Jenny Sparks
Jenny Sparks is a female comic superhero who features in DC Comics.
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Biography
Origin
Jennifer May Sparks was a female Century Baby born in England on January 1, 1900 where she was from a family owning a fortune. Her family came to send her to an all-girls school in Vienna where she was far away from them. Later on, her parents were noted to had died on the RMS Titanic in 1912 whilst her father's arch-nemesis took over the fortune leaving Sparks penniless. Without any money, she was unable to fund her education until her godfather Albert Einstein invited her to Zurich where the professor offered to help finish her education. Before leaving, she came to meet a friend she made who was a young struggling painter named Adolf Hitler. She decided to give him some honest advice namely that his art was abysmal. Sparks suggested that instead of painting that perhaps he considered a career in local government. (Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority v1 #4)
In the 1960's, she was part of a group that provided security for a rock festival though people ultimately died in the event. (StormWatch v1 #37)
During the 1980's, Sparks was once more part of a group that tried to be heroes. (StormWatch v1 #37)
Around 10 years ago, she was approached by Henry Bendix who wanted to recruit her to be part of a superhero team but she came to refuse. (StormWatch v1 #37)
She was approached once more by Bendix who was the Weatherman and headed a team called Stormwatch. At first, she refused until he revealed that he was tackling the root causes of the problems in the world. This led to Sparks agreeing but she vowed that she would kill Bendix if he lost his nerve during the mission. Joining the superhero team, she came to be placed in charge of Stormwatch Black consisting of Swift and Jack Hawksmoor. (StormWatch v1 #37)
Jenny Sparks and Stormwatch Black were in hiding when most of Stormwatch died at the hand of the insane Henry Bendix. Jenny recruited new versions of the Engineer and the Doctor, and along with Swift, Jack Hawksmoor, Midnighter and Apollo they formed the Authority to take the place of Stormwatch as the world's first defense against superhuman menaces. They discovered the Carrier, a sentient ship that could travel the Bleed, the space between worlds in the multiverse, and used it as their headquarters. Terrorist Kaizen Gamorra attacked Moscow, causing untold loss of life, and Jenny contacted her old handlers Jackson King and Christine Trelane for information on him. The Authority had already done their research, but she wanted her ex-handlers, who were still connected with the UN, to feel important. Jack visited Moscow, and realized the Children of Gamorra used teleporters with a unique energy signature. The signature appeared next in London, and the Authority arrived to defend Jenny's home. The Authority violently murdered a number of the Children of Gamorra, forcing the rest to teleport away. Apollo had wrecked the teleportation gear of one of the Children, who was forced to fly back to Gamorra Island, with Apollo in pursuit. Kaizen put up his island's force field to rethink his strategy, and the Doctor saved Apollo from splattering himself on the forcefield. The Doctor reminded him that although he was new to superheroics his mind was as old as human existence. Jenny split her team to offer emergency aid to Moscow and London. Jack thought that the more responsibility Jenny got the more yelley and horrible she became, but he still supported her. Jenny told Apollo that she was uncomfortable with leadership, and haunted by past mistakes, but she'd resolved that there had to be people ready to save the world and then change it. (The Authority v1 #2)
Apollo kept nagging Jenny about how they were going to get past Gamorra's forcefield, and Engineer had been working with the Carrier, which showed her it could open a gate directly to the island. Jenny told Midnighter to do recon on the island, while the rest of the team traveled to L.A., where they predicted Gamorra's next attack would come. Jack noted that they were resembling a team even though they knew virtually nothing about each other. Jenny contacted the UN to alert them to the danger to L.A., but before she could make any more preparations the Children of Gamorra arrived. The Doctor felt out of his element, but his predecessor spoke to him, reminding him that the world was his village, and he had every Doctor in his corner to help him realize his potential. The Doctor turned half of the attacking Children into trees, but the strain of such powerful magic left him unconscious, and he was returned to the Carrier. Engineer reminded her teammates she wasn't a soldier, but Jack convinced her she had to learn to fight, and she created a web of knives that cut a number of the Children to shreds. Midnighter made his way to Gamorra Tower, and discovered the bioreactor Gamorra was using to pump out more and more superhuman soldiers. Midnighter was trained to beat problems until they were dead, but he realized that strategy would not work against two miles of machinery. He returned to the Carrier, and plowed it into Gamorra Tower, destroying it. Jenny alerted the UN to send inspectors to Gamorra so they could recover Kaizen's technology, and she told the world they would make it better. (The Authority v1 #4) Christine Trelane contacted the Authority when a rip in spacetime opened and fighter jets emerged, devastating L.A. Apollo and the Doctor destroyed a number of the crafts, and Jenny Sparks recognized them. She said they were under attack from the parallel world of Sliding Albion. Jenny Sparks created a gigantic electric avatar, short-circuiting the ships, and reminding them that her Earth was still under her protection, before the remaining ships returned to Avalon. Jenny filled in the crew on her previous encounter battling a Sliding Avalon invasion in 1920, and reached out to her old contacts to get entry to R.A.F. Rendelsham's holding facility. She introduced the Authority to her ex-husband Lorenzo Antonio Slzfi. (The Authority v1 #6)
