DC Comics' Stargirl character Jade
Last week's premiere of DC's Stargirl introduced us to Jenni-Lynn Hayden, perhaps better known as Jade, the ring-throwing daughter of Alan Scott the original Green Lantern. Jade has been a member of some of DC's biggest superteams and has quite a legendary history within the DC Universe as she is also at the heart of DC's currently ongoing miniseries of events, Infinite Frontier. Here are the five main things you should know about Jade before seeing her in action again in the new episodes.
Jade has unusual parents in the comics. Her mother is Rose Canton, a plant-based villain named Thorn, and her father is Alan Scott, the Green Lantern of the Golden Age. Rose feared that her dual personality Thorn could harm her children, so she secretly gave Jenni and her twin brother up for adoption. That's right, Jade has a twin brother! She didn't know about her brother Todd until she grew up.
Like Jenni, Todd is a superhero, but very different from her. Todd arms the shadows and fights evil under the name Obsidian. Meanwhile, Jade wields the light as a weapon therefore, one brother uses the light and the other uses the dark.
Jenni grew up with an unusual green birthmark on her hand, which got worse with age until her whole body turned green. This raised some interesting questions, since Jenni wasn't even aware that she was being adopted. It turns out that Rose's chlorophyll biology combined with Alan Scott's exposure to the Starheart resulted in Jade's unique complexion.
However, while it may not be easy to be green, there are some advantages to Jade's case. She can harness the power of Starheart, which means she has most of the powers of a Green Lantern even though she doesn't have a ring.
Solomon Grundy has been described as an indomitable beast, but Jade may be the only person on Earth who has been able to calm the savage villain. For years Grundy was a loyal beast to none, but everything changed in Infinity, Inc. # 36 when Jade rescued Grundy from a glacier. Grundy grew fond of Jade and fought alongside Infinity Inc., although some members of the team were uncomfortable with the deal.
Unfortunately, they were right to feel uncomfortable. A group of criminals took advantage of Grundy's devotion to Jade and tricked him into Skyman's assassination in Infinity, Inc. # 51. It will be interesting to see if this relationship continues this season Stargirl. Don't forget that the show's Grundy is still roaming the Blue Valley sewers.
When your superhero name is Jade, your skin is green, and your dad is Alan Scott, it is inevitable that you will end up working with the Green Lantern Corps. In fact, Jade is partially responsible for the body's rebirth. In 1998 Green Lantern # 107, Kyle Rayner found himself in possession of a Green Lantern ring that could create a duplicate of himself and planned to travel the galaxy using it to rebuild the Corps roster. Kyle didn't want to leave Earth without a Lantern during her odyssey, and Jade happily volunteered. By that time, Jade had lost her powers, so the Green Lantern's new ring helped her reclaim some of her superhero mojo. He valiantly defended Earth while Kyle was away, allowing him to rebuild the Green Lantern Corps and restore the galactic army to its former glory.
Jade was a member of the Justice League, the Justice Society, Infinity, Inc. and the Outsiders. His time with the latter group, in particular, was notable because Jade was their leader after what can only be called a coup. Arsenal and Nightwing were leading the team and it wasn't going well. (There has been a lot of testosterone fueled infighting.) So in 2004 Exterior # 16, Jade decided to put the boys in their place and take on the role of team leader. It takes courage to look Roy Harper and Dick Grayson in the eyes and tell them you're in charge, but… well, it also takes courage to break into the home of Blue Valley's cantankerous protector. That's who Jade is!
