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Main Characters

John Doe

John Doe

^{CLICK for John's appearance without hair-gel}

^{CLICK for John's 1st masked disguise}

^{CLICK for John's Joker disguise}

^{CLICK for John's Partial Gelled Appearance}

Power Level: 7.5^note Revealed later on to have started out as a cripple, but ended up going through some sort of change that resulted in him having a power level of over 7.0.

Superpower: Aura Manipulation ^note He's able to copy other people's powers based on sensing the power aura of his opponent when their ability is active, which his copied power is more powerful than the original. He can even copy up to 4 abilities at once, and utilize them in combination. His high-tier Passive ability appears to be enhanced aura sensing to the point where he can sense people using their powers around him even if he can't see them.

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The male lead. A third-year student at Wellston Private High School who ended up as a frequent target of bullying for many of his superpowered peers due to his lack of superpowers.

Despite all of the abuse he goes through on a day-to-day basis, John remains a generally nice person unless he gets pushed too far. John often becomes frustrated by the attitudes of his classmates, and of society in general towards the non-powered. His past is a subject of much speculation—especially from Arlo.

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• Ability Mixing: John can combine the abilities he's copied if they are compatible, such as using Blyke's "Energy Beam" with Isen's "Hunter" to create homing energy beams that cannot be dodged.
• Aesop Amnesia: It's implied that even after John was "broken" into hiding his ability, he never entirely managed to shake the disdain for weaker students that ruined his friendship with Claire and Adrion. At the start of the comic, Sera is his Only Friend, and he doesn't show much interest in changing that. Evie and Roland, two genuine low-tiers, later state that he never tried to socialize with them, and seemed to look down on them instead. To his credit, John does step in to defend them from bullies when he sees it happening... but Sera later brings up the possibility that he really has no idea what it's like to be a low-tier at Wellston, both because he secretly had a trump card to play if things went really bad, and because he never thought about how shaking up the hierarchy would make things more chaotic and dangerous for those on the bottom as well.
• All of the Other Reindeer: As a cripple, both when he was younger and pretending, John received disdain and ostracization from most of his classmates.
• All Your Powers Combined: John can copy the abilities of up to four people around him and amplify them through his Aura Manipulation. He can also sense them when activated and see how much power someone has left. However, this is dependent on his level as under the effects of the power dampener and being injected with the same chemicals as Sera, he loses his passive ability and the number of abilities he can use is reduced. He also can't copy mental abilities and more complex ones take longer to use.
• Almighty Janitor: He is revealed to be the second strongest student in Wellston but spends the first half of the story pretending to be the school cripple.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In chapter 151 during his private conversation with Remi, John asks her if she truly believes that Rei's "everyone is equal" system managed to change how Wellston does things, such as putting an end to all the abuse towards the weak. Remi tries to answer that he did, but John answers it himself: after Rei graduated, the abuse returned.
• Anti-Hero: Falls into this once Sera is depowered and bullied. He only moves away from it after she regains her power and reaches out to him.
• Anti-Villain: Once he starts hunting down the Royals as part of his plan to bring down the hierarchy, he targets even Blyke (who had been attempting to become nicer to him) and Remi (who is one of the few nice high-tiers).
• Arc Words: "Everyone has something important to offer."
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • Gives one to Arlo during an argument when Sera nearly gets kidnapped.
  Arlo: I'm telling you, whoever these guys are have been planning her abduction for over a month now! Why can't you get that through your head?
  John: You know, Arlo... Not everyone spends an entire month planning the downfall of a single person.
  • Also towards Remi during their private conversation throughout Chapters 150 and 151 when she claims this school is safe, and they set a positive example.
  John: In all the time I've spent here, there has hardly been a day where I haven't been injured. This is the f*cking example you set.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Played With. He became the King of New Bostin and later Wellston by dethroning both Kings. However, both times he ultimately lost the throne, first by being expelled and then by willingly passing it along to Blyke after Seraphina defeats him.
• Badass Normal: To a degree, as he is limited to defending himself against low-tier ability users and suffers injuries even then. Later becomes iffy.
  • He temporarily became this after Terrance injected him with the Disabler.
• Big Bad Friend: He becomes this to Sera by becoming the mysterious Joker who has been going around assaulting people and destroying the hierarchy.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: As a cripple, he hated all the bullies at his school for lording their power over other people and treating everyone around them like dirt. Once he discovered his ability, he proceeded to become even more violent than his former bullies and began to treat even Claire and Adrion, who had stuck with him since his days as a cripple, with disdain.
• Beneath the Mask: John gets very, very violent when provoked enough.
• Berserk Button: Betrayal. His grudge against Arlo and Claire stems from them seeming to befriend him and later betray him.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He’s one of the more polite, mild-mannered characters, but he can hold his own in a fight pretty well despite having no abilities and has a surprisingly nasty temper when provoked enough.
• Break the Cutie: From the moment he introduced himself as a powerless individual, he’s been the target of daily bullying from his peers. It only gets worse after Seraphina is suspended.
• Book Dumb: John is not a terrible student (mainly in the B and C range) but comes off as this in comparison to the higher-ranked students due to his constant struggles with schoolwork. In the past, it is shown that when he puts in the effort, he can get an A with Seraphina's help.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: He learned how to fight from his father since they were both crippled and being able to defend yourself long enough to run away was important. After he discovered his ability, he kept up the training since his ability varies in effectiveness and may be completely useless when facing someone who doesn't have abilities.
  • He later gives lessons about this to other low and mid tiers, showing them how physical combat can be useful both without ability and to strengthen their usage of their own abilities.
