Real Name: Jacqueline Falsworth Chapman

Class: Altered Human

Occupation: Adventurer

Affiliations: Member of Pendragons

Scale of Operations: Europe

Powers: Spitfire has superhuman speed and agility. 

History:  

(Note: Partially taken from the Marvel Directory, with additional Pendragons-specific information)

Jacqueline Falsworth was the daughter of the British aristocrat, Montgomery, Lord Falsworth, who had been known during World War I as the costumed champion Union Jack. In early 1942, Jacqueline was serving in Britain's Home Guard, a civil defense group, when she was attacked by the vampire Baron Blood, an agent of Nazi Germany. Unknown to Jacqueline at this time, Baron Blood was actually her own uncle, Lord John Falsworth. Baron Blood was forced to flee by the original Human Torch, who took Jacqueline to her home, Falsworth Manor, where the Torch met her father. Lord Falsworth and Jacqueline befriended the Torch and his fellow members of the Invaders, a team of costumed adventurers who battled the Axis powers on behalf of the Allies during World War II.

Subsequently, Baron Blood abducted Jacqueline but was defeated by Union Jack and the Invader Captain America. Suffering from a great loss of blood from being bitten by Baron Blood, Jacqueline was rushed to a hospital by the Invaders. There she received an emergency transfusion of blood from the original Human Torch, an android. While she was recovering, the Nazi agent called the Blue Bullet attacked the hospital in search of the Invaders. To her surprise, the still-recuperating Jacqueline discovered that she now had the ability to move at superhuman speed. She courageously used her new power to save the Human's Torch's life from the Blue Bullet's attack. The Blue Bullet was then defeated by another Invader, the Sub-Mariner.

Jacqueline discovered that as a result of the combination of a foreign element introduced into her bloodstream by Baron Blood's bites and the artificial blood given her by the android Human Torch, she had developed the ability to move at superhuman speed and exceptional metabolic vitality. (Possibly the android blood and the element introduced into her bloodstream by Baron Blood had actually jointly activated latent mutations in Jacqueline, thus giving her these superhuman capabilities.) Following her complete recovery from her injuries, Jacqueline made herself a costume, took the name Spitfire (after the British war planes of the period), and volunteered for Invaders membership. She was accepted into the team. Spitfire fought alongside the Invaders, including her brother, the second Union Jack, while the group was in the European Theater of Operations. At the war's end she retired as a costumed adventurer and began a short-lived, and mostly disastrous, romantic relationship with Captain Kerosene.

Jacqueline's superhuman capabilities gradually faded as her body slowly eliminated the foreign elements that had given them to her. Her superhuman abilities had entirely vanished by 1950. In 1956 she married the British nobleman Lord Crichton. They subsequently had a son, Kenneth. Lady Crichton, as she became known, moved back to Falsworth Manor to care for her aged father, who died a year after her return there.

Later, Jacqueline helped assemble Namorita, Captain America and Union Jack to aid the former Invaders, the original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, who were captured by the latest incarnation of the Nazi villain, Master Man. In attempting to rescue their ally, Jacqueline was mortally wounded. After yet another emergency blood transfusion from the android Human Torch, Jacqueline's metabolism returned to super human levels and her Spitfire powers have reactivated. A side effect of her returning powers caused her to become young again, as she reverted to the body of a 16 year-old. Nevertheless, Jacqueline returned to her home at Crichton Manor.

Jacqueline's son Kenneth then became a thrall to Baroness Blood, who sought to use Kenneth in a complex scheme to acquire the Holy Grail. Union Jack was unable to prevent Kenneth's transformation into the new Baron Blood and he was forced to slay his former friend. Jacqueline was heart-broken and swore vengeance on the woman who'd taken her son from her.

When Mordred launched his assault on Avalon, Spitfire donned her costume once more to accompany Joey Chapman on his missions. The two had grown closer through the loss of Kenneth and they became lovers shortly after the current Pendragons were formed. Together, they learned that Kenneth had returned to life and set off in search for him. They discovered that he had been slain again by Blade, but that he had fathered a child with the Baroness. Spitfire later rescued her grandson, who suffers from a peculiar form of vampirism, and elected to raise him as her own, naming him after his father.

Spitfire and Union Jack made plans to be married, but their idyllic romance was shattered by the Jaspers Warp enacted by Mad Jim Jaspers. When the villain remade reality, he slew Joey Chapman and temporarily wiped all memory of their relationship from Spitfire's mind. When her memories returned, she felt violated and more alone than ever. Even worse, she soon discovered that she was pregnant with Joey's child -- a child fathered during the heat of the Jaspers Warp, which means that it has the potential to grow into the one of the powerful Warpies.

Spitfire has recently been reunited with her son Kenneth, who served as the fourth Union Jack. She has also regained the love of Joey Chapman, who was returned to her after Kelsey Leigh made a tremendous personal sacrifice, aiding the Green Knight in resurrecting Joey. Jacqueline and Joey were married and began splitting time between the Pendragons and their child. She briefly adopted the identity of Union Jaq during Joey's time as Captain Britain [Pendragons 93 - 110] but has recently returned to her Spitfire identity.

Note: In the aftermath of Pendragons # 75, history has been altered. Spitfire was now a member of both the Invaders and the Golden Age Pendragons during the 1940s.

                                                        Third Image Art by Jared Jones