The Swordsman, AKA Jacques (or Jack) Duquesne has officially made his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe courtesy of Hawkeye on Disney Plus. Little has been revealed about this character in the show as of yet beyond being Kate Bishop's step-father, but he has a long and storied history in Marvel Comics.
In fact, there is an assortment of rather surprising and significant Marvel Comics tales that involve the Swordsman, despite his lack of superpowers. Some elements of this, unsurprisingly, tie back to Hawkeye himself and the shared history between Clint Barton and Jacques Duquesne. Most of these stories actually involve the whole Avengers team, as readers can learn below.
7 He Helped Train Hawkeye And His Brother To Fight
Clint Barton and his brother, Barney, escaped an abusive alcoholic father to join the circus in the comics. The circus they found happened to have two of the most skilled weapon wielders in the world: the Swordsman and Trickshot; AKA Jacques Duquesne and Buck Chisholm.
Buck would train both Clint and Barney in how to use a bow, creating the future weapon motif for both boys. Jacques would teach the boys how to use bladed weapons and other forms of combat.
6 He Was On Two Supervillain Teams
Neither Jacques nor Buck stayed on the straight and narrow. Buck would go on to become an assassin and work with the Secret Empire and the Circus of Crime. Meanwhile Jacques Duquesne would don his Swordsman persona to join the Lethal Legion and the Emissaries of Evil, two infamous supervillain teams in the Marvel universe.
The Lethal Legion was once a pretty significant team of villains who often fought the Avengers. Its members included the likes of Tiger Shark, Wonder Man, the Grim Reaper, Absorbing Man, the Grey Gargoyle, and even Ultron. The Emissaries of Evil was a lesser-known team led by the villainous Egghead and involved Rhino, Porcupine, and Eel of the Serpent Society.
5 He Was A Member Of The Avengers For A Time
Eventually, the Swordsman would reform and become a member of the Avengers — much like his apprentice, Hawkeye. His tenure was tumultuous at first, as he was initially a spy on behalf of the Mandarin (of Shang-Chi fame, though he was often an Iron Man villain in the comics). However, he eventually became a trusted member of the team.
Swordsman earned his place on the lineup with his skill as well as his sword made from alien Makluan technology. This was a gift given to Jacques by the Mandarin. The sword could shoot flames, concussive blasts of energy, and even a disintegration ray.
4 He Fell In Love With Mantis Of The Guardians Of The Galaxy
Mantis, who is most famous for her affiliation with the Guardians of the Galaxy now, was also a member of the Avengers around this point. During this time, the Swordsman fell in love with her.
Mantis didn't reciprocate, and this is understandable for a few reasons. Not the least of these reasons was that Jacques seemed to be a bit of a wannabe womanizer, as he first had a crush on Scarlet Witch upon joining the team.
3 He Sacrificed Himself To Save Mantis
That said, the Swordsman's feelings for Mantis seemed to be genuine enough to die over. Mantis was revealed to be the Celestial Madonna, destined to give birth to the Celestial Messiah. This Celestial Messiah was destined to be half-human and half-Cotati (a sentient race of plant people). In the comics, Mantis is actually a human mutated by the Kree. The coming Celestial Messiah was slated to change the face of the universe.
Kang the Conqueror, however, wanted a say in the changes to come, and tried to kidnap Mantis. When the fighting got too intense and Kang realized he couldn't take Mantis safely, he decided to try to kill her with an energy weapon instead. The Swordsman took the blow and died from his injuries, coaxing feelings for Swordsman from Mantis.
2 He Was Resurrected To Father The Celestial Messiah
Things get a bit weirder here, as Mantis did end up mating with a Cotati to conceive the Messiah — and her Cotati mate takes the shape of the Swordsman for Mantis' benefit. Mantis goes on to give birth to the Celestial Messiah, who is named Sequoia, or Quoi for short.
Quoi and the Cotati seem to fall out of relevance for years, until the Empyre story by Dan Slott, Al Ewing, and Valerio Schiti. They then return to wipe out all fauna life in existence, and the Avengers and Fantastic Four team up to stop them. Quoi leads this crusade, but he's aided by the Cotati copy of the deceased Swordsman as a sort of father figure. The Avengers and FF end up saving the day with the help of Mantis and the newly-united Kree/Skrull Empire.
1 He Was Replaced By A Nazi Mutant Who Joined The Thunderbolts
After the death of Jacques Duquesne, another individual took up the mantle of Swordsman. His name was Andreas Strucker, son of the founder of Hydra, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Andreas has the ability to emit blasts of energy but only when in physical contact with his sister, Andrea — with whom he had a romantic relationship. However, Baron Zemo, then leading the Thunderbolts, killed Andrea and employed the Purple Man to train Andreas into becoming the new Swordsman.
To ensure his powers still worked (and things are about to get weird again), leather was made from Andrea's skin and wrapped around the hilt of Andreas' new sword. Despite all of this, Andreas went on to join the Thunderbolts (who were actually led by Hawkeye himself at one point) and became a fairly reliable and well-meaning member of the team...until he was killed by Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, with his own sword.
Hawkeye is currently streaming on Disney Plus, with new episodes coming out every Wednesday.