Blackout (Lilin)

Blackout
Blackout II. Art byLeinil Francis Yu.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Ghost Ridervol. 3 #2 (June 1990)
Created by	Howard Mackie Javier Saltares
In-story information
Alter ego	Unknown
Species	Human/Demon Hybrid
Team affiliations	The Firm
Partnerships	Deathwatch Lilin
Abilities	Superhuman strength, speed, durability, and reflexes Psionic ability to extinguish light in his vicinity Teeth and fingernails are replaced with mechanical prosthetics

Blackoutis a supervillain appearing inAmerican comic bookspublished byMarvel Comics.He is depicted as a half-demon, and is the second character to use The Name, an arcane blessing which bestows vampiric powers.

Johnny Whitworthportrayed a character based on Blackout in the 2011 filmGhost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

Publication history

Blackout first appeared inGhost Rider#2 (June 1990), and was created byHoward Mackieand Javier Saltares.He would continue to appear intermittently throughoutGhost Ridervolume 3 (published from 1990 to 1998) as well as other comics likeNew AvengersandDeadpool: Assassins.

Fictional character biography

Battling Ghost Rider

Blackout is a professional criminal who can create light-dampening fields that negate all visible light in their radius. He is extremely sensitive to light and possesses metallic teeth and nails.

Blackout is employed by the demonic crime lordDeathwatchas an enforcer and assassin. Deathwatch orders Blackout to search for bio-toxin canisters stolen by a youth gang named the Cypress Hill Jokers under their leader Paulie Stratton. Blackout murders detective Frank Loretti and his family, as well as Ralph D'Amato's parents before battling the Ghost Rider (Daniel Ketch).Deathwatch and Blackout then attack theNYPD's 75th Precinct police station, murder several police officers, steal the bio-toxin canisters, and abduct Paulie and the Cypress Hill Jokers. Subsequently, Blackout battles theKingpin's men as well as Ghost Rider again. In the resulting battle, Blackout is disfigured by Ghost Rider's hellfire and swears revenge.After learning of Ketch's secret identity, Blackout kills his sister Barbara Ketch as well as his acquaintances, newspaper vendor Theodore Larsen and Father Michael McDonald.

Blackout continues to stalk Ghost Rider. He encounters HEART, and menaces a group of children protected by theMorlockPixie.Though the children are rescued safely, Blackout kills Pixie and escapes after battling Ghost Rider again.

Blackout murders several sewer workers, then battles Ghost Rider,John Blazeand HEART again; during this battle, his face is further disfigured by Blaze's gun, and Blackout is finally captured by the police.He is freed from prison by the Firm, then abducts Ketch's mother and friends, seemingly murdering Dan Ketch by tearing his throat out while he is in human form. Only supernatural intervention from other sources allows Dan to recover while the Ghost Rider exists as a separate entity. Blackout goes on a murderous rampage throughCentral Park,leading to a hostage situation with the police. Along with Mr. Stern, Blackout is captured by Ghost Rider and sealed in amausoleum.

After escaping, Blackout experiences a vision ofLilith,a demon-goddess who claims to be his grandmother.Blackout joins forces with Lilith and the Lilin, and would team up with many superpowered offspring of Lilith, all doing her will. Blackout, Creed, and Pilgrim abduct John Blaze's son, then battle Blaze and Ghost Rider.Alongside Lilth and the Lilin, Blackout battles Ghost Rider, John Blaze,Dr. Michael Morbius,theNightstalkers,and theDarkhold RedeemersinGreenland.Bladeimpales Blackout through the eye, killing him.Blackout is later reborn along with the rest of his fallen brethren, thanks to Lilith. This restores his face, but he is later disfigured again in battle with Ghost Rider.

During one of his many times working with Lilith, he inspires the police officer Badilino into becomingVengeanceagain. Wracked with doubt after learning his demonic mission means little, Badilino is frozen with indecision as Lilith's forces, Blackout, Dark Legion and Meatmarket attack his precinct. Seeing Blackout threaten to consume a small child, Badilino transforms. The child is saved. Blackout takes an opportunity minutes later to attack Dan Ketch's friend Stacy Dolan. She is saved by Ghost Rider. Blackout and the Lilin are distracted by the arrival ofDoctor Strangeand otherMidnight Sons,who are their primary objective. A spell, cast as the Sons retreat from overwhelming forces, protects the citizens in the precinct from being seen by Lilin.

After being defeated by the Midnight Sons, Blackout has his face repaired and goes back to work as a hired assassin, also eliminating a few personal grudges along the way. He becomes romantically obsessed with Wei, a female reporter who was once affiliated with Deathwatch and has figured out Ghost Rider's secret identity. His murderous torment of Wei causes her to snap and attempt suicide live on camera, but Blackout kills her before she can pull the trigger.He is captured by Ghost Rider and chained over theWorld Trade Center,where he is thought to have burned to death.

New Avengers

Blackout escapes prison inNew Avengers#1. InNew Avengers: Most Wanted Filesit is revealed he was arrested before burning to death.

