Helga Jace is a major antagonist in Young Justice: Outsiders. Although initially appearing to be a caring, affectionate and passionate woman dedicated to protecting Tara and Brion, she is revealed to be a mad scientist who turned both the Markov siblings into meta-humans and viewed her "children" as she puts it, as a testament to her own warped and obssessive pride.
She was voiced by Grey Griffin.
Appearance[]
Helga Jace is a slender, attractive woman in her early 30's. She has green eyes and brown hair, which is often tied in a ponytail. She wears glasses with oval lenses and a thin frame, and almost always wears a white lab coat.
Personality[]
On the surface, Helga appears to be a very affectionate, loving, thoughtful, and motherly individual who would do anything for Tara, Brion and Violet. She constantly checks up on them, talks to them whenever they are having emotional problems, and is the confidant of their deepest secrets and emotions. She also appears to be a very loving partner who holds the heart of Jefferson Pierce close to the vest. Unfortunately, underneath this noble persona lies the heart of a cunning, untrustworthy, delusional, narcissistic and hideously sociopathic mad scientist.
While claiming that she was forced to work at the Bedlam Syndicate and only doing so for the well-beings of the kidnapped children, Jace was later revealed to have been a willingly participant in the illegal meta-human experiments conductedon them. She eventually grew to see the meta-humans created throufh her genius as her own "children", showing a twisted version of love. This "love" was strong enough that when Baron Bedlam took away Tara, her "daughter", she swore revenge and eventually sought to destroy the entire syndicate.
She possesses incredible manipulation skills, demonstrated when she was able to subtly coax Brion into becoming a meta-human by making him think it was the only way to fight meta-human traffickers while making Brion believe it was his idea. She seduces Jefferson Pierce and used him in order to reunite with her "children" and get more resources, as well as a new laboratory. She was also convincing enough to not raise suspicion from any of the other heroes.
Even though she "loves" her children, this only applies to those who she personally turned into meta's. When initially believing Violet to be a meta-human, Helga treated her as warm and lovingly as others amongst her Meta family, but upon realizing that she tested negative for the meta-gene, as her initial diagnosis showed, and was really a corpse revived by the spirit of a Motherbox, she came to despise her, viewing her as a perverse joke. One whose presence she felt tainted her loving son, Brion. She had no qualms about killing her original self Gabrielle with an overdose of morphine, only stopping Henchy from killing her with a gun in the lab because of the mess it would make. Additionally, when the opportunity arose to secure Tara and Brion's for herself and expand her "family" in exchange for Violet, she did this without hesitation.
Helga shows all the signs of a narcissist and a sociopath; she views every action she takes as justified and is unable or unwilling to see the wrongness of her actions, having little to no regard for the lives she has experimented on and ruined nor for those she manipulates and deceives, viewing the meta-humans she created as her "children" but the "love" she has for them is possessive and selfish, the vile doctor's have a severe misconception of having a happy family with all of her "children". On a basic level, her "love" for her "children" is sincere as sociopaths can form a basic and sincere connection to others yet remain selfish to great extremes.
Trivia[]
- Zviad mentions that Helga is motherly to all meta children; even those who immigrate to Markovia.
- Helga is on a tight leash after being accepted by Brion to help facilitate meta immigration; if she steps out of line, no amount of mental nudging Zviad gives will keep Helga safe.
