JOVAN JOVAN
Real Name: Joshua Jovan (see comments)
Identity/Class: Extradimensional/Alternate reality (Earth-199999/"MCU") human (British citizen (Scottish))
Occupation: Monster hunter
Group Membership: Ulysses Bloodstone's unnamed order of monster hunters (Azarel, Barasso, Verussa Bloodstone, Liorn)
Affiliations: Ulyssess Bloodstone
Enemies: Elsa Bloodstone, Jack Russell, Man-Thing (Ted)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed
First Appearance: (possibly, unidentified) Spider-Man:
Homecoming (28th June 2017);
(confirmed, identified) Werewolf by Night (7th October
2022)
Powers/Abilities: Jovan was a master hunter and
expert with several weapons, most notably axes. A large man, he
possessed above average strength and durability, but remained swift for
his size. His head was unfortunately very flammable.
Height: 6'1"
Weight: Unrevealed (see comments)
Eyes: Unrevealed (see
comments)
Hair: Unrevealed (see
comments)
History:
(Werewolf by
Night (fb) - BTS) - Jovan was a monster hunter with 57
confirmed kills over a space of 29 seasons of hunting. He was a member
of the loose order of monster hunters led by Ulysses Bloodstone, though
outside of Ulysses, who Jovan considered a "mad bastard," Jovan and the
others never actually met one another, though each carried a medallion
signifying their affiliation to this alliance. Jovan's forehead appeared
to have three long parallel scars running diagonally up from his under
his right eye, over his eyebrows to his hairline, but whether these were
healed wounds (perhaps claw marks) or merely ritual make-up/tattoos is
unrevealed.
(speculation - see comments) - He may have previously been a big game hunter who got bored hunting regular animals.
(Werewolf by Night)
- When Ulysses Bloodstone died Jovan was one of the hunters from around
the globe invited to a contest to be held as part of Ulysses' funeral at
the slain hunter's remote mansion, the prize for which was the namesake
Bloodstone that had granted Ulysses much of his power. With the
Bloodstone placed at the center of the room on in a windowed casket atop
a pedastal, Jovan watched another contestant, Jack Russell, stare at it
and approached him, opening a cordial conversation by stating that the
gem was a beauty, then introduced himself not by name but by his kill
count, shook Jack's hand and admitted, slightly wearily, that next year
was his thirtieth season. Searching for a suitable response (and quietly
hinting at his true nature as a werewolf) Jack responded that he could
almost smell the blood on Jovan's hands, prompting a chuckle from the
hunter, who then thanked him for the compliment and returned it by
commenting favorably on Jack's facial tattoos, citing them as a "killer
trademark." When Jack responded that they were to honor his ancestors
Jovan responded, almost sheepishly, that he wasn't much for honoring
ancestors or feelings, but he just knew it looked brilliant on Jack.
Almost conspiratorially Jovan leaned in, casting furtive glances at the
others assembled there, and in a quieter tone stated that he understood
the need for anonymity in their line of work, but admitted with a
wavering voice that it got lonely, and that he was proud to be honoring
"old Ulysses" with him tonight. Continuing to fake being one of the
hunters, Jack glanced at Ulysses' coffin and responded that it was hard
to believe he was gone, which Jovan concurred with. Turning his
attention to the ornate chamber they were in, Jovan asked Jack if any of
the mounted busts of slain monsters were his handiwork. Glancing round
to check, Jack responded no, but then pointed to one that resembled a
giant vampire bat's head and stated he had fought that one a few times,
and that "he's never looked so alive," eliciting a chuckle from Jovan.
