Foreigner

The Foreigner is a supervillain appearing in American comic book published by Marvel Comics. He was formerly married to Silver Sable. The Foreigner is a mercenary and assassin. Although he has no superhuman abilities, he has trained his body to be in absolute peak physical condition, is among the greatest martial arts practitioners in the Marvel Universe, and as a professional assassin, who has evaded detection by various international law enforcement agencies, is highly intelligent. He is often depicted as being exceedingly competent.

Writer Peter David created the Foreigner as a master assassin character to be a nemesis for Spider-Man. According to David, the character was designed to bear a strong resemblance to actor Patrick McGoohan. The character's voice was first heard on a telephone in a scene in Web of Spider-Man #15 (June 1986), which was written by David Michelinie, but he did not make a full, visual appearance until the following month in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #116 (July 1986).

The Foreigner was favored by editor Jim Owsley as the Hobgoblin's true identity.

The Foreigner first appeared as a foe of Spider-Man when making a wager with another villain, Chance, that the latter could not defeat and kill Spider-Man. The Foreigner won this wager. In an attempt to impress the Foreigner, the assassin Sabretooth volunteered to kill the thief known as the Black Cat who had stolen a solid gold notebook from the Foreigner's office. However, Spider-Man intervened and defeated Sabretooth. Eventually, he defeated the Black Cat himself and then decided, instead of executing, to start a romantic relationship to use under the pretense of forming an alliance in order to destroy Spider-Man (all the while the true ulterior motive being to enlist the membership of Spider-Man as an assassin in his 1400 Club). Spider-Man turned him down and the Foreigner was forced to abandon that identity.