The Jester
Real Name: Jonathon Powers
First Appearance: DareDevil 42
What's His Problem? Dreaming of being a dramatic actor, Powers honed his acrobatic and fencing skills. Unfortunately he ignored the essentials (namely, acting lessons), and was laughed off the stage when he tried playing Cyrano. After that fiasco, the only job he could get in the acting biz was as the pie-in-the-face guy for a comic. Miffed at the public's refusal to take him seriously, he decided to leave 'em laughing and turned to crime as a costumed clown.
Abilities: The Jester is a skilled acrobat, hand to hand combatant and swordsman. He has numerous modified toys in his arsenal, such as: a yo-yo hidden in his glove for bonking good guys, marbles he scatters to trip the pursuing super-hero, gas pellets disguised as popcorn, ping-pong balls that use kinetic energy to increase size with every bounce ... you get the idea. His captive audience consists of automatons so realistic they can withstand every medical test short of an autopsy.
Favorite Quote: "We all know the truth of the matter don't we? We all saw it on the television, didn't we? And you can always believe what they tell you! You can always believe the news! The shows! The commercials!!?!" (DareDevil 136; the Jester provides a biting commentary on our society while manipulating television broadcasts to show DD committing murder).
Heroes He Keeps Running Into: The Jester repeatedly failed to amuse DareDevil during his attempts to frame DD for murder. One battle with Moon Knight proved it wasn't just because the Horned One lacked a sense of humor.
People Who Think He's Not So Bad: At first a loner, the Jester eventually gathered a gang about himself, and disciplined the lads by offing them when they were foolish enough to break ranks. The guys stayed pretty loyal to him despite his strictness. When he broke out of jail in Moon Knight 13 he took his cellmate Taggart with him for moral support, which didn't prevent Moon Knight and DareDevil from quickly slamming them both back into the brig.
Most Despicable Act: At first just an immense, talentless ego looking for an outlet, the Jester graduated to mass extortion, terrorism and murder during DareDevil 133-137. Bombarding New York with false news reports, the Jester led the public at large to believe DD was a cop killer. He murdered several of his own henchmen, had a large mechanical version of himself chomp rival crime bosses into pieces, and capped his spree by inciting a mob to lynch DD.
Weirdly enough, he now has a fairly successful acting career going...guess all that mayhem was just the sort of training he needed to make it in "The Biz."
