Real Name: Abdul al-Sab, later changed to Jack L. Calthrop
Identity: Secret
Group Affiliation: WWFJ
First Appearance: TWO-PAWED TALES #3.
Personality: In his private life, Jack Calthrop has abandoned his career of acting, but he can never relinquish his charisma and skill as a performer. He is known as the gentleman libertine by some and the vigilante rake by others. He can fast-talk his way in and out of most situations and when that fails he can always rely on his physical prowess.
Powers & Tactics: The application of the mystic Dho-Dho paint has permanently granted Crackerjackal with enhanced strength, endurance, speed and perception. His primary weapon is a standard composite bow which he uses with unparalleled expertise. He also relies on other simple light weapons and tools as required. He is fast becoming an expert computer hacker.
History:
Abdul al-Sab, the most celebrated actor in his desert country, was known as ‘the jackal of a thousand faces.’ Having starred in over 70 films in his native land, al-Sab decided to test the waters of the Western film industry and booked a flight to Tinseltown. His flight was caught in a storm over the ocean and crashed onto a small uncharted island. Al-Sab was the only survivor.
With no survival skills, Al-Sab would have died were it not for the intervention of the native populace. These natives – the Dho-Dho folk – nursed him back to health and accepted him as one of their own.
The Dho-Dhos, who al-Sab noted as incredibly robust and hearty, were also pacifists. They taught al-Sab their spirituality and their mysticism, part of which was a seasonal ceremonial hunt that involved painting themselves with a certain mixture of berries and fungus native to the island. This mystic “joogoo” paint was sacred to the Dho-Dhos, and granted a preternatural strength, stamina, and skill to those who wore it.
Al-Sab had been living with the Dho-Dhos for years when the island was discovered by pirates. The pirates wanted the island for themselves and threatened the peaceful Dho-Dho way of life.
Al-Sab pleaded with the chief Dho-Dho to fight the pirates, but the Dho-Dhos could not bear such a concept and were taken one by one by the pirates to be bartered away on some faraway port as slaves. Al-Sab, incensed, stole into the shaman’s store of joogoo paint and applied the entire supply to his body.
Granted with great swiftness and power Al-Sab used the sacred bow and arrows and engaged the pirates in an attempt to free his friends. Al-Sab killed the pirates and rescued the Dho-Dhos, but the chief could not excuse the jackal for his crimes against their way of life and al-Sab was banished from the tribe.
Al-Sab used the pirate’s boat to return to civilization. Abandoning altogether his previous life and identity, he maintains himself as a computer security specialist by day under the name Jack L. Calthrop, while by night he metes out justice to criminals as Crackerjackal.