Handsome Joe

* S5
* S3
* S2
* S1

"*Think about it: someone breaks your skull open and you become a **hero**. I lose everything...and I become unkillable. You can't argue...that's **destiny!**. I think you and I...are destined to do this **forever!** To provide **balance**. **Order and chaos!** [...] I see it now. I'm your **purpose**. The answer to your life's questions! I...am your **destiny!***"
—Handsome Joe to Nobody following their battle[src]

**Handsome Joe** was a deranged mass murderer and terrorist determined to throw New York City into chaos. He was once known as **Joseph "Joe" Hertford**, the best friend and former roommate of Michael Keene who worked under former mayor Andrew Ramsay. Upon discovering that Michael was the vigilante known as "Nobody", Joseph quickly became one of his closest and most important allies, with his government connections providing Michael useful information on the criminals he hunted.

During the hunt for the Empire Killer, Joseph formed a friendship with Marie Anderson and a relationship with former classmate Sophie Dawes. Following Sophie's mutilation at the hands of the Empire Killer, Joseph was overcome with trauma and suffocated Sophie with a pillow. Driven completely insane by what he had done, he began inflicting horrific scars on himself that led to him removing his own face, resulting in him being confined to the Hardy Psychiatric Institute where he slowly lost his connection to reality. It was during this time that Joe discovered that he could heal from any injury he sustained, but could not do so from injuries he inflicted on himself.

Driven insane by a combination of trauma and guilt and blaming Michael for everything that had happened to him, Joseph descended into villainy as "Handsome Joe", aiming to hurt Michael just as much as his old friend had hurt him. Following their chaotic conflict, Joe was narrowly defeated and once again incarcerated in the Hardy Institute, having solidified his destiny as Nobody's archnemesis and one of the greatest threats to N.Y.C. However, Joe's injuries had taken their toll on him: in addition to his broken sanity, he now had no memory of his former life, the person he was, or that Nobody was his old friend Michael, leaving behind only his battle with the vigilante and his new destiny as New York City's greatest villain.

From behind bars, Joe assembled a network of fanatics devoted to his cause of sowing chaos and destruction, culminating in a successful prison break and his brainwashing of his psychiatrist Nancy Cooper into his loyal maidservant. While the murderous Penance threw New York City into chaos, Joe formed a tense alliance with the Crooked Man, allowing them to share power over the underworld. Following Nobody's apparent death, Joe and his gang took over a small neighbourhood that they named the Glades, becoming their stronghold.

Almost three years later, Joe, unaware that the Crooked Man was plotting against him, began to lose his healing factor thanks to the intrusiveness of his past personality. Although his facial scars had been surgically mended, he inflicted new ones by sewing a permanent smile into his face with barbed wire to suppress his old self. In his final battle with Nobody, Joe finally remembered the man he once was and, unwilling to continue living with his mind in tatters, ended his own life - being the only person who could do so - and died in Nobody's arms, finally recognising him as his old friend Michael.

## Biography

### Early Life and Background

Not much is known about Joseph's early life, other than he was born and raised in New York City. He attended college in the city, where he majored in Society and Politics and made friends with Michael Keene. They moved into an apartment together during their final year, at which point Michael was attacked and almost killed by Deacon Shaw and his goons. Joseph stayed by his friend's side during his remarkable recovery, but their friendship began to deteriorate when it became clear that Michael was forever changed by the attack, becoming aggressive, impatient, paranoid and tempermental. By the start of the series, the two were still living together but had grown distant thanks to Michael's mental health issues.

### The Rise of Joe

#### Incarceration

"*Ha ha ha! Michael! It's so good to see you! And such a long time! [...] Glad to see you haven't forgotten about me...**have you?***"
—Joseph to a visiting Michael[src]

Following his murder of Sophie and his subsequently psychotic break, Joseph was confined to the Hardy Institute, a mental hospital in Brooklyn.

#### Duel of the Warehouse

"*Nothing can hurt me anymore, Mickey. **Nothing** you do...all your strength...you can't stop me! I feel **nothing!** And you feel **everything!** Hahahaha! [...] Tell me, buddy...do you think I'm **handsome?***"
—Handsome Joe to Nobody before their final duel[src]

## Overview

### Physical Appearance

Joseph was once a handsome man with a youthful appearance. He prided himself on keeping his dark ginger hair tidy and maintaining a professional appearance by wearing suits.

Following Sophie's death at his hand, Joseph is driven so mad by grief that he ended up cutting off his own face to match her injuries, permanently disfiguring him. When his face is reattached, it is surrounded by a border of stitches that he later burns off with a soldering iron. During his six months of incarceration at the Hardy Institute, Joe explores his ability to regenerate from any non-self-inflicted injury, and as he slips deeper into insanity he begins to cut himself to create a horrific appearance. He begins dyeing his ginger hair bright orange with a mixture of hair dye and human blood, and cuts his face into a terrifying permanent smile. Because of his constant self-mutilation, Joe's skin has become deathly pale due to constant blood loss and injury.

### Personality

Joseph Hertford was once a kind, shy, intelligent and mild-mannered young man with a remarkable intellect, a helpful disposition, a pool of dry humour and quiet charm. Loyal to a fault, he demonstrated strong faith in his friends, especially Michael, having stayed by his side through his recovery and subsequent vigilantism, believing that Michael was doing the right thing despite his brutal methods.

