An Exercise in Egotism 2: What to do with Jade

I've never made it a secret that I am not a big fan of Jade. And how the fuck unnerved am *I* to have had enough critiques of Jade to produce that many links...

But I digress. I don't like the character. In fact, I don't know of anyone who *really* likes the character. I know a few who liked the *concept* of a woman with Green Lantern powers, as well as Alan Scott's daughter, but almost no one who liked Jade specifically for Jade, for who she is behind those things.

I'm sure Jade has fans, but most of the defenses of her I've seen are based on Infinity Inc comics published around the time I was *born*. It's a common defense that Marz/Winick didn't understand the character. Which might well be true, from the few Infinity Inc comics I've read, she still seemed pretty shallow but she had some measure of charm that she's lacked ever sense.

Most of the critiques I've seen of her death had more to do with how she died or the prevalence of the "Women in Refrigerators" syndrome than Jade as a character. I've heard of one person who left comics because of her death, but the reason given was that her death showed "a lack of respect to Alan Scott." Apparently because of his vow to always be there for his kids...honestly, I don't get it either.

So Jennie-Lynn Hayden went from being a mildly charming if ineffectual member of a charming but ineffectual team to being a self-centered, manipulative, incompetent twit who was constantly the weakest of any of her associates. And it's not like it was a sudden transformation. Her death was pretty much an eventuality.

But did she really need to die? Well, I suppose for the drama with Kyle. But I'd imagine they could have figured out another way to do that, or another storyline for him altogether (much as I'm enjoying Ion).

In some sense though it seemed like Jade's death was house cleaning. Getting rid of an unnecessary and unappealing character. But...again, did she really need to die? Or could she have been salvaged?

I really, honestly think that there was a character with a great deal of potential there, one that was definitely not unsalvageable.

How I would have "fixed" Jade:Jade has something in common with Nightwing. She has fans. A lot of them. But just like Nightwing, most of those fans seem very disappointed with the directions taken with the character.

I can't blame them really. At distasteful as I find the character now, she must have once been a very appealing character to still have so many comic fans remember her so fondly.

Now, I'm at a bit of a disadvantage here because I've only read a little Infinity Inc. But I've managed to find a few more issues lately, and actually, I have to say...I'm starting to understand. She really does have an appeal, one that was lost along the way.

See, for me, at least, the appeal of Jennie-Lynn Hayden in II was that she was refreshingly normal amidst all of these other folks with extraordinary backgrounds. She was just an ordinary young girl with an ordinary childhood with adopted parents that suddenly developed neat powers, got green skin, and discovered a father and brother she never knew.

In a sense she's very much a wish fulfilment character, a normal girl who discovers that there's something extraordnary deep down. It's the long lost Princess thing. And you know, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Because she was easy to identify with, really. Easy to sympathize with. Her normality was refreshing and appealing. It was easy to see why Todd, with his dark, confusing powers, abusive background, and repressed homosexuality, would cling to her. She was a warm dose of sanity and acceptance.

II was more of a soap opera with superpowers than a true superhero comic, and that was fine really. Not to everyone's taste of course, but it was an ideal setting for a character like Jade, ability wasn't as important as empathy. She wasn't there to fight bad guys, she was there for the soap opera. And she was good there.

Of coure once Jennie-Lynn got transplanted out of this nice setting into one that required more in the way of fighting and competence, she had a problem. And the emphasis on the Corps aspect of the Green Lanterns meant that she would languish in the background until Kyle's run, really. When room would open up in the form of a giant massacre via Parallax. Kyle was now the only Lantern, he needed a supporting cast, she was perfect.

Except she wasn't really. She was *redundant*.

You see, Jade's appeal in II was to be the normal one. The one that thought, felt, reacted in ways that were similar and understandable to the audience. Now with a character like Alan, stoic and occasionally imperceptible, or Todd, tortured and angsty under pressure and pain that we can't completely understand, Jennie-Lynn is a wonderful character. A dose of sympathetic normality that becomes our window into these characters lives.

But in Green Lantern, we already *had* a character that thought, felt, reacted in ways that were similar and understandable to the audience. And his name is Kyle Rayner. We didn't need Jade as a "window" character, because Kyle was doing just fine on his own.

And really, Kyle's main writers were men. Naturally they're going to stick with a male viewpoint character whenever possible. It's perfectly normal and understandable to do so.

