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Sleepwalker
Sleepwalker
Sleepwalker
Notable Aliases: Sleepy
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #1 (June, 1991)
A being from the Mindscape, an alien dimension that connects the minds of all living things, that became trapped in the mind of human college student Rick Sheridan and gained the ability to manifest in our world when Rick was asleep. Went from protecting the minds of sleeping humans from demons and nightmares to protecting their physical bodies and possessions from criminals and supervillains.
- Alien Among Us: He's a tall, gangly humanoid with olive-green skin, dark red compound eyes, no hair whatsoever, and funky purple and blue clothing.
- Alien Catnip: One of the colored energies emitted by Spectra's synthetic diamond was this to Sleepwalker, giving him so many pleasant sensations and hallucinations that he became addicted to it.
- Aliens Speaking English: All the time he spent in Rick Sheridan's mind taught him how to speak human languages.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Humans generally tended to treat him like shit, despite all the effort he made to help them.
- Bizarre Alien Biology:
- Sleepwalker technically doesn't have any superpowers. His Eye Beams, superhuman strength and endurance are all natural features of his race.
- He also doesn't need to eat, as Sleepwalkers are nourished simply by absorbing mental energy. When he's pulled back into Rick's mind, he returns to the mental plane and replenishes his strength.
- Bizarre Alien Senses: Besides having the same kind of vision humans did, Sleepwalker could also see and follow various types of psychic or electromagnetic energy trails. He could also focus his "normal" vision to see much farther than normal as if he were using binoculars.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Sleepwalker is a strange subversion. He spends almost all his time in the physical world fighting crime, but he never really suffers Heroic Fatigue. He's not a human and doesn't have a human's motivations, and protecting the innocent is pretty much his race's collective hat. What truly makes him miserable is being stuck in Rick's mind not being able to do anything. He explains to Rick that, unless he can actually do some good in the physical world like he does in the Mindscape, he feels like his life doesn't have any meaning.
- Creepy Good: Sleepwalker is odd-looking, has green skin and glowing eyes, but he's one of the good guys.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Sure, he usually comes out at night, is alien-looking and kind of intimidating, but he's still a good being.
- Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": Sleepwalker is his race's name rather than his personal name. Human vocal cords can't voice the Sleepwalker language though, so he just has them use his race's name.
- Dream Land: The Mindscape is one of these.
- Eye Beams: Sleepwalker's warp vision can alter the shape and physical characteristics of anything he hits with them.
- Failure Is the Only Option: He's actually had several chances to return home, but he's always had to forgo them for one reason or another.
- Guardian Entity: Like the rest of his race, Sleepwalker exists to protect the beings of our dimension. The only difference is that now he protects people's physical bodies instead of their minds.
- Heroic Fatigue: Inverted, as Sleepwalker's race doesn't have the same mentality that humanity does. He never suffers from burnout or exhaustion in being a superhero, since it's the closest he can get to his race's collective hat. What makes him miserable is not being able to go out and fight evil, telling Rick that he feels like his life doesn't have any meaning otherwise.
- Humans Through Alien Eyes: Sleepwalker finds humans to be often bizarre and contradictory creatures.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Sleepy's gotten a little bitter over the reception he's gotten from humans for his bizarre appearance, despite his attempts to help them.
- No-Sell: Lullaby's hypnotic singing could put anyone who heard it into a sleeplike trance that would make them obey her. Sleepwalker is completely immune to it, since his race never sleeps.
- Purple Is Powerful: Sleepwalker wears a purple cowl, gloves, boots and arm and leg wrappings.
- Shaping Your Attacks: Sleepwalker's warp beams allow him to physically reshape matter and alter its physical characteristics somewhat. He uses it for everything from binding criminals with the pavement to forcing open a locked door to changing the direction of a blast of water.
