Stuck In a Jamm

He was a skater boy, she said "see ya later, boy". He wasn't good enough for her. So he went to the future and made girls get naked for him while he did kick-flips and threw slang around like a 1990's Nickelodeon sitcom. Today's Z-Lister is Jamm from DC Comics!

Created in 1993 by Tom Beirbaum in "The Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #4", Jamm was an unnamed teenager from the modern day. He enjoyed skateboarding, rock and roll music, and being a slacker. One day he ran into a fight between Timberwolf-basically an alien werewolf from the future-and Angon-an alien parasite from the future-who were in the midst of a battle. Jamm is injured during the fight and Timberwolf defeats Angon and tries to help Jamm, who's spinal fluid was drained. Without his permission, The Legion of Super-Heroes-an army of teenaged heroes from the 30th Century-teleported the three of them back to the future. Angon escaped and the Legion quickly operated on Jamm. After he was healed, Jamm found the bite from Angon gave him superpowers: he could make anyone do what he wanted. So, you know, brainwashing.

Using his new powers, Jamm forced Night Girl, Shadow Lass, and Valor to join him in a tour across the galaxy. Skateboarding, meeting rad new aliens, and having "jam" sessions every now and again with "his band". Jamm kept Valor around to be his bodyguard as Valor was a Daxamite-a race similar to Kryptonians. Night Girl and Shadow Lass on the other hand? Well, Jamm often used his powers to make women undress in front of him. It was never shown or mentioned whether or not he used his powers to sexually assault these women, but seeing as how he was a sexually-depraved teenager with the ability to make people do whatever he wanted to, it is not too farfetched to believe he may have done so.

In one adventure, Jamm and his victims-I mean "friends"-almost drove into a sun and Jamm was forced to release his victims from his control-I mean "wake his friends up" so they could escape the sun's gravity and return to Earth. Before sending him back to the present, Legionnaire Shadow Lass personally threatened Jamm's life and made him promise to never misuse his powers again. Jamm is then sent back to the present. Free to break his promise and force women to strip for him as much as he pleased.

Jamm sucks. Obviously. He was almost a decent character, take a skater-kid from the 90's and stick him in the totally awesome future? Bill and Ted would have totally agreed with this bodacious idea! But then it got a little too close to home when he became a sex-pest. And look, I get it. If I was a horny teenager with the ability to make any woman fawn over me, I'd be tempted to take advantage of that. Most guys would. But making the character realistic doesn't make him likable. In fact, Jamm feels more like the classic power fantasy than anyone else in comics. People like to tease Superman, or Shazam, or Spider-Man as being "power fantasies". Nearly unbeatable, super-powerful beings beating people up and getting affection from their peers. Jamm is the power fantasy you never see, the power fantasy writers don't want to create because it's too real, too true, and not entertaining. And if watching a teenage boy hypnotize women into stripping him is entertaining to you; congratulations, you're on a list.

Thanks for reading.

I hope in the next Marvel vs DC event, Jamm and The Purple Man just have a father-son bonding moment. Followed by an orgy.