No doubt you've heard about the whole Fear x-over coming in April. It apparently has some villain (or villains) turning various Marvel heroes' worst fears against them. I have put these possible suspects forth;

Nightmare (currently dead,but he'll get better)

D'Spayre (is he REALLY the G.A. Vision?!!)

The Dweller in Darkness (I would be great to see him again!)

The Straw Man (maybe he's turned evil or looney)


Those are my suspects,who do you think it will be?

Since Chaos War is headed toward a massive reset Nightmare will be back, but he has been featured so much lately I don't think it will be him.

D'Spayre deals more with despair and overall is too much of a small timer.

I would lean toward either the Dweller in Darkness or someone new.
Those are my suspects,who do you think it will be?

I've just thought of a couple more possible suspects:

Psycho-Man

Mr.Fear

The Scarecrow (although I like him more as a demonic looney with crows than the Jonathon Crane clone he is today)

Of course,it may involve ALL the fear-themed villains of the MU.

We'll have to wait and see.

Taking in what was said in a recent story about this in Newsarama, I think that this could mean that something important must have happened during the Second World War is coming back to haunt us in the modern world. After all they said it happened during the heart of the Marvel Universe, which is pretty much originated during WWII. This would explain the focus on Captain America.

Actually I immediately thought of FDR “Only thing you have to fear is fear itself” speech as soon as I saw the teasers, it’s nice to get some confirmation by Marvel bringing that to everyone’s attention.

Whatever it is, I think it will be exacerbated by the ‘Fear Agents’ such as Mr. Fear, Nightmare, D'Spayre, Phobos etc. I’m not saying that they would be working together but they all will independently push things pass what would have normally be considered the limit in such as real-life situations which is going on in the world today –paranoia, riots, blaming etc.

It seems as though the villain will come from the World War II era, at least based on the information presented. Here are my educated guesses:
1...Hitler.
What better person to use than the master of hate and fear himself. Yeah, he has been used quite often before, but only in clone form as the Hate Monger. Would be interesting to see.

2...Josef Mengele.
The doctor's nickname was the "Angel of Death." Big time creepy character, would be interesting to see him involved.

3...Unknown Nazi mystic.
It is no secret that the Nazis were interested in and dabbled in the occult. Not a stretch to see someone who survived the Second World War sowing the seeds of fear and hate throughout the world unseen since 1945.

4...Hydra or a male Gorgon (from Greek history).
Not the organization, but with a backstory where the organization was formed to worship an actual being known as Hydra. If you go to comicbookresources.com and check the link, you'll notice snakes in his hair.

5...John Kowalski.
I loved the series from the 1970s WAR IS HELL. It was one of the first books that Chris Claremont worked on and the storyline with Death was simply amazing. Now that Kowalski is an embodiment of Death, it would be interesting to see a return. By the way, I think Marvel dropped the ball by not including him on the God Squad in the Chaos War. The God Squad was made up with demi-gods, or half-human gods. Hell was represented with Daimon Hellstrom, but not the abstract of Death itself. Would have made a powerful ally...just a side thought.

If that's the case,then it could be Brain Drain. (if it IS him,I'll be
forever thankful to Marvel for using this underused villain in a big way!)

I think it won't be any of them as the mastermind. They might be drained of their power and used by the mastermind but none of them strike me as crossover worthy masterminds...they don't seem to be big thinkers.

Cobweb is a demon from the Mindscape responsible for trapping Sleepwalker in Rick Sheridan's mind. He's a master of deception and illusion, who used Sleepwalker's being bonded with Rick as a means of invading Earth while preventing Sleepwalker from stopping him. He enjoys invading the minds of vulnerable humans and driving them insane, to the point where they take comfort in his presence even as he destroys them.

Cobweb would be perfect for a plot like this, and it would give the severely underrated Sleepwalker characters some well-earned time in the spotlight, although I don't think it's likely he'll be involved, sadly enough.

You can find more about him here:

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/cobweb.htm

I would 100% love this

Oooo...nice call. Forgot about Brain Drain, but based on the pics released, it probably is not. I would like to see a new character take on the Brain Drain moniker.

Yeah, Cobweb is such an underused character, even when he was active in the Sleepwalker series. It also seemed like Sleepwalker was misplaced and would have worked BEAUTIFULLY with the Midnight Sons line in the early/mid 1990s. Marvel really screwed him up.

Here here my friend. He is a great concept....really just needs a push. Yet, other...less compelling characters are getting pushed like crazy. Then again...no matter what, someone will be unhappy with who isn't getting attention

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Guys like Bob Budiansky, Danny Fingeroth and Tom DeFalco might not be in the same league as Neil Gaiman or Alan Moore, but they don't have to be. What these guys bring to the table are great bread-and-butter superhero stories that don't change things forever or radically mess up the status quo, but as Omar Karindu has said elsewhere, the narrative doesn't necessarily need those types of roller-coaster changes, events and characters anyway.

And the Sleepwalker comics had a lot of moments that were dark and/or poignant. Sure, it might seem weird to have Sleepwalker become addicted to a specific frequency of light, but the hallucinations he suffered reflect a lot of the guilt, frustration and loneliness he felt at being trapped in Rick's mind. Similarly, a writer like J.M. DeMatteis could have a lot of fun with a character like Psyko, who'd probably be good drinking buddies with the Joker if he existed in the DCU. Even 8-Ball showed that you shouldn't judge a book by his cover-even though his costume might look outdated (and that's an extremely debatable notion, at best) he was still a deadly and cunning bastard who was quite ready to try and blow Sleepwalker up or make a bet with the Hobgoblin on which of them could kill Sleepy first. He wouldn't have been out of place in the rogues galleries of Spider-Man, Daredevil or Moon Knight.

And I agree that the series was unfortunately shafted. Hence why I began writing my own Sleepwalker fanfiction series in 2006. As an Ultimate-style reimagining, the series has been going strong for more than 48 issues, three Annuals, and two Halloween Specials, with the fourth Annual being worked on as we speak. Written by a Sleepwalker fanatic, for Sleepwalker fanatics, I've tried to keep the torch burning for the few, the proud and the loyal who make up the Sleepwalker fandom.

He had a really cool look to him. Interesting concept too. Back when Spidey was going through the totem stuff I thought he might be an interesting villain to use.