This B-movie from director Rodman Flender (
The Unborn) was originally broadcast on Showtime's Roger Corman Presents series.
Joan Severance stars as a cop who becomes a leather-clad superhero named Black Scorpion when her father is murdered in a barroom shooting. The murder is part of a seemingly random crimewave engineered by an asthmatic villain called the Breathtaker, who wears a big metal suit like comic book bad-guy Dr. Doom. Breathtaker is planning to turn the whole city into his wheezing slaves by way of poisoned gas masks, and Severance must stop him. In between, she gets former car-thief Argyle (
Saturday Night Live alumnus
Garrett Morris) to build her a super Scorpion-mobile and tries to keep her identity secret from former partner/lover
Bruce Abbott (
Re-Animator). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide