A group of villains that operate in a manner that has never been seen before has been created by DC. The Justice League team as well as Batman are frequently troubled by the Royal Flush Gang, a bunch of thieves and miscreants. They only have one goal when they arrive on their flying cards, which is to rob the wealthy populace of their prized possessions.
They have always been a challenge for even the mightiest heroes because of their extraordinary and distinctive talents. The Royal Flush gang, which consists of five members, looks to have been at odds with Bruce Wayne for a while, and they will do whatever to exact retribution by taking his life.
What, though, might have given origin to this hatred? So without further ado, let us begin the movie and respond to all of your inquiries regarding their fascinating beginnings and diverse personalities.
Batman Beyond showed glimpses of this notorious gang
In the fourth season of Batman Beyond from the DC Animated Universe, we first met the Royal Flush Gang. The Royal Flush gang first appears in “Dead Man’s Hand,” the eighth episode of the show. The episode opens at sea, where a sizable yacht is sailing with guests who appear to be wealthy. A group of five people flying on playing cards interrupts their enjoyment.
They are also dressed up as playing cards of a King, Queen, Jack, an Ace, and a Ten. They attack the passengers all at once and steal their jewelry and valuable items. Meanwhile, the new Batman, Terry McGinnis, notices the attack from the shore and informs an elderly Bruce Wayne, who seems to know this gang. On the other hand, Batman, unaware of who his enemies are, flies to the ship and fights the five criminals.
The Queen creates chaos and threatens to kill all the passengers on board if Batman does not let her teammates fly away. Left with no other choice, Batman accepts defeat and the criminal group gets away. Later on, outside a club, Batman is now in his civilian form as Terry, and he ends up meeting a girl named Melanie Walker, although we will soon discover that is not her real identity.
At the Batcave, Bruce reveals to Terry that the criminal group from earlier, known as the Royal Flush gang will return because he shares a history with them. Apparently, the Royal Flush gang is made up of family members. The King, the Queen, their son Jack, their daughter Ten, and Ace, who is always seen in his costume. Now, at their apartment, King tells Jack that his hatred towards Batman stems from the fact that he once broke up the gang long ago.
He then calls for Ten, and we see Melanie Walker appear. As it turns out, Terry is obviously oblivious to Melanie’s true identity as Ten. Their next target is a museum, but the guards arrive just as the Royal Flush gang is about to steal a decorative sword. They are obviously no match for the gang, but Batman is, and he arrives soon after. Unaware of each other’s actual identities, Batman and Ten engage in a brutal fight.
The rest of the group captures a guard and once again, Batman has no choice but to let them escape. Back at their apartment, Melanie tells Queen how she wants to get away from their family for a boy, who is, of course, Terry. But later, she calls Terry and tells him that she can no longer see him. Suspecting that something is wrong, Terry traces the call on his Batcomputer and gets her address.
After arriving at her place, he realizes that Melanie is, in fact, Ten. Soon, he gets into another fight with the Royal Flush gang at their house and actively avoids harming Ten. When faced with the option of saving her father and attacking Batman, Ten chooses the former. Batman saves her life, but once the gang is defeated, he hands over all five of them to be taken under arrest.
In the twentieth episode, we see Ten arrive in Gotham City once more. She tries to rob a high stakes poker game called the Derby, and Batman arrives on the scene to save her. She manages to escape, and Batman heads back to the Batcave. Later on, at his house, Terry is visited by Melanie, who is still unaware of his secret identity as Batman. Terry, on the other hand, is disappointed with Melanie because he has gone back to her old ways as Ten.
She then informs Terry that she was forced to rob the poker game by a gang called the Jokerz, who had kidnapped her family members. She asks for his help, but he is reluctant. The next night, Ten is just about to go after the Derby when Batman makes an attempt to stop her. He is ready to help her free her family, so Ten takes him to the hideout of the Jokerz.
While fighting the many gangsters of the Jokerz, Ten disappears, and Batman finds out that they never kidnapped the Royal Flush gang. In the meantime, Ten has successfully robbed the Derby and takes the stolen items as ransom to someone she believes to be the Jokerz. But as it turns out, it was her own family who staged the kidnapping to test the loyalty of Ten.
Batman soon arrives on the scene and goes up against the Royal Flush gang once more. Ten leaves them as she is devastated after being betrayed by her own family. During the fight, King thinks that they have finally defeated Batman, but it looks like Batman informed the Derby about who robbed their game and they have arrived for revenge. Soon after, the police come as well, and now the Royal Flush gang is really outnumbered. The King decides to surrender and hands over the stolen items to Batman.
A brief history of the Royal Flush Gang
The Royal Flush Gang came into existence due to the efforts of a man named Amos Fortune. He was a supervillain and the leader of a group of young gangsters who would commit thefts or work as hired criminals. When they became adults, Amos Fortune wanted to adopt a style and a theme for the gang. So, he came up with the idea of playing cards.
The code names they decided to adopt are taken from the poker game in which these cards are required to complete a royal flush: King, Queen, Jack, Ten, and Ace. Amos was inspired by his friends whose names had the starting letters of the royal flush: King from Kerry, Queen from Queenie, Jack from Jack, and Ten from Tom.