- Starfish Aliens: Sleepwalker's race is strange by human standards, can cast matter-reshaping Eye Beams, has Bizarre Alien Senses that allow him to see everything from energy trails to Demonic Possession and Bizarre Alien Biology that requires him to survive on mental energy, and his otherworldy Guardian Entity psychology makes him act as a superhero in the human world almost by default.
- Super-Strength: Marvel's official databooks usually list him as being able to lift about 20 tons.
- Super-Toughness: While he's not invincible, Sleepwalker's alien body can withstand a lot more punishment than the average human.
- The Unpronounceable: Sleepwalker's real name can't be pronounced by humans, so he just has them call him Sleepwalker.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Sort of-Sleepwalker can alter the shape of other things with his warp beams, although he can't alter his own physical appearance.
Allies
Rick Sheridan
Rick Sheridan
Alter Ego: Richard Sheridan
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #1 (June, 1991)
Rick Sheridan was a happy, healthy college student who became the host of the alien Sleepwalker
- Badass Normal: Rick is a surprisingly skilled martial artist and can take care of himself just fine against other non-powered humans.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Rick has a terrible time explaining Sleepwalker's presence in his mind to his girlfriend Alyssa, worrying that she'll think he's crazy or an outright freak.
- Heroic Host: Serves as this for Sleepwalker.
- Meditation Powerup: More recent comics show that Rick's received special meditation training from Doctor Strange that allows him to go into a meditative trance as needed. When Rick is in a trance, he and Sleepwalker can converse and Sleepwalker can emerge into the physical world.
- Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: He's the Can, as Sleepwalker stays in his mind whenever he's awake.
- Sharing a Body: With Sleepy. Sleepwalker manifests whenever Rick goes to sleep.
- Stock Superhero Day Jobs: Rick was a film student during the original series. More recent comics show him working as a full-blown filmmaker.
Alyssa Conover
Alyssa Conover
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #1 (June, 1991)
Alyssa Conover was a film school student and Rick Sheridan's girlfriend.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Alyssa has a collection of stuffed animals on her bedroom wall. Sleepwalker is confused by them, and wonders if they're religious idols that she worships.
- Official Couple: With Rick Sheridan.
Rambo
Rambo
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #1 (June, 1991)
Rambo is the dog owned by Rick Sheridan. He was trained to turn on the TV when Rick woke up.
- Heroes Love Dogs: He's the pet of Rick Sheridan and even Sleepwalker is fond of him.
Dogwalker
Dogwalker
First Appearance: Lockjaw #3 (June, 2018)
After observing how humans frequently keep dogs as companions, Sleepwalker created Dogwalker as his own companion in the Mindscape to better understand human nature.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Is green and has red eyes, just like hers creator.
- Canine Companion: Created to be this for Sleepwalker.
Villians
8-Ball
8-Ball
Alter Ego: Jeff Hagees
Notable Aliases: "The Crook with the Jet Propelled Cue Stick", Eightball
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #2 (July, 1991)
Originally an engineer specializing in propulsion systems, Jeff Hagees turned to pool as a means of relieving the stress of his job. Unfortunately, he began gambling on pool games too, which cost him a lot of money. His employers suspected he was selling company secrets to pay his gambling debts, and fired him even without any proof. Turning to supervillainy, he combined his engineering talents with his love of pool as a basis for his criminal motif, and went on to face Sleepwalker.
- Affably Evil: 8-Ball's actually a pretty nice guy... when he's not trying to crush people under bank vaults or strap them to giant exploding pool balls, anyway.
- Back from the Dead: Devil's Reign: Moon Knight reveals he was revived by The Hood some time after his death and had been in prison for some time.
- Bad Guys Play Pool: Not only is he an expert player, he also based his whole criminal motif on the game.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Subverted. He started out as a legitimate engineer, before being fired for being accused of selling company secrets. Chances are he was blacklisted for this, and couldn't find a job afterwards.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: After getting called out on his bragging by the Hobgoblin, 8-Ball accepts a $100,000 bet to see who can kill Sleepwalker first.
