Merrymaker (DC)
The Merrymaker is a male comic supervillain who features in DC Comics.
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Biography
Dr. Byron Merideth was a male human who lived in the modern age where he came to operate in Gotham City. A married man, Byron led a happy life, though his nasty divorce left him quite bitter. He came to be a psychiatrist where he worked at Arkham Asylum and he was noted for his extreme methods in treating his patients. Working under Jeremiah Arkham at Arkham Asylum, Byron Meredith specialized in trying to treat the Joker. During his time working at Arkham, Merideth began to study the Joker more and more. He was one of the few doctors that could tolerate the criminal. Working for some time with Harleen Quinzel, Byron noticed how the Joker was able to manipulate her into insanity. Eventually, he decided to leave Arkham and handed in his notice in order to start his own private practice. Merideth's own clinic specialised in the treatment of people who were obsessed with the Joker. Deciding to instead treat those obsessed with the Joker, Byron came up with the persona of the Merrymaker. In Gotham, there was no shortage of crazies who loved the Joker. There were four people, however, who caught his attention: Philip, Annie, David, and Rodney. These four, he noted, desperately needed leadership and guidance. Creating the costume for the Merrymaker, Merideth created the role so he could lead the four into criminal activity. Merideth's plan was to create this uncanny society so that the four would do his bidding. Founding the League of Smiles, Byron helped get certain patients of Arkham released so they could later help him in crimes. After the Dollmaker cut off the face of the Joker, only Arkham staff knew that the clown prince was not dead. Using the League of Smiles, Byron was able to stage mass protests in the name of the Joker, though these protests would eventually fade away. After the Joker returned, mass chaos erupted in Arkham and Byron assumed the role of the Merrymaker. Faking his death via dental records, Byron was gone and only the Merrymaker was left. Using the League of Smiles, the Merrymaker decided to try and kill those who had wronged him and get rich at the same time. While the Joker-themed criminals attacked civilians, Merideth would sneak into a nearby building where one of his enemies would be stationed. This way, he could perform an easy kill, while the members of the League of Smiles would attract Batman and the GCPD's attention. Byron's plan did not work as the Batman caught on to his plans and eventually exposed him to the League. Following, Byron revealed him history to a fellow psychiatrist who, against Byron's wishes, had the Merrymaker locked up in Arkham and not Blackgate Penitentiary. (Detective Comics v2 #17)
The Merrymaker later managed to escape and resumed his villainous persona when he came to be recruited by the Scarecrow. Merideth was brought alongside other notable geniuses including Mr. Freeze, Harley Quinn and Professor Pyg in order to help Crane in conducting a city sized experiment. This involved the creation of a new toxin that was to be released into Gotham to create a world where all their worries were gone and they could live blissfully. Such people lived in a distorted delusion of the world with the intention of subjecting them to the Fear Toxin. Scarecrow believed that such people would experience true distilled fear. They came to operate from Arkham Asylum and even infected Batman along with the Batman Family using the toxin. Batman was made to believe that his years of adventures were all a delusion and that he was actually a patient at Arkham with Crane, Fries, Quinzel and Lazlo being his doctors. Batman broke free from this control and took the aid of Poison Ivy. Crane then dispatched a mind controlled Batman Family against the Dark Knight with Scarecrow threatening to murder Catwoman to cause his surrender. Exposed to the fear toxin again, a seemingly mind controlled Batman was given to Merrymaker to ensure he was under their control. They had the Dark Knight expose a man in the gripe of the contentment toxin to the fear toxin as a proof of control. Unseen by him, Batman slipped a counter-agent in among the extractions, and it may only be a short time before it reverses the toxin's impact after being mixed in. Later, as the counter-agent mixes in with the blimps full of toxin, each reaction causes an explosion. The results are near-immediate, as Batman's own allies realize who they really are, and where they really are. Soon, they turn on their captors, and Batman expected they will come out of this with okay - if somewhat damaged. Scarecrow in this time came to be exposed to his own contentment toxin where he imagined that he had killed Batman when in reality he had been captured and placed in a cell at Arkham Asylum. (Detective Comics v2 #29)
Overview
Personality and attributes
As the Merrymaker, he dressed in a black costume and that resembled that of a plague doctor.
Powers and abilities
He once headed a group known as the League of Smiles that consisted of his former mental patients all of whom had an obsession with the Joker. (Detective Comics v2 #17)
Notes
- The Merrymaker was created by John Layman and Jason Fabok where he made his first appearance in Detective Comics v2 #16 (March, 2013).
Appearances
- Detective Comics v2: (2013)
External Links
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