The Arrowverse missed the mark in adapting The Trickster; one of the greatest of The Flash‘s enemies in the comics. While the show’s version is an interesting character in his own right, he’s a far cry from the criminal mastermind who routinely made a fool of Barry Allen.
There are a number of supervillains with comedic themes in the reality of DC Comics. Joker is the most notable of them, of course, but Superman had two such enemies; Toyman and Prankster. On the surface, The Trickster would seem to be cut from the same cloth as the aforementioned murderous mountebanks. Yet this Flash villain was no killer, adhering to The Rogues’ rules about committing his crimes without lethal force and often times having no real goal beyond making The Flash look silly.
Sadly, this aspect of The Trickster was lost in translation, when the anti-heroic James Jesse was made into a more manic Joker-type villain for the 1990s The Flash series. This version of The Trickster was later lifted and inserted into the Arrowverse, with Mark Hamill once again playing James Jesse. While Hamill first played The Trickster before he more famously lent his voice to Joker, it seemed that the producers of the new Flash series intended to draw upon Hamill’s more famous work voicing the Caliph of Clowns in establishing their own take on James Jesse.
The Trickster’s Origin In The Comics
The Trickster first appeared in The Flash #113, where he was introduced as Jesse James. Scion of the famous Flying Jesses, who had been circus tight-rope walkers, acrobats and trapeze artists for generations, young James was a disappointment to his father as he was far more interested in reading than rehearsing. This was largely because of a secret James dared not tell his fearless father; he was scared of heights.
Finally forced to start practicing, Jesse thought of a tricky way to get over his fear of falling and constructed a special pair of shoes which allowed the wearer to defy gravity through the use of miniature compressed air jets. These secret shoes enabled Jesse to overcome his phobia and made him more agile than the average aerialist, building his reputation as the world’s greatest acrobat. Having developed a taste for the thrills of the big-top, Jesse sought a new source of excitement. He ultimately decided to follow in the footsteps of his semi-namesake, becoming a gentleman outlaw who robbed planes in mid-flight like Jesse James robbed trains.
Taking the name of Trickster, Jesse’s daring mid-air robberies quickly got the attention of Flash, who publicly challenged Trickster to a duel to see who could outwit the other. Jesse accepted with glee and proved to be Flash’s better, using sneezing powder to discover the true Flash among a series of speed mirages, before running out of Flash’s reach with his air-walking shoes. Though he got caught in the end, Trickster kept coming back for more, having found the thrills he craved staying one step ahead of the Fastest Man Alive and often giving back everything he stole once the game was over.
The Trickster’s Origin In The 1990s Flash Show
James Jesse first appeared in The 1990 The Flash series in an episode appropriately titled “The Trickster.” Played by Mark Hamill, who was most famous at the time for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films, the show’s take on The Trickster was heavily influenced by Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie. Rather than the playful acrobat of the comics, this Trickster was a psychotic killer, wanted for murder in six states, more like The Joker than the James Jesse of the comics.
“The Trickster” introduced James Jesse as a murderous magician with a history of multiple-personalities, who was thwarted by The Flash just before he added private investigator Megan Lockhart to his list of victims. This caused Jesse to become fixated on both The Flash and Lockhart, developing a criminal personality capable of fighting The Flash. After escaping from police custody, Jesse made a costume for himself and dubbed his new persona The Trickster. This led to a series of colorful bombings around Central City, as Jesse tried to destroy The Flash and win the affections of Lockhart, whom he had become convinced was his lost true love and partner in crime, Prank.
Jesse returned in “The Trial of The Trickster,” escaping from prison again with the aid of toy company heiress Zoey Clark, who had fallen for the Trickster and become Prank in earnest. With her help, Trickster was able to capture and brainwash The Flash, using him to commit a few random acts of vandalism before abducting the court personnel assigned to his criminal trial and putting them on trial for “crimes against good taste.” Thankfully, Barry Allen’s noble nature reasserted itself in time to put James Jesse in a padded cell for good.
How Mark Hamill’s Joker Success Ruined The Arrowverse Trickster
The Flash only lasted for a single season, but Mark Hamill found a new career-defining role as a more infamous supervillain shortly his turn as The Trickster. Hamill began lending his voice to The Joker on Batman: The Animated Series one year later. He would continue to play the Clown Prince of Crime over the next three decades in many other animated films, cartoon series and video games. Today, Hamill is widely considered to be the definitive Joker in both animation and live-action adaptations.
Looking back at the 1990’s The Flash, it is all but impossible to not think of Hamill’s Joker. Both characters have the same distinctive mad laugh and dramatic yet homicidal flair. Prank also represents a proto-Harley Quinn figure, though there’s no evidence that Zoey Clark was a direct inspiration for Harleen Quinzel. Regardless, the producers of the 2014 The Flash series elected to bring all of the Trickster mythology from the first live-action show into the Arrowverse.
James Jesse was introduced into the reality of The Flash in the season 1 episode “Tricksters.” This episode established that James Jesse had been a colorful terrorist known as The Trickster in Central City in the 1990s. Jesse killed 10 civilians and 2 cops before finally being brought to justice and locked in a maximum security cell in Iron Heights Prison. It was here that Barry Allen and Joe West sought out his advice when a copycat criminal appropriated the Trickster name and Jesse’s gear to launch his own campaign of terror. It was later revealed that the copycat, Axel Walker, was Jesse’s long-lost son by Zoey Clark, who was also Prank in the new reality.
While this was a nice nod to the 1990’s The Flash series, the Arrowverse take on James Jesse sadly cemented The Trickster in the public consciousness as a B-list Joker. This is unfortunate because the James Jesse of the comics was far more than just some simple lunatic with no goals beyond random murder and mayhem. Unfortunately, when it came down to a choice between being true to the comics or trying to capitalize on Mark Hamill’s popularity with the fandom, there was no choice at all. Sadly, fans of the original Trickster will probably never get to see their favorite anti-hero outside the pages of DC Comics.