Origin
The real name of Orpheus is Gavin King. King was the son of a television producer and his mother was a professional dancer. King was inspired by his mother to become a dancer and singer himself. Unfortunately, the school bully’s found out about his dreams and bullied him throughout his school, however his parents continued to encourage him to follow his dreams. King began to study martial arts and excelled at it.
He finally became a star in his teenage years and began to tour the world. During his travels, he found out how much the world was suffering and the effects of poverty, hunger, violence, prejudice, and loss of faith. So he began a campaign against all of this and almost got himself killed. His actions caught the attention of an organization which had similar goals; to extinguish the world of it’s problems. They trained him and gave him his own power suit. King decided to return to his place of birth; Gotham City and believed that the city needs a black hero and a socially conscious one. He first met Batman while he was on a case and Batman was very reluctant to trust him especially since he was an inexperienced, a rookie vigilante. Nonetheless, Batman respects his goals and motivations.
Major Story Arcs
War Games and Death
Stephanie Brown aka The Spoiler, decided to execute one of Batman’s contingency plans if the crimes of Gotham ever got out of hand. The plan was to unite all of Gotham’s gangs under one boss, Orpheus and Matches Malone;Batman’s alias or disguise thus bringing all the gangs of Gotham under Batman’s control. Stephanie then united the gangs but was unaware that Malone and Batman was the same man. When Malone never showed up, the meeting turned into a war zone and many gangsters died leading to a power vacuum and Black Mask returning to gain control over Gotham made it even worse. Stephanie who was Robin at that time sought the help of Orpheus hoping to bring the situation under control but as they both met, Black came from behind and slit Orpheus’s throat. He then kidnapped Stephanie and tortured her for more information.
Black Mask then took Orpheus’s identity and fooled both Batman and Onyx; Orpheus’s partner. As Orpheus he began to ensue total chaos over Gotham and encouraging gangsters to kill any member of the Bat-Family. He then tried to torture Stephanie for more information but she already escaped. Black Mask found her and they both fought and Stephanie was able to defeat Black and escape with sever wounds. She taken to Dr. Leslie Thompkins for medical attention. However, she purposely neglected to give her the medicine that would have saved her life and as Stephanie died she asked Batman *”Was I a good Robin?” Batman responds “Yes..” and she died in his arms. It was later retconned and revealed that Leslie never played any part in Stephanie Brown and that Black Mask actually killed and she just died of the injuries.
Black Mask then began to further his plans and rose to the king of the Gotham Underworld, he hired a reporter named Arturo Rodriguez to discredit Batman. Black Mask then killed several people to discredit Batman. However, the Joker arrived intent on killing Black Mask for killing Robin; as Joker explains “Everyone knows my favorite job in the world is killing Robin, you ruined my life when you killed Stephanie Brown.. the sweetest little Robin anyone could have hoped for! Don’t you know killing Robin’s is my job? Now because of you, now matter ho many Robin’s I kill in the future I’ll always be one Robin behind.” Black Mask and Joker fought each other, until Batman arrived and Black Mask was arrested. As he was taken to the prison he killed his escorting officer and escaped.