Shadow King

Gallery

Real Name

Current Alias

Shadow King

Aliases

Karma (Xi'an Coy Minh), Cypher (Douglas Ramsey), Jacob Reisz, Ananasi, Amahl Farouk

Affiliation

Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Employer of various groups of humans, Shadow-X, and Gladiators.

Base Of Operations

The Astral Plane; formerly Cairo, Egypt; Los Angeles, California; Madripoor

Status

Alignment

Bad

Identity

Secret Identity

Citizenship

Egyptian

Marital Status

Single

Occupation

Manipulator, would-be conqueror; former crimelord

Characteristics

Gender

Male

Height

6' 1"

Weight

330 lbs (150 kg) ; as Farouk, no weight as Shadow King

Eyes

Red

Hair

No Hair

Skin

Black

Unusual Features

Some of the beings the Shadow King possesses take on his appearance or drastically alter their own.

Origin

Origin

Amahl Farouk was an evil Mutant telepath. Defeated by Professor Xavier in a mental duel, his evil essence remained on the astral plane.

Universe

Earth-616

Place of Birth

Egypt

Place of Death

Cairo, Egypt

Created by

Chris Claremont, John Byrne

First appearance

X-Men #117
(January, 1979)

HistoryEdit

Now I will strip you open -- expose your secrets -- the Shadow King will feast on your terror!

-- Shadow King ^src 

The Shadow King is allegedly a multiversal manifestation of the dark side of the human consciousnesses, spawned by the first nightmare. When the mutant Amahl Farouk power developed, Farouk psychically controlled those around him, feeding on the shadows in their souls and secretly merging with the Shadow King, who had been transferring from host to host since the dawn of humanity.^[1]

Shortly before World War II, Amahl Farouk was believed to have worked with Baron Strucker on a plot to destabilize Britain's political structure, with the intention being Britain allying with Germany in coming war, or at the very least, staying neutral.

Shortly after encountering a young Storm, Professor X walked by a restaurant in Cairo when he was suddenly hit with a powerful psychic attack. Realizing the culprit was inside, he confronted the Shadow King, then known as Amahl Farouk. The two engaged in a fierce battle on the astral plane. Xavier defeated Farouk, whose body slumped over in his chair. But Farouk's evil mind continued to exist on the astral plane, calling itself the Shadow King. (It was also hinted that Farouk was just a body inhabited by the Shadow King).

Many years later, Farouk sought to attack Xavier, angry that he had been defeated. He was able to take over the New Mutant Karma due to her own mutant ability of possession making her vulnerable.

The Shadow King also chased the de-aged Storm in Cairo. She was able to escape with the help of Gambit.

Farouk later took over the interim team of 'Muir Island X-Men.' Destiny and Sunder were killed, and in an ensuing psychic battle the backlash re-injured Professor X's legs and spine.

Shadow King later caused the Psi-War, tricking Psylocke into causing a massive wave of energy that disrupted psionic powers across the world. However, he stretched himself too thin attempting to link with all the minds on Earth, and was defeated by Psylocke in her new shadow astral form when she assaulted his personal psionic nexus. The Shadow King then became trapped in Pyslocke's mind and was unable to enter the Astral Plane.

When Psylocke perished in combat with the mutant hunter, Vargas, the Shadow King was free again and attempted to attack the X-Men. However, it seemed Rogue's acquired memories as well as Sage's computer like mind were too much for him to handle, and he was defeated once again.

The Shadow King later appeared in Britain possessing a alternate reality Charles Xavier and using that reality's X-Men as his Hounds. He was able to bring the Shadow X-Men back to Earth-616 because of the events of M-Day. He and his Shadow X-Men were defeated by New Excalibur and placed in prison. After an attack on a prison transport failed to free him and left the Xavier body in a weakened state, he took control of a guard and have him utter the word "Psylocke." Psylocke visited the unconscious body and the Shadow King revealed himself. The Shadow King could no longer control Psylocke after her resurrection, so he attempted to get revenge on her by having her watch New Excalibur kill her brother. Psylocke caused the Shadow King's host body to have a stroke, flatlining him and was just about to plunge her psychic sword into the body when she suddenly disappeared in a flash of light.

Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

The Shadowking later re-appeared in his old body and approached the journalist Harper Simmons. He gave Simmons footage of X-Force assassinating people so that Simmons would go public with the existence of X-Force. It was later revealed that the Shadow King was working with a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

Telepathy: He is a telepath of a very high order. (He was said to be second only to Professor X, but this has probably changed because other telepaths have since surfaced).

• Astral Projection Possession: Shadow King is able to possess other beings while on the astral plane.

• Astral Plane Alteration: He can control the astral plane (which only the most powerful telepaths can do).

Immortal: As an astral form he can only be harmed by attacks able to damage such a form, such as psychically or using certain magical weapons. He has demonstrated the ability to live beyond the death of his physical body.

Strength level

Normal human male with little regular exercise when alive. As an astral entity, Shadow King has no physical strength.

ParaphernaliaEdit

Weapons

None known. When manifested as a gladiator on the Astral Plane, Shadow King usually appeared armed with Roman weapons.

Appearances in Other MediaEdit

Television

He appeared in two episodes of the 1990s X-Men animated series. The Shadow King, portrayed as an athletic, bearded Egyptian, who mind-controlled a number of children to serve him as thieves, including Storm, 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.

Video games

• X-Men Legends

LinksEdit

• 65 Appearances of Shadow King (Earth-616)
• 13 Images featuring Shadow King (Earth-616)
• 8 Quotations by or about Shadow King (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Shadow King (Earth-616)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Shadow King (Earth-616) 
• OHMU #17, MMM 1987, MARVEL COMICS GROUP ©

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