Jack Spicer (Xiaolin Showdown)
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Jack Spicer is a villain in the animated television series Xiaolin Showdown. He is voiced by Danny Cooksey.
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[edit] Character synopsis
Jack Spicer is a self-proclaimed "evil boy genius" who freed the witch Wuya from her puzzle box prison — which Jack's father sent him from Hong Kong — thereby setting off the events that underlie Xiaolin Showdown. Since the release of Wuya, Jack has been after the legendary Shen Gong Wu for the purpose of world domination, constantly facing the Xiaolin monks but losing the majority of battles. He was the primary villain to the series until Chase Young was introduced. During seasons two and three with the advent of new competent villains, as well as the level of skill and powers the Xiaolin Warriors gain, Jack largely played the role of a comic relief character than a true villain; however, he has displayed extensive expertise in the fields of robotics, mechanics, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, engineering, metallurgy and to a certain extent, military tactics.
[edit] Appearance
Jack Spicer is about as tall as Raimundo, perhaps an inch or two higher. He has red hair, pale skin and red eyes. He wears makeup on his face in the form of black eyeliner under his eyes. He is usually seen wearing black clothing with a black overcoat, and a torn red sleeveless shirt with a simple Frankenstein drawing underneath.Coincidentally, he wears goggles that match Wuya's eyes (when she is a ghost) as well as a helicopter backpack that resembles her masked face, which he claims his grandmother gave to him when he became "evil". He is rarely seen out of these clothes. During a brief period where Jack lost his evil chi and he joined the Xiaolin monks, he wore a blue sweater vest over a short-sleeve white shirt and red tie along with white pants and sneakers, as well as slicking his hair back in a preppy fashion. Oddly enough, he still wore makeup under his eyes during that brief period.
[edit] Character personality
The stereotypical evil supervillain is one of the things that Jack aspires to. He is vain about his intelligence and has a penchant for lengthy taunts and theatrics. He has even told Wuya several times to be quiet while he gloats. Despite his professed evil nature, he cannot fit this stereotype, try as he might. Jack is inept at villainy; is afraid of the dark; lives in his parents' basement; has a fear of clowns and of being flushed down (or maybe just simply having to flush) the toilet; goes all to pieces if he's away from his mother for more than a day; is easily bossed around by his little cousin Megan; and is constantly referred to as a whiny momma's boy. He screams in a feminine tone when frightened, which happens constantly.
One display Jack's cowardice was when he interrogated the parrot in "Bird of Paradise". The parrot repeated everything he said, making Jack promise to tell the parrot anything it wants, and cry. Regardless, there are times when Jack can occasionally display flashes of cunning and ruthlessness that surprise his enemies and allies alike. He has a penchant for building vast armies of robot minions to serve under his abilities. However, towards the end of the series, his seemingly inexhaustible supply of parts had run dry, leaving him with little to no robots left. This occurred only after Wuya abandoned him for Chase Young, which means Wuya could possibly have been the one supplying Jack with parts.
He looks up to stronger, evil characters as role models, particularly Chase Young and in season 3, Hannibal Roy Bean. Jack has a sort of "fanboy" attitude toward his role models, especially Chase Young, as he constantly tries to win his acceptance and place as an evil partner while Chase disregards him. But even for the respect he holds, Jack won't back down on opportunities to take control when given the chance, as he once trapped Chase Young in the Sphere of Yun and taking control of his powers and imprisoning Hannibal, Wuya, and Chase in one of the timelines in "Time After Time". At one point he joined the Xiaolin Monks in order to defeat Wuya (when she gained her human form along with her full powers) because he stated he can't rule the world if Wuya is already ruling it.
Usually arguing with each other and Wuya constantly frustrated and scolding Jack's amatuerishness and loss of the Shen Gong Wu. After Wuya tried to reclaim Jack's partnership after she first replaced him with Mala Mala Jong, Jack turned her down and called her "obsolete", no longer needing her to track down Shen Gong Wu with the new invention of the Detecto-Bot device. On the contrary, when Wuya left Jack Spicer for Chase Young during the second season, he showed severe withdrawal symptoms and went as far as creating a life-sized robot version of Wuya form to keep him company. Likewise, Wuya quickly became jealous when Jack attempted to form a "super evil alliance" with Chase and has referred to him as "her fool" in The Last Temptation of Raimundo. But when Wuya returns to her human form and leaves Jack again for Chase Young and Hannibal Bean, this relationship is lost, and Wuya doesn't hesistate on using her physical strength on Jack. The one time they had temporarily partnered up during "The Treasure of the Blind Swordsman", they didn't bicker as much as before, as Wuya was capable of doing things herself without the need of Jack's assistance.
