SHAGREEN THE SORCERER
Real Name: Shagreen
Identity/Class: Extra-dimensional ("Dimension of Floating Cities", Earth-5311) magic user
Occupation:
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Cthuma-Gurath (his god); Dark Bamf (agent);
leader of his minions (Empty Men), creator of the Guardians;
Long John McGurk's Sky Rover crew (occasional business dealings)
Enemies: Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner of Earth-616), Boggies, Long John McGurk, Jinjav Sabree;
Bamfs, Colossus, Kitty, Lockheed, Mean, Windrider
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "Nastyface", "Sharpytooth" (both nicknames from Boggies)
Base of Operations: Mobile in the Sky-Squid, also referred to as the Bizarre Squid-Ship (mobile base);
sometimes L’un Dun-T’wn, aka "the Wizard's Stronghold", "the Fortress" (his floating sky-port)
First Appearance: Nightcrawler I#1 (November, 1985)
Powers/Abilities: Shagreen is a mystic. His power works most quickly and effectively through his staff or more often the staff's orb. Without the staff, he has to speak lengthy spells and perform extensive rituals, but with the staff, he can simply direct the power as need be for nearly instantaneous effects. In addition, if the staff were destroyed, all magical spells created by it would be disrupted.
The staff itself is a versatile weapon. The orb appears to be able to teleport matter interdimensionally, cause explosions, project shockwaves of energy, make blinding flashes of light, and may possibly be able to animate objects and control subjects. In hand-to-hand combat it is a formidable energy weapon (like a Light Saber, or Optimus Prime’s energy mace). While he can apparently travel between dimensions at will, he is unable to teleport spatially within a dimension.
Some of his power is drawn from invoking the demon Cthuma-Gurath. He is more than willing to perform blood sacrifice to gain additional power. Some of his servants were magical creations, as in the case of the Guardians, snake-statues which came to life and attacked any who approached his temple, and the Empty Men, cloaked beings sent to do his bidding. Shagreen is an accomplished and ambidextrous swordsman. His tail is semi-prehensile and can be used as a striking weapon or to trip up others.
Height: 6'
Weight: 190 lbs.
Eyes: Red
Hair: None
History:
(Nightcrawler I#1) - Nightcrawler and Lockheed ended up in a weird dimension after a squid-like portal pulled them through a hole in the Danger Room, and they fell through the clouds onto a flying pirate ship called the Sky Rover T’ai Javinee under the command of Captain Long John McGurk. Nightcrawler was mistaken for a Boggie there. Nightcrawler soon became accepted as a crewman. Later, appalled the pirates' disregard for innocent life, Nightcrawler stopped an attack on another sky-ship and rescued the the beautiful princess named Sabree on that other ship. They took him to the city of Bel Amee Anora. There, Nightcrawler was approached by a lady who claimed her brother had been wounded. With his guard down, Nightcrawler was hit in the back of the head by McGurk and Lockheed knocked out. When Nightcrawler and Lockheed awoke, they found themselves in the clutches of Shagreen!
(Nightcrawler I#2) - Shagreen had both Nightcrawler and Lockheed shackled on his floating stronghold, L’un Dun-T’wn. Shagreen wished to study the teleportation abilities of Nightcrawler for his own ends. That night, Nightcrawler was freed by three Boggies who had been hiding from Shagreen in a mirror. The Boggies said they would not save Nightcrawler unless he reversed the spell that prevented them teleporting and which kept them on L’un Dun T’wn. The Boggies told him the source of the spell was Shagreen’s orb. Also they stated that Sabree had been captured and was to be sacrificed by Shagreen. After freeing Lockheed, Nightcrawler and Lockheed went down a long corridor with large snake carvings on both sides. Both carvings came alive, but Nightcrawler managed to get them to make a passageway to Shagreen. Right when Shagreen was about to sacrifice Sabree, the giant stone snakes, called Guardians, burst through the walls with Nightcrawler and Lockheed running in front of them. The Guardians lunged at Shagreen, but he destroyed them with an explosion from his orb. In the confusion, Nightcrawler saved Sabree, but was cornered by Shagreen who prepared to deliver a mighty blast of energy to Nightcrawler, Sabree and Lockheed. Just then a blast from John McGurk's ship went through the wall. McGurk, in a change of heart, helped Nightcrawler, who found a ball and chain and hurled it at Shagreen staff while the sorcerer was distracted by cannon fire. There was an earth-shattering KRAAK! and Shagreen was disarmed. L’un Dun T’wn began to collapse, so Nightcrawler gathered up Lockheed and went to rescue Sabree. Shagreen beat him to her and hit Nightcrawler on the head with a piece of debris. Nightcrawler got to his feet moments later to see Shagreen fleeing in a Sky-Squid. Lockheed flew off to catch the squid and Nightcrawler quickly teleported there. Nightcrawler and Shagreen drew swords on the vessel, with the sword fight taking them to the top of the Sky-Squid (note: the Squid is like the balloon portion of a dirigible, so they were fighting atop a squid). Nightcrawler slipped on the slippery surface of the squid in mid-battle. As Shagreen was about to take the final chop at Nightcrawler, Lockheed appeared and fried his butt, and the shark-like mage fell off and into the clouds below. Later, Nightcrawler was sucked into another wormhole in a failed attempt by Kitty and Magik to get Nightcrawler back to their home dimension.