• Brought Down to Badass: Later in the series, he gets injected with the same drug that robbed Seraphina of her power. He basically loses free access to his power, but he can still activate it at a reduced level by forcing aura through the closed-off channels. Even without powers, he can still hold his own against multiple mid-tier opponents. Once he and Seraphina get access to the recovery machine, John retains half of his power for much longer than the machine is supposed to work, making him effectively an elite tier with advanced combat experience.
• Brown Bag Mask: To hide his identity, John wears a brown paper lunch bag when he confronts Zeke and Juni about their recent bullying. He eventually replaces needing to wear a paper bag with a black ski mask.
• Bully Hunter: Despite his desire for a peaceful school life, John doesn't hesitate to get involved when he sees instances of bullying.
• Byronic Hero: Very strong shades of this - John is intelligent and perceptive, emotionally sensitive, yet often self-centered, world-weary because of his Dark and Troubled Past, has strong personal beliefs about the society he is in, and is hell-bent on living life on his own terms without almost any regard how it impairs his own life or the lives of others.
• The Caligula: After John openly becomes the new King of Wellston, he controls everything with an iron fist and shows to mercy even to his subordinates if they defy him. If any student so as much 'tries' to stand up for themselves, John flies into a psychotic rage, screaming at them and beating the crap out of them. Even Seraphina wasn't an exception.
• Can't Take Criticism: John can't accept when anyone tells him he's going too far once he becomes King. He'll only listen to violence and power until Seraphina beats him, at which point he takes time off to learn to do this in Season 2.
• Challenging the Bully: He'd often do this at Wellston if he spots Mid-tiers picking on Low-tiers.
• Character Development: Once his reign as the Tyrant in Wellston is over, he genuinely makes an effort to be a better person. When he returns, he's noticeably more subdued and less prone to violently lashing out. He also works with the Royals more often.
  • During the fight with the Rowden Royals, he prepares to deliver what could be another No-Holds-Barred Beatdown only to calm himself down after Arlo restrains him using his barrier rather than breaking through it. He even walks away from the fight after they attempt a sneak attack, rather than going back on the offensive.
• Color-Coded Characters: His speech bubbles are White and Black. Dominant White when he's in pretender mode and Black when he's in normal mode. His copied abilities manifest in Yellow and Black with some white sometimes.
• Cool Mask: Changes from wearing a Brown Bag Mask to a black ski mask.
• Combat Pragmatist: He doesn't hold back in a fight, using anything he can to his advantage.
• Comes Great Responsibility: John is an advocate of this and expresses to Seraphina that he wishes that those with abilities would use them to protect the weak rather than to oppress them. However, he doesn't believe he's capable of doing so as he tells Sera when she confronts him about him being Joker.
• Consummate Liar: He's talented at bluffing and keeping up the lie that he's a cripple until he gets outed.
• Cowardly Lion: In the early chapters, he tends to run away when he can't bluff his way out of a fight. Justified in that he's facing ability users every day and getting sent to the infirmary daily which makes him somewhat reluctant to engage unless absolutely necessary. As the series goes on, he sheds this.
• Crazy-Prepared: When John starts to go about using his power to beat up his fellow students, he makes sure to be well-prepared beforehand.
  • He stocked up on a Strength-enhancing ability before fighting Blyke since the latter would hold off from using his ability unless provoked.
  • This comes up in his fight with Remi as well as he prepares for all of Remi's countermeasures and is able to deal with the full onslaught of all of the Royals instead of just the Queen.
• Create Your Own Villain: Arlo learned the hard way, as his machinations and the abuse of his classmates drove John into becoming the villainous Joker.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Don't let the helmet hair fool you.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Several.
  • In New Bostin, he managed to defeat half his class including the former King.
  • In Wellston, as Joker he went around and took out every Royal, Zeke, Juni, and the bullies who kidnapped Sera.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His transcripts reveal John was an anti-social, extremely violent, and aggressive student, ultimately resulting in him being expelled for taking down half of his class for an "unexplained" reason. The reason he doesn't use his ability is because he fears that he will become a monster.
• Destination Defenestration: John pulls one on Gavin in their first fight.
• Determinator: Several motivations drive John throughout the story.
  • For two years, John played cripple to stay out of the school hierarchy rankings, even if it meant getting constantly beat up by school bullies. No matter how hurt he ended up, John stuck to the role since he was happy having Sera as his one true friend who didn't care about their supposed power difference.
  • Once Sera loses her powers and is outed as being depowered by the rest of Wellston, John decides to push forward his plan of destroying the school power hierarchy by besting all the Royals.
  • When he was denied entry into the Safehouse trip to the amusement park, he ended up taking the bus to where they were staying because he noticed that Seraphina had seemed worried and brought Arlo along for protection.
• Didn't Think This Through: John seriously believed that he would be able to keep his "Joker" identity from Seraphina just by wearing a mask- when not only is she an intelligent girl, but he'd been tutoring her in self-defense, meaning she recognized his fighting style easily. For that matter, John knew that several of Sera's acquaintances (Elaine, Isen, and Arlo) knew his secret, but he assumed they'd either be too intimidated or too untrustworthy to clue Sera in. As a result, Sera learns the secret he was so desperate to keep- and since he wasn't talking, she went to Arlo and Isen for their side of the story.
• The Dreaded: Once he's revealed to be a God-tier who is noted to be violent, most people avoid him. It sticks even when he tries to become better.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: To Remi and Blyke while hunting down Joker, given that he's a cripple.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: After returning from his suspension in Season 2, John tends to avoid starting a fight due to the fact that he's still learning to hold himself back.
• Driven to Villainy: Season 1 is effectively an origin story for him falling into becoming a villain.
• Establishing Character Moment: John is introduced as an average high school student who is bored with his classes. When he witnesses a fight between two power users, his initial thoughts are to just ignore it when things get too chaotic. However, when he sees another fight with a student getting brutalized, he doesn't hesitate to get involved.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The only person John cares about at Wellston is Sera and will do anything to protect her. Unfortunately, his callous actions eventually drive Sera away from him and he angrily declares that she's dead to him.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: As his mental state deteriorates and he becomes increasingly more violent, John begins to look more and more haggard, with messy hair and permanent eyebags. Once he reforms he looks much better.
