Black Scorpion is a made-for-TV movie that first aired on Showtime in 1995. It was followed by a sequel, Black Scorpion: Aftershock (1997), and a live-action series on the Sci-Fi channel. The latter lasted a single season, running from January to June, 2001. It was very campy, almost like a live-action Silver Age comic book, using deliberately exaggerated and unrealistic characters and events to comic effect. The television series in particular was heavily influenced by the 1960s Batman series. The character was revived for a short-lived 2009 comic book from Blue Water Productions.
After her father is murdered before her eyes, police detective Darcy Walker becomes the vigilante Black Scorpion to avenge him. She is assisted in this goal by a former car thief, Argyle Sims, who turns her car into the Scorpion Mobile and acts as her confidant. Other important characters include Darcy's partner, Steve Rafferty, who is determined to capture Black Scorpion (and is more than a little smitten with the crimefighter), the corrupt Mayor Worth, her comically inept fellow officers Specs and Slugger, and their idiot boss Captain Strickland.
Not to be confused with the 1957 giant monster movie of the same name.
- Action Girl: Black Scorpion, of course.
- Adam Westing: Not only did Adam West take over the role of Breathtaker for the series, but Frank Gorshin of 60's Batman fame appeared as Clockwise.
- The Alcoholic: Judge Cheetum in "Crime Time" really likes his martinis, to the point that he keeps preparing one while Black Scorpion and Clockwise battle in his office.
- Its to such an extent that the Mayor covers for his misconduct in court in exchange for favors of a larcenous kind.
- All Crimes Are Equal: The attitude of a Punisher-like vigilante fittingly called the Angel of Death.
- Animal-Themed Superbeing
- Anti-Villain: The serialization as a whole is lousy with these. Hapless individuals whom suffered from the horrendous lack of sense of inhabiting this crime ridden cesspool of a stinking city teaming with malignancy and incompetence.
- Formerly heroic firefighter Inferno's desire to kill the Mayor seems pretty justified — after slashing the fire department's budget, the Mayor hires an arsonist (his former cellmate!) to burn down numerous buildings in Angel City, which leads directly to Adam's transformation into a man with fire-starting touch.
- Simple street vender Clockwise made a dead-end living selling watches on the streets of Angle City. Having had the really bad run of luck being in the wrong place at the wrong time when some moron cop mistook him for the robber whom long vacated his downed vehicle. Ending with a pretty righteous bone to pick against the faulty system that wrongfully accused him landing a 25yr prison sentence for a crime uncommitted.
- Deputy mayor Edwina Watts ended up with the unenviable position of playing the patsy for the criminally incompetent Mayor Worth whenever his screwball plots inevitably blew up in his face. It was because of which she ended up becoming an electrical transference dynamo hellbent on ruining her idiot bosses career and taking his place as Mayor of Angle City.
- Bachelor Auction: The episode "No Stone Unturned" features one of these, complete with the guy who thinks he's hot stuff getting a lower than starting bid (Slugger), and a straight guy being won by a gay man (Specs), however while Darcy bids on Love Interest Steve, she loses out to the vengeance-seeking Minerva Stone/Medusa.
- Badass Normal: Being a distaff Expy of Batman, Black Scorpion naturally has no superpowers. But she does have a lot of cool gadgets.
- Bad Cop, Incompetent Cop: Pretty much sums up the zero sum aptitude of local law enforcement in the City of Angels. While none of them are adjectively corrupt, they're all often portrayed as too stupide and too indignant to be effective against regular crime, much less the supervillainy overrunning the city. Even Rafferty comes off as this from time to time, due to complications with the arrest subject. One in particular....
- As if to bring the point home, Captain Strickland only earned his big time debut as a junior officer in the ACPD because of a bupkis bust of an actually innocent man whom was sentenced to hard time because of his own blunder while on the job. He got labeled a hero for doing police work improperly, which ironically enough ended up creating the latest villain of the week.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Often, unfortunately. While a new villain of the week, a thrash band, are defeated by Black Scorpion, the mayor's plan to use them as a way to win his reelection succeeded.
- Camp: The first film took itself a little more seriously, but the second started to take it Up to Eleven.
- Clock King: Clockwise is one of these, complete with a time-stopping stopwatch.
- Cool Car: The Scorpion Mobile, a bulletproof black Porsche kitted out with a lightning gun (the "Scorpion Sting"), gatling guns, oil slick, and can transform into Darcy's white Corvette.
- Argyle has his own cool car, a classic Cadillac painted in his namesake pattern.
- Cool Pet: Darcy keeps a emperor scorpion in her lair.
- The Cowl: Black Scorpion
Opening Narration: "In the light of day Darcy Walker is a cop, but in the dark of night she becomes Black Scorpion; doing with a mask what she can't do with a badge." |
- Create Your Own Villain: Inverted as the the villain of the first film creates the hero by killing her father. Played straight with the mayor in the second film as he ends up turning Dr. Undershaft into Aftershock when his men sabotage her invention. This repeats several times in the series with the mayor's crooked schemes creating several of which.
