Obsidian (character)

Obsidian also serves with the Justice League in their satilite-based space station headquarters.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] Obsidian retreats to the Shadowlands, the otherdimensional plane from which he derives his powers.[9] Obsidian later joins the mystical villains Mordru and Eclipso in an unsuccessful attempt to get revenge on Green Lantern and the JSA.[10] Following this defeat by the heroes of the JSA, Obsidian is cured of his mental imbalance.[11]

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.[12] 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.

Obsidian and the JSA come into contact with Batman's new Justice League after Alan Scott is 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.[13] 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.[14]

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.[15]

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.[16] 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.[17]

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.[18]

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.[19]

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.[20]

Following the reboot of the multiverse at the end of Dark Nights: Death Metal, Alan Scott reunites with Jade and Obsidian at the Justice Society brownstone and comes out as gay.[21]

• Obsidian makes non-speaking cameo appearances in Justice League Unlimited as a member of the Justice League.
• Obsidian appears in the second season of Legends of Tomorrow, portrayed by Dan Payne as a young man and by Lance Henriksen as an older man.[25][26][27][28] This version is a member of the Justice Society of America, who were primarily active in 1942. As of 1987, he became the last living member of the JSA after most of them were presumed dead while on a mission years prior.
• Todd Rice appears in the third season of Stargirl, portrayed by Tim Gabriel.[29] This version, after being separated from his sister Jennie-Lynn Hayden, he is taken in by the Helix Institute for Youth Rehabilitation while looking for her. Additionally, their powers became connected to each other after her ring, which she inherited from their father Alan Scott, is infected by dark matter residue left over from her fight with Eclipso in the second season. Jennie and Todd eventually reunite and she helps him gain control of his powers.

• The Justice League Unlimited incarnation of Obsidian received a Target-exclusive figure in the series' tie-in toyline.
• In 2010, Mattel released a 6" figure of "Todd Rice" -- as the name "Obsidian" was unavailable due to a rights issue -- in the Walmart-exclusive Wave 14 of their DC Universe Classics line.[30]