Doom Patrol’s Crazy Jane backstory is just beginning to unfold

Doom Patrol’s “Puppet Patrol” gave us context into Dr. Von Fuchs and Mr. Nobody, but it also expanded on Crazy Jane’s backstory.

The third episode of Doom Patrol put on more than just a puppet show. When the titular team wasn’t rightfully killing Nazis and bringing down fascism, “Puppet Patrol” gave us some context into Jane’s past.

Even beyond Dr. Von Fuchs’ cryptic and borderline rude monologue, we learned a lot about Jane. In a series that has gradually revealed more about her past and her identity, the third episode of Doom Patrol hinted that Jane could undergo some powerful character development soon, and we’re beyond elated.

Her lengthy encounter with Dr. Von Fuchs is obviously going to cause some internal discourse among her and the other alters. Yeah, if you didn’t catch on to Dr. Fuchs’ insinuation, Jane is actually an alter. Though the series hasn’t directly stated that Kay Challis is the real person underneath the 64 alternate personalities and that Jane is an alter herself, Jane is faced with the reminder that she isn’t the real physical person behind her identity, she’s only a part of Kay’s original identity. Beyond dreading up this fact, the conversation lined with ulterior motives could prompt Jane to enact a conversation with the other alters in the underground.

However, his unpleasant chat might have sparked an even more powerful moment in Jane’s onscreen history: A conversation with the rest of the alters in the underground. We know Jane doesn’t want to control the other alters because “control is a weapon for fascists,” and Jane isn’t a fascist.

The show and comics parallel Larry’s relationship with his Negative Spirit to Jane and her 64 alters. So, Jane could start an extended conversation that leads to a mutual understanding between Jane and her other personalities.

Beyond just enacting a compromise, this would allow all 64 versions to have a chance at personhood, and we’re ready to see Jane become comfortable in her current identity so that she can start to heal and cope from her multiple past traumas.

Crazy Jane in Doom Patrol (1987) #63. Photo Credit: DC Comics.

So far, the show has only vaguely hinted at Jane’s past traumas. In the comics, Doom Patrol (1987) #63 particularly expands on Kay Challis’ past childhood traumas that led to her Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D.) and ultimately her dominant alter, Jane, taking over as her permanent identity.

Dr. Fuchs’ attempts to intimidate Jane awaken some latent unfavorable memories from her secondary traumas. You know: When a team of scientists experimented on Jane, giving her other alters each distinct meta-human abilities. The episode showcases how flimsy fascism is because his intimidation ultimately provoked Jane to transition to a different, powerful alter, which obviously ended in his demise (at least for the time being).

Apart from potentially jumpstarting a therapeutic arc in Jane’s character development, Doom Patrol also introduced another one of Jane’s alters. While we can’t really summarize all 64 of Jane’s alters and their unique powers (even though we’d love to), we can help you keep track of her alters we’ve met so far.

Doom Patrol — Ep. 102 — “Donkey Patrol” — Photo Credit: Bob Mahoney / 2018 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Baby Doll

Better known as Cyborg’s biggest fan (and we don’t blame her), Baby Doll is a child-like version of Kay. We haven’t seen her power yet. Given her agreeably cheery persona, she’s likely a bit of a pacifist and doesn’t have any need to use her ability, especially with the other protective alters in the underground.

“Katy”

As the fiery alter is referred to in the comics, Flaming Katy is basically a walking match. Her pyrokinetic-themed personality might seem confrontational at the moment, but that’s just being see doesn’t like questions. Even in the underground, she’s a self-imposed outcast, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see more of her on Doom Patrol.

Crazy Jane as the Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter in Doom Patrol (1987) #19. Photo Credit: DC Comics.

Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter

Doom Patrol hasn’t formally introduced her by name, but she’s the alter present in the panel-by-panel scene above where “Jane” is painting. It hasn’t been specified yet on the series, but Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol comic run clarifies that the Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter has the abilities to psionically communicate and adjust her paintings (an art in general).

Flit the teleporter

Though a bit standoffish and apparently impatiently impulsive, Flit has a fitting power of teleportation. Hopefully, we’ll see more of her in future episodes because teleportation obviously beats a broken down bus. Technically, we’ve already seen her in episode 2 during Niles Caulder’s recorded therapy sessions.

Crazy Jane in Doom Patrol Vol 6 #9. Photo Credit: DC Comics.

As we said, this isn’t an exhaustive list because there are still several alters we’ve met from the episodes, Mr. Nobody’s narratives, and Niles’ tapes. Even still, there are a couple alters that even comic book context didn’t prepare us for.

Some alters, such as Metal Mouth, are likely inspired by Jane’s comic alternate personality. With her 64 personas, we might have lost track of some of the decades of Doom Patrol issues, but we doubt we’d forget a Metal Mouthed alter who uses her silver tongue as a literal weapon.

Overall, her alters fill in divergent gaps in Jane’s pre-Doom Patrol past; however, “Puppet Patrol” still leaves us with a few questions about Jane.

After this most recent episode, you might still wonder why Jane was appalled when she finds Cliff killed a bunch of Nazis as well. Even in the short time she’s known Cliff, Jane already looks up to him as a friend and as an implied supportive system.

Because Jane wrongfully thinks of herself as a monster, especially in the moments preceding Dr. Fuchs’ talk, she might be projecting her internal grievances onto Cliff.  Cloaked by the shame of killing Dr. Fuchs’ lackeys, she’s actually ashamed because she doesn’t think she holds any claim over her own body or identity, even though we know she definitely does.

To paraphrase Kory Anders, we all know our new favorite disastrous heroes should never be ashamed of defending themselves, especially since this week’s enemies were Nazis anyway. However, we hope Jane instills similar energy into her identity because we hope she’s eventually able to embrace herself and cope with her past.

With Jane’s impending character development and the prospect of meeting even more of her alters, this article doesn’t even big to discuss her character. However, we hope to see a productive conversation between Jane and the other alters at some point on Doom Patrol (especially if that hypothetical arc includes a cathartic convo between Jane and Kay).