Unfortunately it meant that we see everything from Kyle's perspective only. Never Jade's. And we identify with her. So when Jade is undeniably cruel to him, we automatically sympathize with him and demonize her.

The thing is nothing she did was completely irredeemable. Even cheating on Kyle, while an awful thing to do, could have been portrayed more sympathetically: She's confused, in a relationship with a man who she may not love like she initially thought. He's changing, growing, but the person he's becoming is a stranger to her.

She owes him. He gave her back her powers. Actually, everything she has is from him. From the apartment to her powers. Hell, his ex-girlfriend gave her *customers* for her photography business. She's happy being a hero but she owes everything to him. And he's such a nice guy. Sweet, sensitive, she doesn't *want* to hurt him. But she finds herself being petty and cruel, trying to drive him away. If *he* breaks up with *her*, it won't hurt him so much. They can both be free!

She comes back to Earth for some space, to get her head together. She was almost *pregnant*, with the child of a man who's off on some wild crusade in space. Where is there room for her, does she *want* room?

Then an attractive guy expresses interest. One who finds her mysterious and exotic and amazing. She hasn't seen Kyle in ages, and this is something without all that baggage. She makes a stupid mistake. She makes several. He comes back and it explodes.

The thing is...I've been there. Sans powers and lanterns and all that good stuff. But I've felt stuck in relationships with people I've fallen out of love with. I've acted like a passive aggressive bitch to try to get *him* to be the one to break it off. I've watched myself, horrified at my own behavior. And maybe if some non-pressured alternative had come by at the right time...from that perspective, as vile as her behavior is, I can understand it.
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Well, anyway, the problem with Jade is that she's the sort of character that needs to be the center of the story. We need to see her emotions to keep her sympathetic, hear her thoughts to understand why she does the things she does.

Of course, the biggest problem remains. She's acted horribly. She's *still* incompetent.

But that could be fixed. But she's another character that needs to be extracted, transplanted, away from Kyle in particular. Even away from the Outsiders (at least until she can get her act together, though she was a bit more tolerable there).

If she does get resurrected somehow, extracted from Kyle or something (hey, if *Alan* is living Starheart, she might *be* that power she gave back to him too, it's vaguely plausible...), she'd need to be kept far away from him.

What I'd do is have her, first, relocated to a place like California. Somewhere where she could resume her photography career. Or start something new. She could be an actress again or something. Who knows.

Anyway, what the character needs is an immediate way to get audience sympathy. What I'd personally do is have her adopted parents die. I know, it's a little cheap, but it's not like we've ever seen them in ages. If they're already dead, their belongings can be removed from storage. She has to catalogue their belongings.

I would have her find childhood pictures, trophies, ribbons from school. Pictures of her adopted parents. I would have her realize that somewhere in the process of her life, she's lost touch with them. She spent so long adopting the hero life and playing around as Alan Scott's daughter, she forgot the family who raised her. The mother and father she loved so much. She took them for granted.

Then she takes stock in her own behavior lately and realizes changes have to be made.

See, this has an advantage. Many women have been in her shoes, have made her mistakes, and we actually tend to be *harsher* than men who see it. Because most of us have reached that stage where we look back on our mistakes, flinch at our idiocy, our cruelty, then we move forward and try to change.

Jade can do that too, she should, it would go a long way toward endearing her with female fans.

Anyway, she does a lot of soul searching. She's lost her chance with her family, and she discovers, looking at these pictures, that her life hasn't gone the way she'd wanted it to.

So she decides to change it. She's still young. She's got all these possibilities ahead. Maybe she goes back to school. She'll continue to be a hero, but she'll realize she should and could be a much better hero. She'll train and practice.

This way, when she makes stupid mistakes. When she does badly, we'll be more sympathetic. She's trying, she's working to get better. And she will get better.

Jade could be a great character to attract more adult female readers to superhero comics. An adult woman, who's not all T&A, who's made a lot of mistakes, but is making efforts to fix her life. A lot of women will understand that and be attracted to the series. Her situation, her resurrection and heroism would become an allegory for many women's struggles to reclaim their lives after divorce or sudden loss. It would be a strong draw.

And Jade would actually be likeable.

Or they could just leave her dead, that works too.

ETA: More musings derived from comment ideas can be found here.