Jessica Cruz

Jessica Cruz
Textless variant cover of Green Lanterns #7 (November 2016). Art by Emanuela Lupacchino.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Cameo appearance: Green Lantern #20 Cameo appearance proper: Justice League #30 Full appearance: Justice League #31
Created by	Geoff Johns Ethan Van Sciver
In-story information
Full name	Jessica Viviana Cruz
Species	Human
Team affiliations	Green Lantern Corps Justice League Justice League Odyssey
Notable aliases	Green Lantern Power Ring
Abilities	Use of power ring grants: *Flight Force field generation Generation of hard-light constructs Real-time translation of all languages Space & time travel Energy twin projection & absorption Material & mind alteration Holographic projection Phasing Emerald sight Environmental playback Will empowerment Invisibility and Light Refraction Wormholes and spatial warps Limited cellular regeneration Electromagnetic scanning Galactic Encyclopedia Ring duplication Emergency homing beacon Pocket dimensions Resurrection Security protocol Preset conditions Thought relay

Jessica Cruz, one of the characters known as Green Lantern, is a superheroine 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 Justice League, as well as the first female human Green Lantern. Her first full appearance takes place in Justice League (vol. 2) #31 (August 2014), which is also her first cover appearance. Cruz currently operates out of Portland, Oregon.^[1][2][3]

Jessica Cruz has appeared in various media outside comics, including television and films. Myrna Velasco, Cristina Milizia, Dascha Polanco, Jeannie Tirado, and Diane Guerrero have voiced the character in animation.

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.^[4] Jessica becomes an official member of the Green Lantern Corps, in the Prime Earth reality, at the end of The Darkseid War storyline.^[5]

Fictional character biography

The New 52

Jessica Cruz and her friends were on a hunting trip when they accidentally stumble across two men burying a body. The men brutally murder her friends, and Jessica escapes, but is left severely traumatized. The Ring of Volthoom, which feeds off fear and abandoned Power Ring after his death in Forever Evil, locates Jessica and forces her to wield it.^[6]

First full appearance and first cover appearance of Jessica Cruz

Batman de-powers the ring after convincing Jessica to face her fears.^[7] During the AMAZO Virus arc, Jessica succumbs to the effects of the virus, but is cured after Superman creates an antidote. Afterward, 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 and summon the Anti-Monitor. In response, the Justice League frees the Crime Syndicate to assist them. Volthoom possesses Jessica, but Cyborg briefly overrides him. Jessica sacrifices herself to subdue the Black Racer by enabling it to reap a soul. However, it is soon revealed that Volthoom was killed instead, destroying the ring. Immediately afterward, a Green Lantern ring appears and transforms Jessica into a new Green Lantern.

DC Rebirth

In Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1, Jessica meets Simon Baz as he is investigating an intrusion by a Manhunter. The events are revealed to be a training exercise run by Hal Jordan. He combines Jessica and Simon's power batteries to make them work together, inducts them into the Justice League, and puts them in charge of protecting Earth.

Jessica later temporarily dons the Phantom Ring, a prototype power ring that can channel the entire emotional spectrum, and overcomes her previous trauma.

She is later sent to space to train with the Green Lantern Corps and is under the orders of Guy Gardner, who pushes her around and berates her. However, he agrees to keep the events secret after she defeats him in combat.

Later, Jessica is assigned to monitor the Ghost Sector, a region consisting of recovered planets stolen by Coluans. 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 work together to investigate the mysterious region of space as Justice League Odyssey.

Darkseid later kills Jessica and destroys her ring. However, the ring's fragments resurrect her and temporarily grant her enhanced powers.^[8]

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. Jessica's signature constructs are massive, intricate structures with an organic appearance similar to a giant alien flower. She initially experienced some trouble in creating constructs with the ring, requiring a period of intense concentration to generate larger constructs, 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.^[6]

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

In other media

See also: Green Lantern in other media

Television

• Jessica Cruz appears in DC Super Hero Girls (2019), voiced by Myrna Velasco.^[9] This version does not appear to suffer from past trauma, lives with a lesbian couple, and is a pacifist, vegetarian, animal rights activist, and environmentalist who becomes friends with Pam Isley.
• Jessica Cruz appears in Teen Titans Go!, voiced again by Myrna Velasco.^[9]

