Teen Titans: Cheshire / Characters

Cheshire

Alter ego: Jade Nguyen / Jade Chaumont

Species: Human

Created by: Marv Wolfman, George Pérez

First Appearance: New Teen Titans Annual #2 (1983)

Jade Nguyen is a deadly Vietnamese mercenary and assassin who goes by the Codename Cheshire. She's often recognized as one of the world's greatest and most ruthless assassins. Her skills include mastery over physical combat, various weaponry, and she is an expert on exotic poisons.

While she's started as a rogue for Teen Titans and their many spin-off teams, due to her mercenary nature she quickly became a rogue for all kinds of heroes in The DCU, such as Wonder Woman, Batman, Birds of Prey, and Green Arrow. She also joined several villainous organizations, such as the Ravens, Tartarus, Injustice League, Secret Six, Titans, Villains for Hire, League of Assassins, Brotherhood of Evil, Mayhem, etc. She's known to be an Only in It for the Money villain and usually has no real loyalty to any group or cause, frequently just working as a hired muscle for another villain.

Cheshire's personal plot mostly revolves around her relationship with the hero Roy Harper/Arsenal, with whom she has a Dating Catwoman relationship with, which resulted in a daughter named Lian Harper.

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Tropes associated with all versions of Cheshire

Acquired Poison Immunity: She's used this to become immune to many types of toxins. In one Birds of Prey storyline, shot took down Lady Shiva by simply flooding the room with an odorless and paralyzing toxin. Shiva soon fell to the floor while Cheshire herself was immune to the effects.
Action Mom: Becoming a mother has never stopped her from being a Dark Action Girl.
Animal Motifs: Cats. Her alias comes from the famous Cheshire Cat, the mask she (sometimes) wears resembles a cat, and she can be as coy, mysterious, and cruel as a cat.
Anti-Villain: Depending on the Writer, she can fill this role. She's a ruthless assassin most of the time but she definitely has people she cares about and has a tragic past that sort of explains her actions.
Armed Legs: Sometimes her boots are equipped with blades. Poisoned blades, naturally.
Arrogant Kung-Fu Girl: Cheshire likes to gloat to her enemies while using her acrobat skills to dodge them and attack them while they're defenseless.
Arsenal Attire: Her outfits are frequently covered in all sorts of weaponry, from sais, to throwing knives and swords. And sometimes she has Hidden Weapons on her, too.
Asian Babymama: She's Vietnamese and mother to Lian Harper, with American hero Roy Harper/Arsenal.
Badasses Wear Bandanas: If she's not wearing the Cheshire Cat mask, then she's wearing a green bandana.
Badass Normal: Doesn't have any powers, relying on her acrobatics, martial arts and mastery of poison to fight. She is still formidable enough to fight and take down many powerful heroes, such as Starfire and Wonder Woman.
Beneath the Mask: She works very hard at convincing people that she's a remorseless murderer who gets off on the suffering of others, but the fact that she works so hard at casting that image belies a completely miserable woman still trapped in her traumatic childhood and wants only to be with her children.
Betty and Veronica: Has this dynamic in the Love Triangle between herself, Roy/Arsenal and Donna Troy / Wonder Girl. she's the Veronica (as the seductive villainess) to Donna Troy's Betty (as the Nice Girl heroine) to Roy's Archie.
Big Ego, Hidden Depths: Behind her arrogance and coy attitude lies a deeply troubled woman.
Brainy Brunette: Jade has long black hair and despite her flirty demeanor, she's no Brainless Beauty, being one the most talented toxicologists on the planet, and often being quite a good schemer and a cunning tactician.
Buxom Beauty Standard: Her well-endowed figure has caught the eye of many characters. She's well aware and uses cleavage-baring outfits to exploit it by advantage of her prey getting distracted by her cleavage.
Cat Ninja: She's a Cheshire Cat-themed Professional Killer with a light Ninja motif.
Cats Are Mean: Jade is a cat-themed villainess for is known for being mean, to the point she's often a Jerkass. It's a case of Depending on the Writer if she's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold or a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk.
Cats Are Superior: Jade is a cat-themed villainess who's known for her arrogance and selfishness.
Cheshire Cat Grin: She's famous for her coy and maniac smile, resembling that of a Cheshire Cat. It's how she got her Codename. She also sometimes wears a mask that is permanently set in one.
Color Motif: Green.
- Her first name is Jade, a mineral known for being green.
- She has bright green eyes.
- Her outfits, both supervillain and civilian ones, are mainly colored in various shades of green.
- The color green can often represent mystery, which is a character trait of hers.
- Her main gimmick is to be a Master Poisoner, and poison is heavily associated with green.
Color-Coded Eyes: She has bright green ones, evoking her toxic nature as both a Master Poisoner and a Manipulative Bitch.
Crazy in the Head, Crazy in the Bed: When Roy Harper is fighting her off in Justice League: Rise of Arsenal, he starts to wonder mid-fight what he ever saw in a Psycho for Hire like her that he started a Dating Catwoman relationship with, but then the fight starts to get more intimate and he remembers it's because, despite her Ax-Crazy personality, that feistiness makes her terrific in bed. Soon enough the fight evolves into Sex for Solace instead.
Dark Action Girl: An evil Badass Normal action girl and Professional Killer.
Dating Catwoman: She's a villainess that has had an on-again-off-again relationship with hero Roy Harper/Arsenal. The details tend to vary based on the incarnation, but it's usually not healthy for either party.
Deadly Scratch: Due to her status as a Master Poisoner, she often fights with the aim to inflict these, as most of her weapons are coated with poisons, as it is all she needs to inflict her deadly toxins on her opponents. Her most iconic weapon is actually her nails, which allows her to subtly scratch people, poisoning them without them even noticing it.
