Jessica Cruz

Current Events

After the power ring from Earth-3 was destroyed in the Darksied War, A Green Lantern ring chose her to be Earth’s newest Green Lantern. Despite being chosen to be a Green Lantern, she still struggles with anxiety issues. In the new series Green Lanterns, Hal has forced Jessica and fellow rookie Simon Baz to protect Earth as partners, even fusing their power batteries to ensure their cooperation. Currently, she and Baz are working to stop the Red Lantern Corps attempting to take over the planet. Concurrently, the duo operates alongside the Justice League in their newest series.

After the events of Justice League: No Justice Jessica Cruz joined Cyborg, Starfire, and Jean-Paul Valley on an Odyssey.

Origin

Following the death of Power Ring at the hands of Sinestro during Forever Evil, the cursed ring seeks out a new host, selecting Jessica Cruz to bear its power.

Jessica Cruz and a group of her friends went out hunting but came across a group of men who were burying a body, they killed her friends and Jessica was the only one to make it out alive. Since then, she became a survivalist preparing for the end of the world and hoarding food and water before the Power Ring found her. The Power Ring takes control of her and goes on a rampage through the city. She is confronted by the Doom Patrol who wish to take the ring. However, before anyone can take the ring, Batman inspires Jessica to assert control over the ring, ending the rampage.

Later, Jessica is taken to the Watchtower to be monitored but loses control of the ring again. Before any real harm is done, Flash motivates Jessica to reign in the ring’s power on her own. She then decides to learn how to use the ring. After dealing with the Amazo Virus, Flash calls in Hal Jordan to begin properly training her in the use of her ring.

Creation

Jessica Cruz was created by Geoff Johns, longtime writer of the Green Lantern franchise. Jessica was one of Johns’ final mysteries of the series, as he merely had her mentioned and visually teased in his final issue of Green Lantern, suggesting her fate was somehow tied to fellow new Green Lantern Simon Baz and the conclusion of Trinity War.

Character Evolution

New 52

Jessica Cruz’s name is mentioned and her hand appears briefly in a single panel of the 2013 issue Green Lantern #20 but does not make her official debut in cameo until the last pages of Justice League vol. 2 #30, when the Ring of Volthoom locates her. She makes her full appearance and first cover appearance in the following issue, Justice League vol. 2 #31. She was dubbed “Power Ring” while she was host to the Ring of Volthoom but is not a member of the Crime Syndicate of America. Jessica becomes an official member of the Green Lantern Corps at the end of Justice League #50: The Darkseid War.

Rebirth

Jessica Cruz is a member the Justice League and co-leads her own solo series for DC’s Rebirth initiative

Story Arcs

Justice League

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. 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.

Batman is able to de-power the ring after convincing Jessica to face her fears. Jessica later succumbs to the 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 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 afterward, a Green Lantern ring descends at the battlefield and transforms Jessica into a new Green Lantern.

Rage Planet

In addition to the DC Rebirth line-up, Jessica Cruz co-stars in Green Lanterns with Simon Baz. They are both assigned to protect earth from huge threats. At the beginning of the arc, we see Jessica and Simon chasing a man possessed by rage which indicates that the Red lanterns are behind this. Jessica wants to stop him, but her plans have been thrown into disarray since she fails horribly and was shot by him. However, she quickly recovers. Moreover, Simon knocks him out and rescues Jessica.

On the planet Ysmault, it was revealed that Atrocitus (leader of the Red Lanterns) wants to leave his planet for a new world. He thinks that planet Earth is full of rage, therefore, he must deliver the rage seed. Not only does Jessica need to fend for herself, she now has to deal with her sister (Sara) who is possessed by the rage seed.

Meanwhile, Simon is in a huge battle against Bleez. He was possessed by her for quite some time but he eventually overcame her. Moreover, instead of beating Bleez, he healed her from the rage. Unfortunately, Jessica came back and beat her which resulted in Bleez turning into a Red Lantern once again.

Simon was angry and asked Jessica why she would do that. Jessica was surprised because she thought she had saved his life.