Jack often takes the powers of Shen Gong Wu very lightly, first applying them his own amusement; for example, he once played with the Lunar Locket to make the moon move around as he shouted, "I'm ruler of the moon! Look at it dance!" In which Wuya then said "Stop playing with the moon Jack. It's not a toy." Also, when he first got his hands on the Emperor Scorpion, instead of immediately ordering the Fearsome Four to attack the Xiaolin Dragons, he preferred to toy with them for a short while first (starting by making them laugh evilly, then doing so again while hopping on one foot, and then again while performing an Irish Jig), subsequently due to the fact that his first attempt of making Mala Mala Jong obey his commands failed since the Scorpion hadn't revealed itself yet.
His favorite Shen Gong Wu appears to be the Monkey Staff because it is the only Shen Gong Wu he did not trade to PandaBubba in exchange for parts to build his Yes-Bot, but he has seemed to show liking for the Reversing Mirror, Jet Bootsu, and Third Arm Sash seeing as whenever he's had them, he's wagered them and used them often.
He appears to have mellowed out as the series has gone on. While he has always been a cowardly a humorous character, in the series first season he was portrayed as a fearsome adversary (causing Kimiko in the second episode "Like A Rock" to remark "Whoa, Jack's on fire!" during a Xiaolin Showdown), and in the same episode, Raimundo seemed afraid after finding him attempting a sneak attack. Dojo feared to take him on in the episode, "The Sapphire Dragon," in which he remarked "Me? Go after him?" In seasons two and three, however, as more powerful villains have entered the picture, he has been reduced to a less fearsome threat and more of a comic relief.
While Jack has decidedly inveterated into the path of evil, his character is seemingly on the borderline between good and evil. The reason he tries so hard and persists in being evil is because, as revealed in a showdown in "The Apprentice", he feels small and worthless, and is afraid to fail at evil just as he has failed at good. In that same episode before the showdown, Jack joined the Xiaolin monks (to Omi's delight and persistance) after Robo-Jack took over his lair, thinking he had already failed at evil and considered Omi's thought that the path of good might actually be Jack's true calling. Though he betrayed them, it's revealed that though Jack claims he was planning on turning on them all along, he actually did try to change.
Jack's "evil" persona only seems to be brought forth when tempted by the existence of Shen Gong Wu or by opportunites of gaining power and control. In "The Apprentice", tempted by the Shen Gong Wu that lay in the open before him, Jack betrayed the Xiaolin monks on the spot and stole the Shen Gong Wu. And in a rare moment of Jack's character at the ending of "Citadel of Doom", when seeing Omi's disappointment in Jack leaving the Xiaolin warriors he offered that maybe when they weren't chasing after Shen Gong Wu they could go out for ice cream, on Jack's treat.
Despite his constant failures and clumsy character, it has been implied on occasion that Jack does have the potential to be the powerful evil villain he aspires to be. In the episode "The Life & Times of Hannibal Roy Bean," Jack introduces himself to Hannibal Bean in awe: "Jack Spicer, big fan of your work. One day I want to be as evil as you" to which Hannibal remarks, "Well ain't you sweet. You will ... once you overcome your fears." However, almost contradicting this, Jack denies being afraid of anything, to which Hannibal retorts "You sleep with a night light, you're scared of clowns, and you have panic attacks when you're away from your momma for more than one day." When Jack asks how he knows all this, Hannibal says "It's apparent to me that you are just one generation away from good. That's why you work so hard to prove you're *chortle* evil". On one of the timelines in "Time after Time" (specifically, the one where Omi freezes himself and therefore completely removes himself from history), Jack actually -does- take over the world, tremendously upgrading his robots and weapons, although one of the standard Jackbots was destroyed by Old Kimiko (while using the Denshi Bunny) , successfully stealing and keeping on to any Shen Gong Wu that Omi didn't already have on him, and imprisoning everyone, including Wuya, Hannibal Bean, and Chase Young.
[edit] Character history
Jack has wanted to take over the world since second grade.
