Jade
26 years ago - Jennifer-Lynn Hayden is born, the daughter of Rose Canton, unaware her father is Alan Scott. She and her twin brother Todd James Rice are adopted by different familes after his mother's death. Her green skin soon develops.
13 years ago - 13-year-old Jenn takes up modeling as a part-time job.
10 years ago - 16-year-old Jenn is found by her biological father Alan Scott, meets her twin brother Todd James Rice, and first discovers her Lantern construct powers, learning how to use them from her father.
9 years ago - 17-year-old Jenn joins the new Justice Society as Jade.
8 years ago - 18-year-old Jenn befriends Solomon Grundy rather than fight him when he attacks the Justice Society with the Injustice Society.
7 years ago - 19-year-old Jenn makes a guest appearance on Gar Logan's Sci-fi TV show as a member of his species.
5 years ago - 21-year-old Jenn gets the cover of the SI swimsuit issue, but when Alan Scott dies, she retires both from modeling and from the Justice Society to become a freelance photographer.
4 years ago - 22-year-old Jenn moves to New York, becomes roommates with Kyle Rayner.
3 years ago - 23-year-old Jenn is recruited by Nightwing & Arsenal to join the new Outsiders. The newly spawned Star Sapphire symbiote attempts to bond with her and feed off her connection to Kyle Rayner, but she rejects it, forcing it to find a new host in Deborah Camille Darnell.
Jade was invented as part of a wave of new young heroes meant to expand the popularity of the Earth 2 world of the Justice Society, but very soon after her introduction that entire story was retconned from existence. Those characters have all had various success integrating into the larger DC tapestry, but it's very hard to argue that anyone but Jade has been the most successful of those characters.
A lot of that is probably that she's always been drawn as eye candy to one degree or another... She's one of a handful of DC superheroes who also model as their dayjob, and the idea of a unapologetically green-skinned model on the cover of a magazine is always fun... but Jade has always been defined by her relationships with people. Characters like that are always fun to work into the timeline, because we want to do those relationships justice.
A lot of that is probably that she's always been drawn as eye candy to one degree or another... She's one of a handful of DC superheroes who also model as their dayjob, and the idea of a unapologetically green-skinned model on the cover of a magazine is always fun... but Jade has always been defined by her relationships with people. Characters like that are always fun to work into the timeline, because we want to do those relationships justice.
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Jade's Comic HistoryJade showed up for the first time in All-Star Squadron #25 in 1983 along with the rest of Infinity Inc; a team made up of the kids of the classic Justice Society. The whole team would then go on to star in their own series, all of which takes place in Earth 2. Jade and her brother Obsidian were the children of Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott, although when they were introduced, he wasn't yet aware that he even had kids. Infinity Inc featured a ton of characters, a lot of cross-talk, and breakneck barely-followable plots, but the characters were all well designed and generally likeable. Particularly the female characters, which probably has something to do with the fact that the entire series was written by the husband-and wife team of Roy and Dannette Thomas.
Jade was a solidly likeable character, notably without a lot of drama since that was her brother's thing. She was a competent hero with a generally positive disposition, and of course also brought with her the endlessly useful Green Lantern style powers of her dad. When the team's lineup was aggressively disrupted by Crisis of Infinite Earths midway through it's run, she became one of the books main characters. Even after it's cancellation, she was understood to still be an active hero, turning up in crossover series here and there. |
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Jade's profile really expanded when she showed up in the pages of Ron Marz's Green Lantern Vol 3, becoming one of the main supporting cast members for Kyle Rayner. In issue #86, which is one of my favorite issues in the run for it's slice-of-life, three's company shenanigans, Kyle comes home and walks in on Jennifer in the shower, thinking it's his then-girlfriend Donna Troy. It turns out she was in town and needed a place to stay for a while, but when her twin brother Todd shows up and makes the wrong assumption, he winds up attacking Kyle as Obsidian. Ultimately he agrees to allow Jennifer to stay with him, although when Donna finally DOES show up... it's honestly like a goofy sitcom, and It's great.
As the series went on, Kyle and Donna would break up, and he and Jennifer eventually start dating. It's a diminished role for her, since she's been a hero in her own right and now she's basically the hero's girlfriend, but she manages to make it out of the series alive, which is more than can be said for most Green Lantern love interests. They break up in a pretty unsatisfying way by the end of the series, but thankfully at that point Jade was recruited into Judd Winick's incredibly innovative Outsiders series, and quickly proved to be one of their most competent members, even serving as field leader. Her last major role before she was largely wiped out by the New 52 was in James Robinson's underrated Justice League run featuring a new generation of heroes, the team we're using as the basis for our new Watchtower. |
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Our Jade StoryDoing Jade (and her brother Obsidian) Justice actually requires a LOT of finagaling in order to get Alan Scott into the right place in the right time in order for them to be born. We've put together a story we like, and we've made a relatively small number of changes Jennifer's life growing up. In the comics, her green skin manifested when she was almost 18, along with her powers. One of the things we've all really liked about Jennifer is the fact that she just walks around with green skin and doesn't seem to make a big deal about it, so we've decided that she first manifested her skin color as a baby.
Rather than make these twins have to find each other and then somehow confront a father they've never met, We're making Alan Scott obsessively track both of them down once he finds out about them, and have him be the catalyst for the two of them discovering each other and their powers. We're also not doing Infinity Inc as it's own team, but rather are having Jade, Obsidian, and Nuklon all join the initial modern-day version of the Justice Society. The comics do feature a brief period where Jade seems to have stepped back from being a Superhero and just focusing on her modeling career, and we're making that be because of the death of Alan Scott. |
Jade's Costume & FutureJade's costume had gone through a lot of subtle changes over the years. They're all fairly similar, and frankly, given the fact that she actually makes a living as a model, it sort of makes sense that she might be continually making small adjustments to her look.
As we leave the timeline, Jade is currently serving as one of the field leaders of the current Outsiders. While in the comics, this team tends to drift back under the control of Batman, we actually really love the idea that this group continues to thrive and refine itself and it's lineup, working as a more proactive, investigative team. It's currently Arsenal's baby, but Jade is right there with him as one of their most experienced members. Of course, Jennifer is also largely defined by her relationships, and while her closest one is to her twin brother who is currently out of the superhero game, she's also the love interest of the current Green Lantern of Earth, and of the Watchtower, Kyle Rayner. I know Kyle means well, but given his tendency to have people fall for him wherever he goes, I wonder if those two are really destined to stay together... |
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