Origin
Sharon Friendlander was a caucasian American woman, had worked as a nurse in the Mid-County Medical Centre for many years. There she enjoyed the challenges of the job and helping people in her local community.
One night during a heavy snow storm, Danielle Moonstar was rushed into the Emergency Room. She had been severely attacked, with wounds that appeared to be consistent with a bear attack. Unknown to Nurse Friedlander or any of the emergency staff, Dani was the New Mutant known as Psyche, and she had been attacked by the ferocious spirit known as the Demon Bear. The rest of Psyche’s team-mates had accompanied her to the hospital. Tensions were running high, as they had originally found Psyche’s mauled body lying in the snow. The super powered teens were worried for their friend, and Sunspot’s temper grew out of control. Before a fight broke out, Nurse Friedlander arrived to calm everybody down. She reminded them that Psyche was fighting for her life, and that the surgeons shouldn’t be distracted by their noise. Cannonball explained that Psyche’s family had died and that her legal guardian, Professor Charles Xavier, was still in Masschusetts. Nurse Friedlander agreed that they could stay the night, and went to fetch pillows and blankets for them all.
Creation
Sharon Frielander was created by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz and first appeared in The New Mutants Volume 1 issue 19 (1984).
Major Story Arcs
Transformation
After leaving the New Mutants to settled down the for the night, Sharon returned to the Nurses Station. There, Officer Tom Corsi struck up conversation with her. He needed to relax after a shock where he nearly shot Wolfsbane, but soon their conversation moved from shift-patterns to casual flirting. Both of them were completely unaware of the growling of the Demon Bear until it attacked. The New Mutants rushed to help when they heard Nurse Friedlander’s screams and Officer Corsi’s shots. However, by then it was too late & they were already missing. After the New Mutants successfully managed to prevent the Demon Bear from entering the Operating Theatre, it transported them all to it’s own magical realm. It was a segment of the spirit world that closely resembled the grassy plains where Psyche had grown up. Above the demon bear floated a bubble that was a portal to the Operating Theatre, and either side of the bubble floated Nurse Friendlander and Officer Corsi. They were still unconscious, but appeared to be in fine physcial condition.
The Demon Bear then plunged it’s gigantic claws through their bodies, casting powerful spells over both of them. They were transformed from caucasians into Native American demons. As demons, both Sharon and Tom had extraordinary powers of flight, black lightning and heightened strength. However, they were completely mute and forced to act against their will. As the Demon Bear’s demonic slaves, they were forced to fight the New Mutants while the bear itself continually attempted to force it’s way into the Operating Theatre. The New Mutants recognised that both Nurse Friedlander and Officer Corsi were still inside the demon monsters and therefore did their best not to hurt their friends while attacking them. However, neither Sharon nor Tom held back, and repeatedly attacked the New Mutants. Ultimately the fight was won by the New Mutants. Magik managed to turn the tide by using her eldritch Soulsword to cut through the Demon Bear’s enchantments. When then Soulsword was sliced through Tom, it drove the demon out of his body. Magik didn’t get the chance to use it on Sharon as she then turned her attention to the Demon Bear itself. After the bear was defeated, Sharon’s body was freed of the evil spirit. However, although both she and Tom were freed of the evil demons that possessed them, Magik could not restore their bodies to their former appearance. As William Lonestar later explained, the Demon Bear’s first enchatment that transformed them into Native Americans was permanent. Magik’s Soulsword had removed the demonic enchantments, but there were no more spells to be removed.
New Life
Being transformed into a different ethnic race meant that Sharon couldn’t return to work at the Mid-County Medical Centre. Her whole life had been turned upside dwn by the encounter with the Demon Bear. Professor Xavier sent Sharon to Muir Isle where Moira MacTaggert attempted to research for any possible cure and study their new abilities. However, Sharon & Tom were permanently transformed. While Tom Corsi seemed happy with his new strength and reinvigorated youth, Sharon was less receptive and wanted her old life back.
Legion
While testing Tom’s enhanced strength they both received a psychic image of an Arabian boy who seemed distressed. Suddenly they heard a commotion from David Haller’s room and ran to investigate. There they found David floating face down above his cot, while toys and other items where being thrown around the room. Soon the telekinetic bombardment became too much, and their route to the door was cut off. They were forced to move further in the center of the room, and began to wonder why these terrible things must continue to happen to them when David’s screams grew out of control. His pain increased until the room suddenly exploded in a ball of fire.
Both Sharon & Tom were left unconscious. They had been drained of any signs of life by the time Moira MacTaggert and Multiple Man examined them, but there were no outwards signs of trauma to their bodies. Charles Xavier and some of the New Mutants arrived on Muir Isle the day after. Moira explained that their unconscious conditions defied explanation. Neither Sharon nor Tom had received any injury of burns during the explosion, and all their vital signs were strong. It was a mystery why they were unconscious.
What no-one understood was the connection between David’s autism and mutant powers. Within David Haller’s mind resided three extra and distinctive personalities who together were known as Legion. They had been absorbed from actual living people when his powers began to manifest, and therefore each of those personalities came to control different aspects of David’s power. The Arab boy who Sharon & Tom saw crying in pain was Jemail Karami who controlled David’s telepathy. He had reached out and taken the minds of both Sharon & Tom to protect them from the telekinetic and pyrokinetic assaults of Jack Wayne & Cyndi, the rest of Legion’s personalities. A war raged within David’s mind, but inside Jemail’s safe haven he had been trying to restructure David’s fractured personality. It was also where he had kept Sharon & Tom safe. Sharon and Tom were restored to their bodies when Mirage’s plan to use Jemail’s telepathy & Jack’s telekinesis to restore a large portion of David’s mind.
