The announcement that Sol Rodríguez (Star Trek: Picard) joined the cast of Peacemaker Season 2 perplexed many. James Gunn confirmed she would be playing the character of Sasha Bordeaux. However, Bordeaux is a fairly obscure character, who has not been actively appearing in DC Comics in recent years.
Sasha Bordeaux – Agent of Batman
Created by writer Greg Rucka and artist Shawn Martinbrough, Sasha Bordeaux first appeared in 2000’s Detective Comics #751. A professional bodyguard with a sterling reputation, she was hired by Lucius Fox to protect Bruce Wayne. (This was in the Post-Crisis universe, before Lucius Fox was retconned as knowing Bruce Wayne was Batman.) Despite Bruce’s best efforts to ditch her when trouble struck, Sasha eventually discovered her new boss’ secret identity.
This presented Batman with a knotty problem. He didn’t trust Sasha Bordeaux to keep his secret identity, yet he couldn’t have her getting in his way. Ultimately, he agreed to train her to his satisfaction and she donned a costume to join him in the field.
Sasha continued to work as Bruce Wayne’s bodyguard by day and fought beside him as night. She wore a mask and costume, but never adopted a heroic alias. She also fell in love with Bruce Wayne, despite his involvement with radio host Vesper Fairchild.
Both Bruce and Sasha were later framed for Vesper’s murder. Bruce escaped from prison, and went on to clear their names during the Batman: Bruce Wayne – Murderer? event. Unfortunately, another organization had plans for Sasha Bordeaux. She was seemingly murdered while in prison before Bruce could arrange for her release.
Sasha Bordeaux – Agent of Checkmate and ARGUS
In truth, Sasha had been abducted by the spy organization Checkmate. They had learned of her working with Batman and thought she would be an ideal recruit. With no other options having been declared legally dead, Sasha agreed to join Checkmate. She had plastic surgery to change her appearance and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the right-hand of the group’s leader, Maxwell Lord.
Sasha Bordeaux turned upon Lord during the Infinite Crisis event. It was here that she was turned into a cyborg, having been chosen to be one of the OMAC soldiers under Lord’s control. However, her particular program glitched, leaving her in a half-mechanical state and with total free will.
Sasha Bordeaux became the Black Queen of the new, reformed Checkmate. However, she continued to struggle with her implants and evidence that she was becoming more machine than human. She seemingly sacrificed her consciousness to reactivate the OMAC project and Brother Eye during the Final Crisis event. However, she was later said to have awakened from her coma and resigned from Checkmate in the JSA vs. Kobra miniseries.
Sasha Bordeaux was later reintroduced into the DC Rebirth universe as part of the cast of Greg Rucka’s Wonder Woman. She was presented as a superior officer of Steve Trevor and Etta Candy at ARGUS. She was also shown to be under the electronic influence of corrupt CEO Veronica Cale. It is unclear how much of her past history with Batman and Checkmate Rucka adopted as canon in the new timeline.
Sasha Bordeaux Powers and Skills
A former Secret Service agent, Sasha Bordeaux is a gifted martial artist and sniper. Her skills were further refined under Batman’s tutelage. She had enough natural ability that she was able to make herself combat ready, by Batman’s standards, with a one-month deadline.
Sasha’s physicality was further enhanced by OMAC nanotech, giving her 10%-20% enhancement beyond the Olympic athlete standard. The enhancements also gave her a healing factor, repairing damage to her body almost instantly. They even enhanced her vision, giving her enhanced targeting optics and the ability to see the entire electromagnetic spectrum. She also had a limited ability to interact with electronics, through the Brother Eye system.
Sasha Bordeaux’s Role in Peacemaker Season 2
It seems likely that the Sasha Bordeaux of Peacemaker will be an agent of ARGUS, as in the more recent Wonder Woman comics. This seems logical, given the show deals with the ARGUS organization. It remains to be seen, however, if she will be in the service of Amanda Waller or an agent gone rogue in Peacemaker Season 2.
Peacemaker Season 1 is now viewable on Max.
