Jean Loring
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Jean Loring is a fictional character from DC Comics. She first appeared in Showcase #34 (September-October 1961), created by Gardner Fox and Gil Kane. Jean was one of the few female supporting characters of the Silver Age not obsessed with trapping her man in either of his identities (as opposed to someone like Lois Lane).
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[edit] Character history
[edit] Lawyer, wife
Jean Loring's career as an attorney in Ivy Town began at almost the same time that her boyfriend, Ray Palmer, became the Atom. Jean encountered the Atom who often helped in her cases many times before learning that he and Ray were the same person. Several adventures together ultimately led to their marriage. For a few short years, they were happy – then Ray’s adventurous life began taking its toll on their marriage and they divorced.
Despite the occasional high-profile case, notably her one-time defense of the Justice League of America, Jean did not truly come to national prominence until the divorce. Jean soon re-married and with her new husband, Paul Hoben, opened up a law office in Calvin City. She eventually returned to Ivy Town without him and established the firm of Grabemann, Loring and Ross. In general, Jean was not involved in criminal law anymore and attended to more mundane matters such as the administration of the estates of Carter Hall and David Clinton. She made exceptions, though, as in her defense of Risk of the Teen Titans.
[edit] Mental breakdown
Recently, Jean suffered a mental breakdown as revealed in the controversial Identity Crisis miniseries. Wanting to resume her relationship with Ray, she believed that the surest way to do this would be to endanger another loved one of a hero, sending all of the superheroes running back to their spouses and other relatives (including Ray). Using one of Ray's old costumes, she shrunk herself and attempted to cause a minor stroke in Sue Dibny (the Elongated Man's wife), but accidentally applied too much pressure to Dibny's brain, killing her.
Panicking, she faked an attack on her own life and set up Captain Boomerang to attack Jack Drake. Loring left a gun for Drake so he would be able to kill Boomerang in self-defense, leading everyone to believe that Boomerang had been the killer. Unfortunately, Drake was also killed, leaving his son Tim Drake (Robin III) an orphan.
As she had originally planned, during all the trauma Ray returned to her. However, she accidentally gave herself away by revealing information on the Boomerang/Drake murders, something that only the killer would have known. Ray had to have her institutionalized at Arkham Asylum.
[edit] Eclipso
[edit] Infinite Crisis
While she was institutionalized, the supernatural entity known as Eclipso manipulated her into being his new host so she could seduce the Spectre into destroying all of the magical beings in the DC universe (see Day of Vengeance).
Thanks to Eclipso's actions, the Spectre went on a mass-murdering rampage, killing over 700 magicians. With all their lives in danger, a group of mystics banded together, forming the Shadowpact. Planning on stopping the Spectre, they recruited Black Alice, a girl who had the ability to steal a person's magical powers for a short amount of time (leaving the being powerless in the process).
The Shadowpact plotted to use Black Alice's power to strip the Spectre of his own, leaving him defenseless. Then, in the window of time left open, the Shadowpact would kill the Spectre and defeat Eclipso before the two could complete their war on magic. However the plan hit a snag, as without his powers the Spectre was nothing but an empty spirit, leaving him unharmable.
During her brief possession of the Spectre's powers, Black Alice used them to help fellow Shadowpact member Nightshade send Eclipso into a perpetual orbit around the sun, weakening Eclipso's powers. However, Eclipso's incapacitation did not help the Shadowpact with the Spectre, who continued to wreak havoc and ended up killing the ancient wizard Shazam.
After the Spectre killed Nabu, the last and most powerful of the Lords of Order, the Presence's attention was finally drawn to him, and the Spectre was once again forced into a human host, finally stopping his mad rampage.
[edit] 52
In Week Twenty-Seven of 52, Ralph Dibny - accompanied by the helmet of Dr. Fate - approaches the Spectre as part of his quest to restore his wife Sue to life, promising to fulfil any bargain demanded of him in order to accomplish this. The Spectre, desiring revenge on Eclipso but rendered incapable of taking it owing to his lack of a host (the Spectre had given Crispus a year to be by himself before he became his new host), orders Dibny to punish Eclipso in return for his wife's life; Dibny, intending to punish his wife's murderer and temporarily granted the power of the Spectre, takes Eclipso back to the point at which she (as Jean Loring) murdered his wife and, restoring Jean's sanity, intends to trap her in a permanent time loop and force her to watch herself murder Sue Dibny over and over for all eternity.
Her sanity restored, a terrified Loring tearfully begs for forgiveness, screaming that she loved Sue and that she was crazy when she killed her. Dibny, affected by her pleas, his sense of compassion and his own feelings on watching his wife's death, finds himself incapable of such ruthlessness and refuses to complete his pact with the Spectre, returning Eclipso to her orbit around the sun, and moving on to find another being with whom he could accomplish his goals.
