Origin
Jane 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 have a different super-power.
Kay Challis was molested by her father since she was five years old. The first time her father molested her, she was putting a jigsaw puzzle together. Kay eventually withdrew completely and was replaced by an alternate personality answering to the name “Miranda.” One Easter Sunday, Miranda was the victim of an attempted rape in a church, which triggered flashbacks of her former abuse and lead to the destruction of the “Miranda” personality and the completion of her massive personality fragmentation. Kay is transferred to a mental hospital after this happened.
When the gene-bomb went off, Jane and all of her personalities were affected; each personality gains a different power.
History
Cliff Steele was staying in the same institution as Jane when Will Magnus asks Cliff to look after her. Cliff approaches her and she is in the rain painting. He went over to talk to her and the painting jumps out of the picture and melts in the rain. This was done by one of Kay’s personalities named the Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter.
In Doom Patrol, Jane’s first appearance, reveals that she is not the dominant personality. Kay is the dominant one but she hasn’t been out since she was five.
Jane plays a key role in stopping the Fifth Horseman. She takes control of it with the help of the Doom Patrol and the Brotherhood of Dada. However, this leaves her in a coma. Robotman succeeds in waking her up by visiting the Underground.
One of Jane’s personalities, Liza Radley, tries to integrate all the personalities. Jane goes back to her childhood home, where it was the first time she was molested. While there she faces her fears and overcomes them. All her personalities become one and she loses all of their powers. She then goes to live in Danny the World, formerly Danny the Street.
Crazy Jane and Danny the Street have joined the latest incarnation of the Doom Patrol.
Powers and Abilities
Crazy Jane has 64 different powers. She has no control over who comes out or for how long. Sometimes they come out in great stress or danger.
Crazy Jane’s Personalities
Crazy Jane’s personalities are in her head in a place called the underground. Each personality has their own station and this is where their at until they become the dominant personality. There are different levels in the underground. The bottom level, the Well, is where personalities go to destroy themselves.
Crazy Jane: The dominant personality. She has no powers.
K-5: The original Kay Challis, who vanished at age 5. She is “sleeping” in one of the lower stations of the Underground. She is the original person while Crazy Jane is just a personality.
Miranda: The former dominant personality. While she was dominant all the personalities were happy. There were no problems caused by the personalities until Miranda was assaulted in a church. After the attempted rape she went to the lower levels of the underground and destroyed herself. This is when Crazy Jane became dominant and went to the mental hospital.
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.
Daddy: An impression of Jane’s father as a giant monster made of insects, excrement and puzzle pieces. He never came out in the physical world. It was destroyed when Jane went to her childhood home and overcame her problems.
Driver 8: The Conductor of the Underground subway. She is the one who makes sure everything in the underground stays okay.
Black Annis: An aggressive misandrist, equipped with sharp claws, red eyes, and blue skin. She like to cut things up, normally people. She doesn’t like men because of what happened to Miranda. She is the one who normally comes out when Jane is in trouble.
Baby Doll: A childlike personality that believes everything is lovely. She stays in her pink room on a pink bed. Playing with pink plushy animals.
Scarlet Harlot: A nymphomaniac with the power to create ectoplasmic projections and absorb stray psychosexual energy.
Baby Harlot: A mix between Baby Doll and Scarlet Harlot.
Penny Farthing: She speaks with a stutter. And is very shy when talking to people.
The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter: An artist with the power to psychically activate her paintings. She is the first one Cliff meets.
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 80’s fashion. She is a fast talker and likes Cliff. She informs him that a lot of the other personalities also like him. She can also teleport to different dimensions.
Mama Pentecost: An expert enigma and cryptogram solver. She came out and helped the group save the world.
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: 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. She comes out when people are messing with Crazy Jane, she really doesn’t like that.
Flaming Katy: She is a pyrokinetic.
Lady Purple: She can see the future but rarely speaks. All the other personalities look to her to see what to do. She is kinda like the unofficial boss of the personalities.
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.
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 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 to get 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 repeats “Daddy don’ do it”.
The Chief: A responsible superhero administrator who stole Niles Caulder’s codename
She also may be Ragged Robin from Grant Morrison‘s The Invisibles Vertigo series. Both characters have odd personalities and are both named Kay. Grant Morrison has said the characters are the same in The Invisibles companion book: “Well, she is. She’s The Invisibles’ universe version of Kay Challis, who is, in the DC universe, Crazy Jane. It is part of the whole DC Hypertime.”
Other Media
Crazy Jane is a main cast member of Doom Patrol streaming series. Her powers remain largely the same, but rather than receiving them from the Gene Bomb, she was injected with a special serum in an asylum.