CHESHIRE

Real Name: Jade Nguyen

Class: Human villain

Occupation: Assassin

Group Affiliation: Titans III, formerly Tartarus, Secret Six III

Known Relatives: Tommy Blake (son), Andre Chaumont (father), Luke Chaumont (brother), Kruen Musenda (husand, deceased), Lian Harper (daughter, deceased), Anna Nguyen (mother)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Hong Kong, formerly Vietnam

First Appearance: New Teen Titans Annual I #2 (1983)

Powers: Chesire was incredible fast and a skilled fighter in several forms of martial arts. She was triple-jointed, making her a skilled acrobat and contortionist. She wore razor-sharp artificial nails coated in a powerful toxin.

History: (New Teen Titans Annual vol. 1 #2)-Cheshire was separated from her parents at age ten and sold into slavery. She killed her master and vowed that no one would ever control her again. She was unofficially adopted by Weng Chan, a former member of the Blackhawks. She learned martial arts from Chan, and later learned mercenary arts when she married Kruen Musenda, the Spitting Cobra. Cheshire became an assassin who will kill anyone for the right price, though she would later kill her employer if she deemed her mission personally distasteful. She was hired by mob boss Anthony Scarapelli to kill the Teen Titans. She failed, but did manage to evade capture.

(New Teen Titans vol. 2 #20, 21)-Speedy II went undercover to bring Cheshire to justice, but soon found himself falling for her. They had a brief relationship, and Speedy left her rather then be forced to turn her over to the authorities. Months later Cheshire gave birth to a daughter, Lian. Cheshire was captured by the Titans when she tried to sabatoge an international arms meeting. She revealed the existence of her child, and allowed Speedy to become Lian's legal guardian.

(Deathstroke #17-20)-Cheshire acquires nuclear weapons, and after bombing the country of Quarac she threatens to bomb more countries if not given a fortune. Deathstroke and Speedy foil this plan, but Cheshire escapes.

(Secret Origins of Super-Villains 80-Page Giant #1) - When Vandal Savage formed Tartarus to destroy the Titans Cheshire invited herself onto the team, telling them they couldn’t defeat the Titans without her.

(Batman Plus #1) - A group of Quraci nationals were willing to pay big money for Cheshire for the nuclear attack she inflicted on their country. KGBeast had his men take Cheshire's daughter Lian Harper hostage, and forced Cheshire to do his bidding, setting up a dropoff with the nationals at Gotham's Eagle Airfield. Arsenal learned that KGBeast had Cheshire, and enlisted Batman's help to save her. Gotham arms dealer Gustave Erhard recently received a shipment of cybernetic parts that KGBeast would need to maintain his body, so they went to see him. KGBeast was there, ready to kill Erhard to keep his presence secret, but he eagerly shot at Batman, looking forward to taking his life. A crane on Gustave's compound knocked out Arsenal, and Batman had to save him from a fall, allowing KGBeast to escape. At the airfield Checkmate, also after the Beast and Cheshire, made their move, but only resulted in slightly delaying KGBeast before he boarded the Quracui's plane. The plane exploded, but Batman suspected he'd blown it up himself, knowing his cyborg body could survive it. Arsenal had spotted "Cheshire," but she was wearing a wedding ring, and already dead, so he knew she wasn't the real deal. Batman suggested that Cheshire and KGBeast were working together, and Batman located KGBeast's bunker in the sewers. It was laced with explosives, but the heroes survived. Cheshire deposited the money KGBeast received in her Zurich account, and Batman and Arsenal found her there. Arsenal took out KGBeast with a taser when he stepped in a puddle, and Cheshire revealed that KGBeast was forcing her to cooperate. Nightwing saved Lian, and Arsenal thanked Cheshire for keeping Lian alive, but he still had to arrest her.

(Identity Crisis #2) - Cheshire attended one of the supervillain community's semi-regular gatherings at the Injustice Gang's old satellite headquarters.

(Titans: Villains For Hire Special #1) - Cheshire was consumed by her daughter’s death. And grew sloppy in her job. After botching a hit, the target started hunting her. Deathstroke assembled a team of assassins that he named the Titans. He chose metas with recent personal tragedies, and approached Cheshire, saving her from killers in Bucharest, and offering her a way out of her situation. The Titans were hired by serial killer Dwarfstar to kill the Atom Ryan Choi, and ambushed him at home. Deathstroke stood back and watched as his team tore into the hero, but allowed Atom a brief respite when his girlfriend Amanda knocked at his front door, so he could convince her to go away. Atom was grateful, and Deathstroke assured him that killing him was just business, they weren't looking to harm anyone else. Atom fled to his basement ant tried to activate his JLA signal, but the Titans had disabled it. The Titans wore him down, and Deathstroke made it clear he was about to die, and commended him for not begging. Deathstroke killed him with a sword through his stomach, and delivered Atom's corpse in a matchbox to Dwarfstar. Back at their headquarters Deathstroke chastised his Titans for not working better as a team. Osiris told him they weren't worthy of the heroic mantle Titans, and Deathstroke told him that he had personal reasons for naming them after the heroes he so despised.

