Joseph Wilson (Comics)

Rose Wilson (half-sister)

Grant Wilson (half-brother, deceased)

## Creation

The name "Jericho" was originally assigned to a character that never made it into the original Teen Titans run in the 60s.

In the 1980s, with the departure of Kid Flash from the team, writer Marv Wolfman wanted to introduce a fresh face to replace him. Wolfman also decided, early on, to make the new character a son of Deathstroke the Terminator. But for many months, Wolfman and artist/co-writer George Perez couldn't come up with anything. One night, Perez suddenly had the concept, personality, and design for *Joseph William Wilson* all planned out. He showed the designs to Wolfman and the character of Jericho was born. By making him a mute, George Perez has described Jericho as "more of an artist's character than a writer's character".[1]

## History

### Origin

When he was a child, he was held hostage by The Jackal, a terrorist who was after his father. Deathstroke refused to give Jackal the information he wanted because it went against his professional code of ethics. Deathstroke managed to rescue his son, but not before one of Jackal's men had started to cut his throat. As a result, he was rendered mute.

As a result of that incident, and the fact that Slade had lied to her, his mother divorced his father, and took her two sons (Joseph and his older brother Grant) with her.

His metahuman power, a result of the biological experimentation done on his father years before, appeared in his late teens, while trying to save his mother, Adeline, from an assassin. He had the power to take possession of any humanoid being he can make eye contact with. Once inside, Jericho takes possession of his target's voluntary motor functions for his own use, attaining full physical control if the body is unconscious. In addition, if the host is unconscious while Jericho is in control, he can speak through the host's body, but only with that person's accent and vocabulary and easily control the body physically. Jericho's body changes into an astral form seconds before possession.

### Teen Titans

Sometime later (during The Judas Contract), Adeline and Joseph discovered that Deathstroke had accepted a contract on the Teen Titans. They approached Nightwing to help him rescue the Titans. It was then than Joseph adopted the identity of Jericho. The rescue mission was a success but it took a while for the Titans to trust him (they had been already betrayed by Terra, and Jericho was Deathstroke's son). Finally they offered him membership and Jericho was a loyal Titan for many years.

Unfortunately, some months later, Jericho was possessed by the souls of Azarath, now tainted by the essence of the demon Trigon, Raven's father. Unable to possess Raven herself, the souls entered Jericho. They were weak at first, but gained strength with time and eventually merged with him.

The souls now needed individual vessels to survive and Jericho sought to acquire superhuman ones for them, taking over the Wildebeest Society and using them to abduct current and former Titans to act as vessels. Jericho also got new powers: a powerful lion soul-self and a healing ability that repaired his throat and allowed him to speak again.

Nightwing and Troia, accompanied by some new allies, found and confronted him. During the battle, the real Jericho resurfaced and begged his father to kill him. There was no help for him and, to spare his son any more suffering, Deathstroke killed him.

## Also See

* Jericho (Teen Titans TV Series)
* Jericho (Teen Titans Go!)
* Joseph Wilson (Arrowverse)
* Jericho Wilson (Titans TV Series)
* Jericho (DCAMU)