Handsome Jack battled Gruntilda in Gruntilda vs. Handsome Jack. He was voiced by Johnny Navarro.
Information on the Rapper
Handsome Jack is the main antagonist of the Borderlands series, despite not appearing until the franchise's second installment and his only involvement in the first game's story being retroactively stated.
Handsome Jack is introduced in Borderlands 2 as the CEO of the Hyperion arms-dealing corporation who has for some time been terrorizing the current population of the planet Pandora, whom he sweepingly condemns as consisting entirely of "bandits", wanting to remake the world in his own image. He wears a "handsome" mask, which at the end of the game when he is killed is revealed to conceal a true face hideously branded with the "Vault symbol" seen throughout the series, though the reason for this is not revealed until Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (see below).
The game kicks off with him attempting to kill the player characters (the second generation of Vault Hunters), on an exploding train which he had lured them onto with the promise of adventure and riches. From there, numerous audio messages and expositional dialogue convey Handsome Jack's assets such as his control of armies of robots and a space station called Helios that hovers ominously over Pandora, and his heinous actions which by the end of the game have caused the deaths of several supporting characters from the first game and even one of the original protagonists, Roland. Handsome Jack is also revealed to be the father of Angel, a treacherous guiding figure from the first game (where she retroactively acted on Jack's instructions) previously thought to be an AI who is actually a superpowered young woman called a "Siren" which he has effectively imprisoned as a battery and controller for many of the computer systems he controls. Angel eventually works against Jack and leads the Vault Hunters to the core where her body is and where she willingly lets them kill her, a fate that her father refuses to take any responsibility for despite Angel's last words calling him an asshole. During the final battle of the game, Handsome Jack awakes a powerful alien creature known as the Warrior which he intends to use as a weapon of mass destruction, but both it and he are ultimately defeated and killed.
The following game, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, features Handsome Jack (then known simply as "Jack") as the main non-playable protagonist and reveals how he became the monster seen in Borderlands 2, effectively making the character much more complex and sympathetic in retrospect. Although Jack always had psychopathic tendencies, he was for the most part rational and heroic at first, and said violent, hateful behaviors were "awakened" in and increasingly consumed him due the intense events seen in this game's narrative, including a shameless attempt by a corrupt mayor to shoot him in the back after Jack had spared him and, most notably, his betrayal and attempted murder by the original Vault Hunters which caused him to decide that their kind, the "good guys" of Pandora's current status quo, are no better than the bandit scum which players spend much of the gameplay that is not fought against Jack's own forces killing. The Vault symbol scar on his face is revealed to be the result of Vault Hunter Lilith violently punching an alien artifact that was giving Jack visions of the future concerning the Warrior into his cranium during the game's ending.
A holographic A.I. "clone" of Handsome Jack also appears in the ongoing spinoff saga "Tales from the Borderlands".
Lyrics
Verse 1:
Handsome Jack here, and let me tell you how it goes:
I shoot my critics in the face; Badaboom, case closed.
Amped stings like a Bee in a C.C. combo;
No hag's gonna hurt the Hyperion honcho!
You've got a cliffside in the shape of your prune–face,
And a masochist hunchback stumped by a boulder.
I've got Jackmore and an all–seeing moon–base;
Razing bandit cities up from orbit with my mortars!
No safe Haven; out for blood on your trail.
Catch a train to Sanctuary, and I blow it off the rails!
Yo, Blake, heads up: better fetch my violin;
I'll be playing this squawker off, because the hero always wins!
Verse 2:
You don't know Jack; better quit it with the gibbering:
I'll have my girl Sheriff lynch your ass for verbal littering!
I get the Sirens blaring with my Presence in a match;
You're as full of hot air as that pathetic Mr. Patch!
Think your googly–eyed goons are gonna get to this Invader?
Watch me crack your stupid cactus; mighty like a Jinjonator.
You'll crash and burn harder than Professor Nakayama;
When you get to Hell, tell I said "hi" to grandmama.
Own a Pandora's Box worth of gunrunning gear;
Mutilate you like our preservation slagging "volunteers".
Shake the floor's foundations; think construction engineers.
Spitting out more gems than Butt Stallion's rear!
I'm a god among men, and I Butcher with impunity,
Spoon–scooping eyes out at every Opportunity;
A sorcerer, a titan! Come and get me, giant witch;
Moral of the story is, you're nothing but a total Bitch!
(Shoots Gruntilda)
Verse 3:
I'm not even gonna question how the hell you're still alive;
It won't make a note of difference when my Warrior arrives!
My majestic voice ECHOes from the Highlands to the Dust,
With trespassers facing death by a Thousand Cuts.
I boast bazillions of boomsticks; your broomstick's screwed.
Serving prime rib rhymes; yours are stale fast food.
Quit your Mumbo Jumbo–spewing, 'cause for all your Claptrap,
You're outgunned by a bird in a bear's backpack!
Trivia
- Fourth character to try and fail to murder an opponent in cold blood, after Zim, Avatar Aang and Gendo Ikari.