A police officer, husband and parent, protection is Jefferson Davis’ modus operandi. As a father to Miles Morales, AKA Spider-Man, he worries about his son and does what he can to help him while the wall-crawler helps others with his super-powers.
Recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D.
Growing up in Brooklyn in reality Earth-1610, African-American Jefferson Davis and his brother Aaron struggle to survive. Aaron exposes Jefferson to organized crime by tricking him into attending a meeting with Turk Barrett, a subordinate of Wilson Fisk, AKA Kingpin. He held his own in a fight against Turk’s associates. He gets arrested, but the next day, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nicholas Fury recruits Jefferson to infiltrate Fisks’ criminal organization. Jefferson helps expose Fisk’s involvement in a superhuman power-granting Mutant Growth Hormone (MGH) distribution operation, which leads to Fisk’s arrest.
Fury offers Jefferson a job with S.H.I.E.L.D., but Jefferson, having seen MGH abuse, develops a prejudice against super-powered people and declines the offer. He instead joins the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
Jefferson later meets nurse Rio Morales at a physical therapist’s office. In meeting her, he wants to be deserving of her. They embark on a romance, eventually marry and have a son, Miles Morales. As Miles grows up, he sneaks away to visit his uncle Aaron to watch martial arts movies, despite Jefferson’s wishes for him to stay away from Aaron, on account of his criminal lifestyle.
When Erik Lensherr, AKA Magneto, attacked humanity and flooded Manhattan, Jefferson and his family evacuated the city, which reinforced Jefferson’s feelings about superhumans.
Jefferson joins his son at the lottery for the Brooklyn Visions Academy, a charter/boarding school, and celebrates when his son’s name is called.
Take Cover
Jefferson is a skilled fighter. As a police officer for the NYPD, Jefferson has training in the use of firearms and in hand-to-hand combat.
Super Villain Spells Danger
While in his native universe, the subversive organization Hydra is Jefferson’s foe and prevents him from getting to his family. The organization attempts to turn him into one of their own, but Jefferson fights them off. He also battles Dr. Conrad Marcus, AKA Venom, and Green Goblin and his Goblinoids.
A Family at Stake
Jefferson is close to his wife Rio, and his children, Miles and Billie. He learns his son is Spider-Man but with his low opinion of superhumans, he doesn’t accept it right away. When he does, he seeks to do what he can to protect him in his efforts as a Super Hero.
Jefferson doesn’t have a close relationship with his brother Aaron, whose life of crime drives them apart. Aaron’s criminal tendencies and Jefferson’s morality lead them on different paths. Aaron becomes a Super Villain thief known as the Prowler, while Jefferson becomes an undercover agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. and eventually a police officer. After a long period of being estranged, when Aaron shows that he’s changing, Jefferson lets him back into his life.
In his universe of origin, Jefferson works undercover for Nicholas Fury at S.H.I.E.L.D. He doesn’t take Fury up on a more permanent position and later regrets it. When relocated to Earth-616, he joins S.H.I.E.L.D. and becomes an agent to help protect his son.
Take Cover
Unbeknownst to Jefferson, the new Spider-Man was his teenage son, Miles. When Spider-Man and the Prowler fought, and it resulted in Aaron’s death, Jefferson blamed the young wall-crawler.
After Captain America was elected U.S. President, the criminal organization Hydra launched an assault. Jefferson killed some Hydra agents that were impeding his efforts to reach his family, leaving Jefferson emotionally withdrawn.
Jefferson was later attacked by Venom, who was hunting Spider-Man. Spider-Man saved his father but he still ended up injured and in the hospital, where the fight between Spider-Man and Venom ended up. There, police accidentally shot Jefferson’s wife Rio, and she died from her injuries.
When Reality-1610’s Galactus destroyed New Jersey, Spider-Man tried to get Jefferson, who was recovering from his injuries, to safety, but Jefferson refused to listen. Spider-Man revealed himself to be his son, and Jefferson blamed him for his wife and brother’s deaths, smacking his shoulder with his cane. But a crashing plane distracted them. Jefferson left home and didn't return for months. When he finally returned home, he revealed his past working with S.H.I.E.L.D. and apologized to Miles for leaving.
After the collision of Earth-616 and 1610, both universes were destroyed. Following the restoration of the Multiverse, Jefferson, Rio and Aaron were all restored to Earth-616, where Miles was located, and as if the latter two hadn’t died. Jefferson retained his memory that his son was Spider-Man but his wife and brother did not.
Concerned for his son’s well-being, Jefferson soon joined Earth-616’s S.H.I.E.L.D. in return for their protection of his son, but kept it and Miles’ secret identity from Rio. Though Rio found out eventually and felt betrayed by them both. During his time working for S.H.I.E.L.D., he became lost in another universe, Earth-65. When his son tracked him down, he was with another person with spider-powers, Gwen Stacy, AKA Spider-Woman (later Ghost Spider). Together, they went up against the evil Scorpion—that reality’s Jefferson Davis—who was attempting to hold the Multiverse hostage.
Jefferson and Rio learned that they were going to have a second child, but their first was soon abducted and experimented upon by the Assessor. Jefferson teamed up with his brother Aaron and liberated Miles, which brought them closer together as brothers. Rio then gave birth to their daughter whom they named Billie. Aaron and Miles joined Jefferson and Rio at the hospital to meet her.
When Spider-Man went up against the displaced Earth-1610 Green Goblin, his Goblinoids, and Ultimatum (the original Miles Morales from Earth-616), Jefferson joined Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, in offering backup to his son. Upon arriving, Prowler was there as well and when Ultimatum unveiled a device meant to send Miles and his family back to their universe, Aaron sacrificed himself.
Jefferson then legally changed his name to “Jeff Morales” to start fresh and on account of the name “Jefferson Davis” being tainted. He wanted to have a service for his brother, which he expressed to Miles, but Miles refused to believe his uncle was dead.
Billie was soon kidnapped by Miles’ evil clone Selim (who was created by the Assessor) despite Jefferson’s best efforts to stop the doppelgänger. Thanks to Miles’ efforts and his other clones, Mindspinner and Shift, Billie was returned home.
