| Character Name: | Jessica Cruz |
| Converted: | y |
| Publisher: | DC Comics |
| Debut: | Cameo appearance: Green Lantern #20 Cameo appearance proper: Justice League #30 Full appearance: Justice League #31 |
| Creators: | Geoff Johns Ethan Van Sciver |
| Full Name: | Jessica Viviana Cruz |
| Species: | Human |
| Alliances: | Green Lantern Corps Justice League Justice League Odyssey |
| Aliases: | Green Lantern Power Ring |
| Subcat: | DC Comics |
| Hero: | yq+sortkey = Cruz, Jessica Angela Cruz Edwards Morhe |
Jessica Cruz, one of the characters known as Green Lantern, is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, she is a member of the Green Lantern Corps and Justice League, as well as the first female human Green Lantern. Her first full appearance takes place in Justice League (vol. 2) #31 (August 2014), which is also her first cover appearance. Cruz currently operates out of Portland, Oregon.[1] [2] [3]
The character made her cinematic debut in the animated film DC League of Super-Pets, voiced by Dascha Polanco.
Jessica Cruz's name is mentioned and her right hand appears briefly in a single panel of the 2013 issue Green Lantern #20. Her next appearance comes in Justice League (vol. 2) #30, when the Ring of Volthoom locates her, and she then gains her powers in the following issue. She was dubbed "Power Ring" while she was host to the Ring of Volthoom but is not a member of Crime Syndicate of America.[4] Jessica becomes an official member of the Green Lantern Corps, in the Prime Earth reality, at the end of The Darkseid War storyline.[5]
Jessica Cruz and her friends were on a hunting trip when they accidentally stumble across two men burying a body. The men brutally murder her friends, and Jessica escapes, but is left severely traumatized. The Ring of Volthoom, which feeds off fear and abandoned Power Ring after his death in Forever Evil, locates Jessica and forces her to wield it.[6]
Batman de-powers the ring after convincing Jessica to face her fears.[7] During the AMAZO Virus arc, Jessica succumbs to the effects of the virus, but is cured after Superman creates an antidote. Afterward, Hal Jordan returns to Earth to teach Jessica how to control her ring.
When Darkseid's daughter Grail arrives on Prime Earth, she attacks Jessica and uses her ring to open a portal to Earth-Three and summon the Anti-Monitor. In response, the Justice League frees the Crime Syndicate to assist them. Volthoom possesses Jessica, but Cyborg briefly overrides him. Jessica sacrifices herself to subdue the Black Racer by enabling it to reap a soul. However, it is soon revealed that Volthoom was killed instead, destroying the ring. Immediately afterward, a Green Lantern ring appears and transforms Jessica into a new Green Lantern.
In Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1, Jessica meets Simon Baz as he is investigating an intrusion by a Manhunter. The events are revealed to be a training exercise run by Hal Jordan. He combines Jessica and Simon's power batteries to make them work together, inducts them into the Justice League, and puts them in charge of protecting Earth.
Jessica later temporarily dons the Phantom Ring, a prototype power ring that can channel the entire emotional spectrum, and overcomes her previous trauma.
She is later sent to space to train with the Green Lantern Corps and is under the orders of Guy Gardner, who pushes her around and berates her. However, he agrees to keep the events secret after she defeats him in combat.
Later, Jessica is assigned to monitor the Ghost Sector, a region consisting of recovered planets stolen by Coluans. While there, she encounters Cyborg, Starfire, and Azrael piloting a skullship commandeered from Brainiac in an attempt to enter the sector. Attempting to stop them, she finds herself trapped in the Ghost Sector alongside the others, and they work together to investigate the mysterious region of space as Justice League Odyssey.
Darkseid later kills Jessica and destroys her ring. However, the ring's fragments resurrect her and temporarily grant her enhanced powers.[8]
See main article: Power ring (DC Comics).
As a Green Lantern, Jessica is capable of projecting energy-based constructions, flight, and utilizing various other abilities through her power ring which are only limited by her imagination and willpower. Jessica's signature constructs are massive, intricate structures with an organic appearance similar to a giant alien flower. She initially experienced some trouble in creating constructs with the ring, requiring a period of intense concentration to generate larger constructs, but overcame this limitation while training with Simon Baz.
While Jessica was briefly a Power Ring, she initially had no control over the ring. Under the tutelage of Hal Jordan, she learns to overcome the evil powers within the Ring and use it effectively until Volthoom possesses her body. Her feelings of courage help Cyborg decipher the alien language of the ring, and he is able to let her overcome Volthoom's influence for a moment and jump between Black Racer and the Flash which ends up destroying Volthoom and the Ring, freeing Jessica.
Jessica is also an adept survivalist and was able to live by herself for three years. She was seen wielding a shotgun with proficiency when she was able to hit the Ring of Volthoom and keep it at bay for a few moments before it made her its host.
Jessica's ring is partly fused with Volthoom's Travel Lantern, due to it being one of the first seven power rings created by the rogue Guardian Rami during Volthoom's first attack on Oa, ten billion years ago. It was the Travel Lantern that allowed Volthoom to make his initial journey to the past, and Jessica's ring connection to it also resulted in Jessica accidentally using the ring to send herself and Simon into the past to escape Volthoom, only to find themselves at the time of Volthoom's assault on Oa.
See also: Green Lantern in other media.