Dead Eye Jake/Alternate versions of Dead Eye Jake
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
This is a list of alternate versions of Dead Eye Jake.
Contents |
Mainstream Virtueverse Continuity
- Dead Eye Jake is an outlaw from the Old West who somehow cheated death and came back to life again. He is currently a villain residing in the Rogue Isles.
- Silver Star is a heroic alias created by the outlaw in order to operate covertly in Paragon City.
Alternate Universe Depictions
Charles Morgan
In an alternate universe, the deceased spirit of Charles Morgan possessed the body of Dead Eye Jake. It was revealed that the Dark Servant who Jake called forth to fight for him was none other than the ghost of the same man he murdered over a hundred years ago, his spirit having become in tow with Jake's once the latter had been returned to life. This evil spirit had kept Jake safe until he had summoned enough negative energy to overcome Jake's will and possess his body.
This version of Jake caused much mischief in his world as first he deceived Jake's former friends only to betray them, simply for his own amusement. Now openly calling himself Charles Morgan, and in command of the sinister powers, the usurper delved even deeper into the supernatural forces privy to Jake to become more dangerous and steeped in the afterlife than ever. The members of the original Dead Eye Gang were made into zombies, and few dared to cross their dark master.
Charles Morgan succeeded in using a soul trap to capture his patron Ghost Widow, taking her place in Arachnos. Inside the renamed Widower's Tower he forced Dr. Aeon to conduct illegal experiments for creating inter-dimensional portals. He is the main antagonist in the story Infinite Jake Crises, apparently meeting his fate at the hands of the Quantum Reaper.
Dead Eye Jake (Praetorian)
The Praetorian version of Dead Eye Jake was little more than an animated corpse somehow brought back to life, fueled by ambition and a malevolent will. Evidently not as powerful as his Virtueverse counterpart, he was reportedly killed by the Praetorian version of Felicia Grant with ease.
Dead Eye Jane
In one alternate reality, the question was answered of what would have happened if Benjamin Grey, and not Daisy Lou McCormick, died that fateful night in the summer of 1881.
In this telling of events, as Charles Morgan snuck up behind the pair of young lovers in the deserted country field at night, by the nearest of chances young Benny Grey became aware of their attacker just as the butt of a gun came to crash down on the back of his head. As a result, he received only a glancing blow from the gun, and turned to fight his assailant. As the young man and the enraged drunk began to struggle, a frantic Daisy Lou sought to help, but at the grunting requests of her fiancé, eventually ran away to safety, leaving Ben alone. However, even while intoxicated, the brute was too much for the farm boy, and Benny Grey was murdered, fulfilling the dream of the Virtueverse Dead Eye Jake of sacrificing his life to save his beloved.
After spending the worst night of her life lost in the woods in fright, Daisy Lou found her way back to the field that morning to find her young Benny's body, left beaten to death where the attack had occurred. Horrified at the sight and ashamed of her own desertion, something inside the sweet, innocent farm girl changed that day. Returning to her home, she acquired a rifle and a horse and rode into town, searching until she found the room in which Charles Morgan was staying. The drunken murderer barely had time to rouse from his sleep before the woman he had tried to molest the night before blew his brains out. Coming to realize the weight her actions soon after, fear of punishment and self-hate for leaving Benjamin to die forced her to leave town that very day, never to return.
It did not take long for Daisy to learn that a tough exterior was the only way to survive on her own, or else she would become a victim herself. In time, stories spread of an outlaw woman whose sights were as sharp and deadly as she was beautiful. "Dead Eye Jane" they called her, though soon the nickname haunted her somewhat after a bloody fight among outlaws left her with a scar across one side of her face, prompting her to wear an eye patch. In time, her fame and loyalty among fellow thieves earned her the leadership of the notorious McCormick Gang, and even those she stole from were fond of the beautiful female bandit.
But, in 1897, a posse of Texas lawmen caught and cornered the notorious McCormick Gang following a botched bank robbery. The gang's leader escaped and fled into some nearby woods, only to be tracked two days later by the same group of men. In an effort to escape, she reportedly received several gunshot wounds before subsequently leading her horse off a cliff. Despite a body never having been found, she was believed to have died, and no crimes were again committed in her name.
