Rapture (comics)
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Rapture (real name Sharona Jackson) is a fictional super heroine created by Erik Larsen for his Image Comics series Savage Dragon, she was inspired by, and named after The Knack's song My Sharona and debuted in a back-up feature in the forth issue of the Savage Dragon ongoing series, she was killed in issue 43.
Recently Dark Ages Minitures manufactured a large poster of Rapture, the second in a line of Savage Dragon posters (the first was of Mighty Man)
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[edit] Character History
[edit] Original Rapture
A prostitute in Chicago, Illinois Sharona Jackson, nicknamed Rapture even then, was unknowingly picked up by Dr Nirvana and old foe of the superhero Mighty Man, who was kidnapping people who he felt would not be missed and experimenting on them, his experiment on Sharona went awry and while it caused her to be able to produce electricity from her body, that energy shot out and accidentally left Nirvana in a coma (he was killed by his daughter some years later).
Because of the Savage Dragon's success, and because he was being loaned out to other police forces across America on such a regular basis, Police Captain Stewart started a 'freak force' programme to make a super-powered department of the Chicago Police Force. One of the candidates Ricochet, though to young to join herself, accidentally caught Rapture about to murder her abusive pimp Brian and managed to talk her out of killing him, only for Rapture to be forced to kill him to stop him shooting them. Ricochet suggested Rapture for Captain Stewart's scheme and she, along with the other candidates were accelerated through the police training academy.
Besides The Dragon, all members of the programme left the Chicago PD after they were forced to work under strict restrictions, including impracticle police uniforms, and founded super-powered bounty hunters Freak Force, this included Rapture who soon developed friendship with the child-like Horridus. she also began to date The Dragon. Rapture had been honest with the Dragon about her attractions to him from their first meeting and snuck into his room wearing only a raincoat to surprise him in bed, but this liaison was stopped by the sudden re-growth of Dragon's hand, severed in a recent battle, after a brief period of attempting to 'take it slow' the two became a lovers for over a year and fell in love, while loyal, sexual and doting Rapture could be a possessive and jealous lover leading her to be cruel to other women in Dragon’s life.
Rapture's leg was broken during a battle with The Cosmic Cops, intergalactic invaders who took over Manhattan Island after an old acquaintance of fellow Freak Force member Superpatriot drafted them into stopping the aliens for the U.S. Government. her broken leg meant she could not physically fight the rampaging villain Bludgeon, who badly injured a number of her team-mates, however it was Rapture who stopped the creature by brining the phenomenally strong Joey Finklebarr from prison to kill him.
In the final issue of the Star mini-series Rapture and Dragon learned that rock star Peter Klaptin had set up an elaborate scheme to convince people he was the vigilante Star (it was actually his Body Guard, Chris Robinson), while Dragon was Missing and Presumed dead Klaptin met with Rapture in a backroom of Dragon's Police Station and Rapture bribed him to keep his secret, in order to keep things secret Rapture fried the security camera half way through the transaction, this tape was later given to the Dragon, who assumed that the two had had sex, this lead in part to the break down of their relationship.
Behind the scenes Erik Larsen held a public vote for fans to decide if Dragon should accept or refuse Rapture's proposal of marriage in the series' 27th issue, they voted for him to refuse. When the Dragon did refuse, Rapture revealed she was pregnant then threw him out of her apartment for asking 'is it mine?' Dragon was then sent to hell by a villain called the Fiend and was missing for many months, during which Rapture went through her pregnancy. The baby was Dragons and had inherited his super-strength, after suffering internal damage from the baby's kicks she entered premature labour and gave birth before the Dragon, busy elsewhere, could arrive. The baby was taken by a shadowy organisation called the Covenant Of The Sword and became a long-running sub-plot not fully resolved for over 40 more issues, but Rapture and the Dragon both thought the baby had died, after this the two split permanently.
After being bridesmaid to Freak Force team-mates Barbaric and Ricochet, Rapture was killed by a time-travelling despot named Darklord during a mission with Special Operations Strikeforce. a government sponsored team The Dragon had formed to replace the MIA Youngblood. (behind the scenes Image Co-Founder Rob Liefeld had been voted out of the company by his fellow co-founders for alleged talent poaching and his characters, including Youngblood, had been phased out of the 'Image Universe') Darklord had sought to replace his 'Darkworld' an alternate version of Earth, with the Savage Dragon's earth, after he appeared to kill The Dragon and another S.O.S member Jennifer Murphy, Rapture insulted him and she was disintegrated by the villain's eye beams.
[edit] Later Raptures
While escaping the doomed Darkworld The Dragon did try to find that world's version of Rapture, but was distracted by finding the world's Debbie Harris, another old girlfriend who was shot and killed in his apartment, and just missed her, Rapture's remains and that world's Rapture were destroyed when Darkworld exploded. Rapture appeared to return, her consciousness supposedly transferred into a old prostitute friend of hers who joined the S.O.S as 'Lightning' but this was revealed to be a shape-shifted Covenant Of The Sword operative called Imposter, who would later be killed by accident posing as the Jennifer Murphy, then the Dragon's fiancé.
A Rapture from another time-line was taken from her alternate reality by Damian Darklord, an infant time traveller that would later become Darklord and kill the first Rapture, to raise Rapture and Dragon's son Malcolm who was in there care.
After issue 75, the Savage Dragon series takes place on a different earth, nick-named the 'Savage World', the previous earth was destroyed in issue 103, and everyone on it, with the exception of a few characters including Rapture's son Malcolm, were killed when it was, this included the Rapture taken from the Alternate reality, who was raising Malcolm in Dragon's absence in the Special Operations Strikeforce complex there.
In the 'Savage World' Ricochet did not stop Rapture from killing her pimp in cold blood, and Rapture became insane afterwards, Dragon fought this version of Rapture not long after arriving on that Earth, in the two year gap between issues 96 and 97 this Rapture became destitute, fat and repulsive, foraging food from bins. Like other Freak Force characters Barbaric and Ricochet Rapture has since been phased out of the book and the main cast, and has not appeared since issue 115 in a tongue-in-cheek Freak Force story.
[edit] Trivia
- Dragon and Rapture first met in pages drawn exclusively for the Savage Dragon: A Force To Be Reckoned With collection, because the pages were not printed elsewhere, it caused confusion among many fans about when it happened.
- Rapture's revealing costume is kept in place by static electricity she produces.
[edit] See Also
[edit] References
- Freak Force 6
- SavageDragon.com - Official site
