Joseph Bauer

"It was a mistake. We never should have taken it. We should've left it buried!"

―Joseph Bauer^[src]

Joseph Bauer was the leader of the Momentum Labs private think tank and the husband of Lucy Bauer. When he and his wife discovered the Darkhold, they experimented with the book, but Eli Morrow was tempted by the book. Morrow attempted to beat the information on its whereabouts from Joseph, putting him into a coma, and then attempted to kill Lucy and their colleagues with the machine, blaming their apparent deaths on an "explosion." Eventually, Bauer was awoken by his wife, who had become a ghostly figure seeking the book, who infected him with fear which eventually killed him.

Biography[]

Using the Book of Sins[]

Years ago, Lucy and Joseph Bauer found the Darkhold buried in the basement of an abandoned house, the family home of the person who had killed the book's previous owner. They excitedly opened the book, only to see that the pages were all blank. When words began to appear on the pages, they soon realized they were each seeing the words in their first language - Lucy in English and Joseph in German - as if the book was reading them.^[2]

Together, they worked on a machine that defied the laws of physics. However, Eli Morrow was tempted by the Darkhold, prompting Joseph to approach the Fifth Street Locos and order a hit on him. This failed because Morrow's nephews Robbie and Gabe Reyes had "borrowed" his car, causing them to be attacked instead; as a result, Joseph hid the Darkhold. Eventually, Morrow beat Joseph into a coma and attempted to kill Lucy, Frederick, Hugo, and Vincent with the machine, but instead transformed them into ghostly apparitions.^[1]

Reunion with Lucy and Death[]

Lucy eventually found Joseph in his hospital bed. She stuck her fingers into his head to wake him from his coma, demanding to know where the book was.^[3]

Joseph's encounter with the ghost of his wife left him in the same paranoid condition as Melinda May and Chen. Before he died, Joseph told Phil Coulson that he had buried the book in the same place he found it and that it was too late for them to get it before Lucy.^[2]

Abilities[]

Expert Scientist: Bauer was an amazing scientist who, along with his wife, found the Darkhold. They then used the Darkhold to create a machine that seemed to create matter. However, their co-worker, Eli Morrow, got greedy and attacked, putting Bauer into a coma.
Multilingualism: Bauer could speak German and English very fluently.