Obsidian (comics)

Obsidian (real name Todd James Rice) is a fictional superhero published by DC Comics. He first appeared in "All-Star Squadron" #25 (September 1983), and was created by Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway. According to an "Infinity, Inc." letter page, Obsidian was named "Todd" after a friend of Thomas.
Obsidian made his first live-action appearance on the second season of the DC show "Legends of Tomorrow", with a younger version of the character portrayed by Dan Payne, with no speaking lines, and an older version portrayed by Lance Henriksen.
Fictional character biography.
Obsidian is the codename of Todd Rice, who is the biological son of Alan Scott and Rose Canton, respectively the Golden Age superhero Green Lantern and villain Thorn. Todd was raised in an abusive adoptive home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He finds out in his late teens that he has a twin sister, Jennie-Lynn Hayden, alias Jade. The two meet, discover they both have superpowers and decide to follow in Alan Scott's footsteps and become heroes. The duo begin to operate under the assumption that Scott is their father. Although not certain of this lineage at first, the two eventually learn for certain that they are indeed Green Lantern's children.
As Obsidian and Jade, the two were founding members of the superhero team Infinity, Inc., a group composed mainly of the children, grandchildren and protégés of members of the Justice Society of America. Obsidian also serves with the Justice League in their satilite-based space station headquarters. Obsidian has many various adventures at the headquarters, including helping the League deal with dozens of aliens who are the last surviving members of their species. During his tenure with the League, Rice undergoes therapy and also has to deal with seemingly permanent injuries to his shadow form.
Obsidian apparently inherited a potential for mental illness from his mother, Thorn. Corrupted by Ian Karkull, Obsidian turned evil, using his shadow powers to first steal all the shadows from an entire city before spreading darkness over the entire world. During this time as a villain Rice attacks his foster father. Ultimately, his biological father Alan Scott, fighting as Green Lantern and with the aid of other JSA members, defeats him. Obsidian retreats to the Shadowlands, the otherdimensional plane from which he derives his powers. Obsidian later joins the mystical villains Mordru and Eclipso in an unsuccessful attempt to get revenge on Green Lantern and the JSA. Following this defeat by the heroes of the JSA, Obsidian is cured of his mental imbalance.
After being cured, Obsidan retired and he came out and came to terms with his self-identity as a gay man. Rice meets and falls in love with Damon Matthews, an assistant district attorney who works with Kate Spencer, aka the vigilante Manhunter. Todd's powers go dormant for some time but they return following the death of his twin sister Jade during "Infinite Crisis". Obsidian returns to being a superhero and continues to happily date Damon.
Obsidian appears during the year-long "52" event. Watching a Thanksgiving Day Parade, he sees Luthor's personally engineered 'Everyman' superhero team going by. Enraged that one of the members is nicknamed 'Jade', he angrily confronts the group, endangering innocent people in the process. The Everyman heroes protect the crowd and Obsidian is talked out of doing anything drastic.
Prior to the events of "Justice Society of America" (vol. 3) #1, Obsidian joins the JSA and serves as the security guard of their New York headquarters.
Obsidian later degenerates into an egg consisting purely of darkness. It is later revealed that this state was caused by an attack by Kid Karnevil, who gave Obsidian to a shadowy female villain. In "Justice Society of America" (vol. 3) #37, Obsidian re-appears as a power source for the Darkness Engine, causing all super-powered beings on earth to lose their powers. After Mister Terrific manages to travel back in time, he tells the others that they must hatch the Obsidian egg or they will all die and Obsidian's father agrees that this must happen. Able to now use this information to change events, while Kid Karnevil is looking for the black egg in the ruins of the JSA Brownstone, he is confronted by the restored Obsidian, who takes him out and rejoins his teammates in the combat against the villains.
Brightest Day.
Obsidian and the JSA come into contact with Batman's new Justice League after Alan Scott becomes possessed by an unknown entity and takes off into the sky. After catching up with Scott and reuniting with Jade (who had been resurrected in the closing moments of "Blackest Night"), the teams figure out that the being controlling Scott is the Starheart, the cosmic force that granted Scott and his children their abilities. The Starheart then takes over Obsidian's body as well and disappears with him. When the JSA members try to visit the shadow-wielding immortal known as the Shade in hopes of getting him to track down their missing teammates, they find a crazed Obsidian and Doctor Fate standing over Shade's comatose body. Before the others can call for reinforcements, Obsidian and Fate knock them unconscious and capture them.
At one unspecified point Obsidian's twin sister, Jade, is contacted by the Entity, who tells her to help him to "balance the darkness" and save their friends from what appears to be the villain Eclipso.
