Joker

Jerome Valeska, JOKER - By: KymeraKirsty

Ace of Knaves

The Prophet

The Great Rodolfo

The Thin White Duke

The Harlequin of Hate

The Clown Prince of Crime

**Jerome Valeska**, known later in life as the infamous **Joker**, worked at a carnival alongside the *Flying Graysons* before having revealed to have committed matricide due to his mother being a quote, "nagging drunken whore". After having been busted out of Arkham Asylum, Jerome was offered the chance to wreak havoc in Gotham as the leader of the Maniax, Jerome terrorized the whole lot of Gotham. Although he was betrayed and killed by his boss Theo Galavan, Jerome left a legacy leading to some citizens to follow his example, causing a fanatical cult to plot his resurrection. A year following his death, Jerome was finally resurrected back to life by Dwight Pollard, a loyal follower of his. Jerome went back to pursuing his vendetta on killing Bruce Wayne shortly after causing a citywide blackout, corrupting Gotham City. His attempt to execute Bruce was thwarted by Bruce and the GCPD, who sent him back to Arkham Asylum for his crimes.

## Biography

### Jerome's First Kills

**Jerome Valeska** was a kid born to carnival folk, raised by his snake charmer single mother. Lila Valeska was a sub-par parent, and Jerome resented her, finding cameraderie with Paul Cicero, a blind old man who was a sideshow psychic. Valeska became sociopathic, eventually murdered his mother, and then tried to hide the fact. When he was caught by the GCPD, because he was of age, he was tried as an adult and sent to Arkham Asylum, a local institute for the criminally insane. Valeska was comfortable enough there, but his flair for murder caught the eye of criminal mastermind Theo Galavan, who jailbroke a collection of inmates, planning to use them as part of a series of staged criminal acts, as a gang called the Maniax.

Drawn to the theatrical and artificial nature of the endeavor, Valeska blossomed, becoming the leader and face of the gang. In a plan to make Theo Galavan appear as a hero to the city on live television, Valeska held up a charity event, killed the deputy mayor, and proceeded to take Bruce Wayne as his hostage. Going off script in order to make himself look better, Galavan double-crossed Valeska by sneaking up behind him and stabbing the boy in the neck. Jerome died on the stage, laughing at the betrayal hadn't seen coming. Jerome's corpse was taken inside a storage warehouse along with multiple other corpses. Dwight Pollard, whom used to be an employee at Indian Hill prior to it closing down managed to learn to resurrect the dead.

### The "Awakening" of Jerome

Dwight was also a fanatic fan of Jerome Valeska. While trying to revive Jerome he was raided by the GCPD so in a swift manner Dwight cut of Jerome's face and escaped. But little did he know that the attempt had worked and Jerome was resurrected successfully. Jerome's corpse was brought at the GCPD morgue where he woke up at and killed a nearby police officer and took his gun. Later Lee Thompkins entered the morgue and Jerome came up behind her and asked her a few questions. Jerome was going to go after Theo Galavan who killed him but Lee explained to him that he had already died. Jerome then asked her where was his face, with her not knowing the location Jerome decided to gag her.

Suddenly Channel 9 News started broadcasting and showed Dwight with Jerome's face and Jerome proclaimed that Dwight had no charisma. Jerome then took a cop car and went to the Channel 9 News Studio. After Dwight was arrested Jerome took his face and snuck Dwight in the cop car and left to the city's power plant. There Jerome stapled his face back on with a staple gun and tied Dwight up to a chair and started a broadcast as well. Jerome held a short speech and told everybody that they could kill who they wanted. Jerome then set the power plant on fire making it explode and create a blackout.