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This article is about the Daily Planet photographer Henry James Olsen, known as Jimmy Olsen. For his younger brother, also known as Jimmy Olsen, see James Bartholomew Olsen. For his Earth-Majestic doppelgänger, see Henry James Olsen (Earth-Majestic).

"Why do you think they call me 'Jimmy the Infuriator'?" - Henry James Olsen, Static

Henry James "Jimmy" Olsen was a young photographer who lived in Metropolis and worked at the Daily Planet; until shortly before his death. He married Chloe Sullivan in 2008; but they later divorced, although reconciled shortly after. He is the older brother of Jimmy Olsen.

Eager to advance his career and make a name for himself, Jimmy was a dedicated journalist. He was always determined to pursue a story, or get to the bottom of an investigation to photograph the best news.

Since beginning a long-term relationship with Chloe, Jimmy had become friends with her friend Clark Kent. He also found himself in the crosshairs of Lex Luthor and had a brief romantic relationship with Clark's cousin, Kara Kent. However, when Kara lost her memory, Jimmy came to the conclusion that they might not have a connection after all. He then rekindled his relationship with Chloe and they were committed to making it work, even as Jimmy continued to question whether she would rather be with Clark.

When Jimmy proposed to Chloe, she was arrested by the Department of Domestic Security before she had a chance to respond. When Chloe returned from Montana a month later, she accepted Jimmy's proposal. On their wedding day, Jimmy was injured by a mysterious creature and taken to a hospital in Star City. Upon returning to his hometown, he began to suspect that Davis Bloome was a murderer, but became desperate and upset when no one, not even Chloe, believed him. Jimmy subsequently separated from his wife while dealing with the physical and psychological ramifications of his attack. He quit his job at the Daily Planet, and he and Chloe divorced.[1]

After a short stint as a bartender, Jimmy asked to borrow money from Oliver Queen. Oliver correctly deduced that Jimmy had begun abusing his pain medication. After catching him stealing money from Chloe's apartment, Oliver offered Jimmy a job and a chance to get back on his feet. Jimmy accepted and worked for him at Queen Industries until his death.

Clark told Jimmy his secret after he removed a kryptonite arrow from Clark's back, and Jimmy saw a cut on his face spontaneously heal. He finally understood why Chloe was so secretive and protective of Clark, allowing Jimmy and Chloe to reconcile their relationship. However, the now-human Davis Bloome mortally stabbed Jimmy; with a pipe out of anger at Chloe for being with him just to protect Clark. Jimmy used his last strength to save Chloe; by pushing and fatally impaling Davis in turn. With his last breath, Jimmy told Chloe that; he loved her and died in her arms.

Physical Appearance[]

HenryOlsen S6

Jimmy in Season Six

In general, Jimmy was a Caucasian male with darkish blond hair and blue eyes, and had a friendly smile and a cheerful disposition. He often wore shirts with short sleeves when he was off duty, otherwise mostly long ones and as well as a jacket, and sometimes a bow tie on formal occasions. Oftentimes, he also brought his trusted Nikon camera on duty, hung around his neck with a padded lanyard.

His younger brother James Olsen, after growing to adulthood, bears a striking resemblance to him.

HenryOlsen S82

Jimmy in Season Eight

Personality[]

"Look, I'm not your James Bond. I went to a Halloween party once as James Bond. Everyone thought I was the maître d'."
— Henry James Olsen, Sleeper

Jimmy was an oddly conflicted individual. Although he was very high-strung in regard to his work and relationships, he was also easy-going in nearly every other aspect of his personal life, and enjoys amateur radio and basketball.[2] He was also highly intuitive — although he, and his friends do not realize this. He was one of the first people to try to matchmake Lois and Clark together in Crimson. In Identity, he not only gets the first picture of "The Blur", but he deduced that this mysterious hero started out in Smallville and eventually figures out who it was.

Jimmy dated the love of his life, Chloe Sullivan, for the majority of the time he worked at the Daily Planet, and their relationship illustrated many of Jimmy's personality traits. As Chloe's boyfriend, he was willing to help out Chloe's friends.[3] However, he would often get jealous of Chloe's fierce devotion to her best friend Clark Kent and her tendency to keep secrets (related to Clark's alien heritage and her own meteor-rock infection), which led to arguments and even caused them to break up several times.[4] Jimmy expressed that he felt he had to constantly compete for Chloe's affections, which came to a head when Chloe even sided with Davis over Jimmy.[5]

Even though he was jealous of Clark, they remained on good terms and began a tentative friendship.[6] When Chloe finally admitted that she was meteor-infected, Jimmy made a conscious effort to be more sensitive to the subject.[7]

Early life[]

"His name was Jimmy, He was very cute, in a bow tie kind of way."
Chloe Sullivan, Unsafe

Very little is known about Jimmy Olsen before he met Chloe Sullivan when they were both sophomore interns at the Daily Planet in early 2002, other than that he was a student at Metropolis High School. At the time Chloe was emotionally vulnerable due to the horrible Spring Formal experience she had earlier in Smallville High School, and was still struggling to get over her "friendly" breakup with Clark Kent. Jimmy's timely wooing consoled her, leading to Chloe engaging in a rebound relationship with Jimmy and later losing her virginity to him (and vice versa). The whirlwind romance ended three months later after Chloe returned to Smallville that summer. They did not see or hear from each other for another four years, until Dark Thursday. After becoming colleagues at the Daily Planet again in early 2006, they began an on-again, off-again relationship, culminating in their engagement in the summer of 2008. They married in November 2008.

