Origin

Jill Carlyle was a criminal attorney, who purchased the pistols of the original Crimson Avenger (Lee Travis) from a pawn shop. She wanted to enact justice on someone she deemed guilty of a crime that she failed to convict him of. Once she dispatched him, she became cursed by the weapons, becoming their vessel, so to speak. An ever-bleeding and painful bullet wound manifested in the center of her chest as a chilling emblem of the new Crimson Avenger. Instead of a mask, she wears a crimson blindfold over her eyes in tribute to Lady Justice. She apparently has the powers of teleportation and ethereal intangibility. She also gains the memories and skills of the individual she is currently "avenging". Whether these skills become permanent or are merely temporary is unknown. It is to be assumed that Lee Travis's skills have automatically been transferred to Jill, the current "wielder".

Creation

Jill Carlyle makes her first technical appearance in the epilogue of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #9 by Geoff Johns and and Scott Kolins. She is featured only in the shadows and shows up in full view at the end of JSA (1998) #33, also by Geoff Johns.

Major Story Arcs

Stealing Thunder

Carlyle was recruited for a newly formed JSA after the Ultra-Humanite was able to brainwash the entire world, including Superman and a few other powerful heroes. They were all infected with braincaps, small devices that made influencing their brains easier and could neutralize their abilities if need be. Thankfully, this JSA had a device that could remove the braincaps. Other metas and masked heroes were in frozen stasis and needed rescuing.

She joined them as they raided Ultra-Humanite’s lair and slowly but surely freed superheroes one by one. Carlyle had other plans though. She was driven by her guns’ need for vengeance. Their original owner, Lee Travis, died in an explosion engineered by the Ultra-Humanite. While Sand and Icicle argued over whether or not to kill the Ultra-Humanite, Carlyle’s guns shot his brain-in-a-vat, much to Sand’s chagrin.

She teleported away before Sand could take her into custody.

Death Duty

After killing the Ultra- Humanite, Carlyle thought the guns might let her go, but they did not. Instead, she was made aware of a new victim: Charles Durham. Durham was a former drug dealer who turned his life around and fell in love. The day before his wedding, he is arrested for the rape and murder of an old classmate. He was framed but still convicted and executed by electric chair. The guns pointed her toward the man who falsified the evidence: JSA member, Wildcat.

She tracked Wildcat down while he was taking down Kahndaq terrorists with Power Girl. Carlyle opened fire on both of them, but Ted was resurrected thanks to his mystical cat nine lives. On his fifth life, he focuses on getting injured P.G., whose near-invulnerable skin is vulnerable to Carlyle’s bullets, to safety. After losing his fifth life to Carlyle, he resurrected again and explained the situation. Charlie’s brother rape and killed Charlie’s fiancee. Charlie got retribution by killing his brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. The DA had nothing on Charlie for his actual murder, so Ted framed him for the murder of his own fiancee. Upon hearing this, Carlyle had a crisis of conscience and attempted to kill herself with the guns.

Instead, they teleported her away and assigned her a new spirit to get vengeance for.

Days of Vengeance

When Eclipso, possessing the body of Jean Loring, was able to corrupt The Spectre with her influence, they targeted a number of magic users, including Carlyle. They tracked her to a bar where she was enacting vengeance, but her guns had no effect on Spectre. Instead, he returned fire with his own magic bullet which hit Carlyle in the shoulder.

Seven Soldiers

Carlyle re-assembles what’s left of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. She needs their help to save the original Crimson Avenger, Lee Travis. She thinks if she does that she might be freed from the curse of the guns. They recently got a new opportunity to do so when the time machine that he died on reappeared off the coast of South Carolina. Because she also believes the children of the Seven Soldiers of Victory are cursed, she forces Emiko Queen and Stargirl stay behind, which of course they disobey.

While most of the Soldiers fight off Clock King, who is also interested in the time machine, Carlyle boards the machine and tries to save Lee Travis. Unfortunately, Carlyle touching Travis triggered a paradox, knocking Carlyle unconscious. She was rescued by Stargirl.

Powers and Abilities

Crimson Vapor: Carlyle has shown the ability to go intangible, thus being able to evade many incoming attacks from enemies that are physically stronger than her.

• Teleportation: She cannot use this ability on command. As a Spirit Of Vengeance she is forced to teleport to her next assignment no matter what is going on.

Crimson Avenger Pistols: Two colt pistols that are cursed to turn the users into the next Crimson Avenger.

• Ammunition: The ammo is infinite. Carlyle never needs to reload. They can also shoot through just about anything, including some nearly unbreakable metahumans
• Targeting: The pistols are haunted. They direct Carlyle to their targets and never miss. They do not even have triggers. They know when to fire.
• Unbreakable: If she throws them away or tries to destroy them, they return to holsters that she can't seem to remove.

Resurrection: She cannot die on regular accounts, even if she turns the pistols on herself they will raise her for the next assignment.

• Eternal Wound: Part of the curse is that she has a constantly bleeding wound on her chest that cannot be healed.