lead-in-death_sponsors-uxman16-mostfullprofLEAD-INlead-in-death_sponsors-uxman16-headshot

Real Name: Unrevealed;
    possibly Lead-In

Identity/Class: Unrevealed (possibly a native and/or genetically-engineered being from the Mojoverse);
    resident and presumably a native of Mojoworld and the Mojoverse;

Occupation: Warrior serving in mergers and acquisitions (usually via combat)

Group Membership: Death Sponsors (Cancellator, Deadair, Sweepzweak, Timeslot)

Affiliations: Grandmaster (En Dwi Gast; perhaps indirectly), Mojo II;
    formerly Gringrave;

Enemies: Arize, Tina Cooke (of a "normal" Earth without super-beings, etc.; see comments), Goldon and Crimzor of the Scorpius Citadel, Gringrave, Mojo and his arena warriors, Pug-Smasher (Karl Snortenthau) of Earth-8311 ("Larval Earth"), Shatterstar (Gaveedra Seven), Dwayne Taylor of Earth-90214 ("Noir"), The End Woman of Earth-18140, X-Men (Archangel/Warren Worthington, Lucas Bishop, Colossus/Peter Rasputin, Iceman/Bobby Drake, Jean Grey, Storm/Ororo Munroe), Charles Xavier

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "My commercial-jumping assassin" (per Mojo II);
     "nubile young female" (per Iceman)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    last seen and potentially perished on Horus IV;
    previously Mojo II's citadel spire, Mojoworld

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men Annual#16 (1992)

lead-in-death_sponsors-uxman16-timeshiftPowers/Abilities: Lead-In can transport herself and/or others five seconds through time, allowing her to catch others unaware or to force a victim to relive a certain event.

    She can fire energy blasts able to shatter an ice platform several inches thick or pencil-thin laser beams

    She can lly, apparently via jets in her bootslead-in-death_sponsors-uxman16-flight

    She was also experienced in hand-to-hand combat

.

Height: Unrevealed (while note shown clearly in reference to someone of known height, she seems to be at least average height, if not taller, so perhaps 5'6-5'10")
Weight: Unrevealed (if human density, I would ballpark her at 120-140 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (never clearly shown with color...apparently light, perhaps green)
Hair: Black

History:
lead-in-death_sponsors-uxman16-varenawarriorslead-in-death_sponsors-uxman16-pg3-pan3(Uncanny X-Men Annual#16 (fb) - BTS) - Aided by Cancellator and the rest of the Death Sponsors, Mojo II took the battle of the network stars to Mojo on a counter-programming basis with a series of bootleg transmissions, developing a solid demographic audience base.

(Uncanny X-Men Annual#16) - Mojo's arena-warriors assaulted the citadel spire from which Mojo II pirated Mojo's airwaves, but the Death Sponsors made short work of them.

    As her teammates took down other arena-warriors, Lead-In kicked down yet another.

    When Deadair complained about the pathetic Mojo assault, Lead-In noted that if they wanted a show they had to take it to Mojo, and she advised that if one of their attackers left now, she would be there five-second before them.

     However, Mojo II then appeared and refused this action, noting that now was not the time for programming change, and that they would follow the schedule he prepared before the season began.

    Lead-In asked if he was sure (and called him "chief," which he told her not to do), and he noted that this attack proved that Mojo was panicking, but they would not take the battle to him but rather to his mistakes.

     Mojo II then sent his Death Sponsors to Earth to obtain one of three potential ratings bonanzas: Longshot, Spiral, or Arize; he further considered that regardless of whether they succeeded or failed, the effort would benefit their rival network.

    Arriving in the Ginza district of Tokyo, Japan, the Death Sponsors prepared to initiate their search; Lead-In congratulated Timeslot on getting them there.

    When Deadair announced that they would pursue Arize (whom they called the "Toymaker"), Lead-In contended that Spiral or Longshot would make for better ratings, but Deadair explained that ratings were not as important on this schedule (asking their pardon for his sacriligeous voicebox): Their primary schedule point was to embarass Mojo and bolster their pirate network in the eyes of the masses.

