Ermes Costello
Also known as: Ermes
Ermes Costello is the second-most-prominent female Stand User of Stone Ocean and the franchise's first revenge-driven female crew member. An Italian-American inmate at Green Dolphin Street Prison serving time for an unrelated minor offence, she has used her conviction to track down Sports Maxx — the Stand User who killed her older sister Gloria — and joins Jolyne Cujoh's crew shortly after the protagonist's prison arrival.
Story
Stone Ocean
Part 6 · 2011Ermes is one of the first Stand-user inmates Jolyne encounters after arrival at Green Dolphin Street Prison. Her pre-arc biography is depicted across one chapter — her older sister Gloria Costello was killed by the Stand-using inmate Sports Maxx in a separate Florida incident; Ermes used her own minor-offence conviction to gain prison access and pursue Sports Maxx within the institution rather than through external means.
Her arc-spanning revenge against Sports Maxx culminates in a Kiss-and-Burning Down the House combat sequence in the prison's archive corridors. After the revenge resolves Ermes commits fully to Jolyne's crew and remains one of the team's most-reliable combatants across the Cape Canaveral final-arc. She dies in Made in Heaven's time-acceleration alongside Jotaro and Weather Report — one of the three protagonist-team casualties that anticipate the universe-reset's totalising effect on the bloodline.
Powers & Abilities
Kiss
StandKiss is a humanoid Close-Range Stand that applies adhesive stickers to any object the Stand touches. When the sticker is removed, the affected object splits in two — creating an exact duplicate of the original. The mechanic is one of the franchise's most-flexible single-mechanic Stand abilities: stickers applied to bullets create twin projectiles, stickers applied to body parts create twin limbs, stickers applied to environmental objects create duplicate cover or weapons.
Combat applications scale from straightforward (sticker-and-detach to create twin bullets) to creative (sticker an opponent's wound to create a second wound when the sticker is removed) to defensive (sticker Ermes's own limb to grow a temporary additional arm). The Stand has been read by long-form critics as the structural precursor to Soft & Wet's plunder mechanic in JoJolion — both Stands operate via object-property manipulation rather than direct damage.
Relationships
Trivia
- Ermes is the franchise's first revenge-driven female crew member — her presence in Green Dolphin Street Prison is the result of a deliberate self-conviction to gain pursuit access to Sports Maxx. The mechanic is one of the franchise's only depicted self-imposed-imprisonment revenge subplots.
- Her Stand Kiss is named after the American rock band Kiss (1973-present). The naming continues Stone Ocean's rock-music-and-jazz-fusion Stand cluster.
- Ermes is the first major female Stand User from Vento Aureo's Italian-immigrant cultural lineage to appear in the franchise. Her family background — Italian-American working-class — is depicted across the Stone Ocean arc as the franchise's clearest example of post-Vento-Aureo Italian-immigrant character writing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Ermes Costello?
Ermes Costello is the second-most-prominent female Stand User of Stone Ocean and the franchise's first revenge-driven female crew member. An Italian-American inmate at Green Dolphin Street Prison serving time for an unrelated minor offence, she has used her conviction to track down Sports Maxx — the Stand User who killed her older sister Gloria — and joins Jolyne Cujoh's crew shortly after Jolyne's prison arrival.
What is Ermes's Stand?
Ermes's Stand is Kiss — a humanoid Close-Range Stand that applies adhesive stickers to any object the Stand touches. When the sticker is removed, the affected object splits in two, creating an exact duplicate of the original. The mechanic is one of the franchise's most-flexible single-mechanic Stand abilities: applied to bullets, body parts, or environmental objects for various tactical effects.
How does Ermes die?
Ermes dies in Made in Heaven's time-acceleration during Stone Ocean's Cape Canaveral final-arc — alongside Jotaro Kujo and Weather Report. She is one of the three protagonist-team casualties that anticipate the universe-reset's totalising effect on the original-eight-Part Joestar bloodline.
Why is Ermes in prison?
Ermes is in Green Dolphin Street Prison through a self-imposed conviction — she used a minor unrelated offence to gain prison access to Sports Maxx, the Stand User who killed her older sister Gloria Costello in a separate Florida incident. The mechanic is one of the franchise's only depicted self-imposed-imprisonment revenge subplots and the structural argument that Ermes's presence in the arc is deliberate rather than circumstantial.