 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
| Jenny Sparks | |
|---|---|
 Cover ofJenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority issue #1 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | WildStorm (DC Comics) |
| First appearance | Stormwatch vol. 2 #37 (July 1996) |
| Created by | Warren Ellis Tom Raney |
| In-story information | |
| Species | Metahuman |
| Team affiliations | The Authority Stormwatch British Space Program |
| Notable aliases | The Spirit of the 20th Century |
| Abilities | Control over electricity Ability to transform herself into electricity Decelerated aging |
Jennifer Mary Sparks is asuperhero in theWildStorm comic book universe created byWarren Ellis during his 1997 revamp of theStormwatch series. Her first appearance was in issue #37 (Ellis' starting issue) where she was appointed the leader of Stormwatch Black (Black Ops division), withSwift andJack Hawksmoor, with whom she would later createThe Authority.
Sparks is described as "The Spirit of the 20th Century", having been born at its beginning and later dying at its end. Throughout her time, she is shown to have influenced many of the most significant individuals who shaped that century, both positively and negatively. Sparks is depicted as a superficial hedonist hiding a strong underlying sense of morality. She was named the 44th Greatest Comic Book Character byEmpire in 2006.[1] In August 2024,DC Comics revived Sparks as aDC Universe character in a 21st-century setting for an eponymousDC Black Label mini-series written byTom King.[2]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(April 2012) |
Jenny Sparks first appeared inStormwatch vol. 2 #37 (cover-dated July 1996) and was created by writerWarren Ellis and artistTom Raney. After that series ended withthe death of most characters not created by Ellis, he started a new series,The Authority, featuring the eponymous team led by Sparks.[3]
After the 12th issue, Warren Ellis left the title andMark Millar took over. He did some extra fleshing out of Jenny's history in theJenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authoritylimited series, focusing on the origin stories of the members of The Authority. Most of Millar's additions are furthering Ellis's backstory and intermeshing Jenny Sparks with important historical figures of the 20th century, includingAlbert Einstein,Ernest Hemingway,Adolf Hitler,Jacques Cousteau,John Lennon,Princess Diana, and many others.
Jennifer Sparks was born in England on 1 January 1900. Her family possessed quite a fortune, and she was sent to an all-girls school inVienna. Her family had died on theTitanic in 1912, and her father's nemesis took over their fortune. Left penniless, young Jenny was invited by her godfather,Albert Einstein, toZürich, where he offered to finish her education. Before leaving she recommended thata young painter, whose art was quite abysmal, leave it behind and take a career in politics as he had a certain charisma and talent for speeches.
Between 1913 and 1919, her powers started to manifest. Jenny Sparks had absolute control of electricity, including travel through power lines, shooting bolts of lightning and shaping electricity. With age, her control and power increased. By 1919, Jenny stopped aging.
In various comics, a number of Sparks' adventures through the early and middle part of the 20th century have been told. A common theme in these stories is her interaction with prominent historical figures.
In the 1960s through 1980s, Sparks is shown to have become involved with the first British bands ofsuperheroes, but she encounters problems with some extreme personalities that disillusioned her to that role.
Despite those experiences, in the 1990s she agreed to join a new group calledStormwatch that had been formed by a man named Henry Bendix.[4]
Against her wishes, she was given command of a covert team called Stormwatch Black.
When Stormwatch disbanded after theXenomorph attack that took the lives of half the team, she created a new superhero group calledThe Authority alongside a number of Stormwatch Black teammates. During her leadership, Jenny and her team faced many threats, including super-powered terrorists and an invasion by an alternate reality.
On 31 December 1999, Jenny Sparks knew that she would die at midnight as the 20th century ended, a fact known only by her teammate The Doctor. She electrocuted the brain of an enormous alien creature, the "God" that had originally created Earth and which was planning to wipe the planet clean of all life. This was her final act, in her words, as humanity's defense mechanism. She died moments later in her teammates' arms. Her dying words and last will were: "Save the world. They deserve it. Be better. Or I'll come back and kick your heads in."
