Handsome Jack

Handsome Jack
Borderlands character
Handsome Jack as presented in Borderlands 2
First appearance	Borderlands 2 (2012)
Created by	Gearbox Software
Voiced by	Dameon Clarke

Handsome Jack is a character in Gearbox Software's Borderlands video game franchise. Jack is the leader of the Hyperion Corporation, who takes control of the planet Pandora, and considers himself the hero of the story. Created to be the main antagonist of the "villain-centric" Borderlands 2, Jack was conceived early on as a fellow Vault Hunter "frenemy" before being changed to an outright villain to make Borderlands 2 clearer. As the main antagonist, primary concerns fell on making him balance both the seriousness and humour of the game. Dameon Clarke was chosen as the voice for the character.

After his introduction in 2012's Borderlands 2, Jack appears again in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! and Telltale Games' Tales from the Borderlands. The Pre-Sequel! revolves around Jack's rise to power, while Tales features Jack as a hologram who gets injected into the mind of one of the game's protagonists.

Jack has been received positively as a villain, and Clarke won "Best Performance by a Human Male" at the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards for his role.

Introduced as the president of the Hyperion Corporation, in his first appearance Jack and Hyperion have taken over the planet Pandora with Jack becoming a dictator, putting up propagandist posters of himself around the planet. Dialogue in Borderlands 2 establishes his past as a "code monkey", before taking credit for the Vault Hunter's actions in the first Borderlands. The character is depicted with two differently-colored eyes, giving him an asymmetrical design, as well as a mask of a face that covers his own.

Focused heavily on bravado and looking good, Handsome Jack considers himself "the hero" on Pandora, with everyone else being a "bandit". Gearbox considered Jack to believe everything he said, even the lies to himself such as over his treatment of his daughter, Angel, whom he essentially enslaves. For instance, after Angel's death Anthony Burch commented "I think in Jack's mind, he's the protagonist in the cop movie where his daughter is killed and he goes on a rampage."Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! establishes the character as initially having possibly good intentions, though ultimately becoming a villain.