Jessica Cruz

Jessica Cruz is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, she is a member of the Green Lantern Corps and the Justice League. Her first full appearance takes place in Justice League #31 (August 2014), which is also her first cover appearance. Cruz's original design was based on the actress Penélope Cruz.[1] DC Comics confirmed that Jessica Cruz is both Mexican-American and Honduran-American, and currently resides in Portland, Oregon.[2][3] [4]

Jessica Cruz
Green Lantern
Art by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Alex Sinclair
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearance(Cameo appearance)
Green Lantern #20
Cameo appearance proper:
Justice League #30
(Full appearance)
Justice League #31
Created byGeoff Johns
Ethan Van Sciver
In-story information
Full nameJessica Viviana Cruz
SpeciesHuman
Place of originEarth
Team affiliationsGreen Lantern Corps
Justice League
Justice League Odyssey
Notable aliasesGreen Lantern, Power Ring, Limelight
AbilitiesUse of Power ring grants:
  • Uniform (suit and mask; Cruz refuses mask)
  • Flight
  • Force field
  • Space travel
  • Generation of hard-light constructs
  • Real-time translation of all-languages

Publication history

Jessica Cruz's name is mentioned and her right hand appears briefly in a single panel of the 2013 issue Green Lantern #20. Her next appearance comes in Justice League vol. 2 #30, when the Ring of Volthoom locates her, and she then gains her powers in the following issue. She was dubbed "Power Ring" while she was host to the Ring of Volthoom but is not a member of Crime Syndicate of America.[5] Jessica becomes an official member of the Green Lantern Corps, in the Prime Earth reality, at the end of Justice League #50: "The Darkseid War".[6]

Fictional character biography

Jessica Cruz and her friends are on a hunting trip when they accidentally stumble across two men burying a body. The men brutally murder her friends. Jessica manages to escape but is left traumatized. The Ring of Volthoom, which feeds off fear and had abandoned Power Ring after his death during the Crime Syndicate's incursion to Prime Earth, is able to locate her due to her trauma. Unlike the previous ring bearers, she does not willingly accept the ring, but is forced to accept it. The Ring tortures Jessica with physical and psychological pain.[7][8] The Ring explains that it is using Jessica to attract the being that destroyed Earth-Three to Prime Earth because he is now dying (for reasons not explained) and wants to take the planet with him.

First full appearance and first cover appearance of Jessica Cruz

Batman is able to de-power the ring after convincing Jessica to face her fears.[8] Jessica later succumbs to effects of the AMAZO virus, but is soon cured. Hal Jordan returns to Earth to teach Jessica how to control her ring.

When Darkseid's daughter Grail arrives on Prime Earth, she attacks Jessica and uses her ring to open a portal to Earth-Three, allowing the Anti-Monitor to cross over to the Prime Earth. Jessica and the rest of the Justice League are then transported away by Metron. After this the Justice League decides to free the Crime Syndicate to help in the fight against the Anti-Monitor and Grail. Jessica, Cyborg and Mister Miracle head to the prison and the close proximity to the Syndicate allows the Ring to possess Jessica's mind and body. During the Justice League's confrontation against Grail and Darkseid, Grail manages to separate the Flash from the Black Racer, which immediately begins to pursue the Flash. Realizing the Racer will not leave the physical plane of existence until it reaps a soul, Jessica convinces Cyborg to tap into the ring's technology and override Volthoom's control over Jessica's body for a few seconds. This allows Jessica to jump between Flash and the Black Racer, allowing the incarnation of death to apparently kill her. Jessica survives, and it is revealed that the Black Racer killed Volthoom instead, causing the ring to crumble into dust. Immediately afterwards, a Green Lantern ring descends at the battlefield and transforms Jessica into a new Green Lantern.

In Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1, she meets Simon Baz when he is investigating an alien intrusion. This turns out to be a Manhunter who battles the two of them. It is then revealed to be a training exercise run by Hal Jordan to test the two rookies. Hal combines Jessica and Simon's power batteries in order to make them work as a team and puts them in charge of protecting Earth.

When confronting the threat of the Phantom Ring, a prototype power ring that can channel the entirety of the emotional spectrum at the cost of rapidly shifting depending on the emotional state of the user, Jessica confesses to her own doubts about whether she deserves her ring given the unconventional circumstances of her recruitment. However, her fears are assuaged when she temporarily dons the Phantom Ring and it automatically transforms her into a Green Lantern, allowing Jessica to recognize her success at overcoming her old fears rather than believing that she was defined by that experience.

She is later sent to space to train with the Green Lantern Corps and is under the orders of Guy Gardner who just pushes her around and berates her until she has had enough and attacks him; Guy later strikes a deal with her that if she successfully defeats him in combat he will not talk about the encounter, which she is able to do.

Later, Jessica is assigned to monitor the newly-released Ghost Sector of space (a region consisting entirely of planets stolen by Coluans that was freed by the Justice League); while there, she encounters Cyborg, Starfire and Azrael piloting a skullship commandeered from Brainiac in an attempt to enter the sector. Attempting to stop them, she finds herself trapped in the Ghost Sector alongside the others, and they band together to investigate the mysterious region of space as the Justice League Odyssey.

She is later killed by Darkseid and her ring smashes and absorbs omega radiation and merges with her arm. The ring fragments resurrect her and grant her more powers.

Powers and abilities
Main article: Power ring (DC Comics)

As a Green Lantern, Jessica is capable of projecting energy-based constructions, flight, and utilizing various other abilities through her power ring which are only limited by her imagination and willpower. She initially experienced some trouble in creating constructs with the ring, but overcame this limitation while training with Simon Baz.

