#Things You Didn’t Know About Hawkeye’s Jacques ‘Jack’ Duquesne, Aka The Swordsman

After the Avengers defeat the criminal cartel known as the Zodiac, the German Libra (Gustav Brandt) reveals that he fathered Mantis with a Vietnamese woman, Lua Nguyen, whose brother was Khruul. Disapproving of their marriage, Khruul killed Lua, blinded Brandt, and tried to kill Mantis, sending father and daughter fleeing into the Vietnamese jungle, where they discovered the temple of the Priests of Pama (secretly pacifist Kree aliens). But Mantis can’t reconcile her memories with the past Brandt describes, especially when it comes to the Priests of Pama raising her and endowing her with empathic powers.

Brandt’s disclosures prompt Jacques to steal an Avengers Quinjet to confront Khruul, but because the Swordsman remains weak from recent combat injuries, Khruul is able to torture him into sharing what Libra revealed about Mantis and the Priests of Pama. The Avengers arrive too late to save the Priests of Pama, whose slaughter by Khruul frees the “Star Stalker,” a monster from the planet Vormir that the Priests kept dormant. The creature kills Khruul. In addition, while the Avengers battle the Star Stalker, Jacques confesses his love for Mantis to Wanda. Later, Jacques also voices his long-held suspicions that the Vision has designs on Mantis, shocking both Mantis and Wanda.

Mantis can’t deal with Jacques’ persistent declarations of love while she’s trying to piece together her life story, so when Jacques responds to her rejection by lashing out, Mantis chooses to pursue the Vision instead. However, the “Vizh” banishes Mantis to the friend zone, because he still loves Wanda.