Joseph Joestar

Joseph Joestar (ジョセフ・ジョースター, Josefu Jōsutā) is one of the starring heroes in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Joseph is the main hero of Part II: Battle Tendency, and also plays a significant role in Part III & Part IV. In his younger days, he had black hair and muscular build, but in his older age, he wears a hat and sports a yellow shirt and khaki pants. One of his hands is synthetic, a result of his fight with Cars.

Joseph is also one of the oldest human characters to appear, along with Yoshihiro Kira.

Origins
He begins as a young Englishman in New York, with his grandmother Erina. However, an attack by Straights and the disappearance of Robert Edward O Speedwagon soon involve him in the greater chain of events.

Series 2 - Battle Tendency
Joseph lives in New York with his grandmother Erina and seems to have inherited the power of the Ripple (波紋), Hamon), as he has a natural ability to use it. When old family friend Speedwagon is reported dead (or missing) in Mexico, Joseph takes it on himself to go check it out. His curiosity is piqued when he is attacked in New York City by an old friend turned vampire. When he goes to Mexico he discovers a secret underground Nazi facility where the Nazis are trying to revive a man who seems to have been trapped in a stone pillar for 2,000 years. Here Joseph meets the Nazi Stroheim (whose character design is said by many to have influenced Capcom when they created Guile, though Dire from Series 1 also looks similar to him).

Unfortunately the Nazis are successful in awakening the man, who is christened "Santana" before he kills most of them. Joseph and Stroheim battle Santana and manage to defeat him, though Stroheim is fatally wounded.

Joseph then heads to Rome, where three more "sleeping pillar men" have been discovered. In Rome, Joseph meets Caesar Zeppeli, a trained hamon user near his age who is supposed to show Joseph the ropes. Before they can do anything besides arguing (Caesar Zeppeli is a descendant of the top hat wearing, wine drinking mentor of Jonathan Joestar). Caesar blames Jonathan Joestar for killing his grand father with his incompetence), they find themselves present when the three sleeping men awaken after their 2,000 year nap. These creatures are something like vampire gods; it turns out that they created the stone mask that turned Dio into a vampire. These three are named Wham, ACDC, and Cars, and their goal is to find the "Red Stone of Asia," which, used with a stone mask, will allow them to become ultimate life forms.

They are extremely powerful; Even with his American Ripple-Infused Crackers, untrained Joseph doesn't stand a chance. Luckily, he manages to talk them out of killing him. Wham and ACDC both end up giving Joseph "wedding rings" which are internal time bombs set to release poison into his blood if he doesn't defeat them within a month. Joseph realizes that he'll have to train or he's going to die, and Caesar introduces Joseph to his master, the beautiful (and extremely talented) Lisa Lisa.

However, before the month is up, ACDC finds out that Lisa Lisa has the Red Stone of Asia and comes to take it. Joseph uses his new skills to defeat ACDC, thus earning the wrath of Wham and Cars (who previously thought of him as an amusement rather than a threat).

While on pursuit Joseph is reunited with the supposedly-deceased Stroheim, who has been rebuilt by Nazi science as a powerful cyborg, but Stroheim's machine body is quickly cut in half by Cars, who uses the "light mode" (a blade that extends from his arm spins so fast that it reflects light in irregular fashion giving the illusion of glowing sword). In Switzerland the group discovers the location of Wham and Cars. Knowing Wham and Cars' vulnerability to sunlight, everyone is eager to face them during the day except JoJo. Caesar can't accept this and Joseph and Caesar fight.

Apparently Caesar's father disappeared during his youth, growing up as a thug hating his father, he later finds him. Caesar is eager to kill his father who has abandoned him, but to his surprise Caesar's dad didn't go out to enjoy himself. Following his father to the base of the Colosseum where the three monster sleep, Caesar tries to touch a gem that is embedded in the wall. To his surprise, his father pushes him out of the way and saves Caesar from the wall's trap. Caesar's father is quickly consumed by the flesh of the monsters in their dormant form and leaves a final message to him, telling him to inform Lisa Lisa that the three monsters in the wall will awaken soon.

Disregarding the warnings Caesar approaches the mansion where Wham and Cars are residing. Caesar is soon greeted by Wham and they fight. It appears that Caesar has the advantage as he nearly fries Wham with ripple and refracted sun light, but Wham quickly counters his attack with his "holy sand storm" and Caesar loses his ability to use the ripple. When Wham, satisfied with the victory, tries to leave, Caesar jumps up and tears out his lip piercing that contains the antidote to JoJo's poison ring. Before he dies from being crushed by a stone slab, Caesar uses his final ripple to make a bubble out of his blood containing the antidote ring. Wham sees this but, respecting Caesar as a valiant warrior, he lets the bubble float away. When Joseph and Lisa Lisa arrive too late JoJo finds the bubble and vows not to drink the antidote until he personally has beaten Wham.

