History
Shanna O'Hara was the daughter of Gerald O'Hara. a diamond miner who lived and worked in Africa. Born in Zaire, Africa, she spent most of her youth playing in the jungles. When she was only six, Gerald O'Hara went to kill a leopard that had gone rogue; that leopard had once belonged to Patricia O’Hara, Shanna's mother. Unfortunately, while he was hunting the animal, Gerald accidentally shot and killed Patricia. This event started Shanna's lifelong crusade against guns and other firearms. After the incident, Shanna moved to the United States of America to live with some relatives. She there studied to be a veterinarian at University and also became an accomplished Olympic athlete, specializing in track and field and competitive swimming.
After completing her university studies, Shanna was offered work placement as a zoologist at Central Park Municipal Zoo in New York City. While at the zoo, Shanna raised a female leopard she named Julani. But one day, another traumatic incident occurred when Julani was shot and killed by a zoo guard. The next day, the zoo’s director asked Shanna to take Julani's cubs, Ina and Biri, to the Dahomey Reserve in Africa. Shanna decided to stay with the animals and, wearing Julani's pelt as an honor, became Shanna, the She-Devil.[7] The animals were tragically killed when the sorcerer Raga-Shah transferred their life forces into the blood beast Ghamola, which Shanna was forced to destroy.[8]
Shanna was kidnapped by the red sorcerer Malgato, to be used as a human sacrifice alongside Ka-Zar.[9]. Ka-Zar and Shanna began to gradually fall in love and eventually married. Soon after, while they were prisoners of the Nuwali, Shanna found out that she was pregnant.[10] Eventually, she had a son, whom she and Ka-Zar named Matthew. Soon the Savage Land was reconstructed by the High Evolutionary, to which Ka-Zar and Shanna returned with their newborn son and where they resumed their previous roles.[11]
After her son was attacked and almost kidnapped by Gregor, the man who trained Kraven the Hunter, Shanna blamed Ka-Zar as "walkie-talkies" (hand-held two-way radios) he had brought into the Savage Land had helped to coordinate the attack against them. Shanna travelled to New York City to confront Parnival Plunder as he was the one who had arranged everything. She rescued Ka-Zar from an attack by Plunder's people and then faced off against Rhino with him. Eventually they learned that Plunder was in fact working for Thanos and that they had been attacked to draw them away from the Savage Land so Plunder could steal the terraformers that sustain it. The terraformers were eventually returned and then destroyed, returning the Savage Land to normal and convincing its people to make Shanna their queen for her actions in restoring their land.[12]
The destruction of the terraformer gifted Shanna with its extra-dimensional power, making her the earth mother she had always wanted to be, and giving her power over nature as she became the one keeping the Savage Land alive. Ka-Zar involved the High Evolutionary, hoping he would build a new terraformer and remove the energy from Shanna. The Evolutionary was instead intrigued by Shanna and helped her to expand her powers. Shanna came to view what she was doing with her powers as a perversion of the natural order and was tempted to give up the power, but she was also tempted to take it to new heights by the Evolutionary. Shanna came to see that her powers were affecting her mind, making her less human the more powerful she became and the higher she set her sights. The Evolutionary and Ka-Zar fought and Ka-Zar was injured, causing Shanna to turn her back on the Evolutionary and had him release her power back to the newly built terraformer.[13]
Shanna felt the loss of her power like a part of her had died and took Matthew with her on a pilgrimage to try and reconnect and deal with her depression and found that some of the tribes of the Savage Land were blaming her for their problems, in the belief that she had upset their gods by wielding the power she did. Shanna then returned home to find her and Ka-Zar's treehouse home on fire and continued being targeted by the tribes who wanted her dead. Shanna then learned that the Savage Land itself was turning against her and its inhabitants and found herself in a fight against Gregor. After stalemating him she was reunited with Ka-Zar and the two split up with Shanna searching for the cause of the Savage Land's problems. The Bhadwuans believed Ka-Zar to be the problem and Shanna and the rest of the Savage Land united against them to stop them from killing him but Ka-Zar and his family agreed to leave the Savage Land alongside their nanny Zira and leave Zabu behind.[14]
Some time later, when Captain America traveled to the Savage Land, he encountered rapidly aging clones of the Plunder family; he then successfully rescued their original selves, who had at some point returned to living in the Savage Land.[15]
Hercules would later subdue Zabu as part of a reality television show, causing Shanna and Ka-Zar to follow after him and found Zabu, whom Hercules had hog-tied after defeating him.[16] They then had him returned to them after a party celebrating the success of Hercules's TV show, which they traveled to New York City for.[17]
Ka-Zar would then come under the control of the Savage Land Mutate Lorelei who was working alongside other Mutates to disrupt electrical signals across the world to try and expand the Savage Land's prehistoric dominion while Shanna was held captive by them. Ka-Zar was by Deadpool who had come to retrieve the machine the Mutates intended to use and who helped to defeat the Mutates alongside Shanna and Ka-Zar.[18]
Skaar: King of the Savage Land
While taking her son Matthew Plunder out to meet with the new arrival to the Savage Land Skaar, Skaar accidentally released The Designer, who used Shanna as a Host. After realizing the type of place that the Savage Land had become, she tried to kill her own son. She then proceeded to the new Savage Land Council of Tribes building and began to slaughter the delegates for "taming" the Savage Land.[19] Shanna then proclaimed herself the new ruler of the Savage Land and used the ability to control dinosaurs to try and wipe out those who opposed her. [20]
After Steve Rogers threatened to invade the Savage Land over the death of the diplomats, Shanna set up a forcefield over the Land and proclaimed she would destroy the entire planet. After cutting off contact with Steve, the Designer found that Shanna couldn't contain it's spirit for much longer and that Shanna was dying. When Skaar sent his army after her, she felt that the Savage Land was tearing itself apart and activated her doomsday weapon in the form of Umbu. After expelling the last of her energy to stop Skaar, the Designer found that Shanna's body couldn't take the strain anymore and left for another body, which was knocked from a great height and killed. This allowed Shanna to recover. [21]
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Shanna reborn.
