Jericho (comics)
Jericho (
Joseph William Wilson) is a
superhero who was a member of the
Teen Titans in the acclaimed
1980s period of
New Teen Titans by
Marv Wolfman and
George Perez, published by
DC Comics.
Childhood
Joseph was the son of Slade Wilson, a.k.a.
Deathstroke the Terminator. When he was a child, he was held hostage by
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 Adeline divorced Slade (after attempting to kill him by shooting him, but only succeeding in losing him one of his eyes), and took her two sons (Joseph and his older brother Grant) with her.
His mutant power, a result of the biological experimentation done on his father years before, appeared in his late teens when he tried saving his mother 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 but is unable to controll the voice and mind of the target, 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 bodyand easily control the body physically. Jericho's body changes into an astral form seconds before possession.
Titans
Sometime later (in a storyline called
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 that 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.
Corruption
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, accompained 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 (the controversial
Titans Hunt storyline); a statue of Jericho was later erected in the
Titans Tower memorial in
San Francisco.
Return
Several years later, it was revealed that Jericho's spirit had survived by jumping inside his father right before he was killed. He had lain dormant until hearing that his friend
Donna Troy had been killed in battle. Taking control of his father's body, he sought out the latest group of Titans; hoping to convince them that children shouldn't be superheroes, as they could easily be killed like he was, and wanting to spare them his fate. Unfortunately, his logic was extremely warped and he was willing to injure or kill one of them to prove his point.
During the combat, he jumped from body to body until Raven absorbed him. But she repelled him during the battle with Brother Blood and Jericho tried to enter
Cyborg. But Cyborg, using his cybernetic eye, transferred Jericho's spirit to a computer file, now stored in the
Titans Tower.
|
Jericho from "Calling All Titans". |
Jericho has made a cameo appearance in the "Calling All Titans" episode of the animated
Teen Titans series. He later meets
Beast Boy and becomes a honorary Titan and has to fight off both
Fang and
Private H.I.V.E.. Later in the season, Jericho has a featured role in the "Titans Together" episode, as one of four heroes who endured an attack from the Brotherhood Of Evil and rallied under Beast Boy to launch a final assault against the Brotherhood. Like his early comic persona, Jericho's persona in the animated series can possess any being he can make eye contact with. He is mute on the show as he is in the comic books. However, while in
Cinderblock's body, he was able to speak (though this may be due to the fact that Cinderblock has a mind in only the most basic sense.) However, his power was useless when
Gizmo put a paper bag over his head, unable to make eye contact with anyone. He was saved when reinforcements arrived with
Cyborg,
Starfire and
Raven. His relationship to
Slade Wilson wasn't mentioned. He will be featured in a future issue of
Teen Titans Go!.
When Marv Wolfman and George Perez were creating the character, the idea of making Joseph a homosexual was toyed around with. Perez had this to say: "While Marv and I did discuss the possibility of Joseph Wilson being gay, Marv decided that it was too much of a stereotype to have the sensitive, artistic, and wide-eyed character with arguably effeminate features be also homosexual."[
1]
*
Titans Tower Biography