With the arrival of the last contestant Ulysses'
widow, Verussa, had them take their seats around the chamber and
introduced each hunter, again not by name but by number of kills; Jovan,
with "an impressive fifty-seven" briefly looked to be the most
accomplished among them, something he seemed please about, until Verussa
ended the introductions by stating that Jack had over a hundred deaths,
give or take, under his belt. Verussa thanked them all for gathering in
ritual and shedding their masks in honor of Ulysses Bloodstone, then
revealed that since Ulysses had known he could not be with them to state
his wishes for the ceremonial hunt he had arranged to be present another
way. At this prompt a servant inserted a lever into the side of the
coffin and began winding, revealing that Ulysses' wizened corpse (or a
replica thereof) had been turned into an animatronic puppet. As the
somewhat perplexed hunters looked on, the puppet and Verussa explained
the rules for the contest: A monster would be released into the maze
behind the mansion with the Bloodstone affixed to its skin, weakening it
while simultaneously enraging it; whichever hunter slew it and claimed
the Bloodstone would become the new leader of the monster hunting
fraternity. The only weapons permitted were the ones placed throughout
the maze for them to find, and everyone inside was fair game, even
Ulysses' own estranged daughter, Elsa.
Reassembling outside, the hunters drew lots
to see what order they would enter the maze, with Jovan drawing the
first token. Waiting until the last one had drawn, the hunters then
checked their tokens simultaneously, and when Jovan noticed that Jack,
standing next to him, had drawn first place, he called him a "lucky
bastard." As Jack was led in, Jovan joined the others in reciting a
pledge to the hunt.
(Werewolf by Night - BTS) - Jovan
entered shortly thereafter and armed himself with a large battleaxe he
found.
(Werewolf by Night) - Spotting Jack at the corner of a stone pillar with his back to him, Jovan crept up behind him and tried to take out his rival with the axe, but missed because Elsa Bloodstone, whom Jack had been conversing with spotted Jovan at the last second and pulled Jack out of the path of the strike. Jovan immediately switched targets, but Elsa dodged and pushed him into one the maze's stone walls, causing him to drop his weapon. Screaming in rage that the stone was his, Jovan smashed Elsa's head against the wall several times, but she rallied, threw him to the ground, snatched his axe and climbed away over the wall before he could recover. Rising to his feet, the enraged Jovan shouted after the fleeing that death was coming for her. Hearing the monster roar nearby, Jovan then headed in its direction.
(Werewolf by Night - BTS) - Jovan found a new weapon, a small hammer.
(Werewolf by Night)
- Carrying his hammer Jovan stalked into a clearing, unaware that
Elsa was hiding in a ditch therein, having just battled another of
the hunters, Liorn. Wounded, she was now desperately trying to keep
the dying Liorn quiet so that she did not have to fight Jovan again
in her weakened state. Jovan spotted the battleaxe which Elsa had
taken from him and subsequently dropped while fighting Liorn, and
cautiously sidled over to reclaim it, so preoccupied with glancing
around him for potential ambushes that he failed to spot Elsa and
Liorn lying only partially hidden by foliage mere feet away.
Chuckling quietly to himself over his regained weapon, Jovan headed
off again to resume hunting the monster.
A short while
later Jovan warily approached a thick hedge from which the monster's
growls seemed to be issuing, both axe and hammer raised and ready,
his face covered in sweat and a grim smile of anticipation that the
hunt was drawing to a conclusion. However, just before he reached
the bush Elsa ran into the clearing behind him and shouted upon
seeing him. Turning at the distraction, Jovan relaxed with an
annoyed grunt upon seeing who it was, before a heavy stride behind
him led him to turn back to the bush just in time to see Man-Thing
stride out, towering over him. Jovan froze momentarily in terror,
and as he began to scream the Man-Thing grabbed him by the head and
incinerated his skull. Dropping his twin weapons, Jovan continued to
scream despite his head being burned, taking several painful seconds
to expire.
Comments: Created by Heather Quinn and Peter
Cameron; portrayed by Kirk R. Thatcher.
I've only listed Jovan's fellow hunters as
affiliations, though it's clear from his attacking Elsa and Jack (when
he didn't know Jack was a werewolf) that if he'd run into any of the
others during the contest he would have tried to kill them.
