Jung-La
Jung-La was the superhero identity eventually adopted by a young woman from Reality Z-25 31-H who had previously been a country Sheriff, only to become disillusioned with “the system” after an adventure with the Odds helped her realise that her subordinates were corrupt and had been deceiving her on the matter for ages.
Description
Physical appearance
Jung-La was a fit young woman with pale skin, curly blond hair and green eyes. She had a few freckles and a small, slightly up-turned nose. (COMIC: Road Trip Of No Return) In her superhero persona, she kept her hair loose and incongruously wore a typical jungle-heroine “fur bikini” in lieu of an outfit. She also had a small knife on the right side of her belt, and a pendant resembling a small fang or claw. (COMIC: Season of the Witch)
Personality
Jung-La was inquisitive and bold. As a Sheriff, although naive about the virtues of the system, she was not especially concerned with strict protocol, notably finding excuses to stray from routine patrols for more “fun” outings even when she didn't actually expect her detours to lead to the discovery of any real threat or crime. (COMIC: Road Trip Of No Return) She had something of an existential crisis after losing her faith in the police, but remained committed to her ideals of justice as she enforced them through her superheroic exploits, constantly taking great personal risks without a second thought in service of her principles. (COMIC: Season of the Witch)
Powers & abilities
Even before adopting her superhero identity, she displayed surprising ease with acrobatics. (COMIC: Road Trip Of No Return) As Jung-La, she leveraged these and portable, adhesive vines to swing from building to building in New York City as a Tarzan type might do from tree to tree. She also displayed considerable strength in her struggle with Hexia, as well as a high resistance to pain born of her moral resolve, thinking nothing of jumping through a glass window despite her supremely non-protective outfit. (COMIC: Season of the Witch)
Biography
As a Sheriff
When the Odds first came across the young woman who would later become Jung-La, she was a country sheriff. She happened upon Captain Evening while on a patrol with Ben and Bill and, despite his outlandish story about travelling with a skeleton, a griffin and an immortal knight, agreed to help him look for them because it sounded like more fun than continuing her patrol with Ben and Bill.
She soon discovered the truth of the Captain's claims when they realised a nearby house was being used as the headquarters of a drug-dealing operation set up by Ben and Bill themselves, and that they were the ones who had knocked out and abducted the other three Odds to stop them meddling. Though captured themselves, the Captain and the Sheriff managed to free themselves and subdue the bad guys. The Sheriff was shaken by the realisation that her subordinates had been hiding such blatant corruption from her, however; going for a midnight swim with the Odds to try and relax, she got some life advice from Captain Evening, who, for his part, decided to follow it himself by ending the Odds' road trip there and returning to New York City. (COMIC: Road Trip Of No Return)
Becoming Jung-La
Heartbroken at having been blind to her coworkers' covert criminal activities, the former Sheriff grew disillusioned with conventional police forces' ability to implement her idealistic notion of justice. Instead, inspired by the Odds, she crafted a superheroic persona for herself as “Jung-La, Fierce Female Fury” — donning an outfit and arsenal inspired by classic jungle-heroes, but adapted to the “urban jungle” instead of literal rainforest environments. She moved to New York City and began plying her superheroic trade just in time for the witch Hexia's attack on the Channel 6 studios, during which she kidnapped the entire crew of Hero Hour, including special guest du jour Captain Evening.
It was the other Odds who rescued the Captain and freed the hostages, but they proved unable to pursue when Hexia slipped away to the roof and commandeered a helicopter; instead, with no thought to her own safety, Jung-La swung in on a vine and crashed into the cockpit of the helicopter, snagging Hexia in her arms and then crashing out again on the other side. Panicking, Hexia used a vanishing spell to disappear from Jung-La's grip and reappear aboard the aircraft; startled, Jung-La lost her grip on the vine and fell, but was caught by the freed Captain Evening on his Skycicle. She had sufficiently delayed Hexia for Merv the Griffin and Armstrong Fatbuckle to catch up with the helicopter and capture her. Subsequently, the Captain recognised Jung-La from their prior encounter and, admiring her prowess, suggested she join the Odds, an offer she enthusiastically accepted. (COMIC: Season of the Witch)
Among the Odds
At the time of Kate Five's second visit to the Fortress of Evening, she, like the other Odds (save Armstrong), was lounging on the roof of the Fortress, preparing to play a game of strip poker with her friends. Kate, who was under the control of her evil symbiote at the time, persuaded them to play a drinking game instead, using a bottle of alcohol that she'd secretly drugged. With all the other teammembers unconscious, it fell to Centennia to defeat Kate Five with the help of Armstrong's disembodied arm. After she did so and all the other Odds were awoken, Jung-La and Merv took it upon themselves to hunt for the symbiote itself, which had been dismissed from Kate's body by Centennia and had subsequently fled. They were unsuccessful in locating it, however, and it ambushed Kate and possessed her again just after she left the Odds' company intent on returning home to make amends. (COMIC: Symbiote Surprise)
| Recurring elements of The Cosmic Beholder | ||||||||||
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