Character sheet for the list of characters of Sleeper (WildStorm)
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Holden Carver
An International Operations agent who gained superpowers and was coerced into going deep undercover in a supervillain organization. Has the ability to store up pain and release it through physical contact.
- Touched by Vorlons: Getting an alien artifact fused to his nervous system is what gave him his powers.
- Bar Brawl: At one point, he charges up his powers by walking into a bar in Egypt, shouting a particularly offensive string of gibberish and letting the patrons beat on him for a while.
- Combat Sadomasochist: Required to “charge up” his powers. Mentions that before missions he will sometimes just sit in a room and shoot his hand with a staple gun over and over for this purpose.
- Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: His “villain name” is The Conductor. It’s used maybe four times in the entire series.
- Feels No Pain: Or any other physical sensation.
- First-Person Smartass: Carver is the narrator of the series, loves to quip.
- Heal Thyself: “You’ve got a communications console. Call an ambulance.”
- I Can Change My Beloved: He desperately tries to change or convince his psycho crush, Miss Misery, to be a more moral and restrained person under the guise of saving her despite the fact she consistently yells she doesn't want to be saved.
- I Know You Know I Know:Holden: “Second Guessing men like Lynch and TAO is enough to drive you fucking insane.”
- Like Father, Like Son: Holden’s father also worked for IO.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When he accidentally shoots Veronica.
- Just Following Orders: How he tries to justify all the people he killed while working for Lynch.
- Power Creep, Power Seep: Requires almost an hour to recover from limb injuries at one point, then later shoots himself in the head and gets up in seconds.
- Power Incontinence: He transmits his stored pain to whoever he touches with bare skin.
- Required Secondary Powers: If he didn’t have a Healing Factor, all that damage he takes would kill him quickly whether he felt it or not.
- Total Party Kill: Accidentally killed his entire unit when he first fused with the alien artifact.
- What Measure Is a Mook?: Actually feels worse about watching some criminals die than civilian targets because he knew them.
TAO
A test-tube grown super-intelligent man who once joined and then fought the WildC.A.T.S. After faking his own death, he resurfaced leading a covert organization of super criminals while simultaneously advising the Ancient Conspiracy that run the world’s economy. His motives are completely unknown.
- Battle Discretion Shot: Has enough fighting skill to mutilate an entire squad of Black Razors with his bare hands off-panel in seconds.
- Maybe he talked them into killing each other?
- Catchphrase: "Let us reason together ..."
- Fun with Acronyms: TAO stands for Tactically Augmented Organism.
- Insult Backfire: Calling TAO a “son of a bitch” or a “motherfucker” will elicit an amused reminder that he didn’t have a mother.
- Logical Weakness: How do you disarm a villain with a Compelling Voice? Rip out his fucking tongue.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Traded in his purple tunic for a brown suit.
- More than Mind Control: Uses logic on his smarter targets and emotional trauma on his simpler ones.
- Psychopathic Man Child: He's been summed up by Holden as a sick little kid who grew up too fast due to being aged up too quickly and his overall sadistically child-like behavior only corroborates the statement.
- Smug Snake: TAO thinks he can talk his way out of any trouble he finds himself in. Mostly, he's right. Sometimes, such as when facing Holden near the end of the series, he's not.
- Treacherous Advisor: Although the Ancient Conspiracy seems to understand that TAO is not the most trustworthy guy.
Miss Misery
One of TAO's three trusted Prodigals. Gains physical power from breaking rules and hurting people, and gets sick if she is forced to do "the right thing".
- Being Good Sucks: To curtly sum it up, being benevolent makes her deathly ill, but being an evil bitch makes her superhuman. Good Kindness literally kills her.
- Binge Montage: In her case, it’s violence instead of drinking. Miss Misery needs to go on crime sprees to get her strength up for actual missions.
- Catchphrase: “Jesus Fucking Christ Holden!”
- Destructive Romance: As soon as she starts genuinely caring about Carver, sex stops being wrong and starts making her sick.
- Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Successfully double-crosses TAO.
- Femme Fatale: It's part of what keeps her healthy. Seducing and manipulating men is one of her favourite activities.
- The Farmer and the Viper: “How many times did I tell him I couldn’t be trusted.”
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Needs to smoke in public because it’s illegal.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Carver tries to get her to come back to IO with him and be cured, but she doesn’t want it.
- Ms. Fanservice: Plenty of nude and sex scenes.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Used to be the ideal American sweetheart before her condition kicked in.