A Day In the Life

Jessica wakes up due to a missed call from Simon. She’s had enough of being an “anxiety Lantern”, therefore she and her partner decide to take a day off. They decide to eat pancakes!

Jessica and Simon are finally able to enjoy life for a moment, but it is interrupted sooner then they could have imagined. The Justice League call in and tell them to aid in the fight against a giant sea creature.

At the end of the day, Jessica and Simon have to deal with a criminal who calls himself the “Gambler”. Simon is ready to strike, however, it seems that Jessica isn’t ready at all. Her fears have returned and she does nothing but freeze. Simon reacts adequately and knocks out the villain. Simon and Jessica are having a short debate about her anxiety.

The next day, Simon tries to make it up to her by treating Jessica with her favorite food….pancakes!

Powers and Abilities

Jessica Cruz is currently the holder of a green lantern power ring.

• Animating: A Green Lantern can will things to move how he wants.
• Artificial Intelligence: Every ring has a connection to the Main Battery on Oa, which taps into an artificial intelligence. It acts as an “on-board computer,” telling the wearer what they need to know. It can either respond out loud or silently directly to the wearer’s mind. The AI contains a large database of information that may be crucial to a Lantern’s success. The ring also translates nearly every language to and from the wearer (though they have difficulty translating profanity), which is why the Corps can communicate with each other. When the bearer of a Green Lantern ring dies, the ring will seek out a suitable replacement for their sector. The AI can be used to play a holographic playback sequence complete with colors across the spectrum based on information in memory banks. The ring can dictate when to pause or stop the playback should an interruption arise where the Lanterns undivided attention is needed. The AI can also alert the wielder of incoming threats or of attempts to manipulate the wielders construct by an outside party.
• Burglar Alarm: A Green Lantern can coat anything with the ring’s beam and thus, if anyone other than himself touches it, his ring will glow, alerting him to the possible theft.
• Communicator: The ring can act as a personal communicator between Green Lanterns. They have also been seen connected to telephones.
• Costumes: The wearer of the ring may create any costume they choose, based on their personal preferences, whenever they choose. The ring projects the costume over any clothes already worn at the time. The only rules that the Guardians of the Universe implement on the creation of an individual costumed are that the ring bearer displays the insignia of the Green Lantern Corps.
• Energy Projection: The rings can also project beams, form protective bubbles and force fields, and fire destructive blasts. Sometimes, depending on the wearer, the beams and blasts make sounds. Kilowog‘s ring is one such example of blasts making sounds.
• Energy Constructs: The rings can construct anything the wearer can imagine from hard-light energy, as long as they are willing to make it. The more determined the wearer is, the more complex and intricate these things can be. The constructs can even be so complex as to form working machines, computers, and even people. However, Hal is known for his relatively simple, straightforward constructs like his ever faithful boxing glove.
• Flight: The ring allows the wearer to fly in the atmosphere or in space, and can achieve incredible speeds, moving from planet to planet in a matter of hours.
• Invisibility: The ring can make the wearer or anything else invisible.
• Matter Manipulation: A Green Lantern can use their ring to manipulate nearby matter, such as water, for various purposes such as a construct that acts like an energy construct but can block something yellow and may serve a purpose that an energy construct couldn’t perform.
• Mind Control: The wearer of the Ring can use it to plant post hypnotic commands or control a person.
• Mirages: The Ring can create mirages/illusions.
• Phasing: The ring allows the user to go through walls. This ability however required great concentration on the bearer of the ring
• Power Absorbing: In the JLA’s first fight with Amazo, it was GL who defeated him by drawing out all of Amazo’s powers. In Green Lantern/ Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances, Kyle defeated Parallax with SS’ power and Thanos with Oa’s energy by drawing out all that extra energy from them which made them unconscious. However, he couldn’t hold all that power nor could his Ring like Hal did with Amazo’s powers, so that move isn’t often used with so much power.
• Probing: The ring can probe the Lantern’s or another person’s mind, allowing him to uncover memories or the person’s thoughts. (An ability which has not been seen for some time)
• Recharging: The rings need to be recharged by means of aPower Battery. Other large sources of power may be used to recharge a power ring, however, effectiveness may vary. The internal power source of a Manhunter Android is, in effect, the same as a power battery, and can be used to recharge a power ring. During the JLA / Avengers crossover, a Cosmic Cube was used to recharge a depleted ring, although this is not an ideal solution and is available if there are no other options.
• Ring Duplication: Each ring can duplicate itself, creating a second ring which may be given to another as a backup, for protection, or to help the lantern in times of great need. This duplicate ring is exactly like a normal ring.
• Temperature Control: The Ring can increase or decrease the temperature of anything, even something as large as stars, or even create bubbles of intense heat or cold, even down to Absolute Zero. This could be seen in the recent Sinestro Corps War when Sallak used his ring to incase an enemy in a force bubble an incinerate him.
• Transforming (former): The ring can transform anyone or anything, be it into an animal, altering their state of appearance, or their size. Once Hal and Alan turned the two Flashes (Barry and Jay) to light protons in order to free them from prisons.
• Electro-magnetic scanning: The ring can allow(through the use of x rays) the user to see through walls, without the people on the other side knowing. it can also scan along the Electromagnetic spectrum.
• Wormhole/Warps: The ring can open wormholes to cut down on distance.
• Healing: A wielder can command a ring to heal him/her/itself of any injuries incurred. It can also heal others. This ability, however, cannot regenerate lost limbs.
• Energy twin: The ring can create an energy copy of the wielder which is connected to the ring wielder, any information the twin gathers is transferred to the wielder upon touch while others cannot see this twin apart from fellow Green Lanterns. (An ability which has not been seen for some time)
• Pocket dimension: Within the ring is a pocket dimension which can be altered to the wielders specification. It can be used to contain opponents.
• Sub-routines: The power rings have inner programmings or mechanisms which can be executed without the user’s permission. One such sub-routine is the auto shield. This shield automatically protects a wielder from external harm and has been proven to be capable of protecting the wielder from planetary level attacks.

