Clown

The Clown is a villainous circus entertainer and leader of the Circus of Crime, otherwise known as the Masters of Menace. He is a conventional circus clown clad in colorful makeup.

The Clown was one of many conspirators in the traveling circus run by the Ringmaster for several years in the early 1960s, which used its shows as a front to hypnotize and rob its audiences. Thanks to the efforts of heroes like the Hulk, Spider-Man, and Daredevil, Ringmaster's operation had crumbled to a skeleton crew by 1965. Clown and the rest of the remaining acts—Princess Python, the Human Cannonball, and the Great Gambonnos—mutinied, ousting Ringmaster from the group and installing Clown as leader. Without Ringmaster's hypnotic capabilities, the group instead focused on more conventional villainy. They targeted a museum exhibition funded by J. Jonah Jameson, with Clown working crowd control while the others secured the valuable paintings on display. The five retreated to their warehouse hideout, but Spider-Man soon arrived to bring them to justice. As he fought the others, Clown attempted to escape with some of the artwork, but was ambushed by the vengeful Ringmaster. Ringmaster planned on taking some artwork for himself while also turning in his former comrades, but had been trailed by a suspecting police detective. Spider-Man sufficiently incapacitated all the villains present for the police to apprehend them.