Jerry Sledge (Earth-616)

Stonewall
Name	Jerry Sledge
Current Alias	Stonewall
Aliases	Benjy
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Formerly Secret Warriors, Caterpillars
Relatives	Parents: Carl Creel (father); Unnamed mother (deceased); Mary MacPherran (step-mother) Other Relatives: Rockwell Davis (2nd cousin)
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	Variable
Weight	Variable
Eyes	Irises: Brown
Hair	Bald
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human mutate
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Personal Information
Identity	Known to Authorities
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Adventurer
Education	Unknown, but presumably at least high school level or equivalent
Base of Operations	Mobile
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev
First	Mighty Avengers #13 (May, 2008)
First	Mighty Avengers #13 (May, 2008)

 Yo-Yo, this piece of %#^@ is Crusher Creel... the Absorbing Man. My father. 

—Jerry Sledge

History

Early Life

Jerry Sledge is the biological son of Carl "Crusher" Creel, better known as the Absorbing Man. His mother was attacked and raped in her home by the criminal, leaving her injured but alive. She however became pregnant and gave birth a year later, but decided to raise the child alone. One day, Creel returned having learned of his son and broke out of a supermax prison. However, the reunion was less than ideal, and Jerry tried to defend his mother. When the two touched, Jerry gained the same powers as his father, but was hospitalized by the ordeal and tragically had to attend to his mother's death the day he left the hospital.

Secret Invasion

Before the Skrulls' Secret Invasion started, Nick Fury tasked Daisy Johnson with recruiting select individuals that he had files on for what would become his secret strike force team. As a member of the "Secret Warriors", he was given the codename Stonewall and was trained alongside Yo-Yo Rodriguez, Phobos, Hellfire, and Sebastian Druid. One of the first missions was to take out the Dard'van, the religious sect of the Skrulls leading the invasion. They worked with the remaining heroes not replaced by Skrulls. Stonewall and the team have a final showdown with the Skrulls in Central Park. The heroes won, and the Skrulls were banished from Earth. After the battle, Stonewall and the team struggled to deal with the fallout of the invasion.

Secret Warriors

Fury's Secret Warriors were sent to an old S.H.I.E.L.D. base in Texas to observe activity there. They discovered Hydra operatives there. In defiance of their orders to observe only, Slingshot, The Druid, and Stonewall engaged the terrorists. During a meal, Phobos then revealed to the team that he could see the future and prophesied about each member including Slingshot would get hurt but Stonewall would care for her. When Daisy led the "Secret Warriors" in an engagement against The Gorgon (a thought-to-be-dead member of Hydra), the prophecy came true: Yo Yo Rodriguez was severely injured, which evoked a powerful emotional response from Jerry that caused him to manifest his transmutation powers for the first time. Jerry stayed alongside her throughout the ordeal to make sure she was safe and encourage her subsequent recovery. The team left them to find a new recruit. Daisy needed Jerry back on the team so she lied to him, telling him that Yo Yo would be fine, but also convinced him to take his revenge. Stonewall confronted Gorgon. Gorgon respond by slashing him across the chest and expressing his disappointment that he couldn't show much more; Stonewall becomes a stone giant, proving he was better than that, but Gorgon escaped.

In a later battle with Ares, Stonewall's powers were put to the test. Ares buried his axe deep in his chest, and Stonewall was successfully able to absorb the properties of the enchanted blade. Afterwards, he only had minor injuries and was able to stay active on the team.

Jerry took Yo-Yo home to San Juan, Puerto Rico to meet with her mother. However, she was hesitant to meet her mother due to her prosthetic hands. Nonetheless, Jerry forced her to do it. When she knocked on the front door, she reluctantly said hi to her mother. As the two returned home via Florida, Jerry tried to teach Yo Yo how to drive. However, the latter convinced him to see his father at the Lacoochee supermax prison. However, Yo-Yo began to regret convincing him when he told her that he was born before his father got his powers. Back at the base, the team was debriefed on a new mission as Druid was sent home. In Providence, Fury's Secret Base #21, the team played cards. When both he and Hellfire made unhappy comments toward Quake for dismissing Druid, she admitted that Fury didn't think he was good enough. However, Stonewall was completely opposed to this, commenting about how seeing his father reminded him of how damaged and alone he had been, but because of Fury, they all had a purpose, and they should be working as a family. Everyone but Phobos voted for bringing Druid back. Phobos explained that he was a pragmatist and Fury wouldn't care. Nonetheless, Quake decided to do it anyway.

Final Battle With Hydra

Jerry and the team were taken to Heaven's Hell, a secret base in orbit. There, Fury explained the plan for the main team to hit Hydra, while the other teams took on the last Leviathan bases. Using Eden's portal, they traveled to Gehenna, where they attempted to blow it up, but they were expected. And worse, the bomb was armed. Baron von Strucker had the team cornered, but Fury's respond was with three bullets to the head. With the timer on their bomb near the end of its countdown, the Secret Warriors were forced to flee. Shocked at the death of Phobos at the hands of Gorgon, Daisy brought down the entire cavern around them while the team retreated. However, working together, they were able to defeat Gorgon. Jerry reunited with the team and joined up with Team Black and the Howling Commandos.

Attributes

Powers

Superhuman Strength: Stonewall possesses superhuman strength that is present even when he is not absorbing the properties of elements. The exact limits are unknown but he was shown to be albe to rip off a bank's vault door with no visible effort and are presumably augmented when absorbing elemental properties in a manner similar to his father Carl Creel.

Superhuman Durability: Although the exact level of durability is unknown, his body is more resilient to injury than normal and can withstand the rigors of combat with superhuman foes and can support his feats of superhuman strength, but he is shown of not being bulletproof.

Omni-Morph Duplication: Stonewall is capable of absorbing the properties of any element he touches in a manner similar to his father Carl Creel.

Trivia

• Stonewall was confirmed to be part of the LGBT community on-panel years after his debut, in a short story written and illustrated by Luciano Vecchio for Marvel's Voices #1.

See Also

• 47 appearance(s) of Jerry Sledge (Earth-616)
• 6 minor appearance(s) of Jerry Sledge (Earth-616)
• 2 mention(s) of Jerry Sledge (Earth-616)
• 12 image(s) of Jerry Sledge (Earth-616)
• 2 quotation(s) by or about Jerry Sledge (Earth-616)