(Nightcrawler I#2 - BTS) - Shagreen magically transported himself across to another dimension to another base of his.
(Nightcrawler I#3) - Nightcrawler found himself in a new place (the one from Kitty’s fairy tale theater in X-Men#153 (see comments)). He met up with a Bamf who took Nightcrawler to his village.
However, Shagreen showed up in the village right as Nightcrawler and the unnamed Bamf arrived. Shagreen captured every Bamf except for the one accompanying Nightcrawler and took them to his wizard's tower hideaway on a spooky Island. The lone Bamf got angry that Shagreen took all the females from the village (showing little concern for the males) and enlisted aid from Mean, that world's Lockheed, Colossus and Kitty (both pirates in this world). All six adventurers made it to the island's shore but were attacked by Shagreen’s bird-like minions called Dreadwings. The six drive them off, but, with the exception of Bamf and that dimension's giant Lockheed, were captured by Shagreen.
(Nightcrawler I#4) - Working together, the Bamf and Lockheed freed all the female Bamfs. Bamf, atop Lockheed, led the females' attack on Shagreen, who knocked them all unconscious. Then Windrider appeared and distracted Shagreen with some fancy sorcery, while Nightcrawler freed himself, Colossus, Kitty and Mean. Nightcrawler grabbed a mace and attempted to smash Shagreen's orb. However, Shagreen instead blasted him away. Then without warning, a "Wizard of Oz"-type floating head of the real Kitty appeared. Shagreen thought this to be some trick and blasted Kitty through into this dimension, but Magik magically returned Kitty by pressing a random button. During this, Nightcrawler grabbed a chain and lassoed Shagreen’s staff, disarming him with one mighty pull. Windrider took advantage of the opportunity and blasted Shagreen. Nightcrawler then smashed the staff on the ground, reversing all spells and sending himself back home (actually it took him through one more dimension briefly). Shagreen was captured and never heard from again...
Comments: Created by Dave Cockrum (writer, pencils, inks).
"Shagreen" is an actual word, fittingly meaning sharkskin (or more precisely, "the rough skin of various sharks and rays when covered with small close-set tubercles"). It also refers to "an untanned leather covered with small round granulations and usually dyed green."
In this series, Kitty's Fairy Tale, from Uncanny X-Men I#153, is established as an alternate dimension. It's characters are of course versions of "our" X-Men; Colossus the pirate after Colossus, Kitty the pirate (older than her counterpart) after Kitty Pryde, Lockheed the giant dragon after the X-Men's Blackbird, Mean, aka the Fiend with No Name after Wolverine and Windrider the sorceress after Storm. In addition, Boggies were other-dimensional creatures which also resembled Nightcrawler, but were distinct from the Bamfs. Shagreen was convinced that Nightcrawler was a Boggie.
Cthuma-Gurath would seem to be a play on Shuma-Gorath and/or Lovecraft's Cthulhu, but whether it is directly connected to either of those beings is unrevealed.
Shagreen received a small entry in All-New OHotMU Update#4.
Main profile by FortMax and Snood, sub-profiles by Grendel Prime. New format and high res images by MarvellousLuke.
Profile by FortMax, Snood and Grendel Prime
CLARIFICATIONS:
Shagreen has no known connections to
Shagreen worshiped a powerful demon called Cthuma-Gurath, offering sacrifices of young women to it and deriving power from the demon.
Cthuma-Gurath was only depicted in its giant statue form at the altar attended by Shagreen's Empty Men.
--Nightcrawler I#2
The Empty Men were the minions of Shagreen. They helped carry and cart Nightcrawler and Lockheed to Shagreen's floating fortress. They later attacked Sabree's retainers and kidnapped her, imprisoning her in Shagreen's fortress of L'un Dun-T'wn. The Empty Men also attended the ritual of sacrifice at Shagreen's altar to Cthuma-Gurath. They likely perished with the destruction of L'un Dun-T'wn.
--Nightcrawler I#1, Nightcrawler I#2
images: (without ads)
Nightcrawler I#1, p23, pan5 (main image)
Nightcrawler I#2, p12, pan2 (head shot)
Nightcrawler I#2, p14, pan5 (tail bitten)
Nightcrawler I#4, p19, pan3 (caught)
Nightcrawler I#2, p10, pan1 (Cthuma-Gurath)
Nightcrawler I#2, p2, pan2 (Empty Men)
Appearances:
Nightcrawler I#1 (November, 1985) - Dave Cockrum (writer, pencils, inks), Ann Nocenti (editor)
Nightcrawler I#2 (December, 1985) - Dave Cockrum (writer, pencils, inks), Ann Nocenti (editor)
Nightcrawler I#3 (January, 1986) - Dave Cockrum (writer, pencils, inks), Ann Nocenti (editor)
Nightcrawler I#4 (February, 1986) - Dave Cockrum (writer, pencils, inks), Ann Nocenti (editor)
First Posted: 08/03/2002
Last Updated: 12/28/2019
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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