No one should ever take anyone away from what they love. 
Stormwatch: Post Human Division #9 is an issue of the series Stormwatch: Post Human Division (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 2007.
Synopsis for "Who Shot J.K.?"
Stormwatch HQ is put on lockdown and everyone is forbidden from leaving, as John Doran deemed everyone a suspect in the wake of Jackson King's shooting. So far John knows that Jackson’s attempt on his life took place on the top floors, where they are restricted to Stormwatch Prime personnel, thus he rules out most support and clerical staff, except Prime themselves and the few staffers with access to the upper levels. John rules himself, Fahrenheit, Fuji, Winter, Doctor Shaw and Gorgeous out since they were occupied in their personal business - John was speaking with his wife on the phone, Fahrenheit was with Winter and Fuji at a bar, and Gorgeous and Doctor Shaw were "discussing stress management techniques" - when Jackson was shot. Together with Gorgeous and Fahrenheit, John begins their investigation by interrogating the suspects.
They begin with Jackson's wife Christine. John knows Christine used to fight with Jackson, specifically over having children. Christine points out that she and Jackson agreed that they cannot biologically have children due to their superhuman genetics and they agreed to consider adoption. However, Christine reveals that she did become pregnant but she miscarried and the fetus was horribly deformed. Gorgeous analyzes that Christine is genuinely grieving for Jackson and she doesn't think he is truly gone. Christine is off their suspects list. John believes that someone who had been planning to kill Jackson would have to get close to him and that the attacker has to be trusted by Jackson.
Fahrenheit interrogates Jackson's personal assistant Ellen and threatens her to have Malcolm to scan her mind that can render her catatonic. Ellen quickly breaks down and begs that she did not shoot Jackson. Fahrenheit's threat is a bluff since Malcolm doesn't have mental powers like Jackson's, in which Ellen's breakdown is enough to convince Gorgeous and John that she did not shot Jackson.
John then confronts Malcolm, who is not happy being accused as his brother's would-be murderer. Despite his rocky history with Jackson, Malcolm reveals that he does care about his brother. He even had to call his mother and lied to her how Jackson was doing. John soon rules out Malcolm despite his issues. Gorgeous concurs as Malcolm has no reason to hurt Jackson who brought him back into Stormwatch.
John and the others interrogate Weatherman William Bendix. William claims that he has no reasons against Jackson since he gave him a chance despite being the son of a madman. Furthermore, William elaborates that if he were Jackson's attacker then he would have done in many ways to kill him that would not trace to him and easily blamed his death on an accident since he controlled the entire building. John then raises another question to William: how could he allow Jackson's attempted murder to happen since he is hooked into the building's network? William answers that he cannot watch the entire building by himself, and their security systems are automated and they do not violate the privacy of the upper floors' rooms. They do have a monitoring program based on bio-signatures, but William also reveals it was compromised by an intruder and forcing him and his people to re-tool the entire network. Meaning that same intruder took the opportunity to attack Jackson. William then gives John the persons who have the security clearance to know about the retooling: Link and Dr. Molly Perkins.
John finds Dr. Perkins monitoring Jackson's health. Perkins explains that Jackson will live, but the damage to his brain, which is confined to a fairly small area, could either leave him fully recovered or in a permanent vegetative state. While John harbors doubts that Perkins is Jackson's attacker, he acknowledges Perkins has access to laser cauterizers that would cause a wound like Jackson's. But Perkins points out that laser projectors are quite common in the Stormwatch facility and getting one would have been easy. She also points out that getting access to the upper floors is the hardest for normal staffers since only a few people have access and the support staff on those floors are mostly made up of robots.
They begin interrogating members of Stormwatch Prime. After interviewing Hellstrike, Cannon, Diva, and Blademaster, they are cleared of being suspects. Blademaster and Cannon have energy-based weapons and powers, but they do not have the capability to leave a precise wound in Jackson's head. Diva has no motive against Jackson since he discovered she was being blackmailed by a paparazzo who discovered her true pre-transformed identity and ordered her to stop paying. Hellstrike has an alibi for drinking himself unconscious when Jackson was shot. Furthermore, he was very happy toward Jackson for bringing him and the others back from the dead. While being interrogated by Fahrenheit, Hellstrike gives a heartfelt apology to Lauren over their failed relationship in which she reciprocates.
With all of Prime's members cleared, they turn their attention to their own members of PHD. Paris has no motive and he preferred using his own hands to kill rather than lasers. Betty was meditating in her guest quarters. The Machinist is left the obvious suspect since he was Jackson's first super-villain whom he fought and put away, and he is a tech-genius who could have bypassed security and known to have laser weapons in his arsenal. But Dino reveals that he has an alibi by which he shows them he had hacked into Stormwatch's computer network to watch porn all night when Jackson's shooting was alerted. While John's team are left at a dead end in their investigation, Dino then helpfully advises them that since Jackson is a telepath, it can only be something inorganic like a machine that could sneak up on Jackson without him realizing it.
With Link's help, they found one of the maintenance robots reprogrammed to attack Jackson. But it was not hacked, it was given new orders by priority override command that only two people have that level of clearance: Director of Stormwatch Jackson King and his Deputy Director, Christine Trelane. John arrests Christine for attempted murder of her husband. Christine then explains the reason why she shot Jackson, but not to kill him.
Years ago, Stormwatch saw an alternate universe where Christine saw her parallel self having a happy family. When Jackson refused to have a family to the point that he felt relieved when Christine lost the baby from her miscarriage, Christine came to the conclusion that she could never be happy with Jackson who is devoted to Stormwatch. So she resorted to programming the robot to precisely shoot out the brain cells that give Jackson his powers, thereby making him powerless and cut back his job, and focus more time with Christine and consider having a family. Now Christine truly regrets what she did to her husband.
As Christine is being taken away, John expresses his suspicion to Fahrenheit that Christine is likely suffering from postpartum depression as a result of her miscarriage. Then to everyone's surprise, Jackson wakes up. Jackson still retains his powers when he looks into everyone's mind and he is left shocked by what his wife did.
Appearing in "Who Shot J.K.?"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- StormWatch
- Stormwatch Prime
- Blademaster
- Cannon
- Diva
- Fuji
- Hellstrike
- Winter
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Ellen
Locations:
- Stormwatch Plaza
Items:
Trivia
- The title and plot of the issue is based on the Dallas TV show episode "A House Divided" or better known by fans as "Who shot J.R.?"
See Also