BRIDGIT SHANE
Real Name: Bridgit Shane
Identity/Class: Human mutant, UK citizen (Scottish)
Occupation: Student
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Meggan Puceanu, Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde), Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair)
Enemies: Reverend Craig
Known Relatives: Unidentified parents, possibly other unidentified immediate family (see Comments)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Kinross, Scotland
First Appearance: Excalibur I#93 (January 1996)
Powers/Abilities: Bridgit Shane has the mutant ability to psychically generate and manipulate flame. She can use this subtly, to light candles for instance, but when upset she can lose control, releasing her pent up emotions as explosive bursts and generating firestorms. She is either immune to the heat and flames, as well as the smoke they cause, and she is able to breathe despite the fire using up the oxygen around her, or else instinctively she generates a safe zone around herself, controlling the fire so that even though it is mere millimeters away, not even the radiated heat reaches her. Since her clothes survive her blazes, and are apparently normal apparel, the latter may be the more likely option.
Height: Unrevealed (she's always
kneeling when she is seen next to Wolfsbane)
Weight: 90 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red
History: (Excalibur I#93, fb - BTS) - Bridgit Ross and her family moved from Edinburgh on Scotland's east coast to the small town of Kinross, near the north-west Scottish coast. Six years later, when Bridgit was thirteen, her mutant power of pyrokinesis began to emerge. Having been raised believing being a mutant was bad, she was ashamed to realize she was one, and tried to hide her abilities. However, she was unfortunately spotted using her powers to light the local church's candles without matches by the bigoted Reverend Craig. A religious zealot with a track record of viewing mutants as unholy demons, he locked Bridgit in the church with him and told her she was the spawn of Satan, an abomination, and a disgrace to her parents, then vowed to do whatever was necessary to drive her from the town, and from the Earth itself if he could. Released with his threat hanging over her, the distraught child walked into the local woods, until the traumatic events caught up with her all at once, and her emotional distress triggered a massive firestorm.
(Excalibur I#93) - The eruption was spotted by the enhanced senses of Excalibur's Wolfsbane and Meggan Puceanu on distant Muir Island, with the latter detecting a human mind in anguish behind the conflagration. Meggan flew Wolfsbane and another teammate, Shadowcat, to the mainland, then used her own elemental powers to tell the flames to extinguish themselves. Seeing Bridgit standing in the core flame column, Wolfsbane correctly deduced her to be a mutant whose powers had recently emerged. As the flames finally died away, Wolfsbane approached Bridgit and, taking a sympathetic tone, struck up a conversation. The tearful Bridgit told Wolfsbane her name, and when Wolfsbane noted that she didn't have the local accent, confirmed that her family had moved to the region, but then warned the older girl to stay away, shame-facedly admitting she was a mutant. Bridgit was surprised when Wolfsbane said she was not only a mutant too, but one willing to tell the whole world via the X on her costume. Bridgit wondered at Wolfsbane's lack of shame over wearing her mutancy like a badge, and explained how she had tried to hide what she was. After recounting her encounter with Reverend Craig, the weeping Bridgit's voice gradually dropped to a whisper as she sobbed that she wanted to go home but was so scared.
(Excalibur I#93 - BTS) - The trio from Excalibur took Bridgit somewhere safe (see Comments), then Wolfsbane confronted Craig, who had been her legal guardian when she was an orphaned child and had similarly mistreated her when her powers emerged. Having worked out that Craig was secretly her father, an illicit secret the outwardly pious reverend did not want to become public knowledge, Wolfsbane blackmailed him, ordering him to tell Bridgit's parents that he had been mistaken.
Comments: Created by Warren Ellis, Casey Jones and Tom Simmons.
There's some speculation online that Bridgit is Wolfsbane's half-sister, the result of another of Reverend Craig's affairs. This presumably stems from Wolfsbane's dialogue with Craig, when she asks "Why do you hate me so much? Why do you hate that little girl too, who also has red hair like my mother and I, I noticed." The combination of sharing red hair and Craig's hatred might be taken as some evidence of them being siblings, but I don't think so. Rahne's red hair was inherited from her mother; Craig has brown hair. So Bridgit's red hair can't be evidence of being related to Craig. Additionally, Craig has been stationed at Kinross since before Bridgit was born; Bridgit was raised in Edinburgh, a considerable distance away, reducing any encounter between Craig and Bridgit's mother from a relationship to a casual fling while one or both were on a trip away from home. Feasible, but if Warren Ellis had been trying to suggest Craig had more than one kid, why not simply have her mother be another local woman? No, I think the dialogue is Wolfsbane realizing that part of Craig's reason for persecuting Bridgit is because, with her red hair, she reminds him of Wolfsbane and her mother.
We don't actually see or get told what happens to Bridgit. The last
we see of her is her admitting to Wolfsbane that she wants to go home. We,
the readers, actually see the final section of history above, so strictly
speaking it's not BTS for us. However, Bridgit isn't present, so it is BTS
for her. I'd guess that the Excalibur ladies took Bridgit back to Muir until
Wolfsbane had a chance to confront Craig; if they'd taken Bridgit straight
home first, she might have faced anti-mutant bigotry from her parents thanks
to Craig, and the presence of three costumed mutants accompanying her would
not have helped Bridgit's attempts to deny Craig's accusations. Since she
is never mentioned again, neither turning up at Muir or Xavier's School,
we can hope that Craig did as told, and Bridgit safely returned home after
the events in the issue. Of course, since then she's probably been depowered
by M-Day, or slain by one of the multitude of anti-mutant groups that blight
her Earth. Or maybe we'll see her again one day, now an adult and working
for MI13. In fact, maybe we already have. Her pyrokinesis is a psychic power,
and for all we know it might be only the first of her abilities to emerge.
One issue of Excalibur later, we got a flashforward in time to Earth-9620
and met a future Excalibur, one which included a redhead with psychic
powers...Tangerine. Coincidence? Only Warren Ellis would know for sure.
Alan Davis
originally created Tangerine, but Ellis made her a red-head. Even if
he wasn't intending Bridgit to be Tangerine, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle
fall into place well, especially as when we finally see Tangerine's
modern day Earth-616 counterpart in Captain Britain and MI13#15 (13 real
world years, or very very roughly 4 years Marvel time), the woman depicted
could easily in her late teens, and is projecting what could be fire from
her arms.
Profile by Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Bridgit Shane has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Excalibur I#93, p9, pan2 (main image)
Excalibur I#93, p10, pan3 (headshot)
Captain Britain and MI:13#15, p11, pan 1 (Tangerine)
Other Appearances:
None.
Last updated: 02/11/17
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