Savage Wolverine
Shanna agreed to be a guide for a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that were venturing to a mysterious island in the Savage Land. A damping field was located on the island, causing their transport to crash land. Stranded on the island, Shanna and the agents attempts to flee by sea but were stopped by monsters living the ocean. They then decided to find and destroy the source of the damping field, creating a bomb to do so. [22]
Unfortunately for Shanna, the natives on the island killed all the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents before they could destroy the machine. At the same time, Wolverine crashed on the island. Shanna explained the situation to him and they decided to team up and escape the island together. They set off to destroy the machine, but encountered heavy native resistance.[23] During one of these encounters, Shanna was killed.
Amadeus Cho, who was also stranded on the island, recognized Shanna. He had convinced the native tribe that he was a god, and commanded them to help her. [24] Using the life blood of a Man-Thing native to the Savage Land, the tribe resurrected Shanna. This left Shanna connected to the very life force of the Savage Land, giving her supernatural power. Cho told Shanna what the natives had explained to him. The machine powering the damping field was also powering a prison, one holding an ancient hostile alien presence. Realizing that Wolverine would be releasing this creature, Shanna raced to stop him. She arrived in time, Cho right behind her, and was able to stop Wolverine. Suddenly, the Hulk appeared.[6]Attributes
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Powers
Extended Lifespan: Shanna was resurrected using the life force of the Savage Land, and thus is tied to the land itself. As long as the Savage Land lives, so will Shanna. She also instinctively knows the languages and history of the Savage Land and its people. Shanna also now possesses the strength of ten men. She was able to run 52 miles per hour over uneven terrain.[6]
Abilities
Paraphernalia
Weapons
Transportation
See Also
- 168 appearance(s) of Shanna O'Hara (Earth-616)
- 13 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Shanna O'Hara (Earth-616)
- 6 minor appearance(s) of Shanna O'Hara (Earth-616)
- 9 mention(s) of Shanna O'Hara (Earth-616)
- 8 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Shanna O'Hara (Earth-616)
- 101 image(s) of Shanna O'Hara (Earth-616)
- 9 quotation(s) by or about Shanna O'Hara (Earth-616)
- 2 victim(s) killed by Shanna O'Hara (Earth-616)
Links and References
- The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: Women of Marvel
References
- ↑ Marvel Graphic Novel #62
- ↑ Ka-Zar (Vol. 3) #5
- ↑ Ka-Zar (Vol. 3) #12
- ↑ Ka-Zar (Vol. 3) #13
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ka-Zar (Vol. 3) #14
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Savage Wolverine #4
- ↑ Shanna, The She-Devil #1
- ↑ Savage Tales #9
- ↑ Ka-Zar (Vol. 2) #1–2
- ↑ Ka-Zar the Savage #34
- ↑ Uncanny X-Men Annual #12
- ↑ Ka-Zar (Vol. 3) #1–12
- ↑ Ka-Zar (Vol. 3) #12–14
- ↑ Ka-Zar (Vol. 3) #14–20
- ↑ Captain America (Vol. 3) #28–31
- ↑ Hercules (Vol. 3) #3
- ↑ Hercules (Vol. 3) #5
- ↑ Cable & Deadpool #49
- ↑ Skaar: King of the Savage Land #1
- ↑ Skaar: King of the Savage Land #1–2
- ↑ Skaar: King of the Savage Land #4–5
- ↑ Savage Wolverine #1
- ↑ Savage Wolverine #2
- ↑ Savage Wolverine #3
- ↑ Ka-Zar (Vol. 3) #11–14
- ↑ Marvel Avengers: The Ultimate Character Guide #2
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 10