Joseph then defeats Wham in a deadly chariot race and the final showdown against Cars begins. First, keeping his promise, he fights the beautiful Lisa Lisa and though he promised to fight her one-on-one, he lies and sacrifices one of his weaker Vampires and is able to defeat her. Angered by Cars' trickery, Joseph then challenges Cars who looks upon Joseph as weak Ripple user and not even worth fighting seriously. It all seems to be over in this fight against Cars until Stroheim (who has once again been brought back to life because of Nazi Science) and the Nazis, Speedwagon, and Smokey arrive to help Joseph. It is here that the reader also finds out that Lisa Lisa is also the biological mother of Joseph. After using the powers of Ultra violet rays of light it seems that Cars has been killed and the world has been saved. But all is not as it seems. Cars was not only able to place on a stone mask that he had been hiding on his person, but fused with the powers of the Red Stone of Asia, Cars becomes the Ultimate Life form. Now Joseph and the group are frantically trying to think of a way to be this so called Unbeatable lifeform and it seems that victory has once again arrived in Joseph's hands when he is able to send Cars inside an active Volcano. But the fight was still not over. Cars was able to cover himself in an armor made of rock and protect himself from the molten lava. It looked like this would be the gruesome end of not only the Joestar's but the world itself, until the volcano erupts and sends both Joseph and Cars flying. Cars is sent into space and though he tries to fly back down to Earth to finish the job, a defense mechanism of his kicks in, freezing his body solid making him unable to travel back to Earth. The battle was finally over and Joseph was able to save the world from Cars' evil.

Weeks later the group of Erina, Lisa Lisa, Messina, Smokey Brown, and Speedwagon pay there respects as they have a funeral for the assumed to be dead Joseph Joestar, but to their surprise Joseph wasn't dead! After falling back down from the sky he ends up in Italy where he is helped by some local fisherman. After finding and marrying Lisa Lisa's assistant Suzie Q he returns back to America to find his friends.

Series 3 - Stardust Crusaders
Joseph comes to the aid of his daughter Holly, and his grandson Jotaro. His main role in the story is mimimal in comparison, but important; He teaches his grandson about the Stand, and for the most, has done his share of directing the group towards their goal, through fatherly advices and tactics and analysis. He deciphered Kakyoin's message despite cryptic depictions in regards to Dio's power.

He was defeated several times, even killed, but his revived by a blood transfusion from Dio's body who actually was his grandfather's blood. He makes a joke on Jotaro, claiming to be Dio possessing Joseph's body which nearly cause Jotaro to attack his grandfather. Lucky Joseph, was spared from the beating by claiming it was a joke.

Series 4 - Diamond is Unbreakable
Joseph has brought the Joestar family into chaos twice, the first time being the discovery of Josuke, and the second is the adoption of Achtung Baby, who Suzi thought was "another secret child Joseph had".

This series focuses on Josuke Higashikata, the illegitimate son of Joseph Joestar, with Jotaro Kujo and Joseph Joestar along in a supporting role.

Joseph has aged greatly and can no longer walk without his cane. The aging Joseph also became hard of hearing and not as athletic as he used to be. He seems to have lost the use of his Hamon (ripple) powers, though the fact he is so old probably means he is incapable of sustaining the breathing needed to use it. Even So, he is still capable of using Hermit Purple.

Personality
As a young man, Joseph is incredibly hotheaded, impetuous, and confrontational. He is not very serious or focused, and he tends to fool around. However, over the course of Part 2, although he never really loses his overall attitude, he does develop into a strong, focused hero. At crucial moments of battles, he likes to predict the next sentence of his opponents. In Part 3, he is much the same, only as an irascible old man with a temper and the same mischievous spirit as in his younger days. However, being older, he is certainly more mature and serious. He and Jotaro, despite their hostility at first sight, manages to communicate with one another in their minds and he also offers advice to the hot-headed Jotaro.

Powers
Joseph also inherits the ability of the ripple from his grandfather Jonathan. This is on top of his Stand power. In addition, he uses the techniques of stage magic to confuse his foes. Been the only character in the series to use both the ripple and his Stand.

Stand
Hermit Purple manifests itself as a tangle of thorny vines, which Joseph can wield as both weapon and defense. They are relatively weak; however, Hermit Purple also provides Joseph with considerable telepathic ability, enabling him to sense locations or thoughts by projecting them into a camera, or a TV, or even into an image made from the sand of a dusty street.

Originally Joseph has no stand, but he does become one of the masters of the use of hamon power. These abilities stay with him even in Part 3, which still makes him quite powerful despite having one of the relatively weaker stands. Hermit Purple is the only Stand wielded by a Joestar, along with Holly's (whose own Stand, Ghost in the Machine, takes after the Hermit's plant-like nature), that does not have a humanoid appearance.

Stand Origins: The Hermit card primarily gives a meaning of solitude, introspective, or soul-searching, which would seem to symbolize Joseph's lifelong journey. It also carries a more direct meaning of teaching or advising, which is Joseph's main role in Part 3. It awakened in response to Dio and Enya awakening The World.

Trivia

 * A minor point of controversy is the spelling of Joseph's name. Both in an official profile and on his tombstone during Part 2; his name is spelled "Josef Joestar" in plain English, while in part 3 his name is given as "Joseph". One explanation for this could be that Joseph naturalized his name to appear more American at some point (in real life, many immigrants after both World Wars did this).


 * His catchphrase (used often in Part 3) is, "Oh! My! God!". Sometimes this will alternate with "My God!" or other such variations.


 * Joseph has appeared in 3 story arcs, tying with Dio for second place in most appearances, and behind Jotaro who's appeared in 4 story arcs.


 * Joseph collects comics and was a fan of Superman when he was young, and Rohan Kishibe's works when he was much older.


 * In a Fist of the North Star like fashion, he'll verbally predict what will happen to his enemies and quote, often verbatim, what they will say. His enemy will then unwittingly repeat said prediction, shocked by Joseph's "mind reading". This is primarily in series 2, although he does perform this feat again in series 3 just before he destroys Empress.


 * Joseph's series 3 design seems inspired by Indiana Jones.
 * Joseph's personality and hairstyle may have influenced detective manga Kindaichi Case Files as both protagonists love using tricks to confuse their enemies.


 * Joseph, is the only person to be able to use hamon and have a stand of his own, he however makes little use of his hamon power once he obtained his stand.