History
The Shadowlance is the primary personal weapon used by Lucian (a.k.a. Blackwulf).[1] It is a staff that previously belonged to Lucian's father, Lord Tantalus,[2] who, millennia ago, once used it in a battle against the Godstalker. However, Tantalus was unable to power the staff up enough to vanquish the Godstalker.[3]
Much more recently, when the Godstalker came to Earth in search of Tantalus, he mistook Blackwulf/Lucian for his target and the two of them battled. After getting hit by a blast from the Shadowlance, the Godstalker snapped it in half but Sparrow was able to use her rage to fuel the two pieces and generate an impressive force blast.[3] When Godstalker brought Blackwulf to a higher dimension to continue their battle, the broken Shadowlance was left behind[4] so Sparrow took it when she went to Khult seeking help. Khult was able to restore the Shadowlance as a fourth-dimensional weapon and he improved it by adding endblades that only existed in two dimensions. Sent into the other dimension by Khult, Sparrow delivered the improved Shadowlance to Blackwulf who felt that it seethed in his hand like it was alive. After Sparrow relayed some advice from Khult, Blackwulf was able to use the energy he had inherited from his mother Nirvana to make the Shadowlance powerful enough to slice the Godstalker to ribbons. However, although even this did not defeat the Godstalker, it did convince him that Blackwulf was not Tantalus, so the Godstalker then chose to integrate himself with the Shadowlance so that his power would be added to the staff for use against Tantalus.[2]
Later, after he and Sparrow had been transported to Armechadon, Blackwulf used the Shadowlance to cut off the left arm of Mammoth, thereby preventing the Black Legacy that Tantalus was infusing into it from reaching Mammoth's body and killing him. Blackwulf then used the Shadowlance in battle with Tantalus and, after a distraction gave him enough time to charge it, used the weapon to injure and weaken Tantalus. Blackwulf then seemingly killed Tantalus by siphoning the excess Black Legacy venom from his father, causing his body to disappear in a flare of light.[5]
Capabilities[]
Aside from its use as a fighting weapon, the Shadowlance can channel its wielder's rage and project that fury as pure concussive force. The madder the wielder gets, the more powerful the beams of force generated by the Shadowlance can become.
The endblades that Khult added only exist in two dimensions and are thus able to slip between the molecules of anything. This enables them to cut through anything.Notes
- Lucian wielded a staff as a weapon in his first appearance in Thunderstrike #6 but, since it wasn't named in that story, it may (or may not) have been the Shadowlance.