Get ready to board Driver 8's train into the Underground.
Deadline has word that the upcoming DC Universe series Doom Patrol has cast Diane Guerrero as Kay Challis, better known to DC Comics fans as the superhero with dissociative identity disorder, Crazy Jane.
Crazy Jane is described in the article as "an unlikely hero suffering from the world’s most severe case of multiple personality disorder. Each of her 64 distinct personas manifest a different super power, making Jane the Doom Patrol’s most powerful member…and also its most unstable."
Doom Patrol is a reimagining of one of DC’s strangest group of outcasts: Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Woman and Crazy Jane. Led by the mysterious Dr. Niles Caulder they’re called into action by the ultimate hero for the digital age, Cyborg. Banding together these rejects find themselves on a mission that will take them to the weirdest and most unexpected corners of the DC universe.
Guerrero, 32, is best known as Maritza Ramos on the Netflix series Orange is the New Black and as Lina on The CW series Jane the Virgin. Her other television appearances include episodes of Superior Donuts, Person of Interest, Blue Bloods, Are We There Yet?, and Body of Proof.
Created in 1989 by Grant Morrison and Richard Case, Crazy Jane first appeared in Doom Patrol (vol.2) #19 as Kay Challis, who was molested by her father, beginning when she was five years old. The first time her father molested her, she was putting a jigsaw puzzle together, which became an important symbol in her future. Kay eventually withdrew completely and was replaced by an alternate personality answering by the name "Miranda." One Easter Sunday, Miranda was the victim of rape in a church, triggering flashbacks to her former abuse, the destruction of the "Miranda" personality and the completion of the massive personality fragmentation. Kay was committed to a mental institution soon after.
Crazy Jane's personalities were organized in a mental subway grid called the Underground. Each personality had its own "station", which appeared to serve as home when they were not in control. In the lower section of the Underground was a well where the personalities could go to destroy themselves, which was where Miranda was killed. The Well housed the Daddy persona of Jane's mind.
As a result of exposure to the alien Dominators' "gene bomb" during the event known as Invasion!, Kay's dominant alternate personality Jane Morris and all her other personalities were affected, with each personality gaining a different power (e.g. Black Annis has retractable claws, Flit can teleport, etc.). Cliff Steele, the Doom Patrol member known as Robotman, was staying in the same institution as Jane when Dr. Will Magnus asked Cliff to look after her, which led to Jane becoming a member of Doom Patrol.
Near the end of Morrison's run on Doom Patrol, Jane made a pilgrimage back to her childhood home, facing her own traumas and overcoming them. This brought peace to her inner turmoil, and her personalities integrated into facets of a more normal, if complex, single personality. Unfortunately, upon returning to the Doom Patrol, Jane was attacked by The Candlemaker and thrown into another dimension, similar to the real world, where she was interned as a schizophrenic and treated using shock therapy. Cliff eventually rescued Jane from the other dimension.
Doom Patrol is expected to premiere on DC Universe sometime in 2019.