Screenwriter Heather Quinn noted in an interview
on Collider that the Werewolf by Night script was particularly
influenced by a couple of stories, one of which "was The Danger
Game, and that one's about this really weird big game hunter named Joshua
Kane, which is actually Kirk Thatcher's character [Jovan] like
loosely based on him or I guess inspired by him, but basically this
guy's gotten bored hunting all the biggest animals in the world, and
so he brings Jack to this old movie lot and just wants to hunt him."
This may explain why the show's subtitles call him Joshua, while the end
credits call him Jovan (neither name is mentioned within the episode
itself) - I suspect he was originally going to be called Joshua, and the
subtitle people worked from that version of the script, then late in the
day the decision was made to rename him Jovan, which is what the people
assembling the end credits were told. Various sites have assumed his
full name is Joshua Jovan, and while I suspect that probably wasn't the
intention and that each was meant to be his first name (since he's
literally the only one of the new characters to get a "full" name), it's
a tried and true Marvel tradition to use both names when comics
accidentally use different ones, so Joshua Jovan it is. Between that
mention of Jovan's inspiration and the character's describing his
monster hunting in terms of "seasons" rather than years, I'm inclined to
suspect Jovan also began his pre-monster hunting career the same way as
Kane.
I have to admit I wouldn't have pegged Joshua Kane as his inspiration. When I was watching the episode and he appeared, prior to giving his name, his Scottish accent and tattoos made me wonder if he was meant to be the MCU's Bible John. I'm glad that proved not to be the case, since if Bible John ever does make it to the screen I'd hope he gets to last more than a single outing.
How much of Jovan's speech to Jack at the start of the episode, where he appeared to open up emotionally to his fellow hunter, was real and how much was put on to potentially lower Jack's guard come the match? I'm not sure, but I'd like to think that it was actually mostly real, if only because trying to make a fellow hunter feel sympathy for him prior to the contest wouldn't have worked on any of the other contestants, and because at that juncture none of them knew that they would be allowed to fight one another during the tournament.
Jovan's height is presumably the same as his actor's, which per an online search is 6'1"; he also probably shares Kirk Thatcher's weight, but I can't find that online and while I don't mind speculating such things for fictional characters I hesitate to do so for real people. Suffice to say that by his own admission Thatcher is a heavier-set gentleman and so the weight is probably above average for someone of his height. Since he only appeared in black and white it's impossible to say with certainty what his eye and hair colors were; they may have been the same as Thatcher's, but that's not certain. His hair on the top and beard did appear to be a light color, perhaps even gray, but again it's tricky to say for sure unless and until perhaps a color behind-the-scenes image becomes available.
Since Kirk Thatcher has
previously cameoed in another MCU property, as "Punk on Street" in
Spider-Man: Homecoming, and since Jovan mentions he normally has to be
incognito due to the nature of his profession, it is feasible, if
unlikely, that it was actually Jovan in Homecoming. If that's the case,
then you can add to his history just prior to the death of Ulysses
Bloodstone the following entry:
(Spider-Man: Homecoming) - Dressed in unassuming street clothes and carrying a boom box, Jovan was standing next to a hotdog stand when the vendor spotted Spider-Man atop a nearby building and shouted at the young hero, asking him to do a flip. Jovan watched bemused as the hero obliged.
And yes, I am fully aware that the cameo in
Spider-Man: Homecoming was a nod to Kirk Thatcher's prior appearance as
"Punk on Bus" in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, a role he later reprised
in Star Trek: Discovery. However, there's no way that was also Jovan,
and the comic adaptation of Voyage Home was published by D.C., so it's
not really relevant here, and only being mentioned because if I didn't
someone will inevitably write in to say it was overlooked from this
profile.
Profile by Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Jovan has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Werewolf by Night movie (all images bar punk)
Spider-Man: Homecoming movie and publicity shot (punk)
Appearances:
Werewolf by Night (7th
October 2022) - Heather Quinn (story, screenplay), Peter Cameron
(screenplay), Michael Giacchino (director)
First Posted: 10/31/2022
Last updated: 10/31/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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