Origin

Jennifer was born in Citrusville, Florida, one member of a large magic family (keepers of the Book of Zhered-na) and lived in the Florida swamp region. One day, young Jennifer stole a mystical text from her grandfather. She thought it was the Tome of Zhered-Na and learning to perform spells would be fun. Unfortunately for Jennifer, she had stolen a much more sinister text. Her "fun" little spell summoned Thog, one of the Hell-Lords, to Earth. Fortunately for them, the creature known as the Man-Thing was nearby to fight the demon for them. After this, Jennifer and the Man-Thing developed a special bond, with the Man-Thing helping out Jennifer. The two became great allies. Jennifer tried to live a normal life as well as she could, but time and again she was drawn to magical battles.

Creation

Jennifer Kale was created by Steve Gerber and Rich Buckler and first appeared in Adventure into Fear #11(1972).

Major Story Arcs

Man-Thing

After Jennifer had mastered a great many spells, she tried to live a normal life once more. This however was soon abrubted when she and her brother Joshua had to face Jaxon, a family friend under demonic possession. Courtesy of the demon called Thog. Fortunately for Jennifer, Joshua and Man-Thing it turned out that it was not Thog they where dealing with but actually a lesser demon, easier to exorcise.

Some weeks later, Jennifer and Andrew attended a protest rally against the Schist Construction Company which tried to drain the swamp surrounding their native city. This also because the swamp housed their ally the Man-Thing. Luckily the draining did not happen. Some weeks after, Jennifer started acting strange, witch greatly shocked her younger brother. It turned out that, during one of their battles together, Jennifer had managed to form a psychic connection to the Man-Thing. A connection severed forcefully following their return from Sominus. Jennifer also started suffering from reoccurring "nightmares". Actually her emerging psychic powers were alerting her to events involving Thog and the Congress of Realities. But none of the Kales was aware of it yet. Soon after the battle against Thog, Jennifer left Earth to study magic under Dakimh, a sorcerer she had met during one of her adventures.

Doctor Strange

Some months later, In pages of" Dr. Strange" , Jennifer was seen again. She was one of the various people whom was captured by Baron Mordo to offer as sacrifices to a demon. Jennifer had been brought back to earth by him and functioned as a sacrifice. She lost her life in this battle. However the event was reversed by Doctor Strange and Jennifer and the other sacrifices were brought back to life.

X-Force

During one of many adventures, Jennifer helped X-Force when Pandemonia took control over some of X-Force members. Jennifer revealed to the team that Pandemonia was of demonic nature. Jennifer was able to free the enslaved members of the team and send Pandemonia back to her dimension. During this time, Jennifer became close friends with Moonstar and tells her that her new reality warping powers are not mystical.

Witches

When the demon Satan or Marduk Kurios, tricked Andrew Kale into touching the tome of Zhered-Na unleashing the curse of the Hellphyr which threatened to demolish all magical beings on Earth, Dr. Strange recruited Jennifer Kale, Topaz the angelic, and Satana the demon to oppose this sinful plot. Victory came at a cost and Jennifer was forced to slay her Hellphyr possessed brother. Afterwards, she refused to release her possession of the family Tome and stayed together with Satana and Topaz as Witches to prevent other mystical threats from attacking earth.

The Initiative

During the period after the superhuman Civil War, Jennifer became a member of The Command, the official Initiative team of Florida. When on a mission to the Florida swamplands with his team, the Command, they were attacked by zombies from another reality. The zombified Deadpool from the zombieverse assaults her, badly wounding her arms so she can't use her magic and instantly attempts to eat another Command member, Aquarian. Jennifer Kale turns on a large propeller and signals to Aquarian whom manages to throw zombie Deadpool into it. Aquarian goes into suspended animation in a force-field attempting to purge himself of the virus, immediately after which Jennifer Kale is attacked by a zombiefied Siege, leader of the Command. He attempts to eat her, but his cybernetic half deems him a threat and terminates him. But after the attack she went into a catatonic shock and had to be treated. She was later found by Morbius who told her two zombies escaped A.R.M.O.R. Feeling bad for how she got weak, she begged Morbius to let her help him find them and stop them. Morbius says yes to her.

