Shathra
Shathra is a female comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Shathra was a female being who hailed from Earth-001 that came to be known as Loomworld in the Multiverse. She was the daughter of the goddesses Oshtur and Gaea where 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 where they 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 where she was 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. (Edge of Spider-Verse v2 #2)
Spider-Man
Whilst in the Astral Plane, Spider-Man came to battle the Shade where he was warned to not stray from the path by Doctor Strange. Despite the warning, the Wall-Crawler strayed leading to his presence being detected by the Spider-Wasp which was a mystical predator that went about tracking him to Earth. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #42) Shathra would attack Peter Parker leading to a brief fight between the pair where the latter was forced to flee the scene. 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. In response, Shathra took on a human form named Sharon Keller and decided to speak the press claiming that she was Spider-Man's lover in an attempt to draw him out. As part of her ploy, she claimed that Spider-Man had an insatiable sexual appetite and kinky habits whilst lying about his honesty by saying that he made fun of other superheroes. She even nearly revealed his true identity to the world when an enraged Spider-Man crashed into the studio to fight her live on television. This led to him falling into Shathra's trap as an enraged Spider-Man was prime prey that would be used to feed her children. Reverting to her real form, the truth of the incident came to be revealed to the public as it was still being broadcast live on television. The fight continued onto the streets where Spider-Man came to be poisoned by one of Shathra's spikes leading to him seeking out refuge in a spider exhibit. Unable to track her quarry amongst the spiders, Spider-Man was thus safe from Shathra but was dying from the poison in his system. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #47) Ezekiel came to find the wounded Spider-Man and took him to a temple in Ghana with Shathra in pursuit. Whilst there, Spider-Man was able to remain focused enough to continue his fight against Shathra. The villain by this point was engulfed by a swarm of spiders where she was dragged into a pit before the Wall-Crawler could do anything. He would ask Ezekiel on what had happened where the older man said that Spider-Man had weakened Shathra enough for the predator to become prey to the spiders. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #48)
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. (Scarlet Spider v2 #16) She then appeared to Kaine in the form of his girlfriend Annabelle Adams and after sleeping with him revealed her true form to him. (Scarlet Spider v2 #24) 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'. (Scarlet Spider v2 #25)
End of the Spider-Verse
Overview
Personality and attributes
Arriving on Earth, she once took on a human form and went by the name of Sharon Keller where she claimed to be Spider-Man's lover to draw her prey out. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #47)
She intended to feed 'the spider' to her children once she killed them. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #46)
Shathra was the daughter of the elder goddesses Oshtur and Gaea. Among her siblings was the Egyptian goddess Neith. (Edge of Spider-Verse v2) #2)
Powers and abilities
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. (Edge of Spider-Verse v2 #2) 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. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #48)
She can produce venomous stingers, which are lethal to her prey and can inject a paralyzing poison.
As a natural predator of spider-totems, Shathra has an innate ability to track and hunt down individuals with spider-powers.
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. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #48)
When Shathra reawakened, she inadvertently gave power to one of the Sisterhood of the Wasp's hunters named Delilah.
Notes
- Shathra was created by J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr. where she made her first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man v2 #46 (December, 2002)
In other media
Video games
- In Marvel's Contest of Champions, Shathra appeared as a playable champion in the setting of the mobile video game. Daughter of the Elder Goddesses Oshtur and Gaea, Shathra comes from the world that would come to be known as Loomworld. Shathra was tasked with creating the Celestial Map of Humanity, however, after being outdone by her younger sister Neith, she became enraged with jealousy and spite towards her sister and the Great Web she had designed. Consumed by envy and rage, Shathra gave into her feral nature to tear down everything her sister created, one Spider at a time.
Appearances
- Amazing Spider-Man v2 #46: (2002)
- Scarlet Spider:
- Edge of Spider-Verse v2:
- Spider-Man v4:
External Links
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