Jack Spicer released the Heylin witch Wuya from her prison. From then on, Wuya guided him to the Shen Gong Wu so he could collect them and use their power to achieve his goal of world conquest. His attempts usually end in failure causing Wuya to leave him in favor of Mala Mala Jong, and later Raimundo. During Wuya's temporary reign with Raimundo, he helped the Xiaolin Monks defeat her. After her defeat, Wuya went back to helping Jack for a while, and then left him to join Katnappe. Then she rejoined Jack, then left him for good to join Chase Young. Jack has occasionally expressed interest in regarding the Xiaolin Warriors as friends, that is, when they are not hunting Shen Gong Wu.
Jack has formed several other allliances other than Wuya. In "Like A Rock", he allowed Le Mime to join his team, after learning that he was particularly a "magic mime". In "Shen Yi Bu", Jack hired Tubbimura to get a Shen Gong Wu as test to see if he was worthy enough to win the role of Jack's minion. Vlad was introduced in "The Crystal Glasses", tricking the monks into thinking he was good and taking their Wu, and the Heylin Seed, given by Jack the name Gigi, who later betrayed him and sought to dominate the world. Chase Young has allowed Jack to side up with him a few times, but only for his own benefit, such as to distract the Xiaolin monks or locate Wuya. The last time Jack partnered up with him was when Chase Young threw him to a dinosaur in "Oil in the Family".
Jack had turned to the side of good once and joined the monks after his Robo-Jack changed the locks on his evil lair. However, it did not last very long. After a battle against Katnappe, she lost all the Shen Gong Wu she stole from to the monks, and Jack ran off with them. Jack claims that he was going to deceive them the entire time, but a Xiaolin Showdown revealed later in the episode that he actually did try to become good.
During Chase Young's plan to force Omi to the Heylin side, Jack accidentally used two Shen Gong Wu called the Yin Yo-yo and the Reversing Mirror to Yin-Yang World; when he left the Ying-Yang world, the reversing mirror cancelled out the Yang Yo-yo, causing Jack's evil chi to be left behind. Left with only his good chi, Jack genuinely defected to the Xiaolin monks during that time. His personality took a drastic change; he was overly happy, much less of a coward, and took great risks to help the Xiaolin monks in battle. When the Chi creature stole the monks' Chi however, he willingly returned to the Yin-Yang world intent on returning it, knowing he would be evil again once he returned. He did express sorrow towards being evil and asked to be remembered for how he was and not how he would be afterwards. He used the Ring of The Nine Dragons to split into two people; one good Jack staying behind to fight the Chi Creature while the other retrieved the chi of the monks stolen by the creature. One of the Jacks returned, although his chi was reversed back to evil. He was defeated by Dojo (who imprisoned him in the Sphere of Yun) and the stolen chi was returned.
Later on, Jack also played a major, if inadvertent role in freeing the demon Hannibal Roy Bean from imprisonment in the Yin-Yang World, reuniting with his good chi when the Xiaolin Monks took the Ring of The Nine Dragons from him.
Jack is later a victim of the Sapphire Dragon as his robots were turned to sapphire. He then tries to retrieve the Shadow Slicer from a monkey cage at the zoo. Later events have Jack teaming up with Wuya and Cyclops after all three get swindled by Dojo's dragon friend, Chucky Choo, teaming up with Hannibal Roy Bean and getting turned into a zombie by the Zing Zom-Bone, and even playing a part in the monks' plan to stop Hannibal Roy Bean, Wuya and Chase Young.
In the series finale, Omi and Dojo froze themselves 80 years into the future and were surprised to learn that Jack Spicer had taken over the world, holding everyone prisoner along with the Xiaolin and Heylin side. When they go back in time and create an alternate timeline, Jack returned to being Good Jack and joined the monks, at the time farmers, and helped create a diversion for the them when trying to escape from from Chase Young's cats while inside the Heylin lair. At the end of the episode when everything was restored in order, Good Jack returned to regular Jack and returned to evil.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Official Site for Xiaolin Showdown
- Official Site for Xiaolin Showdown TCG (licensed by Wizards of the Coast)
- Xiaolin Showdown at TV.com
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| Characters |
| Omi | Raimundo | Kimiko | Clay | Dojo | Dashi Jack Spicer | Wuya | Chase Young | Hannibal Roy Bean |
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| Shen Gong Wu |
| Season One | Season Two | Season Three |
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| List of episodes Trading Card Game | Video game |
