Shadow King

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Shadow King
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Uncanny X-Men #117 (Jan 1979)
Created by	Chris Claremont and John Byrne
In story information
Alter ego	(Briefly) Amahl Farouk
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	Dark X-Men Gladiators
Notable aliases	Jacob Reisz, Ananasi, Cypher, Karma
Abilities	Telepathy Immortality Control the astral plane Ability to possess minds while on the astral plane.

The Shadow King is a fictional character that appears in the Marvel Universe. He first appeares in Uncanny X-Men #117 (January 1979), and was created by writer Chris Claremont and illustrator/co-writer John Byrne,

An unnamed mutant, the Shadow King possesses vast telepathic powers. He became a crime lord under the name Amahl Farouk in Cairo, Egypt, leading a street gang that included a young Storm. Future X-Men founder Charles Xavier encountered Farouk and the two engaged in a psychic battle that trapped Farouk out of his body.

The Shadow King is a disembodied persona on the astral plane, where he can take possession of the bodies of others and battle other telepaths in astral form.

[edit] Fictional character biography

One of the Shadow King's defining moments in the Marvel Universe began with his psychic battle with Charles Xavier (Professor X), a battle that left Farouk physically dead and released his psychic essence upon the astral plane. After the battle, Xavier became aware of the threat of evil mutants, and began to construct his vision of peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants, ultimately resulting in the formation of the X-Men.

Amahl Farouk, in his Human days.

Years later, Farouk would resurface, first battling the fledgling New Mutants and kidnapping Karma, whose body he inhabited for some time. He ate in a gluttonous fashion and became morbidly obese before finally being forced to flee and release control of Karma's body to herself. Later, he would hunt down Storm, who had been regressed to a childlike body by the mutant-hunter called Nanny. From there, he went on to take over the minds of the numerous mutants living on Muir Island, home of Moira MacTaggert. His influence was felt on the inhabitants for some time. Though the inhabitants were very angry and prone to violence, the Shadow King allowed them some self-reliance when it came to battling the returning threat of Proteus. They were allowed to team up with the New Warriors and X-Force. The groups knew something was wrong, but did not suspect the Shadow King's involvement. During the Muir Island Saga, the Shadow King was defeated and thought killed, but the battle left Xavier once again wheelchair-bound and his son David comatose. After the battle, the X-Men and X-Factor were reorganized, with the original X-Men rejoining the team they had founded.

[edit] Psi-War

Some time later, the Shadow King reappeared, having taken over the African tribe that had once worshipped Storm as a goddess. He managed to mentally trap the X-Men, and a battle between him and Psylocke ensued. The battle resulted in a psychic backlash that affected almost all living beings to a varying degree (from nose bleeds to déjà vu to headaches). Beings with powers of a psychic nature found their abilities significantly affected. Telepaths were particularly affected in that they (temporarily) lost use of their powers. The Shadow King, unaffected by the backlash, was finally defeated by Psylocke. In the process, she sacrificed her telepathic abilities to keep him contained in the astral plane.

After Psylocke’s death, the Shadow King was released from his prison. He returned with a plan to turn Rogue into his new Shadow Queen^[1]. He hoped to gain her ability to enter dreamtime (which she absorbed from Gateway) so that he might take control over the world. However, she recalled the psionic abilities she had gained from Psylocke and used them to defeat the Shadow King.

[edit] Revenge on Psylocke

When Jamie brought Betsy back from the dead, the Shadow King escaped, however due to the cosmic whim created by the Scarlet Witch during the House of M, he found himself in another universe where he met and managed to take control over Professor Xavier and his original team of X-Men, dubbing them the "Dark X-Men". Later after the world was shifted back to normal, the Shadow King and his mindcontrolled X-Men team managed to slip back into the Earth-616 world. They emerged in London while the Shadow King kept himself hidden inside the body of the alternate version of Professor X. He then lured (the newly resurrected) Psylocke and New Excalibur to him. After that, the Shadow King had the controlled New Excalibur, minus Sage, kill Captain Britain. Psylocke created a telekinetic bubble to give the Shadow King's host body a stroke. This freed the others from his control, but when Psylocke delivered the killing blow, she vanished in a flash of light.

[edit] Attempted Return

When the Dark X-Men try to free their Xavier from the prison he is being held at. They are assisted by Lionheart, and the Shadow King tries to take control of her mind to add to his team^[2]. However, Albion had given Lionheart a device that prevents him from doing this. She then places a collar on the Dark Xavier that is supposed to seal the Shadow King in that body, and kill him when that body dies. Lionheart then stabs Dark Xavier in the chest and kills him.

However, as the Shadow King had said once, as long as one dark thought exists in man, he can live, so it remains to be seen whether or not this is truly the last of him.