John "Jack" Lynch
Former head of International Operations. A master manipulator who does whatever it takes to ensure that power stays in his hands. Coerced Holden Carver into going undercover in TAO's organization. Was shot and fell into a coma by someone working for TAO during Point Blank, but emerges at the end of Sleeper volume 1 to bring him back in.
- Captain Ersatz: John Lynch originally started as the Wildstorm U’s answer to Nick Fury
- Not Quite Dead: “Nothing can kill Jack Lynch.”
- Power Creep, Power Seep: Justified, he had his Telepathy augmented while in a coma specifically to go up against TAO.
- Please Shoot the Messenger: Picks his messengers specifically because they’re expendable.
Genocide Jones
A super strong, bulletproof lieutenant in TAO’s organization. The closest thing Carver has to a friend.
- Black Humor: Referred to as “a living embodiment of black humor.”
- Boisterous Bruiser: He's a pretty cheerful guy (albeit one with a pretty dark sense of humor), and REALLY likes a good scrap.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Kills Steeleye after seeing him molesting a child.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Beats a guy unconscious for asking why a cartoonist didn’t agree to do merchandising for Marvin and Teddy.
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Realism-Induced Horror: The only part of his origin story that couldn't conceivably happen in our world is the part where he punched the heads off everyone responsible for his son's death. - You Keep Using That Word: Called himself Genocide because he sometimes wants to kill everyone. Carver points out that genocide is the systematic elimination of a specific group.
Marc Slayton
An excessively gruff associate of John Lynch. The current head of International Operations/Internal Operations. Does not believe that Holden Carver is really an IO informant under deep cover. For him outside the Sleeper series, see his own page
- Artificial Limbs: Has a cybernetic leg.Grifter (pointing a gun at Slayton’s crotch): You think those Department PSI geeks who fixed your leg could build you a robotic cock after I blow yours off?
Slayton: Beat Heh. They probably could. - I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: When he captures Carver and Miss Misery and realizes he can’t hurt Holden, he tortures Miss Misery and makes him listen.
- Old Superhero: Used to go by “Backlash”.
- Patriotic Fervor: when recruiting Grifter into the I/O he gives a lengthy speech about protecting the free world and democracy. Grifter being himself promptly takes him down a peg:Jesus, you've really drunk the Kool-Aid this time.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Formerly a part Kheran immortal Atlantean 90s superhero with Combat Tentacles. None of this is mentioned in Sleeper.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Grifter and Slayton used to hate one another (well, Grifter did; Slayton seemed coldly indifferent) over a Team 7 mission gone awry. While they mostly made up before Sleeper rolled around, it seems Slayton going back to I/O didn't endear him to Grifter any.
Veronica St. James
An IO agent and former partner of Holden Carver. Convinced that Holden can be brought back to the “good guys”, and is willing to put herself in danger to help him.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Is convinced Holden is still one of the “good guys”.
- Morality Pet: To Holden. She desperately tries to convince him to come back to her in the manner reminiscent of a love struck school girl and tries to show he is not as evil as he thinks he is, but is constantly rebuffed.
- Turn in Your Badge: Is removed from the task force sent to hunt down Carver. She thinks it’s because Lynch doesn’t trust her to bring him in, but it’s really because she was getting too close to finding out he was a Deep Cover Agent
- Wide-Eyed Idealist:
Grifter
A former soldier who served with Lynch on Team 7. One-time member of the superhero team the WildC.A.T.S. The central character of Point Blank. For more about him, see his own page
- Boom, Headshot!: How he finally kills Peter Grimm.
- Civvie Spandex: his "costume" is whatever he happens to be wearing at the time (which, granted, usually has a distinctly paramilitary cut to it), his red mask, and a pair of red gloves. Even the mask and the gloves don't make a single appearance in Point Blank.
- Fights Like a Normal: Has psychic powers that he never uses.
- The Gunslinger: for all his myriad screw-ups Grifter's still damn near unstoppable with a gun in his hand(s) in Sleeper.
- Hardboiled Detective: In Point Blank. Arguably subverted in that he's got the attitude, the drinking, and the narration down pat but his attempts at investigation seem to do more harm than good.
- Living Legend: Holden's father and his associates were in awe of Grifter's skill as a covert operative, if Holden's narration is anything to go by; Holden himself, while not exactly gushing with praise, is still very wary of taking him on in a fight.