• Eviler than Thou: Pulls this on Cecile after she realizes that John had no intention of ever taking charge and maintaining order after wannabe Jokers show up to wreak havoc.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: John usually gels his hair before attending school. When John stops slicking back his hair, it signals his slide into his older, more hateful, personality.
  • When he returns back to Wellston after his suspension, he seems to have gotten a haircut - while his hair is still somewhat wild, it is shorter and less messy. This shows that he is no longer going to continue denying who he is (as his slicked-back hairstyle symbolized) but also not as brutal and ruthless (as his old hairstyle symbolized.)
• Eye for an Eye: His explanation to Arlo in Chapter 145 when the latter apologizes. John hasn't forgiven Arlo for treating him like shit and ruining his life by forcing him to reveal his powers, which leads John to believe that Arlo deserves to have his life ruined in return.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His temper. Very much his temper. It plays a major role in his past as a King of his old high school. He lets his anger get the better of him and isn't afraid to beat down anyone who goes against his word. While this tampered down before he went to Wellston, thanks to Arlo and the hierarchy he was forced to endure in his new high school, arguably being just as bad if not worse than his tantrums in his old high school. His anger also clouds his judgment and causes him to make rash decisions such as him lashing out at Seraphina and isn't even above berating her, a far cry from what he did in the past. Even Arlo, who's far from a nice guy himself (along with some Character Development), realizes just how unhinged John has become and even actively tries to restore some semblance of order after he wrecked the status quo.
  • His inability to take responsibility for his actions becomes another one as the series continues. John blames the high tiers for making Wellston a terrible place by not setting good examples, while willfully overlooking the fact that he is the second-strongest student in the school, yet likewise does nothing to help make the school better. It only gets worse when he assumes the identity of Joker and overthrows the school's hierarchy, which instead of doing anything helpful, just makes the school even worse. Once again, he refuses to accept any blame for this. Eventually his tendency towards this drives off everyone, even the people who have come to agree with his assessment that the school needs to change.
  • Until his dethroning, his inability to forgive himself. John understands his violent behavior went too far, but the Authorities "re-adjustment" camp carved into his brain the belief that he's a failure, doomed to never be able to control himself, and thus he is never willing to use his ability until he's too angry to think straight. This leads to a cycle of excessive violence and a deteriorating mental state when he could easily solve many conflicts with his superior abilities if he just trusted himself. Thankfully he gets better.
• Fights Like a Normal: John, after the revelation that he hides or suppresses his power to appear 'normal'.
• Foil:
  • John and Seraphina are on opposite ends of the power spectrum and their academic ability. Despite their differences in power, it is John who comes off as more independent whereas Seraphina was constrained by the expectations others had of her.
  • He also serves as one for Arlo given that they both have the power to be school Kings, and that Arlo goes about controlling Wellston from the top while John goes against the system.
• Fire-Forged Friends: During the Safehouse's trip, him helping Blyke fight the Rowden Royals and later helping to protect everyone during Spectre's attack is how he's finally able to show the members of Safehouse that he's changed for the better and genuinely make amends.
• The Force Is Strong with This One: The passive effect of John's ability allows him to sense any power users around him if their ability activates even if they are invisible.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Started as a cripple until he became a late-bloomer, at which point he mastered his ability and quickly rose to the top and became a brutal tyrant.
• Foreshadowing: John noticed that someone was following him and Seraphina when they were leaving the mall.
  • Also, John is the only character whose speech bubbles change color when he's not pretending to be a cripple.
  • In addition, you clearly see his eyes glow in the first two chapters.
  • His old school transcript came with a warning to not activate their ability when handling situations involving John.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Once he stops holding back.
• Guile Hero: Has to rely on his head to get out of dangerous situations.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to anger him. During his time as the King of New Bostin, he went as far as to brutally beat a student for simply criticizing him about this to another student within earshot of him.
• Hates Everyone Equally: Hates everyone be it high-tiers, mid-tiers, or even low-tiers because of the abuse he has taken. The sole exceptions are his father and Sera. After Sera reveals that she knows he's Joker, she lands in this category as well for a time, though a lot of it seems to be his projected fear of her rejecting him as Claire did.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Started as a cripple who stood up to those stronger than him before dishing out disproportionate beatings and then becoming the kind of bully he was originally fighting against.
• Held Back in School: He's revealed to be redoing his second year of High School due to being expelled from his old school.
• Heroic Build: As seen in chapter 8.
• His Own Worst Enemy: John sees himself as incapable of growth, and despises himself for always ending up using his powers to harm others. This is also revealed to be the reason behind his attacks on the Safe House, as he sees the high tiers who once tormented him genuinely trying to change for the better, and feels he can never (nor deserves to) do the same.
• Hypocrite: In chapter 150, Remi calls him out as one for blaming Wellston for being an unsafe place for others despite the fact that he himself has the power to actually make a difference when it comes to the injustices going on. Unbeknownst to her, John is mentally broken from using his powers in a heroic way.
  • Blyke all but calls him this when he begins targeting the Safe House. After all, John's main reason for attacking the high tiers is because of their relentless cruelty towards anyone weaker than them. The Safe House was designed specifically to give lower tiers a place to relax and feel secure, and yet John feels somehow threatened by its presence when he should logically be one of the first to support the idea.
• I Am a Monster: The lingering result of Keon breaking him stuck this mindset into him. A large part of why he goes off the deep end is because he sees himself as completely irredeemable. His attacking the other Royals when they make actual progress is him projecting his self-loathing onto them. It takes Seraphina figuratively and literally breaking through his barriers to get him out of this.
