Jackanapes

"I'm a monster in a world made for monsters. I'll grow fat on all your flesh."

―Jackanapes^[src]

Jackanapes is the name of a super-villain gorilla enemy of Batman. He is a gorilla which was adopted and groomed by the Joker into becoming a violent criminal genius, even being capable of speaking English and being a skilled scientist.

History[]

Prime Earth (New 52)[]

Origins[]

In a (likely fabricated) memory of the Joker, the Clown Prince of Crime reminisces his youth while visiting the zoo. At the gorilla habitat, Joker remembers an abusive childhood at the hands of his aunt Eunice. Joker then decides to steal a baby gorilla he sees in the arms of its mother, deciding to raise it for himself.

Joker named the gorilla Jackanapes (a synonym for Joker cards, similarly homaged in Joker's most frequent name being Jack Napier) and teaches him English, how to use weapons, and encouraging the ape to take up inventing.

Jackanapes[]

After learning that the city was planning on shutting down the dangerous and corrupt Zoo, Joker and Jackanapes used their jetpacks to attack the plane of the councilwoman responsible. During the attack, the two clown princes planned on activating mutation gas to drive citizens of Gotham to murderous insanity. Before they did this however, Jackanapes had a crippling change of heart and felt extreme remorse for all of the crimes which he had commit.

Jackanapes let himself fall from the plane and despite Joker's pleas, he refused to activate his jet-pack and resigned himself to die for his actions. Initially it appeared that Joker was devastated by the death, only to crack a joke about it and state that now they saved the zoo he could merely adopt a new gorilla.

Powers and abilities[]

Genius intellect: Jackanapes is a skilled engineer and manufacturer of weapons. In his original appearance, Jackanapes was characterized as Gotham's best molecular biologist.
Marksmanship:
Strength: Jackanapes is shown to have significantly more strength than humans.

Paraphernalia[]

Sub Machine Gun:
Mutation Gas grenades:
Jet-pack:

Alternate versions[]

Batman 666[]

Jackanapes originates from this possible future, itself a near-death vision had by Bruce Wayne of New Earth. Jackanapes was a gorilla taken in and raised by the Joker to be his apprentice, eventually becoming a crime-lord and the best molecular biologist in Gotham and a gangster with a love for cigars. After the deaths of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, Jackanapes became one of Damian Wayne's Batman's frequent enemies. Jackanapes was one of the criminals who claimed responsibility for the death of Batman, only to be attacked by Damian and smashed through a window with an open throat; likely to kill him (as he did Mr. Freeze and Killer Croc), though Jackanapes survived.

Jackanapes became a criminal who sometimes accompanied the crime-lord Candyman. When, "Bat-Devil" murdered Gotham's five largest crime-lords (including Candyman), Jackanapes joined Bat-Devil. Jackanapes was amongst the super-criminals who fought Damian for Bat-Devil before Damian murdered the vigilante.

When Gotham became polluted by a joker virus, the city was to be nuked by the U.S. government under advisement of Doctor Hurt. Damian sought out Jackanapes for help in curing the pandemic to save Gotham, only to find Jackanapes nihilistic and boasting of the coming apocalypse. From Jackanapes, Damian learned that the cure for the virus could be synthesized from the DNA of infant Terry McGinnis, an asymptomatic carrier whom Damian had saved and hid in Arkham Asylum. Not long after this, Gotham was actually nuked though Jackanapes later shown as having survived,

Jackanapes

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