- '90s Anti-Hero: one of the vintage ones; hilariously, despite Sleeper (Point Blank included) running between 2002 and 2005 Grifter's arguably a bigger jerk there than he ever was in the nineties.
- Older Than They Look: Didn’t age through most of the late ‘70s, ‘80s and early ‘90s
- Psychic Block Defense: He’s already fairly resistant to mind control thanks to his Coda training, but Lynch gives him one late in the series.
- Trigger Phrase: “There you are.”
- Underestimating Badassery: “That’s the legendary Grifter? He doesn’t look that tough.” “Yeah, those were a lot of guy’s last words.”
- Unwitting Pawn: just about everything he does in Point Blank plays into Tao's plan to take Lynch out of the game] in one way or another.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: His drinking makes TAO’s Memory Gambit easier, and once he shoots Lynch, his guilt causes him to drink even more, making investigating the case almost impossible.
Sir Malcolm Jones
A retired IO and MI-6 agent who used to work with John Lynch.''' called to help bring Carver back to IO.
- Cool Old Guy: A Quintessential British Gentleman Deadpan Snarker who actually hits it off with Holden and does his utmost to get him out of the fix he's in. Shame about his ticker but hey, nobody's perfect.
- Hope Spot: shows up with a folder of evidence exonerating Holden as a deep-cover agent acting on Jack Lynch's orders. Keels over of a heart attack at the end of Season 1; Holden torches the evidence since it wouldn't do him any good and if it fell into the wrong hands he'd be toast. Ouch.
Peter Grimm
TAO’s ‘Right Hand Man’. Can make you see whatever you fear most on an endless loop until you hopefully die.
- Bald of Evil: a shiny dome in tandem with a power that makes you see your worst nightmares and zero hestitation to use it.
- Combo Platter Powers: Grimm can induce nightmares, has Super-Strength, and some sort of energy blast powers. Carver states at the start of the story that Grimm's nightmare power is the only one he really knows.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: when he finally goes down in a fight with Grifter, he gets the entire back of his head blown off.
XXX Ray
A mild-mannered pervert with x-ray vision. TAO seems to enjoy putting him in harm’s way just to torment Holden.
- Lovable Coward: He’s “a lover, not a fighter”.
- Power Perversion Potential: What use is an X-ray but to see the x-rated?
Pit Bull
A young recruit who is very eager to prove himself as a super villain.
- Badass Normal: no apparent powers, and while he's a bit too gung-ho for his own good, he's still a handful in a fight.
- Blood Sport: Forced to fight for his life against a pit full of dogs when he was a young child.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: [[spoiler: Carver tells his comrades in TAO’s organization that he’d love to have Veronica’s new husband helpless in front of him...and to Carver's horror, Pit bull kidnaps him and stuffs him in his trunk.
Blackwolf
A black werewolf.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: “What the fuck do you think I did? I ate her.”
- Color Character: Lampshades this and says he uses the name “Blackwolf” ironically because of it.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: He is a human with a wolf form. He is also black.
- To Serve Man: In wolf form, he eats human. Technically, this makes him a cannibal but he's wolf when he does it.
Steeleye
One of TAO’s three trusted Prodigals. Has Mind Control powers.
- Brain Bleach: Watching him use his power makes you want to “scrub your eyeballs with steel wool.”
- Mind Rape: Often along with physical rape.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Genocide Jones kills him fairly early in the series, leading the way for Holden’s promotion to Prodigal.
- People Puppets: Sometimes lets his victims be aware of what they’re doing if he thinks it will be funnier.
Diamanda M’batu
Queen of Egypt and one-time ruler of Africa. A major player in the Ancient Conspiracy who contracts TAO’s organization for several favors.
- Double Entendre: Repeatedly complements TAO on his "useful tongue".
- Killed Offscreen: Lynch grumbles Holden killed her after she gave him the information to prove it was Tao and not her who set him up.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Keeps TAO close because she thinks of him as an amusing Psycho for Hire who poses no real threat.
The Nihilist
A mid-level supervillain with cybernetic enhancements.
- Non-Indicative Name: Isn’t a nihilist, just uses the name because it sounds cool.
- The Mole: He was working for Lynch the whole time and Holden had to kill him before he blew both of their covers.
Aldo
An alien in Lynch's custody who claims to be able to remove the artifact from Holden's body.
Turbine
A superhero working for IO who attempts to arrest Carver during the sale of a WMD.
Yvonne
