Joanna

Biodata

Power Progression

Background and History

Joanna was created as experimental subject HL-01 of Project Homelander, also identified as the Odessa Project. The program used Soldier Boy’s genetic material and introduced Compound V during embryonic development under Vogelbaum’s supervision. Following accelerated gestation in an artificial womb, she was born in early 1981. Lin Mo first saw her as a newborn through the glass of an incubation chamber 5 7.

Joanna grew up in Vought’s research bunker, where caregivers changed frequently and toys were chiefly used for tests. Her blue blanket was the one possession consistently returned to her. During her early meetings with Lin Mo, she checked that she had not hurt his wrist and chose to share the blanket with him rather than fight over it 12 13.

Their meetings became more frequent as Lin Mo taught her games, strength control, and the names of everyday things. Joanna grew anxious when he was late and once refused to return alone to her bare room, relenting only after he promised to visit the next day. Vought used their attachment to encourage her cooperation with examinations and training 13 14 16 17 20.

The researchers regarded her willingness to share her blanket and ask Lin Mo to return as major breakthroughs. Their meetings increased from once a week to once every three days, with sessions expanding from twenty minutes to an hour. Vought subsequently approved an expanded shared-living experiment, regarding their mutual dependence as something it could guide and exploit 11 13 19.

As she grew older, Vought trained Joanna’s posture, interviews, costume presentation, and patriotic lines for a public Homelander persona. She learned to perform convincingly on camera while keeping her distrust of the researchers to herself 36 37 38. After the bunker’s destruction, she and Lin Mo experienced ordinary life outside it and enrolled at Godolkin University 54 55 57.

Vought had prepared her public image and promotional materials for years before her enrollment. Edgar explained that Godolkin would provide social experience and a route to greater public support before she assumed leadership of The Seven. At the university, her ability-test results immediately attracted students hoping to associate with her and Lin Mo 53 59 64 68.

Joanna later learned more about Vought’s secret program and its other product, Marie Moreau. She was not shocked to learn she had been created through experiments: she remembered her childhood in the bunker and did not consider the circumstances of her birth more important than the life she had now 86 108 109.

During the investigation of Doug and Thomas, Joanna learned that Thomas’s ambitions could eventually make her a target for control. She accompanied Lin Mo and Maeve into the hidden underground facility, where they found Thomas’s severely damaged original body and infant Marie. Thomas subsequently described Joanna as the Odessa Project’s most perfect result at that stage, possessing virtually no overall weaknesses by the program’s standards. Joanna later burned Thomas to nothing, as Lin Mo recalls when rejecting her claim that she was frightened 87 104 106 108 119.

Joanna accompanied Lin Mo and Maeve to obtain Original Compound V from Clara. After overpowering Clara, she injected one of the five verified doses. The reaction caused her Heat Vision to erupt uncontrollably, fatally injuring Clara, splitting her house, and burning through the surrounding woods. Once the reaction subsided, Joanna felt substantially stronger and asked about taking another dose, but Lin Mo explained that a second injection would do little 135 137 138 139.

At a subsequent Vought shareholders’ meeting, Joanna killed several shareholders who had worked against her and Lin Mo. Lin Mo then raised the treatment she had received in childhood, and Edgar identified executives involved in her early training and the decision to prevent her from seeing Lin Mo 143.

Joanna later accompanied Lin Mo into space and attempted to follow him toward the sun. After testing her independent flight speed, Lin Mo prepared to accelerate beyond what she could match. Recognizing both the distance and her need for air, she returned toward Earth rather than pushing herself to continue 145.

By the time Lin Mo visited Vought Tower to examine The Seven’s new-member selection, Joanna occupied the captain’s seat. She also attended Maeve’s sports-brand promotion, where the recruitment announcement was scheduled, but chose to watch Lin Mo from a seat away from the cameras 156 159.

After A-Train injured Robin, Joanna accompanied Lin Mo, Maeve, and A-Train to the hospital. While Hughie hesitated over taking improved Compound V, Joanna suggested that Robin could try it instead, prompting Hughie to accept the risk himself. Later, when A-Train admitted delivering Compound V overseas for Madelyn, Lin Mo explained to Joanna that Madelyn intended to create superpowered terrorists so Vought could offer its Supes as the solution 176 183 191.

