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    Sleepwalker

    Character » Sleepwalker appears in 178 issues.

    Sleepwalker is a guardian of the Mindscape, a dimension that borders on the minds of all intelligent life. Now trapped in the mind of Rick Sheridan. When Rick sleeps, Sleepwalker escapes.

    Short summary describing this character.

    Sleepwalker last edited by SlamAdams on 07/27/23 04:31PM View full history

    Origin

    Sleepwalker emerging from a sleeping Rick
    Sleepwalker emerging from a sleeping Rick

    In the Mindscape, a world where strange creatures live that borders on the minds of all intelligent life, there is a team of beings that protect the sleeping minds of humans. For if they were not protected, dangerous beings would enter the minds of sleeping humans. One of the beings that protects the human minds, what humans call 'Sleepwalker', was tricked by his enemy, Cobweb, into entering the mind of Rick Sheridan. After confronting Sleepwalker in many of his dreams, Rick tore off Sleepwalker's Imaginator. This caused Sleepwalker and Rick to bond together. Now, whenever Rick Sheridan goes to sleep, Sleepwalker materializes into reality.

    Rick Sheridan eventually discovered that the alien Sleepwalker was truly within his mind. In order to find out why Sleepwalker was inside his mind, and what his intentions were, Rick tried to communicate with him by writing and through an old tape-recorder. Sleepwalker would emerge when Rick was asleep, and would communicate back to Rick, whom would find the messages as soon as he woke up. Through this, Rick understood that Sleepwalker was a protector for the good, but was trapped inside Rick with no way out. The presence of Sleepwalker took it's toll on Rick, as he soon started to fail classes, and the relationship with his girlfriend Alyssa Conover soon got strained.

    Creation

    Sleepwalker was created by Bob Budiansky and Bret Blevins and first appeared in Sleepwalker issue 1 (1991). With the publication of Sleepwalker, a long dream of writer Bob Budiansky was finally fulfilled, as he had the plans for Sleepwalker as early as the late 1970's.

    Major Story Arcs

    Color-Blindness

    Sleepwalker's first addiction
    Sleepwalker's first addiction

    Sleepwalker struggled with the waking world. A number of people he had saved reacted with utter fear. He had run-ins with Spider-Man and Deathlok mistaking each other for villains before finally teaming up against some other costumed criminal. And when he finally seemed to know who the hero was with Ghost Rider, the Rider proved to be more aggressive than Sleepwalker deemed necessary.

    He was starting to get cynical about his new home when he finally found something that brought him joy: a diamond that was giving off special lights thanks to experiments being done by his new scientist friend. Dr. Fong. He quickly grew addicted to the light and was acting out, going as far as to force Rick unconscious so he could be freed to experience the light.

    His presence also ruined a lab assistant’s plan to steal the diamond. When she decided to finally grab it, it backfired and turned her into a living rainbow called Spectra. Sleepwalker initially fought her over the diamond, but when he finally saw the damage he was doing to Rick, he turned his attention to his host. Rick had fallen into a coma trapping both Rick and Sleepwalker on Rick’s mindscape at the same time. They were forced to fight the Thought Police, who invaded the mindscape looking for Sleepwalker for mercenary, Tolliver. By beating the Thought Police, Sleepwalker rebuilt his trust with Rick and snapped him out of his coma.

    Portals of Power

    Darkhawk and Sleepwalker team up
    Darkhawk and Sleepwalker team up

    A teleporter named Portal, who was dressed in armor similar to Darkhawk’s, got Sleepwalker’s attention. He had seen this being move through the mindscape before, thus he believed the armor could serve as his way home. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was also trying to get the armor for their own dastardly needs, requiring Spider-Man and Darkhawk to protect him. Sleepwalker ended up scaring him away to Darkhawk’s chagrin, but Spider-Man, knowing both are heroes, talks them into working together.

    The Brotherhood are able to get to Portal first. Sauron used his hypnosis to make Portal work with them, robbing a weapons cache. Sleepwalker and his new allies get the drop on them in the streets, and when the Brotherhood use Portal to make a getaway, Spider-Man gets trapped in a different universe, forcing Sleepwalker and Darkhawk to work without a mediator.

