Sleeper (Comic Book)

A comic book series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, set in the Wildstorm universe, combining Noir and superheroes. Originally introduced as 12-issue mini-series (March, 2003-March, 2004). It spawned the one-shot "Coup D'Etat: Sleeper" (April, 2004) and the sequel "Sleeper: Season 2". The later was another 12-issue series (August, 2004-July, 2005). Sleeper was preceded by a 5 issue miniseries called Point Blank that effectively acts as a prelude, so tropes present in Point Blank are discussed here.

Holden Carver used to be a black ops operative for the American government agency known as International Operations. When his late father was revealed to have been a traitor, Carver stole a retrieved alien artifact and went rogue, eventually joining a syndicate of super-powered criminals run by supervillain Tao (formerly of the Wild CATS).

Except that's not true. Carver unintentionally became bonded with the artifact while on a mission; he was recruited to infiltrate the syndicate by his mentor John Lynch. The preceding is just a cover story.

That is until a failed assassination attempt sent Lynch into a coma, and the cover story became, for all intent and purposes, reality. Carver then has to find his own way out while doing more and more questionable things to maintain his cover.

Has a character sheet.

Not to be confused with the Woody Allen film.

Tropes used
"Veronica: He's a terrorist, Holden. He's destabilized governments across the globe. He's killed innocent people, and God knows what he's done that we don't know about. Carver: What kind of black ops do you think I did for I.O.? Destabilizing governments, killing innocent people and lots of stuff you really don't want to know about. Veronica: That's not the same. With I.O. there's a greater purpose... Carver: Is there? Or is it just covert imperialism? Dead children are still dead children at the end of the day, Veronica... they don't care about the reasons behind it."
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Supervillains often get groupies who are “young girls who need to be close to bad for a few hours at a time.”
 * Ancient Conspiracy: Mostly made up of Corrupt Corporate Executives. In TAO’s Backstory, he tracks them down and, disappointed with their venality, completely screws them over by becoming a Treacherous Advisor.
 * A Party - Also Known as an Orgy
 * Bad Boss: Lynch and TAO
 * Bad Guy Bar: The Tird Street Arms and the Alter Ego, with such trappings as Hero-faced dartboards, masked strippers and portraits of “Old-School” villains like Dr. Mind, The Undertaker and Hugo Lark on the walls.
 * Bad Powers, Bad People: Several characters but Miss Misery is especially notable. There is ‘’no’’ good way to use her particular talents.
 * There sort of is, but you have to convince her it’s a totally reprehensible thing to do.
 * Betty and Veronica: Veronica St James and Miss Misery. In that order, actually.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Holden rescues.
 * Black and Gray Morality: Borders on Evil Versus Evil:

"Holden: “I hate flying cars. I really do. They’re so super-spy.”"
 * Blessed with Suck: Miss Misery and Holden Carver
 * Bullet Holes and Revelations
 * Card-Carrying Villain: Tao’s organization.
 * Civvie Spandex: Villains will often wear jackets over their costumes when they aren’t on the job.
 * Cloak and Dagger: International Operations/Internal Operations
 * Cluster F-Bomb
 * Continuity Nod: To the Wildstorm universe and more specifically Moore’s run on Wild CATS.
 * Darker and Edgier: Impressively so, even by Wildstorm standards.
 * Deep-Cover Agent
 * Evil Costume Switch: Averted. Hero and villain costumes look exactly the same. A nice bit of Fridge Brilliance illustrating the Black and Gray Morality of the book.
 * Fag Hag: There is a supervillain named Faghag who feeds on the life force of gay men. She got this power after being bitten by a radioactive gay Peter Parker.
 * Fake Defector: Holden’s father.
 * Fantastic Noir: More obvious in Point Blank, but there are definite shades of it throughout.
 * Flying Car:

"“There was a hierarchy. TAO, of course, was at the top of the pyramid, and just under him were the Prodigals – his three closest agents. If anyone knew TAO’s motives, it was probably them. Beneath the Prodigals were the Torpedoes. Which is what I was, sort of a lieutenant in the organization. There were maybe 30 of us. In between missions we did as we pleased, answering only to the four people above us. Under the torpedoes were the Blackguards – Our soldiers. These guysundefined" [[Elite Mooks|Higher level Blackguards, like the ones that caught me and Genocide red-handed, reported directly to TAO. And below them was everyone else – the Quislings. These guys were small-time post human crooks, some working just the odd mission here or there, and some eventually moving up the chain.”  }}
 * Gambit Pileup: Especially in volume 2.
 * Good Guy Bar: “The Domino” (formerly called Clark’s and run by an elderly Superman expy until they had to change their name “for legal reasons.”) Mostly filled with Super Zeroes and 90s antiheroes.
 * Government Agency of Fiction: I.O. whether it stands for International Operations or Internal Operations. "Makes the CIA look like the IRS".
 * Guns Akimbo: Used throughout the series. Holden and Grifter in particular like this trope.
 * How We Got Here: Point Blank opens with Grifter about to be shot.
 * Humanshifting: There’s a shapeshifter in season 2
 * If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten: Turned on its head. The mission to get Tao is so important, Holden will do anything and everything to keep his cover, including mass murder. A lot of his character arc revolves around him reconciling how he deals with eating so many kittens and can still be considered a "good guy."
 * It Got Worse: Many times, notably for Carver when Lynch, the only one who knew he was really an undercover agent, was shot and put in a coma.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: Part of Lynch and TAO’s power sets.
 * Leave No Witnesses
 * The Mentor: Lynch to Carver, although Holden would deny it.
 * MacGuffin: TAO often sends his people on missions for meaningless things just to test their loyalty/fuck with them.
 * Mind Manipulation: Steeleye, TAO and Lynch
 * The Mole: Happens a lot in both organizations.
 * Mooks / Faceless Goons: Metric fucktons of ‘em.
 * My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: One of the few comedic moments in the series. "That's right, horse breathers! I shit your branch!" It is of course followed by violence, death threats and murder.
 * Not So Different: Lynch and TAO.
 * Not Wearing Tights: Most of the higher-ups in both organizations.
 * Not What It Looks Like: Grifter walking in on Kenesha A.K.A. Savant having sex with a supervillain in a parking garage. He assumes the villain is raping her and is disappointed to find out that his “heroic rescue” was a mistake.
 * Powered Armor
 * Powered by a Forsaken Child:
 * Psycho for Hire: Almost a requirement to work for TAO.
 * Ray Gun
 * Rock Beats Laser: Subverted. Energy weapons do far more damage than conventional ones.
 * Smug Super
 * Sorting Algorithm of Evil:
 * Sorting Algorithm of Evil:
 * Spy Catsuit: Shows up from time to time, particularly when someone has to scale a building.
 * Superman Stays Out of Gotham: The events are handwaved as being beneath the notice of the more public superhuman teams like The Authority.
 * Superpowered Mooks: Many henchmen on both sides are described as having “low level cybernetic enhancements” that serve no purpose but to spark when the characters are hit.
 * Origin Story:In-universe villains use it to kill time between missions, and it’s the done thing to tell your origin story in third-person.
 * This Is for Emphasis, Bitch
 * This Page Will Self-Destruct: And often the messenger, too.
 * Title Drop: The Vanity License Plate on Lynch’s Flying Car reads “SLEEPER 1”. The dialogue hilariously lampshades this, to boot.
 * Trunk Shot
 * The Unfettered: Lots of characters like to think they are. An ongoing theme of the series is how this is largely an illusion.
 * Unrealistic Black Hole: A suitcase black-hole bomb.
 * Van in Black
 * X Meets Y: Commonly described as The Departed with superpowers.