"Beak" (Slaughterhouse Six; Shadow Riders foe)

Identity/Class: Genetically-engineered/mutated amoeboid being (of unrevealed origin prior to its mutation)

Affiliations: Mys-Tech (notably Eadmund Porlock, but also Algernon Crowe, Bronwen Gryffn, Brendan Rathcoole, Gudrun Tyburn, Ormond Wychwood)

Enemies: Abadon, Cable (Nathaniel Summers/Nathan Dayspring Askani'son), Badhand, Shadow Riders (Boot/Steven White, Che, Goodfellow, Grunt/Arnold Coltrane, Roadie/Mimi Brown, Stranger/Vince Jones Vorin/Joseph Vorin);
unidentified Warheads group trained under Che (including McElroy & Hawthorne)
unidentified Mys-Tech guards

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    last observed on Sharin/Arena World;
    former Mys-Tech Central beneath the Museum of Pagan Antiquities, London;
    formerly mobile on the Harpies Craft

Powers/Abilities: Like all of the Harpies in their Slaughterhouse Six forms, she can slip between dimensions to avoid danger. She can fly at extreme speeds (subsonic) and is hard to kill.

As part of the Harpy gestalt, she can adapt to life-threatening situations by re-evolving when under threat of death. To this end, she can absorb various energies and draw on the programs installed in the protosilicon to access a library of different body shapes and adapt them to her needs. If one particular form proves unsuitable for survival, she can re-form, upgrading her defenses and changing her appearance to suit a new situation.

Like the other Harpies, she can also call upon powerful psychic energies and are incredibly strong (lifting perhaps 1 ton) and fast. Each maintains a strong psychic link with the other, which often means that the pain of one will affect the performance of the rest of the group.

Following their transformation at the Magna Parton stone circle, the Harpies were able to exist across several seconds of time. Like her sisters, "Beak" does not exist at one point in time and is consequently difficult to kill and enabling her to attack a foe with frightening surprise and ferocity. She and her sisters have honed their powers to be able to concentrate tooth and claw on the present, ripping into a hapless victim with ease but often appearing like ghostly attackers.

History:
(Motormouth & Killpower#8 (fb) - BTS) - When the Warheads first recovered the protosilicon geoid which ultimately created the computer warrior Digitek, the Nakasoni Corporation issued slivers of the substance, which at the time they saw merely as living silicon and nothing more, to the Gena-Sys Corporation.

Doctor Oonagh Mullarkey, whose own researches had led to the creation of Killpower, used the material in two ways. Identifying the protosilicon's learning abilities as of prime importance to her work, she first built some of the material into the Genetix body armor, enabling it to upgrade defenses not only with further programming but also through combat experience. More bizarre, however, was her highly experimental micro-surgery work on an amoeboid life form also recovered by the Warheads, which appeared to adapt its form in response to external stimuli. Splicing the protosilicon and the alien DNA into several completely new hybrid creatures, Mullarkey produced a small number of gestalt life forms. These where further adapted by magical means by Mys-Tech board member Wychwood.

The experiment proved interesting, but not so interesting that Mullarkey and Wychwood thought it worth pursuing. The creatures, although apparently intelligent, seemed dangerously unstable and their destruction was ordered. This was a task to be carried out under Porlock's direction, as part of a weapons testing exercise by Strike Force Q7, a specialist hit squad. After several attempts however, it became clear that the life-forms were adapting to life-threatening situations by literally re-evolving when under threat of death, improving their ability to survive under hostile conditions!

It was these creatures that became the Harpies, creatures who save themselves from destruction by absorbing various energies and drawing on the programs installed in the protosilicon to access a library of different body shapes and adapt them to their own needs. If one particular form proves unsuitable for survival, the Harpies could re-form, upgrading their defenses and changing their appearance to suit a new situation. the body shape programs were only the basis for any new form. Within the gestalt, the five surviving creatures developed limited separate personalities, which is why they do not have identical appearances.

Porlock immediately saw their potential as reusable assassins and set about sending them on suicide missions, giving the Harpies plenty of opportunity to improve their abilities.

(Motormouth & Killpower#8 - BTS) - As Cable and Badhand arrived at the Parton Magna stone circle in Sussex, the Harpies relayed their entire conversation directly to Crowe.

(Motormouth & Killpower#8) - Finally realizing the importance of the Key, Crowe ordered the Harpies to get it back. Rook acknowledged the order, and had Firecrest close communications. She reminded her sisters that their first loyalty was to Porlock, not Crowe, and that anything they learned should be passed on to him. Then they activated their craft's tractors and stasis ray in order to retrieve the Key. Paralyzed, Cable began levitating toward the Harpies craft with the Key in hand. Badhand was paralyzed too, rendering him unable to help at first.

(Motormouth & Killpower#8-9 - BTS) - Following a battle with Cable and Badhand at the Parton Magna stone circle in Sussex, with most of their members heavily injured, the Harpies altered themselves in order to survive. Firecrest announced that the stone circle would be a good place to change and that their powers would be much magnified; the transformation began as her hand joined with Rook's.

