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I'm sorry. I didn't realize you wanted him to shoot you. I can call in some more guards if you like.

Jonathan Steinberg is a character in both Perfect Dark and Perfect Dark Zero. He is an agent who works for the Carrington Institute and is known for carrying a DY357 Magnum. Jonathan is also featured in Initial Vector, Second Front and the Janus Tears series.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Not much is known about the early life of Jonathan Steinberg, but Initial Vector and Second Front shine some light on what Jonathan's life was like before and leading up to his affiliation with the Carrington Insitute. Before meeting Daniel Carrington, Jonathan spent time as an army ranger for the US military. Jonathan consistently stands up for what he believes is the correct thing for society and will stop at nothing to achieve this. That could be the reason that Jonathan enlisted so young, at just 17 years old Jonathan barely passed certification, due to his fear of jumps.[1] But he would quickly show to be an unstoppable force, climbing the ranks, he earned a combat infantry badge in Angola, and earned a Purple Heart for anti-terror ops in Pakistan. But during his time spent, Jonathan lost an entire troop of men, and felt deeply guilty. He lashed out at his CO, punching him in the face and getting court marshalled the same year. At this time, Daniel Carrington took interest in the young man and with his ties managed to get him honorably discharged as an agent.

The Carrington Institute[]

Seeing how capable he was, Carrington gave Jonathan the budget to start the Carrington Institute's Covert Action Staff. Quickly, Jonathan assembled a team of highly capable men. Carrington purchased a building for the action staff to reside in, where the events of Initial Vector's 30th chapter takes place. This structure was decommissioned in 2010 as the Insititute became larger in numbers. Jonathan was considered the best agent of the institute at the time, having a near-perfect score at the firing range. He held the highest records until Joanna Dark's arrival in 2020 and she quickly surpassed him in grades.

Perfect Dark Zero[]

In Perfect Dark Zero, Jonathan is first introduced at the end of Mission 7 when he saves Joanna from Chandra Sekhar. He explains that he and his squad were sent there to save her, download Zeigler's program and destroy the Trinity Base. After they're extracted from the base, he remarks on how good Joanna's combat skills are and how they "made a good team back there". He then introduces Joanna to Daniel Carrington via hologram, who in turn convinces her to team up with the Carrington Institute.

Jonathan as seen in Perfect Dark Zero

Later on, while in Peru, during Jungle | Storm, Jonathan and his squad are swarmed by dataDyne. Joanna saves Eagle One (Wild Bill) from meeting an untimely death in the hands of dataDyne, but the rest of Jonathan's team are still in danger from the corporation. In the next mission, Temple Surveillance, Jonathan has been captured, and he tunes in via radio to warn Joanna.

[2]

Jonathan is flown via dropship to be interrogated and executed by dataDyne. Tied up, the guard interrogates Jonathan. Jonathan is still snarky, but with a hint of apprehensiveness in his voice as he speaks to the guard. This audio did not make it into the final game but was meant to be heard if you crept over to the roof above Jonathan where an explosive could be planted. [3]

[2]

In the beginning of Mission 12, Jonathan is in a hovercraft that is blown up by dataDyne jetpack troops. He survives the explosion, but due to his injuries, he is unable to provide adequate support for Joanna. Joanna then escorts him to the bridge where Carrington and several Institute members are stationed.

At the end of the game, Jonathan - despite his injuries - leads a squad to the Colosseum where Joanna was last. When the arena Joanna and Zhang Li were fighting in collapses, Jonathan signals his squad to not fire upon Joanna. Jonathan staggers forward to help Joanna as she collapses due to her own injuries. He helps her up as Carrington arrives to talk to her. As the game ends, at last completing their mission, Jonathan can be seen wrapping his arm around Joanna's shoulders.

Perfect Dark[]

Jonathan as seen Perfect Dark in his Area 51 disguise

In Perfect Dark, Jonathan is sent to Area 51 by the Carrington Institute to spy on the NSA. Carrington's "friends" - the Maian Delegation - are shot down in Nevada and the equipment, bodies and survivors are recovered by the NSA and taken to Area 51 for studies. Jonathan manages to get a video out to the CI, who sends Joanna Dark to assist him in the rescue of any survivors.

Joanna meets up with Jonathan who helps get her further into the facility by providing her with explosives. Joanna manages to rescue the comatose Maian, Elvis, and hides him in a safe place. She locates a Maian med kit and meets up with Jonathan again; they fight their way back to Elvis and revive him. However, their immediate escape is thwarted; there is only room for one passenger on board Elvis' flying saucer, and someone will have to stay behind and open the hangar doors so that it may leave. He also claims he will escape the base using a nearby HoverBike to get out quickly.