However, over a hundred years later, a woman claiming to be the same legendary outlaw appeared in the same area, only to be captured by local authorities. Transferred to Zigursky Prison in Paragon City, she was later liberated by attacking Arachnos terrorists and given free passage to the Rogue Isles. There she assembled a new group of outlaws, calling themselves the "Dead Eye Gang," where she lives to this day terrorizing the public of both the islands and Paragon City in the style of the Old West.
Dead Eye Kid
In one alternate reality, the fate of Benjamin Grey and Daisy Lou McCormick was even more tragic, though their legacy would live on in their son.
In this telling of events the young lovers found each other over a year before they would in the original Virtueverse timeline, and in their youthful passion and lack of foresight, conceived a child that would be born in the March of 1880. Unfortunately the baby boy would never know his parents, as their lives were cut short the next year by a brutish individual known as Charles Morgan. Morgan fled town before all the pieces of the crime could be put together, though he was eventually implicated as the parent's murderer. The baby was left in the care of his maternal grandparents, leaving them to raise their daughter's love child as if he were their own. Thus they changed the child's last name to reflect their own, while keeping the name his deceased parent's gave him, making him Jacob McCormick.
With the sordid details of his birth and death of his parents providing a depressing backdrop of rumors and intrigue, Jacob grew to be a sullen, angry youth. Where his grandparents were unwilling to relate the story of his parent's fate, the townspeople of Homewood would happily oblige by telling him of whatever rumors they had heard. Through the wild reports and lies, he learned enough of the truth to realize Charles Morgan, now long gone, had killed the mother and father he never knew. At the age of thirteen he left what had become an unhappy home, and the town, to travel west on a hunt with a solitary purpose: revenge on the man who murdered his parents.
Years later, after many exploits and adventures, a young man happened upon a solitary log cabin in a secluded area outside of Eagle, Idaho. By all accounts, it was the final resting place of Charles Morgan, who had taken into hiding after a lifetime of despicable deeds. Morgan, however, expecting to be tracked down by lawmen, had set traps throughout his property, one of which Jacob sprung, leaving him injured. Morgan found and captured him, bringing him back to his home, where for days he tortured the boy for both information and enjoyment. Against all odds Jacob crafted an escape, ending in a desperate struggle that culminated in Morgan's death. Numerous scars and a lost eye remained lasting mementos of Jacob's ordeal with Charles Morgan.
After that point, continuing to travel the west, he became a famed gunslinger known as the Dead Eye Kid. Unfortunately his love of adventure was rivaled by his love of women, which at one time resulted in the death of a cowboy over the attentions of a lady. Charged with murder, the Kid fled the Texas town where the altercation occurred, only to return several weeks later to meet up with the woman. The forces of the law, including several of the deceased cowboy's friends, were waiting for him, and he received several gun wounds trying to ride into town. He died in his lover's arms.
Dead Man James
A resident of the dimension commonly referred to as the Inverse, Dead Man James is the closest thing to being Dead Eye Jake's counterpart there, though he also possesses qualities of the Crimson Cutlass. A famous pirate of the 1600's, Captain James Morrigan sought to evade pursuing British ships by entering the region of sea known as the Bermuda Triangle, only to be lost in the mists of time. He and his ship returned several hundreds of years later, attempting an ill-fated raid off the costs of the Paragon Isles, only to be captured by the heroic forces of Freedom's Web. He escaped from the island prison known as the Zig through the efforts of a coordinated assault by the States-Lord's Pantheon led by the modern pirate Captain Cor. He and other prisoners were given free passage to Etoile, Rhode Island, better known as the Rogue City. Dead Man James remains a threat to this day as a skilled swordsman possessing supernatural powers, at times partnering with the notorious Ruby Revolver.
