Jester (Quality Comics)

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This article is about the Quality/DC Comics character. For the Marvel Comics character of the same name, see Jester (Marvel Comics).
The Jester
The Jester as depicted in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #11 (January 1986).
Publication information
PublisherQuality Comics
DC Comics
First appearanceSmash Comics #22 (May 1941)
Created byPaul Gustavson
In-story information
Alter egoCharles "Chuck" Lane
Team affiliationsAll-Star Squadron
Freedom Fighters
AbilitiesOlympic-level athlete
Brilliant hand-to-hand combatant
Skilled detective

Jester (Charles "Chuck" Lane) is a fictional character, a

Starman #46. The character's last Golden Age appearance was in Smash Comics #85 (Oct 1949).[2]

Fictional character biography

Rookie cop Chuck Lane learns that he is a direct descendant of a

court jester.[3] Because of this, and the fact that he feels he is not doing enough good as a cop alone, he becomes a colorfully costumed adventurer known as the "Jester".[4] The Jester is a comical crime fighter who makes laughing-stocks out of the criminals he fights. He is known to be an unpredictable hero whose eerie laugh and jingling bells are an ominous sign to his enemies. His costume is worn under his police uniform.[5]

According to Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes, "most of the Jester's enemies are ordinary humans, but there is the occasional name villain like the stoic gangster Stoneface and the femme fatale Lady Satan".[6]

The Jester becomes a member of both the All-Star Squadron and Uncle Sam's Freedom Fighters.[7] His last recorded mission is in 1952, and sometime after that he gives up being the Jester to become a normal cop again.

In modern times, an aged Jester is the head of a group of patriotic radicals known as The Arcadians, seeking to "cleanse" America of its "corrupt" governments. To this end, he has his underlings (among whom is his grandson, Charles, who has taken on his costumed identity) kidnap the Vice President and his wife, with the ransom being the recovering of mystical artifacts by the Freedom Fighters.[8] When government agents track the group's communications to Lane's home, he sets off powerful explosives, killing the agents and himself along with them.[9]

Powers and abilities

The Jester has no superpowers, but is an Olympic-level athlete and a brilliant hand-to-hand combatant and in some later adventures is aided by a small flying sphere with a smiling face and handles on the side called "Quinopolis". He is also a skilled detective, trained in various techniques of police procedure.

In other media

Jester appears in

Joker and member of his Earth's Justice League who ultimately sacrifices himself to allow Lex Luthor to cross into another dimension and escape from the Crime Syndicate of America
.

References

  1. ISBN 978-1605490373
    .
  2. ISBN 9781893905375
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1605490892
    .
  4. ^ Markstein, Don. "The Jester". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  5. ISBN 0-87833-808-X
    . Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  6. ISBN 978-1-61318-023-5
    .
  7. ISBN 978-1893905375
    .
  8. ^ Freedom Fighters (vol. 4) #1
  9. ^ Freedom Fighters (vol. 2) #4

External links

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