Flatline

Creation:

Flatline was created by Joshua Williamson and Gleb Melnikov. She was first spotted on a monitor in Detective Comics #1034 - The Neighborhood Part 1; Demon or Detective? Part Two but made her first appearance in Robin #1 - Versus the World!.

Origin:

Flatline inherited her grandfather's power to absorb skills and knowledge from dying bodies. They were granted to him during KGB experiments. As a result, she was drawn to death, and her family not being able to understand her condition thought she was broken. Eventually she sought the guidance of Lord Death Man to teach her about her abilities. They trained for week until Lord Death Man finally encouraged Flatline to participate in the League of Lazarus Tournament because her powers will absorbs the skills of the fighters that died.

Major Story Arcs

Lazarus Tournament

Upon her arrival to Lazarus Island to fight in the Tournament, Flatline was immediately drawn to Robin’s showboating about his parentage. She called dibs on being his first fight, eventually ripping his heart right out of his chest as every fight is one to the death, per the rules, with each fighter receiving three lives. This started a flirtatious relationship between the two. After the death of Ravager, the last contestant to be killed and resurrected, the true tournament could begin. They were playing for keeps now.

After surviving two rounds, Flatline opened up to Damian about her relationship with her mentor. They convene under the bleachers with Ravager and Hawke to discuss what the League of Lazarus’s real plans are but are interrupted by Respawn, looking to trash talk. After taking on The Drenched in Round Three, Flatline made it to the Final Four, where she was paired against Damian. However, Damian pleaded with her that something else was going on. He had just learned that Mother Soul, who was running the tournament, was in fact his great grandmother, mother to Ra’s al Ghul. Flatline refused to go easy on him so was ultimately killed.

In the final round, Hawke proved victorious, and Mother Soul’s true plan could start. The demon of the lazarus pit had risen and was to possess Hawke, the deadliest fighter as decided by the tournament. Flatline joined Ravager in trying to save Damian’s body, but as soon as he was resurrected for the second time, inspired by his memory of Alfred, he inspired the other fighters to join him in fighting back against Mother Soul’s priests and her demon. Once Ra’s al Ghul and his loyalists entered the fight, they were able to take the island for themselves.

Post-Tournament

After the tournament, Flatline returned home with Robin’s heart, which she had saved from the first day on the island. She gave it to Lord Death Man, who intended to use it for his own experiments. However, their reunion was short-lived. Lord Death Man ended up back on the island raving about Flatline being possessed and trying to kill him. This was a trap set by Lord Death Man, who was imprisoned on the island per his plans, while Damian and Hawke go searching for Flatline, who had simply taken over Lord Death Man’s existing criminal networks that he had been neglecting.

She returned with the others to the island to stop whatever Lord Death Man had been planning. They were too late though. They found Lord Death Man amped up with lazarus power and quickly defeated him, never learning what his true plans were.

Lazarus Planet

Batman and Robin were manipulated into a feud by The Devil Nezha so that he could turn Lazarus Island into a volcano, causing a storm of lazarus resin rain across the globe. This caused fluctuations in a number of metahumans including Flatline, whose strength and reaction timing seemed to have increased. Her "sense death" ability also seemed to be picking up on a particular voice that was calling her name.

Still in Tokyo running Lord Death Man's old crime ring, Flatline followed the voice to an old hideout of Talia al Ghul. There, she found Ubu and a few loyalists to Ra's al Ghul, who had recently died during Shadow War. She fought through them to get to the source of the voice: an urn full of Ra's al Ghul's ashes.

Upon opening it, she proved the lazarus resin rain had also given her resurrection powers, as Ra's al Ghul materialize from the ashes.

Powers & Abilities:

• Necromancy: Flatline is drawn to and can seemly sense death.
  • Death Touch: Flatline finishing move in striking and removing her opponent's heart. This however can be blocked/caught
  • Skill Absorption: Flatline can absorbs and retain a portion of the skills of those who die near her. Which she has used to enhanced her own martial prowess.
• Lazarus Resin Mutation: During Lazarus Planet, Flatline was exposed to lazarus rain that mutated her sense death further, including the ability to resurrect the dead.
  • Super Solider: Her general strength and reaction time were seemingly increased as well.