- Flashpoint is a tabloid photographer obsessed with discovering Black Scorpion's secret identity who is blinded by her energy ring, but his eyesight was restored by advanced laser surgery, making him one of the heroine's most persistent archenemies.
- The villain Clockwise was the unfortunate byproduct of an utter clusterfum during policing duty which turned him into a genocidal time themed villain looking for ironic payback upon the stinking city that robbed him of his life. Thanks a lot captain Strickland.
- Stunner used to be Arthur Worth's bemoaned deputy mayor, whom he often footed the bill for every dumb thing his corrupt administration often loused up. His idiocy, coupled with two electricians catastrophic incompetence, turned her into a psycho electro eager to take up a new job position. HIS.
- Cyborg/Dark Action Girl: Aerobicide is a physical fitness themed supervillain enhanced by cybernetics. Unsurprisingly, she's one of the more physically competent villains Black Scorpion faces.
Aerobicide: "I'm an exercise machine!" |
- Darker and Edgier: The comic book adaptation is far less campy.
- Dating Catwoman: Darcy and Adam Burns/Inferno.
- Death Is Cheap: Thanks to the city's Mad Scientist odd experiments, most of Black Scorpion's Rogues Gallery don't stay down for long even if killed.
- Democracy Is Bad: In the City of Angels it sure is, the ignorant masses clearly forgot the number of problems that cropped up due to a hideously incompetent and corrupt political head's blatant abuse of power during a reelection debate. All of which being after the seemingly broken clock finally rang twice when they take notice of his various felonies in office this past year causing no end of societal problems for the little guy.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Medusa turns Steve into stone because years ago, after her face was horribly scared by acid, he let her down gently when she threw herself at him.
- Firemen Are Hot: Darcy falls for firefighter Adam Burns, making it all the more tragic when he becomes the supervillain Inferno.
- Frog And The Scorpion: The tale that inspire Darcy to become Black Scorpion.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Of a kind, and seen twice in series.
- Once with Mindbender when after a VR system short-circuit led her and her assistants to gain TV Static frame reflection for a short time.
- With stunner, it is more like a polished sheen that glosses over her eyes & irises. Indicating her fundamental change.
- Gullible Lemmings: In the superhero spoof that is the television show, people in series show to be just as Genre Blind and foolhardy at leadership selection as the Mayor is too much of a complete and utterly untrustworthy idiot for the role. Despite that man-child going out of his own way to show what an incredibly poor leadership choice he is; such as various ill thought out and haphazardly destructive plots practically bankrupting, not to mention jeopardizing Angle City. They still keep said Smarmy Toad Wart in office due in part to a great many of his long cons actually centering around suckering them into reelecting him, despite his many, many, MANY catastrophic bungles endangering all their lives.
- Happy Ending Override: What the essential transition from Movie Showings to TV Series translates too. Darcy and her new partner Rick getting together, the city remaining relatively intact and that moron Arthur Worth ending up behind bars alongside his cronies for kicking off said Aftershock fiasco. Rick is essentially replaced with yet another new male lead, the Mayor McCheese expy is let off the hook, all but reinstated on trumped up release despite his past crimes and the City of Angles is in even more danger than ever because of it.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Black Scorpion is considered a criminal vigilante by the police.
- Humans Are Morons: Of the Too Dumb to Live variety. Despite all the good said city's local vigilante does for said crime ridden sinkhole, the idle masses stupidly believe the word a Sleazy Politician; that being she's a criminal and public enemy #1. Said idiot being an ex-convict himself after the debacle with embezzling earthquake insurance in the second Black Scorpion movie, where he was summarily arrested only to be let off on trumped up charges. Something made all the more stupide and redundant given the number of times his petty scheming have endangered Angle City time & time again. He's literally the cause of most supervillain activity springing and yet the people of said Wretched Hive reelected that douche after he'd propped up yet another criminal to boost his approval ratings during a mayoral debate. The crim who Worth cut loose even televised he'd posted their bail after initial arrest to push his political con. Yet they still gave him their full support over Officer Strickland when he moved to concede to her demands.
- Hurricane of Puns: In each episode the villain's theme becomes a fountain head for various bad puns from the criminal or Black Scorpion.
- Hypocrite: Mayor Worthless has the gall to be thankful to the only real item of interest in his dump of a city that actually does any real saving the day despite promoting a "No Vigilantes" policy. This is usually after the fact he ended up creating the latest whack job threatening Angle City whom Black Scorpion has to rescue it from.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: Adam Burns/Inferno.
- In-Series Nickname: Argyle has one of these for Darcy; he calls her "Blue" (because she is a cop).
- Ironic Name: Angel City, ostensibly. There is nothing remotely angelic about said urban hellhole, crime is constant if not rampant. Local law enforcement is studded with by the book albeit uncoordinated and disorganized badges, not to mention its ruling political circuit is a complete and utterly maleficent imbecile who causes more problems for the metropolitan than he solves.
- Karmic Death: Clockwise is killed by one of his own age-inducing bombs.
- Karma Houdini: Despite being the cause of most of the city's problems and the reason for most of its super villains, Mayor Worth remains free and the mayor. It's even lampshaded.
