Francis Leighton (Earth-616)

Shepard
Name	Francis Leighton
Current Alias	Shepard
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Formerly Mystique, Quiet Man
Relatives	Prudence Leighton (sister, deceased)
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Eyes	Irises: Blue
Hair	Blond
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Mutant
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Occupation	Former C.I.A.
Base of Operations	Mobile
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Brian K. Vaughan, Jorge Lucas
First	Mystique #6 (September, 2003)
First	Mystique #6 (September, 2003)

History

Shepard first approached Mystique in Cuba and tried to convince her to turn against Charles Xavier, and that he and his employer could grant her protection. Shepard gave her a necklace to contact him with and vanished. He continuously appeared and disappeared, always knowing where she was, stirring up trouble for Xavier’s newest agent. It was later revealed he was helping Shortpack to track down the murderer of Prudence Leighton, an arms dealer called Steinbeck, and had insight into all of Mystique's missions to some degree.

Shepard reported back to The Quiet Man (whom he referred to as “beloved”) and tried to manipulate Mystique at every turn, finally succeeding at one point. Shepard believed he'd totally duped Mystique, and even bore witness to her murdering Fantomex and E.V.A. on a beach, apparently to protect their secret.

Shepard eventually no longer saw Mystique as useful when her cloaking device was turned off, so he held Shortpack hostage, having lured the little mutant to the Quiet Man's lair. Mystique failed, but somehow fled Genosha at supersonic speed. When Shepard tracked her down to New York, he pulled a gun on her to finish the job, believing she was disguised as Fantomex.

In actual fact Mystique had duped Shepard, and had communicated a plan to Fantomex on a sub-aural level that he could hear but others could not - by morphing her vocal cords. She and Fantomex grabbed Shepard and Fantomex revealed that Shepard was in fact Prudence's brother, working for his sister, who now inhabited the body of Steinbeck and had taken on the Quiet Man identity. Mystique chopped off Shepard's hand to remove his teleporter watch and went to deal with The Quiet Man.

The revelation of Prudence being the Quiet Man, and being referred by Shepard as "beloved," hints a past incestuous relationship between the two.

Attributes

Powers

Black Bile: He has the ability to project powerful optic blasts much like oil in appearance.

Hyper-Regeneration

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Teleportation watch

See Also

• 13 appearance(s) of Francis Leighton (Earth-616)
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Francis Leighton (Earth-616)
• 1 image(s) of Francis Leighton (Earth-616)