If Joanna chooses to flee with Elvis in his spacecraft, Jonathan succeeds in opening the hangar doors. But he is likely assumed to be killed trying to escape the base himself, as he is absent from the rest of the game. If Joanna orders Jonathan to take her place aboard the saucer, her own escape will be made more difficult, but Jonathan will survive the mission.

If the player chooses to make Joanna assume responsibility for opening the Area 51 hangar doors herself, Jonathan will reappear during the Skedar assault on the Carrington Institute headquarters, where he is positioned outside of Carrington's office. He will buy time for Joanna as she breaks into Carrington's safe and destroys the sensitive data stored within. It is again possible for Jonathan to be killed, although in this instance there is little Joanna can do to impact his chances of survival.

Description and Personality[]

In most media featuring Jonathan, he has blonde hair, tan skin and blue eyes. He is 6 feet tall with a slightly athletic and slender build. Jonathan is normally seen clean shaven and with an "average man" look. This can't be said for other media with Jonathan, including Janus Tears. Jonathan does not appear in most issues of Janus Tears but can be seen in one comic of the series called "Issue 0." Jonathan is featured in the very last panel of this special edition of Janus Tears, where he dawns chestnut brown hair, dark eyes and a bulkier build. Additionally, Jonathan can be seen with a similar look in artwork created by Will Overton for Perfect Dark, where he has similarly colored hair but light blue eyes instead.

Jonathan is known for his sarcastic and lighthearted personality. He often cracks jokes in order to lighten the mood of others around him, but under his personality is a deep soul. Jonathan fights endlessly for what he believes in, regardless of who he works for. He's not loyal to any particular movement or person, but rather his personal beliefs on what will better humanity. Due to his dark past, he keeps his feelings inwards. He relates to Joanna in this aspect, but does so silently, knowing that she will figure it out herself in due time. It is no secret that throughout the Perfect Dark series, Jonathan holds something of a crush for the "Firey red head". He often daydreams about her, and even Carrington is in the know about this crush.

As seen from voice lines in Perfect Dark Zero, it is implied Jonathan enjoys playing video games in his free time.


Skills and Abilities[]

Jonathan is a well-trained agent. With his time spent in the military, Jonathan is a highly disciplined individual, suitable to be the head of the Carrington Institute's Covert Action Staff. He is known to have one of the best scores in the firing range, with a score of A+. His skills lie mostly in undercover operations although he is also trained to some hand-to-hand combat, making himself a stark contrast to Joanna Dark, who is much more skillful with guns blazing at enemies rather than sneaking.

Trivia[]

  • Jonathan's standard outfit is the same as the generic CI soldiers seen in the Carrington Institute Defense mission. However, aside his undercover clothing as an Area 51 guard seen in the Rescue/Escape missions, if you look at his Hacker Central profile, he is seen wearing the regular brown outfits used by the guards of the same levels. This is likely a developer oversight, as Jonathan is never seen wearing such outfit anywhere in the game.
  • In the bonus The Duel mission in Perfect Dark on the Special or Perfect Agent difficulty, it tells you to defeat "Jonathan Dark". This was an oversight by the developers; Jonathan was originally planned to be Joanna's brother, but the idea was scrapped late in the game's development. In Perfect Dark Zero, Jonathan's last name was renamed Steinberg, retconned to have no previous relationship to Joanna Dark.
  • The only time when Jonathan is a playable character during co-op in Perfect Dark Zero is during Mission 8. The rest of the time the co-op partner is either Chandra, Jack Dark, a generic Carrington Institute soldier, or in the case of Trinity Infiltration, a second Joanna Dark.
  • In Beta 4.4 of Perfect Dark, Jonathan's name was erroneously spelled "Johnathan".
  • The unlockable Co-Op Buddy, Hotshot, is considered a full ally counterpart to Jonathan, as he too is a CI soldier and shares the DY357 Magnum, in addition to wielding Trent's deadly DY357-LX.
  • In an interview with Jonathan's Perfect Dark voice actor, Steve Malpass, he cites "Burnt orange" as Jonathan's favorite color "without a doubt"[4]
  • Jonathan's line of "I can't play Xbox anymore!" in Perfect Dark Zero is himself breaking the 4th wall, as the game itself was released in the Xbox 360 console.

Appearances[]

Gallery[]

  1. Rucka, Greg. 2006. Perfect Dark: Initial Vector. Tor Books.
  2. 2.0 2.1 “Audio.” n.d. Www.perfectwebzero.com. Accessed July 23, 2023. https://www.perfectwebzero.com/database/perfect-dark-zero/audio. ‌
  3. Boyd, Rod. Message to Foslerfer. 2021. Interview on Twitter, November 17, 2021. ‌
  4. Malpass, Steve. Interview by Foslerfer. 2021, August 4, 2021.
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