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Official Site: Marvel Entertainment

The Swordsman is the name of several fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. Each of the men to use this name has essentially been a superhero, albeit a hero with no special powers, only skill with a sword. The first two Swordsmen have acted as supervillain at times. All of the Swordsmen save for the most recent version have been members of the Avengers.

The original Swordsman, Jacques Duquesne, trained Hawkeye after accepting him, but rejected his brother Barney. Jacques and Clint worked as carnival performers alongside the archer called Trick Shot at a circus. When Hawkeye accidentally discovered that the Swordsman was stealing money, the two fought, the Swordsman leaving Hawkeye for dead. Later, the Swordsman attempted to join the Avengers in order to take advantage of the benefits that go with an Avenger ID and got into a fight with them. After failing in doing so at first, he was accepted as an Avenger as secretly an agent of the Mandarin, who created a pseudo-image of Iron Man to recommend the Swordsman to the Avengers. The Mandarin also fitted the Swordsman's sword with extra powers, such as firing artificial lightning bolts. Soon after joining the Avengers, the Swordsman betrayed the team; although he betrayed the Mandarin in return, he was driven from the team by the Avengers. He went back to being a mercenary and professional criminal for some time. Under Black Widow's leadership, the Swordsman first teamed with the original Power Man and fought the Avengers. With Power Man, he fought Captain America as pawns of the Red Skull. He also participated in the Mandarin's attempt at world conquest. He battled Captain America again, as a member of Batroc's Brigade. He was employed by Egghead, and battled Hawkeye (in his Goliath persona). With Power Man, he joined the supervillain group the Lethal Legion.

Eventually, the Swordsman briefly rejoined the Avengers in a war against Ares in Olympus He first appeared with Mantis, an ally of the Avengers, and then rejoined the Avengers after he fell in love with Mantis. He subsequently participated in the Avengers/Defenders war.

In his last mission, Duquesne aided the Avengers in the conflict that involved Kang's quest for the "Celestial Madonna". In order to facilitate his plans, Kang had captured the Avengers present at the time - Vision, Thor, Iron Man, Mantis, The Scarlet Witch, and their guest Agatha Harkness - but left Swordsman behind because he considered him useless. Humiliated but determined to show Kang his true worth, Swordsman tracked the captive Avengers to Kang's pyramid base in Gizeh, where he encountered Rama-Tut, Kang's chronological alter ego. With his help and the assistance of Hawkeye, who had just returned from a leave of absence, Swordsman managed to free his fellow Avengers. Eventually, Mantis turned out to be the "Celestial Madonna", and she only realized that she felt the same for the Swordsman as he did for her when he died saving her life, struck by a lethal energy bolt fired by Kang.

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