Nightshade (DC)

Latest revision as of 07:04, 26 March 2024

Nightshade is a female comic superhero who features in DC Comics.

Biography

Charlton

Eve Eden was a female human who was the daughter of Senator Wayne Eden and Magda Eden with her having an older brother named Larry Eden. Her mother in reality was a princess from an otherworldly realm known as the Land of Nightshades with her powers being passed to her children. (Captain Atom v1 #87)

As a young girl, her mother revealed to Eve and her brother about their heritage as well as their powers where she took them to the Land of Nightshades. (Captain Atom v1 #87) Once there, they were beset upon by warriors of the demonic Incubus who had terrorised the land. They attacked Magda in order to take her and her children back to their master leading to her being briefly separated from her children. In the chaos, Eve managed to escape and by instinct tapped into her powers where in the shade she merged with the shadows to escape her pursuers. Meanwhile, her mother went to save her son Larry where in the commotion she was stabbed by one of the warriors. Eve came to her mother in those moments and used her powers to send the two of them back to Earth but Larry remained trapped in the Land of Nightshades. The dying Magda told her daughter to not reveal the circumstances of her ancestry or the events in the other dimension and asked her to promise to find her brother in the future. Thus, Eve's mother died in front of her but she had made the promise to accomplish her mother's dying wish and kept the existence of her powers a secret from her father. (Captain Atom v1 #88)

She was then taken from her home by a foreign agent known as the Image who had a strange power over mirrors and was able to use them as portals. Taking Eve Eden hostage, he sent a ransom to her father the senator in order to blackmail them and subvert plans to strengthen the nation's defences. Whilst away from his base, Eve looked for a means to get her powers but she could not find any shadows due to the lights present in her cell. She then used her shoe to shatter the light allowing her to become Nightshade and used her shadow powers to re-appear at the Eden mansion. Nightshade was present at the Image looked to threaten the gathered senators to follow his demands or he would detonate an explosive to kill them. She engaged the villain in a fight and he briefly gained an advantage until Nightshade asked one of the bystanders to switch off the lights leaving the room in darkness. Desperate, the Image decided to flee through a mirror but left the explosive behind to kill everyone but Nightshade through it into the mirror which exploded with the fate of the foreign agent being unknown. After leaving the room, she quickly changed back to Eve Eden who claimed that Nightshade had rescued her and brought her back home. (Captain Atom v1 #88)

DC

Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Eve Eden was the daughter of Warren Eden and Maureen Eden with her having an older brother named Larry Eden. She grew him in middle America in seemingly the perfect household with her mother telling her and her brother stories of a wondrous magical land. When Eve was young, her mother revealed that this magical place was real and it was known as the Land of Nightshades where she had been a princess of the realm. This was until her parents the king and queen were killed by a demon called the Incubus who forced Maureen to flee to Earth. However, she had received word that the Incubus had left and her people wanted her to return as their queen with Maureen wanting her children to accompany her. However, upon arrival, she learnt it was a trick by the Incubus to draw her out with demons fatally wounding Maureen Eden whilst Larry was taken away. In her final moments, Maureen told Eve that she had inherited her abilities to manipulate the shadows and told her daughter to use them to return to Earth so that she could escape until she could rescue her brother. Leaving her doll with her mother, a tearful Eve concentrated and returned to her home on Earth where she came to believe her father would never believe the truth. Instead, she told her father that she came back home only to find her mother and brother missing. The police were called but they were unable to find any trace of Maureen or Larry with Eve being force to maintain this lie from her father. In the years afterwards, he spent more time in progressing his political career and Eve saw him less and less as he hired a nanny to care for his daughter. During these years, Eve began to practice the use of her powers where she vowed to return to the Land of Nightshades to find her brother. (Secret Origins v2 #28)

Eventually Eve approached King Faraday of the Central Bureau of Investigation and offered her services to his organization. Faraday agreed to hire her as an unofficial agent, and she worked with him as the costumed hero Nightshade. During this time she took down several super-villains including Black Spider, Image, and Punch & Jewelee. But despite of her deeds, she loathed herself for being still unable to save Larry. Nightshade was later introduced to Amanda Waller, who asked her to become a member of Task Force X. Nightshade agreed, on the condition that she could use the team for one personal mission. (Secret Origins v2 #28)

The Kobra Cult retrieved the Spear of Destiny from the Soviet official who had it, and assassinated him. Nightshade stole the Spear from Kobra, and handed it over to Sarge Steel, and it was inventoried and stored away. (Spectre v3 #21)

Working undercover for the Suicide Squad Nightshade took on the identity of Chimera and infiltrated the super-terrorist organization the Jihad. Nightshade was shocked that during on exhibition of the Jihad's powers they actually killed people. When the time was right she teleported members of the Suicide Squad inside the Jihads hq Jotunheim in Northern Qurac. The Squad dismantled the Jihad, and Nightshade and the Squad returned stateside. (Suicide Squad v1 #2) Nightshade made it perfectly clear to Amanda Waller that she disliked undercover work, she felt that working with the Jihad made her an accessory to murder. The Female Furies attacked Belle Reve prison, and Nightshade and the Squad were unable to prevent them from breaking Glorious Godfrey out of his prison cell and escaping to Apokolips. (Suicide Squad v1 #3) Nightshade and the Suicide Squad discredited James Heller and the Aryan Nation in the public eye. (Suicide Squad v1 #4) Nightshade participated with the Suicide Squad on a undercover mission in Russia to rescue imprisoned author Zoya Trigorin. (Suicide Squad v1 #5) When they were discovered by the Russian military, Nightshade's powers were stretched to the limit to avoiding capture. Her exhaustion leaves them unable to escape, and they were forced to make a daring helicopter extraction but leaving Nemesis behind. (Suicide Squad v1 #7) Nightshade tried to convince Amanda Waller to rescue Nemesis. But instead, Waller assigned her as a field leader to take down Colombian drug czar Xavier Cujo. Prior to her mission, Nightshade was asked by King Faraday to meet Captain Atom to monitor him as he had severed his ties to the American government. Nightshade soon developed a romance with Captain Atom and even worked together. After her time with Captain Atom, Nightshade lead the Suicide Squad to Colombia where they fought through a jungle of communist guerrillas and fighting her teammate Enchantress in a brutal fistfight after the latter turned on Nightshade before putting the witch in a chokehold and forced her to submit. (Suicide Squad v1 #12)

