Profile
Jax in MK II
Major Jackson "Jax" Briggs was introduced in Mortal Kombat II as a member of the Special Forces on a mission to rescue his partner, Sonya Blade, from the clutches of the emperor, Shao Kahn. He is comparable to the Street Fighter franchise's Guile in that he is portrayed as the perfect American soldier: determined, moral and powerful. He is first portrayed as simply a physically powerful soldier, but in later games he appears with cybernetic arms which often feature prominently in his Fatalities.
Story
Jax's first canonical appearance was in Mortal Kombat: Special Forces in which the Black Dragon clan of assassins broke out of a maximum-security prison and Jax, along with Sonya Blade, was dispatched to pursue them. As Jax received information about the jailbreak, which involved the Black Dragon's highest lieutenants, he assumed that Kano was involved. The two became rivals after Briggs failed to apprehend him, but disfigured his face, causing Kano to wear his trademarked metal faceplate. He received another transmission from a Special Forces squad who had arrived on the scene of a warehouse the convicts had fled to. The transmission was suddenly cut and Jax arrived to find the squad dead. Jax outfitted his arms with cybernetic enhancements and entered the warehouse and defeated a pair of the escaped Black Dragon lieutenants, as well as defeating countless unnamed henchman. Receiving another transmission about a high-rise in another part of the city that is being used to front the criminal organization's activities, Jax arrived and defeated Jarek, discovering information about a fabled lost city called Sin Kiang. Defeating further Black Dragon Lieutenants, Jax discovered a portal to Outworld and sought Kano through it. The rivals finally clashed, Jax winning and bringing Kano back into custody in Earthrealm. His job done, he removed the upgrades from his arms. Kano, however, eluded imprisonment to enter the Mortal Kombat tournament unbeknown to the Special Forces.
Jax ups the ante with cybernetic arms.Sonya and Kano both went missing at the conclusion of the tournament and Jax was left with no clues as to their whereabouts until Johnny Cage was discovered unconscious near the Special Forces headquarters. The movie star was interrogated to ascertain if he knew anything about their whereabouts. Cage explained the strange, supernatural occurrences in Shang Tsung's tournament, but Jax refused to believe the fantastic story and let Cage go, assuming he knew nothing. His opinion is quickly reversed when Sonya contacts him, reluctantly working with Kano to try and escape Outworld. The transmission is lost, but Jax seeks out Johnny Cage to apologize for not believing him and ascertain more information. He arrives just in time to fight off an attack from the incredibly powerful Kintaro as well as a small army of Tarkatan. When Earth's Defenders arrive, Jax is recruited for the second Mortal Kombat tournament so that he can rescue his partner and stop Kano once and for all. He succeeded in both missions, but Kano evaded him yet again, retreating back to Outworld. When Jax tried to warn Earth's governments about the threat that Outworld posed, he was, of course, ignored.
Jax rearmed himself with cybernetic implants in preparation for the coming war and that turned out to be a good decision. Shao Kahn's forces poured into Earthrealm during the third Mortal Kombat tournament and Jax was instrumental in fighting them off. The existence of extradimensional threats proven, Major Briggs was given command over the newly formed Outworld Investigation Agency (OIA), who were tasked with exploring other dimensions and destroying portals that could lead the inhabitants to Earthrealm. During these excusions, Sonya and Jax helped Raiden drive away an invasion to the world of Edenia by the dark god Shinnok as told in Mortal Kombat 4. It was during this excursion that the duo also found the cyborg Cyrax trapped in the desert and returned with him to their homebase, removing much of the robotic implants from his brain and restoring his humanity.
Things had gone back to as normal as they ever were until Cyrax vanished while on assignment and the OIA headquarters was nuked by a turncoat agent named Hsu Hao, secretly a member of the Red Dragon syndicate, rivals of Kano's Black Dragons. When Raiden contacted Jax to battle against the deadly alliance of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi he jumped at the opportunity after hearing that Hsu Hao was involved with the two sorcerers. Jax tracked the turncoat down and killed him by tearing out his mechanical heart, but his victory was short lived when he was killed during Earth's Defender's battle against the Deadly Alliance. After the Deadly Alliance fell to their own villainous treachery, the Dragon King Onaga resurrected many of the slain as mindless drones to use as his pawns. This mind control is broken by Ermac, who possesses the soul of Liu Kang and is able to restore Jax to his normal self. This allows Jax to attack Sektor's followers in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, but after his signal vanishes, Sonya believes Jax may have finally perished in battle.
