SHAGREEN THE SORCERER
Name: Shagreen
Identity/Class:
Extra-dimensional ("Dimension of Floating Cities", Earth-5311)
magic user
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Cthuma-Gurath
(his god); Dark Bamf (agent);
leader of his own minions (Empty Men), creator of the Guardians;
Long John McGurk’s Sky Rover crew (occassional business
dealings)
Enemies: Nightcrawler (Kurt
Wagner);
Bamfs, Colossus, Kitty, Lockheed, Mean, and Windrider
of Earth-Kitty's Fairy Tale;
Boggies, Long John McGurk, Jinjav Sabree
Known Relatives: Jaws, Jabber-Jaw, Street-Sharks...kidding
Alias: Nastyface, Sharpytooth (both nicknames from Boggies)
Base of Operations: The
Bizarre Squid-Ship also referred to as Sky-Squid (mobile base);
L’un Dun T’wn," aka the Wizard’s
Stronghold", "the Fortress", (his floating
sky-port)e)
First Appearance: Nightcrawler I#1 (November, December, 1985)
Powers: Shagreen is a mystic. His power
works most quickly and effectively through is staff or more often
the staff’s orb. Without the staff, he has to speak lengthy
spells and perform extensive rituals; With the staff, he can
simply direct the power as need be for nearly instantaneous
effects. In addition, if the staff were destroyed, all magical
spells created by it would be disrupted.
The staff itself is a versatile weapon. The orb appears to be
able to teleport matter interdimensionally, cause explosions,
project shockwaves of energy, make blinding flashes of light, and
may possibly be able to animate objects and control subjects. In
hand-to-hand combat it is a formidable energy weapon (like a
Light Saber, or Optimus Prime’s energy mace). While he
can apparently travel between dimensions at will, he is unable to
teleport spatially within a dimension.
Some of his power is drawn from invoking the demon Cthuma-Gurath.
He is more than willing to perform blood sacrifice to gain
additional power. Some oh his servants were magical creations, as
in the case of the Guardians, snake-statues which came to life
and attacked any who approached his temple, and the Empty Men,
cloaked beings sent to do his bidding.
Shagreen is an accomplished and ambidextrous swordsman. His tail is semi-prehensile and can be used as a striking weapon or to trip up others.
Height: 6'
Weight: 190 lbs.
Eyes: Red
Hair: None
History: (Nightcrawler I#1) - Nightcrawler and Lockheed end up in this weird land after a squid pulls him through a hole in the danger room. The squid turns out to be floating above the clouds when Nightcrawler and Lockheed end up in the dimension. The squid drops them and they fall onto a flying pirate ship called the Sky Rover T’ai Javinee. Nightcrawler is mistaken for a Boggie there (see comments for descriptions of the characters mentioned in this profile). Thus the crewmen attack him on site. He teleports over the mob and finds himself nose to gun with the ships captain John McGurk. With some quick talking, Nightcrawler becomes an accepted crewmen. One day an unarmed ship approaches Nightcrawler’s Sky Rover. John McGurk orders to attack the ship. Realizing the disregard for innocent life, Nightcrawler attacks his fellow crewmen and destroys the weaponry on McGurk’s ship. Nightcrawler teleports to the ship they attacked and John McGurk swears vengeance on Nightcrawler. Meanwhile, on the other ship Nightcrawler finds himself face to face with a beautiful princess (Jinjav is the title in the alternate dimension for princess) named Sabree. The ship takes him to the city Bel Amee Anora. There, Nightcrawler is approached by a lady who claims her brother has been wounded. With his guard down, Nightcrawler is hit with a blackjack in the back of the head by McGurk and the Lockheed is knocked out. When Nightcrawler and Lockheed awake, the find themselves in the clutches of Shagreen!!!!
(Nightcrawler I#2) - Shagreen has both Nightcrawler and Lockheed shackled on L’un
Dun-T’wn. Shagreen wishes to study the teleportation
abilities of Nightcrawler for his own ends. That night
Nightcrawler is freed by three Boggies who have been hiding in a
mirror from Shagreen. The Boggies say they will not save
Nightcrawler unless he reverses the spell which keeps them on
L’un Dun T’wn. The Boggies tell him the source of the
spell is Shagreen’s orb. Also they say that Sabree has been
captured and will be sacrificed by Shagreen. After freeing
Lockheed, Nightcrawler and Lockheed go down a long corridor with
large snake carvings on both sides. Both carvings come alive and
Nightcrawler manages to get them to make a passageway to
Shagreen. Right when Shagreen is about to sacrifice Sabree, the
snakes bust through the walls with Nightcrawler and Lockheed
running in front of them. The snakes lunge at Shagreen. Shagreen,
who destroys the snakes with an explosion from his orb. In the
confusion, Nightcrawler saves Sabree. On his way out Shagreen
corners him and prepares to deliver a mighty blast of energy to
Nightcrawler, Sabree and Lockheed. Just then a blast blasts
through the wall. The blast is from John McGurk's ship--who now,
in a change of heart, appears to be helping Nightcrawler.
Nightcrawler finds a ball and chain and hurls it at Shagreen
staff while he is distracted by the cannon fire. There is an
earth-shattering KRAAK! and Shagreen is disarmed. L’un Dun
T’wn begins to collapse, so Nightcrawler gathers up Lockheed
and goes to rescue Sabree. Shagreen beats him to her and hits
Nightcrawler on the head with a piece of debris. Nightcrawler
gets to his feet moments later to see Shagreen fleeing in a
Sky-Squid. Lockheed flys off to catch the squid and Nightcrawler
quickly teleports there. Nightcrawler and Shagreen draw swords on
the vessel. The sword fight makes it way to the top of the
Sky-Squid (note: the Squid is like the balloon portion of a
dirigible, so they were fighting atop a squid). Nightcrawler
slips on the slipper surface of the squid in mid-battle. As
Shagreen is about to take the final chop at Nightcrawler,
Lockheed appears and fries his butt. Nightcrawler teleports to
the inside of the Sky-Squid main-deck. Nightcrawler is taken to
Bel Amee Anora and receives a heroes welcome and reward from
Princess Sabree As Nightcrawler is about to get some lovin', he
is sucked into another wormhole (it is a failed attempt by
Kitty to get Nightcrawler back).