• I Did What I Had to Do: He says this word for word when Arlo confronts him at the infirmary for having sent Isen there. Arlo verbally subverts it: if John's only goal had really been finding Seraphina, he wouldn't have been so violent, as there was no need for it. John admits quite quickly that he went out of his way to make Isen suffer out of a desire for revenge. That's something of a running theme with John: he claims to be out to do what is necessary, but it's undeniable that there (also) are many personal motivations behind his actions.
• I Hate Past Me: This is the reason he hides his ability at the start of the story. He got so out of control at his old school that he beat up half of his class and was kicked out.
  • An almost literal example appears in chapter 224. While in the middle of his Villainous Breakdown, John envisions the New Bostin version of himself abusing his classmates and tries to attack him. Of course, the blows don't connect, which only frustrates him more.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: He’s always wanted to fit in as a normal student and live a relatively quiet life. Unfortunately for him, he’s never gotten to.
• Implacable Man: When he's actually trying, no one is able to take him down. Arlo and 2 of his minions broke both of his arms and couldn't stop him. Spectre ran him over and he got up immediately to fight back. All of the Royals attacked John in unison, broke his arm, electrocuted him, and shot multiple holes through his body, yet he still gets back up to demolish all of them by himself.
• Irony: After spending two years pretending to be crippled before becoming the Joker and later King, he gets drugged with the same chemical Sera did and truly becomes a cripple.
• Ironic Name: Twice:
  • Does are generally considered to be among the most harmless of animals...
  • A "John Doe" is a nobody. A cripple, right? No, the second strongest student in the entire school.
• I Shall Taunt You: Because he's incapable of fighting with an ability, John finds himself taunting his opponents nearly as often as beating them hand-to-hand.
• Logical Weakness: You can't copy powers, if no one uses them in his range. Somewhat grows out of this later as his power evolves to confer a constant and strong physical boost comparable to an elite, meaning he is not powerless even if no useful ability is around to copy and can also face high tiers with powerful passives like Arlo and still force them to use their ability. The somewhat part is that his overall power is still dependent on the strongest abilities that are nearby, and about not copying too many to not run out of room in case a powerful opponent shows up.
• Meaningful Name: “John Doe” is a generic male placeholder name for individuals whose identities are unknown or must be kept secret. This fits with him being the “school cripple” and the most ordinary person at his school. It also fits with his mysterious past which he would much rather keep hidden from his classmates.
• Morality Pet: To Seraphina. Despite not sharing the same ideals, she is nonetheless protective of him and defends him from bullies.
• Mr. Fanservice: One striking shot of John waking up in the morning, revealing his surprisingly muscular upper half.
• Madden Into Misanthropy: Following the ambush he suffered at the hands of Arlo, he completely stops listening to reason. He is convinced everyone else is rotten to the core and pretending to be nice, so they can take advantage of him except Sera and his father.
• Made of Iron: Once gets run over by a truck and just gets back up to threaten bloody murder on guys who did it to him.
• Malevolent Masked Man: If John is wearing a mask, he's guaranteed to be hurting someone.
• Manipulative Bastard: Even more so than Arlo, since he's able to get make use of Arlo's plan to expose him and turns him into a pawn to keep Sera safe, albeit unwillingly as well as manipulate nearly everyone in the series, even Sera, something even Arlo can't do.
• Master Actor: Is extremely good at faking his emotions to the point that Arlo and Elaine are shocked at how John can go from unstable psycho to a well adjusted student at the flip of a switch. He's so good at it that Juni doesn't make the connection that John was the one chasing after her despite the only difference being that he doesn't have a paper bag on him.
• Mind Rape: Was subjected to this by Keon in the past.
• Mugging the Monster: Even though John shows himself to be capable of taking on power users and beating them brutally, bullies still target him for his "cripple" status. He almost tears one group to shreds with his ability when they take it too far.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Once he spots an invisible Terrence while trying to figure out why Sera has been busy lately, he remembers the event that led Spectre to attack his house. He laments not listening to Sera when she tried to tell him she found out more about the group.
• Mysterious Past: John lies about his past, claiming to have been homeschooled. When Isen investigates, he finds that John was expelled from his previous high school after beating up half his class.
• Nerves of Steel: One of the reasons Arlo takes an interest in John is his seemingly complete lack of fear of high-tiers despite apparently having no power.
• Never My Fault: Something of a running theme with John following The Reveal. John either refuses or is psychologically incapable of owning up to his actions and how they affect everyone around him. John blames high-tiers for setting a horrible example for everyone beneath them and allowing mid-tiers to mercilessly bully low-tiers. but as Remi points out, John is secretly the strongest high-tier around, yet does nothing as well, a fact John refuses to acknowledge. The biggest example of his tendency towards this though is after Seraphina starts getting targeted by Joker copycats. Cecile tells him that students wouldn't be able to get away with this if John hadn't created the Joker persona in the first place. John responds by angrily refusing to accept any responsibility in the matter, and instead places the blame on the students for being "trash" and on Sera for not having an ability to defend herself.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Once he snaps his restraints, this is his default in a fight.
• No Listening Skills: Later on the series, it is revealed he has this problem after The Reveal. It isn't until his confrontation with Claire, who confirms the real version of what happened and calls him out that he realizes she is right and decides to learn to listen. He has since then made progress.
• No Power, No Color: As a cripple and when pretending.
• Nothing Personal: Basically what he says to Cecile in chapter 140. Despite Cecile believing that she's teamed up with John to dethrone Arlo, John makes it clear to her that after beating up Blyke, who's the school's 6th strongest, Cecile is the next that he will need to beat up since she's the school's 5th strongest.
• Obfuscating Disability: Is introduced and spends a large part of the early story pretending to be a cripple (non-powered individual). The reasoning is a complicated combination of trauma related with using his ability, a desire to emulate his father who actually is a cripple, and a way of staying out of the Royals' politics and power plays.
