Who the Clix? Crazy Jane

Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.

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Appearances in Heroclix:  Batman Team-Up,  World's Finest
First Appearance: Doom Patrol (vol. 2) #19 (February 1989)
Team Affiliations: Doom Patrol
Powers/Abilities:  Various skills and abilities spread across 64 'alters', many of which remain unidentified
Created by:  Grant Morrison - Richard Case

Kay Challis suffers repeated childhood trauma beginning at the age of five when she is putting together a jigsaw puzzle. As the abuse continues, the jigsaw puzzle becomes an important symbol to her psyche. Kay retreats as a coping mechanism and allows the alter Miranda to become the dominant personality. A later attack in church on Easter Sunday proves so damaging that most of Kay's “total” alters are created, which are later referred to as her “system.”

This fracturing leads to Kay being institutionalized. While in treatment, the Dominators detonate their “gene bomb”. This event has two major effects on Kay: all of her alters gain a separate and unique meta power and her alter Jane becomes the dominant alter of the system, to the point that most people only know her as Jane.

The gene bomb also directly leads to Jane joining the Doom Patrol. Cliff Steele had to watch most of his Doom Patrol teammates die in the chaos and checks himself into the same mental institution as Jane. After working through his trauma, Cliff has a conversation with Will Magnus who asks him to look after Jane. And that day is the day the new Doom Patrol is formed.

Jane eventually travels back to her childhood home and goes through a harrowing self-examination where she is able to face and, ultimately, overcome her traumatic past. This brings a measure of peace to Jane and helps the alters forge a new understanding of cooperation. When she returns to the Doom Patrol, she is attacked by the Candlemaker and thrown into another dimension very similar to ours. In this dimension she is diagnosed with schizophrenia and treated with shock therapy. Cliff is eventually able to rescue Jane and return with her to Danny the World.

The shock therapy seems to have disrupted some of her progress, leading to the alters arguing more again. Cliff leaves Jane in Danny's care and returns to Earth. Some time later, Jane appears on Oolong Island asking for Cliff and carrying all that remains of Danny: Danny the Brick. Jane then begins traveling the universe with Danny as her companion.

In the course of these adventures, a man known only as D uses Danny to kill a god. Witnessing this causes a new alter to form in Jane's system, with a plan to start a cult, “infect” the members with the other alters and then kill the cult members so that this new alter is the only one left in the system. The Doom Patrol stops this new alter and helps Jane regain control and bring a measure of peace to her system.

Recommended Reading:

• Doom Patrol (Grant Morrison): Book One
• Doom Patrol (GM): Book Three
• Doom Patrol (Rachel Pollack): Omnibus