James Matthew

**James Matthew** is the best friend of Charles McLance, Tommy Hunter and James Schott. Originally a photojournalist of the local paper in Port Glasgow, known for being friends with Saltire, James later moved and became the art director of Jones & Anderson Media in National City, where he helped Jonathan Kent with his heroism and becoming Powerhouse. He was later promoted to CEO of Jones & Anderson by Lauren Jones when she took a leave of absence from the company. Always longing for his own brand of justice, James, with the help of James Schott, adopted the guise of **Defender**, a vigilante operating in the city.

After revealing his identity during Reign's terraformation of Earth, James soon became a deputised superhero of the National City Police Department. He resigned from Jones & Anderson when its new owner, Lana Corben, started diminishing the importance of journalism. James moved back to Glasgow and used a loophole in the contract that kept him from being a reporter to purchase the local newspaper, *The Port Glasgow Gazette*, and become its publisher. He began using the paper to fight against the town's corrupt justice system.

## James Matthew

### Relatives

Jenny Jarvis (sistersConnor Jarvis (Father)

Jack Jarvis (Grandfather)

### Affiliation

The Port Glasgow GazetteJones and Anderson Media (formerly; resigned)

His team (formerly)

Superfriends (formerly)

National City Police Department (deputised; formerly)

### Occupation

Publisher of The Port Glasgow Gazette (formerly)Vigilante (deputised; formerly)

CEO of Jones & Anderson Media (formerly)Leader of his team (formerly)Photojournalist (formerly)Photographer (formerly)Art director at Jones & Anderson Media (formerly)

## Biography

James Matthew is the only son of Connor Matthew, a soldier who died during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. He has a younger sister, Jenny. Before Conmor was deployed to the Middle East, he gave James his first camera. Since the death of his father, James keeps the camera with him at all times and decided to become a photojournalist

When James was seven, he went on a family holiday. At the hotel grounds, James and his cousins played hide-and-seek. While hiding during the game, the boys were approached by four police officers, who then tried to arrest them. They attempted to explain to the police that they were staying at the hotel, which none of them believed. The officers put handcuffs on James and his cousins and marched them into the hotel lobby, where James' mother happened to be. She demanded the police to let them go. The police officers believed her and released them. This incident would stay with James in his adulthood.

A funeral was held for James' father when he was young. Before the service started, James told Jenny that he would be with her to support her. James snuck into the funeral early to have a moment alone with his father, but had to leave when someone saw him. Outside, two boys confronted James, making fun of the fact that his father was dead. The boys locked James in a coffin, so Jenny was alone at the service, which bothered Jenny for many years. Not being at his father's funeral caused James to suppress the truth of what had happened. Instead, he began to tell people that he was locked in a bathroom across the street, and the funeral was over by the time he had been let out.

At some point James met Charles McLance.

### Becoming Defender

After his father's camera is destroyed during an attempt to stop some criminals armed with alien technology from robbing a bank in Glasgow, James decides to become a vigilante and asks Leo Ramon to make him a suit, as Leo had made Grant's The Blur suit. Although he originally declined, Leo later was forced to agree and help. He then made the suit to specifically protect James. James appeared in the suit, presenting himself as "Defender", to fight the alien parasite infected peolle, along with Saltire. After James' antics as Guardian made the newspapers he and James Armitage decided to keep going with their new vigilante activities. However to avoid Charles’ over protectiveness Matthew and Armitage agreed not to share their new activity with him.

After many months, Charles learnt the truth behind the identity of Defender. He was proud of his friend.

## Personality

James is intelligent, kind, caring, selfless, brave and moral, with an urge to help people in any way possible. This was partly inspired by his many years of assisting Saltire and Powerhouse.

## Abilities

* **Peak of human physical condition:** James is in top physical condition.

* **Honed senses:** Due to his time on team Saltire, James developed sharp senses and can pick up on danger. For example, after entering an empty room with Rex, he suspected (correctly) that it was a trap laid out by PhiCorp.

* **Master hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist:** James is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant, having developed his combat skills during his time as Defender. During his time as a vigilante, James’ skills were already great enough to be able to stand up to Dark Arrow, Reign and the Worldkiller.
* **Expert knife wielder/Knife thrower:** James is an accomplished knife wielder, when practicing kali knife-fighting techniques with Charles, James was able to keep up and was even complimented by Henry on his stamina.
* **Expert swordsman:** James displays a remarkable amount of skill in swordsmanship, presumably due to his training over the years with Saltire. He was able to wield the sword he took from Dark Arrow just well enough to defend himself against the foe in a sword fight, blocking most of Malcolm’s’ sword attacks, although with visible difficulty.
* **High-level intellect/Master tactician:** Due to his time with Team Saltire, James is highly skilled at formulating plans and executing them and also thinks ahead in case things don't go his way.

## Equipment

* **Signal watch:** James wears a special watch which Powerhouse gave to him so that he would be able to contact him in case he ever got in trouble. Occasionally James has also used the watch to communicate with Charles.
* **Defender suit:** James wears a mechanised, armoured suit as his heroic alter-ego, Defender, to hide his identity from enemies, when he goes out fighting crime. It was designed by Leo Ramon, it is made of lead and other unknown materials. The suit enhances physical strength and resilience with bullet-proof material to match that of opponents, such as Worldkiller. The suit has a voice alterer so no one can recognise his voice and built-in shield that folds up into and out of the arm and it generates golden shock-waves to deflect and repel beings with super strength who strike it. The wrist also has a grappling hook/line that can lasso enemies and attach itself to a high structure at the same time to dangle people by their foot on command. James once used this to swing around an enemy.
* **Retractable shield:** A built-in shield that expands and retracts both automatically and on command. James often uses it to help him fight and it generates golden shock-waves to deflect and repel beings with super strength who strike it.
* **Connection to James Armitage:** The suit's helmet has a camera built in to allow James Armitage to see it from his desk in the command centre. Whatever James Matthew sees is shown in a HUD display. This lets Armitage help Matthew in his superheroism.
* **Smoke pellets:** As Defender, James carries smoke pellets that he can use to escape certain situations such as when he had to disappear from the National City Police Department when he lost his helmet and had to protect his identity.

## Appearances

### Saltire

#### Pre-Season 1

* “Pilot: immortal Warrior”
* “Don’t Be Alone”
* “A Powerhouse”
* “The Professor”
* “Fighters”
* ”Defender”
* “Trust But Verify”
* “Salvation”
* ”Sacrifice”

* ” The Calm”
* ”Identity”
* ” The Society of Justice”
* ”This is your Sword”

### Season 4

* "Past and Future" (archive sound)
* "Annihilation" (archive sound)

### Season 3

* ”Man of Power”
* ”Triggers”
* ”Faithful”
* ”Wake Up”
* ”Reign”
* ”Guardian”
* ”Taking Flight”
* ”Team Saken”
* ”Worldkillers”
* ”Protector”
* ”Battle”

### Season 4

* “American Alien”
* ”Madness”
* ”Banshee”
* ”Power-Hungry”
* “Defender”
* Chester Black
* “Lord and Master”
* “Saltire”

* ”War Pt 1”

### Season 5

* "Event Horizon"
* "Stranger Beside Me
* "Blurred Lines"
* "Manhunter Hunts"
* " The Danger in the Dark"
* "Wrath of Korrag
* "Catastrophe"
* “The Bottle Episode”
* ”Back From The Future Part 1” and 2
* ”it’s a Super Life”
* ”Immortal Kombat”

### Season 6

* Heritage
* ”Haywire”