Kids' secret energy sources

Spaceman Jax’s niece Dekkin seems to run on super power.

Spaceman Jax’s niece Dekkin is a real firecracker of a little girl. She’s enthusiastic, prone to uncontrollable giggles and she talks a mile a minute when she’s excited. In short, she’s your average seven-year-old.

In many ways, she’s the ultimate match for Spaceman Jax – even his only match. Tarloc’s power-hungry manipulations can’t beat Jax’s single-minded dedication to justice, and the Mantagons with all of their Ultra-turbo-zap-guns can’t shake Jax’s unswerving courage and confidence in himself. Only little Dekkin and her boundless energy can ever slow Jax down. In her orbiter suit she zooms circles around her Uncle regaling him with her stories and ideas, and she bounces back so quickly from each adventure, ready for the next, that Jax almost looks forward to Artie’s insistence on keeping to bedtimes. At less than half his size, Dekkin easily drains Jax’s energy. He doesn’t call her his little neutron booster for nothing.

Maybe Dekkin is sometimes a little too much like her Uncle Jax for her own good. She has the same impatience for action and the same leap-before-you-look attitude, and as long as Uncle Jax is around, she’s fearless. Dekkin idolizes her Uncle, and her wide-eyed sweetness sees only his good intentions and never his shortcomings. So when Jax says he’ll save the day – and manages to do so out of sheer, dumb luck – she absolutely believes him.

But if Jax is an idealized hero – especially in his own mind – Dekkin is the epitome of an adorable little girl. She is caring and sweet, charming and delightful and full of sugar and spice and everything nice. So for Jax, if she has any flaws at all they’re also his flaws, so he sees nothing to correct or complain of when it comes to Dekkin. Except perhaps the energy. Just maybe she’s sometimes a bit too much of a neutron booster.