Profile: Josh Jackam

Josh Jackam
First appearance: The Flash #170 Vol. 2, March 2001

History: the son of the late Julie Jackam, the policewoman shoehorned into Wally West's life by Geoff Johns, he was taken into custody for a while by Iris West Allen, whom Julie had granted permission to serve as custodian should anything happen to her (and sadly, did).

Current status: dead.

Was subjected to the following act of discrimination: not only did he lose his mother, young Josh later lost his own life to Bart Allen's leading nemesis, Inertia. In Rogues' Revenge #3 in 2008, a Final Crisis tied miniseries, Darkseid tried to invade earth, and Libra kidnapped Josh from his grandmother, into whose custody he'd been passed, as a ploy to get the Rogues to fight on their side. But Inertia, who'd become a pathetic "Kid Zoom" sidekick to the neo-Zoom Hunter Zolomon, decided to end any hostage crisis by murdering Josh with a sonic wave blow at point blank range. Did I mention that his biological father, the Weather Wizard, had no problem with offing him earlier if that's what it took to get some increased powers?

What's wrong with how this was done? Not only did this useless story turn a once decent supercrook into an embarrassment, just like Dr. Light post-Identity Crisis, it went overboard with the pointless murder of an infant. Or, more precisely, Geoff Johns went overboard, and pretty much explained why I won't be reading his future output as a writer anymore. I will not give accolades to a writer who indulges in violence and shocks for the sake of it, and sullies a title that wasn't built on the kind of R-rated violence Johns has been forcing down people's throats for a decade now.

On this page, it tells that we don't actually see a body. Well I'm sorry to say, but that makes zero difference. What matters is that an infant was turned into a sacrifice in a violent crime for no good reason, and looks to be simply forgotten. This vile death of an infant preceded that of Lian Harper, the daughter of Roy Harper, by a year and a half, and while it may not be the first of its kind in DC Comics, it's still a sad signal that DC has added young children to their character-killing spree that's been going on since the early 90s.

I know there's been plenty of rightful outrage over Lian's death in Cry for Justice, which I want to write about as well. But where was the outrage over the monstrosity that is Rogues' Revenge, and the death of a young infant in that particular miniseries? Of all the shock tactics and repeated hammering of readers' senses Johns has pulled in his career of writing series like the Flash, this has got to be his worst yet, and if that's how he's going to handle things, he does not deserve to even be an editor.