Deadpan Snarker: She has a dry sense of humor, and treats her opponents like a cat would treat a mouse, allowing herself to be involved in playful banter to a small extent.
Depending on the Artist: Flats vs. heels, cleavage vs. no cleavage, jacket vs. no jacket vs. bolero jacket vs. longcoat, whether or not she wears a Cheshire Cat mask.
Depending on the Writer: How cruel and evil she is can change often between writers, varying from a mercenary Punch-Clock Villain with few redeeming qualities to a petty and sociopathic Psycho for Hire.
Did Not Think This Through: One of her biggest and most consistent flaws is that she will do things for short-term rewards without thinking of the consequences afterwards. From nuking Qurac, to betraying the Secret Six to the Society in order to be spared by them, to abandoning Lian to give her a fresh start, these almost always horribly backfire on her or the people around her in some way. Destroying Qurac proved she was a legitimate threat but destroyed any chance of her having a normal life with Roy and Lian because everyone wants her to pay for her atrocities and plagued the Harpers with guilt for caring about her. Betraying the Secret Six simply proved to everyone that she's an unreliable backstabber and earned her a bullet in the chest from a disgusted Deathstroke, showing it's more beneficial to try and put her down once she's served her purpose. And abandoning Lian to give her a normal life resulted in Lian losing her childhood and ending up a homeless teen orphan working for Catwoman. Except it turns out Jade never abandoned Lian, nor did she even know she was still alive.
Dragon Lady: Seems to fit several traits being foreign, sexually aggressive, mysterious and has quite the family history.
Drugged Lipstick: Unsurprisingly, a kiss from a Femme Fatale Master Poisoner will likely be a Kiss of Death. In one instance in Secret Six she lured one man into a false sense of security by kissing him... and then bit off a man's lower lip, and then he started foaming at the mouth before he died implying she's internalized a number of poisons.
Dual Wielding: She knows how to fight with one weapon in each hand, and this aggressive style combines well with her Master Poisoner abilities and Poisoned Weapons, as she often just needs a single scratch to inflict her toxins on her opponents.
Fashionable Asymmetry: Her most iconic battle-kimono outfit has only her right shoulder bare.
Femme Fatale: She's known to use her seductive skills in her work as a mercenary, making it easy to poison her targets without them even knowing. This even worked on Roy several times, despite the fact he should know better.
Femme Fatalons: Her sharpened fingernails as her most iconic weapons, and as a Master Poisoner, she frequently keeps them poisoned, making even the tiniest scratch potentially deadly. It can vary if they're actually just her natural nails or if she has some kind of claw weapon on her fingers.
Flirting Under Fire: She sometimes acts as The Tease during combat, using sexual innuendo to try to throw off her opponents. Other times, she just enjoys being a flirt.
Fragile Speedster: She's fast (to Badass Normal levels) and acrobatic, but while it's hard to land a hit on her, it doesn't take much to take her taken given she is just human.
Green and Mean: She has green as a Color Motif and is almost wearing green-colored attires both as a civilian and in her villain outfit. She's also a Dark Action Girl known for being mean and manipulative.
Heel–Face Revolving Door: Sometimes she's put on the path of redemption for the sake of Roy and Lian, but she ultimately always goes back to being a villain.
Instant Sedation: Some of her poisons work like this, which is convenient for when she wants to capture or kidnap people. Justified in that she is a Master Poisoner.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It's very subtle, considering how she is an arrogant, sarcastic jerk, but it is there. She only shows her softer side to the people she deeply loves.
Kick Chick: Due to having strong and flexible legs due to her acrobatic fighting style, she prefers resorting to kicks when she has to fight unarmed.
Kimono Fanservice: Wears kimonos as casual clothes pretty often, and she usually wears them almost open to expose a great deal of cleavage.
Know When to Fold 'Em: Given she's a clever mercenary who's usually Only in It for the Money, she's prone to cutting her losses and making a retreat when the situation looks hopeless.
Master Poisoner: Her most dangerous quality and what she's mostly known for as an assassin. She's considered as one of the greatest poison experts in the DC Universe, possessing a vast amount of knowledge about chemicals and toxins, to the point she has created some positively awful concoctions to unleash upon her opponents while also making them almost undetectable and has made herself immune to most of them. Most of her weaponry is also coated in poisons making a single scratch being extremely deadly.
Most Common Super Power: She's a fairly buxom super-villain.
Ms. Fanservice: When she's not being disturbing, her revealing outfit, buxom figure and seductive mannerisms definitely fit this trope and it's not unusual for her to get into her more Fanservicey situations.
- She's prone to invoking this whenever she wants to seduce Roy, such as in Titans #28 when she walks into Roy's room wearing solely a Modesty Bedsheet before letting it hit the floor.
- In Birds of Prey, she ambushed by Black Canary and Lady Shiva in her hotel room, while she was sleeping in an extremely revealing nightgown. Then she avoids them by making a High-Dive Escape into the pool below her room, making her skimpy nightgown now a Sexy Soaked Shirt, with a gratuitous Sexy Surfacing Shot of her climbing out of the water. And then she gets into a Cat Fight with Canary in that outfit.
Navel-Deep Neckline: Many of her costumes have her cleavage being so deep to reach her stomach.
