Planning: Royal Flush Gang

[The Gambler]

I would like to start up a Royal Flush Gang in Gotham.

The Royal Flush Gang consists of five criminals who go by "Ace", "King", "Queen", "Jack", and "Ten", though it sometimes includes other cards as thugs and such as well. Sometimes they're simply bank robbers, but I'd like our version to be a little bit more of a traditional Gotham City "themed supervillain gang". The Royal Flush Gang usually has a particular suit as a theme: I thought Hearts would be appropriate, since having a Queen of Hearts would tie nicely into Wonderland characters like Mad Hatter, Cheshire, and so on.

I'd like to introduce the gang in a similar way to one of it's comic book incarnations. Steven Sharpe V (The Gambler) is a con man, who arrives in Gotham and pretends that he's The Joker; in our continuity, the Joker is supposed to be dead. He has a (reluctant) Harley Quinn at his side which makes him seem legit, and they cobble together a new gang. Eventually The Gambler is exposed as a fake: but he'll continue to lead the gang as the Ace of Hearts. Harley meanwhile will take on the role of Wild Card, and will be keeping an eye on us on behalf of our mysterious benefactor.

For the King of Hearts, I think it would be really interesting to have the Clock King. He became a villain after robbing a bank so he could afford to pay his sick sister's medical bills: Green Arrow captured him, and his sister died while he was in prison. He became obsessed with time, and is often depicted as a strategist: coordinating the perfect crime, overseeing missions for the Suicide Squad (part of Checkmate), and so on. I've seen interesting fan versions of him based on a David Tennant / Doctor Who sort of vibe.

For the Queen of Hearts, Roulette would be a great character. She's related to golden age hero Mister Terrific, and runs a casino by day... but she also runs a secret underground fight ring that pits humans and metahumans against each other in brutal cage matches. Given the card theme of the gang, and the fact that it's led by The Gambler, it all seems to fit together pretty nicely.

Roy Harper and Jade Nguyen (Cheshire), two assassins from the League of Shadows, will be hired probably as the Jack of Hearts and Ten of Hearts respectively.

Those are just the first ideas that spring to my mind: there are a whole bunch of other characters that might fit in, either as face cards or as other members of the gang. We've got Cheshire and a Queen of Hearts; the Mad Hatter is more than welcome, and there are other Wonderland-themed characters like the Tweed twins, a few White Rabbits, Batwoman's psycho sister Alice, and numerous others. There are also a few other criminals themed around "games": not sure if Two-Face is still alive in our continuity, but he had an imitator too; there's Cluemaster, who sometimes has a game-show theme; while not games per se, the Toyman might fit; maybe one of the Ventriloquists is a stage act... or maybe you're just a character that has ties to the Joker or one of the group's other members: like Red Hood, Creeper, and so on.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Jervis isn't the Hatter yet but I'll keep this in mind. He needs his Wonderland thread replied to.