Appearance

Joanna has long blond hair, fair skin, pale eyes, and features that Vought considers well suited to a superhero’s public image 38 46 57.

• Childhood clothing: A loose white hospital gown 12.
• Training costume: A blue suit with a short cape; she chose to keep the cape after asking Lin Mo’s opinion 37.
• Planned combat costume: Vought’s file depicts her in a blue combat suit with a red cape, following the company’s patriotic color scheme 36 44.
• Public presentation: Years of image training give her a polished camera smile, distinct from the unguarded smile she shows Lin Mo 37 38.

Personality

Joanna is intensely attached to Lin Mo. His praise matters more to her than applause or school records, and she can become possessive when others seek his attention 64 68. Her fear that he might disappear began in the bunker, where caregivers came and went without explanation 13 48.

Her protectiveness can turn ruthless. She readily proposes killing perceived threats and has struggled to accept Lin Mo’s distinction between stopping an attacker and harming someone who is already helpless. Although she agrees to his limits, she initially understands them chiefly as things he wants, rather than principles she shares 26 29 30 31 90. Around Lin Mo she is also curious and playful, especially when exploring experiences denied to her during confinement 55 115 126.

Her childhood understanding of authority was shaped by Vought’s control over her meals, examinations, movement, and access to Lin Mo. She initially assumed that her own superior strength likewise entitled her to decide the fate of weaker people. When Lin Mo rebuked her for nearly killing a subdued guard, she interpreted his refusal to praise her as taking the guard’s side 28 30.

Joanna learns to conceal hostility rather than simply becoming obedient. She can deliver statements about protecting every life without personally believing that every stranger warrants risking herself. Her practiced public behavior therefore differs sharply from her private priorities and resentment toward Vought 37 38.

Despite her harshness, she reacts angrily to the exploitation of infant Marie and recognizes similarities between Doug’s treatment of students and her own upbringing. She does not regard her experimental origin as a reason to hate everyone at Vought, instead placing greater importance on her present freedom and life with Lin Mo 86 94 108.

Unlike the public image Vought has constructed for her, Joanna has little interest in fan attention. Crowds recognizing her annoy her, and she prefers ordinary outings with Lin Mo to being surrounded by admirers. She is also willing to stay out of camera view while accompanying him to a public event 127 159.

She often leaves complicated institutional schemes to Lin Mo rather than following their implications herself. Nevertheless, she notices hostility from the Military and national leadership and asks him about it. When Madelyn’s overseas Compound V deliveries come to light, she understands the scheme after Lin Mo explains it directly 152 191.

Abilities and Skills

Superhuman physical abilities

• Possesses extraordinary strength, speed, and durability; her Godolkin assessment breaks nearly every school record 64.
• Can regulate her force precisely, though she may use that control to prolong a fight, as she does while sparring with The Deep 80.
• Overpowers Clara, who cannot make Joanna release her grip even with electrical attacks 135 136.
• Can withstand the high-speed travel Lin Mo uses to carry her and Maeve without requiring his Bioelectric Field for physical protection 103.
• Becomes substantially stronger after receiving Original Compound V. Her comparison that she could previously fight ten Maeves with one hand, and now could handle more, is her own assessment rather than a measured test 138.
• Remains weaker than Lin Mo. After her enhancement, she wonders how much the gap has narrowed but declines to test it because she would never genuinely attack him 36 139.
• Is told by Lin Mo that repeated Original Compound V injections would not provide comparable further gains 139.

Heat Vision

• Melts composite alloys by 1990 36.
• Kills a researcher who attempts to restrict her movements in the bunker, after which other staff cease interfering with her movements there 46.
• Can be narrowed into a thin beam precise enough to cut her own wrist for an injection 137.
• Becomes dangerously uncontrolled immediately after Joanna receives Original Compound V; the blast fatally injures Clara 137 138.
• During that uncontrolled discharge, tears through Clara’s house and nearby woods before shooting upward through the clouds 137.