• Odd Friendship: How he became friends with Sera is this. One would expect that the two to never speak with one another given that they're on opposite ends of the power spectrum. However, John constantly going against what Sera tried to force him to do eventually leads to her gaining respect for him as a weakling that stands up to the strong.
• One-Winged Angel: During his first confrontation with Arlo and later Seraphina.
• Order Versus Chaos: The Chaos to Arlo's Order. Arlo goes to great lengths to keep the strong-to-weak hierarchy at Wellston intact. John however wants no part of it given that he's already experienced how bad the system turned out to be at New Bostin, and constantly goes against those in Wellston's established hierarchy.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Subverted; while he introduces himself as one, he turns out to actually be ordinary, as he has no supernatural ability, unlike everyone else. Double Subverted later on when it turns out he does have an ability; it was so powerful that he managed to take out half his class at his past school.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: When he's trying to figure out why Sera is avoiding him at school after he returns from suspension, he adopts a disguise when following her to a meeting point with a Spectre agent. Said disguise consists of a U-mart hat and nothing else. Spectre was already aware he was there.
• The Paranoiac: He becomes this at late Season 1 and the Season 2. With Claire and Arlo's ambushes and horrible treatment of the high-tiers fresh on his mind, combined with rampage as Joker and new authority as King, his deteriorating mind starts imagining the worst out of everybody combined with feeling like he is entirely flawed, incapable of growth and might fail at his duties. This leads him to assault any student at Wellston High for not meeting his expectations, out of fear that they'll deceive and betray him just like his former friend Claire and then Arlo did. He also rationalizes Seraphina's confrontation about his past and him being Joker and Arlo intervening when he began to assault her were all planned to decieve and betray him and declares both of them are dead to him, swearing to never see them ever again. Ultimately brings about his downfall, as not only does he get overpowered, his mind realizes that nobody is going to come for his now at this point, and he goes insane, losing control of his ability. This however is then proven wrong when Sera refuses to give up on him and finally manages to knock some sense on him.
  • An enemy later weaponizes this aspect of him as Terrance intentionally lured him out into the mountains where he could be stripped of his power and put on a leash to work for them.
• The Plan: After witnessing Arlo's strong-to-weak hierarchy at Wellston High put a depowered Sera into a situation where she gets kidnapped and beaten up, John becomes motivated enough to finally take action against it. He teams up with Cecile to begin dismantling the hierarchy with their first target being to beat up the school's "Jack," Blyke, in chapter 138.
• Playing Card Motifs: The Joker. Likely represents how he disregards the social structure of his school and acts like a cripple despite being one of the most powerful characters in the series. By chapter 139, the Wellston students finally begin referring to the mysterious black-masked person (not knowing that it's John) as the Joker of the school since he's been going against the hierarchy by beating up the royals of the school. However, once Season 2 comes around, he finally takes Arlo's place as the King of Wellston.
  • His secret ability doubles down on this motif, as in poker, the Joker is a wild card that can be used like any other card.
• Power Copying: The nature of his Aura Manipulation allows him to copy abilities.
• Power Level: Currently, he's 7.5 God-tier
  • John was born as a cripple (1.2) with no power.
  • In his first year of high-school, he was a 3.0.
  • It's revealed in chapter 148 that John was a 7.0 God-tier when he was expelled from New Bostin two years ago.
• Power Trio: In middle school and at New Bostin, he, Claire and Adrion were the three friends that hung out with one another. However, John eventually falls out of his friendship with the two of them due to his anger.
• Psychopathic Man Child: Post-Sanity Slippage. Despite being apparently older than most students (since he was held back a year after the New Bostin incident two years prior), he is ironically the most childish of Wellston High, and it's played in a terrifying way as his tantrums escalate to physical violence on the Royals and the other students.
• Psycho Supporter: To Sera for a time, supporting her by beating anyone who has hurt her in any way and going on to destroy the hierarchy for what it did to the both of them.
• Rage Against the Reflection: When he fought with Sera, he tried to beat a vision of the past himself.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Gives one to Zeke claiming that he's worthless trash that will never contribute or amount to anything to society due to how he acts using his powers just to beat up a cripple.
  • In chapter 132 when Arlo confronts John for his attack on Isen, John makes it clear that Isen is just as bad as everyone else in the school for how he treated John during the fake interview, and absolutely deserved the beatdown John did to him. John then proceeds to call out Arlo for being too fixated on keeping the school's strongest-to-weakest hierarchy intact, and vows to destroy it.
  • In chapter 150, he explains to Remi that the reason he's been beating up the Royals and causing chaos within Wellston is because the high-tiers have proven themselves to be useless. That instead of trying to make the world a better place, they're just being arrogant and entitled using their powers to control and beat up the weak. He also calls out Remi for not knowing anything about how dangerous Wellston actually is when Remi claims that they've been making "examples" to keep the school a safe place.
• Redemption Rejection: Once he becomes Joker, John starts attacking those who wronged him and Sera as Joker. Arlo, Remi and Sera tried to get him reconsider but to no avail. All three find that it becomes completely impossible to reason with him. It takes Sera having to regain her power for him to listen.
• Red Baron: Gains a few over the series.
  • From Terrance he ends up being labeled as the "Shadow King" after the latter learns what the former is truly capable of after discovering that John defeated Arlo, Ventus, and Meili in a fight.
  • From the school as a whole during Chapter 139, his masked persona is known asthe "Joker" who's been going around beating people up around Wellston.
• Rejected Apology: Arlo and Remi both apologize to him for what the former did and the latter being ignorant to the bullying. He rejects both since he thinks they are just saying it to save the hierarchy before John completely destroys it.
• The Reveal:
  • When he finally drops his cripple facade and begins to use his power on others, such as defeating Arlo, Meili and Ventus in a 1 vs. 3.
  • The article that Isen found showing John's expulsion from New Bostin finally shows off John's power level and ability in chapter 148. Back when he was a New Bostin student 2 years ago, John was at a 7.0 God-tier power level, and his ability is called Aura Manipulation.
• Revenge: His bread and butter once John starts using his ability. His original targets were all people who wronged him or Sera.
