Shanna
Real Name: Shanna
Identity/Class: (Possibly alternate reality; see comments) genetically engineered human
Occupation: Jungle protector
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: U.S. Military castaways (Brown, Colombo, Doc, Garcia, Johnson, Jones, Kaplan, Lee, Murphy, O'Brien, Peterson, Profaci, Root, Smith, Stanley, Tex, others), Doctor Elsa, Salty Dog pirate crew (Dirk Redmond, Gruder, Ivan, Johnny, Sid, others)
Enemies: Monster Island creatures, Monster Island Neanderthals, Teddy "The Axe-Man" Xiang's gangsters
Known Relatives: Dr. Elsa (co-creator), seven unborn sisters
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Monster Island
First Appearance: Shanna the She-Devil II#1 (April, 2005)
Powers/Abilities: A product of genetic engineering, Shanna possesses enhanced strength roughly equal to that of a dozen grown men. This allows her to kick open metal doors, wield tree logs as weapons, and fight dinosaurs with little but her hands and basic melee weapons. Her strength has limits, however, as she was unable to move a boulder twice as tall as herself.
She has superior agility and reflexes far exceeding that of trained soldiers that enable her to execute precise punches and throws.
Her skin is near-impervious to bruises and cuts, allowing her to shrug off puncture from dinosaur teeth and recover quickly from being swung into objects with great force.
Her inherent learning abilities allowed her to learn and master a language in a matter of weeks.
Shanna also possessed advanced analytical skills, enabling to swiftly calculate mass and momentum of a T-Rex fast enough to put a spear precisely in its weak spot in the midst of battle.
Height: Unrevealed
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde
History: (Shanna the She-Devil II#2 (fb) - BTS) - Shanna was a product of genetic experimentation, created in a secret Nazi laboratory on the Monster Island which continued to operate for roughly seventy years after World War II ended. The final result of generations of test-tube embryos being refined again and again, Shanna was one of eight subjects that were grown to maturity inside stasis tubes when the base was breached by the Monster Island's native carnivorous dinosaurs, who killed most of the staff except for Doctor Elsa, who managed to hide.
(Shanna the She-Devil II#1) - On the 6th of April, a group of American soldiers who crashed on the Monster Island almost four years before and had been stranded there since, stumbled onto the research complex in their exploration and discovered Doctor Elsa and the room in which Shanna and her seven sisters were being kept suspended inside liquid-filled tubes. Them entering the room triggered the activations process, and the subjects awoke, their heart and neural activity spiking, but they also began to drown inside their tubes. The man named "Doc" managed to break Shanna's glass tube with his machete, making her the only survivor out of eight. Soon after, the soldiers were attacked by the raptors inside the complex and Shanna, operating on pure instinct, killed one with her bare hands by snapping its neck.
(Shanna the She-Devil II#2 - BTS) - The soldiers brought Doctor Elsa and the newborn woman back to their camp three days away, where they named her "Shanna" after her resemblance to a comic book character (see comments). She quickly learned to speak fluent English despite still having child-like understanding of the world, and she displayed incredible prowess with her strength, killing many dinosaurs that wandered close to the camp with only her hands and wooden sticks.
(Shanna the She-Devil II#2) - On July 18th, over four months since she was brought to the camp, Shanna badly beat Peterson, cracking two of his ribs, after he complimented her curves within Shanna's earshot. Later, she threw Stanley, who was peeping at her bathing, into crocodile-infested waters and refused to help him get out, forcing the other men to intervene and rescue him.
(Shanna the She-Devil II#2 - BTS) - Doc grew concerned about Shanna's apparent killer nature, but he kept defending her against other men, who planned to have a vote about whether they should shoot her. However, other concerns took precedence as one of the soldiers accidentally unleashed a biological weapon that they had unwittingly taken from the Nazi base.
(Shanna the She-Devil II#3) - Despite quarantine measures, a disease quickly spread through the camp, with over half of the men being infected. Doctor Elsa revealed that an antidote could be found inside the base but warned that it was only effective if administered within eight days since the infection. Four days have already passed and the roundtrip to the lab would take six more, but Doc decided to undertake the mission regardless, taking Shanna and two of his men with him as volunteers. Shanna felt that there was no hope for the infected in the camp but chose to follow Doc regardless. After a day's trek their camp was attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex who killed one of the soldiers and the rest were only saved when Shanna used a spear to drive it off a cliff.
(Shanna the She-Devil II#4) - After three days, the trio reached the lab, where Doc quickly found the antidote while Shanna saw her dead sisters, still inside their tubes, which had an effect on her. The soldiers also found dynamite and a military car at the lab, giving them to hope of returning to the camp more quickly. However, the vehicle quickly became stuck, and the other soldier was killed by the returning T-Rex. Shanna successfully held it at bay with her bare hands until Doc managed to kill it with dynamite.
(Shanna the She-Devil II#5) - Three days later, Shanna and Doc were within the last three miles between them and the camp when their path was blocked by hundreds of migrating raptors. Shanna advised they take a long way around, but Doc was determined to get through. Shanna led the way, cutting their way across a sea of raptors with one machete in each hand.
(Shanna the She-Devil II#6) - As Doc and Shanna were mostly through, the raptors were about to overwhelm them, and Shanna threw Doc over a ridge and out of their reach, soon following herself. However, they triggered an avalanche, and Doc's leg was trapped under a boulder too large for even Shanna to move. With raptors closing in, Doc begged Shanna to mercy kill him and take the antidote to the camp.
(Shanna the She-Devil II#7) - Shanna instead used the machete to cut off Doc's leg and got both of them back to the camp in time to administer the antidote to the few survivors. The raptors followed them, and Shanna saved everyone at the camp once again by using her strength to destroy the wooden bridge that led to their island encampment. Although she felt sorry for having had to mutilate Doc, he assured her that she made the right choice, and she threw herself into his arms.
(Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest#1 (fb) - BTS) - At some point the survivors, relocated from their island encampment to a group of connected treehouses built high enough to be out of predators' reach. Eventually, however, Doc was the only one left to share it with Shanna.
(Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest#1) - When the boat of the pirate Dirk Redmond arrived on the Monster Island after a jewel heist gone awry, its crew was immediately attacked by a swarm of raptors, and Shanna came to their aid. After killing several with her machetes and driving off the rest, she warned the crew not to stay on the beach after the dark, and she led them to the new camp. Some of the crew failed to follow her instructions, however, leading to Johnny being killed by giant bees. Upon reaching the treehouse camp, the crew were welcomed by Doc who warned them that with their boat being broken there was no way for them off the island. However, four days later, a plane of Hong Kong gangster Teddy "The Axe-Man" Xiang, who had a tracker inside the stolen diamonds, landed on the island, offering Dirk's crew a chance to escape.
(Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest#2) - Shanna led Dirk's crew to the plane's landing site through the dinosaur-infested jungle and waters, but upon getting to the beach they faced armed resistance from Xiang's men and were forced to flee. To evade the pursuit, Shanna led Dirk's crew inside a cave which turned out to open into the Lost City of Terror, an underground Nazi city built out of solid gold of which Shanna and Doc were unaware. While exploring its riches, they were attacked by swarms of man-eating Neanderthals, some wearing remains of Nazi uniforms. Shanna fought many of them off but was overwhelmed and the women were separated from the men. Shanna helped Sid, the only female on the Salty Dog crew, escape and together they found the men in a gladiatorial arena, forced to fight saber-toothed tigers for the amusement of the Neanderthals. Without hesitation, Shanna grabbed a massive log and jumped into the fray.
(Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest#3) - After Shanna made quick work of the tigers, the Neanderthals sounded a retreat, as a swarm of pterosaurs had descended into the arena. Shanna led the group onto the rooftops to avoid the pursuit, while rescuing a Neanderthal baby from the pterosaurs along the way. Chased by raptors who were let in by Xiang's men, the group lost Sid who was unable to make a jump due to an old injury. Finally, they came face to face with the Axe-Man's armed muscle.
(Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest#4) - As Xiang has ordered his men to shoot Dirk and his friends, the raptors caught up to them, and Shanna led Dirk and Ivan, the only two survivors, away. Xiang was killed by the raptors, and when Dirk and Shanna came across the rest of the Axe-Man's crew outside, they wisely opted to escape Monster Island rather than keep chasing fool's treasure. Together, they fought off the raptors, aided by Doc who came to their aid with some dynamite-laced coconuts. Shanna led everyone to the plane, at which point Dirk offered her and Doc to leave the Monster Island with them. Doc had become used to the place and refused to leave, while Shanna felt protective over him and likewise opted to stay. After giving two farewell kisses to Dirk, Shanna joined Doc in watching the plane fly away from the island.
Comments: Created by Frank Cho.
So, when it came out in 2005, which was obviously then the current
year, this clearly was a re-imaging of Shanna, and it seemed very
clearly to be an alternate reality story. Some people would rule it out
just because it was a MAX story, ignoring the stories' actual content.
Shame on them...
However,
there is nothing that clearly defines it as alternate reality. So, as
of 2021, when this story was written, the "modern era" (the time
including and after the Fantastic Four's original space flight) is less
than 15 years ago due to the sliding timescale. Peter Parker-616 was 15
when he first appeared, and he's not allowed to be 30...
Anyway, the first story came out 16 years ago as of 2021 (and longer
ago each year as time rolls on) and the second only 13 years ago, but
the stories were locked in real time, and so not part of the sliding
timescale. So, especially the more time rolls on, there's no reason
they could not be part of the ever-expanding pre-modern era.
This Shanna was named after a comic book character, but there's nothing
to indicate that there wasn't a Shanna comic book character on
Earth-616. A Man Named Frank exists in Earth-616's past even though he
initially seemed to be just a re-imaging/alterniverse version of the
Punisher (Frank Castle).
Regardless, until
something officially confirms this Shanna to be part of an alternate
reality, I'm not going to contribute to that.
--Snood
At least when written, both stories were clearly
supposed to be set in the "present" day: Survival of the Fittest
features modern cruise ships and weapons, while issue#2 of Franko Cho's series
establishes the Nazi lab as being 70 years old - 70 years of course being
exactly how far 1945 was from 2005 when the series was published (the lab
itself being "one of the last major projects of the Third Reich"). I
suppose if we stick to that date, 2005 would indeed quickly lag behind FF's
first flight that kickstarted the Modern Era as time goes on. The only
other thing to note is that Hong-Kong gangsters know of the "Monster
Island" before they even get there - for such a widely known place, one
would expect to hear of it at some point if it was set in Earth-616.
--HBK123
This profile was completed 7/25/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary's celebratory event.
Profile by HBK123.CLARIFICATIONS:
Shanna should not be confused with:
images: (without ads)
Shanna the She-Devil#1, cover (Shana, main image)
Shanna the She-Devil#3, p2, pan1 (Shana, headshot)
Shanna the She-Devil#3, p14, pan5 (Shana fighting a T-Rex)
Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest#1, p9, pan1 (Shana fighting raptors)
Appearances:
Shanna the She-Devil#1-7 (April-October, 2005) - Frank Cho (writer, pencils, inks), Axel Alonso (editor)
Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest#1-4 (October, 2007 -
January, 2008) - Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (writers), Khari
Evas (pencils), Jimmy Palmiotti (inks), Warren Simmons (editor)
First Posted: 09/08/2021
Last updated: 09/06/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!