That girl is poison!

[thebigapricot]

As part of the Brightest Day event DC will be launching "Dark Titans" starring Cheshire aka Jade Nyguen aka Lian’s mom aka Roy Harper’s Baby Mama. Here is part one of a look back at the history of one of the deadliest, most resilient and versatile villains in the DCU.


Cheshire been around the DCverse for over 25 years. She’s an expert in martial arts but her specialty is poison.She’s a trained expert on toxins and she delivers her wares via her nails. I think she is one of the most dangerous and complex villains in the DCU, but she tends to get pegged as B-list. Black Canary, however, recognized how dangerous she is in the scan above from Arsenal's mini from 1998. It may be because she's not associated with one of the Trinity but with the Teen Titans. But she’s actually appeared in a variety of books across the DCU. Her appearances have been primarily handled three writers – Marv Wolfman, Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone. This first post will focus on her relationship with Roy and Lian. I'll take at look at her work with teams in another post.

I also find Cheshire interesting because she has given birth to not one but two children – Lian, fathered by Roy Harper, and a boy, fathered by Thomas Blake/Catman. Pregnancies are rare enough in the DCU so having two is extremely rare. The only other costumed characters I can think of who has had two children is Thorn, mother of Jade and Obsidian. And, coincidentally, another villain. Cheshire's motherhood has given her a unique twist among the villains in the DCU.

Here is Cheshire's first appearance in 1982’s New Teen Titan Annual #2.



She's got a thing for red heads we'll soon see. Cheshire would show up to battle the Titans a number of times but her connection to the Titans became permanent with her involvement with Roy Harper. Here, Roy tells the story of how he met he as he reads his “unauthorized biography” to Lian. This is from “Secret Origins: Green Arrow and Speedy” from 1989.

Another version is in Action Comics 615 from 1989. Cheshire is featured in a five issue arc “The Cheshire Contract” by Tom Patton. Roy and Dick are in London to stop an assassination Cheshire is involved with. Roy recounts to Dick how he and Cheshire hooked up. Warning bad 80s hair follows.

I warned you.

Here Roy meets up with Cheshire in the present day of the story and you can see the power she holds over him. Roy's love for Cheshire, despite her villainy, has been a ongoing plot point. I think he is technically over her, but with her appearing in Justice League: The rise of Arsenal and the promise of "sparks flying" who knows?

Here in issue 21 of the New Teen Titans from 1986, Roy first finds out that he left more than just a memory for Chesh.



The red hair does defy almost all genetic feasibility but, hey, what a cute baby.
Lian could have disappeared at this point and gone the route of Sin or Helena Kyle, but instead the writers brought a new level of relevance to the Titans by having Cheshire turn custody over to Roy to make him a single dad. Lucky Lian that her dad, a former drug addict, danger junky, Checkmate operative, and non-meta superhero is considered the better parent.

With Lian safe with Roy, Cheshire is free to pursue her career. She saves Deathstroke's life and gets him to help her steal some nuclear weapons from Russia. Cheshire plans to use the weapons to hold a country from ransom. To show the world she is serious she conducts her personal “war on terror” (this is from the Deathstroke the Terminator mini from 1993.)


An entire country -- I think Cheshire must hold the record for most victims in the DCU.

It's a few years before Cheshire is brought to justice for her crime of blowing up Quarac. While on the run, she becomes has her own team, the Ravens, as well as joins Vandal Savage's Tartarus. I’ll cover those adventures in the second post.

While Cheshire is evil, it is somewhat mitigated by her love of Lian which seems genuine. (I'll talk about how genuine in the next post) Here, from 2001's Titans 27, her love for her daughter ends up costing her her freedom.


A fame seeking Epsilon jumps in and takes Cheshire off to prison where she is put on trial.
These next scans are from Titan's 30. The issue, by Jay Faeber and Jay Grau, which focuses on Cheshire's love for Lian, feelings for Roy and her life as a super villain. For anyone who is interested in Cheshire, I'd recommend picking it up.

The verdict is in.

Unfortunately, she’s incarcerated with her former colleagues from the Ravens who use her visit from Roy and Lian to stage a prison break. Cheshire helps Roy put down the break but begs him to run with her.

Does she really love Roy? He loved her but in this issue it is clear he is, for now, over her. Faced with the possibility of having to shoot Lian, Cheshire puts down her weapon to be returned to her cell where she contemplates her life. But you cannot keep the girl down. She breaks out of prison just a few issues later in Titans 34 and pays a visit to her daughter. Given that she been infected with Joker gas it's not a pleasant visit.


Roy shoots Jade with the antidote upsetting Lian.


Poor Lian. Cheshire recovers and that's the last we see of her for a while.
Next up a look at Cheshire as the lead of her own team, her run in with the Birds of Prey and her time with the Secret Six!


Tags: char: cheshire/jade nguyen,char: speedy/red arrow/roy harper,char: lian harper,creator: marv wolfman,title: titans,title: teen titan