| “ | Max, that reason, that purpose is: You are supposed to save the world. | ” |
–Jeb Batchelder, The Angel Experiment | ||
| Jeb Batchelder | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Title | ||
| Jeb | ||
| Vital Statistics | ||
| Gender | Male | |
| Family | Max (Daughter)
Ari (son) | |
| Status | Deceased | |
| Eye Color | Blue | |
| Hair Color | Brown/Blond | |
| Height | ||
| Other | ||
| Affiliation | The Flock, Whitecoats, The School | |
| Weapons | ||
| Species | Human | |
| Home | Unknown | |
| Appearances | The Angel Experiment,
School's Out - Forever, Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, The Final Warning, MAX, FANG, Nevermore, Maximum Ride Forever |
|
Jeb Batchelder was Ari Batchelder and Maximum Ride's father. Though he used to be a good whitecoat, he gradually lost the trust of the Flock after the events of The Angel Experiment.
History
Before The Angel Experiment
When Max and the Flock were young, Jeb rescued them from the School and went into hiding, living in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado. He became a fatherlike figure to them, teaching them how to fight, to fly, and other things. Max described that it was almost a normal life, and that she was happy she was going to die away from the lab—not in a dog crate. After two years, however, Jeb disappeared without a trace, and Max became leader.
The Angel Experiment
Jeb first saw Angel again after she was done running a maze at the School. He told her that he hadn't seen her in a long time and that he missed her. Angel tried to read his thoughts, but his mind was blank. He then gave her a tray of steaming food and said that the whitecoats didn't know about her appetite. From there, Jeb told a brief story about a time when he and the Flock were having hot dogs together, and Angel ate twice as much as everyone else at the age of three. He then promised Angel that he'd make sure the whitecoats treated her better and that everything would eventually make sense. Angel told him afterwards that she hated him, which saddened him slightly.
Max met him later when she arrived at the School along with Nudge and Fang. He told her he needed to talk with her and led her to a furnished room. While and after making them some hot chocolate, he said that he was proud of Maximum and that he was sorry he didn't get to explain everything to her. He then told her that she was created for special reason—to save the world—and that she was more important than she could ever have imagined. Aferwards, he took her back to her crate and left. Meanwhile, Max begins to distrust him for relocating back to The School and his fellow Whitecoats.
As the hawks were dive-bombing and maiming the Erasers, Jeb screamed to Max that everything was a test and that she was safe at the School. Max, however, said she didn't think so, and promptly flew off with the rest of the Flock.
Jeb also appeared with Ari at a beach where the Flock was staying. Ari tried to kill Fang, but Jeb told him he had his orders. Jeb then asked Max if she understood what was happening; when she said no, he once again told her she had to save the world. He also informed her that the mistakes she'd made in New York City had cost her and that she had to be more careful. Jeb soon left with the rest of the Erasers.
He was devastated when Max killed Ari, saying the Ari was his son and that Max had killed her own brother.
Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
While Max, Nudge, Angel, and Total were being held captive in a dungeon by the Director, Jeb visited them in the dungeon they were being held in. Max described him as resembling very spicy Mexican food: keep coming back on ya.
Jeb in the Marvel series
The Final Warning
When Jeb asked Max if she trusted him, Max replied, "No. But I trust my mother, and she apparently trusts you. So, little tin-can jet it is." To the reader, she said, "Would I ever be able to forgive him for all the heinous things he had done to me, to the flock? He'd had his reasons; he'd thought he was helping, thought it was for the greater good, thought it would help me in my mission. Well, la-di-dah for him. I don't forgive that easy. And I never, ever forget."
FANG
After he took a bullet for the Flock while they were at Furioso, Max partially forgave him.
Nevermore
After Jeb and Ari appeared to kill Fang, Max kicked him in the ribs, breaking most of them. When the Flock was going to Paradise, she suddenly said they couldn't just leave him to freeze on the porch and to take him with them. Afterwards, Jeb was not heard from again for quite some time.
Maximum Ride Forever
While looking for the Remedy, Max and Dylan find Jeb. Jeb confirmed that he made the Horsemen by splicing Fang's genes. Max choked him, then once she let go, he tazed her. Jeb then strapped her onto a gurney and was about to stick a syringe in her to make her a Horseman. Just before he was about to do it, Kate and Star came. He got distracted by them, then Max took the syringe and plunged it into his thigh, and Jeb ultimately died after Kate snapped his neck.
Trivia
- Max thought that the Voice in her head was Jeb after he used it in Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports. However, in the next book he said he was not the Voice. (Also in Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, Jeb revealed that he was Max's father and that Dr. Valencia Martinez was her mother.)
- Anne Walker was Jeb's boss.
- In the first volume of Maximum Ride: The Manga, a picture of Jeb and a slightly younger Flock can be seen taped to the walls of the Flock's kitchen.