(Titans II #24, 25) - Tattooed Man and Cheshire went on a Titans mission to take digital schematics from Deftech Industries, but were attacked by assassins in the service of Drago. They defeated them, but Cheshire refused to tell Tattooed Man why they were after her. At the Titans hq Labyrinth Slade watched a fight between Cinder and Osiris. He scoffed that he was working with broken humans, but vowed to mold them into what he wanted. He assembled the Titans and told thewm they’d been assigned to kill Lex Luthor, who’d been reappointed head of LexCorp. In truth Deathstroke had been hired by Lex to ferret out the LexCorp members that wanted him dead, but he needed the threat on his life to seem genuine. The Titans attacked Lex, and after Cinder blew up Lex‘s limo he was forced to flee to the sewers with his LexCorp board members and his bodyguard, and his bodyguard revealed herself as Façade, a LexCorp project set loose on him by the board members to eliminate him. The Titans were angry at Deathstroke for having to lied about the nature of their mission, and Osiris attacked Deathstroke, but was easily put down. The mutinous LexCorp board members Cooper, Dyson and Monroe were killed, and Façade shape shifted into Cheshire in an attempt to escape, but Deathstroke simply shot both him and Cheshire. Cheshire recovered in the Titans medical bay, and Deathstroke accused her of being weak. He reminded her that he saved her from Drago, a target that ended up becoming her boss. She tried to claw at Deathstroke, but he subdued her, and was happy to see her acting more in character after he pushed her.

(Titans II #26, 27) - Cheshire visited Lian’s grave, promising that the world would pay for her daughter’s death, and met with Arsenal, telling him he owed her for letting their daughter die on his watch. She was ashamed that he’d relapsed into drug addiction, but he didn’t want to hear what she had to say. She told him she planned on killing Deathstroke, and to further her goal she had him join the Titans. The Titans took a job to rescue the son of millionaire Christopher Bockman. His son had been kidnapped by Elijah, who used the innocence of children to manufacture the drug Bliss. Jade and Tattooed Man posed as investors, and Elijah showed them his facility where he processed Bliss. The Titans made their move, and Elijah defended himself with his hired met humans, the Dominators. Arsenal found the harvesting chamber where Elijah kerpt the children, but also discovered that it contained a fail-safe that killed any child he tried to free. Arsenal cut the power to the harvesting pods, saving most of the children, and the Titans defeated the Dominators. Osiris lost control of his power and killed Elijah. Deathstroke furthered his master plan by stealing a sample of Bliss and abducting the Dominator DJ Molecule. Arsenal was strung out after the fight with the Dominators, and Cheshire hid his heroin. She took his mind off drugs by making love to him.

(Titans II #28-30) - Deathstroke was hired to liberate Allegra Garcia from Arkham Asylum, and he bribed a guard to allow his Titans the run of the asylum for the night. Arsenal wanted to find the Joker and kill him, but his idea was nixed. Cheshire realized he was high on the job, and was furious with him. Osiris satyed with the guard, and was convinced he needed to keep killing to save Isis. The guard warned him that he was no stranger to a double-cross, and had a device that would release every prisoner from their cell. Osiris killed him anyway, but the guard hit the switch before dying, and the rest of the Titans had to fight off Arkham’s lunatics. Osiris decided not to help them because they hadn’t shown him the proper respect. Deathstroke entered Allegra’s cell, but was halted by Batman. Allegra suddenly decided she didn’t want to go with Deathstroke and unleashed her electromagnetic powers. Deathstroke had convinced Allegra he was on her side, and had her use her electromagnetic powers to disable the Arkham inmates security collars. Deathstroke told them they were free to play with Batman, and they allowed the Titans and Allegra to leave. Deathstroke reunited Allegra with her father in the Amazon, but she resented her dad for abandoning her, and used her powers to kill him. She told Deathstroke she wanted to join the Titans, but he told her to grow up first. At Titans Labyrinth the team grumbled about losing Osiris. Deathstroke admitted that he understood that they were getting impatient in him holding up his end of the bargain to help them. He revealed that he’d kidnapped Slipknot, the man that killed Tattooed Man’s son Leon, and had him bound so Tattooed Man could do whatever he wanted to him.

(Titans II #31, 32) - Cheshire and the Titans faith was restored in Deathstroke after seeing him fulfill his promise to the Tattooed Man. Deathstroke told him to take his revenge, and directed him to one of the levels of the Labyrinth where Sklipknot was. By the time he arrived Slipknot was no longer in captivity; Deathstroke knew he’d never forgive himself if he killed a defenseless man. The Titans asked Deathstroke what he’d do if Slipknot killed him, and he said he’d offer him a job. Tattooed Man and Slipknot fought, and Tattooed Man used a barbed wire tattoo to rip off Slipknot’s head, but with his vengeance complete he still didn’t feel like a hero. Tattooed Man told his team that he quit, and Slade warned him that he still owed him. Tattooed Man was sick of killing, and Cheshire encouraged him to walk out while he could, so he left. A disturbance in the Labyrinth led the team to Osiris’ quarters. Osiris had returned after stealing the thunder from Captain Marvel, bringing Isis back to life.