Omniglot: As an international mercenary and Professional Killer, Jade learned how to be a multilingualist, speaking Vietnamese, Chinese, English, Japanese, Russian, French and Spanish.
One Dose Fits All: Her poisons often have the same effect even when she unleashes them on targets with completely different (and sometimes alien) physiologies.
Only in It for the Money: She works as a mercenary and a Professional Killer just for the cash.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Jade casually talks about poisoning people on her best of days, so if she's ever shown actually feeling sorry for what she's done it must've taken a lot to make her drop her guard.
The Paralyzer: Her poisons most commonly have a paralyzing effect, especially when she's fighting heroes, since writers don't have an easy way to save characters if they're afflicted with a deadly poison.
Parents as People: For all of her many, many, many, many faults, Jade has shown that she does love her children. The problem is that her myriad of emotional and mental issues stemming from years of trauma and inability to deal with those issues means she's not a good parent. She was shown to be loving towards Lian, and later Tommy, but Jade's occupation as an assassin and the amount of enemies she's amassed only made it impossible for her to properly care for either child. There's also the fact that she's often done things that straddle the line towards indirectly abusing her children as she tends to value her freedom more than their wellbeing.
Perfect Poison: As a Master Poisoner, she has made poisons that went undetected by people with enhanced senses such as Catman.
Plot Device Due to her status as a Master Poisoner, she can make a concoction that allows her to do anything she wants, from being nigh-undetectable, to causing hallucinations, to working on all different kinds of physiologies, to only activating on specific timings, etc.
Poisoned Weapons: Tends to keep all her weapons drenched in her many poisons. Even her own fingernails. It's generally dangerous to let her so much as scratch you. She also can provide poisoned weapons to her teammates.
Cheshire: Hand me one of your bullets. I have something agonizing to dip it in.
Professional Killer: Cheshire of the most well-known and feared assassins in the DC Universe, and most of her appearances as a villain simply having her working as one for another villain.
Proud Beauty: Jade is perfectly aware of how sexy and beautiful she is. She's also arrogant enough to often point it out, and clever enough to know how to use it to her advantage.
Poison Is Corrosive: She can make poisons and concoctions that have corrosive effects.
Poison Is Evil: Cheshire is a villainous Professional Killer whose main schtick is being a Master Poisoner with a vast array of Poisoned Weapons.
Sex Goddess: Given Jade is known for her agility, confidence and passion, is hardly surprising she's extremely good in bed.
- According to Roy Harper during The Rise of Arsenal arc, next to Kendra Saunders, Cheshire was the best lay Roy has ever had and keep in mind that he's a ladies man who has had sexual flings with many women, including Donna Troy, Huntress, and other bodacious superheroines. This is heavily implied why he keeps sleeping with her even after all the screwed-up stuff that happened between them.
- Played With in Red Hood and the Outlaws. She walks out of a brothel tent, claiming the men inside can barely after she got through with them... only for the owner to walk out, claiming that she poisoned them.
Sex with the Ex: She and Roy have often ended up in bed even after having broken up, often ending up in a Not Staying for Breakfast morning-after. It's just one of the aspects of their mess of a relationship.
- Pre-Flashpoint, she's implied to have had sex with Roy multiple times after he joined Deathstroke's Titans, though it's blatantly clear she's doing it to control him. Their first time together after Roy becomes a member of the team happens after she's stolen his heroin while he needs a fix, offering sex as an alternative to his addiction.
- Post-Flashpoint in Titans (Rebirth), she seduces and sleeps with him (making him cheat on Donna in the process) while they're working together on a case. But soon after it's revealed she's actually working with the bad guys and seducing him was just part of their ploy.
Sexy Cat Person: She has Cheshire Cats as a theme, and is famous for being a seductive and flirty Ms. Fanservice.
She-Fu: Cheshire is famous for her agile fighting style, being a triple-jointed acrobat which makes her moves quick and unexpected. She uses it primarily to dodge attacks, and then launches a Counter-Attack when her opponent's guards are down.
Slasher Smile: When she gets angry or violent her coy Cheshire Cat Grin turns into these.
Smoke Out: One of Chesire's favorite tricks when she needs to make a retreat is to toss out smoke bombs.
Statuesque Stunner: She's a Head-Turning Beauty that is 5'9" tall, making her slightly taller than her most recurring Love Interest Roy Harper/Arsenal.
Stealth Expert: She's very good at sneaking around, and can infiltrate places, poison her target and get out without being noticed.
Stepford Smiler: That smug, seductive grin Cheshire has is used to hide an incredibly unhappy person who longs to be truly happy.
Stock Ninja Weaponry: Given her Asian Ninja aesthetic, she's known to use sai on occasion, but just like in most media, she mostly just uses it as a knife, not as the defensive parrying weapon it's meant to be.
Tampering with Food and Drink: Has frequently used nigh-undetectable poisons on the foods and drinks of her targets.
The Tease: She often has a playful, flirty demeanor, especially with Roy Harper/Arsenal.
Villain: Exit, Stage Left: She's extremely good at avoiding getting arrested, mostly thanks to her agility, sneaking skill, and good sense to Know When to Fold 'Em.
Wild Card: Due to her flimsy loyalties and Anti-Villain tendencies, it's up in the air whether she'll side with the heroes or villains. Usually, she's on her own side.