Film

• Jessica Cruz appears in Lego DC Super Hero Girls: Super-Villain High, voiced by Cristina Milizia.^[9]
• Jessica Cruz appears in Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Aquaman – Rage of Atlantis, voiced again by Cristina Milizia.^[10][9] This version is a member of the Justice League.
• Jessica Cruz appears in Justice League vs. the Fatal Five, voiced by Diane Guerrero.^[11][9] While suffering from various traumas, such as her agoraphobia, she is targeted by Mano, Tharok and Persuader of the Fatal Five, who seek to use her to free Emerald Empress and Validus from prison on Oa. After bonding with Star Boy, who also suffers from mental illness, Cruz defeats the Fatal Five and joins the Justice League.
• Jessica Cruz appears in Lego DC: Shazam!: Magic and Monsters, voiced again by Cristina Milizia.^[12][9]
• Jessica Cruz appears in Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse, voiced again by Myrna Velasco.^[13]
• Jessica Cruz appears in DC League of Super-Pets, voiced by Dascha Polanco.^[14][9] This version is a member of the Justice League who later adopts Chip.
• Jessica Cruz appears in Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, voiced by Jeannie Tirado.^[15][9] This version is a member of the Justice League.
• Jessica Cruz will appear in Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League.^[16]

Video games

• Jessica Cruz appears as a character summon in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.
• Jessica Cruz appears as a playable character in the mobile version of Injustice: Gods Among Us.
• Jessica Cruz appears as a playable character in DC Legends.
• Jessica Cruz appears as an unlockable playable character in Lego DC Super-Villains.
• Jessica Cruz appears in DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power, voiced again by Myrna Velasco.^[9]

Miscellaneous

• Jessica Cruz appears in DC Super Hero Girls (2015), voiced by Cristina Milizia.^[17][9] This version is Lois Lane's shy camerawoman who later succeeds Hal Jordan as Earth's Green Lantern.
• Jessica Cruz appears as a playable character in Cryptozoic Entertainment's DC Deck-Building Game: Rebirth.

References

1. Betancourt, David (June 24, 2016). "Meet the new Green Lanterns. Yes, there are two of them". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
2. Cronin, Brian (June 27, 2016). "'Green Lanterns' Core: Who Are Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz?". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
3. Lu, Alexander (April 2, 2018). "EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: In GREEN LANTERNS #44, does Jessica Cruz control her ring, or does it control her?!". Comics Beat. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
4. Justice League (vol. 2) #30
5. Justice League (vol. 2) #50: "The Darkseid War"
6. Justice League (vol. 2) #31 (August, 2014)
7. Justice League (vol. 2) #33 (October 2014)
8. Justice League Odyssey #13 (November 2019)
9. "Green Lantern / Jessica Cruz Voices (Green Lantern)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved July 23, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
10. Pockross, Adam (7 May 2018). "Dive into our exclusive LEGO DC Super Heroes - Aquaman: Rage of Atlantis trailer premiere". SYFY WIRE. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
11. Couch, Aaron (7 January 2019). "Justice League vs. The Fatal Five Sets Voice Cast (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
12. Hemmert, Kylie (April 6, 2020). "LEGO DC: Shazam! Magic and Monsters Trailer & Release Date". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
13. Lovell, Kevin (February 14, 2022). "Trailer, Artwork & Release Info For 'Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem In The Multiverse'; On Blu-ray, DVD & Digital May 24, 2022 From DC - Warner Bros". Screen Connections. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
14. Fink, Richard (April 9, 2022). "DC League of Super-Pets Merch Gives First Look at the Justice League". ScreenRant. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
15. Couch, Aaron (December 15, 2022). "'Justice League x RWBY' Movie Unveils Voice Cast (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
16. Sudario, Erielle (July 5, 2024). "The Dark Knight Returns to Japan Once More in 'Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League' Trailer". Collider. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
17. 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!https://youtu.be/L-XimpSg_GY" (Tweet). Retrieved 26 January 2019 – via Twitter.