| Sebastian Shaw | |
|---|---|
Art by John Cassaday. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Uncanny X-Men #129 (January, 1980) |
| Created by | Chris Claremont John Byrne |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Sebastian Hiram Shaw |
| Species | Human Mutant |
| Team affiliations | Hellfire Club Shaw Industries |
| Notable aliases | Black King, Lord Imperial, Black Bishop |
| Abilities | Metabolizes energy into greater physical attributes |
Sebastian Hiram Shaw is a fictional comic book supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe, and an adversary of the X-Men.
A mutant, Shaw possesses the ability to absorb energy and transform it into raw strength. He is the leader of the New York branch of the Hellfire Club, an exclusive secret society bent on world domination, although to the public, he is a legitimate businessman and ordinary human. He once funded the mutant-hunting Sentinel program to keep it under his thumb. In 2009, Shaw was named IGN's 55th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.[1]
Shaw is portrayed by Kevin Bacon in the 2011 film, X-Men: First Class. He is the main antagonist along with Emma Frost and his Hellfire Club.
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Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer John Byrne, the character first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #129 (January 1979).
Comic artist John Byrne based the appearance of Sebastian Shaw on that of British actor Robert Shaw.[2]
Sebastian Shaw was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His power first manifested shortly after he was accepted to engineering school (speculated to be Carnegie Mellon University) and his father Jacob Shaw died after he contracted an incurable disease. Sebastian Shaw devoted himself to his studies and created Shaw Industries, becoming a millionaire by age 30 and a billionaire by age 40.
Shaw became engaged to a woman named Lourdes Chantel, also a mutant, and was soon initiated into the Hellfire Club thanks to his vast fortune along with Warren Worthington, Jr. (father of Archangel), Howard Stark (father of Tony Stark) and Sir James Braddock (father of Captain Britain and Psylocke), having caught the attention of Ned Buckman, then White King of Hellfire Club's New York Branch. Shaw became part of the Council of the Chosen, earning the rank of Black Bishop. Lourdes did not trust Buckman, and feared that Shaw's ambition and the nature of the Hellfire Club would corrupt him.
Lourdes was soon killed by Sentinels in a battle. Upon discovering that Ned Buckman, the White King of the Council, was supporting Steven Lang's Project: Armageddon and its Sentinels, he executed a coup, using Emma Frost's telepathy to make Buckman kill all the Council of the Chosen, including his own White Queen, Paris Seville, and then himself. Shaw proclaimed himself Black King, remade the Council of the Chosen into his Inner Circle and gathered Emma Frost, Harry Leland and the non-mutant cyborg Donald Pierce as the Lords Cardinal of Hellfire Club. At Shaw's side was Tessa, who, unbeknownst to him, was a spy working for Charles Xavier.
As the leader of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, Shaw started plans to dominate the world through force, money and power. His connections to top officials of corporations and government, acquired via the Club and through his position as CEO of Shaw Industries, made him a powerful enemy. Ironically, Shaw was for years a major supporter and builder of Sentinels, figuring that it's better to be in control of them than not. This activity brought him into frequent contact with the major players of Project: Wideawake, Senator Robert Kelly and Henry Peter Gyrich, to whom he appeared to be an anti-mutant human bigot.
Shaw was a key part of the corruption of the Phoenix entity into the Dark Phoenix. This battle was Shaw's and the Hellfire Club's first encounter (and, soon, first battle) with the X-Men. Later, during the Hellfire Club's battle alongside the X-Men against Nimrod, a Sentinel from the future, Shaw was thrown into the upper atmosphere by the Sentinel, then caught by Harry Leland's power and slammed at phenomenal speed into Nimrod. This effort had the side effect of fatally overwhelming Leland's weak heart. After the battle, the Hellfire Club and the X-Men became allies of sorts, with Magneto and Storm filling the position of White King. Eventually, Storm left, and Magneto, Selene and Emma conspired to vote Shaw out of the Club.
Months later, Shaw was attacked by his son, Shinobi Shaw, who phased his hand into his father's chest to induce a coronary. Shaw was then supposedly blown up in his Swiss Mountain chalet by a bomb set by his son. Shinobi shortly became the new Black King of Hellfire Club; however, Shaw survived, albeit with a scar on his face crossing his left eye which was removed successfully by Madelyne Pryor (seemingly a sentient psionic construct of X-Man) using her psionic powers during their affair after his reappearance. Shaw became part of a new Inner Circle alongside Selene, Madelyne and Trevor Fitzroy, a descendant of Sebastian himself in an alternate future.
