- "Jane is a cipher. She's incomplete. Her life is empty, so she covets the lives of others. She takes their lives so she can have their lives."
- ―Jane Doe
"Jane Doe" is a supervillain in the DC Comics universe and enemy of Batman. She is a serial killer who constantly tries to kill people and takes their identities until she is satisfied with the one she is currently using.
History[]
New Earth[]
Background[]
Jane Doe's name and origins are a mystery. She is an insane female who is missing all of her skin, having exposed muscle-tendons across her body. Jane commit murders in Gotham City to steal the identities of her victims before being arrested and sent to the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum.
Arkham Asylum[]
Jane Doe.
Jane Doe makes her first appearance in Arkham Asylum: Living Hell #1 - Chapter 1: Whole in the Head as sane patient Warren White's psychiatrist, Dr. Anne Carver. When she meets Warren in Arkham Asylum, he tries to bribe her to transfer him to a minimum security prison due to the abuse he is taking from the other inmates. However, he is unaware that his psychiatrist is Jane Doe. She had already destroyed Dr. Carver's paperwork and half-heartedly agrees to Warren's demands.
During this time, asylum administrator Jeremiah Arkham knew about Jane's activities and orders her to drive Warren even more insane. Jeremiah's reasoning for this is later revealed that he lost his pension due to Warren's corrupt business practices at his brokerage firm. Jane would eventually capture Warren and place him in Mr. Freeze's subzero temperature cell and locks it to ensure that he won't escape. She then plans on using Warren's identity to steal his funds but fails when Warren survives her attempt to kill him and becomes the Great White Shark. Great White Shark would get his revenge and takes his identity and would leave Jane Doe with severe third-degree burns.
Battle for the Cowl[]
Asylum inmates Jane Doe, Firefly and Mister Zsasz were sent by Jeremiah Arkham (now the second, "Black Mask") to attack James Gordon and destroy the Gotham Police Department in Battle for the Cowl. She was able to shoot James three times in the chest but he survived due to wearing a bulletproof vest.
House of Hush[]
Jane Doe would later reappear in House of Hush when she meets with Manhunter. Manhunter bargains with Jane that if she testifies against Two-Face's insanity plea in exchange her sentence will be reduced to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. However, Jane Doe says to Manhunter that she will have to think about it due to receiving a counter offer from Two-Face the night before the meeting took place. She would later be visited by Hush at Arkham Asylum disguised as Bruce Wayne. Hush was able to convince the parole board at Arkham to release Jane Doe in order to manipulate her against Batman. However, Hush's plan doesn't work out when she escapes due to her realizing what would happen to her when she would be of no further use to him.
Jane Doe would then kill Jeffrey Carter, who was a hostage Hush was going to use against Batman. She deduced that if she imitated as Carter, she would be captured and therefore let her get near to Hush and steal Hush's persona as Bruce Wayne. Jane planned to become Bruce Wayne and take control of his multi-billion dollar industry Wayne Enterprises. Unfortunately, Batman arrives and puts an end to her plan but is unable to stop her from severely maiming Hush's face to the point that he could no longer disguise himself as Bruce Wayne or anyone else ever again.
New 52[]
In this version, Jane Doe encounters Batman for the first time where she is found trying to steal assets from Vivian Wenner, a rich Gotham socialite who had been dead for a week. Jane Doe is able to escape Batman with the aide of Wrath. Wrath then offers her a job as his inside man on the Gotham Police Department. Jane accepts and later kidnaps Harvey Bullock and uses his identity while forcing him to watch her actions on a television set up in his cell. She would become infatuated with the new G.C.P.D. psychologist Abigail Wilburn and as a result tries to kill Abigail and take her face. However, she is stopped and defeated by Batman. Jane Doe is then sent to Arkham Asylum where she plans to become Batman.
Powers and Abilities[]
Jane Doe's prison ID.
Through close observation, Jane is able to completely impersonate others. Not only can she perfectly copy body language and speech patterns, but she can also augment her personality to mirror that of her victim's.
Equipment[]
Jane Doe has been shown to carry numerous different items. Besides all of the equipment of whichever person she's adopting the identity of, she carries a tape recorder to help her mimic voices. On one occasion, she nearly escaped from Arkham Asylum with a collection of body parts she had kept in unknown locations. The emergency exit required a fingerprint scan, a retinal scan, and a voice I.D., and she simply procured Dr. Anne Carver's severed hand, eyeball in a jar, and a voice pleading not to kill her on her tape recorder. She was immediately stopped by Batman however.
Weapons[]
Doe has been known to carry conventional and convenient weapons. A knife or a gun. Whatever gets the job done.
In Other Media[]
Television[]
Supergirl[]
Jane Doe is one of two aliases, the other being Bizarro, of a brain trauma patient that was transformed by Lord Technologies into a clone like version of Supergirl in the television series Supergirl. She is referred to those aliases by Cat Grant. Bizarro would be contained in a locked room at Lord Technologies and was being preserved and altered under orders by Maxwell Lord. She would later kidnap James Olsen due to sharing Supergirl's affections. Bizarro would be stopped by Supergirl and tells her that she and the DEO would take care of her. She would then be put in a preserved state in order to prevent her from harming others or herself.
Gotham[]
Jane Doe appears in the Final Season of Gotham, she is called Jane Cartwright.
Video-Games[]
Gotham Knights[]
Jane Doe's cell appears in Arkham Asylum, where it appears that she was collecting guard IDs.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Jane Doe is similar to Marvel supervillain Chameleon, due to them both being professionals at using disguises and mimicking other people's voices. They also take identities from individuals for their own benefit usually after killing them. Jane's creator Dan Slott is also notable for having written a run of Spider-Man comics.