Shard (Marvel)
Shard is a female comic superhero that features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Shard Bishop was a female human Mutant born as the second child of Burnum Bishop and Kadee Bishop in an alternate timeline set decades into the future of Earth-1191 in the Multiverse. The Bishops were Australian immigrants who came to the United States to escape nuclear strikes on their homeland. However, they were also mutants, and mutants were illegal in America at this time under the Mutant Control Act. Sentinels caught them at the airport and incarcerated them at the Sheepshead Bay internment center in New York. Kadee was pregnant with Shard’s brother Lucas when they arrived, and Shard was born in the camps three years later. These were the last days of the camps, and among the worst for mutantkind. Sheepshead Bay led the country in experimentation on mutants, and they developed a genetic marker which branded mutants with an ‘M’ tattoo over their eye, permanently encoded into their DNA. Shard was two years old when she was branded. Kadee Bishop never adapted to captivity, and retreated from her husband and her children into depression. Burnum raised Lucas and Shard with the help of their grandmother, who had also been brought to the camp. When the Summers Rebellion started, mutants began to rise up against their oppressors, and even the human population came to recognize the atrocities of the camps. The rebellion was violent, however, and the liberation of Sheepshead Bay brought about the deaths of Kadee and Burnum, and separated Shard and her grandmother from Lucas. (X-Men: The Times and Life of Lucas Bishop v1 #1)
In the new order, mutant advocates refused to be policed by humans, and so an official organization was forged to let mutants police their own. The Xavier Security Enforcers were often denounced by mutants on the streets, however, who saw them as another incarnation of the Hounds, mutant slaves who once hunted their own kind for the camps. Radical anarchists like the Exhumes presented themselves as freedom fighters for the mutant cause, standing up to the X.S.E. and rejecting conformity to human standards. Lucas and Shard cheered the Exhumes at first, until they crossed paths with X.S.E. officers Sureshot and Trace hunting the Exhume known as Virago. Faced with capture, Virago grabbed the child Shard to use as a living shield. Lucas jumped the butcher and distracted her enough to save Shard and give Sureshot the opportunity to fire. From that point on, Lucas and Shard knew the real defenders of mutantkind were the Xavier Security Enforcers. (XSE v1 #1) Living on the streets, Lucas and Shard foraged and stole in order to feed themselves and Hancock. They tried to stay away from the mutant gang warfare erupting, but they still made enemies and eventually their scavenging caught up with them. Enforcers named Halftrack and Billiboy killed Hancock and advanced on the siblings. They would have died as well if the situation hadn’t triggered Bishop’s ability to rechannel energy. A bio-blast floored Halftrack and Billiboy long enough for X.S.E. officers named Recoil and Amazon to arrive and take the gang members into custody. Lucas Bishop had earned a reputation on the streets by this point, and Amazon offered him membership in the X.S.E.’s training academy. Lucas’s instinctive first response was 'Not without my sister'. (Bishop v1 #3)
At the academy, Lucas and Shard met Hecat’e, the founder of the X.S.E. and a former squad mate of Hancock from the Summers Rebellion. She outlined the history of the X.S.E. and the need for mutants to establish order amongst themselves, lest the humans take the initiative in doing so again. The ‘M’ tattoo had been reclaimed by the X.S.E. as a badge of honor, one to be earned by officers when they graduated. Hecat’e remarked to the class how Lucas and Shard already earned their tattoos in the camps, for the younger mutants in the academy had come of age after branding was no longer common. Another trainee named Trevor Fitzroy took an instant dislike to Lucas, but Shard was focused on Hecat’e, whose steel and fire were everything she wanted to be when she grew up. After initiation, Hecat’e spoke to the siblings about Hancock and said she hoped they were worthy of his sacrifice. Shard tried to look tough in front of her idol, pushing back over why Hecat’e let Hancock die on the streets if they were so close. However, Shard then immediately crumbled under the intimidating effect of Hecat’e’s null-light field, for the X.S.E.’s first officer did not like being insulted by a child. Lucas unflinchingly stood up to Hecat’e through her darkness, defending his sister. Hecat’e was impressed and took a passing shot at Shard to reminder her she was only welcome because of her brother’s insistence. This would shape their relationship for years to come. As much as Shard loved her brother Bishop, she resented living in his shadow and was determined to prove her own worth to the organization beyond being 