Shaw's first move upon recovery from the bomb was to contact the mutant named Holocaust, who had crossed over from the "Age of Apocalypse" timeline. In exchange for a new armored containment suit, Holocaust agreed to help Shaw capture X-Force, which he did with ease. Shaw then had Tessa telepathically brainwash X-Force to hunt down Cable, but Cable used his own emergent telepathy to break the conditioning and free his team. Shaw's relationship with Holocaust declined soon after.
Shaw's more recent exploits included vying for control of the Elixir Vitae, thought to be a cure for the Legacy Virus; associations with the British intelligence agency Black Air and an unnamed time-manipulator; and hunting down X-51, the Machine Man. Then, Shaw was apparently ousted from his position as Black King by Selene, who installed the demon Blackheart in his place. This arrangement did not last long, as Selene and Blackheart were defeated and Shaw has since returned to power.
He attempted to use Lady Mastermind to control Tessa (now called "Sage") and Storm's team of X-Men, who were searching for Destiny's prophetic diaries. Then, after Professor X was "outed" as a mutant, Shaw apparently returned to his capitalist roots and converted the NY branch of the Hellfire Club into a strip club, which was in fact a safe haven for mutants regardless of affiliation. Using telepathic strippers, Shaw gleaned secrets from the minds of his patrons, who come in just to have a good decadent time. Thanks to the aid of his employees, Shaw pretended to be a telepath himself.
After a few months, though, Shaw made a play to become the new Lord Imperial of the entire Club worldwide, and invited Sage to help him. Shaw also invited Courtney Ross (who was actually her evil counterpart Sat-yr-9) and Sunspot to join him as the White Queen and Black King. All three accepted, but Sage effectively betrayed Shaw when she did not warn him that Pierce might try to assassinate him. Shaw met with the X-Men, claiming to be somewhat reformed, just before Pierce's attack. He was then wounded by Pierce, but remained strong enough to literally knock Pierce's head off. However, he was too hurt to maintain his Club position and was replaced by Sunspot, who is now the current Lord Imperial of the Hellfire Club.
Later, it seemed he had joined forces with a new Inner Circle which included Cassandra Nova, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Emma Frost/Perfection, the latter of whom had since joined the X-Men. As the story arc continued to unfold, the Hellfire Club made their attack as they each targeted an individual member of Cyclops' team of X-Men. Shaw himself defeated Colossus. In the end however, it is revealed that the entire Hellfire Club was not real, and all were mental images created by Emma Frost's mind, which was infected with a special "programming" by Cassandra Nova in an attempt to revive her. The Shaw duplicate vanished after being defeated by Cyclops.
Shaw appears incognito (with an image-inducer) at a funeral for a mutant boy named Landru. When confronted by Professor X, he merely states that he was paying his respects. Xavier overhears his thoughts of a possible coup against Sunspot during the service. When Shaw notices him watching, he quickly creates a Psi-Shield to hide his thoughts.
Some time after this Shaw appears at a Hellfire club dinner hosted by Sunspot and is alerted to a device left to him by his father exploding elsewhere in the compound resulting in the insanity of two club menials and Shaw asking his manservant for a file labelled "Kronos". After being upbraided over the explosion and deaths by da Costa he is ordered to investigate. Shaw however knows the cause. The explosion in the Hellfire Club was caused by the activation of a machine developed beneath the Alamogordo genetics plant in Las Cruces, New Mexico by Mr Sinister. In the past Sinister had worked here (disguised as a Dr Milbury) alongside Brian Xavier, Kurt Marko and Irene Adler who had been gathered for him by Jacob Shaw, Sebastian's father, as they all had the X-gene and Sinister predicted their children would be mutants. Sinister then experimented of these children (including Cain Marko, Charles Xavier and Sebastian himself), imprinting himself on their DNA. Sinister's machine, dubbed the Cronus device, was designed to activate soon after his death and would activate these hidden copies until Sinister could be reborn in one of them. Jacob, wanting to protect his son, created the device in the Hellfire club from Sinister's notes to alert and protect Sebastian from the Cronus device. Shaw travelled to New Mexico to visit another of the children to confirm his theory, running into Xavier and Gambit who were investigating a hitlist with the children's names on it. Following them he is present when they are attacked by mercenaries under the employ of Amanda Mueller, a former associate of Sinister's. Xavier is captured and Gambit and Shaw team up to save Xavier. It is revealed that Mueller wants to house the powers (though not the personality) of Sinister herself and so is assassinating the children, having undergone the procedure herself. She shoots Xavier, who is already struggling to stop Sinister from taking over his body, which allows him to take over. Sinister in Xavier's body stops Mueller but is in turn confronted by Shaw and Gambit who destroy the Cronus device while Xavier casts Sinister out of his mind. With the threat gone, Shaw leaves.
