Thanos did many terrible things when he assembled the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanks to the immense power provided by the Infinity Stones, the Mad Titan was able to kill off half the universe with a snap of his fingers. He then killed off many of the survivors throughout the galaxy when his rage caused planets to explode and earthquakes to manifest across the universe.
But counterintuitively, these same actions that hurt so many people actually ended up empowering four criminals in a terrifying way. Although they were all street-level thugs that Thanos would find beneath him, these villains still managed to create their fair share of mayhem when an Infinity Gauntlet-spawned accident transformed them into… The Chain Gang.
The Chain Gang made their first appearance in Sleepwalker #7, a fan-favorite 1990s comic book by Bob Budiansky and Bret Blevins. The book followed the adventures of Sleepwalker, a heroic alien who policed the Mindscape, a dimension that connects all alien minds. After becoming trapped in the mind of film student Rick Sheridan, Sleepwalker discovered he could venture out into the real world whenever Rick slept, although he would disappear back into his mind the second Rick woke up. Choosing to continue his mission to protect the innocent, Sleepwalker used his powers to apprehend criminals.
Thanos Creates the Chain Gang
During the original Infinity Gauntlet saga Rick Sheridan was among the many people who died when Thanos killed half the universe. As a result, Sleepwalker was trapped on Earth permanently where he had to deal with the massive destruction left in the aftermath of Thanos’ actions. Although he wasn’t one of the heroes recruited to actually fight Thanos, Sleepwalker had plenty of disasters to avert on Earth – especially when the earthquakes Thanos started threatened millions.
Although the quakes were devastating to most people, four convicted felons managed to use one to their advantage when they were assigned to work on the same chain gang. Taking advantage of the distracted guards, the gang escaped and made their way to an abandoned energy research laboratory where they hoped they could find something they could use to cut their chains off. As they examined the equipment, another earthquake struck and the machines activated, bathing the four in a weird energy.
Shortly after, the four convicts discovered the energy had granted each of them a different super power that let them easily overpower the cops that tracked them down. But there was a catch – in order to keep their powers, the four had to stay chained together. While this annoyed the prisoners (who all hated each other), they saw the value of working together as a team and dubbed themselves “The Chain Gang.”
As each member brought something of value to the team, they all gave themselves code names based on the “link” they made up in their chain. These included Master Link (Willis Hayworth) a homicidal maniac who gained superhuman strength allowing him to rip apart steel with his bare hands; Weak Link (Ernie Mills) a sadist who can drain people of their life energies by touching them; Missing Link (Ray Morgan) a cowardly murderer who can teleport himself or the entire group; and Uplink (Hector Fuentes), a manipulative thief who can sense, disrupt, and control any energy frequencies – including brainwaves – allowing him to take over minds and control electronics.
Sleepwalker vs. the Chain Gang
The Chain Gang went on a crime spree, robbing banks and taking joy rides in police cars, but soon found themselves in conflict with Sleepwalker. By that point, however, Sleepwalker was so exhausted after stopping multiple disasters that it gave the Chain Gang the advantage. Unable to deal with the gang’s multiple attacks – or the fact that Weak Link could just drain all of his remaining strength – Sleepwalker fell and lay near death.
But at that moment Thanos’ rage caused several dimensional rifts to open, including one that led back to Sleepwalker’s home - the Mindscape. Taking advantage of this, Sleepwalker flew through the rift and took the Chain Gang with him. Thanks to the ambient mental energy in the Mindscape, Sleepwalker quickly regained his strength and created a prison for the Chain Gang with his matter-manipulating “warp vision.” He then left the Chain Gang in the Mindscape while he returned to Earth to help others.
The Chain Gang would eventually be found an old Sleepwalker enemy, Cobweb, who used them as pawns in his own schemes against Sleepwalker. This led to a very weird storyline where Cobweb placed the Chain Gang in the mind of Rick Sheridan’s girlfriend Alyssa Conover (similar to the way Sleepwalker resided in Rick’s mind). Thanks to Uplink’s abilities, the Chain Gang could control Alyssa’s mind and tried to get her to kill Rick (and by extension Sleepwalker), which created some very tense scenes between the two “mind hosts.”
The Return of the Chain Gang?
Fortunately for Sleepwalker, the Chain Gang often proved to be their own worst enemies. Although they agreed to work together, the animosity between them regularly kept them from working as an effective team and they’d often threaten to kill each other, even though that would destroy their powers. At one point, the chain powering them actually broke and the gang had to physically hold it together to keep their powers – but kept getting distracted by their own arguments, giving their opponents an edge.
The Chain Gang was just one of several unique villains in Sleepwalker’s highly distinctive rogues’ gallery, which included oddball criminals such as the hypnotic songstress Lullaby and the reality warping Bookworm. Although the gang’s appearances were few, it's been confirmed that they will make a live-action appearance in the fan-produced, live-action Sleepwalker series that recently made its way to YouTube. The series has already seen the debut of Sleepwalker’s nemesis 8-Ball and has hinted at several other popular villains, with the producers indicating the Chain Gang will return.