Origin

The "platinum patriot" known as Liberty: the American Girl is one of the latest heroines to appear in the skies above Los Angeles. Possessing incredible strength, near invulnerability and the power of flight, she wages a personal crusade to uphold the good and protect the innocent. But if you told the woman behind the persona, Jessica "Jesse" Lynn Wells, that she'd one day become a "costumed metahuman," she would have said you were crazy...

Hailing from rural Indiana, Jesse Wells and her best friend Gina Landry came to Los Angeles to attend UCLA. However disaster nearly struck a few weeks later when the pair were involved in a one car accident late one night on a lonely road. The trauma suffered in the crash awakened the metagene within Jesse, who was then able to get Gina to a nearby hospital. Although Jesse didn't want her new abilities or the attention they would draw if anyone knew, without them she may not have gotten her friend to a hospital in time.

As the school year progressed, Jesse tried to concentrate on her classes and forget about her new abilities and being a "metahuman." Gina however, was intrigued and urged her unsuccessfully to explore her "cool powers." She even began to take an interest in the exploits of the local costumed metahumans, which eventually inspired her (a Fine Arts major) to create a metahuman "persona" in honor of her best friend's abilities: a red, white and blue-clad champion, "Liberty: The American Girl."

When Gina finally unveiled what the pair later dubbed the "flag suit," Jesse was astonished, but adamant that she had no interest in becoming any sort of metahuman heroine. In the end, Jesse reluctantly agreed to try it on out of respect for the work her best friend put into it. Standing in front of the mirror in the outfit along with white boots and scarlet gloves, Jesse had to admit that it did look sort of...cool. After that, it took a bit more nudging on Gina's part to get Jesse to go out that evening in it ("If you're going to try it on you might as well try it out, right?").

Jesse figured a quick zip over the city wouldn't hurt, and if she didn't she knew Gina wouldn't stop badgering her. It was getting dark, and unlikely anyone would take much notice of her anyway.  Besides, she'd never flown over the city at night (actually, she hadn't flown at all since the night of the accident).  However, not long after taking to the sky she saw a fire in nearby Santa Monica. Two children were trapped on the roof of a burning building and the firemen simply wouldn't get to them in time.  But she could... 

The media blitz following her rescue of the kids was overwhelming.  Who was she? Where did she come from? These and what seemed like a million other questions were hurled at her by the anxious media.  Jesse simply and politely told them she was "Liberty: The American Girl," before rising gracefully into the night sky. Now, whether she liked it or not, her secret was out. The world now knew about "Liberty: The American Girl."

After that Jesse put the flag suit away. "I'm no heroine Gina, just a farm girl from Indiana," she told her roommate. However, in the weeks that followed Jesse found it more and more difficult to forget what happened. She couldn't forget the look of terror in the kids eyes as the building's flames drew closer, how they gazed up at her as she swept down and wisked them to safety, as if she were an angel of mercy. The thought of using her abilities to help everyday people in trouble appealed to her, yet at the same time it filled her with dread. But in the days that followed, a growing sense of responsibility began to manifest within her. With each news report of an accident, disaster, or metahuman criminal's latest exploits, Jesse felt more and more compelled to act. It was only a matter of time before she finally did (and that's a story for another time).

Liberty: The American Girl (tm) © 2001 Alan Brzozowski