Shikari (comics)

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Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Legion Lost #1 (May 2000)
Created by Dan Abnett
Andy Lanning
Olivier Coipel
In-story information
Alter ego Shikari
Species Kwai
Team affiliations Legion of Super-Heroes
Abilities Finding existing paths to any object or area; armored exoskeleton; can remain active in a vacuum


Some fans have maintained that her pathfinding powers are similar to, or a return of, the tracking powers of Dawnstar, a member of a previous incarnation of the Legion team. Abnett and Lanning have frequently denied that she is a new version of the earlier character.

Her name is a Hindi word for hunter, derived from shikar, "hunt."

Fictional character biography[edit]

Shikari is a member of the Kwai, a nomadic race of humanoid insects who live in the "Second Galaxy," and who were chased and oppressed by the xenophobic Progeny, another insectoid race they had first encountered when following the appearance of an apparent new, "feral star," which the Kwai considered good luck. Unlike her fellow Kwai, however, Shikari was a rebel, displaying throwback, aggressive "lonestar" tendencies, including using her retractable exoskeleton for fighting rather than simple protection from the vacuum of space.

She first encountered the Legion of Super-Heroes when she happened across the remains of the Legion Outpost, containing several Legionnaires in stasis, while fleeing from a Progeny attack. A hologram of Element Lad, triggered by her entering the Outpost, attempted to explain to her how the group had been thrown through a space-time rift across a vast distance. The Legionnaires were then revived by the Progeny's attack, and helped her fight them off. In return, she took them to the Kwai's "brief-home," where they aided the Kwai in gathering resources for moving on, and they gave the Legionnaires data and materials to help make the severely damaged Outpost habitable.

In addition, Kid Quantum discovered that the "feral star" which had drawn the Kwai to the region was in fact the Legionnaire ERG-1, whom Shikari accidentally renamed Wildfire, a name which stuck. When the Kwai moved on, Shikari remained with the Legion.

Shikari then used her pathfinding power to attempt to find them a way home, and brought them to a rock-encrusted hardlight pyramidal structure. At the center, they found a space-time rift which could have taken them home, but was in fact a prison for a creature called the Omniphagos - something that ate all matter in its path - which had been inadvertently freed by the Progeny, and they were forced to seal it once more.

Shikari and the Legionnaires were captured by the Progeny and taken to their creator, the Progenitor, who was revealed to be the Legionnaire Element Lad. He had been cast a billion years back in time when the Outpost passed back into the normal universe, and had created all the races in the sector - including the Kwai and the Progeny, a fact which seriously disturbed Shikari. Eventually, after he had killed the Legionnaire Monstress and freed the Omniphagos for experimenting, Live Wire sacrificed his life to kill both Element Lad and the Omniphagos. Shikari's pathfinding directed the rest of the team through the Omniphagos' prison and back home.

There, she was separated from the team for "quarantine" and was to be vivisected until rescued by Triad, who took her to the "Bouncing Boy," Chuck Taine's ship, where they in turn rescued the other "lost" Legionnaires from being drowned in toxic sludge. The whole group was then taken to Legion World, an artificial planetoid constructed to be the headquarters for the Legion while half the group was "lost."

Brainiac 5 constructed a "Threshold" teleport system based on the rift that had been the Omniphagos' prison, but which was dependent on Shikari's pathfinding powers to work. After they retrieved Spark from her homeworld as a test, Shikari helped send a group of Legionnaires to talk the Kwai into becoming guides to help turn the Threshold system into a practical transport network. They eventually assented, while she remained on Earth to help the team defeat Ra's al Ghul, who had usurped the presidency of the United Planets.

Shikari would remain a core member of the team thereafter, playing key parts in their defeats of Computo and Universo.

At the end of the Teen Titans/Legion special, the majority of the team seemed to fade from existence. Shikari was the only Legionnaire to be deposited in the new "Threeboot" timeline. She did not make an appearance to the new Legion, instead vanishing until Infinite Crisis. The Legion and Shikari separately made it back to "Earth-247," as depicted in Infinite Crisis #6.

Shikari is later seen in the Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds miniseries, trapped in Limbo along with the rest of the post-Zero Hour Legion, stating that she cannot find a path out of the void. They are rescued by pre-Crisis Brainiac 5, and brought to the Pre-Crisis Legion's world to help battle Superboy-Prime and the Legion of Super-Villains.

Powers and abilities[edit]

Given time, Shikari can find a path to any object or area, if such a path exists. This power can also be used to see through illusions. She also has an armored, retractable exoskeleton, and can remain active indefinitely in a vacuum. While she has insectoid wings which move while she flies, she also has the ability to fly in a vacuum.

External links[edit]