Before this time, Jimmy claimed to Chloe that his father was an investment banker, and that he had spent Thanksgiving of 2006 with his mother. Several months before their wedding, Jimmy revealed that his father is not an investment banker, but a part-time mechanic and an alcoholic from Oklahoma City, and that he never really knew his mother. He stated that he recreated his identity background in order to fit in the big city of Metropolis.

Smallville TV Series[]


Alternate Realities[]

Season Seven[]

In 2008, when Clark visited an alternate universe in which he never arrived on Earth, he found Jimmy, working at the Daily Planet and told him that he was a fan of his photos. Clark asked Jimmy to let him use the Planet's archives to search for Lana Lang and see where she is. With Jimmy's help, Clark learned that Lana was married to a Frenchman named Pierre Rosseau and that they lived in Paris with their two children.

Jimmy later showed Clark a newspaper that said that Lex was the President of the United States. Clark wondered how Lex could be the President while Jimmy spoke about the meteor shower. Clark later persuaded Jimmy to tell him the truth about Lex's plan.

Season Eleven[]

Chaos (Earth-Majestic)

See: Hank Olsen

In the Comics[]

In the comics, James Bartholomew Olsen has traditionally been portrayed as an only child. In 2019, DC Comics introduced Jimmy Olsen's brother, Julian Olsen, in Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen Vol 2 #1 (September, 2019).

Appearances[]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 #
Season 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0
Season 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0
Season 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0
Season 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0
Season 5 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0
Season 6 X - X - - X - X X X - - X X X - - - - X - - 10
Season 7 - - X X - X - - X - - - X X X X X X X X 12
Season 8 X - - X X X X - X X - - - - - X - - X X - X 11
Season 9 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0
Season 10 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0
Total 33

Notes[]

  • According to Chloe in Season 2, Jimmy went to Metropolis High School (as did Victor Stone).
  • Chloe lost her virginity to Jimmy when they were interns, something Chloe later expressed regret because it "just wasn't special".
  • Jimmy refers to Clark as "C.K." — a characteristic of the Jimmy Olsen from Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
  • Jimmy mostly used Nikon cameras.
  • Jimmy knew the steps to a modern tango, as does Chloe.[8]
  • After his death, Jimmy's name was revealed to be Henry James Olsen and that he was the older brother of James Bartholomew Olsen (the comics-canon Jimmy Olsen). Aaron Ashmore would later play the adult James Olsen in the last portion of the finale, which takes place in 2018.
  • Jimmy was a radio geek and his handle was "Jimmy the Infuriator".
  • Jimmy lived at 200 North Hamilton Drive, Metropolis,[9] prior to being engaged and married to Chloe.
  • Jimmy knew Clark Kent's secret the shortest out of all the main characters, since Jimmy died mere hours after he found out about Clark being the Blur.
  • Although Jimmy died, he was shown in many pictures at the Watchtower in several episodes from Season 9.[10]

Trivia[]

  • Jimmy looks almost exactly the same as the adult version of his younger brother James Olsen, because both characters are portrayed by the same actor Aaron Ashmore.
  • Jimmy also bears a striking resemblance to Eric Summers — this is due to Jimmy's actor Aaron Ashmore and Eric's actor Shawn Ashmore being identical twin brothers. Aaron is about "one minute" older and slightly taller than Shawn, and according to Aaron, Shawn often gets cast as the nice guy while Aaron himself is cast as the bully when they were in movies together.
  • Even though Jimmy was a main character, he did not appear in every episode because, like Erica Durance prior to Season Ten, Aaron Ashmore was contracted to appear in a set number per year.
  • Jimmy was featured in less episodes per season than any other main character. He was originally meant to appear in 13 episodes for season 7, but the writers strike meant that it was cut to 12, which was then cut to 11 when his only scene in Traveler was cut and limited to a cameo appearance in the background of a shot (This scene was deleted, but appears on the Season 7 DVDs. In it, he helps Lana and Chloe from inside the mansion and has a brief talk with Kara). A similar thing happened in season 8, which cut his episodes from 12 to 11 when his scene from Hex was cut.
  • Jimmy had no scenes with Tess Mercer in Season 8.
  • Jimmy was the fifth main character to die.

Relationships[]

Male relationships
Female relationships
Love Triangle

See also[]

References[]

  1. Chloe stated they are divorced in Stiletto.
  2. Jimmy talks about ham radio in Static and Cure and proposes that he and Clark settle any differences they may have over a "game of hoops" in Subterranean.
  3. This can be seen in Static, Subterranean, Cure, among others.
  4. This can be seen in Crimson, Instinct, Cure, among others.
  5. Turbulence
  6. Gemini, Hero
  7. Hero.
  8. Sleeper
  9. Sleeper
  10. As seen in Savior and Metallo.
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