Lorenzo said Sliding Avalon's civil war led to low birth rates due to biowarfare, so his father Regis was most likely invading her Earth to continue his bloodline, and gain more living space for his people. Regis sent his second wave aboard the Carrier, and Apollo killed most of them, but drained his solar powers in the process. Midnighter, not used to seeing him helpless, embraced his love. The Engineer and Swift both told Jenny they needed to do more than defeat Sliding Avalon, they needed to fix their totalitarian, imperialistic culture. Sliding Avalon attacked Northern Europe, and Jenny came up with a plan to repower Apollo long enough for him to save the continent. Apollo single-handedly destroyed the Avalon invasion fleet, and Jenny took the Carrier to Avalon itself. She destroyed Westminster Abbey, the base of Regis' power, and Jack Hawksmoor reached into the city, which was sick of Regis' crimes, and ripped him in two. The Carrier took them to Sicily, the other seat of the Blue's power, and the Doctor held it still while their Earth rotated around it, drowning the country. Jenny announced to the world that the imperialism and rape culture of the Blue's was now gone, but if asked to they'd be back to make sure it didn't return, and urged the people of Avalon to make a better world. Engineer thought it was scary that they'd changed an entire world based on what they thought best, and Jenny reminded her that that was the Authority's mission. (The Authority v1 #8) As the New Year approached Jenny noticed that she was looking tired, and reflected that her century long life had been a great strange ride. Jack visited Rome, but couldn't stay away from NYC for too long. He visited the Engineer, and her nanotech detected a disturbance in the environment. The Doctor was in the Garden of Ancestral Memory, and felt something ancient stirring that was once on Earth. His predecessors revealed that humanity had only inherited Earth, and that the planet's original owner had woken up. The heralds took over the moon, and some of them landed in Africa. Doctor told Sparks, and nearly collapsed in her arms. Jenny was somewhat suspicious of the Doctor's word because of the massive amount of drugs he took as a shaman. Midnighter and Apollo fought the heralds that were destroying Tokyo, and feared Jenny would have to sterilize the entire city if they failed. Jack Hawksmoor arrived as backup, and they prevailed, if barely. Engineer was in Africa, where a herald was terraforming the environment into a poisonous wasteland, and after victory she created machines to heal the landscape. Jenny sent Apollo to sterilize the moon, the source of the heralds. Doctor's predecessors told him they called Earth's creator God because it had formed the Earth as a home for its spore and a retirement home. The Earth's environment was inhospitable to native life forming until a stray planet hit Earth, blasting a great chunk of the planet into space. The moon that formed from the impact was the home of God's spore until Apollo destroyed them, and the impact also pushed Earth away from the sun, enough so that native life could arise. God had returned, and was unhappy with the state of the planet, and Engineer spotted it in the sky. (The Authority v1 #10)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
Overview
Personality and attributes
She came to grow tired of trying to change the world as each group she joined lack vision on accomplishing this goal. They always tended to go after the soldiers rather than the actual cause and effect which were the leaders. (StormWatch v1 #37)
By this point, she claimed that her life was boring and empty but was safe as she simply went out to get drunk only to return home. (StormWatch v1 #37)
Her godfather was noted to had been Albert Einstein who helped look after her following her parents deaths. (Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority v1 #4)
Powers and abilities
Her long lifespan meant that she was the oldest known unusual being on the planet not counting aliens where she was around 96 years old. (StormWatch v1 #37)
Notes
- Jenny Sparks was created by Warren Ellis and Tom Raney where she made her first appearance in StormWatch v1 #37 (July, 1996).
- In Empire Magazine, Jenny Sparks was named the 44th Greatest Comic Book Character in 2006.
Alternate Versions
Appearances
- StormWatch v1: (1996)
- The Authority v1:
- Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority v1:
- The Wild Storm v1:
- Jenny Sparks v1:
External Links
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