Nightshade later fell under the thrall of Gorilla Grodd where she was among the number of metahumans that attempted to collect the billion dollar bounty President Luthor placed on Superman’s head but failed. (Superman/Batman v1 #3)

The Society massed in Metropolis, and Nightshade and an army of virtually every hero on Earth confronted the villains and engaged in an epic battle with them. (Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special v1 #1)

She was with Shadowpact when they sensed a magical disturbance surrounding Linda Danvers and ambushed her in order to prevent her from going on a rampage. (Reign of Hell v1 #1)

Post-Flashpoint

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Eve Eden

Overview

Personality and attributes

It was said that she grew up in perfect Middle America in a white home with the perfect family where she had no problems in her life. This was until the loss of her mother and brother whereupon her father devoted more time to his political career. This saw saw growing up lonely with her spending her puberty with no games or boys where she commented that her life was weird. When she was a little girl, she had said that she had loved the night. She relished the darkness that often scared her friends. This led to her being referred to as being the bravest of the bunch. (Secret Origins v2 #28)

Her masked persona was known to had to had struck fear in the unknown shadows of the underworld of criminals and spies. (Captain Atom v1 #87)

Eve's father was Warren Eden who was once a city alderman was a rising politician. He was not home much but Eve thought he was the greatest man in the world. The truth about his wife's origins were kept hidden from him as it was believed that he would not be able to understand the truth about her past. The disappearance of his wife led to him falling into bitterness and he withdrew from his family life where he channelled his energies into political power. (Secret Origins v2 #28) By the time she was an adult, her father had become a senator in the U.S. government. (Captain Atom v1 #87)

Her mother was Maureen Eden who Eve saw as the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. (Secret Origins v2 #28)

It was said that her maternal grandparents were the King and Queen of the Land of Nightshades until their death at the hands of the Incubus. (Secret Origins v2 #28)

After the loss of her mother, Eve's father came to hire a nanny named Mary to help care for her. Eve noted that she was a good person but despite that she felt lonely when she was growing up. (Secret Origins v2 #28)

Powers and abilities

Her abilities were tied to the otherworld of the Land of Nightshades which the source of her shadow powers. She had inherited these powers from her mother who was a Princess of that realm. These powers were said to be akin to being magic within the human world. It allowed her to become like a shadow and she could use this to transport herself to the wondrous realm that was their mother's home. (Captain Atom v1 #87) Thus, Eve could become a living shadow and use shadows as doorways to other places. She began to practice the art of teleporting when she was 13 years old. (Secret Origins v2 #28)

The shadow creatures she summoned were not too intelligent with her working on this talent. She often used these to create two ravens that she called Ryu and Mu who she could deploy as scouts. However, they were as likely to report a stray dog as one of her actual targets. Nightshade though was slowly learning to program more judgment into them in order to improve their capabilities. (Shadowpact v1 #1)

On Earth, her family home was the Eden Mansion that was the stately manor of her father who was a senator in the U.S. government. (Captain Atom v1 #87)

Notes

• Nightshade was created by David Kaler and Steve Ditko where she made her first appearance in Captain Atom v1 #82 (September, 1966).

Alternate Versions

• In Countdown: Arena v1 #1 (2008), an alternate version of the character called the Eve of Shadows appeared in the world of Earth-13. She was shown as being married to her version of Nathaniel Adams who on her world was called Brigadier Atom.
• In The Multiversity: Pax Americana v1 #1 (2015), an alternate version of Eve Eden as Nightshade appeared on the new Earth-4 set in the reformed Multiverse. Evie Eden grew up in a dysfunctional household. Her father was a politician who never gained her trust, and her mother was mentally ill, claiming she came from the Shadow Dimension. In 2008, President Harley, inspired by his father’s love of superheroes and his work on Major Comics, decided that America needed costumed heroes. Eve, took the costumed identity Eve of Shadows, and later Nightshade. Harley believed the world needed heroes to take them from the darkness, and he formed the super team Pax Americana, heroes intended to bring a millennia of peace to America. In NYC Harley announced his team to the world, and debuted Captain Atom, Earth-s only superhuman, who created three towers where the twin towers once stood. In 2015 President Harley was shot dead by Peacemaker. Harley had planned his own sacrifice, and was working on a scheme of redemption that relied on Captain Atom being able to restore him from the dead. Nightshade was on a mission in Syria while this was unfolding, and when she returned to Washington, her father informed her that he was now President, and he considered the superhero to be dead. He told her to say goodbye to her adoring fans, and sign autographs for them. Nightshade was furious, telling her father that he was ruining her life. Nightshade later tracked Question, who’d gone rogue, and he outfought her as he always did. He told her she thought the military-entertainment complex ruled the world, but told her the boards was run by a hunchback or a soldier

In other media

Films

• In Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Nightshade made a minor appearance in the setting of the animated film where she was voiced by actress Rachael MacFarlane.

Appearances

• Captain Atom v1: (1966)
• Suicide Squad v1:
• Secret Origins v2:
• Shadowpact v1:
• Reign in Hell v1:
• Deathstroke:

External Links

• DC Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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