Joanna Dark

Infobox VG character
name = Joanna Dark


caption =
series = "Perfect Dark"
firstgame = "Perfect Dark"
creator =
artist =
voiceactor = Laurence Bouvard ("Perfect Dark Zero")
Eveline Fischer ("Perfect Dark")
japanactor =
motionactor =
liveactor =

Joanna Dark is the fictional protagonist of the "Perfect Dark" video game franchise developed by Rare. In the games, Dark acts as an elite mercenary who specializes in industrial espionage. She is employed by the Carrington Institute, where she is given the code name "Perfect Dark" in honor of her flawless performance in training tests. Her real name is derived from Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc).

Game appearances

Joanna Dark made her debut in "Perfect Dark", a Nintendo 64 game released in 2000. Later that year, she appeared in a prequel to this game, which was released for the Game Boy Color handheld. The game followed her from graduating from training at the Carrington Institute, to her first encounter with dataDyne and the Maians. Following the success of "Perfect Dark" for the N64, work began on another prequel, "Perfect Dark Zero". While this game was originally developed for Nintendo's GameCube console, Microsoft's acquisition of Rareware prompted the studio to shift development to first the Xbox and later the Xbox 360 console.

During this long development process her character design went through several iterations. Images of the initial concept were met with much derision among the fans who criticized Joanna's new Manga-like appearance. In response the developers chose to tone down some of the more stylized aspects of the design, eventually arriving at a more realistic appearance. "Perfect Dark Zero" was finally released in November 2005 as a launch title for the Xbox 360 console.

Biography

Early life

Joanna Dark was born in Atlanta, Georgia on March 18, 2000. Born with a broken spine, she would require specialized experimental treatment throughout most of her childhood. She was home schooled by her father, Jack Dark, who took her with him as he tracked criminals across the globe as a bounty hunter. She briefly attended an American school in Beijing, China, but was expelled after hospitalizing another student following a bullying incident.

As part of her education, her father trained her in self-defense, stealth, tracking, and firearm use. As a teenager, she began assisting Jack in his business, Dark Bail Bonds. Joanna worked as a general assistant and apprentice during this period, helping Chandra Sekhar with communications and piloting vehicles.

Perfect Dark Zero

In 2020, Joanna is a bounty hunter, working with Chandra and her father. On Joanna's first mission, they rescue a scientist named Zeigler from the hands of Killian, a Triad crime lord based out of Hong Kong. Soon after his rescue, Zeigler uses a neurodrive to implant information into Jack's mind, hoping to keep it safe for Zeigler's employer. However, Jack is soon captured by dataDyne, a sinister weapons corporation. Joanna rescues him from the palace of Zhang Li, the secretive founder of dataDyne, only for Jack to die during the escape at the hands of Zhang Li's daughter, Mai Hem. Determined to avenge her father's death, Joanna infiltrates a dataDyne facility in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at Chandra's suggestion. Joanna is able to locate Dr. Eustace Caroll, Zeigler's partner at dataDyne. Caroll uses the same neurodrive technology on Joanna to extract any words her father may have said concerning Ziegler's secrets. Suddenly, Chandra appears and kills Caroll, revealing herself to be a traitor working for Zhang Li. Before she can kill Joanna, however, forces of the Carrington Institute (who had hired Jack and Joanna to locate Zeigler) arrive and extract her.

Driven to avenge her father's death, Joanna finds her goals coinciding with those of the Carrington Institute. Taking advantage of their resources but acting as an independent contractor, she sets out to put an end to Zhang Li's plan.

Joanna is sent to infiltrate a mining operation in an ancient Peruvian temple, where she discovers the conspiracy: Zhang Li and Mai Hem are searching for an ancient artifact known as "The Graal" (a reference to the Holy Grail), which imbues its possessor with superhuman powers. Following them both to Africa, Joanna kills Mai Hem and disables dataDyne's air defenses in order to allow Carrington to launch a full-scale assault against Zhang Li's forces. However, by the time she reaches Zhang Li, he has already used the Graal on himself. He summarily executes Chandra before engaging Joanna in battle. Defeating the seemingly invincible power-hungry genius, Joanna is met by Daniel Carrington. When she asks, "How did I do, Boss?" he replies, "Perfect." The title "Perfect Dark" would stick with Joanna.

