Cerebra's Files

Shadow King

Real Name: Amahl Farouk
Affiliation: None
Alternate-X Versions: (Age of Apocalypse), (Crusader X World), (Mutant X)
Codename Etymology: Pronounced shăd'ō kĭng [From Old English sceadu "shade"] [From Old English cyning "ruler, lord"]; Ruler of darkness.
Powers & History: The Shadow King is a telepath of the highest order. Years ago in Egypt, he engaged Charles Xavier in a mind duel over the young Storm. Xavier won, and Farouk's body was destroyed. However, Farouk's mind lived on in the astral plane as the Shadow King. Eventually he gathered enough strength and began to possess people, specifically Karma, whom he caught at a moment of weakness early in her tenure with the New Mutants. Faking her death, Farouk used Karma to resurrect the Gladiators group, and built a criminal empire in Los Angeles and Cairo. Given over to his gluttony, he caused Karma to become immensely fat, and through her caused his minions to perform vile and outrageous acts, so he could absorb their pain and anguish. Eventually, the New Mutants and Dazzler II came into conflict with the Gladiators, which brought them to Karma. All the New Mutants were possessed except Mirage and Magik, who escaped and found Storm. (It should be noted that while traveling via stepping disk, the Mutants encountered future versions of their teammates, who had never been freed from the Shadow King's influence and grew into cruel, twisted versions of their true selves.) Though powerless, Storm helped the girls identify Farouk's presence, though only Magik and Warlock escaped Karma's second attempt at possession. Feigning an alliance, Magik in truth returned to free her teammates, allowing them to attack Farouk and drive him from Karma's body. Karma herself confronted Farouk, but her bloated form possessed too little strength to defeat him, and he secretly transferred to Cypher. Magik deduced Farouk's location and threatened to kill Doug, forcing the Shadow King to flee permanently.

Months later, Farouk returned to power and began possessing people once more, including Jacob Riesz, an FBI inspector whom he used to track Storm, at the time reduced to a teen by Nanny II. The Shadow King also possessed Legion, using him to kill Destiny and to allow the Reavers to cause a lot of damage during their attack on Muir Island. The Shadow King then used Lorna Dane, who had been stripped of her magnetic powers by her sister Zaladane, as a nexus for the negative energy that fed his power. Her very presence afterwards was enough to drive men to murder, thanks to the King's influence. The Shadow King took control of all those who were on or had been lured to Muir, including Moira MacTaggert, Rogue, and Colossus. When the X-Men and X-Factor came to stop him, the Shadow King was confronted by Professor X on the astral plane. While some of the mutants faced their possessed friends and tried to destroy the energy nexus, the others joined Xavier on the astral plane to help him defeat the Shadow King. Before his loss, however, the Shadow King broke Xavier's back and legs, making him a cripple once again. Recently, the Shadow King resurfaced and, luring the X-Men to Africa to help Storm's village, he tricked Psylocke into creating a telepathic shockwave that disrupted the entire astral plane. Afterwards, however, Psylocke recovered from the shockwave in a shadow form, the result of her exposure to the Crimson Dawn. She got the Shadow King to start trying to tap every mind on the planet, and while he over extended himself, she sent a shadow tendril into his core and locked it down. As long as Psylocke didn't use her telepathy, the Shadow King would remain contained. Apparently, even though Psylocke's telepathy was somehow transferred to Phoenix, the Shadow King was still trapped.

However, when Psylocke was killed by Vargas, the King was free to work once more. He began tormenting Rogue with visions of his influencing Destiny, Mystique and Professor X, and tried to convert her to his Shadow Queen, with her psychic connection to those she'd touched giving him access to many powerful hosts. At the same time, he possessed Donald Pierce and had him send the Reavers after the X-Men. He also kidnapped Gateway, hoping to use the aboriginal Dreamtime as a conduit to power. Unfortunately for him, Rogue's mutating powers allowed her to recall Psylocke's abilities and seal the Shadow King away. In this case the King was never really freed into the astral plane, so he fell victim to Rogue's willpower and self-image.

However, the Shadow King was not finished. During the House of M, a tear in reality allowed the Shadow King to cross dimensions to another universe, where he possessed Charles Xavier and his X-Men. He then found a way back to his home reality, and attacked the heroes who banded together to become the new Excalibur. After being defeated by Sage when he tried to convert her, Shadow King called for Psylocke, who had been resurrected. He possessed most of Excalibur and trapped Betsy in the room with him, but she stabbed Dark Xavier with her psychic sword and they vanished. His whereabouts are unknown.
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