In Infinite Jake Crises he meets up with Jake after springing him from the Zig. Though the two seemingly become friends, Jake ties him up and impersonates him on his ship to reach the Portal Corporation in Port Peregrine. When James subsequently hunts him down he ends up joining Jake on his adventure. In the story's final showdown, he faces off against the zombie Dead Man Jake. In the end he is safely returned to the Inverse.
Jorg
In one reality, as Jake served his time in the Zig, he was introduced to a drug called Superadine. Unaware of its harmful effects over time, he partook of the illegal substance and soon became addicted, attributing his need for the drug to its strength-enhancing properties. Upon his rescue from jail by Arachnos forces, Jake began his career as a modern-day outlaw, but continued to take Superadine on a regular basis, using the proceeds gained from his crimes to purchase and use more. At last, following a downward spiral into drug dependency, he overdosed on the substance, transforming him from a green-skinned brute into the ultimate expression of the drug's power, a creature commonly referred to as a "Supa Troll." Able to articulate himself only as "Jorg", this monster rampaged through the streets of Cap Au Diable until being taken down by local forces and handed into Arachnos custody.
In Infinite Jake Crises Jorg is released from an Arachnos prison, and follows Jake through a portal. He proves himself able to fight Sheriff Star single-handedly, and kills Zombie Jake. After the final battle he is reported to have escaped police custody, though Sheriff Star stated his intent to capture him.
Mecha Jake
Mecha Jake is a robotic version of the famed outlaw built in a world ruled by artificial intelligence. Its purpose is not known. Its abilities include flight and radiation blasts. In Infinite Jake Crises it was recruited by Charles Morgan to help destroy Jake and his group. Sheriff Star chased it into the air, damaging it heavily. The robot responded by initiating a self-destruct sequence, blowing up over Peregrine Island.
Old Jake
In one alternate future, Dead Eye Jake lived to retire after many years of criminal exploits in the Rogue Isles. Returning to the mainland United States, he moved to Texas where he used his ill-gotten wealth to buy and run a ranch on which spend the rest of his days in relative peace. This Jake began to show rapid signs of aging once he quit the active life of an outlaw, revealing this telling fact about the nature of Jake's powers: so long as he continued to siphon life from his enemies and other targets through supernatural means, Jake's body retained its youthful physique. However, this version of Jake seemed content with his aged appearance, and did not use this as reason enough to return to an overt life of crime. Perhaps to keep his true identity as a notorious criminal a secret, this Jake rarely ventured off his land, and those found trespassing were never heard from again.
The Quantum Reaper
Perhaps no version of Jake in the myriad of alternate guises and forms is as far removed from the original as the one calling himself the Quantum Reaper.
In the reality this version hails from (although he may in fact be a composite of several) Jake's time in the Rogue Isles was only the start of a long, seemingly endless existence, prolonged by his ability to siphon energy from various targets to keep him vital. As the decades turned into centuries, with his fame and notoriety fading with the passing years, he was eventually recruited by the organization known as Ouroboros, who in his time was said to be a group of time travelers from the future formed to prevent a catastrophe that had not yet occurred. Jake's accumulated experience and possible immortality made him a fine candidate and he soon became an agent.
As time tends to blur when working for a group that regularly travels through it, there is no way of knowing how long Jake served under the orders of the menders. Fixing time streams according to the grand plan unknown to all save Silos and his select few, preventing disasters while seeming to cause just as many, Jake eventually lost sight of what counted for time and space, his perception lost to the infinite possibilities of the multiverse. By some standards he improved as a person; He lost the Southern accent that had been his trademark, acclimatized himself with world culture spanning several centuries, and became learned and proficient in all kinds of advanced technology. He became a fully realized human being, losing only his sense of self in the process. He eventually lived an empty existence, a man out of time, his spirit lost in the temporal vortex.
