Name: Royal Flush Gang
Universe: Earth-1
First Appearance: Justice League of America #43

History:
Many years ago a group of kids formed a gang – four boys and a girl – that committed many successful thefts and always won its fights with rival gangs. This was thanks to the budding genius of the leader Amos Fortune. It is known that the girl was called "Queenie", but the names of the others remain uncertain.

As an adult, Amost Fortune became first a college professor, then a super-villain, frequently battling the Justice League of America. Finally, he conceived a new scheme when he made a remarkable discovery. There was an unknown force, presumedly emanating from the stars, that influenced card games and their luck. He called it "stellaration", and created an instrument to capture and use it.

He then went to his boyhood pals and formed the Royal Flush Gang, with himself as the Ace of Clubs, Queenie as the Queen, and the others as the King, Jack, and Ten. His ultimate plan was to destroy the JLA.

Using the stellaration, the gang could influence people's behavior. The Three of Clubs caused sorrrow, the Seven of Spades forced disagreement, and so on.

However, the JLA overcame the "stellaration" and defeated the gang.

With Fortune still in prison, another Ace later took over the Royal Flush Gang, adding new weapons and changing their costumes from Clubs to Spades. Riding card-like "scooters" through the air, they went after four paintings in which they believed the artist had concealed clues to his hidden fortune. This time, they found another card-crook was after the same works. He defeated the gang and was instrumental in getting them arrested, while he got the paintings – together they made one large painting called "The Laughing Man" – and the hidden money. This second card-crook was the Joker.

The Jack managed to escape and began a career as a criminal named Hi-Jack. He was an early member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains. He no longer used stellaration but special cards that he wielded by sleight-of-hand, and which proved to be formidable weapons. He made the mistake of angering the Wizard, who used his magic to send Hi-Jack into a limbo from which he never returned.

This was the last of the original Royal Flush Gang, but a new one was formed by an industrialist whose mind had been taken over by Hector Hammond. The new King was Joe Carny, King of Hoboes, who was dying from lung cancer; the new Queen, Mona Taylor, alcoholic actress; the new Jack, a gigolo of that name who had killed an old woman who caught him stealing from her; the new Ten, test pilot Wanda Wayland, fired when she resisted her boss's advances. The new Ace was a black man who recruited the others, promising to help them all, but as Jack discovered by spying, Ace was really a robot.

Once again the JLA defeated the gang, stopping Hammond from regaining his mobility.

At present, no one has attempted to resurrect the group.