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    Sasha Bordeaux

    Character » Sasha Bordeaux appears in 146 issues.

    Sasha worked as a bodyguard of billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and became the Black Queen of Checkmate later. In DC Rebirth, Sasha was re-introduced as the Director of A.R.G.U.S.

    Short summary describing this character.

    Sasha Bordeaux last edited by jason_rusch on 09/04/19 06:50PM View full history

    Origin

    Once a skilled Secret Service agent, Sasha Bordeaux left the service and went private as a bodyguard.

    Creation

    Sasha Bordeaux was created by Greg Rucka and Shawn Martinbrough as a major supporting character for Rucka's first run on Detective Comics.

    Character Evolution

    Sasha Bordeaux (Batman's Bodyguard)
    Sasha Bordeaux (Batman's Bodyguard)

    Former Secret Service agent Sasha Bordeaux was hired by Lucius Fox of Wayne Enterprises to act as a bodyguard to Bruce Wayne. Though resistant to the idea, Lucius left Bruce with little choice but to accept Sasha. This led to a very strained working relationship as Sasha took her duties seriously and Bruce did not. She got the distinct impression that he was trying to make her quit and suspected there was something false about his playboy behavior. He was too physically fit for such a laid back man; he disappeared at night for supposedly social reasons but almost never actually saw him with a woman. Her suspicions were confirmed when she found a secret compartment inside his suitcase containing Batman's field arsenal.

    Some time passed without Sasha bringing it up, but it soon became clear to her that Bruce was aware that she knew. When the inevitable confrontation came, she had no intention of laying off her duty of protecting Bruce Wayne--whatever he may be wearing at the time--and Bruce judged her unfit for following him around at night. To solve this, Bruce put her through a rigorous 30-day training program to make her fit. Sasha rose to the challenge and persevered through the program. She was given a costume to patrol with Batman at night as Bodyguard.

    Checkmate

    Sasha (Agent of Checkmate)
    Sasha (Agent of Checkmate)

    When David Cain framed Bruce Wayne for the murder of Vesper Fairchild, Sasha was implicated as well. She was convicted of murder before the truth was exposed and sentence to Blackgate. She refused to even take the stand during her trial. Telling the truth would have meant exposing Batman's identity, so she said nothing.

    After three months time in Blackgate, Sasha's death was faked by agents of Checkmate. She was said to have died from internal injuries suffered during a brawl in the prison yard. The truth was that she had been recruited by Checkmate, by Agent Jessica Midnight, who sold her on the idea of joining and began her training. Reconstructive surgery gave Sasha a new face to go along with her new identity. However, Batman didn't believe she died in prison and was tirelessly looking for her and harassing Checkmate for answers.

    Enough became enough, and Sasha was told to resolve the situation with Batman. Sasha met with Bruce and vented her frustrations over what had happened. She figured out that she never discovered he was Batman on her own. He made her find out. It was the only way he knew how to deal with how close they were getting. She told him she loved him, and he admitted he loved her as well. But she wouldn't come back, and she asked that he not try to find her again.

    The OMAC Project

    Sasha (Black King Knight as OMAC)
    Sasha (Black King Knight as OMAC)

    Sasha quickly rose in the ranks of Checkmate, becoming the Black King's Knight. She was the protector and right hand woman of Maxwell Lord, but soon she would come to realize how dangerous of a man he was. She was present when the second Blue Beetle broke in and discovered Max's plans against the metahuman community, and helped to make sure he didn't escape. However, she didn't really believe that Max would kill him. He did, and Sasha incinerated Ted Kord's body as ordered. But she also sent Kord's broken lenses to Batman to put him on the trail of the conspiracy going on. She then stood by while Max executed the rest of Checkmate's royalty and took full control over the agency.

    Sasha further betrayed Max by meeting directly with Batman, but this was discovered by Max. OMACs were sent to interfere, and she was captured to be brought back to Max. He wanted to know how much she had revealed about his OMAC Project and was surprised how she was able to resist his psychic influence. She escaped custody along with Jessica Midnight and sought out Max to kill him, only to find that he had already been killed by Wonder Woman. Not only that, but Brother Eye had activated the OMACs and begun purging what remained of Checkmate. Sasha was mortally wounded by an OMAC, but rather than die, she was transformed into something resembling an OMAC. She had unknowingly been infected with nannites, but not in the same way as the other OMACs had. She was intended to be something else--something autonomous. She still had her free will.

    Sasha and Jessica set to work organizing what was left of Checkmate along with every other agency they could get a hold of to stop Brother Eye and the OMACs. A plan was devised that would allow Sasha to use her new transformation to wipe out a large portion of the OMACs if they could be gathered together. The world's superheroes banded together to engage the OMACs and serve as the bait, while Sasha hacked the network and initiated a shutdown command.

