THE SHAME

Membership: Feenix, Kamal, Sebastian, Solly

Purpose: To protect their neighborhood and fight for redemption

Aliases: None

Affiliations: Captain Britain (Brian Braddock), Dark Angel (Shevaun Haldane), Albert Davis, Victoria Davis, Death's Head (Freelance Protection Agent), Death's Head (Minion), Death Metal, Death Wreck (Minion), Digitek (Jonathan Bryant), Doris,  Gene Dogs (Howitzer/Shaka, Kestrel/Annie Jones, Pacer/Carlos deSilva, Tyr/Marc Devlin), Genetix (Base/Hiro Sukoto, Ridge/Tim Holloway, Stinger/Blodwen Reese, Vesper/Raani Jatwinder), Gun Runner (Brell), Tigon Liger, Knights of Pendragon (Albion/Peter Hunter, Kate McClellan, Union Jack/Joe Chapman), Motormouth (Harley Davis), Super Soldiers (Alex Dalton, Gog/Owen Llewellyn, Guvnor/Andrew Black, Joseph Hauer), Spitfire (Jacqueline Falsworth-Crichton), Dai Thomas, Tuck, Wild Thing (Nikki Doyle), Pete Wisdom

Enemies: Fake charity collectors dressed as cuddly animals, demons, Jackdaw, Killpower (Julius Mullarkey), Mephisto, Psycho-Wraiths, vampires

Base of Operations: Arundel Estate, south London, U.K.

First Appearance: Revolutionary War: Motormouth (May 2014)

History:
(Revolutionary War: Motormouth (fb) - BTS) - Originally members of other local street gangs, Feenix, Kamal, Sebastian and Solly came together after each of them was thrown out of their former crews for being "losers." As a result of this embarrassment, they became known as the Shame (see comments), seeking to prove themselves by defending their "patch," Arundel Estate in south London. One of the other residents was Harley Davis, the superhuman formerly known as Motormouth, who lived in the apartment above Kamal's mother. The Shame knew of the man considered to be the "Daddy" of Harley's two young children, and were reluctant to mess with him, though eventually he left (see comments). When vampires attacked their block (see comments), Harley defended it but was unable to save Kamal's mother; though she failed in this last, the Shame recognized she had tried her best.

   After his mother's death, Kamal bought the seeds of a rare Savage Land plant off of A.I.M.-bay and grew it in her old apartment, brewing the leaves to make what he liked to describe as a "nice herbal tea."

   Some time later, a group of people dressed as cuddly animals went round Arundel Estate collecting money, allegedly for charity. However the Shame noticed they had no paperwork or i.d., and concluded the collectors were fake, using charity as a cover to scam the locals.

(Revolutionary War: Motormouth) - Confronting the "charity" collectors, Solly demand the teddy bear hand over its cash. Feenix queried the decision to mug charity animals, prompting Kamal to remind her that they were dealing with scammers targeting "their" people, but Feenix clarified that she wasn't questioning their justification, but rather that being seen to rough up teddy bears wouldn't improve their dismal street reputation. While they discussed this, Solly took the money then noticed that an altercation seemed to be going down in Harley's apartment and drew the other's attention to it. Wondering if "Daddy" had come back, Kamal was initially reluctant to get involved, but Feenix reminded him what they owed Harley. Solly clinched the decision by pointing out that if they came to Harley's assistance, they would be showing the world that they were the estate's defenders.

   Their intervention proved timely, as their smashing down the door of Harley's apartment distracted the two massive Psycho-Wraiths that had been holding Harley's kids hostage. Pausing in shock at the sight of the monsters provided the two Psycho-Wraiths the chance to attack the newcomers, but the Shame quickly rallied, with Kamal shouting at Harley to get her kids clear.

(Revolutionary War: Motormouth - BTS) - While Harley got her children to safety, the Psycho-Wraiths swiftly overpowered the Shame, knocking out Sebastian. 

(Revolutionary War: Motormouth) - After making sure her kids were safe, Harley returned in time to save the Shame from being killed, able to slay the two attackers now that she was not distracted trying to protect her offspring. Seeing more Psycho-Wraiths arriving, Harley quickly dug out from storage some futuristic guns she had collected during her reality-hopping days and gave them to the Shame. Feenix successfully eliminated some Psycho-Wraiths with her first shot, but Kamal accidentally disintegrated the apartment floor, dropping him, Harley and Feenix into the shrubbery overrunning the apartment below. While Kamal redeemed himself by shooting a Psycho-Wraith who pursued them, upstairs Solly tried to warn off an approaching Psycho-Wraith, then fired when it continued to approach. However, instead of blasting the Psycho-Wraith, a beam shot into the air and exploded, turning the whole sky orange. Having climbed back into the apartment in time to witness this, Harley apologized to Solly, informing him that she had accidentally given him a planetary distress flare rather than a weapon. After Harley finished off the final Psycho-Wraith, she thanked the Shame for their help, though Feenix told her off for trying to "sound street," informing the twenty-something that she was too old to do so. Confirming that Sebastian was okay, Solly expressed disappointment that all of their gang had survived, as he felt that suffering no fatalities didn't enhance their reputation. Leaving Harley to clean up, the Shame departed, in Sebastian's case with Solly supporting him.

