Just who is Black Orchid? And why does Rachel McAdams want to be her?

In an interview with MTV's movie blog Mean Girls and Wedding Crashers actress Rachel McAdams has expressed her enthusiasm to play one of the superhero roles that everyone seems to be playing at the moment.

Not just any superhero though, but an incredibly niche character that only long-time comic book nerds will remember. Black Orchid started out as a filler character in DC comics of the mid Seventies. She had the standard superhero flight and strength tricks, but cracked her cases principally by stealth, often spending an entire story disguised as someone in the villain's household.

The character never really took off and was abandoned by DC after a couple of years only to be resurrected by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean during the great graphic novel boom of the late Eighties.

Gaiman has a magical realist style that seems to work just as well on film or in novels as it does in the funny papers, and  it matched well with his dreamlike tale of a plant based heroine, a sort of sexy Swamp Thing, who budded off her own replacement when  killed by her enemies.

Here's Rachel's explanation of Black Orchid's singular charm:

“I just read this book ‘Black Orchid’ and it’s a really interesting character,” the actress said. “She’s a superhero that’s a flower. I don’t know if that would work or the audiences would be interested in that, but she was kind of cool.”

There's no firm deal to make the movie, and indeed no business action around the property other than McAdams' enthusiasm, but with that one interview she has guaranteed herself a lifelong following of fanboy comics nerds who are thrilled that she seems to be one of their tribe.