However, the death of Sophie at his hand and his subsequent slide into insanity has eradicated any memory of Joseph Hertford, giving rise to a new persona: Handsome Joe. Unlike the person he once was, Handsome Joe is a deeply cunning, cruel, callous, savage, remorseless, brutal, sociopathic, megalomaniacal, and highly intelligent monster of a man, determined to cause chaos and harm wherever he goes. Driven by a twisted need for justice and revenge, Handsome Joe relishes in causing pain and suffering to those he feels have wronged him and there is no limit to how far he will go to do so, even going as far as to murder young children just to hurt their parents. As the leader of his followers, known as the Handsome, Joe has developed a powerful Messiah complex, and finds no trouble in manipulating the mentally ill to do his bidding. He believes he was destined to become a monster as the perfect balance to Nobody, with Joe representing chaos and Nobody representing order, and that they were always fated for conflict.

## Powers, Equipment & Abilities

### Powers

* **Healing factor:** Joseph possessed the metahuman ability to almost instantly regenerate from any injury he sustains, not even leaving a scar and no matter how serious. However, he could not regenerate from injuries that he inflicted on himself, something he took advantage of to create a horrifying appearance. This also meant that the only person who could kill Joe was himself.
* **Superhuman endurance:** Joe's regenerative ability and lack of pain response made him superhumanly durable, with even Nobody having to make a near-fatal effort to finally defeat him. Joe was able to cut his own face and skin with little to no reaction, and appeared to only express pain when burning off his stitches with a soldering iron.

### Equipment

Joseph prefers to wear smart clothing both during work-hours as well as in his personal life, priding himself on dressing smart no matter the situation. He appears uncomfortable when dressing casually and is almost always in smart attire. As Handsome Joe, Joseph prefers to wear bright colours as a stark contrast to Nobody. He also does not wear armour due to his regeneration ability, as well as the fact that it slows him down.

#### Armour and Apparel

* **Overcoat:** As "Handsome Joe", Joseph takes to wearing a stolen grey overcoat similar to the one worn by Nobody. Joe has torn extra pockets into the coat to make room for extra knives and bullets, and he always wears the coat with the sleeves rolled up.

#### Weapons

Handsome Joe is comfortable using a wide variety of weapons, from guns to knives to explosives. He appears not to care what weapon he uses, so long as it gets the job done.

* **Knives:** Joe's weapons of choice are a pair of deadly knives, with one being a dagger and the other a shorter blade. Joe prefers to use his dagger for direct assaults, while using the smaller blade for surprise attacks as well as to mutilate his own face.

### Abilities

* **High-level intellect:** Joe is highly intelligent, especially when it comes to finances and later when it comes to inducing chaos.
	+ **Explosives expertise:** Joe managed to create a bomb powerful enough to destroy the construction site, although not without the help of some of his followers.
	+ **Leadership skills:** Joe was able to assume leadership of his followers, a group of insane and volatile individuals known as the Handsome, and later becomes an inspiration for many chaotic criminals in N.Y.C.
* **Skilled knife wielder/thrower:** Joe is highly adept at ambushing people up close with knives. He is also capable and skilled at throwing knives.
* **Volatile fighting style:** Despite having no fighting experience, Handsome Joe is a more than capable fighter, acting primarily on instinct. His random fighting technique makes him a challenge even for the likes of Nobody, who typically relies on predicting the fighting patterns of his opponents.

### Weaknesses

* **Self-harm impulses:** As Joe's psychological trauma worsens, it begins to manifest as near-uncontrollable impulses to self-harm, usually by cutting his skin with his knife and purposefully mutilating his face to create his sickening clown-like appearance. This, combined with his inability to regenerate from self-inflicted injuries, often causes him to become exhausted from blood loss.
* **Self-inflicted injuries:** While Joe is able to regenerate from any physical injury that is inflicted on him, he cannot regenerate from injuries that he inflicts on himself. While this means that the only person who could theoretically kill Joe is himself, when combined with his impulses to self-harm he often becomes exhausted due to heavy blood loss. However, Joe takes advantage of this weakness to carve his face into a horrifying clown-like appearance, complete with a Glasgow smile that stretches up to his ears, as well as cutting the skin above his eyes to resemble eyebrows. Joe can be forced to injure himself in this way, demonstrated when Nobody grabbed Joe's swinging arm and forced Joe's knife into his abdomen; as Joe was holding the knife, he did not regenerate from the injury.

## Associated Deaths

### Murders committed by Joseph

* Sophie Dawes - suffocated with a pillow out of mercy
* Mrs Mason - stabbed repeatedly in the chest
* Mason Children - shot in the head
* M. Mason - stabbed in the jaw and through the head
* 4 unnamed Hardy Institute patients
* At least twelve of his followers

### Murders connected to Joseph

* 2 homeless men - stabbed to death by two new followers

## Relationships

### Sophie Dawes

"*You need to learn how to have a little more **fun**...my handsome Joe,*"
—Sophie to Joseph[src]

### Michael Keene

Michael and Joseph are best friends and roommates turned bitter enemies fulfilling different roles in their conflict: Michael symbolizes order and justice as Nobody, while Joseph symbolizes chaos and terror as Handsome Joe. Whatever remains of their friendship has been completely destroyed, leaving behind only their brutal war.

## Quotes

"*I just...**I just wanted to make her feel better**. I thought if I looked like her...she'd see how **beautiful** she is! [...] She called me handsome, Michael! She called me her **Handsome Joe!***"
—Joseph to Michael after cutting off his own face following Sophie's death[src]

## Trivia

* Handsome Joe is heavily inspired by the DC Comics character The Joker.
* Joe is the first character in *Nobody* confirmed to possess superpowers, the others being Nobody and Zhao.
	+ In Joe's case, his power is the ability to heal from any wounds that he sustains, aside from those that he inflicts on himself.