Slaymaster

Slaymaster is a supervillain in the Marvel comics. He was an assassin who faced off against Captain Britain, as well as his archenemy.

History

Unrevealed. Slaymaster has been trained as an extremely proficient warrior and assassin, at least part of which occurred in the Middle East, as well as the Orient. He initially sought high profile jobs to make a name for himself as the master assassin of our time. He initially preferred using campy gimmicks in his murders. He claims to have obtained these weapons by stealing them from his victims. He was hired by Konrad Kharkov to obtain a number of expensive artifacts for the purpose of bribing the leaders of other nations to turn them against the United Kingdom.

(Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain#247 (fb) - BTS) - Slaymaster quickly killed philatelist Peter Mole, orchid collector Henry Stone, thoroughbred breeder Lord Quayne and rock star Luke Lane.

(Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain#243) - Captain Britain arrived on the scene after Slaymaster had murdered Thurlow Archer with an arrow through the heart. Slaymaster disguised himself as Archer's non-existent daughter and then duped Captain Britian, knocking him out with a gas attack. Captain Britain was left behind to initially take the blame for the crime and was forced to flee from the authorities.

Slaymaster next set his sights on Major Jock Gunn, a racecar driver, and sabotaged the starting pistol, which caused an explosion. Captain Britain was visiting his own brother, Jamie Braddock, also a racecar driver, and made the connection of the next assassination attempt, but was too late to stop it.

Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain#244) - Slaymaster again defeated Captain Britain and escaped, stealing his racecar with the gold-plated engine. He next disguised himself as a wax figure (Electro-Man) in the comic shop of a Mr. Waxman, electrocuted and killed Waxman, and stole his mint condition copy of Amazing Spider-Man#1. When Captain Britain arrived to stop him, he hit him with an electro-blast as well.

(Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain#245) - Captain Britain failed to stop Slaymaster, but trailed him to the site of his next victim. Slaymaster used a giant, mutated gila monster to kill the wealthy Lady Gila, and stole her solid gold griffin statue. He gassed Captain Britain, leaving him to die at the hands of the gila.

(Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain#246) - Captain Britain escaped the gila (and the authorities), and tracked Slaymaster to a giant floating skull, which he believed to be his ship. Slaymaster, in his underground base, had the skull hit Captain Britain with a stun blast, and then used his giant robot snake to pull him into the sewers. Knocking Captain Britain out, he had a giant robot arm to hold him upside down and sent his fresh-water shark after him. He then met up with Kharkov on his yacht, the Mako. Captain Britain broke free and followed him, but was captured by Kharkov's giant robot octopus.

(Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain#247) - As Captain Britain fought off the robot octopus, Kharkov attempted to double-cross Slaymaster, but failed and was thrown overboard to the sharks. As Slaymaster attempted to escape, Captain Britain nailed him with his Star-Sceptre, causing him to also fall to the sharks.

(Daredevils#3) - The crimelord known as the Vixen infiltrated and took over the British super-spy organization STRIKE. In order to prevent the Psi-Division from discovering and revealing this, she had it disbanded. She then sent Slaymaster to hunt down and assassinate the members of the Psi-Division. Betsy Braddock, a member of the division, contacted her brother Brian for help. Captain Britain confronted Slaymaster as he cornered two of the last remaining members, Allison Double and Tom Lennox.

(Daredevils#4) - Despite superior strength and power, Captain Britain was at the mercy of the deadly Slaymaster. Betsy helped Tom Lennox to use his telekinetic abilities to temporarily blind Slaymaster with a bunch of comic books. She then guided Captain Britain and he pummeled Slaymaster into unconsciousness.

(Daredevils#4 - BTS) - Vixen called Arcade by phone to complain about Slaymaster's failure at killing two of the members of S.T.R.I.K.E.'s Psi Division (namely Tom Lennox and Betsy Braddock) and his subsequent arrest. Arcade promised to keep his word and arrange the deaths of the two paranormals before they could interfere with Vixen's planned S.T.R.I.K.E. takeover, and announced that, with Captain Britain involved, it was then a personal matter for him.

(Captain Britain II#1) - Again in the employ of Vixen, Slaymaster plotted to bring Captain Britain to her.

(Captain Britain II#2) - Slaymaster answered an advertisement for a leader from the Crazy Gang, posing as a giant caterpillar-like creature to fit in with their "Alice in Wonderland" motif. Under his lead, they performed a number of high-profile crimes to attract Captain Britain, and then they succeeded in subduing him.

(Captain Britain II#3) - Vixen double-crossed Slaymaster, refusing to give him the costume of Captain Britain, which she had promised. Slaymaster killed her technicians and stole the costume. When he couldn't access its full power, Slaymaster confronted Braddock, who had been bound naked by Vixen. Braddock told Slaymaster he needed the helmet to control it, but when he put it on, Braddock was able to control him. Braddock then made the suit smash him around until he was unconscious.

(Captain Britain II#13) - When Brian refused to work for RCX, they convinced Betsy to become the next Captain Britain. Soon she was challenged to stop Vixen, who had kidnapped some of RCX's agents and some Warpies. Realizing it was a trap, she nonetheless went after Vixen. When Slaymaster confronted her, she was initially pleased with the chance to use the power of the Captain Britain costume to gain revenge on the man who had slain so many of her friends. However, he quickly got the better of her, and savagely beat her, blinding and nearly killing her. Betsy sent a telepathic summons to Brian, who flew to rescue her. Enraged, Brian overpowered Slaymaster, even without his own amplifier costume. When he paused, Slaymaster chided his lack of strength to kill a foe, and Brian crushed his head with a large rock.

Powers and Abilities

Slaymaster is a master of armed and unarmed combat. He is highly adept in the martial arts and is a deadly combatant. He can scan people and energy fields for weak points. He can briefly mesmerize others with a glance, enabling him to strike before they can stop him.His left hand has been toughened by repeated trauma to the point that it is hard and sharp enough to punch through a weak point in Captain Britain's force field. He is highly trained and skilled with many forms of weaponry including bladed weapons and a variety of conventional and energy firearms, gases, and poisons. He is also a master of disguise. His wrist bracelets enhance his strength to an uncertain level (enhanced human?), can fire rope lassos, release electric blasts, and project flame.

When first observed, he used an arsenal of high-tech weaponry, such as a jet belt, a one-man rocket ship (able to convert into a rocket car), and a gigantic robot snake. Other weapons include a Jazzler (a bladed weapon which disrupts nerve impulses).

He later wore a costume designed by Vixen's technicians, which enhanced his own skills. This granted him superhuman speed and strength.

Videos

The Deconstruction Of Captain Britain By Alan Moore & Alan Davis