Joystick (comics)

Publication history

Joystick first appeared in The Amazing Scarlet Spider #2 and was created by Tom DeFalco and Mark Bagley.

Fictional character biography

Virtually nothing is known of the past of Janice before she first appeared as Joystick, including the origin and nature of her apparent superhuman powers. When she was much younger, her father, a gambler, taught her his philosophy to 'always have a card to play'. She then used this philosophy to great advantage when she helped a mobster rob her father to save her own life. Later, she was a student at the University of Arizona, living a life she later considered to be a bore. After her sophomore year, something happened to change her, apparently resulting in her death; in her "new life," she became determined to live life on the edge, and began taking extreme risks. She then disappeared for three years before reappearing as Joystick.

Her occupations include former director of marketing at Chi-Huan Associates and mercenary. She is a mutated human/technology user and has been a member of the Crimson Cowl's Masters of Evil. Joystick was a member of the Thunderbolts which at the time also included Atlas, Blizzard, MACH-IV, Photon, Radioactive Man, Songbird, and Speed Demon.

Her various enemies include Batroc's Brigade (Batroc, Machete, Maximillian Zaran), Green Goblin (Phil Urich), Justin Hammer, HYDRA, Kaine, Shannon, Polestar, the Rhino, Spider-Man/Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly), El Toro Negro, and Tremolo.

During her stint on the Thunderbolts team, her powers have grown. She is now fast enough to match the Speed Demon in hand-to-hand, and is described as being 'the living embodiment of action'. After turning on her teammates, she was subdued and was last seen in prison.

Joystick is also thought to be a bisexual. During Civil War, The Thunderbolts took on a group of college kids that had stolen M.A.C.H. IV's old suits of armor. After hearing Radioactive Man reference that one of them was a woman, Joystick tries to open up the armor stating "Buddha said it's a chick in here... Just wanted to see if she was cute..."

At other times she has been flirtatious with her male teammates as well.

Powers and abilities

Joystick apparently possesses superhuman strength (sufficient to press roughly ten tons), speed, agility, dexterity, reflexes & reactions, coordination, balance, and endurance roughly equivalent to that of Spider-Man. The source of these powers remains unknown. She also wears metal devices on her wrists, each of which generates a "baton" of coherent energy, powered by strontium chips. These batons can be swung or hurled with great concussive force, sufficient to damage concrete. In addition, by striking the batons against one another, Joystick can project a powerful concussive force beam at a target, and possesses wires to hack into computers within her gauntlets. Her costume formerly contained an explosive device which would be activated with a 2-minute countdown by the controllers of the Great Game. The mechanism of the devices is unknown, as is their exact composition.

Universal Wellspring

Joystick is a mutate like the Folding Circle as well as Silhouette, Midnight's Fire, and Speed Demon. Her powers come from the Universal Wellspring.