Real Name:
Unknown
Identity/Class: Human using high tech (for the Victorian era) gadgets
Occupation: Nobleman
Affiliations: None known
Enemies: The police and other law enforcement officials
Known Relatives: None known
Aliases: Terror of London
Base of Operations: London
First Appearance: Unnamed serial in 1875
Powers/Abilities: Able to leap incredible distances. Has a fiery breath.
History: Spring-Heeled Jack, the Terror of London, appeared in a 48-part serial written by Charlton Lea. The legend of Spring-Heeled Jack, he of the blue skin, blazing eyes, and fire spitting from his mouth, goes back into the mid-19th century; Jack has been cited in places as various as the Midlands, Warwickshire, and Aldershot. The Spring-Heeled Jack of the penny dreadfuls, however, was not a monster, but just another nobleman cheated out of his inheritance by an unscrupulous brother (or cousin or stranger--the stories are vague on this). In revenge the nobleman takes to the roads as a highwayman. However, in proper Robin Hood form he only robs from the rich, and he gives away almost all of his loot to the poor and oppressed.
Spring-Heeled
Jack is described in the texts as a "weird being;" one critic describes his
appearance this way: "a skin-tight glossy crimson suit, with bat-style wings,
lion's mane, devil's horns, talon hands, cloven hoofs and a `sulphurous-breathing
mouth.'" Although the mechanics of his sulphur breath (and occasional flame
breath) are never gone into, his leaps - he is renowned for jumping
twenty and thirty feet (or more) into the air at a time - are explained.
His suits, made of the best chamois cloth, have steel rods concealed in them,
coupled with springs so that when he jumped he leapt dozens of feet in the
air, and with the help of his wings he could glide as he wished.
Comments: The inspiration for Jumping Jack, the Leaping Phantom and Spring-Heeled Jackson.
CLARIFICATIONS:
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