Shanna the She-Devil

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Cover to Shanna the She-Devil #1, with art by Frank Cho

Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Shanna the She-Devil Vol. 1. #1 (1972)
Created by	Carole Seuling Steve Gerber George Tuska

Characteristics
Full name	Shanna O'Hara Plunder
Species	Human, from Earth
Affiliations	Ka-Zar (partner and husband)

Shanna the She-Devil is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. Originally created as a derivative of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle (who was herself a female derivative of Tarzan), she later became the partner and wife of Ka-Zar, Marvel's own derivative version of Tarzan. Created by Carole Seuling, Steve Gerber and George Tuska. Her first appearance was in Shanna the She-Devil #1 (1972).

1 Biography
2 Abilities
3 Re-imagined Shanna, the She-Devil
4 Bibliography
- 4.1 List of titles
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Shanna O'Hara Plunder was the daughter of a diamond miner named Gerald O'Hara. Born in Africa, she spent the majority of her childhood growing up in the jungles of Zaire. At the age of six, her father went to kill a rogue leopard which belonged to her mother, Patricia O'Hara. While hunting for the leopard, Shanna's father accidentally shot her mother. The traumatic incident led to Shanna's lifelong crusade against the use of firearms. After the incident, Shanna moved back to the United States to live with relatives. Shanna grew up to become a licensed veterinarian.

After completing college, Shanna began to work for the Central Park Municipal Zoo in New York City as a zoologist. While working at the zoo, Shanna raised many animals, including a female leopard named Julani. During this period another shock to her system came when Julani was shot and killed by a zoo guard. This terrible incident led Shanna to quit the zoo and to take Julani's cubs, Ina and Biri, to the Dahomey Reserve in Africa.

While in Africa, Shanna became more attuned to nature. She began wearing Julani's fur to help with the raising of the cubs. In the jungle, Shanna became more and more at home with herself and her new native element, all the while protecting the reserve from poachers as Shanna the She-Devil.

During her stay in Africa, her father was kidnapped by Mandrill. Shanna searched for him until she herself was kidnapped to the Savage Land by the wizard Malgato. She received help against Malgato from Lord Kevin Plunder a.k.a. Ka-Zar. Shanna returned to Africa to look for her father, until she learned that he was killed by Mandrill. Looking for revenge, she went to America to aid Daredevil and Black Widow in stopping Mandrill and Nekra's plan to overthrow the American government.

After that, Shanna traveled between San Francisco and the Savage Land, finally returning to Africa. Yet her return to Africa wasn't a pleasant one. Her leopards, Ina and Biri, were killed by a religious cult leader, Raga-Shah. After a short grieving period in America, Shanna tracked and gained vengeance upon Raga-Shah. Around this time she began seeing a psychologist, Dr. Dorothy Betz.

She later moved to the Savage Land, a prehistoric wildlife reserve in Antarctica, where she and Ka-Zar fell in love, married, and had a son whom they named Matthew. Along with her husband, Shanna fights to protect the quality of life of all natural habitats from the encroachments of the modern world.

[edit] Abilities

Shanna is gifted with Olympic-class athleticism along with extraordinary agility. She is a well-trained veterinarian, with the capability to be close with wild animals. Shanna is adept at hunting and gathering, healing and tracking. She is an experienced fighter, with familiarity with knives, spears, bows and arrows and other primitive forms of weapons.

[edit] Re-imagined Shanna, the She-Devil

The latest series starring a revamped version of the character, a seven-issue mini series called Shanna the She-Devil, was released in 2005 and written and drawn by Frank Cho. The new Shanna - who has no ties to the original character - is the result of a genetic experiment and has superhuman strength and agility. The series was originally scheduled for release under Marvel's "mature readers" MAX imprint, but was rescheduled as a general title, with the nudity drawn out by Cho though the violence remains fairly intact. In early 2006 Marvel stated that there are plans to release the original MAX version as a collected edition.