Tropes associated with Cheshire (Pre-Flashpoint)

Jade Nguyen / Cheshire

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cheshire_pre_flashpoint.jpg

Cheshire's design Pre-Flashpoint

^{Click here to see her Classic design}

^{Click here to see her as a civilian}

First appearance: 1983, New Teen Titans Annual #2

"The sentence of the court is not what concerns me. In any case, I don't wish for our daughter to see me caged like some animal. Just tell her I love her... And that I will see her again."

In the Pre-Flashpoint timeline, Jade Nguyen had a tragic backstory, born to a French father and a Vietnamese mother, she was kidnapped as a child and sold into slavery. She spent many years as a child slave, until one day she managed to kill her master and escape, and was eventually adopted by a Chinese WWII veteran, Weng Chen. He taught her how to fight and put her on the path to becoming a mercenary.

Working as a Professional Killer she quickly became an enemy of the Teen Titans and various other heroes, and became infamously known for nuking the country of Qurac, an event that was considered a Moral Event Horizon In-Universe.

She has had multiple romantic relationships and given birth to two children with different fathers, Lian Harper with Arsenal and Thomas Blake, Jr. with Catman. Despite her own shortcomings, Jade seems to love her children, but it was never enough to dissuade her from her villainous and mercenary life.

Adaptational Modesty: The outfit she wears in Birds of Prey is much more modest than her usual Stripperiffic battle-kimono. Ironically, the plot has her dress into a Nubile Savage for a lot of issues.
All There in the Manual: The fact she was married when she was 16, and learned how to be a Master Poisoner from her first husband who passed away soon after, is only mentioned in her entry in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #4
Arch-Enemy:
- The closest the Secret Six has to one, but mostly to Catman in particular.
- She's also Roy Harper's.
Asian Babymama: So nice she did it twice: once with Arsenal, and once with Catman.
Asshole Victim: She's constantly targeted by assassins due to her nuking Qurac, and Roy (and his friends) rescue her, mostly for Lian's sake.
Ax-Crazy: She revels in violence because it's the only way she knows to express her anger. The fact that she nuked Qurac because she could offers some pretty good insight into how utterly deranged this woman is.
Brainwashed and Crazy: She once got infected with the Joker Drug, making her even more insane and attacked the Titan's home to try and kidnap Lian, to the point she actually infected Lian with the Joker Drug so "they could be together".
Butt-Monkey: Her life is, to put it simply, a total wreck. She's barely functioning, has no friends, her ex-lovers can't stand her, her children can't be in her life, her reputation is in the gutter, and whenever she has a scheme it manages to backfire spectacularly on her before she gets her ass kicked in a humiliating and painful fashion.
The Chessmaster: What's the best way to manipulate a superhero and a supervillain who both hate your guts? Have their kids. She also once set up a convoluted revenge scheme in Birds of Prey that started off with Jade framing herself.
The Chew Toy: Any time Gail uses her, Cheshire inevitably gets her ass handed to her. She's been thrown out of a helicopter, tortured, shot in the chest, forced to eat Solomon Grundy's cooked flesh, beaten within an inch of her life by Jeannette and then kicked upside the head by Tarantula, left as a bloody heap on the floor by three mercenaries hired to steal her son, and then told said son was killed when he's really alive and been adopted by a loving couple.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Unfortunately for her, the Society aren't idiots.
Chronic Villainy: She's given multiple opportunities to redeem herself and even when it looks like she might be on that path, chances are she'll immediately slip back into the selfish psychopath she's more well known as because she argues it's "her nature."
Dark and Troubled Past: She was a child by rape who was separated from her mother and sold into sexual slavery before being found and trained by her mentor Weng Chen.
Depending on the Writer: Whether or not she cares about Lian. Overall the one consistent element of her characterization is that it's clear her childhood trauma will result in her doing things that go against her love for Lian if it involves her freedom.
Didn't Think This Through: One of her biggest issues is that she does not have the capability of thinking her actions out in the long run.
- She destroyed Qurac just to show the world she wasn't bluffing with her blackmail demands, yet at no point ever stopped to think about what her life would be like once the entire world and just about everyone around her now believes she has to die for her crimes against humanity.
- She decided Lian would be better off if everyone believed she was still dead, so Jade left her amnesiac daughter in some random church in Gotham City. Several years later and Lian's now "Shoes," a homeless orphan who had to learn pickpocketing in order to survive and is now one of Catwoman's kid lackeys.
Dirty Coward: Any time she gets cornered by Roy Harper or Thomas Blake she's quick to make some mention of the fact that she had their respective children. Also, for all intents and purposes, we've seen that while Jade is quick to dish out some extreme punishment, she's barely able to receive any back without pulling tail. See her encounter with Jeannette.
Entitled Bastard: She forces Roy to help with her scheme to murder Deathstroke by blaming him for Lian's death and stating he owes her for it. Not only is this frustrating due to it being clear Lian's death was a freak accident that had nothing to do with anything Roy directly or indirectly did, but she's lucky Roy never found out about Jade abandoning Lian in Villains United.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Depending on the Writer, she does love her children, Lian Harper and Tommy Blake Jr.
Even Evil Has Standards: Before she nuked Qurac, Jade herself was a straight example of this. She used to avoid Collateral Damage during her assassinations (for instance, she left a witness Bound and Gagged and even assured the man that she had no intention of harming him), and even turned the tables on some racist South Africans who had hired her to kill a black civil rights worker. But after, she Took a Level in Jerkass and didn't seem to have any standards.
Evil Gloating: In Birds of Prey, she makes a point to gloat about her Evil Plan to a paralyzed Lady Shiva, and she actually manages to make this useful as she pits Shiva and Black Canary against each other, since Shiva wants to murder Jade with Dinah just wants to arrest her.
Evil Is Petty: Her whole villain history can be summed up as plans to hurt hundreds of people for small things. The woman had a child just to torment the father for walking out on her and committed nuclear holocaust just to prove she could. It doesn't get any pettier than that. In Birds of Prey she murdered one of Black Canary's and Lady Shiva's former teachers, poisoning him and six of his students, even though he was a frail old man with terminal cancer who would have passed soon, anyway. When Dinah asks her why, Jade just replies "Because I don't like you, Ms. Lance".
Evil Laugh: Infamously she was letting out a burst of evil laughter when she nuked Qurac. The Mushroom cloud even depicted her face as she laughed.
Evil Matriarch: She's a villainess who often comes into conflict with Lian's father Roy.
- She set out to murder Black Canary because she's taken care of Lian, and the girl comes to see Canary as more of a mother than Cheshire.
