Black Opal

Black Opal on the Cover of Scorpio #10

Black Opal is a supervillain infused with the power of the Black Opal Gem, granting him the ability to create solid black projections. He also has regeneration abilities.

## Origin

### **Early Life**

Black Opal AKA Jacob Donavon was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida.

### **Vietnam War**

When he was 21 he was drafted for the Vietnam War and was sent out. Once there, he was injured and then captured by Dr. Octavian, leader of CFRL and brought into his secret "Blood Brother" program. Here he was assigned a blood brother Fai Simoskul. Out of anger for his capture and the fact he was being experimented on, he never spoke a word for nearly three years to anyone, including Fai. This was also partially due to ideology as Fai was part of the Viet-kong.

### **Time at CFRL**

Over these three years, the scientists at CFRL were trying to give each member of the Blood Brother program a specific power. For Jacob, this was immortality. This meant the scientists were trying to get his cells to be able to rapidly heal and regenerate, stopping him from aging or being able to be killed from injury or disease. Jacob did not know the progress of this project as the experiments were never told anything.

However nearing the three year mark, Jacob felt miserable. The days all blurred and all he felt was anger for those who did this to him. He felt he was going to die, as he was in constant pain from the experiments. He then decided to try to escape, using the Black Opal. He had heard some scientists talk about this gem as if it had magical abilities. He thought that he had nothing left to lose and that he might as well try to be saved by the Opal. He broke his silence for the first time and told Fai his plan. He then broke into the sterile storage room in the facility and went to touch the Black Opal. The Opal then accepted him as he was the killer of its previous holder- Connor Dawson, Killed by Jacob during the war. However this wasn't by chance, as the Opal was subconsciously calling to Jacob as it needed a new host.

### **Bonding with the Opal and Fighting the Heroic League**

When Jacob and the Opal bonded, the opal described to him why they could bond and what Jacob's new abilities were. The Opal also told him "you will live forever", as it recognised that Jacob already had his regenerative abilities. The bonding caused Jacob so much pain that he lashed out and caused a massive "explosion", which exposed the secret underground facility to a freshly made crater. This explosion and creator caught the attention of the Heroic League, who came and fought him. Jacob's new abilities were put to the test, however he was defeated by Bumblebee when he stabbed him in his bee form. This gave the league enough time to leave and the army to arrive while he unconsciously healed. Once he regained consciousness, he caused a second explosion and flew away.

## Supervillain Career

### **Back to the United States**

After escaping, Black Opal and the league clashed a few more times in Vietnam. He quickly left the country and went back to the United States. He spent the next few decades in a life of crime to get by, however he kept a low profile and was never very active. It was during this time period he realized he couldn't age.

He also was once visited by the League of Opals who managed to track him down. They tried to get him, a fellow Opal, to join their secret organization. Jacob violently rejected their offer but was nearly defeated by the other Opals as they were far more in tune with their abilities than he. The other Opals learned that they would likely never be able to have a Black Opal back in their league as Jacob was able to regenerate and unable to die.

### **Contacted by Wasp**

Around 2016, Jacob was contacted by the villain Wasp to help break him out of prison. Jacob only remembered the man as Bumblebee, the man who he faced many times in Vietnam. However Wasp was able to convince Jacob to help him.

While Nico Retolovan came to visit Wasp in prison to try and interrogate him, Black Opal broke into the prison and assisted Wasp's escape. Since then, He occasionally crosses paths with Scorpio, along with other heroes like Nightmare.

## Powers/Abilities

* Regeneration of any body part, making him invulnerable to injury, disease, aging, and even death.
* Possessed by The Black Opal
	+ Can create "solid light projections", such as objects, explosions, and more. These are all coloured black and the projection's transparency is decided by the holder, in this case Jacob.