- Improbable Weapon User: 8-Ball's main weapon is a jet-propelled cue stick that can propel anything it hits with devastating force. He also uses exploding pool balls as weapons, floating cameras in the shape of billiard balls, and giant hovercrafts shaped like pool racks as transportation.
- Legacy Character: After his death an unnamed criminal took the 8-Ball costume and codename.
- Villainous Friendship: Often seen playing pool with Oddball.
- One of the 8-Balls is also good friends with Shocker.
Bookworm
Bookworm
Alter Ego: Nelson Gruber
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #4 (September, 1991)
Chain Gang
Chain Gang
Alter Egos: Master Link (Willis Hayworth), Missing Link (Ray Morgan), Uplink (Hector Fuentes), Weak Link (Ernie Mills)
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #7 (December, 1991)
The Chain Gang are enemies of Sleepwalker. Former prisoners mutated during the Infinity Gauntlet affairs. They have powers while connected to each other with a chain. The group is plagued by constant in-fighting among it's members.
- Chained by Fashion: The Chain Gang derive their powers from the energized chain that they were all linked with when they were got superpowers, and need to stay chained together for their abilities to work.
- Chained Heat: When two members of the Chain Gang are black and Hispanic, and a third is a white racist, it's a wonder the Chain Gang managed to accomplish anything at all. It's significant that they only posed a threat to Sleepwalker when he was seriously hindered in some way-when he was at full strength, he defeated them quite easily.
- Energy Absorption: Up Link has the power to access and manipulate various forms of energy. He could also pick electromagnetic transmissions and could tune to the mindwaves of a person while they were unconscious.
- Mana Drain: This is Weak Link's ability.
- Super-Strength: This is Master Link's power.
- Teleportation: Missing Link's ability.
Crimewave
Crimewave
Alter Ego: Carl Wilkinson
Notable Aliases: C.W.
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #5 (October, 1991)
Carl Wilkinson was a Manhattan crime lord and businessman, an enemy of Kingpin, Spider-Man and Sleepwalker.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Crimewave dreams of overthrowing the Kingpin and becoming the top mob boss on the East Coast. He fails, in no small part due to being a Bad Boss, something that is Lampshaded by the Kingpin.
- Dartboard of Hate: Has one for the Kingpin.
- One-Steve Limit: He should not be confused with Crime-Wave/Mason Hollis, a Daredevil foe.
Cobweb
Cobweb
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #3 (August, 1991)
A demon from the Mindscape, Sleepwalker's home dimension, that imprisoned Sleepwalker in Rick Sheridan's mind. This proved to be part of a larger Evil Plan to invade the Earth and frame Sleepwalker for it.
- Arch-Enemy: To Sleepwalker.
- Evil Plan: The overarching plot in the Sleepwalker comics is Cobweb's planned conquest of Earth.
- Manipulative Bastard: According to Sleepwalker, Cobweb often twists his victims' perceptions of reality until they can no longer tell truth from lies. He more than lives up to his reputation.
- Master of Illusion: He puts Rick Sheridan through a horrific experience in the Mindscape that's meant to sow doubt in Rick's mind about Sleepwalker's true nature.
- Mind Rape: To Rick Sheridan. Then there's all the minds his mindspawn destroy.
- Mooks: Cobweb is served by a small army of "mindspawn", lesser demons of the Mindscape, which he empowers.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Cobweb's body is made up of an infinite number of strands, which he can reshape and manipulate at will.
Lullaby
Lullaby
Alter Ego: Felicity Hopkins
Notable Aliases: Felicity Cross, Mrs. Harold Cross
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #9 (February, 1992)
Lullaby has the power to manipulate people with her voice. She is an early foe of the Sleepwalker.
- Black Widow: She hypnotized her multimillionaire employer into leaving his wife and marrying her instead. She got bored having a brainwashed drone for a husband, so she tried to have him jump out a window so she could inherit all his fortune.
