Swordsman

Jacques Duquesne is a world-class mercenary whose peerless mastery of the sword — and a technologically enhanced blade capable of firing energy blasts — drove his ambition to join the Avengers, though his criminal past and questionable loyalties cast a long shadow over that goal from his very first appearance.

Few characters have made an entrance quite like the Swordsman — crashing into Marvel's mightiest team in The Avengers #19 back in 1965, courtesy of Stan Lee and Don Heck at the height of the Silver Age. An Avengers affiliate whose history with the team is anything but simple, he's spent six decades tangled up with some of Marvel's heaviest hitters — Iron Man, Steve Rogers, the Scarlet Witch, and a certain archer named Clint Barton whose path crosses his with particular weight. With 94 catalog appearances, a presence across The Avengers, Captain America, and the curated Marvel Masterworks collections, and six key issues to his name, the Swordsman is far more than a footnote — he's a genuinely compelling figure whose complicated place in Avengers lore rewards any collector willing to dig in.