Later, Shaw joins forces with Claudine Renko, a.k.a. Miss Sinister, a female clone of Mister Sinister. Together they manipulate Wolverine into defeating the new members of the Inner Circle, try to take control of Logan's son, Daken, and set up a trap against Xavier. Shaw also attempts to kill Xavier but is stopped by Daken.
During her early days as the White Queen, Sebastian Shaw sends Emma to convince Namor to join the Hellfire Club. Instead, Namor takes her to his kingdom and they begin a relationship. Believing Emma to have betrayed him for Namor, Shaw sends a reprogrammed Sentinel to Atlantis, attacking the two and destroying the kingdom. As Namor confronts Shaw for his treachery, Selene takes telepathic hold of Emma, erasing her memories of Namor, who vows revenge on Shaw. In the present, Emma reveals that her initial battle with Phoenix unlocked her memories of Namor. She makes a pact with him, seducing Shaw and using her telepathy to make Namor believe she has executed him, while secretly telepathically incapacitating Shaw. Per their deal, Namor vows to protect mutant-kind as his own people, while Emma, more determined to fill her role as a leader of mutant-kind, contacts Cyclops to have Shaw captured by the X-Men for "crimes against mutant-kind."[3] Approaching him later in his cell, Emma reveals that she has captured Shaw for Namor and on the basis that the Sentinels he commissioned were ones later used by Cassandra Nova to destroy Genosha. She sentences him to remember nothing but the faces of the Genoshan victims using her telepathy.[4]
Shaw is targeted by Selene along with all those who failed her in her attempt to ascend to godhood. It is revealed that sometime after M-Day he had his son, Shinobi Shaw killed. Selene sends Shinobi and Harry Leland after Shaw and Donald Pierce.[5]
Due to Namor's presence on Utopia, Emma realizes that Shaw's continued existence poses a threat to the agreement she had made with Namor earlier. She decides to finally kill him, but her plans are exposed when Shadowcat accidentally picks up her thoughts during a psi-conversation between her and Colossus. While disgusted at Frost's intended actions, Shadowcat offers her a compromise. As she currently exists as a ghost, she is the perfect tool for making Shaw disappear.
Fantomex, Shadowcat and Emma then take him aboard E.V.A., whilst they work out how to dispose of him. Emma wakes Shaw up and asks him to recount the early days of the Hellfire Club. Emma and two other dancers were the closest of friends, when one night, Emma was offered, by Shaw, the position of Queen. The only stipulation was that one of the two girls had to die. She stated she did not care which one was killed and watched as Shaw proceeded to kill both. Present day, Emma starts to question Shaw further when Fantomex, bored with Emma's "woe is me" recounts of her history, drops the floor from under Shaw. Emma goes into a rage at Fantomex, as Fantomex was unaware that Shaw could absorb energy, such as that from hitting the ground from such heights.[6]
Shaw proceeds to engage Frost's group, stating that he would rather die than see Emma go on breathing a moment longer. Helped by a maimed Fantomex, the former White Queen tricks Shaw into allowing her into his mind, and (with a little encouragement from Shadowcat), as opposed to killing him, finds the most landlocked place in his mind, the point safest from Namor's rage, and wipes his memory. Shaw's attitude immediately changes, and he seems to have no recollection of who he is, where he is, or the identities of anyone around him. In response to his asking who she is, Emma Frost simply rebuffs him, and asks him who he is, coldly telling him that he always said he was a 'self made man' and now is his chance to prove it. She then leaves with the rest of her expedition, leaving a pondering Shaw kneeling in the mud.
