BIOGRAPHY - Page 2
With no support from the Hand, the Upstarts or the criminal underworld, Fenris continue to scheme as best as they were able. The twins tried to steal a mutagen wave generator in New York City. Ostensibly a medical device for enlarging foreign cells for easy removal, the generator could also be targeted on the X-gene to cause devastating effects for mutants. Their simple snatch-and-grab failed due to the unpredictable arrival of Generation X, and their Fenris troopers abandoning the mission when it got too hazardous. [Generation X Annual '96] They tried joining Pyro's Strikeforce, allied with Exodus and the Acolytes, in order to receive a cure for the Legacy Virus. Fenris hoped to sell the cure on the black market to the highest bidder. Exodus had no cure, but manipulated the Strikeforce into attacking the High Evolutionary and the Knights of Wundagore for him. When they failed to secure what he wanted, Exodus abandoned Fenris and the Strikeforce in the Savage Land without transport. [Quicksilver #8-9] Next, Fenris tried to acquire the Momentary Princess, a gemstone of immense power once coveted by their father, which skipped through time at fifty year intervals. Andrea and Andreas proved to be little more than a momentary distraction for Remy LeBeau and Sekmeht Conoway as they pursued the gem. [Gambit (3rd series) #10]
Soon, Fenris were reunited with their father, Baron Strucker. Exactly when he bothered to tell them he was resurrected is unknown, but Wolfgang clearly still had little regard for his children's mettle. [Secret Warriors #13] When Baron Strucker initiated a plot using mind-controlling nano-probes, Fenris were pressured into his service. While collecting the Voice Modulation Program that would enable Strucker to imprint the nannites with his voice pattern, Andrea and Andreas ran afoul of the V-Battalion and their chief operative, Citizen V. John Watkins III had a history with the twins (mostly with Andrea), and approached them at a private auction in order to get confirmation of the V-Battalion's suspicions regarding the VMP. By following them to their next job, Citizen V incapacitated Andreas and convinced Andrea to work against her father. [Citizen V and the V-Battalion #1-2]
Baron Strucker intended to use a satellite array to distribute the nano-probes over the surface of Earth, along with a sonic cannon broadcasting his voiceprint through the VMP to bring the world's population under his control. Andrea and Citizen V left Andreas tied up in Paris while they proceeded to Strucker's HYDRA rocket base on Tasmin Island. For reasons of her own, Andrea hid Watkins' presence from Baron Strucker as he attempted to sabotage the cannon's space flight. Citizen V was discovered, however, along with Andrea's betrayal. After a brief struggle, Baron Strucker fled with HYDRA while Andrea and Citizen V continued working to stop his plot. Instead of scuttling the launch of the sonic cannon, the V-Battalion worked two other angles -- the Penance Council were active in space trying to stop the nano-probes from being distributed by satellite, while Citizen V tried to reprogram the VMP with a "friendly" voiceprint instead of Baron Strucker's in case the probes were released.
Citizen V chose to use his own voiceprint as the override pattern and was uncharacteristically upset when Iron Cross of the Council sacrificed his life to stop the nano-probe dispersal, making his work on the VMP moot. Watching Citizen V's reaction, Andrea chose to give voice to her growing suspicions -- John Watkins III was not in control of his own body. Instead, Helmut Zemo had possessed John and was once again posing as the heroic Citizen V. Unfortunately for Andrea Strucker, she was too busy congratulating herself on her deductions to realize the danger. Zemo was unwilling to let his ruse be discovered so soon, and he cut open Andrea with his blade, leaving her to bleed out and die in the abandoned HYDRA base. [Citizen V and the V-Battalion #3]
Adrift for months after his sister's death, Andreas Strucker lacked the drive and motivation to take any real action without her. In that time, Helmut Zemo reclaimed a version of his own body, as well as the immense power of a pair of moonstones. Zemo empathized with Andreas and his strained efforts to live up to his father's example. Because of this and perhaps some regret over killing his sister, Zemo resolved to remake Andreas into a better man... whether he wanted it or not. Zemo had long term plans regarding his former team the Thunderbolts, and needed to shape them into the group he required. As part of that plan, he secured the aid of Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man, and his will-sapping pheromones.
Zemo captured Andreas and gave Killgrave the challenge of manipulating Andreas's desires and behavior to make him into a heroic figure. Taking the identity of the fallen hero Swordsman, Andreas was trained by Baron Zemo to improve upon his natural talent for swordplay, while Killgrave shaped his personal drives to make him want to be a hero and a potential member of the Thunderbolts.
