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Sebastian Shaw

Revision as of 12:35, 29 June 2017 by Apocalypse666 (Message Wall | contribs) (Adding categories)
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"We are the children of the atom. Radiation gave birth to mutants. What will kill the humans will only make us stronger."
―Sebastian Shaw[src]

Sebastian Shaw was a mutant with the ability to absorb raw energy and redirect it or augment himself.

Biography

X-Men: First Class Prologue

In 1944, Sebastian Shaw (under the alias Dr. Klaus Schmidt) was a scientist working for the Nazis. He was present at the Auschwitz concentration camp, where a young Erik Lehnsherr's mutant powers first manifested. Shaw attempted to get Erik to show his power by pretending to be his friend and giving him some chocolate. When Erik refused, Shaw urged him to move a coin that was on the table, but to no avail. He then threatened to shoot Erik's mother if he did not move the coin by the time he counted to three. When Erik failed to do so, Shaw killed his mother. This enraged him greatly, causing him to lash out with his powers, killing two guards and destroying the room, to the delight of Shaw. He then congratulated the traumatized young mutant, and promised to bring out his power using anger and rage.

X-Men First Class: The High Hand

During the 1950s, Shaw operated a small gambling establishment on Las Vegas strip called the "Hellfire Club", which served as a front for his ambitions for mutant superiority.

One evening in 1959, Nevada Mafia boss Vinny Lavecchia visits the Club. Shaw had previously refused to pay him insurance/protection money as per Mafia tradition. During a game with Shaw, Lavecchia suspects the former of swindling him, and calls for Emma Frost, his telepathic mistress, in order read Shaw's intentions. To her surprise, she discovers that Shaw is also a mutant; Shaw himself immediately becomes smitten with Emma. When he once again refuses to pay the insurance money, Lavecchia leaves in anger and quietly orders his men to kill Shaw. Shaw, however, escapes unscathed because of his mutant abilities, and uses the absorbed energy to kill Lavecchia's hitmen. Soon, he makes plans to defeat Lavecchia and "save" Emma.

After his associates Azazel and Riptide defeat the security detail around Lavecchia's home, Shaw attempts to "rescue" Emma. However, coerced by Lavecchia, she knocks him out with a psychic concussive blast. He is then taken to a remote warehouse.

At the warehouse, Lavecchia intends to kill Shaw by slowly cutting him into pieces - something that Shaw's kinetic energy absorption power can't adapt to. Emma, however, begs that Shaw be dealt a quick death so as not to suffer. Shaw soon implores Emma to abandon Lavecchia due to her superior status as a mutant, angering Lavecchia and causing him to physically abuse her. In defense, Emma converts to her diamond form and kills both Lavecchia and his bodyguard Santo in a rage.

Now convinced by Shaw's rhetoric of mutant superiority, Emma joins him and his mutant colleagues. Azazel quietly warns that Emma could become a potential threat, prompting Shaw to order him to contact their Russian allies to develop a telepathic-protective helmet.

X-Men: First Class

Three years later, Sebastian is firmly established as the leader of the Hellfire Club, a group of mutants with aspirations of world domination. He was observed in Las Vegas by CIA agent Moira MacTaggert meeting with U.S. Army Colonel Hendry, where he threatens him into supporting the placement of American Jupiter missiles in Turkey, near the Russian border. When MacTaggert witnesses Shaw's henchmen Azazel and Riptide using their powers, she attempts to warn her superiors; but Shaw has Azazel teleport Hendry to a Joint Chiefs meeting where he voices his support of the plan.