(Titans II #33-36) - Deathstroke wanted to fulfill his promise to Cheshire, and the Titans traveled to the South Pacific to deal with Cheshire’s former employee Drago. Drago had actually coerced Cheshire into getting close to Deathstroke, and she and Arsenal took the opportunity to wound Deathstroke. Drago’s men restrained Titan Cinder, and brought Deathstroke to their master. Deathstroke recognized Drago as Daniel Rogers, a soldier he’d served with, and abandoned in Afghanistan. Drago had vowed revenge since that day, and plucked out Deathstroke’s one good eye. Cheshire and Arsenal felt they’d fulfilled their promise to Drago, but he decided to change the terms, putting Arsenal in custody and telling Cheshire that he had everything a man could want except an heir, and demanding she give him one. Cheshire attacked Drago, and using his telepathy he realized she had a death wish, blaming herself for her daughter’s death and regretting the day she gave up Lian. She’d secretly hoped that Deathstroke would kill her before she killed him. Cheshire attacked Drago, and using his telepathy he realized she had a death wish, blaming herself for her daughter’s death and regretting the day she gave up Lian. She’d secretly hoped that Deathstroke would kill her before she killed him. Drago decided to make Deathstroke enlightened like he was. He dumped him in the caverns beneath his island, and told him to survive. The caverns were filled with the failed experiments of his second-in-command Dr. Rainn. Arsenal escaped captivity and freed Cinder. She killed Dr. Rainn, and agreed to trust Arsenal until the mission was over. Deathstroke’s eye healed, and he overcame Rainn’s Subhumans, and the Titans united to defeat Drago. Deathstroke was about to kill Drago, when Drago reminded him that he’d broken his promise in Afghanistan to never leave a man behind. Deathstroke spared his life, but made him promise to leave Cheshire alone. Cheshire was furious, but Deathstroke told her she lost the right to expect him to fulfill his promise to her after she stabbed him in the back. He told Cheshire and Arsenal that he’d call things even. He was not a forgiving man, but the Titans were almost done with their true goal. Reviving Jericho using the Methuselah Device. Arsenal tried to quit, but Deathstroke kept him in line by threatening him, and offering him another hit of Bliss. Arsenal realized he’d hit rock bottom. The Titans flew out of Drago’s airspace, and were confronted by the Justice League of America, who wanted Deathstroke to answer for his role in Atom Ryan Choi’s death.

(Titans Annual II #1) - Deathstroke showed the Justice League that his plane was equipped with a nuclear self-destruct system, and he’d rather destroy himself and them than surrender. The League backed off temporarily, and allowed the Titans to fly off. The Titans landed in Kahndaq, and Deathstroke once again sought Osiris as an ally, promising to restore Black Adam. The League followed the Titans to Kahndaq, and a battle erupted, with Osiris gleefully joining in, loving the violence. Tatooed Man rejoined the team, just as Deathstroke knew he would, and gave Slade the opportunity to stab Supergirl with a kryptonite sword created for him by Lex Luthor. The battle ravaged Kahndaq, and Isis had enough. She demonstrated her godlike powers, and banished the League from her country. She sent Osiris and the Titans off, telling her brother that he’d proved he was unfit to rule. The Titans returned to the Labyrinth, where Deathstroke showed them the Methuselah Device he‘d hired Sivana to build, capable of restoring health and youth. Supergirl’s blood was the last component, and Deathstroke hoped the device could restore Jericho to health. .

(Titans II #37, 38) - Deathstroke regenerated Jericho with the Methuselah Device, and told the Titans it wa theoretically possible to resurrect their dead loved ones if they agreed to keep following him and help him kill superheroes whose superior DNA would form the templates for the Methuselah Device to work. They all agreed, except for Cinder, who saw resurrecting the dead as an abomination. Arsenal went against Cheshire, and told her he valued the memory of their daughter more than the idea of resurrecting her. Cheshire saw his logic, but attacked him, telling him nothing would stop her from getting her daughter back. Cinder tried to destroy the Device, and the Titans brawled. Jericho was horrified; he blamed himself for the mayhem Deathstroke committed to heal him, and decided it was time to finally take responsibility for both of their lives. He possessed Deathstroke, and vowed to destroy the Device, and then himself and Slade. Cheshire, desperate to have Lain back, attacked Jericho and broke his control over his father. Cinder set off a chain reaction inside the Device, causing her apparent death, and destroying the machine. All the Titans except for Deathstroke and Osiris escaped, and Arsenal wanted to know if they’d be interested in being heroes. Cheshire told him she’d never forgive him, and Tattooed Man just wanted to go home, but Jericho and Arsenal decided to revive their friendship and take things one day at a time

Comments: Created by George Perez & Marv Wolfman

Cheshire received profiles in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #4 and Who's Who in the DC Universe #12.

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