Shaw will be part of Generation Hope with no memory of who he is.
Shaw is a mutant with the unique ability to absorb energy and use it to augment his strength, speed, stamina and recuperation capabilities to superhuman levels. He absorbs the energy of any blow he is struck by, including not only physical strikes, but also bullets (both are forms of mostly kinetic energy), and less successfully, concussive energy beams; notably Cyclops' optic blasts. By absorbing enough blows from an opponent, Shaw can surpass the strength level of said opponent and then overpower them. Whether it is possible for him to reach Hulk-level strength is unknown, but he has, in the past, been known to overpower Colossus who is close to 100 ton strength level. He is sometimes shown to be capable of absorbing the cutting, piercing and thrusting energy from a blade which makes it exceedingly difficult to cut or stab him with sharp edged weapons. While Shaw is highly resistant to injury, especially kinetic ones, even he can be damaged by powerful enough blows, and his reliance on punches has been used against him on occasion; Nightcrawler once tried to defeat Shaw by wrestling him, thus avoiding delivering any blows that would empower Shaw.
Without any absorbed energy, Shaw is merely a strong ordinary human in excellent physical condition, but regularly works to keep his strength at a superhuman level. In one instance, he was shown to spend time hitting a wall after waking in order to build up his power reserves before starting the day. It is not known how long these power levels can be maintained without absorbing more energy. If Shaw is captured and bound so he could not move at all, he could certainly be detained.
Shaw also can forgo sleep if he receives enough energy. Often he will have his mercenaries pummel him so that he need not sleep for some time. As a way of aiding himself in combat, Shaw is adept at taunting, and will not let enemies realize his power until they have hit him one too many times. Members of the X-Men have learned the best way to defeat him is to remove him from the field of battle. The most dramatic example of which was when Rogue threw him hundreds of feet directly up into the air and away from the fight, essentially temporarily defeating him, although in the Club's first rematch with the X-Men Cyclops defeated Shaw by destroying the floor that he was standing on to take Shaw out of the equation. It is not known if other human limits apply to Shaw, such as, among other things, whether he can be hurt or killed from drowning or from a lack of air.
Shaw is, however, vulnerable to being incapacitated, or being attacked psionically. During the "Dark Phoenix" story arc where the X-Men first encountered Shaw and the Hellfire Club, after realizing that direct physical battle was not working, Storm dramatically lowered the temperature of the room to sub-arctic conditions, temporarily causing Shaw to flee and recuperate. While it did not take Shaw out of the battle for long, it was just enough to turn the tide of their battle. Shaw has also been overloaded by being struck by lightning and by falling a great distance when his mass was increased.
Other key traits are his successful business acumen and his access to sophisticated weaponry. He not only prides himself on his power and the connections it allows him, but on knowing his opponents and how best to defeat them, whether in battle or in business. He also possesses technology that can block telepathic intrusions by Professor X.
In the Age of Apocalypse, Sebastian Shaw is one of the many mutant aristocrats and a prized servant of Apocalypse. He reveals Angel's connections with the X-Men and other rebels to his master, having seen Angel talking to the former X-Man Gambit.
In the Marvel Noir series X-Men Noir, Shaw is a powerful politician who commands the Brotherhood to do his bidding.
In the Mutant X universe, Shaw is still the Black King of the Hellfire club, but is enclosed in a protective shell for reasons unknown.
In the alternate universe created by the Sphinx, Shaw fights against tyranny alongside such heroes as Cannonball, Juggernaut and Beast. This universe is detailed in New Warriors Volume 1, #11-13.
In the House of M, Sebastian Shaw was granted the position of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director after he aligned himself with Magneto and helped him transform Sentinels into mutant-protecting robots.
The Ultimate version of Sebastian Shaw is also the leader of the Hellfire Club, a secret society that worships the Phoenix God. Ultimate Shaw, unlike his mainstream counterpart, never demonstrated any signs of mutant powers. He was killed by the Phoenix.
Sebastian features heavily in "The Legacy Quest Trilogy" novels, which were written by Steve Lyons. He assists the X-Men against various menaces.