(John Freeman's unpublished harpies profile) - The Harpies were exposed to a unique combination of chronal and majickal energies. Their appearance changed dramatically from the human forms they had adopted, and this new power source enabled them to exist across several seconds of time. The Harpies no longer existed at one point in time, and consequently became even more difficult to kill, enabling them to attack a foe with frightening surprise and ferocity. The aliens honed their powers to be able to concentrate tooth and claw on the present, ripping into a hapless victim with ease but often appearing like ghostly attackers.

Of all the Harpies, Rook resented this most recent change the most, seeking to return to her human form. However, without the agreement of her sisters in the gestalt, this was impossible.

(Shadow Riders#2 (fb) - BTS) - Somehow the five Harpies became six, and the group was renamed Slaughterhouse Six. According to Porlock they preferred this new team name.

This Harpy ("Beak") appeared to be a new member of the gestalt that appeared after their transformation in the Parton Magna stone circle.

(John Freeman's unpublished harpies profile) - Porlock decided to pit Slaughterhouse Six against the Shadow Riders as the first major field test of their powers.

(Shadow Riders#2) - Somewhere in the huge complex that is Mys-Tech's London headquarters, the group appeared to be undergoing some sort of training exercise as Porlock showed them to the rest of the board. They fought a group of Mys-Techs guards, killing some if not all of them.

(Shadow Riders#3 (fb) - BTS) - Porlock took the Slaughterhouse Six to Arena World and asked Rathcoole to send some Warheads to test their abilities as a "warm up" before the arrival of the Shadow Riders.

(Shadow Riders#3) - The Slaughterhouse Six attacked the Warheads troop almost as soon as they arrived on Arena World. Porlock ordered them to stop before the could kill all of the Warheads, however.

Later, the Shadow Rider's arrived with Cable and Mathew Ryan in tow. Slaughterhouse Six attacked. When the Shadow Rider called Stranger realized the nature of Slaughterhouse Six's phasing powers, he, Cable and Boot recalibrated their energy weapons to phase over the widest possible electromagnetic scale. The three blasted "Beak," causing her to scream in pain.

From this point on, I did not seen "Beak" again. Whether she survived or not is unclear, but she may have been behind the scenes as the following took place:

During the conflict, Porlock triggered a transformation in Mathew Ryan, unleashing his Abadon persona. Abadon stunned Cable and the Shadow Riders with his powers putting an end to the fighting temporarily.

(Shadow Riders#4) - The Shadow Riders and Cable gained some respite when their ally Goodfellow appeared and confronted Abadon. Porlock ordered Slaughterhouse Six to attack, but Goodfellow power leeched one of them and transferred their time-phase power to Boot. Boot used this ability to slip himself and his companions between dimensions to safety, and Cable pulled the warhead called Che with them.

Porlock ordered Slaughterhouse Six and the remaining Warheads to return to Earth. They returned to the portal station in Annapurna, India, that they had used to reach Arena World.

Comments: Created by Brian Williamson and John Freeman and Ross Dearsley under the Marvel UK imprint.

I had good fun reading these old issues, but there was a lot to figure out with these characters. Fortunately the notes of John Freeman came in extremely handy, especially as he had a profile detailing their abilities. There was a mini profile in Motormouth#8 with their origin and original abilities, and the one John provided fleshed that out with more on the abilities of their newer forms in Shadow Riders. It appears to be in the format of the profiles that appeared from time to time in Overkill magazine and was quite likely intended for publication in there. It stated that the Harpies could call on psychic powers and were incredibly strong and fast, but didn't say if this applied to them prior to Magna Parton. I have assumed that it does, but that their adapted forms were superior in those respects. They aren't shown lifting any great weights, so I've put some low estimates in italics in the sub profiles.

Only three of the five Harpies are named in the pages of Motormouth and Killpower. That left two left for me to name. But wait! In Shadow Riders there are six Harpies! There is no explanation as to where number six came from, though my guess would be that as formerly amoeboid beings they can replicate asexually and one of them did so at Magna Parton when they absorbed the energies there and altered their forms. Rook wasn't badly damaged, maybe she had energy to spare and was able to birth a new team member.

It occurs to me that with their ability to evolve that these are a group of antagonists who could be brought back again and again and updated by various creative teams. Would updating this profile with fresh images become tricky? Possibly, but I'm not expecting a massive come back anytime soon for these not so lovely ladies.

Massive thanks to John Freeman for providing some extremely detailed information on the Shadow Riders series, especially the Harpies profile I mentioned above. John is a writer and editor who did a lot of work for Marvel UK and Doctor Who Magazine, and has a site called Down The Tubes. Its features news and interviews on British comics and has a comic writing guide.

"Beak" previously had a sub-profile under the Slaughterhouse Six, originally published 07/21/2013.

This profile was completed 05/22/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25^th anniversary 's celebratory event to represent the Shadow Riders.

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