In Mortal Kombat (2011) Major Jackson Briggs is a highly celebrated and decorated member of the US Special Forces. His current mission is to take down the notorious crime syndicate called the Black Dragons. Along with his Lieutenant Sonya Blade, he manages to seize many of the organizations weaponry and assets. When it is revealed that one of his trusted informants; Kano, was a member of the Black Dragons, Jax makes it his goal to capture him.
Endings
Jax learns of Sonya's capture by Shao Kahn and enters his tournament in order to rescue her. The might of the Earthrealm warrior surprises Shao Kahn's forces and he wins the tournament, deposing the hated Emperor. He frees Sonya, but also must free Kano in the process and he eludes capture as Sonya and Jax flee through the Outworld gate.
Jax again proves himself one of the mightiest men on Earth, defeating not only Kahn's entrants in the tournament, but the emperor himself. Earth reverts to normal and Jax has been vindicated in his claims of an extra-dimensional threat and so he and Sonya go on to form the Outworld Investigation Agency. The organization dedicates itself to open portals to Outworld using technology rather than magic and Jax courageously leads the first expeditions through these portals.
Sonya confronts Jarek on a mountaintop and is killed by him after Jarek tricks her into thinking that she killed him. As Jarek gloats over his victory, Jax appears on the mountaintop, grabbing Jarek and dangling him over the very edge that Jarek used to kill his partner. Jarek begs for mercy, saying that as an officer of the law, Jax cannot kill him as it is brutality. Jax corrects him, saying it's a Fatality and tosses Jarek off the cliff.
Jax confronts the traitor Hsu Hao, revealed to be a member of the Red Dragon crime syndicate who merely used the OIA to hunt his rivals in the Black Dragons. Hsu falls to Jax, who tears out his artificial heart and watches him die in agony, avenging his comrades who fell when Hsu Hao betrayed them. This ending is considered canonical.
Jax calls upon his boundless rage to succeed where others had failed. He hurls himself at Onaga and pounds him until the Dragon King can no longer fight, finally ending his life with a Kamidogu blade. No one had ever seen such anger from Major Briggs, but all hoped that it was now gone from him.
Jax absorbed the power of Blaze into his cybernetic arms, which caused the mechanical parts of them to spread through his entire body, transforming him into a cyborg like Cyrax or Sektor. Jax attacked and defeated Sektor, claiming the command of his Tekunin ninjas that Sektor had led. Jax turned them into a great fighting force, and it's unknown whether he will ever return to the Special Forces.
Jax has been greatly injured in his battle against the strange fighters, particularly the one called Lex Luthor. He must expand his mechanical upgrades over his entire body, becoming vastly more powerful but sacrificing his humanity.
After defeating Shao Kahn, Jax found that many of his forces had disappeared in the process of defending Earthrealm against the Outworld invasion. Left mostly to his own devices, Jax worked to defeat what was left of the Outworld invaders. During this time he upgraded his cybernetics and used them to access networks around the world to aide in the defeat of the Outworld stragglers. Jax accidentally accesses Kano's cyber implants and the two virtually battle. Jax wins and traps Kano's consciousness in virtual prison for good.
Mortal Kombat X
With Shinnok beaten, Jax fills in as Johnny Cage's commander of his squad. This allows him to get to know Jacqui better. After a routine mission, Erron Black springs his attack. Jax's bulletproof arms stop the assassins bullets, protecting his comrades and defeats Erron, but then slips into shock with a red stain engulfing his chest.
Mortal Kombat (2011)
Special Moves
- Dash Punch
- Gotcha Grab
- Ground Pound
- Wave Projectile
X-Ray
Jax flings his opponent into the air and catches the victim over his knee delivering a spine-shattering back breaker. He then lifts the foe over his shoulders in a bone-crushing torture rack before dumping the lifeless body to the ground.
Alternate Attire
Trivia
Michael Jai White as Jackson Briggs.- Portrayed by Michael Jai White in the fan-made trailer for the reboot movie Mortal Kombat: Rebirth.
- Played by former American Gladiator Lynn "Red" Williams in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
- Makes a brief appearance in Mortal Kombat, played by Gregory McKinney.
- Originally, Jax was going to be named Kurtis Stryker and was merely going to be a kickboxer. This idea was scrapped because developers felt it too close to the concepts of Balrog, Dee Jay, or Sagat.
- Was played by bodybuilder and martial artist John Parrish in his first two appearances, who split the original yellow pants he was wearing while performing the moves for the character.
- Originally had Sonya's backstory in the first Mortal Kombat game, but as there were no female characters, Sonya was created and given the backstory of a normal human investigator seeking out Kano in the tournament.
- The first African-American combatant in the Mortal Kombat franchise.
Log in to comment