Sleeper (Marvel Comics)

Sleeper is the name of several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first Sleeper is the name of a series of five destructive robots created by the Red Skull. The second Sleeper is a Symbiote.

Publication history

The first Sleeper first appeared in Tales of Suspense #72 and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

The second Sleeper was created by writer Mike Costa and artist Mark Bagley and first appeared in Venom #165, while making its first named appearance in Venom: First Host #3.

Fictional character biography

Robots

Sleeper
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Tales of Suspense #72 (December 1965)
Created by	Stan Lee (writer) Jack Kirby (artist)
In-story information
Species	Robot
Team affiliations	Skeleton Crew
Notable aliases	SL-4, the Fourth Sleeper

The Sleepers are five robots who were created by the Nazis as agents of destruction. They attack various villages in Europe and attempt to destroy Earth by targeting its core before destroyed by Captain America.^[1][2]

The Machinesmith later restores one of the Sleepers and uses it to attack Avengers Island and free the robots incarcerated there. It is thwarted by Captain America and badly damaged before being repaired.^[3][4]

Symbiote

The Sleeper symbiote is the child of Venom, who initially keeps its existence secret from Eddie Brock.^[5][6][7][8] The two entrust Liz Allan with caring for Sleeper before it lobotomizes the Kree soldier Tel-Kar and takes over his body to explore the universe.^[9][10][11] In All-New Venom (2025), Sleeper bonds with Rick Jones.^[12]

Powers and abilities

The Fourth Sleeper's robotic materials, design, and construction provide it with superhuman physical abilities and limited artificial intelligence. It additionally has optic lasers and could formerly become intangible and generate thermal energy.

The Sleeper symbiote has all of the powers of the predecessor's first human host Spider-Man. It also possesses shapeshifting abilities, which it has used to assume a cat-like disguise.^[13] In addition, it is undetectable by Spider-Man's spider-sense and can generate various chemicals.^[7][14]

In other media

Television

• The original Sleeper robots appear in the "Captain America" segment of The Marvel Super Heroes.
• A Sleeper robot appears in the X-Men: The Animated Series episode "Old Soldiers".
• Robots similar to the Sleepers appears in the Spider-Man episode "Six Forgotten Warriors". They were created to protect the Red Skull's "doomsday weapon".
• Multiple Sleeper robots appear in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode "Winter Soldier".
• A Sleeper robot appears in the Avengers Assemble episode "The Sleeper Awakens", voiced by Liam O'Brien.^[15] This version is powered by the Red Skull's A.I. system, Skull-Net.
• A variation of the Sleeper robots known as Sleeper-Mechs appear in the fifth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., serving as shock troopers for HYDRA leader USAF General Hale. S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez later kills Hale's associate Anton Ivanov, disabling the robots in the process.

Video games

The Sleeper robot appears as the final boss of Captain America: Super Soldier. This version is a giant automaton of unknown origin that was discovered during the Middle Ages by Heller Zemo after his ancestor Harbin built Castle Zemo around it. Centuries later, during World War II, Heller's descendant Heinrich Zemo joins forces with Hydra to activate the Sleeper, only to be betrayed by them. Despite succeeding, Captain America destroys it.