Jack Taylor was a professional gambler living the high life in Las Vegas until he cleaned out a mob-owned casino. The casino’s owner had a little “discussion” with Jack that involved dragging him out to the Mojave Desert, beating him almost to death, gouging out his right eye, and tossing him into a half-dug grave fifty miles from civilization. As he lay there dying, Jack had a vision of a skeletal woman dressed in black coming to claim his life. Jack did the only thing he could think to do: he challenged her to a game of chance, with his soul as the stakes. He won back his life, and in doing so became a nexus for the universal forces of luck and chance.

After walking out of the Mojave Desert in the middle of a freak rainstorm, Jack became the scourge of the Las Vegas underworld. He would roll into a casino, bankrupt them, and slip out before the goons could figure out how their guns had gotten jammed or their shoelaces tied together. When things got too heated out West, he cruised toward Chicago and got involved with fighting the long-entrenched Mafia families in the heart of their power. The Vision offered him a chance to do so as part of a team, though joining the Avengers is a decision he’s still not entirely comfortable with.