(Nightcrawler I#3) - Nightcrawler now finds himself in another dimension, which is the one from Kitty’s fairy tale theatre in X-Men#153 (see comments). He meets up with a Bamf who takes Nightcrawler to his village.
Shagreen shows up in the village right as Nightcrawler and the unnamed Bamf get there. Shagreen captures every Bamf except for the one accompanying Nightcrawler and takes them to some tower hide away on this spooky Island. The Bamf gets angry that Shagreen took all the ladies from the village (showing little concern for the males) and enlists aid to help them rescue the villagers. He calls upon Mean for assistance. The three adventurers then meet up with that world's Lockheed, Colossus, and Kitty (pirates in this world). When all six (Kitty, Colossus, Bamf, Nightcrawler, Little Lockheed, and Mean) make it to the Island on Blackbird Lockheed, the Blackbird is pulled under water by a giant squid. The six adventurers make it ashore and are attacked by Shagreen’s pirates. They drive them off, but one Dreadwing manages to grab Kitty. They make it to the tower entrance on the Island and are all captured (except Bamf and Lockheed) by Shagreen.
(Nightcrawler I#4) - Working together, the Bamf and
Lockheed free all the female bamfs. Bamf, atop Lockheed, leads
the females on an attack on Shagreen. 
Shagreen knocks them
all unconscious. Then Windrider appears and distracts Shagreen
with some fancy sorcery, while Nightcrawler frees himself,
Colossus, Kitty and Mean. Nightcrawler grabs a mace and attempts
to smash Shagreens orb. However, Shagreen blasts him away. Then
without warning a "Wizard of Oz"-type floating head of
the real Kitty appears. Shagreen realizes this to be some trick
and blasts Kitty through into the alternate reality. Magik
magically returns Kitty by pressing a random button. During this
Nightcrawler grabs a chain and lassos Shagreen’s staff,
disarming him with one mighty pull Nightcrawler. Windrider takes
advantage of the opportunity and blasts Shagreen. Nightcrawler
then smashes the staff on the ground reversing all spells and
sending himself back home (actually it took him through one
more dimension briefly). Shagreen is captured and never heard
from again...
Comments: Created by Dave Cockrum (writing and penciling).
"Shagreen" is an actual word,
fittingly meaning sharkskin (or more precisely, "the rough
skin of various sharks and rays when covered with small close-set
tubercles"). It also refers to "an untanned leather
covered with small round granulations and usually dyed
green." I can't believe colorist Paty Greer didn't take the
opportunity to color the guy green.
--Danny Wind
QUIZ QUESTION: whoever so
answers it gets their name on this page
Magik has owned many stuffed animals as a child, but one was
lost.
What character did this stuffed animal portray and what happened
to it?
First guess within 5 hours of the profile going
up!
Is the stuffed animal your talking about Illyana's Bamf doll?
If so it was patterned after Nightcrawler & It was given by
Kitty to Jubilee to comfort her after Illyana's death. Jubilee
returned the favor by buying Kitty new clothes from a thrift
stores.
sincerely, RadChipmunk (Aaron Lopez)
--Well you're info's correct, but the Bamf doll wasn't lost--it
was given away! (Don't be too disappointed, that was my guess as
well)--Snood
Nightcrawler’s four issue mini-series is
certainly a lame comic, annoying comic in which he is transported
accidentally into a overly-cute alternate-dimension. In addition
to trying to be "cute", the series provided us with the
knowledge that Nightcrawler is well-hung *shudder* (his clothes
are transported back when Kitty and Magik attempt to bring
Nightcrawler back to their dimension…At the time
Nightcrawler is walking with a girl in the alternate dimension
and after his clothes are returns the girl asks him if "he
could do that again"). Shagreen’s presence only adds
annoyance.
At the end we find out Magik has a PLAYGIRL
collection…I’m not kidding, really.
--I liked the series--it was goofy and fun, and I wasn't
disturbed by the girls' interest in boys--Snood.
Remaining info by Snood:
In this series, Kitty's Fairy Tale, from Uncanny X-Men#153, is
established as real occurrences from an alternate dimension
(Earth-Kitty's Fairy Tale? Why not?). Anyway, here's the
rundown:
(Fairy Tale
Counterpart)------------------------------------------(Earth-616
Version)
In addition, Boggies were other-dimensional
creatures which also resembled Nightcrawler, but were distinct
from the Bamfs.
Shagreen was convinced that Nightcrawler was a Boggie.
Shagreen received a small entry in All-New OHotMU Update#4.
Profile by: Mike McTighe (Fortmax) and Snood
Clarifications:
Not to be confused with:
Chagrin, some sort of connection to Silhouette
Chord, I think, @ Night Thrasher II#2
Shagreen’s Dreadwings are not to be confused with the TF Decepticon Powermaster Dreadwings
Cthuma-Gurath would seem to be a play on Shuma-Gorath and/or Lovecraft's Cthulu, but whether it is directly connected to either of those beings is unknown.
see comments regarding X-Men counterparts.
Appearances:
Nightcrawler I#1-4 (November, 1985 - February, 1986) - Dave Cockrum (writer/artist), Ann Nocenti (editor)
Last updated: 08/17/02
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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