Jeannette (comics)

Jeannette was introduced in the fourth issue of the ongoing Secret Six comic book as the sixth—and most recent—addition to the team, whose roster had changed many times over since its inception.

Jeannette is a white haired banshee who dresses in Revolutionary France era clothing. Jeannette was born into a family of impoverished nobility, and as a child was sent to serve Countess Elizabeth Báthory, a murderess. As the Countess's "favorite", Jeannette was forced to watch every murder with the intent of being Báthory's final victim. When the Countess was imprisoned, Jeannette was assigned to care for her, and used the position to slowly murder Báthory by placing ground glass in her food.

As an adult she became a wealthy married socialite. However, her husband betrayed her to the Revolution and caused Jeannette to become the victim of a botched execution, which led to her mortal death. She describes the ordeal here:

The executioner was drunk. I paid him with the only jewelry they let me keep. Mother's necklace. His ax was...imprecise. The first blow cracked the bones in my left shoulder. The white dress I wore soaked red with my blood. With each missed killing stroke, the crowd cheered and laughed. For them it was good sport. For me it was pain and terror so deep that I lost everything I was. To kneel, bound at the hands, in my befouled undergarments, and know the butcher wasn't finished. There were three more misses. He stopped after the third blow, for a drink of water, and to pantomime his fatigue for the crowd. Swinging the axe was tiring, you see. That was his excuse. The child I was born, for all the things she had done...she left me as I waited to die. And I found the Banshee.[1]

In her first appearance several centuries later, Jeannette is shown to run a casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.[2] Her status as a villain was not made explicit, but due to her apparent relationship with her soon-to-be teammate Scandal Savage, it is implied that she had engaged in some unsavory business prior to her introduction. Eventually, she is shown to have been detained in several prisons over the course of her long life for unspecified crimes.[3]

Jeannette displays an immediate attraction to teammate Deadshot, and the two begin an affair. At one point, Deadshot injures Jeannette in an apparent betrayal of the team,[4] but this turns out to be a necessary act in order to save them. Their relationship suffers another blow later, when Deadshot shoots Jeannette after she threatens to break a contract the team has entered into with a group of slavers by rescuing the imprisoned Amazon Artemis, whom she is shown to have met previously.[3] According to creator Gail Simone, "Jeannette was so busy doing Deadshot all the time, people forgot she's bi!"[5]

Jeannette using her incredibly loud and strong banshee scream, art by Nicola Scott.

Jeannette mentally sensing the presence of sudden death, art by Nicola Scott.

While the full extent of her sound-manipulating abilities have yet to be depicted, Jeannette has shown to possess at least some characteristics of the mythological banshee, including long-life and a "death sense", which causes her irises to become black when someone nearby will die. She has been shown to be a whole lot stronger physically than a normal human, snapping iron locks and chains with her bare hands alone, and at one point throwing an airplane wing at an enemy.

She also possesses a high durability level as she was punched through a stone wall and merely shrugged off the experience. On another occasion she was shot at several times, which only slowed her down temporarily. She appears to be trained in combat as well.[3] When tapping into her full Banshee persona, Jeannette transforms into a black and white being, very similar to the Silver Banshee. Her high pitched scream causes those around her to relive her mortal death, causing those listening to either fall into a comatose state or die themselves.

• Jeannette at Comic Vine