Or so he would have remained, until at last he happened upon a way to change all of it, and perhaps change the basic nature of his existence. First theorizing, and then planning, and finally enacting, Jake became a rogue mender, co-opting time traveling technology to meet his own altered ends. Calling himself the Quantum Reaper, he disappeared into the time stream, eluding attempts at capture by his former fellow agents. Only crude speculation could be drawn as to his intentions when Ouroboros menders investigated his activities prior to his departure, until chrono-tracking equipment began detecting unauthorized tampering in alternate timelines. Further study and investigations continued, until the bizarre truth was discovered: in each case, the divergence resulted from the untimely death of that dimension's version of Dead Eye Jake. Some how, some way, in every instance, the counterpart of Dead Eye Jake was slain.
What is the Quantum Reaper's intent? Ouroboros is not sure. Although attempts to stop the potentially dangerous dimensional tampering continue, the pattern of the universes he chooses has not yet been determined. Some believe the killings are the result of a master plan to bring out some desired effect. Other menders insist Jake has simply gone insane and is completing an act of multiple temporal suicide. Whatever the case may be, no Jake, and possibly no dimension, is safe from the Quantum Reaper.
In Infinite Jake Crises he first appears as Quentin Reynolds and attempts to kill Dead Eye Jake with a bomb. He later shows up to assist Charles Morgan, who ends up recruiting other versions of Jake to kill the outlaw. During the battle he rigs the nearby portal to explode, but is stopped by Sheriff Star before he can detonate the machine. However, when the portal does explode some time later, the forced displacement technique used to prevent Jake and everyone's death also works to save his life. He is last seen in Dark Ouroboros, where he slays Charles Morgan.
Ruby Revolver
Another resident of the Inverse, the Ruby Revolver is the second closest thing to being Dead Eye Jake's counterpart there, though she possesses qualities more akin to the Crimson Cutlass. Not much is known about her, save that she seems to be one in a long line of outlaws to have taken up the name of the Ruby Revolver, inheriting the mantle from her father. Today's Ruby Revolver is highly modernized, using both state-of-the-art gadgets and an arsenal of advanced weaponry, along with twin ruby-colored pistols. A gang of well-armed thugs also takes orders from the "Bandit in Burgundy." She is known to work out of the Rogue City, sometimes partnering up with the dread pirate Dead Man James.
Sheriff Star
The hero who became known as Sheriff Star might have turned out just like Jake in his alternate reality, except that the Rikti (or an alternate version of the Rikti) launched their attack on the world about a week after he was revived. As a result, the recently reborn outlaw was en route to Zigursky Prison when the extra-dimensional aliens appeared and destroyed his transport, killing those guarding him, and offering him a chance to escape in the resulting chaos. For whatever reason, Jake chose to stay and help fend off the alien attack, but in the end only managed to survive where others did not.
Choosing to help in the resistance of the alien invaders, he was soon recruited and joined the legions fighting to protect Paragon City. When some of his supernatural abilities became manifest, he was awarded a hero license and thrust into the conflict alongside many other established superheroes. Amazingly he survived long enough to take part in the final counter-attack to stop the unending supply of Rikti reinforcements, and was a member of something called "Alpha Team" during the climatic assault. In the end, he was one of a very few number of heroes alive when all was said and done. Given awards and acclimations for his bravery in the fighting, this Jake at last decided to stay on as a hero and continue the effort to rebuild a broken Paragon City, calling himself the Silver Star.
It was during one of his adventures as the Silver Star that he was involved in a conflict with a dark wizard who attempted to take over the city through the power of his spells. During the events that transpired, the sinister mage broke Jake's connection to the netherworld, effectively de-powering the superhero, in an attempt to remove him as a threat to his plans. When the Silver Star was still able to contribute to the magician's defeat, however, he realized his time serving the community was not over.
Joining the Paragon Police Department, Jake attained the rank of sheriff before agreeing to take part in a special program meant to augment police officers with a technologically advanced power suit. Considered the best candidate for the role, Jake would have been the first of a whole new breed of super cop, until an incident with Crey Industries shut down the project entirely, the remaining power suits and technology lost and destroyed. In the aftermath of the scandal, it was decided that Jake would keep the suit, return to the life of a registered hero, and continue to protect the city as only he could. From that day forward he was known as Sheriff Star, and was widely recognized as the greatest champion of his world.
