Blue Jay

Background

Blue Jay first appeared in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #87 (Feb 1971) as an homage to the Marvel Comics’s Yellowjacket (Hank Pym). The short version of the story is that he was created by Mike Friedrich and Dick Dillin as part of an unofficial cross-over between the Avengers and the Justice League. For one month the teams appeared in each other comics as thinly veined homages. Marvels’s JLA stand-ins, the Squadron Supreme, became a success in their own right, but DC’s Avengers stand-ins, the Assemblers, have remained rather D-list.

Blue Jay was a member of the Assemblers and was the only surviving human from Angor (their homeworld). If Assembler history matches the history of the Avengers then the Massive Man seen in Justice League Quarterly #3 (Summer 1991) was an earlier incarnation of Jay. Blue Jay has not been seen outside of crowd scenes since the dissolution of the JLI.

Blue Jay’s sexuality has almost become an urban legend in JLA fan circles. There has never been any “on screen” suggestion that BJ was gay, but then there was almost no on screen development of BJs character at all. The legend stems from a letter column in Justice League Europe #31 (October 1991) when the editor ducked the direct question of BJs sexuality. Nobody really seems offended with the projection of gay sexuality on to BJ and he was even been incorporated into gayleague.com‘s Freedom Fighters fan fiction.

Biography

The early adventures and origin of Jay Abrams have not been revealed in the Chronicles. We can, however, guess based on his relationship with the Avenger Hank Pym. At some point scientist Jay Abrams discovered a previously unknown form of subatomic radiation that allows mutants to alter their size. The radiation transformed him into the hulking Massive Man and he joined a superhero team led by Wandjina (Angor’s Thor). Jay was forced to further mutate himself when his size altering abilities became unstable. Instead of increasing in size he developed the ability to shrink to about 7 inches in height, growing wings as he shrank. These new abilities prompted him to adopted the identity of Blue Jay. The Justice League first met Blue Jay and his team-mates when both teams were attacked by corporations from the planet Can-Nam-Loo. Blue Jay was injured in a battle between the teams, but he was healed by Zatanna and was returned to his homeworld. (Justice League of America (vol. 1) #87 (Feb 1971)).

Some time later, the greatest villains of Angor, the Extremists, seized control of their planet’s nuclear stockpiles and tried to threaten their political leaders. The confrontation ended in a nuclear holocaust that killed practically every living thing on Angor except for a few of the hardiest superheroes. Blue Jay was among the handful of survivors and he joined Wandjina’s crusade to rid all other worlds of nuclear weapons. Their campaign brought them to Earth and straight into a political confrontation between Russia and Bialya. There was a standoff at a Russian nuclear power station between the Angorian heroes and the Rocket Red Brigade that almost resulted in an accidental nuclear meltdown. Wandjina sacrificed his life to shut down the reactor. Blue Jay and the Silver Sorceress (Angor’s Scarlet Witch) were taken into custody by the Russian authorities and spent a year imprisoned at a remote metahuman research centre. (Justice League #2-3 (June-July 1987)).

The Sorceress and Jay managed to escape when a kindly researcher slipped them an antidote for the drugs that were inhibiting their powers. The Sorceress returned to Angor and Jay sought political asylum at the JLI’s Moscow Embassy. Unfortunately the Extremists, who appeared to have also survived the holocaust, used the Sorceress’s link to Jay to invade the Earth. They decimated Moscow and the Rocket Red Brigade before Blue Jay managed to alert the JLI’s European branch.  During their first encounter Captain Atom and the JLE were unceremoniously shunted sideways to Angor by Dreamslayer. On Angor the JLE discovered  true origin of these Extremists – the Extremists the JLE were fighting were actually robotic recreations of the original villains from a superhero themed ride. Their creator, Mitch Wacky, was able to shut down his robots. Jay and the Sorceress decided to stay on Earth and accepted Captain Atom’s offer to work with the JLE (“The Extremist Vector”, Justice League Europe #15-19 (June-Oct 1990)).

Jay tried to acclimate to the new world and the new team – an effort made harder when he had to switch from Paris to London after the JLI Paris embassy was destroyed (it was Kilowog’s fault). He served with distinction, but was often overshadowed by his larger and more powerful teammates. Jay was used as pawn when a Bialyan agent deposed Maxwell Lord and took control of the League. The agent tries to sow distension in the League by dismissing Captain Atom, and promoting Blue Jay as the JLE’s new field commander. The JLI structure quickly collapsed without Lord’s leadership. The reappearance of a succession of powerful enemies culminated with Dreamslayer’s return and his murder of Mitch Wacky and the Silver Sorceress.

The death of the Silver Sorceress left Jay as the only survivor of Angor. He quit the League shortly afterwards. Jay has reappeared a couple of times to help the League. He teamed-up with the surviving JSA members and other JLI reservists to help battle Sonar and the mind controlled Rocket Reds. He also helped Superman when they and other heroes were kidnapped by aliens. He has also been spotted at various superhero gatherings, but he has not taken a frontline role in the Chronicles since he left the League. His whereabouts had been unknown.

“The only realities of my life are that I’m here… and I’m lone. I’ve got to face those realities.”

Blue Jay’s departing words as he flies into the sunset (Justice League Europe #36 (March 1992))

Abilites

As Massive Man Jay could grow to a height of well over twenty feed, but it was implied that he was stuck at that height. As Blue Jay, he has the ability to shrink to a height of seven inches and to grow a pair of wings. These allowed him to fly and his size gave him a remarkable level of manoeuvrability. His gloves had talon like spikes.