BLACK SWAN

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human mutant

Occupation: Assassin

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Nijo (former), Taskmaster (former employee), Tyrell Farsa (former employee)

Enemies: Agent X (“Alex Hayden”), Sandi Brandenburg, Deadpool, Tyrell Farsa, Outlaw (Inez Temple), Ratbag, Taskmaster

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: presumably Mobile; formerly an unnamed castle in Germany

First Appearance: Deadpool III#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 affect the motor functions of those affected. The “viruses” eventually leave 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.

History:(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 Brandenburg, 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#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#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 Brandenburg, 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#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#15) - As the Black Swan and Deadpool battled against one another, Agent X regained consciousness and informed Sandi Brandenburg 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.

Comments: Created by Gail Simone and Udon Studios (Alvin Lee, Rob Ross, Eric Vedder, A-Zero, TR2).

Profile by Proto-Man and Spiderpool

Clarifications:

This character, Black Swan, has no known connections to

images:

Black Swan, with godlike psychic powers: Agent X#14, p21, pan1

Black Swan, before his power absorption: Deadpool II#65, p6, pan4

Deadpool III#65-66 (May - June, 2002) - Gail Simone (writer), Udon Studios (Alvin Lee, Rob Ross, Eric Vedder, A-Zero & TR2) (artists), Mike Marts (editors)
Deadpool III#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 III#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#13-15 (November-December 2003) - Gail Simone (writer), Alvin Lee & Udon Studios (artists), Marc Sumerak (editor)

Last updated: 12/09/04

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