Origin
As a child Shela (she/her) made friends with Morgan Red (he/they). They bonded over the fact that they were secretly mutants and secretly transgender. They confided in each other about their identities first and grew into them together. Because Morgan was assigned Shela’s identifying gender at birth, he was able to teach her a few things like makeup in private. Although Shela’s parents accepted her when she revealed she was a mutant, they did not when she came out as trans, thus Morgan invited her to live with him and his accepting family. Combined with their ambition to become supervillains that only target bad guys, they created an operation where Morgan would supervise and hack security from his computer, and Shela would go into the field as Escapade.
Creation
Escapade debuts in the 2022 issue of Marvel’s Voices: Pride
Major Story Arcs
Invitation to Krakoa
Shela’s galivanting as an honorable thief got that attention of the new mutant nation of Krakoa. She was approached one night by Emma Frost and Destiny. Destiny had a vision of Shela using her ability to swap consequences with another person on Morgan accidentally. This would cause Morgan to die. Emma shared this vision with Shela using her telepathy. They leveraged this possibility to convince her to join Krakoa.
However, Shela has very strong opinions about Krakoa. She sees them as pretentious at best and authoritarian at worst. She continued solo missions until she came face to face with Skullbuster. It was such a close call that she started to reconsider Emma Frost’s invitation and offer of training, much to the chagrin of Morgan, who agreed with Shela’s original assessment of them.
New Mutants
Emma put Moonstar and Karma in charge of Shela’s training, but he naturally gravitated to the Lost Club. She was hanging out with them one day when Wolfsbane offered them a field trip to New York. She even convinced Morgan to show up and meet her new friends. Unfortunately, they were attacked and kidnapped by the U-Men for spare parts.
While trapped in a power dampening cage, Morgan used his tech expertise to find a fluctuation in the signal granting them a small half a second window every 93 seconds that they could use their abilities. It was only enough time for Shela to swap herself out of the cage with a guard. In disguise, she tracked down Martha, who was being prepared for organ harvesting. She begged Shela to kill her, but Shela refused. She didn’t trust the resurrection protocols so she double swapped into Martha’s shoes, giving Martha the chance to free the others.
They were separated during their escape attempt with Morgan and Shela finding themselves on the roof of the U-Men’s hideout. Unfortunately, it matched Destiny’s vision of Morgan’s death. Just then, Shela and Martha auto swapped back. Alone, Shela did her best to survive but was ultimately collared by Sublime.
He tried to make off with her catatonic body, but the Lost Club came to her rescue. Martha hit Sublime with a telepathic attack causing him to drop her. As she fell, she fought against changing places with Morgan and accepted her death. However, Leo slowed her descent and Wolfsbane grabbed her from thin air. Morgan’s death due to Shela’s lack of control has been averted.
Lethal Legion
While trying to distract Martha from the side effects of her new body, Shela shared stories of her thief days. She mentioned how the real fight wasn’t humans vs mutants but everyone vs the oligarchs. Scout overheard them and thought they were actually planning a heist. They started hypothetically considering it after finding out Count Nefaria was having an open house for potential Lethal Legion members. So, they raid the Krakoa armory for random gear to make themselves look like supervillain henchman. Shela dubbed herself “Blaster Dame.”
The plan was for Shela and Scout to compete while Martha sneaks into the basement to crack the safe. The first round was a combat challenge. Shela planned on losing and then switching places with one of the losers, however, her X-Men training proved more useful than she realized when she and Scout handedly made it the next round. Next round was an interview. Shela shared actual details from her childhood that forced her into supervillainy winning Nefaria’s respect.
Unfortunately, Nefaria offered her special wine that got Shela drunk. Her powers started backfiring and drawing suspicion, especially from Skullbuster, who was also auditioning for the Lethal Legion. With their ruse revealed, Shela and Scout were forced to fight their way out. Luckily, members of the New Mutants came to their rescue. Once together, they decided to stop Nefaria’s new team from attacking a science expo.
Back on Krakoa, Shela buried the hatchet with Morgan and shared a kiss with Martha, solidifying their mutual romantic interest.
Character Profile
- Height: 5’9″
- Weight: 175 lbs
- Eye Color: Green
- Hair Color: Red
- Citizenship: American
- Place of Birth: Medford, Massachusetts
- Marital Status: Single
- Occupation: Thief, part-time game designer
- Known Relatives: Unidentified parents, Morgan Red (best friend), Morgan Red’s parents (took in Shela when her parents kicked her out for being trans)
- Distinguishing Features: Dyes the tips of her hair blue
Power & Abilities
X-Gene: Escapade has the ability to swap “circumstances” with another person. Circumstances mean their literal location in space but also refers to their powers, skills, and health, among others. It comes especially in-handy when cornered by a more ruthless supervillain.
- Limitations: Her target for swapping must be within seven feet. She can end the swap of physical characteristics other than location at any time, however, she appears to be able to maintain it for at least a few hours before it swaps back automatically.
Gadgets: Escapade as a wide array of gadgets that she has stolen from other supervillains and abusive labs.