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Quote1 Kaine! Look upon me! I am Shathra! I followed your other self, the Spider-Man, to this world to feed upon him... but you will do. Quote2
Shathra[src]

History

Origin[]

Shathra (Earth-001) from Edge of Spider-Verse Vol 2 2 001

Shathra in her original form

Shathra hailed from Earth-001 before it became Loomworld. Daughter of Goddesses Oshtur and Gaea, she was tasked by them with designing the Celestial Map of Humanity. After arduous labors, Shathra created the "Great Nest," to which her younger sister Neith saw a problem in the design and created a "Great Web" of her own. An inspecting Oshtur and Gaea were impressed with Neith's design and offered to help her bring it to fruition by making her the shaper of the Multiverse. Neith agreed on the condition that Shathra would not mind and Shathra wished her well, even though her own heart had become blackened with jealousy and rage. Once Neith constructed the Web of Life and Destiny presented to other gods, Shathra became incensed by the "chaos" of free will and disgusted with the Spiders that inhabited it. Her rage and envy manifesting fully, Shathra turned into a wasp-like dark goddess, determined to one day have her spider-wasps take revenge on all Spiders and make her Great Nest a reality to supplant the Great Web.[6]


Encountering Peter Parker[]

Shathra learned of Spider-Man when he strayed from the safe path during a visit to the Astral Plane to locate the inter-dimensional kidnapper known as Shade. Shathra immediately realized Spider-Man's true nature and determined that he would make the perfect meal for her hungry young hatchlings. Following Spider-Man's scent back to Earth, Shathra quickly engaged her chosen victim in a battle that demonstrated her clearly superior speed and strength. Though Spider-Man was able to use his superior knowledge of New York to find temporary escape, he knew that Shathra would soon locate him once more.[1]

In fact, Shathra turned the game in a new direction, changing to a human form and adopting the name "Sharon Keller". Posing as Spider-Man's jilted lover, she went on live TV to reveal a series of convincing and humiliating details. Spurred by Mary Jane Watson's distress, Peter Parker rose to the taunt, gatecrashes the studio interview and attacked Sharon Keller in full view. Fortunately, Shathra reverted to her Spider-Wasp form, but her gambit had achieved its goal of pushing Spider-Man to act on pure instinct, bringing the conflict to the simple level of "natural order", in which the Spider-Wasp is the hunter and the Spider is the meal.

Spider-Man managed barely to avoid descending into mindless fury and though drugged by Shathra's paralyzing agent, managed to escape to brief safety. He was rescued by Ezekiel Sims, who took Spider-Man to a sacred temple in Ghana and helped Peter to set a trap for Shathra. Spider-Man now consciously allowed his arachnid side to take the forefront, or enough so to capture the Spider-Wasp, and to feed her to whatever spider dwelt in the depths of the temple. The food chain, it seems, can run in both directions.[2]

The Scarlet Spider[]

Years later, Madame Web sent a letter to Kaine Parker in Houston telling him to get out of town secretly encoding a message that Shathra was coming, but the letter never got to him so he was ignorant of the incoming threat.[7] She then appeared to Kaine in the form of his girlfriend Annabelle Adams and after sleeping with him revealed her true form to him.[3] Kaine had to succumb to his form of The Other in order to kill Shathra, who had revealed she wanted Kaine to use him to feed her "children".[4]

End of Spider-Verse[]

While repairing the Great Web on the Loomworld, Spiderling inadvertently touched the Primal Strand of the Web, releasing Shathra. Recognizing her as broodling of Peter Parker, Shathra sent Spider-Wasps to sting her, corrupting Annie and transforming her into Shathra's Nestling.[6] Shathra then personally turned the Noir Spider-Man[5] while sending swarms to turn other spiders such as Gwen[6] and Mayday.[8] With preparations ready, Shathra bade Nestling to open a portal to send a swarm to Earth-616 and sent Noir, who killed Spider-Woman before bringing the 616 Spiders, Miles and Silk, as well as Morlun to her Great Nest.[8]

