James Jesse (Earth-1)

James Jesse is a former criminal mastermind who operated throughout Central City under the guise of The Trickster.

Rise to prominence as The Trickster
In 1990, James had a son named Axel, though had no initial contact with him.

Around five years later, James Jesse took on the guise of The Trickster, wearing a unitard as a costume. He performed a series of terrorist attacks, killing at least 10 civilians and 2 police officers. Eventually, he was caught by police and incarcerated in Iron Heights Prison.

Re-emergence of The Trickster
Sometime before 2005, Jesse began talking to his son, Axel, through letters, grooming him to be an ideal comrade to him as The Trickster. For the next 10 years or so, they continue to talk and became close. In 2010, a criminal psychologist began talking to James. Before long, he was able to talk her in to committing suicide.

Five years later, after Axel had begun to act as a new version of The Trickster, Detective Joe West and Barry Allen came to him for help, giving him red liquorice to co-operate. He angrily claimed to have no association with the new Trickster, demanding that they kill him before he ruin his reputation. Apparently realizing that there could only be one way for the new Trickster to replicate the composition of his explosives, he directed them to his old lair. They returned later, having found nothing in his lair's vault. In discovering this, Jesse let them know of a giant bomb that he had, one big enough to blow up Central City. At the same time, they were notified of a vlog posted by The Trickster, claiming to have the giant bomb and would blow it up if they couldn't find him, searching between certain streets. As the police and The Flash began searching for it, Axel started to help James escape, as there had been no real bomb. With them, they took Henry Allen due to his connection to the Central City Police Department. While waiting around, Axel wondered why he'd been chosen, and James finally revealed that he was his father. That night, they began work on Jesse's big plan. At an event held by Mayor Bellows at City Hall, they acted as waiters, poisoning the wine with one that took around an hour to act. Revealing themselves, they held the room hostage until they had transferred their bank accounts, at which time they would give them the antidote. The Flash soon found them and attempted to help, but Jesse placed a bomb on his wrist, hooked up to a speedometer disallowing him from going any slower than 800mph. Barry was soon able to get it off and came back with an antidote, giving it to all of them. Realizing that he'd finally been caught, he gave up the location of Henry Allen.

Behind the scenes

 * Photos of James Jesse when he was younger are taken from various episodes from the 1990 series, The Flash, in which Mark Hamill starred as the same character.
 * Jesse's line to Axel, "I am your father", is a reference to Mark Hamill's role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films, in which Luke's father, Darth Vader, climactically reveals himself with the same words.