- Hell, she's so bad, even at age 4 Lian is perfectly aware of and ashamed of how horrible her mother is. When Lian's babysitter revealed that her grandparents died in the Qurac explosion, Lian got so angry at her mother that she threw Jade's picture at the wall shouting "BAD MOMMY!"
Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Jade is a legitimately awful woman, but she loves Lian enough that she doesn't want her to turn out the way she did which is why she ultimately decided to allow Roy to have custody.
Faking the Dead: During Birds of Prey, she had concocted a complex Batman Gambit revenge plan to destroy the life of a US Senator, whom she claims is her biological father that raped her mother, and in order to get away with it, she captured Lady Shiva and left her Bound and Gagged near a bomb, setting up the situation so people would mistake Shiva's body for hers and assume she died. But the plan failed when Catwoman ended up rescuing Shiva.
Fatal Flaw: Her warped sense of self-preservation and inability to properly deal with her emotions has led to her being reviled by almost the entire world and cost her the opportunity to have a life with either of her children.
Fetishized Abuser: While Cheshire wasn't this when she was originally with Roy Harper/Arnesal even though she was still evil, she'd become this to him when they were both in Deathstroke's mock Titans team. Following their daughter's death, Jade began exploiting Roy's emotional deterioration and emotionally blackmailed him into joining Slade's team so they could gang up on Deathstroke and kill him. When she wasn't sleeping with Roy, Jade would frequently call him an idiot and berate him. Thankfully, the faux relationship ended when Roy and a newly revived Jericho destroyed Deathstroke's main plans and the team disbanded, with Jade not wanting anything to do with Roy.
Flanderization: After Wolfman introduced her in the eighties, she was a morally grey assassin with flashes of Even Evil Has Standards here and there and a very good reason to resent Roy, who essentially seduced her under a false identity and then abandoned her, setting up a very involved Dating Catwoman scenario. When Wolfman brought her back in the 90s in the pages of Deathstroke, it was as an Eviler than Thou aspiring nuclear terrorist and Terra-style pure evil lunatic. Bizarrely, Roy Harper is also there for the same arc of Deathstroke, and he doesn't even register as a third wheel.
Foil: To Roy Harper. Both lost their parents at an early age and had difficult childhoods, both were taken in by a mentor who raised them to be who they are now. Roy's mentor Green Arrow neglected him and caused him to suffer serious abandonment issues that led to Roy experimenting with drugs. Jade's mentor trained her to be a killer and fundamentally ruined her ability to express her emotions. Roy accepts his failures and tries to learn from them, becoming a better, more multifaceted individual. Jade cannot accept or face the horrible things she's done and tries to shove all her negative emotions and desires into her role as Cheshire, an identity shaped to be a sociopathic defense mechanism, so she's trying and failing to live as one person with two facets.
Freudian Excuse: She was sold into slavery at a very young age, and was never given a proper outlet to express her emotions since doing so in such a place would've been a death sentence. As an adult, she's tried to live as both "Jade" and "Cheshire," where Cheshire's the one who channels her anger and hostility while Jade gets to live peacefully. Her reliance on the Cheshire identity as an emotional crutch has left her incapable of expressing her emotions in a healthy manner, until the build-up of horrific events (nuking Qurac, forsaking Lian's life) left her wanting only to be Cheshire so she wouldn't have to face her guilty conscience.
Gone Horribly Wrong: Her mentor and guardian taught her how to be a killer, and she ended up crafting the Cheshire identity as an outlet for all her negative emotions so they wouldn't affect her private life as Jade. Trouble is, her actions as Cheshire escalated to such a degree she couldn't ignore her guilt while living as Jade and eventually reached a point she'd rather pretend to be The Sociopath then admit how much suffering she's caused.
Green-Eyed Monster: She holds a pretty grudge against Black Canary just because the woman has a closer relationship with Lian.
Happily Adopted: After living as a child slave for years, she was adopted by WWII veteran Weng Chen. He also served as her mentor in teaching her about martial arts and guerilla warfare, putting her on the path to become a mercenary.
Hated by All: After a while, there are very few people in the entirety of the DCU who actually like Jade: her mentor, Roy, Lian, Tommy, and Catman. Even then, it's a stretch to say how much they actually like Jade at the moment and how much they pity her, while Tommy's a baby and generally too young to know or understand what Jade's done. Meanwhile, the superhero community views her as a dangerous woman who needs to pay for her crimes against humanity, the supervillain community views her as an untrustworthy backstabber willing to sell out her own children just to save herself, and the regular people of the world think she's a genocidal maniac.
Hate Sink: Whenever she's written by Gail Simone, there's nothing good, redeemable, or likable about her, with Gail writing Jade as a repugnant, self-admitted sociopath whose horrific actions make the readers cheer when she inevitably gets beaten up. Whereas other writers have her be caring and loving towards Lian (and to an extremely lesser extent Roy). Gail stated Cheshire is one character whom she never writes with any redeeming qualities and cites her nuclear genocide of Qurac as the reason why.
Hated by All: At the peak of her villainy, she was so thoroughly unpleasant that most people won't associate with her unless they absolutely have to, including her fellow villains.
Her Own Worst Enemy: Jade started as a mercenary who had a clear code of ethics, but her desire to prove how dangerous she is has destroyed her morals while ruining any and all chances she had for interpersonal relationships. Roy left her both because he couldn't bring himself to get her arrested and because he knew he could never have a life with Jade. Lian still loves Jade but knows she's horrible and believes she needs to be punished for hurting people, especially Roy and her babysitter Chanda. Ironically, Jade's biggest fear has always been the fear of becoming trapped like she was as a child and she's no one but herself to blame for the trap she's made of her life with the lengths she's gone through to never be enslaved again.
I Have a Family: She's invoked this a couple of times. A standard defense is to remind Roy Harper that she is the mother of his child, which was useful even after Lian died. In Secret Six, she attempted this on Jeannette while being dangled off a building. Jeannette could not have cared less.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Her sociopathic veneer is used to hide a truly miserable woman who doesn't want her life to be what it is now, but feels she cannot change who she is at this point.
Intimate Marks: She was originally drawn with a pink lotus tattoo on her breast.
It's All About Me: She has no regard for anyone else unless she can use them.
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: She started out as an assassin with a moral code and an understandable vendetta against Roy Harper, but the more desperate she was to prove what she was capable of as a villain led to her committing nuclear holocaust. After that, it's hard to go back to being a simple mercenary no matter how much she'd like to and it's not something anyone is going to simply forgive her for.