Marvel Zombies

Jennifer then joined the line up of the Midnight Sons, joining the team after her traumatic attack by Siege and assists in finding Simon Garth and zombie Deadpool. She and the Midnight Sons end up on a ship filled with zombie infected Men-Fish which she and Damion Hellstorm fight off. Right before the zombie infested Men-Fish on the ship reach the land, She teleports the whole team off the boat before Hellstorm blows up the ship. She and the team then fight The Hood and the Night Shift in an old cemetery. She gets beaten by Dansen Macabre but saves Hellstorm from Needle. During this attack a group of zombies head towards them. Morbius fires a vaccine at them but instead of killing them, it makes the zombie virus airborne. This makes Jennifer paranoid, but she is later saved by her old enemy Dormammu. Dormammu offers Jennifer great power but she refuses, however Dormammu is willing to give this power to Jennifer at any time. Man-Thing joins with Jennifer to aid the Midnight Sons. She gets him to go out and stake out the land. She then finds out that during this stake out, that Man-thing is killed by a super zombie and the undead storm cloud which hurts her inside. Minutes later she is confronted by a zombie infected Jack Russell who was about to attack her. As a last minute act of fear she calls Dormammu for help and begs for the power to defeat the zombies. Jennifer is tricked and Dormammu manages to control her body. She fights Hellstorm but she gets control of her body back thanks to Hellstorm. She then brings Jack back to a more controlled level by turning him into his werewolf state which was not infected by the zombie virus. Finally, she manges to combine her power and Black Talon's power to take hold of the zombie virus cloud and store it into the body of the Zombie Simon Garth.

Dark Reign - Sorcerer Supreme

Jennifer was briefly mentioned by Doctor Strange as someone he had searched for in connection to his quest to find the new Sorcerer Supreme after he had relinquished/lost the title. Talking to Wiccan he could only say that he had been unable to track her down.

Thunderbolts

Jennifer is later seen in Thunderbolt, where in which, she trys to get Luke Cage and his team to stop using the Man-Thing as a weapon however, Songbird explains to Kale that the Man-Thing is needed. Kale then leaves happy because her friend has found a place where he can be happy.

Jennifer was killed by Victoria Hand who is at the time possessed by Daniel Drumm. This was part of a plan to gain revenge on the Avengers; Daniel believed they had purposely let his beloved brother down.

Some time later, Jennifer was able to return to the world of the living with dark magic, but it cost her half the skin of her face.

Powers and Abilities

Jennifer possesses vast magical powers. Taught by one of the most powerful human wizards, Dakimh, she has followed the way of the ancient Atlantean magic. Presumably a dead type of magic, which only she has knowledge of practicing. Her magical powers have not been fleshed out much, but she is known to create illusions and has teleportation, locating, and blasting spells. Her most recent ability was to contain the zombie virus into Zombie Simon Garth, though this required the help from the voodoo magic of Black Talon. She is also in possession of the Tome of Zhered-Na, one of the most powerful magical artifacts in existence.

Physical Characteristics

Height: 5' 6"

Weight: 122 lbs

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Blue

In Other Media

Agatha All Along (2024)

In the Disney+ series actress Sasheer Zamata portrays Jennifer Kale, a holistic business owner whom Agatha Harkness recruits into her coven as the expert in potions magic. In the show Kale cut off ties with Harkness since the latter began possessing the Darkhold, and over the years Jennifer has been restricted in her use of magic and forced to open a holistic beauty product business. Facing numerous threats of legal action, Kale has no choice but to follow Agatha on The Witches' Road.

The coven - made up of Jen, Agatha, Lilia Culderu, Alice Wu-Gulliver, and Mrs Hart - alongside "Teen," walk the Witches' Road and are faced with five trials along the way. Each trial corresponds to the witch in the coven and their respective speciality. The first trial tests the coven's witch of potions, which falls to Kale after the coven is poisoned. Kale identifies the poison and assigns everyone specific ingredients to gather, including her Kale Kare products that are petroleum-based and the cause of her numerous legal issues. As the poison takes hold, Jennifer hallucinates a Doctor who berates her before attempting to drown her in the kitchen sink. The coven bring the ingredients to Kale and she manages to brew the antidote and save all but Mrs Hart, who they discover has died when they return to the Road.

Following the second trial, Jennifer reveals to the coven that she used to be a midwife before her magic was bound by the Doctor.

Following the Third Trial the sigil on "Teen" is broken, revealing him to be the soul of Billy Maximoff in the body of William Kaplan. On the Witches' Road, Billy - angered by Agatha's killing of Alice Wu - controls Jennifer and Lilia to throw Agatha from the road, before launching them off the road with a blast of magic. Jennifer awaken in the tunnelled undergrowth of the Road alongside Lilia, and both follow the path to the Fourth Trial. During this Lilia begins experiencing breaks in chronological perceptions of time, and Jennifer helps to guide her as they avoid the Salem Seven. As the two reach the trial and discover Agatha and Billy already attempting, and failing, the trial, Lilia takes position. She performs a tarot reading which divines the significance of the coven. For Jennifer, Lilia draws the High Priestess card. Upon completing the trial, Lilia pushes Jennifer through the exit, claiming she represents the coven's future. Jennifer protests but Lilia, telling her how much the coven has given her meaning, sacrifices herself to stop the Salem Seven.

During the Fifth and final Trial, Jen realizes she is blocking her own magic after an encounter with Agatha over a century ago. She performs an unbreaking incantation and restores her connection with magic, after which her prize is won and Jennifer ascends from the Road. She climbs out of the earth of a field outside Westview and, with her restored power, she flies away.