'Bishop’s little sister'. During X.S.E. training, the class went on patrol through the streets with Trace and Sureshot. Their band was attacked by a group of Emplates, mutants suffering from a transmittable genetic condition that gave them a voracious appetite for mutant bone marrow. Their escorts flagged Cerebro central at base before dying to the attackers. One of the Emplates grabbed Shard and the threat triggered her own ability to convert light into force. She struck back with a photonic blast, but her lack of training collapsed a wall atop one of their classmates Hopper as well as an Emplate. Bishop and the class’ marksman Shirley Baylor got Shard and the others into a shelter before holding off the Emplates until back-up arrived. The three of them were commemorated back at headquarters, and Bishop was singled out as the youngest cadet in X.S.E. history to receive full officer status. Of course, that record was surpassed the next year by Shard, setting the stage for their private competition between siblings. (XSE v1 #2)
Alongside her brother, she joined the Xavier's Security Enforcers where she was assigned to Omega Squad that also had Malcolm and Randall as her teammates. (Bishop: Xavier Security Enforcers v1 #1)
Over time, she and Bishop would bicker with this partly relating to Shard's romance with her brothers rival, Trevor Fitzroy. Both Shard and Trevor admittedly dated each other to make Bishop nuts, but there was some real feelings between them. Still, Fitzroy had his own ambitions. As the illegitimate son of the Hellfire Club’s Anthony Shaw, Trevor was on the outside as a bastard so long as his half-brother William lived. When William suddenly died, Trevor was removed from the X.S.E. academy and called back to the family. Fitzroy began committing criminal acts against humans and was eventually caught by Omega Squad. It was Shard who concocted the plan that led to his capture, based off of her personal knowledge of Trevor’s haunts and habits. (XSE v1 #3) Shard and Fitzroy’s relationship degenerated even further over time when Shard was somehow responsible for the death of Trevor’s mother. This betrayal from Fitzroy’s perspective left a blood debt between them. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #301)
Shard did not find fulfillment in her promotion, however, as the X.S.E.’s attempts to impose order on the future slipped further away. Shard became bitter towards their failed efforts, and her concerns came to the attention of a rogue element of maverick officers known as the X.U.E., Xavier’s Underground Enforcers.
The X.U.E. and their mysterious leader felt that the X-Men and the X.S.E. after them had failed Xavier’s dream, and the future needed a hard re-set. Having learned that Trevor Fitzroy’s power to teleport had evolved into creating time portals, the X.U.E. wanted to use Fitzroy to travel back in time and change their reality. Shard’s knowledge of Fitzroy was allegedly key to their plans. Shard reluctantly agreed to join the X.U.E., and was psychically linked to the others by their telepath, Fixx. They captured Fitzroy, but Shard’s attempts to coerce him into willingly helping them failed. The X.U.E. were prepared to harvest Fitzroy’s power against his will, but Shard rejected the idea. She planned to remain true to her oath to the X.S.E. and turn Fitzroy over to the law. The X.U.E. seemed curiously unconcerned about giving up their plans and allowed Shard to return to duty. It was implied that Fixx psychically 'fogged' Shard’s memory of their conspiracy and may have influenced her devotion to their crusade up until that point. (X-Factor v1 #141)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Powers and abilities
Shard is able to absorb ambient light particles and use it to perform various light-based attacks.
She had the ability to send out powerful concussive blasts of photons that can do a considerable amount of damage which she dubbed her 'light force blasts'. She could project these from her hands and out from her body in a series of concussive bursts. Her light blasts were powerful enough to allow her to combust portals opened by Trevor Fitzroy.
While she was a photon-based life form, she could also become intangible.
Notes
- Shard was created by Scott Lobdell and Jason Pearson where she first appeared as an illusion in Uncanny X-Men Annual v1 #1993 (June, 1993) before making a full appearance in Uncanny X-Men v1 #314 (July, 1994).
In other media
Television
- In X-Men, Shard appeared in the 1990s animated television series starting with the episode "One Man's Worth" pt. 1 & 2 where she was by actress Sandi Ross.
- In X-Men '97, Shard appeared in the setting of the animated revival television series where she was voiced by actress Kimberly Woods.
Video games
- In X-Men 3: Mojo World, Shard appeared as a playable character in the video game where she was unlocked in level 4.
Appearances
- Uncanny X-Men v1: (1994)
- X-Factor v1:
External Links
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