Kick the Morality Pet: Her desperation to escape from Mockingbird's control resulted in her consciously forsaking Lian so long as she could conceive a replacement baby. Unfortunately, Roy nor Lian ever found out so Jade was never forced to atone for this action, even after Lian died.
Lack of Empathy: She doesn’t care about anyone's pain but her own. Some issues she implies she actually is capable of guilt, but the build-up of horrible actions she's perpetrated has led her to use apathy as a defense mechanism rather than let her guilty conscience potentially drive her insane.
Laser-Guided Karma: See The Chew Toy. If Gail Simone's the writer, Cheshire will always get what's coming to her.
Laxative Prank: While working with Black Canary in Birds of Prey, she poisoned Dinah with a light laxative during a flight just to annoy her.
Love Cannot Overcome: Whatever feelings she has for Roy and the love she has for Lian and Tommy aren't strong enough to overcome her traumatic childhood and determination to do anything possible to avoid being captured or enslaved again.
Made a Slave: In her backstory, she was kidnapped and sold as a slave while she was still a child, and only managed to escape the life years later, by killing her master.
Made of Iron: She's merely a Badass Normal and not any kind of enhanced meta-human. In the Batman story Their Dark Designs, Cheshire gets hit head-on by an 18 wheeler during a fight with Batman and somehow doesn't die from it. The worst that happens is that she looks injured, with some cuts, and can't move but can otherwise carry on a conversation with Batman in the middle of him apprehending her.
Manipulative Bitch: She purposefully nuked Qurac because she knew if anyone would try to call her out on it they would have to remember she destroyed a country considered to be the terrorist capital of the world and may have considered it a blessing. She basically killed millions just to troll everyone.
Maternally Challenged: Subverted. When she was taking care of Lian, and later Tommy, she didn't exactly mistreat or abuse them. But the general implications are that she only does so to carry on the facade of actually giving a shit about them so she can keep using and hurting their fathers. If it looks like she doesn't love her kids, then there's no reason for their dads to give a crap about her. Her original plan for Lian was to use her mere existence to torment Roy Harper as revenge for walking out on her, and Tommy's conception was so she'd at least have one child after leaving the Secret Six and so Catman would have a reason to protect her when she betrayed the team. Gail Simone describes Cheshire as having a lizard-like mentality with her kids: the moment they become a detriment to her freedom, all bets are off.
The Millstone: Almost any time a story is being done about Roy and Lian Harper, chances are the main source of drama will come from their relation to Cheshire. Roy will angst over the fact that he was in love with a genocidal maniac and that Lian will have to deal with the fact that her mother is a manipulative bitch who could never stop hurting others even if she wanted to (which is not very likely). Some authors have tried to get Roy to move past his old relationship, while others have ignored those movements forward for the sake of cheap drama. The Trial Of Cheshire in the first Titans volume is a decent example of this.
Morality Pet: Her daughter Lian, and later her son by Catman, Thomas Jr.. After Lian's death, and Catman convincing her that her son was dead too, the Morality Chain may be severed. However, when Lian's safety was held overhead to ensure her cooperation with the team, she was more than willing to conceive a replacement child just to leave the Secret Six and betray them.
Moral Event Horizon: In-Universe it's usually considered to be her nuking Qurac For the Evulz in Deathstroke #19.
Mugging the Monster: The mercenary who went after her and tried to rape her probably should have read up on her history first. Let's just say it doesn't end well for him.
Cheshire: To be fair, he does have the kind of face that looks better in rictus.
My God, What Have I Done?: The ending of "The Trial of Cheshire" shows Jade locked away in a prison cell and forced to look back on everything that got her to this point and realizes everything she did was her own fault. Unfortunately, after that she tries way too hard to numb herself by staying solely in her Cheshire persona.
Never My Fault: She hates Roy for leaving her and because he was investigating her for the government while they were dating. She has a right to be angry about the latter, but it hasn't dawned on her that her increasingly bloodthirsty actions and repeated excuses of how she can't change who she is are the reasons why Roy's refused to get back together with her.
Once Done, Never Forgotten: Nuking Qurac pretty much redefined Cheshire both in and out of universe, and unlike most cases this was a Justified Trope because no one in their right mind would brush off the fact she murdered an entire country simply to show that she could.
Parental Favoritism: She's equally distraught when Lian dies and when she's told Tommy is dead but when Drago is reading her mind and stating she's subconsciously suicidal over Lian's death, Tommy is never mentioned or alluded to at all. It rather darkly implies that Tommy really was just a Replacement Goldfish to her.
Parental Substitute: Her mentor Weng is the one who started her training to become an assassin and the only parental figure she had after her mother died. The trouble is that Weng's training resulted in Jade becoming an emotionally stunted psychopath who gradually committed more and more horrific actions until she destroyed any chance she might have for happiness. Weng was initially proud of Jade for being the perfect assassin, and he claimed to hate Roy Harper because their love made Jade "weak" and ruined her skills as a killer. It's unclear how Weng felt when Jade nuked Qurac, or how he felt about her keeping Lian around as the anchor for her private, happier side.
Psycho for Hire: She may be in the supervillain gig for the money, but she definitely enjoys her work way too much. During Wonder Woman (1987) she was so Ax-Crazy she tried to kill Diana even though it went against her employer's wishes.
