Dr. Cody Havero

Superherobox


caption=
comic_color=background:#c0c0c0
character_name=Dr. Cody Havero
real_name=Cody Havero
publisher=George R. R. Martin
debut="One-Eyed Jacks" (1990)
creators=Chris Claremont
alliance_color=background:#c0c0ff
status=
alliances=Chris (son), Dr. Tachyon, Scent
previous_alliances=
aliases=
relatives=
powers=none, Dr. Havero is a nat.|

Dr. Cody Havero is a fictional character from the Wild Cards series of books. First appearing in One-Eyed Jacks in the story "Luck be a Lady" by Chris Claremont, Cody was hired to replace Dr. Tachyon as the new head of surgery at the Blythe van Rensselaer Memorial Hospital (better known as the Jokertown Clinic). Cody is a tall, athletic woman, skilled at hand to hand combat and the use of firearms. Her distinguishing characteristics are the patch covering her missing eye, a spray of silver-gray in the front of her otherwise black hair, and a tough no-nonsense attitude.

Vietnam

Wildfires

New York

Upon first arrving in New York Cody Havero is forced to take the subway down to Jokertown as none of the cabbies she approaches will drive her there. While on the train she has her first encounter with an unnamed and heavily mutated joker called Sludge. Sludge is short and squat with gray skin, no neck, flipper-like appendages, and sharp fangs. The unfortunate creature seems well adapted for an aquatic environment, but lacks gills. This is not the first joker Cody has ever seen, but it is the first to ever attempt to employ a Wild Card power upon her. Her attacker is more specifically a joker/ace with the power to transform women into creatures like itself. Worse, once done with the mates created by its power, the joker kills them. The first signs of its power are a wave of sickness and a rubbery feeling in Cody's bones. Saved by the timely intervention of a female Transit Authority officer, Cody later discovers the unnamed officer became Sludge's next mate/victim in her place. After a rocky start at the Jokertown clinic and an unfriendly first encounter with Dr. Tachyon, Cody's final encounter with the homeless joker/ace ends in the creature's death. Settling into a comfortable groove, Cody takes the job as chief surgeon at the Jokertown Clinic and finds herself slowly warming up to Tachyon.

Time passes and Cody unwittingly becomes the final catalyst for Blaise Andrieux's descent into murder and mayhem. Working closely together at the Jokertown Clinic, Cody finds herself romantically pursued by Dr. Tachyon, whose womanizing is legendary. Despite her resistance, a relationship begins to bloom and Tachyon entertains notions that Blaise might soon have a new family with Cody as surrogate mother and her son, Chris, as a stepbrother. This naive fantasy would never come to pass. Increasingly infatuated with Cody, Blaise has his own fantasies, ones in which the older woman plays the part of lover, not mother. On a visit to the Famous Bowery Wild Card Dime Museum's hall of wax effeigies, Cody remarks that Tachyon has the face "of a dissipated saint." Shortly thereafter she is approached by Blaise who has been stalking her.

Tachyon's grandson fails to purchase Cody's affections with a gift of precious stones (gotten from Jube, but assumed by Cody to be stolen). Cody makes it clear in no uncertain terms that there will never be anything between them. Following her to the Jokertown Clinic, the young man's sociopathic nature becomes fully evident. Blaise tries to telepathically coerce Cody into sexual submission. Having forgotten some important papers for his appointment in Washington, DC, Tachyon's unexpected arrival saves her. Failing to overcome his grandfather in both physical and psychic combat, Blaise vows vengeance and flees the clinic. He is just fifteen years old.

Jumped

Concerned with finding renewed funding for the Jokertown Clinic, Cody advises Tachyon to keep his appointment in Washington, DC, which allows Blaise to roam free. This turns out to be a tactical mistake. When he next reappears, Blaise has gained not only the jumper mind-swapping ability, but control of the jumper gang as well. Replaced by an unknown jumper, Cody is kept at a holding facility while the jumper in her body lures Dr. Tachyon to a romantic rendezvous. Believing his patient wooing is about to be rewarded Tachyon hurries over. Warned too late by "Cody's" adolescent manner of kissing and the sound of a door opening, Tachyon is ambushed. Blaise jumps Tachyon into the body of Kelly Jenkins, a teenage girl and jumper wannabe. At this point, Blaise's obsession transfers from Dr. Havero to the now female Tachyon. Raped and imprisoned on the Rox, Tachyon is kept unaware of Cody's ultimate fate.

Returned to her rightful body, Cody stays locked up in the warehouse staging area used by the jumpers and their joker thugs. When Cody remains among the missing her son is placed into foster care. During her captivity, Blaise tells Cody that his grandfather killed himself after being jumped into a series of progressively more and more hideous joker forms. At some point, Cody meets Kelly, the girl inhabiting Dr. Tachyon's body, but does not make the logical connection as to Tachyon's true fate, instead believing Blaise's misinformation. Freed from the holding facility by ace vigilante Black Shadow, Cody stops Shadow from strangling Kelly. Shadow had been trailing Blaise and Kelly, mistakenly believing "Tachyon" to be the mastermind behind the jumpers.

Reunited

Returning to the Jokertown Clinic, Cody reclaims her son from foster care and resumes her life. Several months later, Cody is reunited with Tachyon, though not in the form she remembers. Following the first Battle of the Rox, the Great and Powerful Turtle lands on the Clinic's roof, returning Dr. Tachyon to New York after a long captivity on Ellis Island. Tachyon, still inhabiting Kelly's female body and now also heavily pregnant with Blaise's child, is unable to face the woman she once tried to seduce. Cody, hurt by Tachyon's attempt to ignore her presence and a verbal rebuff to "deal with my clinic, deal with your own pain, and leave me alone," departs the rooftop reunion in silence.

Later, Cody visits a frantic Tachyon at Dr. Bradley Finn's apartment. Suffering from a panic attack, Tachyon is administered a light sedative by Dr. Havero despite the older woman's concerns about Tachyon's advanced state of pregnancy. Sarcastically remarking that Tachyon might want to take notes while "she" has the chance to study the female condition, Cody confronts the alien about his insensitive treatment of women. Drowsy from the sedative, Tachyon allows Cody and Finn to put her to bed before they return to the clinic.

That evening Tachyon attempts suicide, but in a moment of clarity manages to call Dr. Havero. Cody immediately rushes to the alien's aid. Performing an emergency blood transfusion, she saves Tachyon from death. The two women discuss the rift between them as Dr. Havero sews up the slashes in Tachyon's wrists. Tachyon resolves to go after Blaise, which necessitates a trip to Japan to enlist the aid of Fortunato, the most powerful ace telepath on the planet. Cody was to pick up Tachyon upon her return to the New York, but the alien was intercepted while clearing US Customs and taken into government custody instead.

Current Status

Due to various eugenic laws governing women of childbearing age on the planet Takis, Tachyon forbids Cody from accompanying her to her homeworld. Left behind on earth, Cody continues to assist in the administration of the Jokertown Clinic. During the second Battle of the Rox, various wounded are transferred to that facility due to their Wild Card status (no normal hospital would take them). One of these wounded is the government ace Carnifex who tries to flirt with the unreceptive Cody.