As benevolent as this may have seemed, the villains' manipulation of Andreas also had a horrific element to it. In order to continue accessing his mutant power after Andrea's death, Zemo and the Purple Man had Andreas retrieve her body from Tasmin Island, then skin and tan her flesh into a leathery wrap around the hilt of his sword. This grotesque act allowed Andreas to use his mutant bio-blasts as the Swordsman by channeling his power through the wrap and blade. [New Thunderbolts #17]
As the new Thunderbolts became active in New York City, the Purple Man arrived in the city with his puppet. Andreas was kept in a confusing dual identity by Killgrave, at times acting as a genuine heroic figure for his role in Zemo and Killgrave's scheme, at other times nothing more than Killgrave's servant devoted to ruining the T-Bolts. [New Thunderbolts #2] 
As a test of his devotion to this new identity, the Swordsman was sent to strike at Baron Strucker, secretly the financial backer of MACH-IV's Thunderbolts. Through Killgrave's prompting, Andreas didn't hesitate to plunge a sword through his father's chest. Although the death spore virus in his system kept Wolfgang on his feet and relatively uninjured, Killgrave's command was technically completed, leaving Swordsman free to act on his own. As a result, when the brainwashed Wolverine arrived on behalf of a rival HYDRA faction to assassinate Wolfgang, the Swordsman helped secure his father's escape and defended Strucker against Wolverine's attack. Holding his own against Wolverine was no small feat for the former dilettante, proving his newfound skills as a physical fighter. [New Thunderbolts #3-4]
The Swordsman continued making public appearances as a "new hero" during HYDRA's invasion of New York [New Thunderbolts #6], while still remaining Killgrave's puppet in private. [New Thunderbolts #7] Eventually, the Purple Man was ready to make his move. With Zemo's assistance, Killgrave had expanded his influence considerably. Previously, he had been limited to using his will-sapping abilities in close quarters, due to the bio-chemical effect in others triggered by his body's pheromones. The Purple Man found a way around this limitation by mixing his pheromones into a chemical agent that was added to the city's water supply, letting him reach everyone in New York. Zemo then used his moonstones to create miniature spatial apertures to carry Killgrave's voice to anyone he wished, letting him command large groups of puppets far outside of scent and voice range. As Songbird of the Thunderbolts started investigating Killgrave's operation, the Purple Man took the opportunity to play with his given opponents.
Purple Man confronted Songbird at her apartment, while ordering Swordsman to appear and "save" her from Killgrave. He even convinced Songbird to believe Swordsman had actually run him through with his blade. For a bit of sport, Purple Man framed Songbird and Swordsman for an attack on ESU campus, then directed New Yorkers by the hundreds to chase and kill the duo. He even pushed the Thunderbolts into taking the lead on hunting them down. While Swordsman held his own against the Thunderbolts, both sides argued over who was being controlled by Killgrave and who wasn't.
They eventually started questioning the situation long enough to realize which side Swordsman was on, but too late. Strucker impaled MACH-IV on his blade, cut open Atlas's ionic skin and slashed Photon's throat before they realized what was happening. In the days that followed, the Thunderbolts did manage to recover, defeat Purple Man and spread the antidote throughout the city, but the Swordsman was nowhere to be seen. [New Thunderbolts #9-10,12]
Free to make his own choices for the first time in months, Andreas Strucker decided to follow up on his father's condition.
The civil war in HYDRA allegedly left Baron Strucker dead, but Andreas was not so easily convinced. The Swordsman found his father recuperating in a stasis tank in Russia. Their reunion was cut short by the arrival of Baron Zemo. Zemo revealed himself as the mastermind behind Andreas' transformation and pushed him into distancing himself from his father's shadow to claim his full potential as a man. The Swordsman agreed to dedicate his efforts to becoming a better man... not for Zemo's sake, but for his own. [New Thunderbolts #16-17]
Although he intended to warn the Thunderbolts about Baron Zemo's long-term plans, Swordsman and Zemo actually ended up joining the Thunderbolts as part of an elaborate effort to save the world from the coming cosmic threats of the Grandmaster and the Wellspring of Power. [New Thunderbolts #18, Thunderbolts (1st series) #100-101] Through their official standing with the Commission on Superhuman Activities and the encouragement of his field leader Songbird, Andreas found ample opportunity to "be the opposite of everything he had ever been." He served as a training instructor for the Thunderbolts Army of super-villains corralled during the Civil War and maintained his newfound courage during the struggle over the Wellspring. Even after his traitorous teammate Joystick shattered the Adamantium in his blade, Swordsman fought valiantly against a mob of super-powered foes and triumphed. [Thunderbolts (1st series) #102-109]
All of Andreas's positive momentum came to a halt, however, once Songbird fell out of favor with the CSA and the Thunderbolts program was taken over by Norman Osborn and Moonstone. The Thunderbolts were reimagined as America's first strike force against "unregistered combatants" after the Superhuman Civil War. In order to secure Swordsman's participation, Osborn promised to use the wrappings on Andreas's sword to clone a full grown copy of his sister Andrea. Swordsman eagerly agreed to a year's commitment to the Thunderbolts program in exchange for the chance to see his sister alive again. Andreas quickly realized, however, that Osborn would rather use the threat of ending the cloning process to keep him in line, than actually complete the process as promised. Feeling the control of his own life slipping away, Andreas began to fall back on his aristorcratic manners and attitude as a consequence. [Thunderbolts (1st series) #113]