Profile[]
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.
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 Cagewas 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.