BLACK SWAN
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human mutant (German)
Occupation: Assassin
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: None;
formerly
Black Box (Garabed Bashur), Deadpool ("Wade Wilson"), Nijo;
formerly employed
Tyrell Farsa, Taskmaster (Tony Masters)
Enemies: Agent X (Nijo/"Alex Hayden"), Black Box (Garabed Bashur), Sandi Brandenberg, Deadpool ("Wade Wilson"), Tyrell Farsa, Outlaw (Inez Temple), Ratbag, Taskmaster (Tony Masters)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Mr. Black;
Schwarzer Schwan (German codename);
"Fancy Feast," "Fritzie," "Sparrow," "Swan,"
"Swan-boy"
Base of Operations: Presumably mobile;
formerly an
unidentified castle in Germany
First Appearance: Deadpool II#65 (May, 2002)
Powers/Abilities: Originally, the Black Swan had the telepathic ability to enter another's mind and unleash "viruses" into their brains, similar to a computer virus that infects a computer, only in the brain. The "viruses" affect the brain by erasing and corrupting memories and knowledge. They also affected the motor functions of those affected. The "viruses" eventually left the victim helpless and nearly brain dead.
When he had acquired some of the traits of Deadpool due to the merging of his, Nijo's and Deadpool's minds, he was able to heal at an accelerated rate.
Upon absorbing the powers of both Deadpool and Agent X into himself, he possessed nearly godlike psychic abilities, able to mentally force others to do his bidding and incapacitate others from varying distances. He could also fly, most likely via telekinesis, and could survive having a hole punched through his stomach, most likely due to his absorption of Deadpool's healing factor.
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 210 lbs.
Eyes: Variable with black sclera; formerly light brown
Hair: Dark brown with graying temples
History: (Deadpool Corps: Rank & Foul - Black Swan entry - BTS) -
Black Swan was
raised in the Bavarian Alps as an assassin, his aristocratic family's
profession for roughly 300 years. Keeping his true identity a secret,
the Black Swan gained a reputation as a gentlemanly assassin known for
his snob intolerance of rudeness.
(Deadpool II#68 (fb)) - A mercenary named Tyrell Farsa took a hit to win a prize horse, bringing him into conflict with the Black Swan and the Taskmaster. During the hit, a coup began in the country they were fighting in and it ended up being the three of them versus around seventy soldiers. Taskmaster and Farsa survived the coup and made it back to their departure point before the Black Swan did. Farsa decided to investigate Swan’s briefcase, only to find that it contained toiletries such as a hairbrush, a handkerchief, razorblades, a comb, etc. The Black Swan then arrived and demanded that Farsa cease his rummaging. Farsa replied with a sarcastic “sure” and then blew his nose on the Black Swan’s handkerchief. Angered, the Black Swan infected Farsa with a brain virus and smacked Taskmaster in the throat with his cane. The Black Swan then left the scene, leaving a choking Taskmaster and a feverish, mentally unstable Farsa behind. Farsa was left a paralyzed man who could not feed himself, go to the bathroom without help, or even look a picture of a swan without crying.
(Deadpool II#65) - After Deadpool came crashing through a restaurant rooftop, killing the rival gangsters known as the Four Winds, the Black Swan was seen holding a gun inside the restaurant. His appearance went mostly unnoticed as the Four Winds’ lackeys focused much of their attention on Deadpool, who had shot each of the Four Winds during his entrance.
After gaining such notoriety for killing the Four Winds, Deadpool decided to form Deadpool, Inc., a mercenary for hire business. His first customer phoned Deadpool, claiming that his talent was needed in Germany to kill a man who had killed innocent children. Upon arriving in Germany, Deadpool discovered that his victim was the Black Swan. The Black Swan also informed Deadpool that he was the one who called him as well. Swan claimed that assassination used to be a noble profession and that assassination had run in his family for three hundred years. Swan claimed that Deadpool was making the profession look bad. He explained that he was under contract to kill the Four Winds until Deadpool ruined it with his capering and stupidity. Black Swan then proceeded to beat Deadpool senseless with his cane, explaining that his stupidity was unacceptable in the field of assassination. After the beating, Swan explained that he had used his mutant power to infect Deadpool with a “virus,” that would delete and corrupt his brain. He then ordered his men to place Deadpool and his companion aboard a private jet back the United States and that they beat Deadpool to the point of death every fifteen minutes.
(Deadpool II#66) - Once Deadpool healed a bit from his beatings, he noticed that his aim was off. Nijo, an agent of the Black Swan, contacted Swan to inform him that the virus was causing Deadpool to exhibit mild aphasia and targeting problems. Nijo then explained that at Deadpool’s current weak state, he would be an easy kill. The Black Swan replied that he didn’t want him dead, just his reputation destroyed, and him crippled and humiliated. Swan explained that letting him live would be the final insult.
(Deadpool II#67) - The Black Swan once again was contacted by Nijo, who explained that the virus did not seem to be seriously affected Deadpool. He explained that Deadpool was able to rent a beach house and even defeat the super-villain known as the Rhino. While the conversation was going on, the Black Swan was also in the process of killing an unnamed German man.
