| “ | H.I.V.E. Five, eat 'em alive! | „ |
| ~ Jinx's catchphrase as part of the H.I.V.E. Five |
| “ | I'm bad luck. Good was never an option for me. At least with the Brotherhood of Evil, I could be somebody. I'll get respect. | „ |
| ~ Jinx to Kid Flash |
Jinx is a major antagonistin the 2003 Cartoon Network animated series Teen Titans.
She was voiced by Lauren Tom, (who also voiced Gizmo in the same series, Councillor Chang in American Dragon: Jake Long and Amy Wong in Futurama) in every appearance but her last, for which Tara Strong (who also voices Raven, Princess Clara, Toot Braunstein, Ferra, Lena Dupree and Harley Quinn in both the Batman: Arkham and Injustice: Gods Among Us videogames), provided the voice.
Contents
- 1 Physical Appearance
- 2 Personality
- 3 Powers and Abilities
- 4 Biography
- 4.1 Teen Titans
- 5 Gallery
- 6 Trivia
- 7 External link
- 8 Navigation
Physical Appearance[]
Jinx has light gray skin, sharing the skin color as Raven, Argent, and Kyd Wykkyd. Her hair is shaped like ahorseshoe, sticking out just a little bit at the tips. Her hair color is light pink, with metallic black bands near the top. Her eyes match her hair color, with pupils shaped like a cat's. She also has small, oval-shaped pink cheek blushes. Her outfit is a black, long-sleeved dress with violet centered bands. The bottom of her dress is cut jagged about halfway down her thigh. She also has violet and black striped leggings under her dress. Her shoes are black platform boots with violet soles. She also has a black collar with a violet charm on it.
Personality[]
During her time with the H.I.V.E. Five, Jinx was a very ambitious go-getter with a slight mean streak. Because of her goals to rise among the ranks of villains, she tries her best to be an effective H.I.V.E. member under both its regimes. Far more controlled, focused and mature than her male teammates, Jinx has proven herself to be a largely capable and determined, if not subconsciously insecure, leader.
Jinx is also strong in her own personality, though, even directly assaulting Madame Rouge and releasing Kid Flash when Rouge taunted and mocked her, deeming her a "pathetic failure" and an "embarrassment".
At first, Jinx appears to be quiet, mean, mysterious, often speaking in whispers and sometimes depicted as rather crazybecause of the evil, crooked grin she usually wore when battling. However, in "Lightspeed", we see a more determined, outspoken and emotional side of Jinx who wants to be respected and not shunned because of her bad-luck powers. Kid Flash helped Jinx bring out her true personality, and how she feels about certain things.
Generally, however, despite her habitual dark looks, she is a very fashion-conscious girl, more intent on hunting for interesting attires and accessories rather than getting rich.
Furthermore, she is characterized as the "popular girl" in the H.I.V.E. Five; in the series, a number of super-teens — includingKid Flash, Cyborg, See-More and Kid Kold - are revealed to have (or had) a crush on her.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Jinx Magic: Jinx's body produces mystical energy which she can use for a variety of effects. Though an act of will, Jinx can cause electrical systems to malfunction. Jinx's sorcery also enables her to affect the elements. She can generate a whirlpool or tidal wave in the middle of the ocean, or summon heavy winds to knock opponents off their feet. Jinx has the ability of Probability Control, or manipulation over luck or - in Jinx's case - bad luck. Jinx is described as an enchanting sorceress who wields the power of bad luck, which manifests as pink, lightning-like energy blasts/waves fired from her hands. Jinx's powers portray a manipulation of probability, or more specifically, the ability to "jinx" her enemies, hence her name. How she does this has never been explored in the series. When she is not shooting waves of energy, her eyes glow a bright pink instead, and can make structures crumble. In early episodes, it was shown that her powers are magical in nature; however, in later episodes, she's seen exhibiting her powers as a free flow output through her brain, common for most psionics. When she wants her enemies to be "jinxed", she mostly uses her energy waves to disrupt solid structures in her surroundings, though other effects are also possible, such as tidal waves. Her bad-luck energy can also serve a direct offensive role as concussive blasts. As shown in Teen Titans Go! issue #1, her powers cannot bypass Raven's dark-energy shields. Jinx is also an accomplished gymnast, capable of dodging beam-bursts, starbolts and pillars of stone telekinetically launched at her with ease.
- Probability Manipulation: Among these is the ability to affect probability fields around specific objects.