    Together, they tracked down the Brotherhood and chased them off. Sleepwalker was able to free Portal from his mind control, for which Portal offered him one favor. Rather than use it to get himself home, he used it to return Spider-Man.

    Infinity Saga

    Rick disappears
    Rick disappears

    Rick was instantly wiped from existence by Thanos, the Mad Titan after he got hold of the Infinity Gems, along with 50 percent of all beings in the universe. Rick was asleep at the time of his disappearance, so Sleepwalker was free and ready to fight, alongside many other heroes, to stop Thanos. This eventually worked out, and all beings whom had seemingly died where returned to life, including Rick, whom could not remember anything.

    While fighting off evil doppelganger’s of Marvel heroes working under orders from Magus, Sleepwalker is contacted by a group of powerful telepaths: Professor X, Moondragon, Jean Grey, and Psylocke. They needed his help as a living transmitter to broadcast their message of hope to everyone on Earth, so they could fight back against Magus' mental attack.

    Some time later, Sleepwalker was one of thirty brainwashed heroes enlisted by the Goddess, Magus' opposite. She intended to use her superhero army to abolish evil, including humanity which couldn't live with good and evil. The non-brainwashed heroes trying to stop her but were forced to fight their friends. When Adam Warlock revealed her true intentions, it shocked the brainwashed heroes out of their trance who defeated Goddess and destroyed her weapon, The Cosmic Egg.

    Mindfield

    Sleepwalker and Rick merged
    Sleepwalker and Rick merged

    Cobweb makes another play at taking out Sleepwalker. He enlisted the Chain Gang, a group of super criminals that were among Sleepwalker’s earliest encounters, to kill Rick while he was awake (and by extension Sleepwalker). They have been trapped in the mindscape since their first fight with Sleepwalker, so they needed a host to fall asleep in order to materialize in the waking world. After hopping out of Rick’s dog, Rambo, and later Alyssa, his ex. Worried about the danger, Rick finally opened his mind to Sleepwalker, merging them into a single entity. After fighting off the Chain Gang, Rick was exhausted. He passed out, giving Sleepwalker full control of their body. He was able to push them apart, but their minds were in the wrong places.

    Unfortunately, in this situation, they went back to only one of them being awake at a time. While Sleepwalker in Rick’s body was at the mercy of a Chain Gang controlled Alyssa, Rick in Sleepwalker’s body was pulled out of Sleepwalker’s memories and into The Mindscape by Cobweb. He delighted in throwing Rick to the demons of The Mindscape, each a different personification of despair: Depression, Paranoia, and Manic. He was ultimately saved by fellow Sleepwalkers, who Cobweb disposed of, so Rick could return to the waking world traumatized.

    He found Sleepwalker asleep in a bar and seemingly about to be killed by Alyssa, however, Alyssa. With no other option, Rick used the Warp Gaze on her, exposing her to both physical and emotional pain. Just then, Sleepwalker awoke without Rick disappearing. He chastised Rick for using the Warp Gaze on a living being. Suspecting the Chain Gang’s powers have something to do with their current predicament, Sleepwalker convinced Rick to seek out the Chain Gang and use them to return them to their own bodies. They do this in exchange for saving the Chain Gang from the Mindscape. Now that they had returned to their proper bodies, they were also no longer linked.

    Sleepwalker Betrayal

    Sleepwalker sneaking up on Rick
    Sleepwalker sneaking up on Rick

    Sleepwalker seemingly betrayed Rick during an invasion of what seemed to be other Sleepwalkers. Sleepwalker had walked up to a sleeping Rick and asked his fellow Sleepwalkers if he could be the one to kill his old host. Many heroes thought for some time that Sleepwalker had indeed turned evil, but this was far from the truth. As it turned out, Sleepwalker had not 'slain' Rick, but actually stored his essence inside a mystical blade, having Rick to appear dead (and safe from further harm). It turned out that the beings whom pretended to be Sleepwalkers where actually troops of Sleepwalker's enemy Cobweb. Sleepwalker however managed to avert the invasion of Cobweb's troops and restored Rick to his normal self.