    Timeslot then transported them to just outside Xavier's mansion in Westchester, New York, where Arize had been brought after fleeing to Earth to escape Mojo.lead-in-death_sponsors-uxman16-blast

    Their arrival set off the perimeter security, alerting the X-Men, although Xavier's telepathic scans revealed nothing but garbled static (similar to his early probes of Arize). Archangel, Bishop, and Iceman headed to confront the arrivals, while Storm had Colossus, Jean, Xavier, and herself traveled to the medical facilities to watch over Arize.

    As the heroes arrived, Cancellator had Timeslot accompany her to seek out Arize while Lead-In, Deadair, and Sweepzweak remained to battle the arriving heroes.

    Iceman chose to confront the "nubile young female" (Lead-In), who noted it would be her honor and pleasure as she shifted five seconds in time, arriving behind him and shattering his ice sled with an energy blast from both hands. She corrected him that she wasn't really teleporting but noted that it was "quite effective in battle, no?" Forming a new sled to avoid hitting the ground, Iceman reluctantly agreed.

    Appreciating that as they fought, other attackers were approaching the mansion, Iceman formed ice over Lead-In's head and took off to confront the other two.

    Having freed herself of the ice, Lead-In attempted to ambush Bishop with a "pencilbeam" through the back of his neck as he battled Sweepzweak, but the returning Iceman warned him, and Bishop caught her arm and punched her in the jaw, flattening her.
lead-in-death_sponsors-shat3-fullish
    Bishop told her to "try shifting your way out of a broken jaw" (however, whether she truly had a broken jaw is unrevealed; she did have a bloody nose and mouth).

(Uncanny X-Men Annual#16) - After Timeslot and Arize were transported outside to the site of the conflict, Sweepzweak disrupted the mutants' access to their powers. lead-in-death_sponsors-shat1-dragtc

    As the Death Sponsors prepared to depart with Arize, however, Bishop leveled his gun at and threatened to kill Timeslot, but Sweepzweak held him at bay with the threat to kill all of the X-Men if he took down one of them.

    As Cancellator held the unconscious Lead-In over her shoulder, Deadair instructed Timeslot to cyberlink and take them home.

    Appreciating that Timeslot was teleporting them through an electronic mind-link, Bishop fired his rifile, shooting Timeslot in the head as they hit midport.

    The other Death Sponsor screamed and seemingly discorporated, while Arize, who was not linked to the cybernet, was spared and remained on Earth.

    Lead-In and the other Death Sponsors either recovered or were re-created....

(Shatterstar I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Gringrave employed the Death Sponsors in her plot against Shatterstar.

(Shatterstar I#1) - While Shatterstar was out watching a play, the Death Sponsors assaulted those present at his boarding house (or house with rooms for rent), including Pug-Smasher (Karl Snortenthau) of Earth-8311, Goldon and Crimzor of the Scorpius Citadel, the End Woman of Earth-18140, Dwayne Taylor of Earth-90214 ("Noir"), and Tina Cooke of a "normal" Earth without super-beings, etc. (see comments).

    Deadair snagged Pug-Smasher, Sweepzweak subdued Goldon and Crimzor, Cancellator punched out the End Woman, and Lead-In dragged Tina Cooke away.

(Shatterstar I#1 (fb)) - Outside Dwayne Taylor-90214's door, Timeslot paused and opened a portal to summon Gringrave.

(Shatterstar I#4 (fb) - BTS) -  Gringrave killed Timeslot and left Night Thrasher-90214 alive long enough to provide a clue to Shatterstar and unite him briefly with Rictor to encourage a dramatic pursuit.

(Shatterstar I#1 - BTS) - Shatterstar returned to his house to find the dying Dwayne Taylor, who told Shatterstar of the assault but noted how he had taken one of their with him, indicating Timeslot's corpse.

    Shatterstar viewed footage of the assaults via his laptop computer.lead-in-death_sponsors-shat4-full

(Shatterstar I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Needing transport to Horus IV to meet back up with the Grandmaster, Gringrave arranged this via former A.R.M.O.R. and S.W.O.R.D. engineer Dean Drukman, who ran Dockmaster and the Longshoremen, an ilicit interdimensional transport service.