    There were still other OMACs out there, and Brother Eye remained as well. Sasha was part of a unit of heroes assembled by Batman to go into orbit and take out Brother Eye. They activated its propulsion system to knock it out of orbit, sending it plummeting to Earth. What survived reentry crashed down in the Rub Al-Khali Desert, and Batman sent Sasha to make sure nothing of it could be rebuilt. Brother Eye contained a database containing the identities of most of Earth's superheroes, and no one could be allowed to get that information. Sasha had to contend with the Israelis, the Chinese, the Rocket Red Brigade and a Checkmate now under the command of Amanda Waller. She made it into the crashed satellite, confronting a still operational Brother Eye. It revealed that it infected her with the nannites and Max knew nothing about it. She was intended as a backup system should Brother Eye ever be compromised. It tried to overwrite and take over her body, but she detonated the explosives she brought with her just in time. Sasha emerged from the wreckage, having shed most of the metal skin that came with Brother Eye's transformation of her.

    Sasha Return to Checkmate

    Sasha (Black Queen)
    Sasha (Black Queen)

    When Checkmate became a U.N.-sanctioned agency, Sasha Bordeaux was appointed as its Black Queen, and Jessica Midnight joined as her Bishop. She had routine clashes with the royalty of Checkmate's White side. With Alan Scott, it tended to be over her operational use of violence and the body count that came along with that. With Amanda Waller, it was because Amanda was after her job as Black Queen. She also began a secret affair with Mr. Terrific, who was the White King's Bishop when it began. Early on, she lost her Knight, Jonah McCarthy, on a raid of a Kobra base in the Gulf of Aden. She would later replace him with the French special agent Mademoiselle Marie.

    Leading a joint operation with the Outsiders to take out secret experiments on Oolong Island, Sasha was abducted and held captive by Egg Fu. The scientist conducted vicious experiments on her to study her nannites, going so far as to amputate her arm to see it would regenerate completely out of nannites. Batman joined the rescue effort and brought her back to Checkmate. Amanda Waller attempted to blackmail Sasha into resigning with proof of her inappropriate affair with Mr. Terrific. However, Sasha aligned with Mr. Terrific and Taleb Khalib to turn the tables on Waller, finding evidence of the Salvation Run and forcing her resignation.

    When Darkseid took over Earth during the Final Crisis, Sasha bunkered down with what remained of Checkmate in a facility deep in Antarctica to coordinate a resistance. However, the bunker was breached by Darkseid's enslaved forces, and Sasha was touched by the Anti-Life Equation. She made it to a more secure area of the bunker with Mr. Terrific and Taleb Beni Khalid but couldn't resist the Equation. Rather than become one of Darkseid's slaves, she gave herself over to her OMAC programming and went into stasis mode. In order to access some OMAC codes to implement a counterattack plan, Mr. Terrific had to awaken her. She was awakened long enough for the Anti-Life Equation to fully take her, but Mr. Terrific forced her bio-functions to shut down before she could do anything, forcing her into a comatose state with her OMAC nanotech sustaining her.

    The Sleeping Queen
    The Sleeping Queen

    Sasha remained in a comatose state even after Darkseid's forces were defeated and the Earth was saved. All efforts to reawaken her failed, as her exposure to the Anti-Life Equation kept her in a critical condition. She was moved to the Justice Society of America's brownstone headquarters in New York City, where Mr. Terrific and Dr. Mid-Nite could give her as much specialized medical care as possible to free her from her slumbering prison.

    Mr. Terrific never gave up hope on her, and his faith was rewarded after the Justice Society's conflict with a new incarnation of Kobra led by Jason Burr yielded the means to help her. Artificial intelligence programs Burr salvaged from Checkmate's Code Zoo came back into Mr. Terrific's possession, and one of them was an alien program capable of cleaning out the malicious code crippling Sasha's nanotech system. He ran it through her, and it succeeded in bringing her out of her coma.

    Major Story Arcs

    Bruce Wayne: Murderer

    For further details: Bruce Wayne: Murderer and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive

    The OMAC Project

    For further details: the OMAC Project

    Final Crisis

    For further details: Final Crisis

    Powers and Abilities

    Unarmed Combat

    Sasha Bordeaux is the recipient of extensive training from the Secret Service, Checkmate and Batman. This likely puts her as a skill level well above most other espionage agents.

    Implants

    The OMAC nanites in Sasha's body give her a powerful and unique healing ability. The nanites will replace any lost tissue with its own cybernetic tissue at a very rapid rate. The OMAC nanites in her body also enhance her strength, reflexes and her senses.

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