Jackie Chopra

Origin

Jackie "Jacks" Chopra is the illegitimate daughter of Dane Whitman and Ashima Chopra. Her parents had met long before Dane had ever found the Ebony Blade and became the Black Knight. They were first year college students, but their relationship suffered when Ashima was diagnosed with cancer. She and her family moved to London to work with a specialist, and Ashima proposed marriage to get Dane to come with them. Dane was excelling in school so he decided to stay and finish. Ashima said she understood, but she also never revealed that she was pregnant with their child. Because of her pregnancy, she refused the radiotherapy and eventually succumbed to the cancer. Thus, Jacks was born without either parent in her life.

Creation

Jackie Chopra made her debut in Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade #1 by Si Spurrier and Sergio Davila

Major Story Arcs

Curse of the Ebony Blade

Jacks was a graduate student of Arthurian legend and was researching her thesis that Camelot never existed. This bold claim got the attention of her biological father, who wanted her help investigating the Ebony Blade. Unfortunately, when she gets there, Dane had been killed while on Avengers business but was mysteriously resurrected by the blade. Although he dismisses Jacks so that he could look into his health, Jacks starts having strange visions of the blade’s forging, forcing them to work together.

Soon, they would be allied with Elsa Bloodstone, who is trying to stop Mordred from using a bloodgem to collect all of the Ebony Artifacts. Although Mordred had already assembled a number of them, Jacks’ visions led them to the Ebony Chalice, drinking from which would grant them the knowledge they were looking for. With it, they found Mordred, who was forging the Ebony Artifacts into a single Ebony Crown. Because drinking from the chalice weakened Dane, Jacks was forced to fight Mordred with the blade. She was no match for Mordred and was seemingly killed.

Fortunately, the blade resurrects any Arthurian heir, revealing the truth of her lineage to herself. She managed to land a significant blow to Mordred that allowed a fatally wounded Dane to drag Mordred to the afterlife. Dane was then resurrected yet again, this time by the Ebony Crown. With both of them now realizing that they are actually father and daughter, they decided to work together from now on. They melted the Ebony Crown down to create the Ebon Siege, a throne that could grant visions of possible futures. Together, they would trade off using the Ebony Blade as the Black Knight in hopes of reducing the toll it takes and possibly learning to become a real family.

Death of Doctor Strange

When Doctor Strange was killed, the barrier that protected Earth from other dimensions weakened, and a number of threats came through. Monitoring from the Ebon Siege, Dane directed Jackie towards London. It was being attacked by Necromon and his Hungry Land, a dark fog that feeds on the souls of its inhabitants. Dane could see him be repelled by King Arthur and Merlin in the past. It was released when Arthur pulled Excalibur from the stone, and, rather than return the sword to its resting place, Merlin created the barrier and tied it to the Sorcerer Supreme.

The X-Men had already tried to defend London but were subjugated by Necromon. This forced Jackie to fight them. She was joined by Faiza Hussein, who Dane told Jackie to trust, however, the blade was amping up Jackie’s anger, causing her to lash out and abandon Faiza. Ultimately, she proved incapable of taking on Necromon. In a last ditch effort, Jackie convinced Faiza to share their immunity to Necromon’s magic with Rogue and Synch to get them reinforcements.

With the demonic X-Men out of their way, Jacks and Faiza combine their swords to create a spark of light that repels dark magic, rather than attract it like they do apart, saving London.

Mythomancy

When she crossed paths with the X-Men, both Synch and Jean Grey were able to scan Jacks and figure out that she was a mutant whose power either hadn’t activated yet or was too subtle to perceive. Some time later, her power manifested to temporarily turn humans into mutants by touch. Most of the evidence of this were those she saved while acting as The Black Knight. Her powers were so strong that they were able to fool the mutant detecting tests from Orchis until the effects finally wore off. With Dane on a mission, Jacks turned to Angel at X-Corporation in Los Angeles for help.

Unfortunately, their interaction caused Angel to mutate further. She was forced to defend herself from Angel’s new monstrousness, when they were interrupted by the Legion of X. They had already been investigating mutagenic phenomena when their leader, Nightcrawler, sprouted a pair of horns. Legionnaire Pixie determined that it was "mythomancy," a reality warping spell that turns lies, myths, and beliefs into reality. This particular one used Jacks’ ability to exaggerate the racist belief that mutants are monsters.

Their investigation led them to Margali Szardos, Nightcrawler's adopted mother, who had been hired by Orchis in their quest to defeat mutantkind. Ultimately, they were overwhelmed by Orchis and taken prisoner. With questionable help from Mother Righteous, Legion was able to save them from Orchis' space station. Once back on Krakoa, Mother Righteous was able to reverse Margali's mythomancy spell, a spell that took her centuries to learn in an alternate future. Freed from the curse, Jackie left the mutant world to return to her dad.

Power and Abilities

Ebony Artifacts: Along with her father, Dane, Jacks has access to the Ebony Artifacts. They trade off using them, either the Ebony Sword, as the Black Knight, or the Ebon Siege, as support

• Ebony Sword: The magical sword gives Jacks an array of magical abilities including immunity to magic and increase in strength based on her negative emotional state.
• Ebon Siege: While using the Ebon Siege, created from the rest of the Ebony Artifacts melted down and reforged into a throne, Jacks can see both precognitive and postcognitive visions.
• Resurrection: Thanks to her blood relation to the Arthurian lineage, the Ebony Artifacts are able to resurrect her if she falls in battle.

X-Gene: Jacks has the ability to temporarily turn a human into a mutant through touch. It is a strong enough transformation to convince the mutant detector home tests of Orchis. She does not seem to be able to control it.