Punch-Clock Villain: In the 80s, she was a Professional Killer who had some morals, such as actively avoiding Collateral Damage, and tried to have a normal civilian life. Then she nuked a country just to prove she could and she Took a Level in Jerkass ever since.
The Resenter:
- Her relationship with Roy is especially screwed up because, despite whatever lingering love she is for him, it's overshadowed by her blistering hatred for how he walked out on her. Ironically, her homicidal actions only served to prove Roy was right to leave her and take custody of Lian after realizing they could never have a life together.
- She loathes Black Canary because Canary has a closer bond to Roy and Lian than Jade herself could have.
Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Deathstroke was so disgusted by how quickly Cheshire had sold out her own team by divulging their location, he rewarded her for it by shooting her in the gut.
Sadist: She takes a disturbing pleasure in poisoning her victims.
The Sociopath: Has referred to herself as a "Well-known sociopath," and there was increasing evidence she truly didn't give a shit about anyone, not Roy or Lian, if it wasn't convenient for her. The idea that she openly refers to herself as a sociopath may imply she's not, but is trying to be in order to live with the bloodshed on her hands.
The Starscream: Spent most of her stay in Deathstroke's Titans planning to betray him, even manipulating Roy to assist her. Slade was all too aware of it, but still kept her around because he figured he could still handle her. When she actually made her move, she was more successful than both expected. Later, a mind-reading villain finds out she was actually hoping Slade would kill her.
Stupid Evil: Holding the world ransom with stolen nuclear warheads was one thing, but the fact that she actually used one to prove she wasn't bluffing managed to be the stupidest thing she's ever done due to not considering what would happen if she were ever caught. Now everybody hates her and more people want her dead than before.
Suicide by Cop: Mind reader villain Drago finds out she has been trying to do this ever since Lian died, and it was the primary reason she attempted to betray Slade.
Sympathy for the Devil: Roy and Lian are literally the only people on the planet who feel any sense of sorrow or compassion for Jade, and that's only because she's Lian's mom AND even then the two both feel she deserves punishment for her actions. The idea they still care about her, Roy especially, has left both of them to wonder if there's something wrong with themselves.
Token Evil Teammate: When she was part of the Secret Six and later Deathstroke's Titans because she was actively conspiring against Slade and exploiting Arsenal's breakdown.
Took a Level in Dumbass: Jade always had a rather eloquent vernacular, but following Rise of Arsenal and starting in Villains for Hire her vocabulary suddenly became extremely limited and she started swearing more frequently.
Toxic Friend Influence: Well, Toxic Ex-Girlfriend Influence on Roy Harper. She eagerly manipulates their past relationship and the fact that she had his daughter just about every time they meet, with key moments being in Rise of Arsenal and the second Titans book. In the former Jade had shown up to kill Roy because of Lian's death, but if she hadn't said "our baby is gone" after she'd been cornered, Roy may have very well killed her. In Titans, Roy only joined Deathstroke's team because Cheshire said he "owed" her for Lian's death.
Tragic Villain: Cheshire is a deeply unhappy and angry woman so traumatized by her childhood spent in slavery and how she grew up with no healthy ways to vent her emotions that she has destroyed every meaningful relationship she may have had.
- Growing up with the fear of being enslaved and held captive again have caused her to do anything and everything possible to prevent it from happening, including sacrificing her daughter's well-being. Said actions included selling out the Secret Six and manipulating Catman into helping her conceive a child, which not only made the Six her sworn enemies but proved to the global villain community she can never be trusted as an ally.
- Her efforts to prove how dangerous she is destroyed whatever ethics she may have had and got her labeled a genocidal maniac, making it impossible for her to ever have a life with Roy and Lian and causing them no end of unhappiness at seeing what Jade's become. Even if she had justifiable reasons to hate Roy because of their original relationship, her actions, later on, overshadowed whatever he may have done to her and convinced him Jade was beyond salvation.
- Jade's biggest fear of becoming trapped again has been fulfilled by none other than herself, and she's now stuck living a life as a wanted criminal feared, hated, and distrusted by every person around her with no one but herself to blame for how she got here.
Troll: It doesn't get any pettier than blowing up the terrorist capital of the world just to prove you could and for laughing in the face of global hypocrisy.
Woman Scorned: This is the whole reason she had Lian. The next time she met Roy Harper after their relationship ended, she told him about their child, a child she was never going to let him see as revenge. And when Roy did meet Lian, Jade changed her plan to taunting Roy by giving him the barest of details on Lian's development but never letting him see her again.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In Villains United, she was blackmailed into compliance by threats against Lian's safety. Over the course of the miniseries she successfully seduced Catman and managed to conceive a replacement baby in order to betray and leave the Secret Six with Lian's welfare no longer being an issue (that she cared about). It turned out the threat was false, but she didn't know that. She then immediately had this trope pulled on her when Deathstroke shoots her as soon she's visible, coldly stating the Secret Society doesn't need traitors. Though she survived, it wasn't for lack of trying on Slade's part.