(Revolutionary War: Omega) - When the Psycho-Wraiths opened a gateway to Hell, unleashing demons across the world, the Shame joined Motormouth and dozens of British heroes in attacking the Wraiths base in the Shard. Still armed with the weapons Harley had given them, they gunned down many demons before the heroes won the day and closed the portal.

Comments: Created by Glenn Dakin and Ronan Cliquet.

   Sebastian isn't named in either of his two appearances, but Glenn kindly informed me of his name and provided some additional background information on each of the gang members, which can be seen below.

   Arundel Estate is presumably named for Arundel House, the former HQ of Marvel UK back in the 1990s.

   It's uncertain whether they named themselves the Shame or were named that as a form of derision by their former gangs; they seemed willing to call themselves the Shame, which would imply the former, but also wanted to lose the name by proving themselves to not be losers, which would imply the latter. My best guess is that others named them, but they decided to take ownership of the attempted insult and not pick a name themselves until they felt they'd redeemed themselves.

   The vampire attack on the Arundel Estate was probably not part of Vampire Nation; firstly, despite Dracula's plans, his army only achieved a couple of surgical strikes against key MI13 targets, and I can't see Arundel House being considered one of their priorities; secondly, we know Harley spent most of that incident elsewhere, first assigned to protect Faiza Hussain's family in Chelmsford (40 miles outside of London) and then in hospital after being injured doing this job. So I suspect the attack was an unrelated incident; as Tomb of Dracula showed, vampire attacks in the U.K. aren't that unusual on Earth-616 (the mainstream comics' reality).

   When the Shame notice someone is trashing Harley's home Kamal wonders if "Daddy" has come back and initially suggests they act like they've not seen anything. Since Kamal doesn't seem particularly cowardly the rest of the issue, I suspect that by "Daddy" he meant Killpower; whether or not Killpower was the biological father of Harley's kids, I could see people assuming he was based purely on his always hanging around with her, and it would also explain Kamal's reluctance to get involved; no normal human in their right mind would want to tangle with Killpower if they had the option not to.

   Kamal's not visible in the battle at the Shard. It's possible he'd been killed by demons before the heroes breached the Psycho-Wraiths' command center, but it's more likely he was simply further back in the crowd than the rest of the gang, and thus off panel.

    This profile was completed 04/15/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary's celebratory event.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Shame has no known connections to:

Feenix

 

Feenix is a seventeen year old Indian girl with dyed red hair and piercings. When she knows she is going into a fight she wears a hockey mask.


 

--Revolutionary War: Motormouth   (Revolutionary War: Omega

Kamal

 

Kamal is a bulky nineteen year old Arabic youth with a baby-face he tries to make look more mature via a beard.


 

--Revolutionary War: Motormouth  

Sebastian

  

Sebastian is an eighteen year old White English youth and an albino. Before being given a future tech blaster by Motormouth he carried what appeared to be a spider wrench into battle.


  

--Revolutionary War: Motormouth   (Revolutionary War: Omega

Solly

 

Solly is a tall, thin UK Nigerian youth with wasted skin. The oldest of the Shame at twenty four, he is their defacto leader and wields a baseball bat when he is looking to pick a fight.


 

--Revolutionary War: Motormouth   (Revolutionary War: Omega

Fake charity collectors dressed as cuddly animals

 

The fake charity collectors dressed as cuddly animals tried to scam people on the Arundel Estate into giving them "donations" until the Shame intervened and robbed them. Though the mugging was interrupted by the Shame spotting that Harley's apartment was under attack, the Shame still took the cash before they came to Harley's aid, as evidenced by the pink rabbit noting that the gang should never have taken their money while the cuddly collectors watched the battle from a safe distance.

 

--Revolutionary War: Motormouth

images: (without ads)
Revolutionary War: Motormouth, p9, pan3 (main image)
Revolutionary War: Omega, p15, pan1 (the Shame join the battle at the Shard)
Revolutionary War: Motormouth, p7, pan5 (Feenix)
Revolutionary War: Motormouth, p9, pan3 (Kamal)
Revolutionary War: Motormouth, p7, pan5 (Sebastian)
Revolutionary War: Motormouth, p7, pan5 (Solly)
Revolutionary War: Motormouth, p14, pan1 (fake charity collectors dressed as fuzzy animals)

Appearances:
Revolutionary War: Motormouth (May 2014) - Glenn Dakin (writer), Ronan Cliquet (art), Devin Lewis, Stephen Wacker (editors)
Revolutionary War: Omega (May 2014) - Andy Lanning, Alan Cowsill (writers), Rich Elson (art), Devin Lewis, Stephen Wacker (editors)

First Posted: 09/28/2021
Last updated: 09/27/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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