[edit] Powers and abilities

The Shadow King is a powerful telepath that rivals Professor Xavier. He is able to produce a number of mental feats. Notably, he can control the astral plane (which only the most powerful telepaths are able to), as well as possess minds while on the astral plane. He has demonstrated the ability to live beyond the death of his physical body. Subsequent retcons have implied that the Shadow King is in fact much older than he seems, and the series X-Treme X-Men and X-Men: True Friends suggest that he is in fact a creature of the ethereal plane that has existed since the dawn of humanity. In the 1940s, he was found to be working with Baron Strucker and the Nazis in a scheme to mystically replace the King of England with a Nazi sympathizer, greatly increasing Germany's chances for victory, until he was thwarted by a group of time traveling X-Men.

[edit] Other versions

Despite his claim that in all realities, there exists only one Shadow King, several alternate versions of the Shadow King have appeared outside of the 616 universe.

[edit] Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse alternate timeline, the Shadow King (sometimes instead called the Shadow Thief) is an agent of Apocalypse. He is bodiless like his Earth-616 counterpart, but is usually seen manifested as a cloudy face inside of a bottle in Apocalypse's sanctum. He was the first to detect the presence of Nate Grey, prompting Apocalypse to send his assassins to attempt to kill the youth. When Angel's assistant Karma was captured by Apocalypse's servants, the Shadow King psychically tortured her into revealing Angel's alliance with Magneto's X-Men. He later attempted to read the mind of Bishop, but Bishop's memory of the original reality (Earth-616) was enough to expel the Shadow King from his mind.

Finally, the Shadow King followed Nightcrawler to the sanctuary of Avalon (originally the Savage Land) by hiding inside the mind of Apocalypse's minion Dead Man Wade. There, he took control of the minds of many of Avalon's mutant and human refugees, causing great carnage. Nightcrawler, with the assistance of the psychic Damask and the time-stopping Switchback, was able to physically teleport into the astral plane and destroy the Shadow King's mind. The great number of casualties caused by the Shadow King's attack were enough to convince Destiny to accompany Nightcrawler and the X-Men on a mission to Apocalypse's stronghold; her presence was pivotal to the heroes' success in restoring Earth-616 and repairing the timestream.

[edit] Excalibur

In the first Excalibur series (issues #21 and #22), an alternate version of the Shadow King has conquered the Hellfire Club, and is using the White Queen and Jason Wyngarde to help turn Jean Grey into his Shadow Queen. However, Rachel Summers' interference forces the Shadow King to enlist the aid of Iron Man. Iron Man wants American independence from a world dominated by Britain but is willing to use mass slaughter to accomplish this. The hero known as Crusader X helps Excalibur.

[edit] Mutant X'

In the Mutant X alternate timeline, the Shadow King ends up merged with Professor X to form a gestalt being resembling Onslaught.

[edit] Ultimate universe

The Shadow King is the name of a play that is being written by Storm in Ultimate X-Men in secret based on several disturbing dreams she has of a figure who is "coming for her." The figure eventually attacks Ororo in her dreams and it is revealed that "the Shadow King" was a Ororo's past lover, as well as being the leader of the group of thieves that she and Lady Deathstrike had once belonged. She had sent him into a coma after unintentionally electrocuting him when she used her powers to summon lightning for the first time. During this time, his mind was sent to another dimension where he encountered the Brood, and became the Shadow King. He attempts to kill Ororo, but is forced out of her mind when she (apparently) fatally electrocutes him.

[edit] Other media

[edit] Television

The Shadow King appeared in two episodes of the 1990s X-Men animated series. Amahl Farouk was portrayed as an athletic, bearded Egyptian who mindcontrolled a number of children to serve him as thieves, including Storm, until he was defeated by Xavier and his psychic essence trapped in the Astral Plane. He escaped briefly and possessed Storm's godson Mjnari, though the Shadow King intended to use Mjnari in order to possess Storm. The Shadow King was defeated and trapped once again, only to be released after Professor X suffered an accident which left his mind vulnerable to the Shadow King's attempts to take possession of Xavier and leave his mind trapped in the Astral Plane.

[edit] Video games

Shadow King was one of the three primary villains in the video game X-Men Legends voiced by Dorian Harewood. Shadow King kidnapped Professor X on the astral plane about halfway through the game, thus crippling the X-Men. He was eventually defeated by Xavier after the X-Men released him. When he first appeared, he dropped hints about a mysterious benefactor who told him how to get his revenge on Xavier. His ally is never named in the game, a recurring trait among some of the villains, such as Juggernaut, but Shadow King maintains that he was given the means to kidnap Xavier as a favour, and not as an order.

[edit] HeroClix

Shadow King is a figure in the Mutant Mayhem set from Marvel HeroClix.

[edit] References