Later, when Hendry came aboard Shaw's yacht to collect his payment, he attempts to have him killed. However, Hendry pulls out a grenade and threatens to blow them all up with him if they refuse to let him go. Shaw soon takes the grenade and pulls the pin himself with confidence, displaying his mutant power by absorbing the energy from the blast and killing Hendry himself by a single touch. That night, a now adult and vengeful Erik Lehnsherr, who had been hunting Shaw, sneaks aboard the yacht and attempts to murder the man who had tortured him, only to be overwhelmed by Emma Frost's telepathy. At the same time, the U.S. Coast Guard arrived along with MacTaggert and mutant telepath Charles Xavier to capture him. Emma used her powers to shield Shaw from him, and they all made their way to his submarine and narrowly escaped capture. On their way to meet with General Armivolkoff, Emma senses Xavier's enhanced telepathy (through use of Cerebro) and informs Shaw that he is recruiting his own team of mutants, consisting of Dr. Hank McCoy (Beast), Angel Salvadore (Angel), Sean Cassidy (Banshee), Alex Summers (Havok), Raven Darkholme (Mystique) and Armando Muñoz (Darwin). Shaw reveals a helmet he had built by the Russians that shields him from telepathic influence. He asks Emma if she can read his mind, but is shocked and says she can't. He then orders Frost to meet with the general in his place where he, Azazel and Riptide track Charles and his team to a secret CIA facility called Division X, where they proceed to kill everyone, leaving the young mutants as the only ones left. He then offers them a chance to join him in the upcoming war with humankind, an offer that only Angel accepts. When the others attempt to stop her, Darwin says he will join before he suddenly yells out to Havok.  Havok shoots Shaw, but he absorbs his energy blast and kills Darwin with it.

Shaw proceeds to Russia, where he meets with Armivolkoff, as emma had attempted to do, during which she was captured by Lehnsherr and Xavier. He and the Hellfire Club force Armivolkoff to send Soviet missiles to Cuba. It is his plan to goad the U.S. and Soviet Union to use nuclear weapons against each other, which would cause WWIII and cripple human civilization, allowing mutants to rise up and rule. He accompanies the Russian fleet in his submarine to assure that the missiles reach their destination, but is tracked by Xavier and his team. Lehnsherr uses his powers to lift the submarine from the water before they both crash on a nearby beach. Shaw attempts to absorb the energy from the sub's nuclear reactor (becoming a human atom bomb) but is foiled by Lehnsherr. The two fight, Shaw then tells Erik that without him, he would never have unlocked his true power, adding up that mutants are the future. Erik then admits that Shaw was right. Suddenly Erik manages to remove his helmet, allowing Xavier to mentally freeze his body. Lehnsherr then takes Shaw's helmet for himself and says that Shaw was right about mutants being the future, however he does not forgive him for killing his mother. He then uses his ability to force the Nazi coin he still kept and puts it through Shaw's brain, killing him slowly. His body was then used by Erik as a means of showing he was now in charge to Shaw's former comrades - Azazel, Riptide and Angel.

Powers, Abilities & Weaknesses

  • Energy Absorption - Shaw was able to absorb energy in all its forms, proportionality augmenting all his physical parameters until finally metabolizing it. This made him extremely difficult to defeat in battle, as all the kinetic force from an enemy's strike or projectile assaults is another form of energy that would ultimately be nullified while simultaneously strengthening him.
    • Enhanced Strength - By absorbing energy, he could enhance his physical strength to inhuman levels, to the point where no human strength could harm or faze him. This ability allowed him to overpower people with only his hand, send them flying through the air at great speed and effortlessly smash metal constructs. This also proportionately increased his natural resilience and durability, unaffected by falling debris.
    • Kinetikinesis - Once he has the energy, he is able to produce and release it in powerful and destructive ways. He can focus it in various ways, including simple bursts, stretching shockwaves, and even concentrated balls. The strength of these attacks was shown powerful enough to take down an entire room in one strike.
    • Nigh-Invulnerability - As long as people attack him using force, he is invulnerable to any form of damage. He does not even get injured or scratched from extreme ballistic & combat wounds. When paralysed by Professor X, Charles hinted he could only control Shaw for so long and demanded Moira be quiet. This inplies Shaw has some very limited resistanced to Psychic control or Professor X had not fully mastered his power.
    • Self-Sustaining - The accumulated energy also acts as a form of sustenance, keeping him rested, nourished, and healthy. This allowed him to no longer need to eat or sleep beyond personal joy.
    • Suppressed Aging - His body metabolizes energy to rejuvenate his youth, thereby extending his youth, vitality, and overall lifespan proportionate to the accumulated energy. With continuous absorption of energy, he possibly could have even lived forever.

  • Multilingual - Shaw was fluent in several languages - including English, German, French, and Russian.

  • Kinteticless Assault - If someone does not apply any measure of force while attacking him, he can easily get injured or killed. This was proven when Magneto killed him with a coin moving at a very slow momentum, thereby not applying any kinetic friction, whatsoever.

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