Jade tried to rescue her brother from the Starheart's control, but both brother and sister fused together and formed a hybrid with the powers of both Jade and Obsidian, all the while in the Starheart's control. Together, the siblings attacked the Justice League and the Justice Society until Jade is contacted by the Entity. Jade resisted the Starheart's control and tried to balance the darkness inside of both of them. Jade and Obsidian are eventually separated by the Entity so Jade could complete her task, however Obsidian became paranoid and tried to force Jade to fuse once again with him. Jade managed to prevent the fusion but Obsidian was restrained by Kyle in a green bubble and taken far away from Jade. Jade managed to restore her father's Starheart, which was revealed to be the unidentified threat. In the end Jade is reunited with her father who returns to normal but she cannot approach her brother or vice versa or both of them would eventually fuse once again into the hybrid and risk releasing the Starheart.
The New 52.
Following DC's "The New 52" company-wide reboot in 2011, Alan Scott and his family no longer appeared in stories featured in DC's main continuity. In "Earth-2", one of the fifty-two divergent realities branching from the core New Earth reality, Alan Scott is a gay man without children. In "Earth-2: World's End", a different version of Todd Rice appears who is Black, bald, and has multiple earrings. This version of Obsidian wears a trenchcoat over a white shirt and tie and a mask resembling his post-Crisis costume, the only part of Obsidian's costume that carried over into the new continuity. Todd is locked up in an alternate version of Arkham Asylum but he leaves Arkham under the supervision of John Constantine, who hails from Prime Earth and is attempting to return home.
In the 2015 comics event "Convergence", a two-part miniseries titled "Infinity Inc." featured the return of the pre-"Crisis on Infinite Earths" version of the Infinity Inc. team, including Todd as Obsidian. Todd and Infinity Inc. were brought to Telos in the series. This Obsidian was based on his pre-"Crisis" version but had elements of the modern day version of the character as well. His counterparts made veiled references to Todd's sexuality and appeared accepting of him being in a relationship with a man.
In the "Watchmen" sequel "Doomsday Clock", Obsidian was seen with the Justice Society when Doctor Manhattan undoes the experiment that erased the Justice Society and the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Other versions.
In the final issue of "52", a new multiverse is revealed, originally consisting of 52 identical realities. Among the parallel realities shown is one designated "Earth-2". As a result of Mister Mind "eating" aspects of this reality, it takes on visual aspects similar to the pre-Crisis Earth-2, including Obsidian among other Justice Society of America characters. The names of the characters and the team are not mentioned in the panel in which they appear.
In the 1997 Tangent Comics One Shot The Flash Todd Rice appeared as the character Dark Star, with the power to absorb light energy, however after a misunderstanding of a command from Francis Powell, Black Lightning he accidentally absorbs himself and therefore ceases to exist.
On the new Earth-9, a female version of Obsidian that can transform herself into stone exists.
Kingdom Come features Obsidian as one of Batman's rogue "Outsiders" team. He resembles The Shadow in appearance.
Sexuality.
He has a short-lived, troubled relationship with Marcie Cooper, the third Harlequin, shortly before the disbanding of Infinity, Inc. Later, sexual confusion was shown during his tenure in the Justice League, when he told his friend Nuklon that the only two people he could ever love in the world were his sister and him. When Nuklon asked if he was gay, Obsidian did not fully answer, instead asking "Why must there be labels?" After Obsidian's redemption, "JSA" penciller Steven Sadowski stated that Todd's sexuality would be dealt with whenever he returned to that title.
Todd appeared in "Manhunter" #18 where he shares a kiss with Damon Matthews, a recurring gay character, and spoke in the fashion of a lover, confirming his sexuality. Marc Andreyko, the writer of "Manhunter", goes into detail about selecting Obsidian as Damon's lover, stating that: 
I didn't want to make a character gay unless it felt organic. So, the list was pretty short. Then I remembered when Obsidian was in the JLA years ago and Gerard Jones, the writer, danced around the issue. I went back and read all my Infinity, Inc.'s and although Todd dated women, it was always a mess.
Andreyko said that DC was supportive, wanting a "visible gay character" and that it was "a general void in the DCU that needed exploration". Geoff Johns, longtime writer of "JSA", also stated his support for the idea.
When writer Bill Willingham took over the "JSA" title, there was a great amount of concern among fans about how this would affect Todd (as Willingham is a Republican). Some fans even feared that Willingham would "cure" Todd's sexuality. In "Justice Society of America" (vol. 3) #40, Willingham attempted to address this concern in a humorous way by having the newly restored Obsidian announce that his homosexuality has been cured, only for him to quickly renounce this claim, telling the readers, while breaking the fourth wall for a brief moment, that he was only joking and that he was still gay.
As of "Justice Society of America" #43 (October 2010), Todd is still dating Damon, confirming this in conversation with his father.
During the crossover ‘’Convergence Infinity Inc.’’, Obsidian's sexuality is referenced. His teammates are okay if he is gay, but he denies it even though he brought a close male friend to his sister's theatre performance.
Rogues gallery.
The following are enemies of Obsidian: