Sebastian Shaw (Marvel Comics)

**Sebastian Hiram Shaw** is a mutant who earned his billionaire status by becoming an engineer and founding Shaw Industries. Following his falling in love with Lourdes Chantel, he was initiated into the Hellfire Club and eventually became the Lord Imperial.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

Sebastian Shaw is an Alpha-Level mutant.

**Energy absorption:**Shaw has the superhuman ability to absorb kinetic energy and metabolize it to enhance his own physical strength, speed, and stamina. This makes him extremely difficult to defeat in battle, as every blow struck against him only makes him stronger. Unusual tactics are required to defeat Shaw, usually by incapacitating him or by attacking him psionically. Shaw absorbs the energy of any blow he is struck by, not just punches, but also projectiles like bullets and, to a less successful degree, electricity and physically-based energy beams. Without absorbing energy, Shaw is merely a strong, ordinary human, though normally he works to keep his strength at a superhuman level. For example, he has been known to spend time hitting a wall after waking to build up his power reserves. It was revealed in his encounter with Hercules and Box that his power of energy absorption is not limited to kinetic energy and that he can absorb any form of energy to fuel his powers. According to Shaw, kinetic energy just works the best.

* ***Kinetic metabolism:***Shaw can forgo sleep if he receives enough kinetic energy. Often, he will have his mercenaries pummel him to give him enough stored energy that he does not need to sleep for some time.
* ***Enhanced strength:***If properly energized, Shaw can lift and hold approximately one hundred times his weight. If bound, he can be punched by a teammate until he is strong enough to break the bonds.
* ***Enhanced speed:***When he has absorbed kinetic energy, Shaw's speed is increased. After absorbing enough energy, he can attack more quickly than his opponents can react.
* ***Enhanced stamina:***Shaw's stamina is increased beyond normal human levels when he absorbs kinetic energy.
* ***Regenerative healing factor:***Shaw has healed from being repeatedly hit in the nose by Colossus in less than an hour. However, his healing factor may not heal catastrophic injuries such as a blast to the head or a broken neck.
* ***Age reversal:***Shaw's healing factor decelerates his aging process and restores most of his youth when he has absorbed energy, effectively making him immortal in a sense.

**Ambient energy conversion:**Having loaned some of the Hellfire Club's services to Emma Frost's cause, Shaw underwent the Mothervine enhancement process, giving him a secondary mutation that capitalizes on his already-impressive abilities. Magneto described Shaw's secondary mutation as the absorption of ambient kinetic energy around him, thus eliminating the need to build his own kinetic stores by requisite physical activity.

### Abilities

**Skilled combatant:** Shaw's powers make him a formidable hand-to-hand combatant, even against superhumanly strong opponents like Colossus.

**Skilled leader:** Being the leader of the Hellfire Club has given Shaw some skill in leadership and strategy. Shaw also has a shrewd business mind.

### Weaknesses

**Power limitations:** Shaw's abilities can be overloaded by too great an influx of power, like being hit with too many superhumanly strong punches. Shaw can also be defeated if an opponent focuses on simply immobilizing him without striking him with significant force, or if something heavy falls on him, for though he can sap the kinetic falling energy, the weight of the object would still crush him unless he is strong enough to stop it. Rogue once defeated Shaw by picking him up and throwing him straight into the atmosphere, effectively removing him from the battlefield. There is an upper limit to the amount of energy that Shaw can absorb and convert; he was once overloaded by electrical energy discharged from Storm and fell into a temporary coma. However, the extent of this limit remains unknown.

## Notes

* Sebastian is descended from Hiram Shaw, one of the past Sorcerer Supremes of Earth, and Abigail Harkness, a woman accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials.
* He is the son of Jacob Shaw, who was granted superhuman powers from Mister Sinister.
* His fiancée, Lourdes Chantel, was a mutant.
* Sebastian's son, Shinobi, is also a mutant.
* The Chronomancer is an alternate reality descenant of Sebastian.
* Sebastian is distantly related to the Worthington family, including Angel, Eimin, and Uriel.