Character Profile

• Height: 5’11”
• Weight: 160 lbs
• Eye Color: Brown
• Hair Color: Brown
• Citizenship: American
• Sector: Sector 2814
• Partner: Simon Baz
• Marital Status: Single
• Occupation: Green Lantern, adventurer
• Known Relatives: Sara Cruz (sister)

In Other Media

Animation

Super Hero Girls (2018)

In May 2017 it was announced the DC Super Hero Girls would be getting a full length animated series produced by Lauren Faust set to air in 2018 on CN. Faust confirmed it was a reboot and that Jessica Cruz would be one of the main characters!

DC Super Hero Girls (Web Series)

Jessica Cruz debuted in Season 4 episode 1 “Ring Me Maybe Part 1” as a camerawoman working with Lois Lane, covering Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) farewell party (Since he is going to complete his training in OA, graduating from Junior Green Lantern status). She is easily scared and with a shy personality.

In “Ring Me Maybe Part 2”, Jessica is chosen as the junior Green Lantern of Earth.

In “Ring Me Maybe Part 3”, with the help of Batgirl, she overcomes her fears and finally became Green Lantern.

In Ring Me Maybe Part 4″, she defeats Sinestro and officially joins Super Hero High.

She is voiced by Cristina Milizia.

Teen Titans Go To The Movies (DC Super Hero Girls: The Late Batsy)

Before the Movie Teen Titans Go movie starts, there is a clip of the New upcoming DC Superhero Girls playing. The story follows Batgirl who wanted to go fight crime with her teammates, but can’t because her dad is still up. She pleads for the team to wait for her, but they do not want to since Mr. Freeze was destroying the city. Jessica Cruz is one of her teammates who was waiting on Batsy. She also got a new costume to go along with the new animation style.

Video Games

Injustice 2 Mobile

Green Lantern, Jessica Cruz, is a playable character in the mobile app version of Injustice 2. She was a part of an update that included adding elements from DC’s Rebirth to the game.

DC Legends

Green Lantern, Jessica Cruz, is a playable character in this mobile DC 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.