Greatest Villains of All Time: Handsome Jack
The Search for the Greatest Villain of All Time
Borderlands 2 redefined what it means to have a standout villain with Handsome Jack, who just might be one of the most unforgettable characters in modern entertainment. Even if he doesn't top every list, there's no denying his charisma—dripping with sarcasm, razor-sharp wit, and a motor mouth that sounds like it runs on commission. Jack’s personality is so distinctively over-the-top that his idea of flexing his fortune is buying a diamond pony and naming it Butt Stallion.
From Humble Beginnings
With one parent dead and the other out of the picture, Jack's early life began under the harsh and abusive care of his grandmother. Despite the rocky start, he eventually landed a job as a low-level programmer at Hyperion. It wasn’t glamorous, but his personal life was thriving—he fell in love, got married, and had a daughter named Angel. For a while, life was good.
That all changed when Angel, still a child, began to manifest the powers of a Siren. Her abilities didn’t go unnoticed—one day, a bandit who knew how valuable Sirens could be tried to kidnap her. In a panic, Angel lost control of her powers, taking command of a nearby turret. She killed the bandit—but in the chaos, she also accidentally killed her mother. The incident shattered Jack. From that moment on, he developed a deep, unshakable hatred for bandits, convinced they were nothing more than greedy, murderous scum.
With a mission to bring peace to Pandora by wiping out its criminal element, it’s easy to wonder if Handsome Jack is truly evil. But that question only makes sense when you understand the chaotic, lawless nature of the Borderlands universe. On Pandora, nearly everyone could be considered a criminal—violence is so normalized that most characters are introduced while committing murder. The planet is a madhouse, filled with people who, even on their best days, can only be described as criminally insane.
But there’s another side to Pandora—small communities of people just trying to get by, to live simple, peaceful lives. Jack, however, refuses to see the nuance. To him, if you’re not aligned with Hyperion, you’re a bandit. Innocence is irrelevant. Even when he knows someone hasn’t done anything wrong, he treats their mere existence on Pandora as a crime. He slaughters civilians without a second thought, operating under the twisted belief that living outside his control makes you a threat by default.
The Villain You Love to Love
Wearing a mask of his own face after being permanently scarred while attempting to harness the power of a Vault artifact, Handsome Jack rules as the self-declared dictator of Pandora from a Death Star-like space station that constantly looms over the planet. After stealing credit for discovering the Vault and defeating The Destroyer, Jack seized control of the Hyperion Corporation by murdering its President and installing himself as the new leader. With Hyperion’s vast resources at his command, he became one of the most dangerous figures in the galaxy.
The events of The Pre-Sequel and the flashbacks in Borderlands 3 offer glimpses of the man Jack once was—and the many betrayals that pushed him over the edge—but there's only so much sympathy to be had. A man who gleefully oppresses an entire world, massacres innocent people, and manipulates everyone around him is, at his core, undeniably evil. Jack no longer values any life but his own.
His cruelty is evident from his earliest appearances. He kills Roland by shooting him in the back, executes New Haven’s leader Helena Pierce right after she tells him her spouse is dead, and then laughs as he jokes that they now have something in common. He imprisons his own daughter, Angel, exploiting her Siren powers to activate an ancient alien weapon with the goal of “cleansing” Pandora—and eventually, expanding his dominion across the galaxy. Jack isn’t just a tyrant; he’s a man who believes genocide is justified if it means achieving his version of order.
No other villain has left such a powerful and lasting impression in so little time.