Blackout is hired by theHoodto take advantage of the split in the superhero community caused by theSuperhuman Registration Act.He helps them fight the New Avengers but is taken down by Doctor Strange.

InSecret Invasion,he is one among many supervillains who rejoin the Hood's crime syndicate and attack an invadingSkrullforce.

Death of Caretaker

Blackout aids Danny Ketch's attack and killsCaretakerbefore facing off against Ghost Rider.

He joins with the Hood's gang in an attack on the New Avengers, who were expecting theDark Avengersinstead.

Blackout is recruited by Zadikiel to assemble a "task-force" of Ghost Rider foes to hunt down and destroy both the Ketch & Blaze Ghost Riders.Later, he attacks the church filled with the gun armednuns,alongsideOrb,Deaconand the newVengeance.He cloaks the place in darkness threatening and mocking the nuns, but is stopped by being shot with bullets that were covered in holy water. Blackout runs away screaming in pain into the night.

Siege

Blackout was seen during theSiegeofAsgardas part of the Hood crime syndicate.

Fear Itself

During theFear Itselfstoryline, Blackout andDeathwatchassistSin(in the form of Skadi) in attacking Dayton, Ohio. Since Johnny Blaze is no longer Ghost Rider, a man named Adam performs a ritual in a pyramid in Nicaragua in which one of his followers, a woman named Alejandra, becomes the new female Ghost Rider who is able to defeat Deathwatch and Blackout II.

He reappears as one of the villains summoned by Sin to battle Earth's heroes.

InThe Superior Spider-Man

In an attempt to rebuild his reputation, Blackout goes afterSuperior Spider-Man(Doctor Octopus' mind inPeter Parker's body). He kidnaps Peter Parker'sAunt May,and holds her hostage, demanding that Parker, as Spider-Man's "tech designer", hand himself over in exchange. Superior Spider-Man tracks him down and they fight. Blackout gains the advantage and tries to bite out Spider-Man's neck. Unfortunately for Blackout, Superior Spider-Man was wearing a metal neck cover under his costume, which electrocuted him. Superior Spider-Man then tortured Blackout, ripping out his claws and teeth. In agony, Blackout begs for mercy, promising never to go after anyone Superior Spider-Man knows again. Superior Spider-Man tells him to spread the word to all the other criminals that "Peter Parker is off limits", then exposes Blackout to artificial sunlight, burning him.

Powers and abilities

Blackout's demonic heritage endows him with supernatural powers of enhanced strength, resilience to injuries, and heightened reflexes which enable him to challenge both Ghost Rider and other superhumans. His eyesight is particularly sensitive even in total darkness which gives him superior night vision but can be exploited to temporarily blind him. His core ability allows him to immediately extinguish any source of light - be it natural or artificial - in his immediate vicinity; cloaking the affected area in an unnatural veil of darkness which acts as a sensory-deprivation field to anyone other than Blackout himself who gets caught within it.

As a possible drawback due to the shadow-rooted nature of his abilities, Blackout's skin is extremely photosensitive. Exposure to harsh artificial sources can cause irritation, while exposure to direct sunlight or ultraviolet light results in severe burns and blisters. Prolonged exposure can prove potentially fatal. He also makes an effort to avoid large bodies of fire for the same reasons and lives an almost entirely nocturnal lifestyle. In addition to his demonic attributes, Blackout has had his canine teeth and fingernails replaced with razor-sharp mechanical prosthetics capable of easily rending through flesh and bone similar to a vampire.

Beyond his gifts and augmentations, Blackout is highly experienced as a hand-to-hand combatant; able to take on opponents easily equal to him in strength and potentially win. As he has no formal martial training, Blackout's fighting techniques are more akin to a street wrestler than a soldier or professional fighter. Only a super-humanly strong fighter with superior martial skills and experience could potentially defeat him. Blackout's physical gifts also lend well to acrobatics; allowing him to traverse most environments and evade slow enemy attacks with superhuman agility and speed, though he can still be caught off-guard.

In other media

• Blackout appears in theGhost Riderfilm tie-in game, voiced byLex Lang.
• A character loosely inspired by Blackout namedRay Carriganappears inGhost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance,portrayed byJohnny Whitworth.In creating Carrigan, the production team chose to base his characterization solely on the comic book incarnation's appearance and not his history.Additionally, Whitworth stated that he plays "the villain who, at the beginning, up until like page 70, is human, [...] I'm not a very nice guy. I'm bad. I get turned into, for those who read 'Ghost Rider', the character Blackout. I get turned into him by the devil to complete my job. That gives me the fortitude to fight Ghost Rider and the supernatural abilities to compete on some level with that guy."Carrigan is a mercenary, drug dealer, and gun runner who is hired byRoarketo kidnap the former's ex-girlfriend Nadya's son Danny, who Roarke fathered with her. This brings Carrigan into conflict with theGhost Rider,who defeats Carrigan and leaves him for dead. Roarke later finds Carrigan partially under the rubble where he heals and empowers him with the ability to decay anything he touches and darkness manipulation so he can finish the job. Blackout is eventually killed by the Ghost Rider.

External links

• Blackout (Lilin)onMarvel Database,aMarvel Comicswiki