Jeff Hagees was created by Bob Budiansky and Bret Blevins, and first appeared in Sleepwalker #1. A former defense contractor who designed missile propulsion systems, Jeff Hagees took to playing pool to relieve the stress of his job. He soon amasses large gambling debts, which leads his employers to be suspicious that he is selling company secrets to pay them off. Despite having no proof, his employers fired him. Combining his love of pool with his engineering talents, he fashions a criminal identity for himself as 8-Ball, engaging in a highly successful crime spree in New York. In one of his costumed robberies, he faces the alien Sleepwalker. The hero nearly captures 8-Ball for the police, but Rick Sheridan (the human to whom Sleepwalker is bonded) wakes up, allowing 8-Ball to escape. When