Flight and enhanced senses

• Shows early signs of flight during training and later flies with Lin Mo in public 36 126.
• Uses X-ray vision to see through walls and Super Hearing to follow sounds at a distance 74 104 121.
• Can notice physical signs such as a quickened heartbeat, though Lin Mo warns her that they do not prove someone is lying 35 36.
• Can hear Lin Mo’s heartbeat and detect changes in his breathing, but cannot reliably read him when he deliberately controls his bodily responses 47.
• Demonstrates independent spaceflight at a little over Mach 200 after her Original Compound V enhancement, using the speed of sound at ground level as the comparison 145.
• Can hold her breath for an extended period but still requires oxygen. She cannot sustain the nearly month-long journey to the sun that her measured speed would entail 145.

Memory and performance

• Possesses exceptional retention, allowing her to remember nearly every important statement Lin Mo makes to her 21.
• Is highly proficient at rehearsed interviews, camera expressions, posture, and patriotic messaging after years of Vought training 36 37.
• Can quickly switch between natural behavior around Lin Mo and the standardized smile expected by observers 38.

Items

• Blue blanket — Her longstanding source of comfort; she shares it with Lin Mo and later keeps the cards bearing their names inside it. She continues carrying it when trying to persuade him to let her sleep in his room 12 13 18 119.
• Name cards — Cards reading “Joanna” and “Lin Mo,” which she keeps so she can remember them 18.

Relationships

• Lin Mo — Childhood companion, teacher, and the person Joanna trusts most. She seeks his approval, fears losing him, and prioritizes his safety over strangers’ 13 23 24 64. Their relationship develops into affectionate outings and dates, while she repeatedly seeks to share his bed and sometimes slips into it despite his objections. Vought regards him as her sole stable and irreplaceable emotional anchor 44 90 115 120 143. He obtains Original Compound V for her and supervises her attempt at independent spaceflight, emphasizing that she should stop rather than endanger herself 137 145.
• Margaret Shaw / Maeve — Godolkin student and later collaborator. Joanna is competitive and jealous when Maeve attracts Lin Mo’s attention, but also offers to protect her from threats 63 76 86. She accepts Maeve’s help on missions while continuing to object to physical closeness between Maeve and Lin Mo. Following her enhancement, she casually uses Maeve as a unit for describing her own strength 125 133 138.
• Vogelbaum and Vought’s researchers — Her former handlers, who use access to Lin Mo to secure her cooperation. Joanna learns to conceal rather than forget her resentment 14 20 38. She later attends the shareholders’ meeting at which Edgar identifies executives responsible for her childhood treatment and restricted contact with Lin Mo 143.
• Soldier Boy — Source of the genetic cells used to create Joanna 84 85. As a child, she senses an unexplained connection when seeing his photograph, although she does not know him 33.
• Marie Moreau — Another product of Vought’s secret program, described to Joanna as having potential comparable to her own 86 108. Joanna is angered by the experiments on her and later examines and plays with her after the group finds her in the underground facility 86 106.
• Thomas / Doug — An adversary whose ambition to control exceptionally powerful Supes makes Joanna a prospective target. She rejects his treatment of weaker students as disposable and participates in the investigation of his underground facility 87 94 104. Lin Mo later refers to her having burned Thomas to nothing 119.
• Clara / Liberty — The holder of the Original Compound V that Joanna and her companions seek. Joanna overpowers her despite her electrical attacks, then accidentally inflicts fatal injuries on her during the injection’s uncontrolled Heat Vision reaction 135 137 138.
• Annie — A candidate in The Seven’s selection whose enthusiastic praise of Lin Mo draws Joanna’s uncomfortable attention. Annie notices Joanna watching while linked through Lin Mo’s arm and retreats apologetically 167.
• Hughie and Robin — Joanna accompanies the group to the hospital after Robin is injured. She later pressures the hesitant Hughie into deciding whether to take improved Compound V by suggesting Robin could try it in his place 176 183.

Notable Quotes

“If I can only protect one person, I’ll protect you first.” 24

“I don't need to hate them. I just need to remember what they did.” 38

“We have powers. Isn't that enough?” 109

“You're weaker than me. Does that mean I can dispose of you like trash?” 94

“She shouldn't have stood there without dodging.” 138