SWEEPZWEAK
Real Name: Unrevealed;
possibly Sweepzweak
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, Lead-In, 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 broadcast drainer" (per Mojo II);
"Sweepzie" (from Cancellator);
"ugly" (from Bishop)
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
last seen on Horus IV;
Timeslot last seen in Shatterstar's boarding house in College Point, Queens, New York
previously Mojo II's citadel spire, Mojoworld
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men Annual#16 (1992)
Powers/Abilities:
Sweepzweak absorbs energies and/or neutralizes powers.
He can also sense
ambient energies, some of which he finds to have a good "taste."
He is strong enough to grapple with the powerfully-built but not superhumanly strong Bishop.
Height: Unrevealed (he seemed to tower over Bishop, although he was forcing him backwards...perhaps 6'8" to 7' tall or taller)
Weight: Unrevealed (at human density at 6'8", I would ballpark
him at 375-400 lbs.; however, we have no idea whether he would be
heavier or lighter than human)
Eyes: Solid red (no visible iris or pupil)
Hair: None (although he has metallic strands mimicking hair)
History:
(Uncanny
X-Men Annual#16 (fb) - BTS) - Aided by Sweepzweak 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. Sweepsweak drained energies from a green
warrior and noted with amusement as Timeslot time-danced a cat-thing's brains, leading Deadair to advise Sweepzweak, "Less
transmission, more bombardment!"
(Uncanny
X-Men Annual#16) - Mojo II then arrived and noted
that this attack proved that Mojo was panicking; however, 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; Sweepzweak noted that the "ozone
airwreck" and "electricity overload" tasted good.
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.
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 Sweepzweak, Deadair, and Lead-In engaged the arriving heroes; Sweepzweak noted, "Wings. ice. Archangel. Iceman. Glory two with unknown third (referring to the recently-joined Bishop). The show begins!"
Sweepzweak grabbed Bishop by the neck, noting his
face did not scan and that he preferred to combat high-definition
targets: "You are commercial airtime, at best." Bishop assured him he would try to oblige him by blowing his head off. As their struggle continued, Sweepzweak noted, "Me energy disrupter, you energy channeler. Evensteven, staticsuck, no?"
After Lead-In attempted to ambush Bishop and he
punched her out, Bishop turned back to Sweepzweak and noted, "Your turn," but Sweepzweak mockingly replied, "Talk. Talk. Talk."
They were interrupted by Colossus being punched out of the Xavier
mansion, and Sweepzweak proudly noted, "Cancellator primetime!"
Taking advantage of the distraction, Sweepzweak
noted "Advantage ours. Breathing room mine. Sweepzweak disruption time.
Flash and burn! Primetime" as he disrupted the mutants' access to their
powers.
As the Death Sponsors prepared to depart, Bishop leveled his gun
at and threatened to kill Timeslot, but Sweepzweak held him at bay with
the threat that the Death Sponsors would kill all of the X-Men if he took down one of them.
When Deadair instructed Timeslot to cyberlink and
take them home, Bishop -- 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.
Sweepzweak and the others either recovered or were recreated...
(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,
allegedly of Earth-1218 (see comments).
Deadair snagged Pug-Smasher, Sweepzweak subdued
Goldon and Crimzor, Cancellator punched out The End Woman, 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.
Timeslot assaulted Dwayne Taylor.
(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.
(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 rest 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, after the Death
Sponsors delivered their captives, Sweepzweak was got a
"skullthrob from the airwave overload/jingle salvo from their sponsors.
Gringrave instructed Sweepzweak to get his eyes on the game, and as he
tried to apologize, Tina Cooke ran away, although the Grandmaster
stopped her.
(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.
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.
Sweepzweak is a reference to Sweeps week, which is actually a month
during which television viewing is recorded as part of the Nielson
ratings to determine the cost of advertising. You can look it up for
more information.
Kudos to Tim Seeley for bringing back the Death Sponsors after 26 years!
If he can return from getting discorporated, a little decapitation should not stop him for long...
On a similar note, Sweepzweak was more uniformly
silver in Uncanny X-Men Annual#16 but more golden-bodied with green
hair in the Shatterstar issues...perhaps a result of reconstruction,
restoration, etc...or maybe it was just a fashion choice...
Earth-1218 is supposed to be the
real world that the readers live in. Writers love to think they are using 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:
Sweepzweak should be distinguished from:
- SWEEPER ( ) - assassin, used by
the mob, worked
for Kingpin in the past, hired by Roman to terminate Wolverine--Wolverine II#183
- other "Sweep" characters, groups, items, events, races or places...
images: (without ads)
Uncanny X-Men Annual#16, story pg. 3, panel 1 (draining arena warrior);
pg. 5, panel 2 (face shot, straight-on);
pg. 13, panel 2 (arrival in Tokyo);
pg. 19, panel 4 (vs. Bishop);
pg. 27, panel 1 (neutralizing powers);
Shatterstar I#1, pg. 10-11, panel 4-5 (zapping Goldon and Crimzor);
#4, pg. 10, panel 1 (decapitated)
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: 09/17/2024
Last updated: 09/17/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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