BOOKWORM

 

BOOKWORM

Real Name: Nelson Gruber

First Appearance: Sleepwalker (Vol. 1) #4, September 1991

Powers: Nelson Gruber was originally a baseline human with no superhuman powers working as a laboratory assistant at Metropolitan University. He received his powers after conducting a sleep study on Rick Sheridan, the human host for the extra-dimensional vigilante known as Sleepwalker. During the study, he electronically recreated the synaptic patterns produced by Rick Sheridan's brain waves from when he and Sleepwalker were bonded and then amplified them. When his computer overloaded as a result, Gruber absorbed the energies of the Mindscape (Sleepwalker’s home dimension) that those patterns represented.

As Bookworm, he could summon those energies from the Mindscape and shape it into constructs that manifested as anything he read from the printed page. The speed at which he summoned multiple constructs in a row indicated that Bookworm was not actually reading each book he utilized for his powers, but merely focusing on the concepts the book represented. Although he chiefly used books to focus his power, it's likely anything that stimulated his imagination could potentially summon the energies necessary for his constructs. The constructs he formed were animated and even lifelike in their activities: Projections of King Arthur or Amazon warriors acted as Bookworm imagined they would, even after he left the immediate area and they operated without his direction. He could direct the actions of his constructs as well, commanding them to attack a particular opponent.

SPECTRA

 

SPECTRA

Real Name: Selena Slate

First Appearance: Sleepwalker #13, June 1992

Powers: Selena Slate was a laboratory assistant who was transformed into a superhuman being after making contact with a synthetic diamond being used for experiments in light. She can now transform into an energized state, generating a shifting spectrum of light colors from her body, as well as plumes of light-charged mist that wrapped around her body. Although her powers were innate, she carried the diamond to enhance and focus her abilities. Spectra is capable of flight and could project different forms of light offensively. She could generate blinding flashes of light, coherent laser beams, manipulate temperature to create intense heat or cold, and induce a neural jolt that caused tremendous pain to living creatures. Spectra could also manipulate light to cast illusions and bend visual patterns to make objects appear off center from where they actually sat. Her solid light constructs could form as battering rams, razor spikes, nets, etc.

COBWEB

 

COBWEB

Real Name: (unpronounceable by human standards)

First Appearance: Sleepwalker (Vol. 1) #3, August 1991

Powers: Cobweb is being from the psychic dimension known as the Mindscape. The Mindscape is equivalent to the astral plane, an extra-dimensional realm inhabited by sentient beings composed of pure thought, or representational matter. All human minds are linked through the Mindscape, and it is possible for denizens of the Mindscape to enter the minds of humans, influencing their dreams or causing them trauma or madness from their subconscious. A denizen of the Mindscape may be unable to find their way out of a human mind, though, either back into the Mindscape or out into the waking world. The beings known as the Sleepwalkers have long made it their purpose to patrol the Mindscape and guard defenseless minds everywhere from evil creatures who would invade other beings consciousness in order to feed upon their mental energies. One such creature was the being who would become known as Cobweb. Cobweb developed a rivalry with one Sleepwalker in particular, who defeated him many times over and banished him to the furthest reaches of the Mindscape. Cobweb eventually returned and lured his rival Sleepwalker into the mind of Rick Sheridan.

Cobweb appears composed of material that resembles webbing. He is elastic and durable, able to bend with impact to absorb attacks without suffering harm. His body can extend and reshape itself, increasing the length of his limbs or distorting his appearance. He can weave duplicates of himself, animating them from a distance with a single thread to divert his prey. Cobweb can influence the minds of other beings, creating illusions and false realities that mislead his opponents. These illusions can actually become reality over time if the victim believes them for too long. From his position in the Mindscape, Cobweb can scan the minds of human beings or monitor their waking activities, but whether this is a "power" or simply the nature of the Mindscape is unknown.