• Secret-Keeper: Due to the Spectre agents attack, John's one of the first that knows about Sera losing her powers. However, the secret is out once Juni shows off her article about Sera's depowerment to the school.
• Sensor Character: John's passive ability as a high-tier allows for him to sense when someone has their ability active nearby, such as when he senses Isen through the other side of a wall. It also grants him what appears to be an enhanced variant of Ability Sensing - which allows him to discern what kind of ability one has as well as the stats of their ability.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Because John curses often, chapters with him often have swearing warnings.
• Smug Smiler: Wears these a lot once he starts actually fighting back.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: In chapter 151, he tells Remi that Rei can go the hell for all he cares. The reason being that Remi tried to convince John that Rei succeeded in making Wellston a better place in the past. However, what Remi's not taking into account is that Rei's system ended up accomplishing nothing, because the moment he graduated resulted in the return of the strong abusing the weak hierarchy. As a result, John calls out Rei as just being another useless high-tier. It was unintentional on John's part, given he didn't know about Rei's death until far later.
• Un-Sorcerer: His special power is his lack of special powers. Except not.
• Strike Me Down: Challenges Arlo to do this in Chapter 145 when Arlo prepares to attack John to stop him from finishing off Wellston's hierarchy. John doesn't plan on retaliating since it will make it look like Arlo is beating up a cripple, which would piss the rest of the school off since it would look like Arlo is choosing to mess with a weakling rather than deal with the Joker that's been beating up the school. As a result, Arlo is forced to let John go.
• Strong Family Resemblance: His father looks just like an older version of the son. It's also made obvious that John copied his cripple-hair look from his dad.
• Suddenly Shouting: When something really angers him, he will be seen shouting in all caps.
• Superpower Lottery: With the revelation of John's ability, it is clear that he too won big at the lottery, especially since he has the ability to copy the powers used by his opponents, and even use them all at once to make combo moves.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Once Isen reveals that he is Joker to the school, John ends up deciding that his whole situation is hopeless and that strong or weak, people still hate him, so he might as well just be a monster.
• Throat-Slitting Gesture: Makes this after beating up Cecile in chapter 143 as the Joker to scare the other students off.
• Took a Level in Badass: In late Season 2 Part 2, John goes through a power increase as a result of his ability being restored through Darren's cure where he can now enhance the strength of his fists without needing to rely on copying another person's ability. His self-enhanced punches are strong enough to punch holes through concrete walls.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • John was a little bit of a pushover though, but overall he was a nice guy at heart. Unfortunately, Arlo's manipulation and Sera's depowering pushed him over the edge.
  • It also happened in the past, as he was much worse in middle school. While John initially started out as a rather bitter person, after discovering his ability he proceeded to become the excessively violent tyrant of his school and even began abusing the friends who had been with him even when he was still a cripple.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After Sera managed to reach him and Claire gave him "The Reason You Suck" Speech, he mellows and outgrows his tyrannical phase. He is still temperamental and headstrong, but is all lessened. He is more willing to listen to others and less prone to violent outbursts.
• Tragic Villain: Ultimately, John's role up until the middle of Season 2. John was a late bloomer, and over time became more and more brutal and merciless to the point where he was uncontrollable and wound up beating up half of his class. After his readjustment classes, where he was forced to relive his own memories over and over, he believed himself too far gone to be saved. As a result, he entered Wellston disguised as a cripple, scared of his own power and what he might do. When he finally snaps, he almost instantly relapses back into his old habits for the same reasons - he himself believes that he doesn't deserve redemption in the first place.
• Trauma Button: The sight of Keon causes John to remember back to his painful memories of when he beat up his New Bostin classmates, which is what happens in chapter 135 when Keon arrives at Wellston to interrogate John. It makes it clear that John has PTSD when it comes to Keon. The trauma is due to Keon mentally abusing John through a previous interrogation by using his memory remembering ability to make John relive beating down his classmates over and over.
• Two Guys and a Girl: In middle school and at New Bostin, John and Adrion were the two guys to Claires one girl.
• Villain Protagonist: By the end of Season 1, he becomes this to the royals, as they get their character development and start trying to improve the school, only for John to violently thwart their efforts. Sera eventually knocks him out of it.
• Villain Team-Up: As the Joker with Cecile and Zeke as King of Wellston.
• Villainous Breakdown: Suffers one in Chapter 223 and 224. Deep down, he fully believes himself to be the monster everyone else sees him as, and knows he is the one holding the school back from making real changes to the unfair ranking system. When he is no longer able to deny this fact, he freaks out and his powers go haywire.
• Violently Protective Boyfriend: Should anyone actually manage to hurt Seraphina, John tends to target them next. When Sera loses her ability, he goes after everyone who bullies her and seeks to destroy the hierarchy. When an assassin God-tier from Spectre tries to kill her, he immediately makes the guy his primary target.
• Walking Spoiler: Discussing things about John is almost impossible to newcomers without giving away that he's only pretending to be a cripple.
• Weak, but Skilled: Despite John Doe being a "cripple" and having no special ability of his own, he is still able to defend himself from and defeat low and mid-tier individuals with his superior hand-to-hand fighting ability. He's actually faking his "cripple" status, though his father truly has no powers, so he was being willfully weak after government agents essentially crippled his mind to force him to behave after he drew their attention at his old school.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: John starts wanting to destroy Arlo's hierarchy system at Wellston High because said system is flawed since it causes tons of strong-to-weak bullying to occur amongst the students. Unfortunately, it requires for John to beat up the top students, even those who've done nothing wrong to him, and then leaving the chaos for the others to handle.
• Worf Had the Flu: John gets injected with the same power-debilitating chemical that Seraphina did. However, unlike her, he can briefly shake off the effects to use his powers at a reduced level because they affect his aura channels and his abilities stem from it.

