Daniel "Blacky" Falkner

Real Name:  Daniel Falkner

Alter Ego:  Robber, Danny, Blacky

Current Occupation:  Police Detective

Parents:  Unknown

Siblings:  None

Spouse:  None

Children:  None

Group Affiliation:  (Earth B) Super Rock; (Earth 5) Heroes of Earth

Place of Birth:  Worcester

Current Place of Residence:  Worcester

First Appearance:  Mystery Comics # 1, September 1982

Biography:

Danny Falkner grew up an a very abusive environment in the city of Worcester.  His parents were criminals and drug users who were always either neglecting or abusing the boy.  When Danny was 12, he ran away from home and took on a life of crime himself while living homeless.  Danny started using the alias "Blacky" in his new career.  Though Blacky became a thief, he never used violence except in defense and never used or sold drugs.  That was the lifestyle he was escaping from, after all.

However, his new life only lasted a few months when he was apprehended by the vigilante known as the Unknown who caught him ambitiously and single handedly robbing the penthouse of a local millionaire.  The Unknown, rather than taking the boy in, instead heard his story, and feeling bad for him, took him in as his ward.  He also trained the boy to be his partner in crime fighting, and jokingly dubbed him "Robber".

The Unknown and Robber worked together for four years, until Robber nearly perished at the hands of the Trapster.  After that, the Unknown asked his friend, Private Eye Peter Lebane to take the boy in.

Blacky stopped operating as Robber, but would assist Lebane in his own crime fighting investigations.

It was also at this time that a music promoter thought up the gimmick of having a rock band consisting of teen heroes.  The band was called Super Rock, and Blacky was recruited as lead singer.  The rest of the band consisted of Princess Angela of Booer, the Rocket Kid, the 16 Year Old Robot, Changer, and Witch Woman.  Of course while on tour, the band also fought against super villains such as the Dragon, the Booers, the New Power, and the Legion of Doom.  The team was very effective as crime fighters, but though the band quickly rose in popularity, it faded just as quickly and the band was disbanded.

A few months later, a team of heroes called the Heroes of Earth arrived from an alternate universe called Earth-5.  Amongst the heroes was an alternate version of Blacky.  This Blacky shared the exact same history, except that he was never a member of Super Rock, which didn't exist on his world, and of course his membership in the Heroes of Earth.  During the Crisis in Infinite Earths, Earth-5 was destroyed, and Blacky and his teammates were stranded on Earth-B.  Allorin Vonski used his powers to merge the two into one being, with one shared history.  Thus after that Blacky had memories of both lives on both worlds.

After that, Blacky graduated from high school shortly after.  He dropped the "Blacky" and started going by Danny.  He enrolled in the police academy, and graduated, and within two years made detective and was partnered with Lebane, who had rejoined the force.

They spent much of the time for years assigned to catching a new vigilante called Justice (who was actually Danny's cousin Peter Falkner.)  After a while though, the two established a working relationship with the hero.

During the time when the mutant Adam became ruler of Earth, Danny was a member of NighTrain's underground resistance movement.  Following Adam's defeat, Danny returned to the force.

In recent years, Danny had started a working relationship with a new Justice (Michelle Wrigley), who has since retired.  Danny still works as a detective in Worcester as of this writing.

Comments:

Danny Falkner started off as a spoof of Robin, which is probably obvious, though his physical appearance and personality were modeled after John Stamos' character "Blackie" on General Hospital.

Danny's commonality with Robin continued with Super Rock, which was a spoof of the New Teen Titans. His change from working with the Unknown to working with Lebane was due to Lebane taking over the lead story in Mystery Comics.

The doppelganger from Earth-5 came from my desire to do a two part homage to the JLA/JSA crossovers.  Earth-5 was a world of nonpowered vigilantes and magic users.  Thus Blacky fit into that category.  But of course, Blacky was firmly planted in the main Wronskiverse (Earth-B) as the Unknown was a member of the Powerkid Police and Blacky had been a member of Super Rock.  Thus there were two.

The two merged after the Crisis just as Earth-1 and Earth-2 characters merged (such as Wildcat, for instance).

Danny stopped appearing regularly when Detective Lebane was replaced by Doctor Mystery in Mystery Comics.  Danny returned though with Justice # 1, and remained a supporting character in that series for years, until it ended in 1992.

He appeared again in the Timeline mini-series, and then recently returned again as a supporting player in the new Justice series, though now that Michelle Wrigley has retired and left Worcester, to be replaced by a new Justice (Holly Frost), who operates in Amherst, Danny has stopped appearing in the series, and is currently in comic book limbo, but is sure to return somewhere, somehow in the future.