but Jason leaves the Druids of Cymru.
503 - 55-year-old Blackbriar Thorn meets Merlin. They debate the role of Magic in the future of mankind.
517 - 69-year-old Blackbriar Thorn agrees to assist Merlin in the 2nd Shadowpact to stop Morgaine Le Fay. As their spells take affect he attempts to betray Merlin to stop his influence on mankind, but loses himself to natural magic in the process, his physical form melting into the Earth.
25 years ago - Blackbriar Thorn is unearthed deep within a weirwood in Wales, his control and consciousness spreading. Sir Ystin is unable to contain him, and seeks out Jason Blood, the only other surviving Druid of Cymru, who is able to seal Thorn back within the wood.
13 years ago - Blackbriar Thorn is brought to London by John Wycliffe. The spells binding him are broken and he begins trying to rebuild the world with Natural Magic. He is stopped by Percival & Cyril Sheldrake, sealed inside an enchanted sarcophagus.
9 years ago - Blackbriar Thorn is freed by Felix Faust to learn secrets of the Druids of Cymru, joining his hunt for the Spear of Destiny, but they are stopped by Justice Society, who manage to contain him.
8 years ago - Blackbriar Thorn is restored by Johnny Sorrow for his Injustice Society, and joins their attack on the Justice Society blackstone.
Blackbriar Thorn is a fairly minor character in the grand spectrum of DC villains. He's not part of any particular rogues gallery, and doesn't have a huge number of appearances. He's more a character that is grabbed for utility roles... when they need a specific nature-based bad guy, or a character that can grow really large in a group of villains. By itself this makes him a pretty useful, if basic, comic book villain, but he also occupies a certain narrative space that makes him particularly useful to US. We're going to make him part of a larger story that we think he will fit in with nicely.
Blackbriar Thorn's Comic HistoryDespite what I originally assumed, Blackbriar Thorn is not a Golden Age character at all. He has the trappings of one, but he was actually created in 1984 in the anthology book DC Comics Presents in a story by Len Wein featuring Superman and Etrigan. He is an ancient Druid... described here as a sect of ancient Celtic priest-magicians who control the elements, while Thorn himself was a high priest who led the Druids in human sacrifices. When his wooden form is unearned and unveiled in Gotham, he's awakened by moonlight he proceeds to be a cataclysmic threat, but he's defeated and destroyed by the end of the comic.
Thorn is next referenced in an issue of Swamp Thing titled The Secret Lives of Plants, in which John Constantine is trying to learn what is happening in the Green, and summons his spirit through a medium to answer his questions. The story that really elevated Blackbriar Thorn from being a one-time villain in a single pre-crisis anthology book to a more regularly appearing villain was Geoff Johns' JSA. He was included as part of the new Injustice Society, a team that includes Alan Scott, whose powers don't work on wood. He fit the role so well that I apparently just assumed that he'd ALWAYS been a Justice Society villain. He has several appearances in that book and has since been a character that will crop up whenever they need a big magical bruiser. |
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Our Blackbriar Thorn StoryBlackbriar Thorn isn't an established part of the Arthurian characters in DC, but he does fit very neatly into that era, and we can use his relationship with magic in opposition to Merlin. The DC Merlin isn't necessarily a good guy, and his plans for the world don't necessarily have its best interest at heart, so we get to depict Thorn as this a voice of the past clinging to the old ways of magic and resisting the coming changes to mankind, who is ultimately swept aside when he tries to stop Merlin. We can also tie him into the story of Jason Blood, giving him a history with the Druids of Cymru. I like to imagine that, unlike the other characters from this era, Thorn doesn't adapt in modern times to speak Modern English. He only speaks in Old English, making him largely impossible to understand to people who don't speak a dead language.
Another fun part of Blackbriar Thorn's place in DC is that he's one of a series of plant-based characters that populate the various corners of the world. We're making sure that Jason Woodrue, is inspired in his plant hybrid work by the appearance of Blackbriar Thorn, which ties him into an entirely separate legacy of characters. For a minor bad guy, Blackbriar is remarkably useful! |
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