The Jumbler was a thief who taunted Dick Tracy with clues about the crimes that he intended to commit. He was a short, heavyset man with dark hair and a thick moustache.
Jumbler wore an elaborate costume which consisted of a beret with letter J printed on it, eyeglasses with the letters 1 & 3 printed on the lenses, a bow tie, and a red jacket with a pattern based on the clue boxes from the Jumble puzzle feature that appears in many newspapers.
The Jumbler had a small dog named Crypto, whom he used in his various schemes.
Challenging Dick Tracy[]
When the Jumbler first revealed himself to Dick Tracy and the MCU, he posted a video online with a clue indicating that the target of his next theft would be the Madrigal Days festival being held at Locher Auditorium. Tracy did not decipher the clue, and the Jumbler successfully robbed the event of its daily proceeds (nearly $50,000).
Jumbler's next target was a cache of valuable Golden Age comic books that had been discovered hidden at Finley's Drugstore. Jumbler was able to steal the rare collectibles from the safe and escape before Tracy could catch him.
Tracy discovered that Jumbler was managing to replace the daily Jumble feature in newspapers with puzzles of his own devising. Tracy and his squad decoded one of the Jumbler's puzzles and deduced that he intended to rob Shumble & Sons jewelry store, which was holding a special promotional event.
Jumbler tunneled into the store's safe and stole the contents, then escaped in the baggage compartment of a nearby bus. However, Dick Tracy had anticipated which bus the Jumbler was on, and he was waiting for the criminal when Jumbler left the vehicle. Jumbler and his dog were taken into custody (April 13th, 2013).
It was later revealed the Jumbler had been an employee of both Finley's drug store and Shumble & Sons jewelry store at some point in the past, thus explaining how he knew the details of the stores' safes.
The Jumbler was later shown in prison, the cellmate of Silver Nitrate.
Notes[]
The Jumbler storyline featured an official crossover with the Jumble daily puzzle feature.
A later storyline showed the recovered comic books that the Jumbler had stolen being auctioned for charity, in a crossover with the comic strip Funky Winkerbean. Tracy and Sam met the title character of that strip in Dick Tracy.
The Jumbler's tactic of providing clues about his intended crimes to the police is similar to the modus operendi of the Riddler, an enemy of Batman who appears in the DC comics.
Additionally, some incarnations of Superman (another DC Comics super hero) have had a super-powered dog named "Krypto", after Superman's home planet. It is unclear if this inspired the name of Jumbler's dog, though Jumbler apparently has some knowledge of collectible comic books.
In his first appearance, Jumbler was approached by two low-level criminals who sought work as his henchmen. This implies that Jumbler had committed some crimes in the past, and was known to the criminal underworld before he revealed himself to Dick Tracy.
