Rapture (comics)
| Rapture | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Image Comics |
| First appearance | Savage Dragon #4 |
| Created by | Erik Larsen |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Sharona Jackson |
| Team affiliations |
Special Operations Strikeforce Freak Force Chicago Police Department |
| Abilities | can generate electricity, usually in the form of fork lightning |
Rapture, real name Sharona Jackson, is a fictional superhero created by Erik Larsen for his Image Comics series Savage Dragon. Rapture was inspired by, and named after. The Knack's song My Sharona. She first appeared in a back-up feature in ongoing series Savage Dragon issue 4 and was killed in issue 43.
Dragon and Rapture first met in pages drawn exclusively for the Savage Dragon: A Force To Be Reckoned With collection. The pages were not printed elsewhere, which caused confusion among many fans about when it happened. Dark Ages Miniatures manufactured a large poster of Rapture, the second in a line of Savage Dragon posters.
Character history
Origins
Sharona Jackson is a prostitute in Chicago, Illinois. She is unknowingly picked up by Dr. Nirvana, a long-standing enemy of the superhero Mighty Man. Dr. Nirvana was kidnapping people who he thought would not be missed and experimenting on them. His experiments on Jackson go awry and she gains electrical-based powers. Nirvana is electrocuted, leaving him in a coma.
Because of the Savage Dragon's success, and because he was being loaned out to other police forces across America on a regular basis, Police Captain Stewart starts a 'freak force' program to create a super-powered department of the Chicago Police Force. One of the candidates, Ricochet, though too young to join herself, accidentally catches Rapture about to murder her abusive pimp Brian and talks her out of killing him. Brian pulls a gun, forcing Rapture to kill him anyway. Ricochet suggests Rapture for Captain Stewart's scheme and she and the other candidates are accelerated through the police training academy.
Besides The Dragon, all members of the program leave the Chicago PD after they are forced to work under strict restrictions, not the least of which are impractical police uniforms. The group soon become super-powered bounty hunters Freak Force.
Rapture becomes a maternal figure to the childlike Horridus. She also dates The Dragon and they became lovers. Rapture showed deep jealousy and becomes possessive.
Rapture's leg is broken during a battle with The Cosmic Cops, intergalactic invaders who take over Manhattan Island. She becomes involved in the conflict after an old acquaintance of fellow Freak Force member, Superpatriot, forces them to help stop the aliens for the U.S. Government. Her broken leg means she cannot physically fight the rampaging villain Bludgeon, who badly injured some of her team-mates. However, Rapture stops the creature by bringing the phenomenally-strong Joey Finklebarr, who was gaoled when he cannot control his super-powers, from prison to kill him.
In the final issue of the Star mini-series, Rapture and Dragon learn that rock-star Peter Klaptin had set up an elaborate scheme to convince people he was the vigilante Star, who was really Klaptin's bodyguard, Chris Robinson. When The Dragon was missing and presumed dead, Rapture meets with Klaptin in a back room of the police station and bribes him to cover it up. A tape, damaged halfway through, led The Dragon to believe Rapture and Klaptin had sex, causing a breakdown in their relationship.
Erik Larsen held a poll for readers to decide if Dragon should accept Rapture's proposal of marriage in the series' 27th issue Readers voted for him to refuse. When The Dragon refused, Rapture reveals she is pregnant and throws him out of her apartment for asking if the baby is his. The Dragon is sent to Hell by a villain called The Fiend and was missing for several months, during which time Rapture gives birth. The Dragon is the father and the baby has inherited The Dragon's super-strength. Rapture suffers internal damage, is forced into premature labour and the child is born before The Dragon, busy elsewhere, can arrive. The baby is taken by the shadowy organization, Covenant of the Sword, and replaced with a simulacrum to make them believe the child has died. After this, Rapture and The Dragon end their relationship.
Image Co-Founder Rob Liefeld had been voted out of the company by his fellow co-founders and his characters, including Youngblood, were phased out of the 'Image Universe'. After being bridesmaid to Freak Force team-mates Barbaric and Ricochet, Rapture is killed by a time-travelling despot named Darklord during a mission with Special Operations Strikeforce (SOS), a government-sponsored team The Dragon had formed to replace the MIA Youngblood. Darklord had sought to replace his Darkworld, an alternate version of Earth, with the Savage Dragon's Earth. After he appears to kill The Dragon, and another S.O.S member Jennifer Murphy, Rapture insults Darklord and she was disintegrated by the villain's eye beams.
Later appearances
While escaping the doomed Darkworld, The Dragon tries to find that world's version of Rapture, but was distracted by finding that world's Debbie Harris. The Dragon World's version of Debbie is killed in The Dragon's apartment. The Dragon, Smasher and this Debbie fled in an alien spacecraft before Darkworld explodes. Rapture, and everyone else, was killed.
Rapture later returns in the body of an old, prostitute friend. She joins the Special Operations Strikeforce as 'Lightning'. It is revealed that she is the Covenant Of The Sword Operative 'Impostor'. This entity is killed by accident while posing as Jennifer Murphy during her wedding to Dragon.
An alternate time-line Rapture is kidnapped by Damian Darklord in order to raise the son of Dragon and the original Rapture, Malcolm. Damian is destined to become the entity who kills the original Rapture.
After issue 75, the Savage Dragon series takes place on an alternate earth, known as the 'Savage World'. The previous earth was destroyed in issue 103. Everyone on it, exception a few characters - including Rapture's son Malcolm - are killed. This includes 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 does not stop Rapture from killing her pimp, and Rapture becomes insane. During the two year break between issues 96 and 97, Rapture becomes destitute, repulsive and overweight, foraging food from trash. Like 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. Almost raped, Rapture is saved by the restored hero Solar Man. However, Solar Man kills Rapture in retaliation for her murder.
See also
References
- Freak Force 6
- SavageDragon.com - Official site
External links
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