Jester (Marvel Comics)

Jonathan Powers was the first of several costumed criminals to use the identity of the Jester. He was primarily an enemy of Daredevil.[2]

Jonathan Powers was born in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was a struggling actor with a huge ego who finally got his big break as the leading character in an off-Broadway revival of Cyrano de Bergerac. Panned by critics, jeered by the audience, and disdained by his fellow performers, Powers was fired after one performance. Obsessively, he continued to study the various arts and crafts that he thought would earn him roles, things like gymnastics and body building. He turned down suggestions that he take actual acting classes, insisting that he already had more raw acting talent than anyone who had ever lived. Still, Powers was only able to find employment as a stooge in a children's television show taped in New York.[3]

Finally getting fed up with having pies thrown in his face, Powers vents his anger with society by turning his extensive training in gymnastics and fencing to a life of crime. Contracting the criminal weapons-maker the Tinkerer to make him a number of gimmicks, Powers fashions himself a harlequin-like disguise and calls himself the Jester.[4] After gaining some notoriety as a professional thief, the Jester is hired by Richard Raleigh to get Foggy Nelson to resign his campaign for district attorney. This brings the Jester into conflict with Daredevil, who continues trying to apprehend him, even after they find Raleigh dead. Angered by Daredevil's persistence, he vows revenge.[3]

In his civilian guise as Jonathan Powers, he stages his own murder at the hands of Daredevil.[5] However, Daredevil clears his name by defeating and then unmasking the Jester on live television, demonstrating that his "victim" was still alive.[6] He later escapes prison and teams up with two fellow enemies of Daredevil, the Cobra and Mister Hyde, for revenge. They lure Daredevil to an amusement park, but he defeats and apprehends them there.[7]

The Jester later kidnaps an inventor of computer-generated video and uses his invention to broadcast false news reports smearing Foggy Nelson's re-election campaign and undermining public trust in the government and the media. Though he succeeds in making Nelson lose his post as district attorney, his plan to take over the city and execute Daredevil for murder are foiled by Daredevil and new district attorney Blake Tower.[8] While in prison, the Jester falls under the mental control of the Purple Man, along with the Cobra, Mister Hyde and the Gladiator. The Purple Man forces them all to attack Daredevil and Paladin.[9] He later battles the Moon Knight and Daredevil as well.[10]

After escaping prison, the Jester kidnaps an actor portraying Cyrano de Bergerac on live television and takes his place. His performance is a success with the audience. When he afterwards learns that Daredevil was diverting the police's attention so that he could finish his performance, he voluntarily surrenders.[11] Later, Powers allows himself to be the host of a demon, gaining great strength in the process. When the demon leaves him, Powers is apparently left comatose.[12]

The Jester later collaborated with Screwball when they started a web show called "Jested". Their first episode had them doing a prank on Mayor J. Jonah Jameson. After that happened, both of them are tracked down by the Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus' mind in Spider-Man's body) and (after performing a series of pranks on the Superior Spider-Man himself) are brutally defeated by him.[13]

During the Civil War II storyline, Powers apparently retires from his former role until he is arrested as part of an entrapment operation set up by undercover police officers and an informant, despite the fact that all he was doing was talking about his old days, rather than actually planning a crime. Despite the She-Hulk making a passionate argument about the need to believe in redemption and not condemn someone for their thoughts, Powers is sentenced to prison, where he is shot by a prison guard during a riot a couple of days later.[14]

During the Spider-Men II miniseries, the Jester turns up alive. During his recent criminal activities, the Jester was defeated by Jessica Jones and the She-Hulk.[15]

Jody Putt is a fan of supervillains who obtained the costume of the original Jester after he retired to become an actor. He was given his weaponry by Doctor Doom. Among the arsenal granted to him by Doom was the "long-lived" Hulk Robot created years prior by a pair of college students and the Eternal Uni-Mind. The Jester recruited a team of villains made up of himself, the Hulk Robot, the Fenris twins, Hydro-Man, and Rock of the Hulkbusters to form the Assembly of Evil. The team was defeated by Cloak and Dagger and several intervening Avengers.[16]

The Jester appeared during the superhero Civil War as a member of the Thunderbolts Army. As part of the Thunderbolts Army, the Jester was among the supervillains who helped capture unregistered heroes. The Jester did this due to nanobots in his system, which would electrocute him if he did not do as he was told.[17]

The Jester and Jack O'Lantern are sent to bring in Spider-Man. They pursue the hero through the sewers. Spider-Man ends up badly injured and subdued as the two move in for the kill. Both Jack O' Lantern and the Jester are then shot dead by the Punisher.[18] This fight and these deaths are also detailed in the Punisher: War Journal title.[19]

Mister Hyde later exhumed the Jester's body to find a way around the nanotechnology.[20]

Captain Britain was sent to an alternate Earth, known as Earth-238, by Merlyn. Together with Saturnyne, he hoped to save this world from the corruption that threatened it. Instead they encountered Earth-238's Mad Jim Jaspers, a lunatic with the ability to warp reality. Serving Jaspers was the Crazy Gang, which included the Jester.

The Jester, also known as the Clown, is a very agile fighter and sometimes the self-proclaimed leader of the Crazy Gang. His Earth-238 counterpart was known as Coco. This group of superhumans were based on characters from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass. Captain Britain and Saturnyne individually managed to escape this Earth. Jaspers and the Crazy Gang, including the Jester, were killed when Earth-238 was destroyed by Saturnyne's successor, Mandragon.