Sleepwalker (comics)
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Sleepwalker is a Marvel Comics character created by Bob Budiansky, named after his race, and is the star of a self-titled comic book which ran for 33 issues from June, 1991 to February, 1994.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
The sleepwalkers were dream police. In that capacity, they apprehended any beings that invaded the sleeping minds of humans. Sleepwalker was tricked by his long time foe known as Cob Web (who like Sleepwalker had a real name that is unpronnouncable by human language) into entering the mind of one individual (a New York college student named Rick Sheridan) and became trapped.
After a few confrontations in Rick's dreams, Rick reacted by tearing off Sleepwalker's Imaginator (a badge like device worn by sleepwalkers used to teleport around their home plane The Mind Scape). This resulted in an odd situation further tying the two together. When Rick slept, Sleepwalker could materialize in reality or he could stay in Rick's mind and converse with him via his dreams. It was through a conversation in dreams that Sleepwalker was able to dispel Rick's initial fears that he was a malicious entity and work out agreeable terms to cohabitation.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Sleepwalker possesses super strength and flotation-like flight. His only offensive power was his "warp gaze". With this vision-based power, Sleepwalker could alter the shape of physical objects and twist them to his purposes. Sleepwalker initially demonstrated this power by using it to distort a sidewalk to capture a criminal. He also used this ability once on air molecules to create a wind tunnel for faster aerial travel.
He had three notable weaknesses: First, he would automatically disappear from the material plane at whatever point Rick would awaken from sleep. This would often lead to his current heroic endeavor being aborted before he could accomplish his given task. Second, the further he floated from the ground, the weaker he would get. The other weakness (which developed later in the series) was an addiction to certain types of light. This addiction became so overwhelming that Sleepwalker forced his way out of Rick's waking mind, putting the young man into a temporary coma.
[edit] Rogues gallery
Sleepwalker possessed a colorful gallery of mostly original villains, with a new one introduced each issue during the title's beginnings. Some of them could be considered corny even by the standards of their day. Some of them include the billiard based 8-Ball, ultra nerdy Bookworm, prison escapees The Chain Gang and hypnotic songstress Lullaby. These characters faded into obscurity faster than Sleepwalker himself and haven't been seen since the end of the series, save for 8-Ball who appeared briefly in the 2005 She-Hulk series and the Daughters of the Dragon mini-series.
[edit] Alternate versions
[edit] Marvel Team-Up: League of Losers
Sleepwalker features in an arc of Robert Kirkman's Marvel Team-Up (vol. 3), featuring a group of C-list heroes dubbed "The League of Losers". A group of heroes including Sleepwalker, Darkhawk, Dagger, Araña, X-23, Gravity and Terror (although Araña dies along the way) go to the future to prevent the villain Chronok from stealing Reed Richards' time machine, Chronok having come to the present and already having killed all of Marvel's major heroes.
It's revealed Chronok is from the same time period as Kirkman's Mutant 2099; the group stays with him and his mentor Reed Richards to wait for Chronok. During this time, Sleepwalker experiences difficulties with being away from his host Rick Sheridan, but ultimately comes to terms with it. The team defeats Chronok, but at the end of the story, Richards reveals they can't go back to their present, due to time-travel and alternate timelines. The group decides to stay in the future, satisified with the impact they made, however unnoticed. Mutant 2099 suggests reforming the Avengers or the "Fantastic Nine".
Note that due to the Marvel Universe's method for resolving time travel paradoxes, this story occurred in an alternate universe.
[edit] Background
Budiansky's concept dates to the late 1970s; however, he originally called the character Alien until the Ridley Scott film of the same name was released, at which point he shelved the character.
The character finally saw release in reaction to the DC Comics character Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman. Marvel, at the time, announced in a press release that Sleepwalker was "Sandman done right" [citation needed]. Most consider this arrogant at best: Sandman has gone on to become one of the most highly-regarded works in the medium, while Sleepwalker has remained obscure like many heroes introduced in the 1990s. He only made a few appearances in other Marvel comics when his own series was still running, and after the cancellation of his ongoing series Sleepwalker faded into limbo.
A second Sleepwalker character was planned to receive a self-titled series by Robert Kirkman in 2004 but instead debuted in the 2004 Epic Anthology, which was cancelled after one issue. The original Sleepwalker's next appearance was in Marvel Team-Up #15 nearly a decade after his original cancellation.
[edit] Trivia
An issue of Sleepwalker is shown in the comic book scene of the movie, True Romance. Christian Slater's character is shown skimming through the pages but the description he gives of the story is not what is actually happening in the comic book.
