Prankster (comics)

The Prankster (Oswald Hubert Loomis) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, primarily as an enemy of Superman. The Prankster's particular gimmick is the use of various practical jokes and gags in committing his crimes.

The Prankster first appeared in Action Comics #51 (August 1942) and was created by Jerry Siegel and John Sikela.

The original Prankster is Oswald Loomis, a criminal and conman who uses elaborate practical jokes and publicity campaigns to commit crimes. In his debut in Action Comics #51, the Prankster and his assistants break into a series of banks and force the employees to accept money. They even throw money at people in the streets. After he becomes famous for this joke, the Prankster enters yet another bank and takes all the money, also taking Lois Lane hostage. Superman, who had suspected the Prankster was up to no good, follows him to his lair. The Prankster seals his henchmen and Lois behind a sheet of glass and releases deadly gas, but Superman manages to rescue them and retrieve the money, while the Prankster is able to escape.

The Prankster returned several times to plague Superman throughout the Golden Age. As part of his advertisements for getting rewards for missing items, the Prankster later had his henchmen kidnap Lois and printed a story for Superman to pay a ransom of $50,000.00. Upon delivering the ransom to the location and finding out that the Prankster is in a lead bunker, Superman rescues Lois and informs the police about where to find the Prankster and his henchmen.

One of his more novel schemes involved the backing of several criminal leaders. The Prankster files copyright to own the English language. Once he gains legal ownership of the alphabet, the Prankster begins requiring payment of anyone using the written word. Superman is at first unable to do anything, as the Prankster is not breaking the law. Eventually, Superman discovers that the Prankster had hired an impostor to replace the registrar at the copyright office, and he turns the Prankster over to the authorities.

The Prankster's history on Earth-One was still the same as his Earth-Two counterpart. The Prankster collaborates with the Toyman where they plotted to drive Superman crazy by committing crimes, breaking ridiculous obsolete laws like putting pennies in ears in Honolulu.

The Prankster later collaborated with Joker on different heists. Then the Prankster betrayed Joker when he captured Perry White and held him for ransom. Superman received help from Joker in taking down the Prankster. Then Superman took down Joker and rescued White.

In the Alan Moore-scripted story, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, the Prankster and the Toyman are unwittingly manipulated by Mister Mxyzptlk to discover Superman's secret identity. They succeed after kidnapping Pete Ross and torturing the information out of him, then killing him. After managing to unmask Clark Kent in front of Lana Lang and others by machine-gunning him and revealing his costume beneath his clothes, the Prankster and Toyman are captured by Superman.