Seraphina

Seraphina

^{CLICK for Seraphina's disguise as Miss. Meryl}

Power Level: 8.0

Superpower: Time Manipulation ^note She can control time, such as making her movements seem quicker than others, or turning back time on herself to heal her own injuries. Her high-tier Passive ability appears to be enhanced strength in her attacks.

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The female lead, and John's best friend. She's considered to be the strongest student amongst Wellston High's top-10.

Seraphina was once a perfect student that never broke away from being calm and collected in order to serve as a role-model for everyone around her. However, that calmness is one day broken when John enters her life at Wellston, and constantly refuses to go along with her orders. It eventually reaches a point where Seraphina realizes that she can be like John, and go about living her own life rather than following along the path that people expect her to take.

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• Abusive Parents: Seraphina's mother had no qualms about physically assaulting her daughter to force her to start getting in line. She also openly criticizes her other child, whom she deems a disgrace.
• The Ace: Seraphina effortlessly claims the title.
• A-Cup Angst: Seraphina is noticeably flummoxed by how large Rein's chest is.
• A Friend in Need: How John and Seraphina became friends.
• Almighty Janitor: In terms of official positions in school, her position as "Queen" has been taken up by Remi for activities such as the Turf War. However, it is still acknowledged that she is likely the strongest in school.
• Affectionate Nickname: John calls her "Sera".
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: How unOrdinary society works in general. Seraphina is at the top of the ladder despite never attending classes because she is so strong (though she was originally a devoted student).
• Arc Words: “Perfection.”
• Badass Normal: After being depowered, Sera starts to get self-defense training lessons from John in order to fight and defend for herself as a normal person.
• Broken Ace: Played with. Before Seraphina met John, she was indisputably the top student in school in abilities, academics and reputation. However, this came with a greater deal of pressure and judgement from her peers. In the present story, Seraphina's peers in Wellston see her as this since she started hanging around with John and no longer caring too much about her grades or reputation. However, Seraphina feels a lot better about herself than she did before.
• Broken Pedestal: She once admired her best friend John because he gave her hope in her darkest hours that she can not only live, but thrive as a cripple. Then she realized that he was the masked Joker who had more than enough strength to beat the combined might of the Royals. She felt immensely betrayed by the fact that he would make false claims about being in the same situation as her.
• Brought Down to Normal: Seraphina gets stabbed with a syringe by Spectre that causes her to lose her powers for an extended period. She only regains them temporarily by working for them.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Or Calling the mother out. After so long, Seraphina finally calls out on her mothers abuse which allows her to return back to school earlier from her supposed suspension.
• Challenging the Bully: After being depowered, Sera starts to understand the bullying that goes on amongst the Mid-tiers towards the Low-tiers of Wellston High. She starts to defend Low-tiers against the Mid-tiers under the belief that it's not fair how their only choices is to either get beat up now, or get beat up later.
• Character Development:
  • Her background goes into great detail on how she used to act as a calm and collected perfect student that worked extra hard to always get perfect grades, but finally began to loosen up after she started interacting with John. Her continued interactions with John also helps her gain respect towards those that fight back against those that are stronger.
  • Being depowered by Spectre, and then getting kidnapped and beaten up by fellow mid-tier students, makes it clear to Sera that she took her power and high-status for granted without ever thinking about how it effects those around her. As a result, she considers it karma that she's been treated like shit ever since word got out that she lost her power.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Seraphina vs anyone in general. The exception is when Valarie tried to kidnap Seraphina, but she could not get out without Leilah's help.
• Color-Coded Characters: Magenta.
• Comes Great Responsibility: John has expressed more than once how much he wishes that those with powers would use them to protect the weak, rather than to oppress them. Seraphina, although she finds many of his very against-the-grain ideas to be “absurd”, does make the observation that the onus of change is still on those with power.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Her friendship with John defrosted her from the distant and "perfect" Queen of Wellson to her current, and much happier, self.
• Deus Exit Machina: Seraphina gets suspended from school relatively early in the story, at which point John's bullying becomes worse. By the time she comes back, Arlo's plan has driven John back into his darker nature.
• Do You Trust Me?: Sera starts to catch on in chapter 136 that John's been keeping secrets from her, which leaves her thinking to herself questioning why John doesn't trust her.
• Establishing Character Moment: Seraphina first appears on the school rooftop while class is in session. Despite her initial teasing, she's shown to be good friends with John and willingly stays with him in the infirmary to pass the time. Finally, she effortlessly defeats the bully who'd been troubling John.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Back when she was still considered The Ace, Seraphina wore her hair long and in a ponytail. Now, she has short hair with a messy fringe, yellow tips, and hair extensions. Her mother was not amused when she first saw them.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She has a teddy bear in her room.
• Foil: John and Seraphina are on opposite ends of the power spectrum and in terms of academic ability. Despite their differences in power, it is John who comes off as more independent whereas Seraphina was constrained by the expectations others had of her.
