Who exactly is Handsome Jack?

Voiced By Dameon Clarke

Handsome Jack is the main antagonist in Borderlands 2. He has taken over the Hyperion corporation, declared himself dictator of Pandora, and stolen all of the credit for finding The Vault, going so far as to claim responsibility for killing The Destroyer. A new team of Vault Hunters is tasked with killing Jack and restoring (relative) peace to Pandora.

Handsome Jack spent his childhood caring for his grandmother, who was physically abusive towards her grandson. The trauma from the abuse led to his eventual mental decline and the murder of his grandmother.

As an adult Handsome Jack was just a programmer for Hyperion before his rise to power, and was known simply as John.

He had married, which led to the birth of his daughter, Angel, one of the universe's rare Sirens. The "disappearance" of his wife, although ECHOs in-game will lead you to believe she has died, only worsened his mental decline as the mere mention of his wife caused severe backlash from Handsome Jack.

Not long after his wife's disappearance,

John placed Angel inside Control Core Angel in order to gain full access and control of Pandora's ECHOnet system, in the process irrevocably linking her to the facility. which is the AI that leads you through your adventures. In an ECHO conversation with the Vault Hunters, Handsome Jack defends doing so, saying he had no choice after "what she did to her mother", though as with any statement from Jack it is unclear if this is a deliberate lie, delusional memory, or if Angel actually did something to her mother. However, a separate ECHO recording mentions the loss of a dozen Hyperion employees due to "accidents" relating to Angel, the incidents being compared to the disappearance of her mother.

Now that he had is daughter secretly in control, he was able to focus his efforts on The Warrior in Pandora's Hidden Vault.

He killed and manipulated his way to Hyperion Presidency.

During this time John began to use the name "Handsome Jack". Contrary to expectations, Jack's trademark mask did not come with his new name; ECHO recordings indicate that the mask was present even when he was known simply as John.

Jack was able to use his daughter to gain full control of Pandora and the ECHOnet system. Jack needs Eridium to keep his daughter's Siren powers at maximum yield, and it is believed that Jack's primary reason for the invasion of Pandora was the abundance of this material appearing in the ground.

He ordered the Hyperion military to forcefully take control of Pandora some time after the Claptrap Robolution.

Handsome Jack sought to lure out Vault Hunters to his sphere of influence by displaying a need for them, then left them for dead in the Windshear Waste. He constantly communicates with them through the ECHOnet, taunting them, threatening them, and otherwise manipulating them.

His building of Opportunity and the drilling into Pandora's core is no secret to the citizens of Sanctuary, but he still keeps a leaderly façade when addressing the citizens of Hyperion-settled villages.

Following Angel's death, he makes his first physical appearance and kills Roland. Lilith attempts to attack him, but is captured to replace his recently-deceased daughter as a catalyst to charge the Vault key. He rescinds the bounty on the Vault Hunters, vowing to exact vengeance himself for Angel's death. His final appearance is at the Vault of the Warrior, and is fought as one of the two final bosses. After being defeated by the Vault Hunters, Jack takes the already-charged Vault Key and uses it to summon and control the Warrior. The Vault Hunters defeat it as well, thus ruining his plans for dominion over Pandora. Jack angrily chastises them for stopping him from bringing his vision of order to the lawless planet, and is then executed for his crimes. After Jack dies, his mask falls off and his real face is visible. His face is deformed, with a vault symbol branded into it, and his left eye blinded. There are competing hypotheses about the cause of Jack's injuries: (1) Angel accidentally injured her father when she was young and unable to fully control her siren powers; (2) Jack was branded by a vault guardian or bandit before he turned the search for the vault over to the vault hunters; or (3) Jack was branded by his abusive grandmother when he was a child.

Wiki Source

Everything not in quotes are my own words w/ help from the wiki of course.