    Cobweb wanted to finally defeat Sleepwalker so he devised a plan. Cobweb would disguise his minions as Sleepwalker's race and make everyone believe that Sleepwalker was their leader. Then, everybody would hate Sleepwalker. The plan went into action. Sleepwalker and the Avengers stopped the invasion, but the public still believed that Sleepwalker was the leader of a race that was going to try to take over. Cobweb attacked again, but Sleepwalker defeated him for good, banishing him. Sleepwalker appeared to die but had actually re-bonded to Rick.

    Operation: Lightning Storm

    Machine Man and Sleepwalker: Reporting for Duty
    Machine Man and Sleepwalker: Reporting for Duty

    After the Superhuman Registration Act was passed, Rick registered after Alyssa was hit by a taxi and killed. It was an impulsive move to try and resolve his feeling of purposelessness. They were assigned by Maria Hill to Operation: Lightning Storm, a small strike team that was Carol Danvers pet project. They would track dangerous villains before they became Avengers level threats. To make Rick more useful, he is given a special gadget that uses transcranial magnetic stimulation to induce slow wave activity in his brain, guaranteeing him to be asleep for three hours so that Sleepwalker can routinely be on missions.

    On one of their missions, they went to Chile to investigate the largest Missing Persons Per Capita in the world and uncovered a scheme run by Puppet Master, who had a few female superhumans in his trance. While Danvers was kidnapped by an alien and brought to Monster Island, the team went on a rescue mission and ended up exterminating a new colony of the Brood.

    Their last mission together was when they were assigned to bring Danvers in as a Skrull imposter during Secret Invasion. However, Danvers was never properly replaced, so unlike most of the Secret Invasion imposters, the real Danvers was still around, forcing the team to make a decision over who was the real one. Unfortunately, the Skrull imposter self-destructed, destroying the mini helicarrier they used as a base. Rick Sheridan was fatally wounded in the crash, and Sleepwalker abandoned his team to get him medical attention.

    Rick ultimately survived, but the team never reunited.

    Franklin’s Mindscape

    Leading the charge into The Mindscape
    Leading the charge into The Mindscape

    The mysterious Quiet Man has been targeting the Fantastic Four’s reputation. Part of his plan was releasing creatures from Franklin Richards’ mind, which resulted in SHIELD taking the Future Foundation away from Reed and Sue Richards. Jim Hammond, agent of SHIELD, sided with the Fantastic Four, using SHIELD files to locate Sleepwalker and help them investigate the issues with Franklin’s mindscape.

    Rick was worried that his grief over his dead girlfriend has been affecting Sleepwalker’s enthusiasm, however, when he is awoken, Sleepwalker is more than ready to help. He opens a portal and leads Franklin, Invisible Woman, Namor, and Hammond into the Mindscape. They find Psycho-Man at the heart of Franklin’s dreamscape. By keeping the Psycho-Man busy, Franklin is free of the mental block that was stopping him from de-materializing the monsters born from his own imagination.

    Soul World

    Sleepwalker separates Rick and Nick
    Sleepwalker separates Rick and Nick

    On her quest to retrieve the fragment of her soul stranded inside the Soul Gem, Gamora folded reality on Earth, merging pairs of souls and depositing them into the world within the Soul Gem for Devondra to feed on. When Rick was combined with Nick Fury, Sleepwalker was disconnected from him and sent back to his people, who reassigned Sleepwalker and warned him to stay away from the incident on Earth.

    Sleepwalker refused those orders and went searching for this Soul World to save everyone. As a Sleepwalker, he is connected to the Mind Gem, and in order to continue, he needed to find merged souls that were connected to the other gem, now that they are working as a circuit. Sleepwalker’s movements did not go unnoticed by the psychics working for S.L.E.E.P. (Merged Soul World’s version of S.H.I.E.L.D.).

