Publisher Marvel Comics Creators Stan Lee, Jack Kirby | Team affiliations Skeleton Crew Affiliation Skeleton Crew | |
 | ||
Created by Stan Lee (Writer)
Jack Kirby (Artist) Notable aliases SL-4, the Fourth Sleeper First appearance Captain America #101 (May 1968) Similar Machinesmith, Doctor Faustus, Aleksander Lukin, Bernie Rosenthal, Spirit of '76 | ||
Sleeper is the name of several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Sleepers are depicted as a series of destructive robots created by the Red Skull.
Contents
Fictional character biography
The Sleeper was the most powerful of four robots designed in Berlin by Nazi Germany as agents of destruction. After World War II, the Sleeper was entombed within a crypt that was sunk into the sea. The first three robots were activated by agents at a certain time in European villages, consisting of a giant human-like robot with blaster rays, a winged robot, and the 'brain', which resembled the Red Skull and was a powerful bomb. Despite Captain America and the personnel of a nearby US Army base's attempts to stop them, the robots combined and flew towards the North Pole. While in pursuit with the military, Captain America surmises that the first Sleeper would use its blasts to dig into the ice, enabling the robot to travel into the Earth and explode, destroying the world, as the Red Skull had vowed that if he could not conquer the world, he would destroy it. To prevent this, Captain America is able to board the combined vehicle in midair and detonate the bomb early with a flamethrower, destroying the three Sleepers. The crypt containing the Fourth Sleeper was retrieved from the sea in modern times, and when the Sleeper reactivated it destroyed a seacoast smelting factory and battled Captain America. The Sleeper was ultimately rendered intangible by a "sonic crystal". Similarly, the Red Skull later activated a fifth Sleeper, only to have it stopped by Captain America as well.
The fourth Sleeper was later restored to tangibility by the Machinesmith and was used as a "Trojan horse" to gain entrance onto Avengers Island in order to liberate the various robots incarcerated there. It was thwarted by Captain America, and badly damaged.
The damage done to the fourth Sleeper was later repaired by the Machinesmith. The Sleeper was animated by the Machinesmith to join the Skeleton Crew in search of the missing Red Skull. It battled Hellfire Club mercenaries, and the Black Queen. Replicas of the five Sleeper robots were then pitted against Captain America and Diamondback.
Powers and abilities
The fourth Sleeper's robotic materials, design, and construction provide it with superhuman strength, stamina, durability, and reflexes. It possesses a limited artificial intelligence, with a capacity for limited self-motivated activity. The Sleeper is programmed to be moderately proficient at hand-to-hand combat. The Sleeper has repulsor-ray blasters mounted in its eyesockets.
Originally the fourth Sleeper could alter its density from its natural tempered steel form to total intangibility. The circuits that controlled this function have burned out and have not been replaced. The vibration of a certain "sonic crystal" caused the Sleeper's intangibility control to malfunction. The Sleeper originally could also generate "volcanic" thermal energy and project it through its face-plate. This function has also apparently been eradicated.