Joker also sometimes joined the group, but he was not considered a constant member. Upon adopting the playing cards as their mode of operation, Amos Fortune developed a stellaration machine through which he could channel the astral force emerging from playing cards and use it as a weapon.
He developed weaponized cards through which the person who would receive those cards would be captivated by whatever the card represented, such as sadness, dispute, confusion, betrayal, or illness. Under the leadership of Amos Fortune, the gang was caught several times by the Justice League of America. Later on, a second gang came into existence led by Hector Hammond, who is well known as a villain of Green Lantern.
This gang tried to succeed in their attempt to defeat the Justice League several times. But soon, Fortune decided to take over the gang once more after the Ace of their gang, an Android developed by an engineer, was destroyed. Fortune killed all the previous members of the first gang and left only Jack alive. The Royal Flush gang has a history of adding new members to their gang when the old ones retire or end up in jail. Usually, these new members are their children, husbands, or wives.
The face cards serve as the superior members, the ones who get to make decisions, while the role of the Ace is limited to acting as the muscle of the gang. And Ten is responsible for controlling the remaining lower level members.
Joker’s very own Royal Flush Gang
Batman’s archenemy formed his own Royal Flush gang to serve as his servants. After being captured, the members of the first Royal Flush gang were handed over for metahuman research due to their special abilities. The Joker managed to free the group from the clutches of the government and created his own gang. They were all loyal to Joker and did as he asked them to and fought many battles for him against the Justice League.
All the five members of Joker’s Royal Flush Gang are also seen flying on cards. The King carries a cane with him, which allows him to shoot super hot plasma bolts targeted at his enemies. The Queen has the ability to telekinetically control and reshape any form of metal as per her requirements. Jack has the power of super human levels of elasticity. Ten has the strength and durability that surpasses that of an ordinary human. And lastly, Ace has immense mind bending abilities which she can use to drive any person insane by just giving them a single look.
Some of the terrific types of equipment and weapons used by the Gang
The Android version of Ace that we discussed earlier is one of the most vital pieces of equipment that the gang possesses. To further enhance his strength, Ace also used an exoskeleton which increased his powers, and it also contained a large gamma blaster in the chest. They also have insulated suits that protect them from the vacuum of space.
The Queen is known to carry a sceptre royale that allows her to change her appearance into any woman she wants. The gang has also been seen using crossbows during their fights. Several versions of Jack have used cybernetic eyes in place of their original ones. The first Ace of Spades used a new weapon called the Lance, through which he could shoot acid tipped spades.
The members have wrist-mounted laser guns and launchers that can shoot spade-shaped blades, among other equipment. They also use weaponized playing cards that shoot blasts of electricity when they come into contact with their enemies. Another quite common weapon they possess is swords, usually used by the King.
Several incarnations of the Royal Flush Gang in the DC Animated universe
The Royal Flush Gang appeared in a two part Justice League episode titled “Wild Cards.” In this version, the five members of the group are trained by Project Cadmus as metahuman teenagers who have their own unique abilities. The Joker tracks them down and converts them into his Royal Flush Gang so that he can destroy Las Vegas live on television. However, he keeps his actual plans hidden.
In order to divert the attention of the Justice League, the Joker fakes a bomb threat and makes the Royal Flush Gang delay their efforts to stop him. When the heroes capture King, Queen, Jack, and Ten, they realize that the Joker was only trying to mislead them. His actual plan is to use Ace in order to drive millions of viewers mad. But his plans are disrupted by the genius of Batman.
Batman reveals to Ace that Joker is still in possession of a collar that was used to control Ace as a kid, and Joker now keeps it as collateral against her. When Ace realizes that Joker was only manipulating her, she uses her psionic powers to put him in a coma before vanishing.
The next time we see the Royal Flush Gang in the DC Animated universe is in the Justice League Unlimited episode titled “Epilogue.” Walch takes up the role of Ace once again, while the other four members of the gang are only seen in passing. Here, Ace ends up creating her version of the Royal Flush gang out of loneliness because her powers had increased so much that she was now capable of warping reality.
This resulted in the creation of the Royal Flush gang made up of four random individuals who would play with her. Unfortunately, they turned on her and decided to use their new abilities for criminal purposes. As the Justice League fought these new criminals, a member of Project Cadmus named Amanda Waller disclosed that Ace was dying of an aneurysm and that if a psychic reaction were to be triggered by her death, it would kill millions.
Batman offered to murder her before it happened. But Ace knew that he was trying to protect her, and he would do no such thing. So, she asked him to stay with her till she died. Batman agreed, and Ace died gently without causing damage to anybody. Before dying, she brought back her reality and the original Royal Flush Gang.
All the individual members of the Royal Flush gang have time and again proved themselves to be formidable foes for Batman as well as the entire Justice League. Together they undoubtedly make up an outstanding team of super villains whose powers and abilities revolve around the playing cards and are pretty creative and unique. It would definitely be a lot more exciting if someday we got to see them in a live action version in the DC movies.
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