    Sleepwalker was confronted by Rick Fury, but as he attacked, Sleepwalker dragged him into the Mindscape. They found the Mindscape in chaos thanks to the souls being merged. Sleepwalker un-merges Rick and Fury and together round up the other Sleepwalkers to fight the nightmares. They hold them off long enough for the other heroes to undo what Gamora had started

    In light of this, Sleepwalker was able to convince his fellow Sleepwalkers to take a more proactive role.

    Demon Gate

    Sleepwalker was investigating a number of dream related crimes in San Francisco, where he met and partnered with Hellcat. Unfortunately, he was suspended from his job when the other Sleepwalkers suspected he may have killed Spalding Gratham, the man who was dating Hellcat. His human host, Rick Sheridan, believed it might have been due to his feelings for Patsy, and Sleepwalker had suspected Spalding may have been the mastermind behind the dream crimes. Together, they find out that Spalding was employed by Blackheart to create the Exile Gate, a mystical doorway that unmakes anyone who passes through, even in the afterlife.

    Sleepwalker and Hellcat partner up
    Sleepwalker and Hellcat partner up

    Hellstorm had convinced Spalding to turn it into a different doorway that would turn people into their true forms, powered by Sleepwalker's imaginator. Hellstorm wanted to turn Hellcat back into his demon lover. This transformation confirmed Patsy's suspicions that she was Spaulding's killer deep down. Sleepwalker attempted to confront them. To stop Sleepwalker from getting power from the imaginator, Hellstorm knocked it out of the door frame. This caused one last flash of energy which sent visions to the sleeping Rick. He saw the truth that Spaulding killed himself using the imaginator after going mad from magically seeing the demonic influence of Hellstorm inside her.

    Rick awoke, causing Sleepwalker to disappear, and ran to Pasty's side. He told her what he saw and convinced her to go through the doorway again this time without Hellstorm's manipulations. Physically, she returned to normal, however, she was nearly catatonic, repeating the phrase "Good, Bad, Who's to say?" over and over. Rick assured Patsy's superhero friends that he would check in on her at psychiatric hospital.

    Character Profile

    No Caption Provided
    • Height: 7'
    • Weight: 331 lbs
    • Eye Color: Red
    • Hair Color: None
    • Citizenship: The Mindscape
    • Marital Status: Single
    • Occupation: Mindscape peacekeeper
    • Known Relatives: Rick Sheridan (human host)
    • Distinguishing Features: Green skin, bug eyes, and no visible nose, all of which are common in people of his alien race.

    Powers and Abilities

    Sleepwalker Physiology: Sleepwalker has super strength, enhanced durability, resistance to injury, and mental attacks, and flight.

    Floating above a sleeping Rick
    Floating above a sleeping Rick
    • Warp Gaze: He also has an ability called the Warp Gaze, a vision- based power which allows him to manipulate the matter it falls upon. As a law enforcer of the Mindscape, he has sworn not to use it any living entity, because it can cause extreme pain to the organism as well as showing them their worst nightmares.
    • Mental Amplifier: He also has an amplifying effect on mental powers by being present - he was used as a mental amplifier by Professor X, Jean Grey, Psylocke and Moondragon during the Infinity War.

    Sleepwalker Weapons: As a member of a dream police, Sleepwalker possesses a specialized weaponry

    • Imaginator: which allows him to teleport himself or someone else to anywhere he can imagine.
    • Mindrake: Can be used to separates someone's mind from their body with varying degrees of completeness. A skilled wielder could completely remove the mind whereas less skilled users would leave stray thoughts behind.

    Alternate Realities

    Earth-6215

    On Earth-6215 Sleepwalker has been separated from Rick Sheridan, and is a member of the League of Losers. He takes control of peoples dreams and uses them to alter reality.

    Cosmic Stranger

    In a flashback narrated by a Deathlok, Sleepwalker can be seen as a member of a previously assembled team of Cosmic Strangers. It is not clear when on the timeline he was pulled from.

    In Other Media

    Merchandise

    Marvel Legends
    Marvel Legends
    • Sleepwalker was featured in the HeroClix figure game.
    • Sleepwalker was featured in Hasbro's Marvel Legends line as part of the Rintrah Build-a-Figure wave.
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