(Deadpool II#69) - Nijo again contacted the Black Swan, who demanded that Nijo kill Sandi Brandenberg, who had recently been injured by her boyfriend, Jerry. Nijo declined, saying that he only had a vendetta against Deadpool, and no one else, and told the Swan to find someone else to do his peeping and spying. Later, Deadpool again traveled to the Black Swan’s German castle, where Nijo informed the Swan of Deadpool’s presence at the castle. Inside the castle, Deadpool confronted the Black Swan after destroying or damaging many of the Swan’s personal treasures. During their confrontation, Nijo exclaimed that Deadpool had killed his brother. The Black Swan, tired of Nijo, impaled him on his cane-sword and then turned his attentions toward Deadpool. Deadpool took that time to reveal that he was carrying a bomb and that he wanted Swan to fix the mentally diminished brain of his ally, Ratbag. Once the Black Swan did as Deadpool demanded, Deadpool told Ratbag to escape the castle and explained to the Black Swan that he had no intention of disarming the bomb. The two then battled furiously, sword against sword, while the Black Swan entered Deadpool’s mind and tried to find the disarming code for the bomb. Deadpool flooded his mind with images of his life, leaving the Black Swan off guard. Deadpool threw the Black Swan to the floor and rushed to read the disarming code off that he had written on his now-severed left hand. Unfortunately, he reached his hand too late and the bomb went off, destroying the Black Swan’s German castle, seemingly destroying both Deadpool and the Black Swan.
(Agent X I#14 (fb)) - In order to survive the explosion, the Black Swan telepathically absorbed Deadpool’s healing factor, although in the process of doing so, he also connected with the deceased mind of Nijo. During this process, all three individuals’ (Deadpool, Black Swan, Nijo) personality traits and special abilities were mixed together and distributed amongst the three of them. In Nijo's case, this created a new "Agent X" identity and allowed him to survive after his own death as a corpse with bits of everyone’s identities.
(Agent X I#13) - Three hundred miles from the eastern seaboard, aboard the Portuguese cargo ship, the Golfinho, three passengers attacked another passenger, who was revealed to be the Black Swan, who had survived the explosion of his castle. Later, when the mercenary known as Agent X, along with the Taskmaster and Sandi Brandenberg, returned to Sandi’s apartment, they found the Black Swan standing inside, along with Deadpool, who had also survived the explosion of Swan’s castle.
(Agent X I#14) - The Black Swan sat on Sandi’s couch,
with Taskmaster
pointing two guns at his head, and explained how he and Deadpool
survived.
He also explained that Deadpool’s memories were returning to him, due
to his healing factor. He then cut his own finger off and explained
that
by the time their conversation was finished, his finger would grow
back.
He explained how he and Deadpool had survived, and how the process had
created
Agent X. The Black Swan explained that he wanted his full personality
returned
to him and that is why he had returned to Sandi’s apartment with
Deadpool’s mindless form. Agent X agreed to go through with the
procedure
to restore everyone’s minds. At the theme park belonging to Agent X,
the Black Swan, Agent X himself, and Deadpool joined hands. The Black
Swan
then used his telepathic abilities to restore each of the others’
memories,
as well as Nijo’s sense of honor. Upon losing Nijo’s honorable
tendencies, the Black Swan double-crossed Deadpool and Agent X, and
absorbed
the full extent of everyone’s abilities into himself. Using his
newly-created godlike telepathic abilities, the Swan attempted to force
Sandi
to kill herself, only to be attacked by Agent X. The Black Swan blasted
Agent
X with a telepathic blast, but before he could kill Agent X, Deadpool
awoke
and joined the fight.
(Agent X I#15) - As the Black Swan and Deadpool
battled against one another,
Agent X regained consciousness and informed Sandi Brandenberg that he
suspected
a double-cross and had called in a few favors, leaving the amusement
park
surrounded by armed mercenaries. All of the mercenaries fired at the
Black
Swan, angering him. He unleashed a telepathic blast that incapacitated
all
of the armed gunmen, which served as a distraction while Deadpool and
Agent
X rushed toward Swan. Deadpool attacked first, although Black Swan used
his
supercharged telepathy to force Deadpool’s hand to slash Agent X with
his sword and also force Agent X to fire his guns at Deadpool. As Black
Swan
began his monologue describing his demands, one of Agent X’s allies
named Outlaw slid behind him and fired her guns into his back.
Unfortunately,
this caused Black Swan pain and further anger, which he unleashed
against
Outlaw, temporarily knocking her unconscious. Angered, Agent X jumped
at
Swan, kicking him in the face and knocking him to the ground. Using his
focus
on Deadpool and Agent X, Taskmaster jumped at Swan, unsheathing his
energy
claws from within his gloves, but was pushed back. While Swan now
focused
his attention on Taskmaster, Outlaw returned, with guns at the ready.
