Crazy Jane

Crazy Jane is a fictional character created by Grant Morrison and Richard Case for their work on the Vertigo Comics version of the Doom Patrol. She first appears in Doom Patrol (2nd series) #19 (February 1989). According to the afterword in the first trade paperback collection of Morrison's Doom Patrol, she is based on Truddi Chase. Morrison was reading her autobiography, When Rabbit Howls, while constructing his Doom Patrol series.

An earlier instance of the name, and perhaps its first use in literature, occurs in the Scottish poem "The Ghost of Crazy Jane", published in 1814, by the poet William Nicholson (1782-1849). The name "Crazy Jane" is taken from a Richard Dadd painting, which is also referred to in the Crazy Jane poems of William Butler Yeats. A number of Jane's alters are named after Sylvia Plath poems. Other sources of names are song titles by R.E.M., Incredible String Band, The Jam and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Crazy Jane, or Crazy Janey, is also the name of a charitable organization of the 1900s in Newark, New Jersey, which made clothes and donations for poor women.^[1]

Fictional character biography

Jane Morris is the dominant alternate personality of Kay Challis, who suffers from multiple personality disorder. As a result of exposure to the alien Dominators' "gene bomb", each of her 64 alternate personalities has a different super-power.^[2]

Kay Challis was molested by her father, beginning when 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 withdraws completely and is replaced by an alternate personality answering by the name "Miranda." One Easter Sunday, Miranda is the victim of 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 is committed to a mental institution soon after.

When the gene-bomb goes off, Jane and all of her personalities are affected; each personality gains a different power (e.g. Black Annis has retractable claws, Flit can teleport, etc.). Cliff Steele is staying in the same institution as Jane when Will Magnus asks Cliff to look after her, which leads to Jane's becoming a member of Doom Patrol.

Near the end of the Grant Morrison run of Doom Patrol, Jane makes a pilgrimage back to her childhood home, facing her own traumas and overcoming them. This brings peace to her inner turmoil, and her personalities integrate into facets of a more normal, if complex, single personality.

Unfortunately, upon returning to Doom Patrol, Jane is attacked by The Candlemaker and thrown into another dimension, similar to the real world, where she is interned as a schizophrenic and treated by shock therapy. Cliff eventually rescues Jane from the other dimension and lives with her on Danny the World, formerly Danny the Street.^[2]

In Rachel Pollack's run, it is revealed that Jane's alter egos still exist, and Cliff leaves her and returns to Earth. The two separated due to constant arguments, mostly Cliff's fault, and that Cliff felt afraid of her.

Jane makes a cameo appearance in Teen Titans #36, where she is seen on Danny the World through a portal in Dayton Manor in Prague. She returns in Doom Patrol #7, written by Keith Giffen, on Oolong Island, asking for Cliff and carrying with her the remains of Danny the Street. Danny has now been reduced to a single brick, making him Danny the Brick. Jane says "If you build it, he will come", although she does not explain further.^[3]

Personalities

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 a well where the personalities can go to destroy themselves. This is where Miranda was killed. The Well houses the Daddy persona of Jane's mind.

• Crazy Jane: The dominant personality. No powers. Her name is derived from that of a character in several poems by Yeats as well as the eponymous painting by Richard Dadd mentioned in Morrison run issue #30 page 13.
• 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 destroys herself after the church incident. Her "station" is now occupied by some indescribable horror, visible from a distance only as a weird light, which only Driver 8 can see without being destroyed by the vision (she covers Cliff's eyes as they pass through this area).
• 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 a song by The Jam, the B-side of their single "Start!".
• Daddy: An impression of Jane's father 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 (a sideways "8") 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 nymphomanic with the power to create ectoplasm projections and absorb stray psychosexual energy.
  • Baby Harlot: An integration of Baby Doll and Scarlet Harlot.
• Penny Farthing: She speaks with a stutter. A Penny Farthing is the English name for the early bicycles that had different-sized wheels.
• The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter: An artist with the power to psychically activate her paintings; whose name is taken from the title of an album by the Incredible String Band.
• Rain Brain: She speaks in a 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: She explodes when sexually aroused.
• Stigmata: She bleeds from her hands and feet and relives the church incident endlessly.
• No One: She is very aggressive; 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: 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 the Siouxsie and the Banshees song "Christine."
• Pepper's Ghost
• Merry Andrew: Dresses as a Harlequin and carries toys.
• Driller Bill
• Pretty Polly
• The Snow Queen
• Jeann: Her station could be seen as Cliff was falling into Jane's mind.^[4]
• The Sin-Eater: She believes she must suffer for her sins. Jane brings her out as a defense when being tortured.
• The Signal-Man
• 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.
• The Engineer: He assists Driver 8 in maintaining The Underground.
• Kit W'the Canstick: An old woman who carries a burned-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, who may not be real.
• Blood of the Lamb: No given information. In this form, Jane is covered head to toe in blood coming from unknown (or nonexistent) wounds.

There are still other personalities in Jane who haven't yet been properly identified. They include: A nun with a chainsaw, a red-headed 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 blonde hair, a person with an orange, odd-shaped head, and a woman whose face is shadowed over.

References

External links

• List of Jane's known alters
• Richard Dadd painting