Steven Steel

"Lucy... as long as you're here besides me, I'm content with leading an ordinary life. [...] Well, I guess it makes me a bit happy when I see my name in the papers."

- Steven Steel to his wife Lucy

Steven Steel (スティーブン・スティール) is a side character featured in Steel Ball Run.

Steel is the promoter of the Steel Ball Run race and husband of Lucy Steel. A mature man with a colorful life, the Steel Ball Run that he promotes becomes embroiled with him in Funny Valentine's schemes.

Appearance
Steven Steel is a mature man standing at around 190 cm, and much like Foo Fighters, he possesses hair covering his head in a bob with serrated edges.

His attire usually consists of a high collared coat decorated with several tassels on the collar and assorted trousers. Steven also wears small rectangular glasses.

Personality
Steven Steel is shown to be an anxious character despite bearing a bold facade as the organizer and host of the Steel Ball Run race. During most of his life, Steven Steel has cultivated a bombastic and eccentric persona, becoming a performer, sportsman and other jobs in the center of the stage, but would find his calling as a promoter for various events. Despite the ups and downs of his career, Steven has managed to always rebound to success. Privately, Steven is full of doubts and only dreams of a modest amount of fame, being content that a paper would print his name even at the bottom of the page as long his contribution was acknowledged. All these thoughts he only shares with Lucy.

Steven has a privileged and platonic relationship with his wife, Lucy. Having once fell in love during his youth, Steven was thrown into despair by the death of his fiance and promised to never love again. True to that, despite being Lucy's husband and everyone considering her as a trophy wife for a salacious old man, Steven never touches her and considers her as his protegee. As she was the first to encourage him during an all-time low in his career and he saved her from the hands of gangsters, Steven and Lucy share a great affection and trust with each other. Steven is so attached to Lucy, he doesn't hesitate to risk his life to save her.

Steven is a reluctant accomplice to Funny Valentine in finding the Saint Corpse Parts, having accepted to collaborate although he was unaware of the violence of the operation. Although he knows about them and has a vague idea of their power, Steel remains uninterested in them during the whole race.

Abilities
Promoting: Steven is a talented promoter, having to his name several bizarre events that he promoted and became popular stories with the public, which made him rich. Steven is also partly responsible for the popularity of the Steel Ball Run race. As a public relations expert, he's given inspiring speeches and arranged things so that journalists would regularly be able to observe and report the race.

Horse riding: Steven Steel is a gifted horseman. Having joined the cavalry but soon retiring from the army because of an illness, his skills would never be put to profit during his life. However, his horse riding skill becomes crucial when he comes to save Johnny, struck by his own ability, and thus shows that he can ride a horse perfectly and allows Johnny to perform another Golden Spin.

Background
Steven Steel was born in 1840, the fourth son of an Irish immigrant. When he was 15 he fell in love with the beautiful daughter of a florist and the two vowed to be together, but she died in a carriage accident that year. At the time, Steven fell into a deep state of despair and promised to never fall in love again. He joined the cavalry but was never sent to wars nor expeditions. He spent two years in a deserted island hospital. The following years he changed jobs each year until he was 28. He disappeared for 13 years and then reappeared as an adventurer searching for dinosaurs in Costa Rica. Two years later, he dubbed himself a promoter and all the newspapers talked about him

One day, a scandal about a monkey disguised as an alien caused him to be dubbed as a fraud, but he had nothing to do with the scandal. No one believed him and he had to sell his mansion. At his worst moment, an idea came to change his luck, "a long distance horse-ride", the one thing he wasn't able to do in the cavalry. He searched for sponsors without results. Not having eaten in days and severely drunk he sat by the edge of the street, interrupted by a young Lucy Pendleton who was listening to his mumbling.

Lucy came up with the idea of a race across the entire American continent with a winning prize of 50 million dollars. He scolds her for that idea and returned to the bar, got in a fight, and fell asleep behind the urinals. The next day, a group of people surrounded him and asked about the cross-continental race, willing to sponsor it. It is, however, hinted by Funny Valentine's comments on the Steel Ball Run being a venue to claim the Corpse Parts that he was behind Steven's sponsorship for the race. In any case, Funny Valentine and Steven Steel would meet and organize the race together, Valentine notably choosing each steps of the race to uncover the Saint's Corpse while Steven Steel promoted the race to all newspapers.

Two years later, he remembered about the girl who gave him his chance. When he met her again, she was grown up and identical to his first love. Steven told her father he wanted to pay his daughter back for the favor she gave him, but her father told him that he was forced to sell his daughter to a gang to be a prostitute. To protect her, Steven told her father to lie about Lucy having lost her virginity to Steven, to force the gang to give her up. After Lucy returned, she offered to marry him. Initially, Steven objected to the idea, wishing for her to grow up, marry someone her age, and live a normal life, but eventually gave in and married her. Despite this, Steven was reported by Lucy as never laying a hand on her and treated her like a daughter rather than a wife out of respect.

Promoting the SBR
As the promoter of the Steel Ball Run race, Steven is present in San Diego to give his final presentation of the race, oversee the organization of the starting line, and welcome important observers. For the remainder of the race, Steel acts as a figurehead and observer to the race.

Unbeknownst to him, Lucy also discovers the true goal of the Steel Ball Run and acts behind his back to keep the Corpse Parts out of Valentine's reach. Her operation ends when she infiltrates a presidential facility and must disguise herself as Scarlet Valentine. Hot Pants fakes Lucy's death in order to protect her; this shocks Steel, but he has the intuition that Lucy's corpse is not genuine.

The final battles for the Saint
While looking for Lucy, Steven was mortally wounded by Magent Magent and held captive by Funny Valentine, who swore to Lucy that he would not kill Steven. Steven regained consciousness just in time to save Lucy from the effects of Ticket to Ride, his intervention only delaying Valentine's plans but giving Johnny a needed reprieve from Valentine's attack. After Valentine's defeat, Steven witnesses Lucy behead Diego Brando with the intent of killing the other Diego Brando. While she does this, Steven mounts a horse and goes to save Johnny from his own attack.

Aftermath
In the aftermath of the Steel Ball Run, Steven Steel is criticized for the huge loss of human lives during the race but he silences the press when he gives all the money he's won through the race to charity. What happens to Steven Steel afterward is unknown.

Jump Super Stars (DS)
Steven Steel appears as the JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE/STEEL BALL RUN representing character for the menu guider, explaining every mode and other things to the player.

All-Star Battle (PS3)
Steven Steel appears in the background of the Philadelphia Coast Stage alongside Lucy. He also appears as the menu guide for Campaign Mode.