He was born on the 19th October 1955, the son of middle class parents from a small town in America. There was no history of superpowers in the family and during his early years he showed little evidence of his abilities - he suffered from none of the usual illnesses of childhood, but this was not extraordinary enough to draw attention by itself. He was an only child, by chance rather than design, and for this reason his parents doted on him. In fact he was a little spoiled, and grew up to be a chubby little boy. However, one fateful day, his parents were killed in a head-on smash with an 18-wheeler, and having no close relatives to care for him he was put in an orphanage at the age of six.
Torn from his loving parents, he was cast into a much harsher environment. At first the other children bullied and teased him unmercifully, particularly because of his build. As so many children do, he became a teller of jokes to make up for his physical limitations and to gain popularity with the other children. At school he performed well in a quiet way, often hiding his best work because nobody liked a smartarse. As he grew older, he often fantasized about being strong, athletic and independent, and developed a secret personality bordering on the schizophrenic. During his teens he was still overweight, but he weight-trained, swam, jogged and dieted, for which he was ridiculed by his peers.
However, at about this time his powers began to develop in earnest. He grew to the impressive height of 6'4", slimmed down, and put on a lot of muscle. The years of ridicule and dreaming caused him to associate a large fraction of his enhanced physical attributes with his alter ego. He won an academic scholarship to go to college, and during his years there he took part in sport with great success, notably at baseball and gymnastics. He also discovered while working long hours on classwork and in MacDonalds that he could avoid the need for food and sleep for extended periods. His time at college gave him a lot more confidence; he became class president and captained the college baseball team to their most successful season ever.
At this time he also became aware of the powers instant change and images. One day he was late for a game and unconsciously changed instantly into his sports clothes in the locker room. He raced onto the field and proceeded to strike out the entire opposition team using images, again without conscious thought. Later contemplation of these phenomena lead him to experiment with and eventually harness these powers.
While still at college he began a career as a vigilante. His first costume was a baseball outfit with an umpire's mask, and as a weapon he used the bat. He concentrated on small time stuff, mostly muggings, by hiding out at nights in bad areas of town until trouble occurred and then severely beating the perpetrators. He narrowly avoided trouble with the police on numerous occasions.
He left college and took a job on the local newspaper. From there he progressed to TV reporting and investigative journalism, which lead him to acquire his mace while investigating a robbery at a museum in which several valuable artefacts had been stolen. Acting on a hot tip, he tracked the crooks to their hideout and went in in his hero guise. He promptly disabled the crooks and recovered the stolen items, but in addition to what had been stolen from the museum was a spiked mace. Surreptitious enquiries revealed no clues as to its true owner so he kept it as a souvenir.
He moved his vigilante attention from small crime to drug related offences, and after some early success, he was ambushed and surprised by several hoods with automatic weapons. He was shot and badly wounded, the gunmen leaving him for dead, but his armour and regeneration saved him. He decided at that point to change his costume and went through a period of experimentation, during which he happened to use the mace (as Vengeance, who wore mediaeval armour) and discover its powers. Eventually he decided on the Fool as his persona for stamping out crime.
The Fool has lasted for 10 years. He is now 35, although he looked 5 years younger until he added touches of grey to the hair at his temples. During this time he has crossed organised crime, frequently following up his escapades as the Fool with searching investigations by his TV show (sort of a mid-afternoon 60 minutes program). He has acquired the attention of a lunatic gunman, who is after him in his non-hero guise - he has once been shot on live TV and narrowly avoided discovery of his superhuman nature. He is still unmarried but would like to change this: however Belinda Faith (fellow investigative journalist) has turned him down on the three occasions he has asked her. She is currently enjoying the rivalry between himself and Carlos Esquerra, another (inferior!) journalist who is also competing for the top slot on the show. Esquerra is a greasy Mexican who unfortunately has a way with women, who invariably fail to recognise him for the slimy snake that he really is. Belinda frequently gets into trouble with her investigations and has been rescued on several occasions by the Fool.
Since he was one himself, the fool knows how miserable it can be to be an orphan. Therefore in his non-hero guise he does a lot of work fundraising, organising trips to the zoo etc. Because of his connection with the orphanage he will also get to hear about any other problems they have e.g. evil property developer wants to buy the orphanage and starts using strong-arm tactics to make them sell. This might result in a damning investigation by the TV show or a (terminal?) kicking in a dark alley one night.
Up until now the fool has been largely avoiding publicity, because his high presence is likely to get him recognised if too many people see him. So his modus operandi would be to find an appropriate target, run in and beat up all the bad guys, then go and tip off the police. It's also quite possible that his camera crew might just happen to be in the area, and arrive as the police start clearing things up, in time to get a great story. Anyone who asks how he manages to turn up in the right place so often will be told briefly about his 'contacts in the force'. I don't think any of the bad guys will be able to give a too coherent account of what happened, and the story will be slanted towards intergang rivalry, or the attack of an unknown vigilante, keeping the fool well out of it. This should keep the general public in the dark about his existence although Primus obviously knows about him. Word has had a number of years to filter back to the Mafia, so they know about him, and the police probably have at least some idea as well.