Initial Vector

Six months after helping Daniel Carrington stop Zhang Li and Mai Hem's evil plans, Joanna Dark finds herself living in the Carrington Institute grounds. Still dealing with the guilt of her father's death, Joanna is lost in thoughts and unsure of herself or what she's doing, specially considering that Jack had warned her "not to trust Daniel Carrington", a man she had found herself killing for.

While on institute grounds, Joanna agrees to go on a mission to save Benjamin Able, a Carrignton Institute agent who was working undercover at pharmaDyne, dataDyne's medical research subsidiary. Able's cover had been blown up and he was subsequently captured and was being tortured for information about his employer. Joanna manage to successfully infiltrate pharmaDyne's building, free Benjamin Able from his prison and get some vital information from him about his operation that Carrington needed. However, Benjamin Able was killed by a grenade as the two of them were escaping. On her way out Joanna met the Laurent Hayes, the ruthless and merciless adoptive son of Dr. Friedrich Murray, CEO of pharmaDyne, who did the dirty work for his father. After a brief fight, Joanna managed to escape with the help of Jonathan Steinberg.

Joanna's guilt was renewed with the death of Benjamin Able, something she blamed herself for, and after the missión she fled from the institute's grounds. With some assistance of Cassandra de Vries (CEO of dataFlow, the software development subsidiary of dataDyne), Daniel Carrington was able to track Joanna to China, where Steinberg saved her from being taken by dataDyne shock troopers.

Back at the institute Joanna is furious with Daniel Carrington and confronts him. Carrington is able to talk her out of her anger and helps her realize that she is not a killer (a thought that had been haunting her) but a soldier, someone who fights for a greater purpose than just the battles in which she participates.

Following the lead that Joanna got from Benjamin Able, Joanna goes with Steinberg to a Core Mantis Omniglobal facility located in Hovoro Islands to find Dr. Thadeus Killington Rose, the creator of the superflu (a disease that caused the death of thirty million people). Joanna and Steinberg manage to slip past all the engaging parties at the facility (dataDyne troops, Core Mantis troops, a Hawk squadron sent by Cassandra, and even Laurent Hayes) and successfully evacuate Dr. Rose. Afterwards Daniel Carrington organizes a meeting with Cassandra and Dr. Murray, where Joanna was present as Carrington's bodyguard. After a wrongly and unexpected turn of events, Joanna had to protect Carrington from Laurent Hayes, and the meeting ended with Rose, Murray and Hayes dead.

Finally Joanna learns to trust Daniel Carrington and finds herself comfortable with her new place at the institute.

Perfect Dark

By 2023, Joanna has become a full-fledged operative of the Carrington Institute. She is sent to Seattle in order to extract a dataDyne defector. In the process, she uncovers a conspiracy between dataDyne and a group of extraterrestrials known as the Skedar. After centuries of war, the Maians (another alien race) and the Skedar have established a shaky ceasefire. However, Skedar fanatics persistently test the boundaries of this peace with terrorist activities. They plan to steal a Cetan megaweapon from a crashed spacecraft on the Earth's ocean floor and use it to restart the Maian-Skedar war. Unbeknownst to dataDyne, they also intend to test fire the megaweapon on Earth, destroying it in the process.

When the President of the United States refuses to loan dataDyne the research vessel they need to retrieve the megaweapon, the corporation conspires to kill him and replace him with a dataDyne-grown clone. However, Joanna is able to sneak aboard Air Force One and prevent the assassination from happening. Then, with the help of other Carrington agents and a Maian bodyguard nicknamed Elvis, she travels to the ocean floor and destroys the Cetan megaweapon. Afterward, she helps the Maians launch a counterattack against the Skedar homeworld, eliminating the fanatics' High Priest, thereby issuing a devastating blow.

Hair color

*Despite popular belief, Joanna's hair color was never meant to be brown but, always red. This can be seen in renders done by Rare, [http://cache.kotaku.com/gaming/Joanna_Dark12.jpg] [http://perfectdark.3dactionplanet.gamespy.com/pd/wallpaper/pd12_800x600.jpg] , and [http://perfectdark.3dactionplanet.gamespy.com/pd/renders/ here] . The developers claimed that it was due to the limitations of the Nintendo 64. [http://www.myxbox360.com/news/news/Joanna_Dark_on_FHM_383]
*Joanna has red hair colour and a blond forelock which was a genetic flaw that no one could ever explain, Although it was most likely caused from her testing. That part of her scalp could have a lack of pigments.