Darcy: "Doesn't matter what happens, he (Mayor Worth) always survives." |
- Kiss of Death: The method used by the Angel of Death.
- Kiss of Life: Steve gives one of these to Darcy in "No Stone Unturned."
- Leotard of Power: Black Scorpion wears this, as do all the female supervillains.
- Love Interest: Steve is this for Darcy, but (of course) Steve only has eyes for her alter ego, Black Scorpion.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Phineas Phoenix. Not evil, but certainly mad. The first time we meet him he's working on resurrecting dead supervillains in order to rehabilitate them. He gets the resurrection part right...
- Meaningful Name: Most super villain's real names are a direct reference to their theme/power:
- Firearm/Jack Ames ("Aims")
- Clockwise/Benjamin Tickerman
- Greenthumb/Eugene Gardner
- Stunner/Edwina Watts
- Hurricane/Dr. Gail Waters
- Inferno/Adam Burns
- That one is lampshaded by Darcy.
Darcy: A fireman named Burns? |
- Minion: Almost all of the supervillains have exactly two of them.
- Most Common Superpower: Black Scorpion really fills out that suit.
- As do many of the villainesses she battles it out with.
- Motive Decay: Inferno's reason for being a Super villain is forgotten due to Dr. Phoenix's attempt to rehabilitate him. Needless to say it didn't work out.
- Ms. Fanservice: Black Scorpion fights crime in what is essentially a one piece bathing suit. The films even feature full frontal nudity.
- Nightmare Sequence: The episode "Out of Thin Air" is full of them, thanks to Breathtaker's plot to flood the city with fear gas.
- Darcy's personal nightmare? Being hunted by her own alter ego.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Argyle in the series. In the films he's merely a former carjacker who tricked out Darcy's car thanks to stuff that Fell Off the Back of a Truck. In the series he's able to develop counter moves to the tech of the Super Villain of the week. Oddly he says he's never been to college.
- Argyle is Dangerously Genre Savvy: He knows that in his city, when a guy graduates from college, there is a high chance that he becomes a Super Villain.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: Captain Strickland is a nice guy (some of the time), but he's more or less completely inadequate as a police chief.
- The same can be said of the witless, absentminded, criminally incompetent not to mention corrupt Mayor Worth. Minus the nice guy bits, even though he puts on heirs of it.
- Police Are Useless With the exception of Darcy, and to a lesser extent Steve. Captain Strickland even lampshades it:
Captain Strickland: "Now I know why the Mayor called us incompetent. Because we are! |
- Powered Armor: Slapshot uses one which doubles as a Super Wheelchair.
- Psycho Electro: Stunner, formerly the mayor's deputy.
- Rogues Gallery: Naturally, though most seem to want to kill the mayor rather than Black Scorpion. Darcy even lampshades it:
Darcy: It does seem to be a favorite pastime of the super villains in this city. |
- Sleazy Politician: Mayor Worth is a prime example. The series takes it even further with the comments of Darcy's coworkers in "Power Play":
Steve: "Who would gain from Mayor Worth's death?" |
- Special Guest: The episode "Love Burns" features Dave Mustaine (of Megadeth!) as an arsonist named Torchy Thompson.
- Stock Footage: The TV series was produced by Roger Corman and nearly every episode features stock footage from various Corman films. The car chase sequences are also always the same footage.
- Straw Feminist: Aerobicide is a man-hater with an axe to grind — she and her minions rob men's clubs. Every male character in the series conveniently becomes a one-episode misogynist when she shows up.
- Taken for Granite: Doing this to people is Medusa's schtick.
- The City: Angel City
- Those Two Guys: Slugger and Specs
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Averted with Darcy due to her being a cop she is willing to kill when necessary.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Many of Black Scorpion's enemies are these.
- The cyborg Firearm seeks to punish the mayor for passing a bill that would make it easier for citizen's to get the sort of high powered guns that nearly killed - when he learns that the mayor was forced to pass the law by a gun craving public, he goes on a shooting spree to teach the citizens of Angel City that Guns Are Bad.
- Pollutia, a zany aerosol extremist with aspirations towards cleaning up the breathable atmosphere in Angel City. By murdering polluters.
- Hurricane is an (completely insane) environmental activist who is willing to destroy Angel City to prevent further polluting of Angel Bay.
- Seismologist turned walking disaster Aftershock surprisingly. She only got back up to old tricks to help out angel cities homeless and misbegotten after they'd nursed her back to full health since the second movie.
- Aerobicide destroyed her body trying to live up to chauvinistic beauty standards and now seeks to destroy patriarchy.
- Former fireman turned firebug Inferno bears understandable grievances with idiocy in charge. Considering the Mayor paid an arsonist to flambe a bunch of buildings while cutting down fire department funding for an undisclosed marketing scam.
- Mindbender a simple data analyst whom wanted to make a virtual world where Angel City's homeless could retreat to for escaping reality.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Recurring theme in the series. If any character gains a Power from an accident, then insane laughter is sure to follow.
- Yellow Peril: Red Dragon and his goons.
Black Scorpion: "The problem with fighting Chinese gangs is an hour later I wanna fight again." |