The passing of “The Spirit of the 20th Century” heralded the arrival of a successor. At the moment Jenny Sparks died, a new entity was born:Jenny Quantum, “Spirit of the 21st Century”.
During theTransfer of Power storyline, a magical version of Jenny appeared and temporarily removed all mechanical weapons from the earth.
In the DC Comics’ rebootedStormwatch series, part of theirNew 52 event, Jenny's shirt was seen in storage in Stormwatch's base.[5] Jenny Sparks herself also makes an appearance in a flashback montage, projected by Adam One, in Stormwatch's "0" edition.[6]
 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(August 2017) |
In Warren Ellis' 2017 reboot of the WildStorm properties followingDC Rebirth, Jenny Sparks is reinterpreted as an aspect of a "Planetary defense system" created by aliens, complete with new powers. She is also of Asian descent, with her name being Jenny Mei Sparks, and is almost 120 years old.[7] She is atechne – a spirit of the mechanical arts and crafts, empowered by the defining technology of her era, and created by unknown powers to defend the planet Earth.
In 2021, DC established with itsInfinite Frontier soft reboot that it "everything is canon", extending the editorial mandate from DC Rebirth to restore characters to their traditional, most iconic depictions. This continued wthDC All In, which restored Jenny Sparks to her original Wildstorm look and characterisation. TheJenny Sparks (2024-) solo series byTom King and Jeff Spokes published under theDC Black Label imprint depicts Jenny again as the spirit of the 20th century and a former member of the Authority and Stormwatch, and otherwise broadly retaining her previous Wildstorm character history with some small changes.
In her new backstory as part of the DC Universe, Jenny was the great-granddaughter ofCharles Darwin and goddaughter ofAlbert Einstein who died in 1999 and was buried inWestminster Abbey, passing her role as Century Baby ontoJenny Quantum, before being mysteriously resurrected onSeptember 11, 2001. She andSuperman also briefly had a "snog" when he was a "college boy" rebounding from aMermaid ex-girlfriend. The series sees Jenny working at arms length from theJustice League to try and apprehend an out-of-controlCaptain Atom.
Jenny Sparks is one of the Century Babies, a being produced by the multiverse for a specific task. In her case, this is to influence the 20th century.[8] As such, her moods are tied directly to the world's status. For example, she was suicidally depressed duringthe Great Depression and deliriously high during theRoaring Twenties. Additionally, she stopped aging at nineteen and remained this way until her death. Her appearance alters from time to time and it is unclear if this is an effect of her connection to the planet or an artist interpretation.
Jenny has the ability to manipulate electricity. She can easily draw electricity from electronic devices as well as from the human brain, a move she has threatened to kill people with. Sparks can also convert her entire body into electricity and travel anywhere electricity would. She can apparently survive being transformed into other forms of energy, as when she travelled through a TV and power lines and then into a police radio. Shifting into her electrical form heals Sparks from injuries as well as poisons. Like anelectric current, Sparks as electricity must go somewhere before she can re-emerge in her human form. Normally this is into a machine, but other conductors seem to work as well. She was once able to go into the sky and remain there until striking down as lightning. She can also enter a person briefly and electrocute them.
A key distinction is that Jenny Sparks does not generate electricity likeElectro and others. If she is unable to access electricity from any sources or has no place for her electrical form to go, she is powerless and as vulnerable as a normal human. This limitation is woven into the plotlines of many of her adventures.
Through her lifetime, Sparks was a member of several branches of the British military and led various superhero teams. As such, she is an experienced leader and knowledgeable about military protocol. She has not demonstrated the fighting skill that one might associate with this experience, usually relying on her powers instead.
A short-lived 2017 reboot of Jenny Sparks inThe Wild Storm possessed the ability to travel between electronic devices, such as televisions, computers andsmartphones.[9]
Her appearances have been collected intrade paperbacks, including:
The most famous Century Baby in comics is another invention of Ellis, Jenny Sparks from The Authority. It's believed that each Century Baby is spawned by the multiverse to serve a special purpose for that century. Jenny Sparks was often called "The Spirit of the 20th Century"