Teaching & Love
After being freed from Legion’s mind, they didn’t stay on Muir Island for much longer. Instead, Sharon and Tom returned to New York and went to live at Xavier’s School for the Gifted where they assisted the new headmaster, Magneto. They became teaching assistants and confidents for the New Mutants in much the same way that Stevie Hunter had done.
Having survived at least two life-changing and traumatic experiences threw their lives together. When they first met Tom had begun to flirt with Sharon, but they didn’t pursue the relationship much further than friendship. However, when the White Queen wanted to convince Magneto that the New Mutants would be better under her supervision at the Massachusetts Academy she sent the Hellion known as Empath to influence his emotions. Tom spotted someone on the campus grounds and went to investigate with Sharon. There they found Empath who was using his mutant power to inflict a deep depression into Magneto. To ensure he was left alone, Empath used his control of emotions to manipulate Sharon & Tom. They had always been attracted to each other, but Empath twisted that emotion into an insatiable lust. Driven by their desires, Sharon & Tom passionately consumated their relationship while Empath continued to undermine Magneto’s self-confidence.
Both Sharon & Tom disappeared for some time. When they returned, both of them were sporting punk-hair cuts and extreme leather bondage outfits. They continued to feed on each other’s passions, but soon it wasn’t enough. The drive for more passion and ecstasy drove them to experiment into further extreme desires. Sharon had collapsed from exhaustion and Tom managed to carry her back to the school. They were both left exhausted, pale shadows of their former personalities. They rarely spoke to anyone else, and Sharon often spent time alone in the medical rooms to avoid human contact except when necessary.
Sharon continued to help at the school while Magneto was headmaster. Afterwards she and Thom again travelled to Muir Island and worked with Moira MacTaggert. She was part of the rag-tag team of Muir Island X-Men that successfully managed to fend off an attack by the Reavers.a group of cyborg mercenaries.
After the X-Men
Afterwards Sharon travelled bak to Muir Island and worked as one of Moira MacTaggert’s assistants. She and Tom, whom had gone with her, however came under the telepathic possession of the Shadow King, an old adviseray of Charles Xavier. Again Sharon and Tom’s minds and bodies were used in a malicious psionic attack. But unlike the time with Empath, the Shadow King’s hold on them lasted for many months, right up until the X-Men and X-Factor managed to free the inhabitants of Muir Island.
Eventually Sharon returned to America. There she used her nursing skills to work for Our Mother of the Sacred Heart; a hospital for handicapped children. It was a quiet life, which she enjoyed after the chaos of living around the X-Men. However, the school came under attack from the mutant group known as the Acolytes. Sharon managed to defend herself long enough to send a distress signal to Professor Xavier. Unfortunately, she was immediately killed by Joanna Cargill during the attack.
Powers & Skills
Unlike the majority of residents at either Xavier’s School for the Gifted or Muir Isle, Sharon Friedlander was not a mutant. For day-to-day life she relied on her skills and knowledge as a human being, but with a little enhanced strength courtesy of her new Native American body.
Nurse Friedlander
Long before the Demon Bear’s attack, Sharon was an established nurse. She was already adept at emergency medical care, being able to give temporary procedures to support a person until they could receive more specialised treatment.
While living at Xavier’s School for the Gifted, Tom Corsi refers to her as an exceptional nurse. She used her medical knowledge to care for hundreds of people before she helped to take care of the New Mutants and the pupils of Our Mother of the Sacred Heart.
Demon Powers
Immediately after she was kidnapped Sharon was possessed by a demonic spirit. The enchantments that caused the possession also gave her supernatural abilities. These included:
- Limited Flight: Sharon was able to hover in the air indefinitely and fly between combatants. Her flight was silent, as she could sneak up behind her foes. Whiel aloft she appeared to be agile and deft at controlling her flight. However, she did not appear to have exceptional velocity while in flight as she was considerably slower than Cannonball.
- Black Lightning: Instead of casting bolts of electricity, Sharon could hurl black lightning from her fingertips. It was not clear whether this black variation was electric in the same way that regular electricity is. There was also no indication of the strength or possible voltage of the lightning. It was magical in nature, hence the black colouring of the lightning.
- Super Strength: Both Sharon and Tom gained super strength while they were possessed by the Demon Bear’s enchantments. During the fight with the New Mutants they appeared to be on a par with the mutant teens, although possibly not as Strong as Sunspot.
Enhanced Strength
After being freed from the Demon Bear’s demonic influence, Sharon reverted back to being a human being. However, she did not revert to being a normal human being. It was hard for Sharon to come to terms with her new Native American ethnicity. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she did not recognise the face that looked back at her. However, she was not an average Native American as she retained a portion of the super strength endowed upon her by the Demon Bear. Although she was not as inclined to push her limits like Tom Corsi had done on Muir Isle, it is likely that she had similar strength limits. Tom claimed that he could lift twice the amount of the world weight lifting record with relative ease. It is therefore safe to assume that Sharon’s strength had similar boundaries. At the very least she certainly had no trouble carrying Mirage’s unconscious body and running with her back into the school.