Unfortunately for her, the Spider-Army managed to restore the Web of Life and Destiny by stabbing Morlun with the Totem Dagger, freeing all of the Spiders under her control.[9] Once again back on Earth-616, Shathra grew in size and attempted to destroy the Spiders for good, but the 616 Peter Parker used a modified Web-Shooter containing a piece of the Web to banish her to a different plane of existence where she was cleansed of her corruption.[10]

Attributes

Power Grid[11]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Experienced Fighter:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Single Type: Short Range:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Enhanced:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (800 lbs-25 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Normal

Powers

Shathra possessed the various superhuman attributes of the totemistic Spider-Wasp. She was considered to be "pure" since she has given in to her feral nature.[citation needed] While she possesses many powers similar to those of Spider-Man, those powers are superior to his.[citation needed]

  • Superhuman Strength: Shathra possessed superhuman strength sufficient to lift at least 15 tons.
  • Superhuman Speed: Shathra could run and move at speeds that are beyond the physical capabilities of the finest human athlete, even more so than even Spider-Man.
  • Superhuman Stamina: Shathra's musculature produces less fatigue toxins then the musculature of a human being. She can physically exert herself at peak capacity for at least several hours before the build up of fatigue toxins in her blood begins to impair her.
  • Superhuman Durability: Shathra was tougher and more resistant to certain kinds of injury than a human being. For instance, she could fall or leap from great heights without sustaining any physical injury. She was also resistant to great impact forces. She could withstand physical impacts, such as being struck by Spider-Man, that would severely injure or kill a human and sustain little to no physical injury.
  • Superhuman Agility: Shathra's agility, balance, and bodily coordination were all enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete.
  • Superhuman Reflexes: Shathra's reflexes were similarly enhanced and are superior to those of the finest human athlete.
  • Superhuman Sense of Smell: Shathra possessed a superhuman sense of smell that borders on the extrasensory. She demonstrated the ability to track Spider-Man through scent and could do so across continents and dimensions. It isn't known if she can track other individuals in this same way or only Spider-Man, due to the totemistical connection between the two.
  • Regenerative Healing Factor: If Shathra sustained physical injury, she could quickly heal damaged bodily tissues faster and more extensively than a human. While not nearly as efficient as that possessed by Wolverine, her healing powers were superior to those of Spider-Man.
  • Immortality: As an elder goddess, Shathra was immortal and even capable of resurrecting herself should her physical form be slain, returning from death after being devoured by the spider-totem known as the Gatekeeper.[2] After being killed by the Other,[4] her essence was sealed away in the Great Web until she was unwittingly freed by the Patternmaker, enabling her to reconstitute herself.[6]
  • Flight: Shathra, being the embodiment of the Spider Wasp, possessed a pair of wings growing from her back that she could use for flying and hovering. The top speed that she could achieve with these wings is unknown, but her Power Grid entry suggests that she could not fly faster than 700 MPH.
  • Shapeshifting: Shathra originally resembled a human woman, but when she became consumed by jealousy and hatred towards her sister she transformed herself into a monstrous wasp-like entity.[6] In her corrupted state she retains limited shapeshifting abilities that she can use to transform her appearance into that of a normal-looking human female.[2]
  • Teleportation: Shathra was able to generate warp holes through space and even through dimensions, such as from her natural home in the Astral Plane to Earth.
  • Claws & Stingers: Shathra possessed razor sharp claws that, coupled with her great strength, were able to cut most conventional materials including flesh, bone, stone, and some types of metals. She also fire sharp stinger-like projectiles with great accuracy and speed. These stingers can easily pierce Spider-Man's webbing and are coated with neural paralyzing agent capable of overcoming Spider-Man.
  • Wasp-Totem Creation: Shathra was capable of spontaneously creating divine totemic wasps to counter her sister Neith's Spider-Totems. Additionally, her venom is able to corrupt spider-totems and transform them into wasp-totems, as seen when she transformed Spiderling into the "Nestling".[6]

Abilities

Shathra was a skilled hand to hand combatant. Like Spider-Man, she has had no formal training but uses a freestyle combat technique that allows her to make full use of her speed, agility, and acrobatic prowess.

See Also

Links and References

References

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