- I haven't finished my jigsaw. I haven't.
- — Kay Challis src
Crazy Jane is the dominant alternate personality of Kay Challis, who has dissociative identity disorder, with a total of 64 unique identities. As a result of exposure to the alien Dominators' "gene bomb," each of her 64 alternate personalities has a different super-power. While Jane initially believed that she was the only one without a metahuman ability, this was later proven false. She eventually discovered that she had the ability to heal others (whether this healing is primarily emotional or physical is unknown).
History
Origin
Kay Challis was molested by her father Arthur since she was five years old. The first time her father molested her, she was putting a jigsaw puzzle together; this would be an important symbol in her future. Kay eventually withdrew completely and was replaced by an alternate personality answering by the name "Miranda." One Easter Sunday, Miranda was the victim of an attempted rape in a church, triggering flashbacks to her former abuse, the destruction of the "Miranda" personality and the completion of the massive personality fragmentation. Kay was committed to a mental institution soon after.
Invasion!
When the Dominators' gene-bomb went off during Invasion!, Jane and all of her personalities were affected. Each of her personalities gained a different power (e.g. Black Annis has retractable claws, Flit can teleport, etc.). Cliff Steele was staying in the same institution as Jane when Will Magnus asked Cliff to look after her, which led to Jane becoming a member of the Doom Patrol.[1]
Eventually Jane made a pilgrimage back to her childhood home, facing her own traumas and overcoming them. This brought peace to her inner turmoil, and for the first time in her life she finally felt like she could live a happy, productive life with her condition. After this incident, Jane believed that none of her alters had retained their superpowers.
Doom Patrol
Upon returning to the Doom Patrol, Jane was attacked by the Candlemaker and thrown into another dimension, similar to the real world, where she was interned as a schizophrenic and treated with shock therapy. Cliff eventually rescued Jane from the other dimension and lived with her on Danny the World.
It was later revealed that Jane's alters still had possession of their powers despite Jane believing otherwise, and as a result Cliff left her and returned to Earth. The two separated due to constant arguments, mostly Cliff's fault, and because Cliff felt afraid of her.
Danny the Street
Danny later found himself subjected to mandatory gentrification at the hands of a group of pan-dimensional gentrifiers, reconfiguring himself into Danny the Brick to escape them. He and Jane sought refuge with the Doom Patrol, now resident on Oolong Island, but were followed by the gentrifiers, who saw the brick as their rightful property. Danny assumed a new form as Danny the Bungalow, and the brick was returned to the gentrifiers, who promptly departed. Jane remained on Oolong Island with Danny the Bungalow.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Multiple Personalities: Kay Challis has 64 personalities, each with its own unique ability. Crazy Jane's personalities are organized in a mental subway grid called the Underground. Each personality has its own 'station,' which appears to serve as home when they are not in control. In the lower section of the Underground is the Well, where the personalities go to destroy themselves; this is where Miranda was killed and where Jane attempted to destroy herself. The Well houses the Daddy persona of Jane's mind.
- Crazy Jane: The dominant personality. Her name is derived from that of a character in several poems by Yeats.
- K-5: The original Kay Challis, who vanished at age 5. She is "sleeping" in one of the lower stations of the Underground.
- Miranda: The former dominant personality. She destroyed herself after the church incident.
- Liza Radley: A normal personality awakened as a result of a loving environment, who pushes Jane to recovery. The other personalities are unsure of how to react to Liza and feel threatened by her. She is named after the B-side of the Jam's single "Start!"
- Daddy: An impression of Jane's father, Arthur Challis, Daddy appears as a giant monster made of insects, excrement and puzzle pieces. Daddy talks with Jane's voice. It was destroyed.
- Driver 8: Conductor of the Underground subway, named after the R.E.M. song. The Driver's hat has an infinity symbol (∞) on it.
- Black Annis: An aggressive misandrist, equipped with sharp claws, red eyes and blue skin.
- Baby Doll: A childlike personality that believes everything is lovely.
- Scarlet Harlot: A nymphomaniac with the power to create ectoplasmic projections and absorb stray psycho-sexual energy.
- Baby Harlot: An integration of Baby Doll and Scarlet Harlot.
- Penny Farthing: A stuttering, nervous personality.
- The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter: An artist with the power to psychically activate her own paintings; whose name is taken from the title of an album by the Incredible String Band. After Jane and her alters found harmony with each other, she was able to animate art that she had not created herself.
