BLACK LIGHTNING Casts Sofia Vassilieva as Looker

Let's see who gets to love her more.

TVLine has revealed that the CW series Black Lightning has cast Sofia Vassilieva as Emily "Lia" Briggs, better known to DC Comics fans as the superhero (and occasional vampire) Looker.

Looker will appear in the show's upcoming second season and is the fourth member of DC Comics superteam The Outsiders to appear, after Black Lightning, Thunder and Grace.

Black Lightning showrunner Salim Akil remarked, "It’s really going to be interesting, the way we approach that story…I think people will enjoy it, but also be challenged by it."

Vassilieva, 25, is probably best known as Ariel DuBois on the NBC series Medium and recently appeared as Worldkiller cult member Olivia on The CW's Supergirl.  In addition, she's appeared in the movie My Sister's Keeper and in episodes of Lucifer, Timeless, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Training Day, Notorious, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and The Agency.

Created in 1985 by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo, Looker first appeared in Batman and the Outsiders (vol.1) #25 as Emily Briggs, a mousy bank teller who lived a quiet life with her husband in Gotham City.  That all changed when she was kidnapped by people from the underground civilization known as Abyssia.  The Outsiders set out to rescue Emily and after a battle with the people of Abyssia, Emily's heritage was revealed to her.  As Halley's Comet passed by the Earth, Emily underwent a metahuman transformation, as well as becoming more conventionally attractive.

She learned she possessed the full spectrum of psionic abilities: telepathy, telekinesis, psychometry, enhanced metabolism, mind-control, psionic energy blasts, levitation, the creation of force shields, remote vision, and enhanced healing.  After leaving Abyssia to its people, Emily returned with the Outsiders and her astonished husband, Gregg.  She soon took on the name "Lia" as well as a more confident, yet self-centered, personality.  Emily's debut as Looker occurred after the Outsiders had been captured by the Masters of Disaster. After defeating the Masters of Disaster, she freed the Outsiders and was welcomed into their ranks.

Looker soon became somewhat of an outsider among Outsiders, which worsened when Windfall, a former Master of Disaster and peer of Halo, joined and the two were constantly involved in a rivalry of sorts.  In addition, Looker began a short affair with team leader Geo-Force during a time when they were stranded on an island but continued when they returned.  Eventually though, there was a mutual decision to call it quits, with the affair being unfair to Gregg and Geo-Force's girlfriend, Denise.

Some time later, Looker received a call for help from Abyssia.  Traveling to the underground city, Looker discovered that Abyssia had been taken over by a despot.  Looker invoked a challenge, and in the course of the battle, she was stripped of her beauty and much of her power.  Shortly afterwards, Geo-Force disbanded the Outsiders, and Lia returned to her previous life in Gotham City.  Through unknown circumstances, Looker regained her powers and was targeted by the Mud Pack, a group of various villains using the Clayface name, including Lady Clayface, whom Looker fought while a member of the Outsiders.  Lady Clayface duplicated Looker's form and powers in order to attempt to drive Batman insane,  but Looker was able to undo the damage, seeing into Bruce's mind and learning of his inner turmoil.  She ultimately helped Batman defeat the group and parted ways again.

When Geo-Force's homeland Markovia was overrun with vampires, Looker returned to action alongside the Outsiders.  An attempt by Queen Ilona to kill Geo-Force led to Looker running into their leader, Roderick.  Instantly enamored by her, Roderick transformed Lia into a vampire in the hopes of making her his bride.  After the transformation, Looker's existing powers were joined by some new abilities.  Due to previously being a metahuman, Emily was able to bypass some of the traditional vampiric weaknesses, such as vulnerability to sunlight.  The Outsiders are forced to become fugitives, due to Roderick having framed Geo-Force for the murder of Queen Ilona.  Once the vampires were defeated and the Outsiders' reputation was restored, the team unofficially disbanded.  Served with divorce papers and living under the vampiric curse, Lia broke all ties with her past life.

Black Lightning returns for Season 2 on Tuesday, October 9th.