Dr. Helga Jace
51 years ago - Helga Jace is born in Markovia.
33 years ago - 18-year-old Helga attends university.
29 years ago - 22-year-old Helga begins grad school, specializing in advanced metagene research.
27 years ago - 24-year-old Helga becomes a student of celebrated researcher Thaddeus Sivana.
26 years ago - 25-year-old Helga is one of the founders of the global think-tank H.I.V.E.
25 years ago - 26-year old Helga subjects the twins Selinda & Baran Flinders to experimental radiation in her work with H.I.V.E.
20 years ago - 32-year-old Helga leaves H.I.V.E. to work for the Markovian crown. She uses the metahuman powers of the king's illegitimate daughter Tara Markov to develop the powers of Prince Brion Markov.
15 years ago - 36-year-old Helga fully maps Tara Markov's metegene and sends her away to America to live with her mother. She begins secretly developing methods to hypnotically control Prince Brion Markov through his artifically enhanced Metagene.
11 years ago - 40-year-old Helga continues to serve the Markovian crown after the death of the king and the crowning of his oldest son, Gregor Markov. She continues working with Prince Brion Markov to refine his powers.
10 years ago - 41-year-old Helga begins using Quraci refugees as test subjects, harvesting metahuman DNA for her experiments with triggering Metagenes.
8 years ago - 43-year-old Helga uses Quraci refugee Gabrielle Daou in her experiments, not noticing her among the failed subjects. When Prince Brion Markov becomes a founding member of the Outsiders she provides them with scientific support to ensure they don't find out about her experiments.
6 years ago - 45-year-old Helga's experiments harvesting metahuman DNA are discovered by the Outsiders. She activates her hypontic control of Brion Markov through his artifically enhanced Metagene. He fights the other Outsiders to a standstill before Violet is able to fully disable his powers, freeing him from Jace's control. Jace is killed by Tatsu Yamashiro.
This is one of those times that we're using a character for a role other than the one they played in the comics. Hopefully, whenever we do this, it's all fueled by equal parts necessity and innovation; the character should feel comfortable in this new role as if they should have been there in the first place. They should also fulfill a clear need in the larger narrative, in a way that makes the whole thing just feel more recognizable and comfortable than it would be without them.
As always, we'd love to hear what you think of this one, but we really think that this is a good one. We've taken a character that appeared pretty regularly in the original Outsiders and given them a much more prominent role in the team's history. Our new version of Helga Jace gives the Outsiders some framework that was lacking in the original comic and feels like a much more prominent part of the world.
As always, we'd love to hear what you think of this one, but we really think that this is a good one. We've taken a character that appeared pretty regularly in the original Outsiders and given them a much more prominent role in the team's history. Our new version of Helga Jace gives the Outsiders some framework that was lacking in the original comic and feels like a much more prominent part of the world.
Helga Jace's Comic HistoryDr Helga Jace first appeared in Batman and the Outsiders #1 in 1983. She was the Markovian scientist who gave Brion Markov (and, retroactively, Tara Markov) their powers. As the series continued, Helga became a regularly featured part of the team's supporting cast, particularly for Metamorpho, who could really use a dedicated metahuman scientist to help him handle his weird-as-hell powers. She would actually go on to appear even more often once Batman left the team and Brion Markov became their main financier. Their new oil rig headquarters was largely built around maintaining her laboratory facilities. She was such a prominently featured part of the Outsiders that she even made it into the team picture in the '87 Who's Who Guide.
Later in the series, you started to see indications that she was somehow hiding some sinister motivations, which is useful for us as we look for art for this page, but in the end, this was just part of the Millenium crossover, where she proved to have been replaced by a Manhunter... I honestly still don't know what was going on with that series. So in truth, there's actually no actual comic precedent for Helga Jace to be a villain; she was a loyal, no-nonsense supporting cast member. So why are we going to turn her into a bad guy? Because she is going to be just so dang good at it. |
Our Helga Jace StoryAs we worked through the timelines for certain characters it became clear that they just made way more sense if there was a sinister motive behind the development of their powers. In Terra's case, this is because the idea that she would have undergone the procedures to get her powers and then be allowed to just run off never quite worked. The solution we came up with was to have Jace actually use Terra as the subject in her work to empower Brion, and for her then cast her aside. Once that precedent was set, It was incredibly easy to also have her manipulating Brion as well, setting up a very cool final act for that iteration of the Outsiders.
When we started working on Halo and decided to incorporate the Young Justice animated series version of her story, It became even more important that we establish her as the villain. Of course, the YJ series made the same change we did, using Jace as an ally to the team who is ultimately revealed to be an evil scientist, so we felt even more confident that this was the right idea. We of course have some things we can do in our timeline to really help establish someone's evil scientist credentials, so we added that she was one of the founders of the original H.I.V.E., and even made her a student of Doctor Sivana. |