- Rain Brain: She speaks in stream of consciousness and can take on an abstract immaterial form.
- Flit: She can teleport anywhere. Dresses in late 80s fashion.
- Mama Pentecost: An expert enigma and cryptogram solver.
- Sun Daddy: A gigantic figure with a sun for a head with the power to throw fireballs.
- Sex Bomb: A female personality that explodes when sexually aroused.
- Stigmata: She bleeds from her hands and feet and relives the church incident endlessly.
- No One: A personality that is very aggressive. It was able to sense the Fifth Horseman and the Painting before it was activated.
- Lucy Fugue: She has radioactive bones and see-through skin. She can also generate harmonic vibrations, a power she used to defeat the Antigod.
- Hammerhead: She is very aggressive towards everyone.
- 'Spinning Jenny: A personality that is prone to panic attacks.
- Flaming Katy: She is a pyrokinetic.
- Lady Purple: She can see the future but rarely speaks; her name possibly comes from Siouxsie and the Banshees' song "Christine."
- Merry Andrew: Dresses as a Harlequin and carries toys.
- The Sin-Eater: She believes she must suffer for her sins. Jane brings her out as a defense when being tortured.
- Jill-in-Irons: She is wrapped in large chains. Possibly a reference to Jack-In-Irons.
- The Secretary: A neat and orderly pessimist who rarely shows emotion.
- The Weird Sisters: A three-in-one personality. Depicted as a decrepit old woman with three heads. Their eyes are milky white. Her station is that of a carnival fortune teller.
- The Engineer: He assists Driver 8 in maintaining The Underground.
- Kit W'the Canstick: An old woman who carries a burnt-out candle.
- Jack Straw: A living scarecrow.
- The Pointman: He assists Driver 8 in maintaining The Underground.
- Sylvia: She bears Jane's feelings of claustrophobia. She is locked inside of a small room, reciting poem fragments. She believes if she can put the fragments together she can use them as a key out of the room.
- Butterfly Baby: Constantly suffers pain on a Hellraiser-like level in the deepest part of Jane's mind.
- The Shapeless Children: Constantly repeat "Daddy don' do it."
- Bizzie Lizzie Borden: Jane's ninth alter ego, who may not be real.
- Jeann
- Pepper's Ghost
- Blood of the Lamb
- Driller Bill
- Pretty Polly: Wears a black Victorian dress, X's carved into her eyes
- The Snow Queen
- The Signal-Man
- There are still other personalities in Jane who haven't yet been properly identified. They include: A nun with a chainsaw, a red-head girl with a beauty mark in a red dress, someone in gladiator gear, one in biker gear, a red-headed school girl, a boy with short blond hair, a person with an orange, odd-shaped head, and a woman whose face is shadowed over.
Abilities
- Painting: The personality The Hangman's Daughter can interact psychically with her paintings. (see Powers above)
- Swordsmanship: The personality Silver Tongue handles a sword she creates.
Other Characteristics
- Schizophrenia
- Multiple Personalities
- Misandry: Due to trauma from multiple sexual assaults, Jane can sometimes experience an episode of uncontrollable hatred of men, which lead to her killing a male police officer just for talking to her. [2]
Notes
- The name Crazy Jane comes from a Victorian era painting by Richard Dadd, created shortly before his death. The in-universe explanation for this is that Challis was a graphic designer, and naturally took inspiration from the artwork.[3] Interestingly enough, at the time he painted it, Dadd was confined to a mental institution for the paranoid schizophrenia that plagued him most of his adult life.[4]
- There is also a series of poems written by William Butler Yeats featuring Crazy Jane as the title character, and Kay Challis is shown to be aware of these.[3] Although she seems to have them memorized, how much influence they've had on her is unclear. They include Crazy Jane and Jack the Journeyman, Crazy Jane and the Bishop, Crazy Jane Grown Old Looks at the Dancers, Crazy Jane on God, Crazy Jane on the Day of Judgment, Crazy Jane on the Mountain, Crazy Jane Reproved, and Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop.
Related
- 66 Appearances of Kay Challis (New Earth)
- 27 Images featuring Kay Challis (New Earth)
- 7 Quotations by or about Kay Challis (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Kay Challis (New Earth)
External Links
Footnotes
Doom Patrol member |
This character exists under the Vertigo Imprint which is intended for Mature Readers.Their continuity takes place within the context of Vertigo titles although they may cross over into regular DC continuity.