(Shatterstar I#2) - The remaining members of the Death Sponsors (Cancellator, Deadair, Lead-In, Sweepzweak) were present alongside Gringrave as she prepared to transport the captive Tina Cooke, Crimzor, Goldon, Pug-Smasher, and The End Woman to Horus IV.

    As Drukman activated the portal, Shatterstar and Rictor arrived to stop them.

    Gringrave had the Death Sponsors take the captives through the portal to Horus IV, and she followed shortly thereafter, although Shatterstar made it through as well.

(Shatterstar I#3) - On Horus IV, as the Death Sponsors delivered their captives

(Shatterstar I#4) - After Shatterstar entered the gladiatorial arena (following Tina Cooke's transformation into a warrior and her death at Xeus' hands) and noted that while he would not kill for the Grandmaster's entertainment, he would instead have his revenge on the Death Sponsors, who had kidnapped his tenants, some of whom had died.
lead-in-death_sponsors-shat4-deadish
    The three remaining Death Sponsors -- Cancellator, Lead-In, and Sweepzweak -- then appeared above Shatterstar.

    Cancellator punched him in the face, but received the spiked handle of his sword in her face at the same time.

    Meanwhile Sweepzweak confused and deluded Shatterstar's mind, and Lead-In prolonged his pain by rolling back time 5 seconds with each attack, respectively.

(Shatterstar I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Shatterstar apparently took out Cancellator and Lead-In with his blades to and/or through their mid-sections.

(Shatterstar I#4) - As Cancellator and Lead-In lied in the sand in pools of blood, Shatterstar decapitated Sweepzweak.

(Shatterstar I#4 - BTS) - Gringrave then appeared, applauded, and then battled Shatterstar, ultimately falling victim to his falling on his own sword while embracing her, strategically avoiding deadly wounds himself while apparently killing her.

Comments: Created by Fabian Nicieza, Jae Lee, Jan Harps, and Joe Rubinstein.

    Kudos to Tim Seeley for bringing back the Death Sponsors after 26 years!

    If she can return from getting discorporated, a little impalement should not stop her for long...

    Earth-1218 is supposed to be the real world that the readers live in. Writers love to use characters from Earth-1218, but since we don't have any super-powers or interdimensional portals, etc., as soon as some interaction with an alternate reality or super-powered characters occurs, it becomes just another previously "normal" reality that has since diverged.
    So...Tina Cooke is not from Earth-1218. I'm sure there are multiple women on the real world named Tina Cooke, and maybe one or more of them is/are similar enough to be considered a counterpart of her.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Lead-In should be distinguished from:

images: (without ads)
lead-in-death_sponsors-shat3-covUncanny X-Men Annual#16. story pg. 2, panel 1 (profile; fighting arena warriors);
       pg. 3, panel 3 (kicking arena warrior);
       pg. 5, panel 4 (face);
       pg. 15, panel 2 (profile, arms raised);
       pg. 21 (flying);
       pg. 22, panel 1-2 (time-shift);
            panel 3 (blasting ice sled);
 Shatterstar I#1, pg. 11, panel 5 (dragging Tina Cooke);
    #3 cover (blasting Shatterstar)) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
       pg. 1, panel 2 (full, low detail);
     #4, pg. 6, panel 3 (warping time);
       pg. 10, panel 1 (lying in the sand)

Appearances:
Uncanny X-Men Annual#16 (1992) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Jae Lee (penciler), Jan Harps & Joe Rubinstein (inkers), Suzanne Gaffney (managing editor), Bob Harras (editor)
Shatterstar I#1 (December, 2018) - Tim Seeley (writer), Carlos Villa (penciler), Juan Vlasco (inker), Chris Robinson (assistant editor), Jordan D. White (editor)
 Shatterstar I#2 (January, 2019) - Tim Seeley (writer), Carlos Villa (penciler), Juan Vlasco (inker), Chris Robinson (assistant editor), Jordan D. White (editor)
 Shatterstar I#3-4 (February-March, 2019) - Tim Seeley (writer), Carlos Villa (penciler), Juan Vlasco with Carlos Villa (inker), Chris Robinson (assistant editor), Jordan D. White (editor)

First posted: 09/13/2024
Last updated: 09/13/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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