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Jake Martinez
Japanese ジェイク・マルチネス
NEXT Power Barriers
Telepathy
Profile
Gender Male
Media Portrayal
Debut Episode 10
The calm before the storm
Seiyū Keiji Fujiwara (Japanese)
Steve Blum (English)

Jake Martinez is an incredibly powerful NEXT who was originally believed to be the leader of Ouroboros. Jake was released from prison when his organization threatened the destruction of Sternbild City for his freedom.

Personality[]

His main objective is to have NEXTs take over the world, with him as their leader. Jake also sees all humans as inferior to NEXTs and cares little about their lives. He views himself as the strongest NEXT of all, as he boasts about himself in battle and taunts his opponents.

In battle, he reads his opponents minds to know what his opponent will do. Jake does not seem to possess any fighting experience or beyond normal physical abilities, as an unintentional hit from Wild Tiger caused him great pain. He is also shown to be very unstable, as a little hit made him go insane. Jake relies on his mind reading ability a lot, making it easy for the heroes to outsmart him in battle.

However, behind his high and mighty demeanor, Jake is actually a coward; choosing to run away scared when Barnaby Brooks Jr showed he was capable of beating him instead of standing his ground.

In the manga, Jake respects NEXT regardless of their powers; offering one without an offensive power weaponry to kill non-NEXT to make him feel better. Showing even if he's a crazy murderer, Jake does care for the well-being of his fellow NEXT.

History[]

Little to no information is given on Jake's past, where he came from or who his family were, but what

While trying to escape arrest, Jake jumped off the stadium roof. Hoping to land in the helicopter that Kriem was piloting, he was caught by Kotetsu. Jake then tried to shoot Kotetsu with his barrier ability, but Kotetsu managed to dodge it. The barrier hit the helicopter and the helicopter fell on Jake, causing his unintentional death.

Recently, it has been revealed by Kriem that Jake was not the real leader of Ouroboros. Instead, Ouroboros is a much bigger organization and he and Kriem were just a small fraction of Ouroboros. Kriem also tells Barnaby that Jake didn't kill his parents, that the day his parents died was when Jake kidnapped Kriem. But all this could be a lie and the only fact that is confirmed is that Kriem was kidnapped on the same day.

It is revealed in episode 19, that Maverick was the true murderer of Barnaby's parents. In truth the day that Barnaby's parents died, Jake had instead kidnapped Kriem.

This also reveals how Kriem and Jake met years ago, with Jake kidnapping a young Kriem for ransom. However when her parents didn't comply with his demands he ended up releasing her. Taken by his words and beliefs that NEXT are the next stage in human evolution and therefore superior, Kriem begs him to take her along with him. His involvement in this incident ended up proving he was truly innocent of the murder of Barnaby's parents.

Powers and Abilities[]

As a NEXT Jake possesses superhuman abilities, but what makes him stand out is the fact he possesses a second power, a characteristic amongst NEXT so rare it was considered impossible.

At first glance, Jake appeared to be capable of firing off deadly, short-range laser beams powerful enough to pierce a thick concrete wall by snapping his fingers. However, this was later revealed to be a farce, Jake's true power is actually to generate protective barriers that can render even a full-powered blast from Sky High harmless. He can also freely alter the size of these barriers and launch with varying levels of intensity; normally making them marble-sized and flicking them at his opponents, which is why his power is often mistaken for laser beams.

Jake's second power is the ability to hear the thoughts of others, allowing him to anticipate his opponent's next move before they even make it, such as when he rendered Origami Cyclone's shapeshifting powers useless when he tried posing as Hans Chuckman to learn how to stop the bombs. Kotetsu was the first of the NEXT heroes to figure this out when he remembered Jake used his real name despite him never giving it to him, Kotetsu was thinking to himself "Calm down, Kotetsu Kaburagi".

Trivia[]

  • The name Jake is English and may be a variant of Jack or shortened from Jacob.
    • His surname Martinez means "son of Martín" in Spanish, Martín being a Spanish form of Martinus which was derived from Martis, the genitive case of the name of the Roman god of war Mars.
  • Jake possesses two powers which is rare, to the point it was thought impossible.
  • In the manga, Jake can only hear thoughts that are roughly three yards away.
  • Jake is killed by Lunatic in the manga.
  • Unlike other NEXTs that produce a blue glow when they are using their powers, Jake produces an red/orange glow, presumably because he has two powers. It can also be implied that he uses his mind-reading NEXT ability constantly to the point that he does not produce a glow using that power. Kotetsu glowed red/orange as well when he observed that his speed is much faster than usual when chasing the backstage thief in episode 14.
  • Jake can use his defensive barriers as offensive beams.
  • Jake has had three different hairstyles in the series. One while capturing Kriem, the second while in jail, and the third while battling the heroes.
  • It is possible that Jake's character is based off The Joker from the DC Universe, due to his unstable personality, and Magneto from the Marvel Universe, due to his ideology.
  • Kriem seemed to be one of the few (if any people) he seemed to care for. The relationship between the two seems to be reminiscent of Harley Quinn and the Joker, where the Joker seduced Harley Quinn into being his sidekick and Kriem fell in love with Jake, developing something akin to Stockholm Syndrome.
    • While not outwardly affectionate, Jake does subtly show he cares about her through compliments.
  • Had Jake managed to escape, he would have been hunted by Lunatic. Or, had he been lucky enough to go into hiding, he would try to continue his plan through an heir; Jake himself was getting too old to carry out his plan.
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