Crimson Avenger - Jill Carlyle

Jill Carlyle

Since then, another Crimson Avenger has appeared. This character, like the original El Diablo, serves as a minor Spirit of Vengeance. She is an African-American woman who possesses the powers of teleportation and intangibility. In a flashback sequence, we see that she studied law but apparently lost a case in which the defendant was clearly guilty. She obtains a pair of Colt pistols originally owned by the first Crimson Avenger and uses them to exact vengeance upon the unknown criminal. These guns are cursed such that, if the possessor uses them out of revenge, he or she will be cursed to track and kill those who have taken innocent life. As part of the curse, an ever-bleeding bullet hole appears on her chest.

Upon gaining a new "assignment," she mentally relives the death of the victim, and then is teleported to their place of burial. She then gains the memory and skills of those whose deaths she is avenging. Her guns never miss, never run out of ammunition, and have no triggers. The bullets are capable of penetrating any substance, and can wound invulnerable heroes such as Superman and Power Girl, as well as crack the armored shell of Captain Atom. The guns seemingly have a mind of their own, as she speaks of having to restrain them from shooting those who come between her and her target. Her intangibility does not function against her own weapons or other magical forces. Unless/until the curse is lifted, she is seemingly immortal. She once attempts to kill herself with her own weapons, but this merely results in ending her current "assignment" and delivering her to the next one.

She is a member of the JSA during the "Stealing Thunder" storyline- the group at the time being short on heroes after the Ultra-Humanite has used the Thunderbolt to take over the world-, where her mission is to avenge the death of Lee Travis, revealing that the explosion that killed him was caused by the Ultra-Humanite. She returns later in JSA #52-53, tracking down Wildcat for framing a man called Charles Durham for a crime he didn't commit, only to learn that Wildcat only framed Durham after he killed his brother, sister-in-law and nephew after his brother killed his fiancée. Since the D.A. didn't have anything on Durham, he was going to go free after killing an entire family, driving Wildcat to plant evidence implicating him in the death of his fiancée. While she performs her cursed duty, she attempts to learn how Lee Travis seemingly divested himself of the guns' curse, and begins to realize that she is not always contacted by the spirits of the innocent.

Though attacked by the Spectre in a 2005 issue of JSA, the Crimson Avenger is seen at Blackgate Prison, fighting escaping inmates during the worldwide supervillain breakout the Society engineered in Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special #1. The Crimson Avenger later appears, alongside the current Vigilante and Wild Dog, on a rooftop in the great Battle of Metropolis, raining bullets down on the Trigger Twins, the Madmen and Spellbinder. She appears as one of the dozens of heroes and villains kidnapped by aliens in Action Comics #842 and 843. Other heroes free everyone trapped and Vigilante is seen fighting the security forces.

She is later seen gunning down the supervillain known as Catalyst after Prometheus sends random super-criminals to attack the world's heroes in order to distract them from his master plan.