- Energy Projection: Primarily, though, Jinx uses her power to produce bursts of concussive mystical energy. She can hurl this energy either as a blast, or as a pink wave/hex, which she uses to knock her opponents off their feet.
- Expert Gymnast: Jinx is extremely agile and uses various somersaults and tumbling to avoid offensive attacks. She has also incorporated her gymnastic skill into close-quarters combat.
Biography[]
Teen Titans[]
Jinx was a youngmagicuser and a member of the H.I.V.E. Academy. She often worked alongside her fellow students, Gizmo and Mammoth. As part of the Academy's final exam, Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth were assigned to destroy theTeen Titans on orders by Slade. During their initial encounter with the Titans, Jinx focused her attention on her analog in the Titans -Raven. Their first battle ended with her victorious and, after defeating the Titans, they took command of their headquarters,Titans Tower. Jinx temporarily moved into the quarters normally occupied by Raven. When the Titans regrouped, they fought to take back the Tower andBeast Boydistracted Jinx, tricking her into firing random blasts of energy that caused the roof above her to collapse. Jinx survived the incident, however, and soon regrouped with the rest of the H.I.V.E. students.
In a later adventure, Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth once again encountered the Teen Titans while in the midst of a daring bank robbery. The H.I.V.E. students managed to escape capture, but not beforeRobinplanted a homing beacon on Jinx's costume. The Titans used the beacon to discover the location of the H.I.V.E. Academy andCyborginfiltrated the organization using the alias "Stone". As Stone, he befriended Jinx and the others, but did not fool the H.I.V.E.'s new headmasterBrother Blood. Although Cyborg's true identity soon became known to the group, his presence made Jinx begin to question her commitment towards being a super-villain.
After the defeat of Brother Blood, Jinx formed the H.I.V.E. Five with Gizmo, Mammoth, See-More and Private H.I.V.E.. The H.I.V.E. Five briefly engaged the Titans in combat during a raid on a shopping mall but, just as they were gaining the upper hand, the mystical entity known as Mother Mae-Eye appeared and defeated them. Later on, after the Titans had defeated Mother Mae-Eye, they tricked Gizmo into taking the pie she was in, and Mother Mae-Eye subsequently brainwashed the H.I.V.E. Five by feeding them her pie.
Sometime later, Jinx and the H.I.V.E. Five (with Billy Numerous and Kyd Wykkyd replacing Private H.I.V.E., who had left the group to strike out on his own) were in the midst of robbing a museum when they encountered Kid Flash, who easily took the stolen items from them whilst giving Jinx a rose. By this point, Jinx felt that her reputation amongst the H.I.V.E. Five was tarnished, and she wanted to prove that she had what it took to play in the big leagues. To accomplish this, she attempted to cultivate a relationship withMadame Rougeof theBrotherhood of Evil. She encountered Kid Flash once again, and managed to capture him on behalf of the Brotherhood. While imprisoned, the speedster asked Jinx why she insisted on hanging out with a "bunch of losers" like the H.I.V.E. Five. This angered Jinx greatly, but something in Kid Flash's words struck a chord within her. Nevertheless, she believed that the capture of Kid Flash would secure her a place within the Brotherhood. Kid Flash soon escaped confinement, but Jinx caught up with him and managed to subdue him with an electro-stunner. Madame Rouge, however, was unimpressed with Jinx's handiwork and rebuked her efforts, calling her a "pathetic failure" and an "embarrassment". This caused Jinx to turn against Madame Rouge and, following a brief battle, she began to distance herself from the rest of the H.I.V.E. Five.
Kid Flash's persistent efforts to reform her finally paid off, as Jinx eventually abandoned the H.I.V.E. Five altogether and joined the Titans in their battle against the Brotherhood of Evil. She no longer actively participates in criminal endeavors, instead aiding the Teen Titans in their various adventures.
Gallery[]
_Hexes.gif "Jinx (Teen Titans) (11)")
_Bad_Luck_Blast.gif "Jinx (Teen Titans) (12)")
Trivia[]
- The shape of Jinx's hair looks similar to a horseshoe, which has a superstitious relation to luck. Oddly, while Jinx's powers revolve around bad luck, her hair is pointed upwards, and an upward-pointed horseshoe is a symbol of good luck.
- Interestingly, whenever she was fighting against the Titans, she always battled Raven ("Final Exam", "Deception" and "Mother Mae-Eye")
- Jinx is the only supporting character in the show to not have eyebrows.