8-BALL

 

8-BALL

Real Name: Jeffrey Hagees

First Appearance: Sleepwalker (Vol. 1) #2, July 1991

Powers: Jeff Hagees was a designer of mission propulsion systems for a defense contractor. A compulsive gambler, he was fired by his employers who feared he'd sell defense secrets to pay his gambling debts. Furious, he created the costumed criminal identity of 8-Ball, basing his custom pool cue on his propulsion system work.

His pool cue worked as a force-amplification delivery system. By striking a target with the cue, the target would receive hundreds or even thousands of times greater directional force than the average strike of a pool cue would generate. With his own talent for billiards and angular geometry, 8-Ball could then launch objects as projectiles towards his true target to cause massive damage. The strike itself seemed to transfer force, not apply it: Striking a person with the pool cue would not hurt them with 100x greater force than normal, it would amplify the force they were experiencing from the strike, causing them to move with greater force and velocity, but without experiencing the impact that would normally be necessary to transfer that amount of force into their bodies. Whatever the pool cue launched them into would be a crushing impact, but getting hit by the pool cue itself would not. His costume was a billiards motif consisting of a bulletproof helmet and a variety of pool balls for throwing, some designed to act as grenades. He traveled aboard a hover rack in the form of a giant pool ball.

Jeffrey Hagees holds a masters degree in engineering. A gifted intellect and inventor, he is a skilled gymnast, an expert pool player, and an experienced designer of missile propulsion system.

SLEEPWALKER

 

SLEEPWALKER

Real Name: (unpronounceable by human standards)

First Appearance: Sleepwalker (Vol. 1) #1, June 1991

Powers: The being called Sleepwalker is a native of the Mindscape, a dimension which borders the unconscious minds of all living beings. He belongs to a group of guardians of the Mindscape called Sleepwalkers who are sworn to prevent the evil beings of their realm from entering the minds of innocents.

A disastrous encounter with one such foe left him trapped in the mental landscape of a human, Rick Sheridan. Whenever Rick falls asleep or unconscious, Sleepwalker materializes out from Rick's mind into our world. When Rick wakes up, Sleepwalker returns to his mind, fading from physical existence wherever he is on Earth at the time. He possesses Class 10 strength and superhuman endurance, reflexes, and resistance to physical injury. His primary power is his warp-vision, which is capable of manipulating matter in a number of ways. Sleepwalker can cause inanimate objects to seemingly come to life and attack his opponents, inducing fences or lamp posts to wrap around and entangle a victim or the street to rise up and strike someone or immobilize them in place. He could redirect the direction of matter, such as causing a burst water main to turn at a right angle and strike a specific target. Warping matter also allows him to "stretch" it in some way, like when he wrapped a mugger in a playground swing, then caused the posts the swing set was mounted with to shoot up more than 50 feet tall. Sleepwalker has taken an oath never to use his warp-vision on living beings, because the disruptive effect in excruciatingly painful and could prove fatal if not immediately reversed.

Sleepwalker possesses telescopic vision and can see in different wavelengths of light beyond the human range thanks to his warp-vision, and can project two-dimensional images in mid-air that replay anything he has seen in the past. He cannot manipulate or animate these images, but merely show exactly what is in his visual memory. As an extension of his warping effect, Sleepwalker is capable walking on air by projecting auras of energy from his feet. He is capable of mentally controlling the height of his levitation, but cannot move through the air any faster than he can walk or run, unless he uses his warp-vision to construct a wind tunnel in order to propel him at high speeds. Sleepwalker is dependent on energy from the Mindscape in order to sustain his powers and survive, and so if Rick remains unconscious for too long a time, Sleepwalker will begin suffering ill-effects. Fortunately, the normal human sleep cycle seems to be short enough that it doesn't affect Sleepwalker, and only in rare cases has this been a problem. Also, Sleepwalker's powers are inexplicably tied to contact with the ground, meaning that he becomes weaker the higher up in the air he levitates, and is rejuvenated by returning to Earth. While in the Earth's dimension, he is resistant to it's native magic, even to that of its Sorcerer Supreme.