- Compelling Voice: Felicity had the power to soothe anyone within earshot into a deep slumber. While asleep, they obeyed her commands and did anything she ordered.
- Evil Redhead: Red hair and she tried to make a millionaire to jump off a roof to get his money.
- Gold Digger: She originally worked as a babysitter for a real estate millionaire. She hypnotized him into divorcing his wife and marrying her, giving her access to all his wealth.
- Green and Mean: Dresses in green and she tried to use Sleepwalker for her own selfish goals.
- Implied Rape: The series doesn't really examine it, but Lullaby arguably raped her husband by manipulating him into marrying her. She also brainwashed some other married men to be her slaves, requiring them to let their wives see her lipstick on their shirt collars.
- No-Sell: Sleepwalker is immune to her voice powers since his species doesn't need to sleep.
- Puberty Superpower: Her powers manifested spontaneously when she was a teenager.
- Randomly Gifted: Her powers seemed to manifest out of nowhere. Given that they were a Puberty Superpower, she was likely a mutant who was never involved with the X-Men or any other mutant organization.
- Redhead In Green: Dresses in green.
- Squishy Wizard: Her powers made her very dangerous, but if you got past them she had no physical prowess or fighting skills.
Mindspawn
Mindspawn
Alter Egos: T'opali, Commander N'ogskak, Esk'odin, Sk'obe, Sv'ara
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #22 (March, 1993)
Minions of Cobweb. Battled the Sleepwalker.
Mr. FX
Mr. FX
Alter Egos: Unknown
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #8 (January, 1992)
A disturbed man whom was the greatest special effects artist in the world, and started kidnapping people for his own strange ideas.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name was never revealed.
- Sinister Shades: Wears a pair of glasses that make him look more sinister.
Psyko
Psyko
Alter Ego: Jeremy Roscoe
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #28 (September, 1993)
A nightmarish monstrosity created when serial killer Jeremy Roscoe became fused with a demon from the Mindscape. In addition to possessing all of Sleepwalker's warping powers, he has the additional ability to drive his victims mad just by looking at them. Oh, and he's batshit insane.
- Ax-Crazy: He was like this as plain old Jeremy Roscoe. It went From Bad to Worse afterwards.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: This is what happened to his victims.
- Evil Counterpart: Rick Sheridan is a good-natured Ordinary High-School Student who became fused with a heroic alien warrior from the Mindscape. Jeremy Roscoe became fused with a demonic entity from the Mindscape and turned into a hideous freak with warping powers like Sleepwalker's.
- Eye Beams: Not only can Psyko's eyebeams warp inanimate objects the way Sleepwalker's do, they can also induce madness in anyone they make contact with.
- Humanoid Abomination
- Mind Rape: Just about everyone he encounters, but Sleepwalker worst of all.
- More than Mind Control: He just about brainwashed Sleepwalker into murdering Spectra, something which would have permanently driven the alien hero insane.
- Serial Killer: This is what Roscoe was before he turned into Psyko.
- Two Beings, One Body: He's a human fused with a Mindscape demon.
Spectra
Spectra
Alter Ego: Serena Slate
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #13 (June, 1992)
Selena Slate came into possession of some 'synthetic diamonds' that transformed her body into a living rainbow of colors. Spectra can produce different beams of color, with each granting a power.
- Alien Catnip: The light emitted by the diamond is highly addictive for Sleepwalker, who has tried to kiss her for that.
- Alliterative Name: Serena Slate.
- All Your Colors Combined: Spectra's body glows with a variety of colors, each with its own type of power.
- Combo Platter Powers: Spectra could emanate beams of many different colors, each with its own property:
- A red (later yellow) Hard Light that Spectra could use as a battering ram or to create a ramp;
- A green light that could be used to project holograms;
- A blue light that created a freezing effect;
- A yellow (later orange) light that could burn its targets;
- A white light that could cause Mass Hypnosis or allow Spectra to use Telepathy;
- A green light that acted as a Laser Blade;
- A purple light that attacked its targets' nervous systems to act as The Paralyzer;
- An orange light whose exact properties were unclear but acted as an Alien Catnip for Sleepwalker.