- She was the first boss in the Teen Titans: Battle Blitz game.
- Her design in the show greatly differs from that in the comics. In the comics, she is an Indian sorceress who wore golden jewelry and wore mostly white and had ashy-brown skin that later became darker skin, along with her hair color being listed as “unknown.” She also had elemental magic instead of bad luck-themed abilities and wouldn't have probability-based powers until after the cartoon.
- There has been common misconceptions about Jinx's character. A common example is that a lot of the time when people bring up how she looks in the comics they will only show redesigns of her after the cartoon but her design before the cartoon looked like this. Indians in the comics at the time were depicted with ashy skin that looked like a mix between an ashy color and gray with some prints making Jinx look really gray. However, Jinx was still intended to be some form of brown and not gray, even if she looked grayish brown, but wasn't given darker skin until after the cartoon. Jinx’s “who’s who” comic page in the 80s also listed her hair color as simply being “unknown” leaving it mysterious to what it could have been, if she had any, or not, while after the cartoon she was explicitly given bald hair. Apparently, the reason for her lack of hair in her post-cartoon comic redesign is because she has cancer.
- Another misconception is that due to their vast differences, cartoon Jinx is a completely new and different character who just shares a name. Both the people who work on the show and DC themselves recognize them as the same character from different continuities and cartoon Jinx is a heavily altered adaptation of the comic book character and not a new character.
- There is a small thread on Twitter, by Jinx’s co-creator Chuck Patton, explaining how he came up with the design of Jinx.
- Cartoon Jinx's hair seems to have been inspired by the horns of her original comic book look but flipped upward instead of downward.
- Jinx seems to have replaced the role of a comic book character called Shimmer. Shimmer, aka Selinda Flinders, was the original sole female member of the Fearsome Five (known as the H.I.V.E. Five on the show) with Jinx being a minor character who came later and only appeared in 3 issues by the time the team was at its end, and they needed to get another criminal for extra power. In the show's spin-off comics, they even have a team called the Fearsome Five with every character in it that was in it in the comics except Jinx replaces the role of Shimmer. Shimmer was an element and matter transmuter and the twin sister of Mammoth. Ironically both Shimmer and Jinx had "elemental" based powers in the comics, with Shimmer even being a bit jealous at first that Jinx's seems to be more powerful than her's, which isn't a trait cartoon Jinx had at all. The reason Jinx was chosen according to those working on the show was just because they wanted a magical rival for Raven. Due to her more major role in the comics, and being siblings with one of the villains who do show up in the show, her exclusion and replacement by Jinx has been seen as weird by people more aware of the comics.
- Some fans will point out another similarity that Shimmer and Jinx have is that Shimmer has a "goth" look in the comics and will claim that it is where cartoon Jinx gets her "goth" or alternative look from. While this is true for Shimmer's later appearances, originally Shimmer wore a bright yellow and gold bodysuit. Her "goth" or "edgy" look that she later received in the comics seems to be more in response from the similarities that she shared with cartoon Jinx, whereas comic Jinx kept her light clothing but had different outfits over the years, and not where cartoon Jinx got the inspiration from.
- She also has similar traits to another character called Magenta but their character arcs seem to be in reverse. Jinx is a villain turned hero while Magenta is a hero turned villain. Magenta was the friend turned girlfriend of Kid Flash. Kid Flash thought since they were a couple with superpowers that they could be a superhero couple but accidentally pressured Magenta too much into becoming one which didn't do so good for the girl who already had to deal with tons of pressure before. Her "evil split personality" (which was known as Magenta as her civilian name is Frances Kane), mixed in with her underlying issues, would eventually take over and became more of a villain to Kid Flash instead. Magenta also saw her powers as a curse as she had powerful, but at times disastrous, magnetic powers. Kid Flash and some of the other Titans also didn't see it as a curse, even if destructive. Magenta's classic costume did have pink and some black on it which is similar to cartoon Jinx's colors. It has also often been assumed by fans that Magenta was another character used as the basis for cartoon Jinx.
- If true that Magenta was also replaced by/fused into cartoon Jinx, it seems likely that this is because, while still very much a character on her own, Magenta is heavily tied to the character Kid Flash. Kid Flash didn't appear on the show, until the final season, because the team couldn't get the rights to use him at the time. So, it seems possible, yet unconfirmed, that the reason Magenta wasn't used and got merged into cartoon Jinx was because the Titan she was associated with couldn't make an appearance.