Black
Swan recognized her from Deadpool’s memories as “Crazy Inez,”
a name she was mockingly called as a child. Angered at his “Crazy
Inez” remark, Outlaw punched her fist through his stomach. Realizing
this did little damage to him, the Black Swan began to float above the
ground,
mentally attacking both Outlaw and Taskmaster. Deadpool rushed up to
him
and slammed him with a horse from the amusement park’s carousel,
pinning
him to a car. Agent X took the initiative next and fired a bullet into
the
car’s gas tank, causing it to explode. Agent X then walked up to
Swan’s body and used Swan’s power absorption to force Swan to feel
the feelings of Nijo’s death. Then, just to be on the safe side,
Taskmaster,
Deadpool, Outlaw, and Agent X fired their guns into Swan’s body,
killing
him. His body was subsequently stuffed by a taxidermist.
(Deadpool III#58 (fb)) - After a long search Black Box found and contacted Black Swan to offer him the job to kill Deadpool. Black Swan considered it impossible, but Black Box then revealed that it was possible now because Deadpool had lost his healing factor.
(Deadpool III#58) - Black Swan surprised Deadpool while he was sitting on the toilet and held him at gunpoint. He allowed Deadpool to flush the toilet first, unaware that it activated a landmine hidden in his toilet tank. Deadpool jumped into his bathtub to avoid the explosion, but Black Swan took the full brunt of the explosion. Black Swan survived, but was bleeding profusely from his neck. He used a telepathic suggestion to make Deadpool afraid of using weapons, so that he would not be killed by him. It worked at first, but Deadpool noticed it and started interrogating him with Yes or No questions while Black Swan kept bleeding.
(Deadpool III#60 (fb)) - Deadpool made a deal with Black Swan to work together against Black Tom and Black Box.
(Deadpool III#60 (fb) - BTS) - Deadpool brought Black Swan to a hospital to save his life.
(Deadpool III#59) - On Black Box's request Black Swan, who was watching the fight between Black Tom and Deadpool at an Eslo market in Amarillo, Texas, telepathically persuaded Black Tom to not kill Deadpool until Black Box arrived on the scene.
(Deadpool III#60 (fb)) - As soon as Black Box and Black Tom were both close enough Black Swan made them forget that Deadpool had lost his healing factor.
(Deadpool III#60) - Deadpool got caught in an explosion of a gas pump at Eslo, but Black Swan saved him and brought him to a motel room where he reminded Deadpool what he had done for him and that Black Tom and Black Box would not remember that Deadpool had lost his healing factor as long as Black Swan lived. Black Swan knew that the latter was a necessary precaution because he knew Deadpool. He suggested a partnership with Deadpool, but Deadpool angrily declined.
(Despicable Deadpool I#300 - BTS) -
Deadpool awoke from a comatose state in a mental hospital and after his
memories returned to him over a period of days, he emerged from his
hospital room announcing that the last thing he remembered was fighting
Black Box, Black Tom and Black Swan.
Comments: Created by Gail Simone and Udon Studios (Alvin Lee, Rob Ross, Eric Vedder, A-Zero, TR2).
Profile by Proto-Man and Spiderpool. Update by Markus Raymond (Deadpool III).
CLARIFICATIONS:
Black Swan, has no known connections to
Appearances:
Deadpool II#65-66 (May - June,
2002) - Gail Simone (writer), Udon
Studios (Alvin Lee, Rob Ross, Eric Vedder, A-Zero & TR2) (artists),
Mike Marts (editors)
Deadpool II#67 (July, 2002) - Gail Simone (writer), Udon Studios
(Alvin Lee, Rob Ross, Eric Vedder, A-Zero, Ken Siu-Chong, TR2 & The
RealT!) (artists), Mike Marts (editor)
Deadpool II#68-69 (August - September, 2002) - Gail Simone (writer),
Udon Studios (Arnold Tsang, Andrew Hou, Eric Vedder, Omar Dogan &
The RealT!) (artists), Mike Marts (editor)
Agent X I#13-15 (November-December 2003) - Gail Simone (writer), Alvin
Lee & Udon Studios (artists), Marc Sumerak (editor)
Deadpool Corps: Rank & Foul (May, 2010) - Jeff Christiansen (head
writer, coordinator), Mike O'Sullivan, Markus Raymond (writers,
coordination assistants), Mike
Fichera (writer, coordination assistant, art reconstruction), Michael Hoskin, Ronald Byrd, Jacob Rougemont,
Madison Carter, Kevin Garcia, Stuart Vandal, Chris Biggs, Rob London,
Sean McQuaid, David Wiltfong, Eric J. Moreels, Mike Gagnon (writers),
Gus Vazquez, Tom Chu (select character art), Pond Scum, Nelson Ribeiro,
Jerry Kalinowski (art reconstruction), Jeff Youngquist (editor)
Deadpool III#58-60 (September-November, 2012) - Daniel Way (writer),
Salva Espin (artist), Jordan D. White (editor)
Despicable Deadpool I#300 (July, 2018) - "The Marvel Universe Kills
Deadpool, Part Four" story - Gerry Duggan (writer), Scott Koblish,
Matteo Lolli, Mike Hawthorne (pencils, inks), Terry Pallot, Craig Yeung
(inks), Jordan D. White (editor)
First posted: 12/08/2004
Last updated: 09/29/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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