- Comes Great Responsibility: Spectra uses her superpowers to get a legitimate job and get paid for it.
- Depending on the Artist: The art wasn't always consistent on which of Spectra's colors was related to which of her powers.
- Destructive Romance: She was in a relationship with a junkie named Garth who convinced her to steal the diamond to make him happy. When she thought Garth had shot her boss, she grabbed the diamond and was turned into Spectra. After that she came to see her boyfriend in a new light, rejected him and then blasted him with solid light.
- Energy Being: Her body is effectively a living rainbow of energy, generating light at different frequencies and for a variety of effects.
- Enemy Mine: One time she and Sleepy teamed up against Psyko. The villain tried to manipulate them into killing each other. He failed.
- Hand Blast: One of her many abilities.
- Heel–Face Turn: Eventually she became a vigilante and was even considered as a possible recruit for the Initiative during Civil War.
- Light Is Not Good: To go against Sleepwalker's Dark Is Not Evil, although she eventually made a turn for the better.
- Logical Weakness: Spectra wasn't immune to the effects of her own light, and it could be reflected back at her.
Tolliver Smith
Tolliver Smith
Alter Ego: Tolliver Smith
Notable Aliases: Colonel Smith
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #9 (February, 1992)
Colonel of Office of Insufficient Evidence. The Office of Insufficent Evidence is a branch of the federal government that's sent in to investigate incidents for which there isn't enough evidence to pursue a given suspect.
- Knight Templar: He's fanatically obsessed with catching and killing Sleepwalker. He has no problem ordering his men to drag civilians out of their beds in the middle of the night and mind raping them to try and find Sleepwalker. He and his men don't care about all the property damage they cause in the process.
- Meaningful Name: A fairly obvious reference to Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Thought Police don't care at all about the civil rights of the people they claim to protect or the damage they cause to anyone's person or property.
- Mind Rape: Colonel Smith has the Thought Police subject everyone in Rick's neighborhood to a painful mental scan in order to find whoever's holding .
- Mission Control: When the Thought Police plan to use Reed Richards' oscillo-jackets to track Sleepwalker, Colonel Smith plans to go with them. Reed insists on going in his place, and Colonel Smith is forced to be this trope with Ben Grimm.
- State Sec: The Thought Police have all sorts of high-tech gear that's better suited to a military unit than a police force. These include Powered Armor and laser rifles, tanks with metal nets that can catch flying targets, glass bubbles that can reflect and block energy attacks and goggles that act as a Clingy MacGuffin and prevent the wearer from releasing any energies building up inside them.
Thought Police
Thought Police
Alter Egos: Cuffs, Nightstick, Wiretap
First Appearance: Sleepwalker #14 (July, 1992)
An elite unit of the Thought Police that Colonel Smith uses to hunt Sleepwalker inside Rick's mind.
- Carry a Big Stick: Despite Nightstick's appearance, he's not using crutches. He wields a pair of large, heavy police batons and he uses them very well.
- Comm Links: The Thought Police project themselves into Rick's mind with Reed Richards' oscillo-jackets. Wiretap cam jam the signal that would pull the jackets' wearers out, leaving them free to attack Sleepwalker in Rick's mind.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Cuffs' gauntlets emit and control a sort of mudlike ooze that she can use to trap and restrain her targets.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted. The Thought Police are ready to sacrifice themselves to ensure Sleepwalker's death, but killing Sleepwalker and leaving Rick Sheridan brain dead is hardly heroic.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Their real names were never revealed.
- Shock and Awe: Wiretap can fire powerful electrical bolts.
- Two Guys and a Girl: Cuffs is the only female.