Tropes associated with Cheshire (Post-Flashpoint)

Jade Nguyen / Cheshire

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cheshire_infinite_frontiers.jpg

Cheshire's design in Infinite Frontiers

^{Click here to see her design in The New 52}

^{Click here to see her design in Rebirth}

First appearance: Red Hood and the Outlaws Annual #1

In the Post-Flashpoint timeline, Jade Nguyen is introduced as a member of the League of Assassins who trained under Bronze Tiger along with Jason Todd. But she quickly part ways with the League and starts working as a mercenary for all kinds of villains. She also maintained an unspecified romantic history with Roy/Arsenal. In DC Infinite Frontier, Jade and Roy's daughter Lian was retconned back into existence.

Adaptation Origin Connection: While she was a Professional Killer Pre-Flashpoint, her introduction in The New 52 on Red Hood and the Outlaws has her as a member of the League of Assassins who trained there alongside Jason Todd under Bronze Tiger, which seems to be where many of her assassination skills. She does quit the League at the end of the arc involving them, but still seems to maintain ties as she has worked with them on occasion, such as her appearance in Nightwing.
Ambiguous Situation: Since she has been Out of Focus, it's ambiguous how much of her previous backstory remains canon.
Antagonist in Mourning: Despite having an antagonistic relationship with Roy/Arsenal when it happened, she still attended his funeral, standing away far from everyone else, in the back.
The Atoner: Seems to be seeking redemption in Volume 5 of Catwoman, under the mentorship of reformed villain Basil Karlo/Clayface.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In Titans (Rebirth), she shows up to Roy pretending she's working to take down the same criminal cartel as he is and suggests them to team up. But she's actually secretly working for The Brain who's behind The Cartel and is only manipulating Roy, and goes as far as seducing him and inflicting him with an experimental drug during intercourse.
Casual Danger Dialogue: Jade likes to banter and even flirt with her teammates and opponents during battle, especially during her appearances in Red Hood and the Outlaws.
Cats Are Snarkers: Jade is a cat-themed Professional Killer who is known for her flirty banter and snarker tendencies, even during combat.
Cerebus Retcon: It was made to look like Cheshire allowed everyone believe Lian was dead so she would have a better life, when Lian's death was averted due to the machinations of a future Green Arrow working with Amanda Waller and Parallax. Jade never knew Lian was alive, and was shocked when she saw Cheshire Cat because for all she knew her daughter was dead.
Cruel to Be Kind: Unintentionally deconstructed. She abandons an amnesiac Lian believing she's giving her a normal life. Jade immensely misunderstood how really cruel this ended up being for all parties involved, letting Roy and everyone else believe Lian was dead, denying Lian a childhood with people who loved her until she ends up a lackey of Catwoman, and making Jade herself even more miserable spending years not knowing where her daughter might be.
The Gadfly: She seems to enjoy messing around with people just for laughs in Red Hood and the Outlaws.
Give Him a Normal Life: Cheshire after Festival of Heroes revealed she knew Lian was alive and left her amnesiac daughter at a church in Gotham City, under the logic it would be better for Lian than to be raised than going back to Roy. Unfortunately, knowing that Lian is currently a homeless orphan who had to resort to stealing on a regular basis in order to survive and the implication the rest of her childhood and most of her adolescence was spent growing up without a family or any real sense of stability only makes Cheshire come across as shortsighted and incredibly neglectful. This was later retconned out in Green Arrow (2023), where it established Jade didn't abandon Lian because even she didn't know Lian was alive. Lian's status was kept hidden thanks to a version of her grandfather collaborating with Amanda Waller and Parallax to keep the Arrow Family split up.
Good Feels Good: She Invokes this in Titans (Rebirth), telling Roy it feels good to fight the bad guys for a change when she gets a job to take down The Cartel, but it's later revealed she was manipulating him the whole time, and likely just told him that to gain his trust.
The Hilarity of Hats: She steals Roy's hat during her first appearance in Red Hood and the Outlaws, and wears it to mock him for the entire duration of her time in the run.
Intangibility: During her tenure in the League of Assassins, she had a cybernetic implant that lets her phase through solid matter.
Malevolent Masked Woman: At some point, she started to wear the sinister Cheshire Cat mask her animated counterparts in Teen Titans (2003) and Young Justice (2010).
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Following the retcon of Lian's death, Jade was shown leaving her unconscious and amnesiac daughter in a church in Gotham City operating under the pretext that it would be better for Lian to have a fresh start cut off from her parents and extended family. Fast forward several years later and it's shown Jade's spur of the moment plan backfired pretty badly, now that Lian's a homeless, pickpocketing teen orphan working as a lackey for Catwoman. Which isn't even taking into account that she abandoned Lian in Gotham City, of all places. With no memories, no family, and no means of support, it's honestly a wonder how Lian was able to survive living in Gotham long enough to become a teenager.
Out of Focus: Until she got involved in Lian Harper's storyline Infinite Frontier, Jade mostly just worked as hired muscle for the Evil Plan of various villains, and had no personal stake in any of them, and her backstory has never been explored.
Parental Abandonment: DC Infinite Frontier revealed she's known Lian was actually alive all this time, but left her in some church at Gotham City unconscious and with total amnesia thinking she'd be better off this way. She was wrong. Subverted due to the fact she didn't abandon Lian.
Pet the Dog:
- She sympathized with Roy and assisted him and Starfire escape when they were imprisoned by the League of Assassins, before she defected herself.
- She thought she was doing this when she gave Lian up, when instead she severed Lian from her family and let her grow up as an amnesiac orphan living on the streets of Gotham City.
Villain Teleportation: During her tenure in the League of Assassins, she had a cybernetic implant that allowed her to teleport over small distances, much like the original Cheshire Cat could.
Water Source Tampering: Her role in the Ninth Circle's attack on Seattle in Green Arrow (Rebirth) was to poison the city's water supply, which would spread an awful disease in everyone who drank it, but she was stopped by Arsenal and Red Arrow.

Cheshire appearances in other media

Animation

Teen Titans (2003): Cheshire was a minor villain who appeared as a recruit of the Brotherhood of Evil during season 5. Notably this version is much younger, has Invisibility powers, has no poison skills and wears the Cheshire Cat mask, the first instance of any version of Cheshire to do so. Her history with Roy is somewhat acknowledged by her fighting primarily Speedy, but there's no real romantic subtext between them. Click here to see her character page.
Young Justice (2010): Cheshire is one of the major recurring antagonists during the show, reimagined as a member of the Crook family, being the older sister to Artemis Crook/Tigress and daughter of Sportsmaster. She's also a member of the League of Shadows (the show's version of the League of Assassins. Much like in her Teen Titan incarnation, she has no poison skills and fights primary as a martial artist and also wears the Cheshire Cat mask. Her relationship with Roy Harper is also featured prominently, which results in Lian being introduced in season 2. She's voiced by Kelly Hu. Click here to see her character page.
DC Super Hero Girls: Cheshire is a minor antagonist, debuting in the second season of the show, going up against Harley Quinn and Lady Shiva. Her design more closely resembles what she wears in the comics, and she's acknowledged as a Professional Killer who fights using her sharpened nails. She's voiced by Nika Futterman. Click here to see her character page.

Video Games

Young Justice: Legacy: She appears as one of the antagonists of the game, and is one of the boss fights. She's voiced by Kelly Hu.
Batman: Arkham Origins: Cheshire is briefly referenced as one of the assassins considered by Black Mask to hunt down Batman, but was ultimately rejected.
LEGO Batman: Cheshire is one of the playable characters in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. She uses a costume similar to her comic version and her moveset only uses her swords. She's voiced by Tara Strong. She also appeared in LEGO DC Super-Villains and Lego DC Heroes and Villains. Click here to see her character page.

Characters / Teen Titans: Cheshire

Cheshire

Alter ego: Jade Nguyen / Jade Chaumont

Species: Human

Created by: Marv Wolfman, George Pérez

First Appearance: New Teen Titans Annual #2 (1983)

Jade Nguyen / Cheshire

Jade Nguyen / Cheshire

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Characters / Teen Titans: Cheshire

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Cheshire

Alter ego: Jade Nguyen / Jade Chaumont

Species: Human

Created by: Marv Wolfman, George Pérez

First Appearance: New Teen Titans Annual #2 (1983)

Jade Nguyen / Cheshire

Jade Nguyen / Cheshire

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