While Jessica was briefly a Power Ring she initially had no control over the ring. Under the tutelage of Hal Jordan, she learns to overcome the evil powers within the Ring and use it effectively until Volthoom possesses her body. Her feelings of courage help Cyborg decipher the alien language of the ring, and he is able to let her overcome Volthoom's influence for a moment and jump between Black Racer and the Flash which ends up destroying Volthoom and the Ring, freeing Jessica.

Jessica is also an adept survivalist and was able to live by herself for three years. She was seen wielding a shotgun with proficiency when she was able to hit the Ring of Volthoom and keep it at bay for a few moments before it made her its host.[7]

It has recently been revealed that Jessica's ring is partly fused with Volthoom's Travel Ring, due to it being one of the first seven power rings created by the rogue Guardian Rami during Volthoom's first attack on Oa. This connection to the travel ring allowed Volthoom to make his initial journey to the past, but also resulted in Jessica accidentally using the ring to send herself and Simon over ten billion years into the past to escape Volthoom, only to find themselves at the time of Volthoom's assault on Oa.

In other media

Television
  • Jessica Cruz is a lead character in the TV series, DC Super Hero Girls, voiced by Myrna Velasco. Unlike in the comics, she does not appear to suffer from past trauma. She is a pacifist, along with a vegan and environmentalist, resulting in her becoming friends with Pam Isley.

Film
  • Jessica Cruz appeared in Lego DC Super Hero Girls: Super-Villain High, voiced by Cristina Milizia.
  • Jessica Cruz appears as a member of the Justice League in Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Aquaman: Rage of Atlantis, once again voiced by Cristina Milizia.[9]
  • Jessica Cruz appears in the DC Universe Original Movie Justice League vs. the Fatal Five, voiced by Diane Guerrero.[10] She suffers from agoraphobia as result of survivor's guilt after narrowly escaping being murdered alongside her friends, after stumbling across a murderer burying a body. To her annoyance, a Green Lantern ring chose her, but she refuses to use it or join the Justice League despite Wonder Woman's attempts to persuade her. As a result of her timidness, the Fatal Five targeted her, so they could force her to help them free Emerald Empress and Validus from the Sciencells on Oa. Meeting Star Boy, who also suffered from a mental illness, Jessica was able to rise above her fears and become a better Green Lantern.
  • Jessica Cruz appears in Lego DC: Shazam!: Magic and Monsters, with Cristina Milizia reprising her role.

Web series
  • Jessica Cruz appears in the web series DC Super Hero Girls as Earth's new Green Lantern, voiced by Cristina Milizia. She makes her animated debut in this series.[11]In this show, she appears as Lois Lane's shy camera-woman, filming an interview with Hal Jordan during his going-away party at the Capes and Cowls Café, who explains that a new Green Lantern ring will appear to replace him.

Video games
  • Jessica Cruz is a playable character in the mobile app version of Injustice: Gods Among Us. She was a part of an update that included adding elements from DC's Rebirth to the game.
  • Jessica Cruz is a playable character in the DC Legends mobile app game. She is one of several Green Lanterns included in the game and is classified as a hero with an energy affinity. Her bio in the game says: As the first Earth woman to earn a Green Power Ring Jessica Cruz fights to prove herself a worthy Lantern. After barely escaping a criminal gang that murdered her friends Jessica Cruz struggled with crippling fear and guilt. This made her the target of a power ring from the Anti-matter universe that fed on her fears and controlled her actions. But Jessica fought back breaking free and earning a place in the Green Lantern Corps. Now as a rookie recruit she fights her self-doubt while defending the Earth from cosmic threats.
  • Jessica Cruz appears as a playable character in Lego DC Super-Villains.
gollark: You can make it mildly harder. But if one person breaks it everyone will get it.
gollark: 1300 people care, probably some quantity have it, *you cannot stop them*.
gollark: You could do things, but they might be bad for everyone.
gollark: Nope. There's no guarantee of that.
gollark: "I must do something because [BAD THING]" is harmful and leads to overcompensating.

References
  1. "Penelope Cruz - Biography". IMDb. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  2. Betancourt, David (June 24, 2016). "Meet the new Green Lanterns. Yes, there are two of them". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  3. Cronin, Brian (June 27, 2016). "'Green Lanterns' Core: Who Are Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz?". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  4. Lu, Alexander (April 2, 2018). Comics Beat https://www.comicsbeat.com/exclusive-preview-in-green-lanterns-44-does-jessica-cruz-control-her-ring-or-does-it-control-her. Retrieved September 24, 2019. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. Justice League vol. 2, #30
  6. Justice League #50: "The Darkseid War"
  7. Justice League Vol.2 #31 (August, 2014)
  8. Justice League Vol.2 #33 (October, 2014)
  9. Pockross, Adam (7 May 2018). "Dive into our exclusive LEGO DC Super Heroes - Aquaman: Rage of Atlantis trailer premiere". SYFY WIRE. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  10. Couch, Aaron (7 January 2019). "Justice League vs. The Fatal Five Sets Voice Cast (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  11. Milizia, Cristina [@MiliziaCristina] (9 February 2018). "Thrilled to be voicing #GreenLantern #JessicaCruz in 'Ring Me Maybe Parts 1-4' for #DCSuperHeroGirls! She is such a relatable character & the series provides courageous, strong, female role models for kids. Check it out!youtu.be/L-XimpSg_GY" (Tweet). Retrieved 26 January 2019 – via Twitter.
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