Black Jack

Black Jack is an outlaw surgeon and major character created by Osamu Tezuka. He appears occasionally through the Osamu Tezuka Star System, but is mainly known for starring in the titular Black Jack manga series.

Origin
Black Jack originally debuted in 1973. Tezuka modelled him around the kind of renegade, charitable medical doctor he wished he could be. In his home series, Black Jack is an unlicensed surgeon who will operate for anyone willing to take on his exorbitant medical fees. While Black Jack most often gives others the impression that he is cold and callous, he is deeply passionate about his medical work and his patients. There are times where he will waive his fees or even accept a promise or a change-of-ways from a patient. In reality, Black Jack's immense fees are all just an act for his image and notoriety; it is revealed he donates much of his income to charities and nature conservation. He is accompanied by his assistant and surrogate daughter, Pinoko. While Pinoko appears to be a normal young child, she spent 18 years as a teratoma growth on her twin sister. Black Jack was called in to remove the growth, but would up also assembling and rehabilitating the parasitic twin. When Pinoko's biological family rejected her, Black Jack adopted her as his assistant.

To date, Black Jack primarily appears in media related to his home series. However, he will occasionally briefly cameo in other Tezuka material; his most known external roles include his appearance in Marine Express (1979), and as a lone wolf space pirate in One Million-Year Trip: Bander Book (1978).

Personality
Black Jack is smug but charismatic. He is as stubborn as he is gifted, which is exactly what cost him his medical license: when he was in medical school, Black Jack's classmate and lover Kei Kisaragi (formerly Megumi) was diagnosed with late stage ovarian cancer. Their superiors claimed Kisaragi's cancer was too far gone to operate on, but Black Jack, confident that he could save Kisaragi, defied their orders and operated on him anyway. Kisaragi's life was saved, but Black Jack's medical license was immediately revoked. Regardless, he continued to hone his craft as a doctor.

Black Jack's outward ego and image are a cover-up for years of childhood trauma. Born as Kuroo Hazama, he was a normal child until he and his mother Mio went to a beach, where they stepped on an abandoned, undetonated IED land mine. Mio was killed while Kuroo needed intense full-body surgery, and instead of supporting the family, Kuroo's father Kagemitsu instead chose to abandon them and remarry. Throughout the series, Black Jack tries to deal with his resentment towards his father and step family.

The only person who can get under Black Jack's skin almost as badly as his father is Dr. Kiriko. The two have starkly opposing views on life and death, and have competed to save vs. euthanize a patient. Elsewhere, Black Jack is fiercely loyal to those he lets close to him, such as Pinoko and his mentor Dr. Honma. Honma was also the one who reconstructed and rehabilitated Black Jack after his childhood accident.

Appearance
Black Jack is a tall Japanese man somewhere in his late 20s to mid-30s. He has scruffy hair that is mostly black, save for a large patch that has prematurely greyed. His body is covered with dozens of large scars; these come from from the lifesaving reconstructive surgery he received as a child from Dr. Honma. Black Jack dresses in heavy formal clothing much of the time, even wearing ascots and vests while resting at home. He leans into his notoriety as an unlicensed doctor, dressing in black and driving black cars, and has an imposing, gothic overall appearance.

In some older art, Black Jack's skin patch is coloured blue. This is a case similar to Skunk Kusai, who sometimes appears with blue skin so as to make him look more striking and haunting. Canonically, Black Jack's face patch is brown, and comes from a skin donation he received as a child. A large patch of skin had to be replaced on Kuroo's face after the land mine accident, and his Afro-Japanese friend Takashi volunteered for a skin donation. In the years since, Black Jack has never attempted to have the skin replaced out of respect for his childhood friend's kindness.

1980 anime
In the 1980 Astro Boy series episode "The Time Machine", Black Jack and Pinoko appear as themselves, and are recruited by a hapless time traveller named Rock to operate on a wounded prince far in the past.

Astro Boy: Omega Factor
Black Jack has a major role in the 2003 video game, Astro Boy: Omega Factor. He is the only known doctor in the world who could cure Dolmehka syndrome, a rare disease that Prime Rose had. However, the doctor's location unknown to most of the world, and a man named Ham Egg got bribed to have Pinoko kidnapped by Skunk. Only Kennedy found out the doctor's location, but as per his master plan, Sharaku, Ham Egg's briber, gave him amnesia so that Prime Rose couldn't operated on. This would allow Drake to take a more evil path and lead to the creation of Blue Knight. But Astro travelled through time, drove Sharaku off Fire Vase Island to make Kennedy remember, and saved Pinoko. As per the usual running gag, Black Jack charged a very expensive (yet unspecified) price for the operation saying the speedy process costs extra. But Wally was unfazed by this as saving Prime Rose would save the world and the incredibly wealthy Mr. Tokugawa could pay. The doctor operated in an air tent, Astro protected it when Atlas, Prime Rose's girlfriend reborn as a robot, attacked him to prevent a huge explosion. The operation was successful and Drake's daughter calmed him down. When Dr. Tenma appeared calling humans weak, Black Jack chewed him out.

Astro II
In a non-canon gag manga, Black Jack assists in building Astro II. He can be seen calling Professor Ochanomizu in to check out the newly-completed robot.

Pluto
Although not referred to by name, Dr. Black Jack was implied to be the doctor that cured Paul Duncan at the cost of his sight, given that he was called a "black market doctor."