• Hostage Situation: Illena, Hower and several other students take a depowered Sera captive for an entire night in an attempt to break her will, spending that time beating her up.
• Icy Blue Eyes: To match her Sugar-and-Ice Personality.
• Implausible Deniability: After Arlo reveals to her that John is the masked Joker that's been beating up other students, Sera refuses to believe it. Even after Sera starts to piece it together herself in chapter 152, she still holds onto the belief that John can't be Joker until the end of Season 1 when she sees Joker fighting with her own eyes.
• Internal Reveal: By the season 1 finale, Sera now knows that not only is John not a cripple, but also the masked Joker who's been terrorizing the students at Wellston.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: After John returns from suspension, she is still consciously avoiding him due to the fact that Spectre is surveilling her, and doesn't want him to get dragged in. She has nightmares of him suffering the same fate she did, one of which we see in the theme park arc. In the end, it still ends up happening.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She’s a pretty decent person in general, but not exactly friendly or nice, and John is about the only person she's shown much of a soft side around.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Sera views this as something that happened to herself. By remaining ignorant to those around her when she was the school's powerful Ace, karma came back to bite her in the ass when the Wellston mid-tiers she's been ignoring and possibly harming decide to kidnap and beat her up after she's been depowered.
• Living Emotional Crutch: To John; when she is suspended from school, John's bullying intensifies and he begins to despise his classmates.
• Locked Out of the Loop: John actively hides his ability from her.
• Meaningful Name: A seraph is the highest order of angel. Fitting for a god-tier ability user.
• Metaphorically True: She lied without lying to Nadia the first time she was questioned.
• Morality Chain: Functions as this to John. When she is suspended, John gradually becomes more violent and spiteful towards his peers due to the increased bullying. Notably, he snaps out of his dark mood the moment she reappears.
• Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Downplayed. She has yellow-green streaks on her hair. She did that after hanging out with John and rebelling against society.
• Not So Stoic: Usually calm and collected, she snaps when, shortly after their first meeting, John baits her by pretending to hand her the chocolate cake she’d just demanded from him, only to drop it onto the floor. A huge crowd of classmates is there to see her completely and utterly melt down.
• Odd Friendship: How she became friends with John is this. One would expect that the two to never speak with one another given that they're on opposite ends of the power spectrum. However, John constantly going against what Sera tried to force him to do eventually leads to her gaining respect for him as a weakling that stands up to the strong.
• Only Friend: To John. Slowly, John is starting to become friends with Remi, Blyke, and Isen.
• The Perfectionist: Before meeting John she believed she has to be perfect at anything she does because of her Education Mama, it was to the point she could not accept The B Grade.
• The Perils of Being the Best: Was suffering from them until John liberated her mindset with his "I-do-what-I-want" attitude.
• Playing Card Motifs: The Ace. Represents how she is the strongest character in the show. Also plays with the double-meaning where the Ace can be considered the worst card. She basically becomes the weak Ace after Spectre depowered her.
• Power Levels: On a scale of 1–10 where being 6+ essentially makes you a Reality Warper, Seraphina is an 8.0.
• Purple Is Powerful: Seraphina has magneta hair which is close to purple, and she's one of the strongest characters in this series.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Her position as the school's "Ace" lets anyone with half a brain know they will lose a fight with her. Gavin still tries.
• Shout-Out: She is once seen reading OFR-Ice, one of the author's older webcomics.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Her mother, Narisa, looks basically like an older and more mature version of the current Seraphina.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: A few characters have called her cold and distant, she rarely smiles, and her default mood seems to be mild boredom. That said, she does show a gentler side around John.
• Superpower Lottery: With a power level of 8, the god-tiered Seraphina is leagues above everyone with her ability to manipulate time. This is even more impressive by the fact she was able to quickly deal with Arlo (a fellow god-tier) with little effort.
• Time Master: Her ability. Seraphina can't travel through time, but she can stop time - allowing her to eliminate entire teams in the blink of an eye - and "rewind" any injury she does manage to receive, restoring her to perfect health... and this is all in addition to her Super-Reflexes and Super-Strength (by increasing her speed). John explicitly compares her to a god.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She is the tomboy, while Elaine is the girly girl as roommates.
  • She is still a tomboy while her older sister is the girly girl.
• Undying Loyalty: To John. Despite everything he's put her and her friends through (physically and emotionally), Sera still makes helping John her number one priority (and even says as much in chapter 219). While everyone else writes him off as a lost cause, too violent and aggressive to ever see sense, Seraphina never truly gives up on him, only seeing him as "lost" and in need of guidance. Her persistence finally pays off in chapter 224.
• Walking Spoiler: Sera spends a good portion of the story as a powerless cripple after Spectre depowered her. Thus, it can be a bit rough to discuss things about Sera without giving anything away.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In chapter 148, she's had it with Arlo trying to ruin her friendship with John. The moment Arlo tries to inform her that John is actually the Joker that's been beating up other students, Sera of course doesn't believe it, and gets angry. She calls Arlo out for always picking on John despite him always minding his own business, and asks for Arlo to just leave John alone already. In the end, Arlo decides to not push any further since he's finally realized that his actions have done nothing but drive John and Sera further away from him.