virtually nothing is known of the past of janice before she first appeared as joystick including the origin and nature of her apparent superhuman powers when she was much younger her father a gambler taught her his philosophy to always have a card to play she then used this philosophy to great advantage when she helped a mobster rob her father to save her own life later she was a student at the university of arizona living a life she later considered to be a bore after her sophomore year something happened to change her apparently resulting in her death in her "new life" she became determined to live life on the edge and began taking extreme risks she then disappeared for three years before reappearing as joystick