In Infinite Jake Crises he attempts to capture Dead Eye Jake's group and battles Jorg. In the final showdown he destroys Mecha Jake and knocks out the Quantum Reaper. In the end he states that he intends to capture the escaped Supa Troll Jorg, but whether he does or not is unknown.
Sheriff Star later traveled to "Earth Prime" in an attempt to serve as a superhero in Paragon City and help improve things to the point they had reached in his own world. However, for reasons not fully understood, he began to age rapidly several months after his arrival. After working closely with the Paragon Police he arranged to have the signature Sheriff Star power suit and name be given to a worthy successor in the department. His whereabouts since then are mostly unknown.
Snake Eye Jake
In one alternate reality, the Snakes of Mercy Island were far more powerful and aggressive than anyone could have imagined. Amassing their forces around Fort Darwin just in time for the first batch of Zigursky prisoners to be released, the slithering attackers launched a concentrated, coordinated assault on Lord Recluse's Destined Ones. The effect was nearly instantaneous as each person bitten suddenly began to show signs of transformation, a process that would eventually turn them into reptiles. Those that could not transform were destroyed. The Snakes also captured Kalinda, changing her as well, which would provide a powerful asset to their cause in taking over Arachnos.
Years later, the face of the Rogue Isles had changed considerably. The remaining population of humans turned into slaves, the trueborn Snakes fared little better as the humanoid reptile hybrids they produced proved too powerful for them to control. The Destined Ones showed themselves to be just that as they overthrew Ssetheno, subverted the organization of Arachnos and other Rogue Isle factions, and took a tentative control over the islands. The ability to transform others into creatures like them with their poisonous bite made the villainous scum more of a threat than ever, causing the heroes of Paragon to fight even harder to keep back what became to be considered a biological epidemic. Still, even heroes attempting to battle back the hordes succumbed to the curse, and nests of snake men are discovered in other parts of the world. Many people think it is only a matter of time before hummanity is supplanted by their new scaly masters.
Dead Eye Jake was one of those bit back on Mercy Island. Now calling himself Snake Eye Jake, he leads a host of still-human thugs, showing his fangs as a brutal outlaw toward normal people while loyal to his fellow reptiles. He enjoys hunting down heroes, preferring to demonstrate his acidic spit rather than his bite. He is considered a cruel and sadistic man by his enemies, making him well beloved by his comrades, and desires nothing more than to see the whole world overrun by his twisted kind.
In Infinite Jake Crises he joines Charles Morgan in attempting to kill Dead Eye Jake's group. He is able to bite Jorg and pump enough venom into his system to knock him out. He then prepares to kill both Jorg and Dead Man James, but is stopped by Sheriff Star. He was presumably sent back to his world in the story's explosive ending.
Zombie Jake
Zombie Jake, better known as Dead Man Jake, hails from an alternate reality sometimes referred to as the Mu'niverse. Summoned to life by the Banished Pantheon cult, he was given as a gift to the mystic ninja master Mu'jiru as part of their secret alliance, where he served as an undead manservant and a member of the Damned Aces. The typical brainless zombie, Dead Man Jake possessed only rudimentary intelligence while feeding on the flesh of the living. While at first seemingly only kept around the Mu mystic for his ability to follow orders and the amusement he provided, it was later revealed that he served a greater purpose in Mu'jiru's master plan to invade Oranbega, the City of Thorns. Thrown off the deck of a skyship into the forbidden area of the city known as Dark Astoria during Mu'jiru's assault, Zombie Jake somehow survived the fall to fulfill his master's purpose: helping to break the mystic barrier, leading countless zombies into the city during a critical moment in the battle. Jake was last seen taking part in the gruesome wave of carnage that followed, slaying Oranbegans and causing havoc, allowing for Mu'jiru to continue his plan.
In Infinite Jake Crises he returns serving Charles Morgan. He fights Dead Man James, who severs his arm, but succeeds in knocking the pirate out. Before he has a chance to feed he is grabbed by Jorg and lifted from behind. Jorg then squeezes his head off, presumably finishing off the zombie for good.
