Origin
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.
Creation
Shikari was created by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Olivier Coipel.
Her name is a Hindi word for hunter, derived from shikar, “hunt.” 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 Dawnstar.
Character Evolution
Reboot / Earth-247
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.
Major Story Arcs
Shikari Saves The Legion
Shikari then used her pathfinding power to attempt to find them a way home, and brought them to a rock-encrusted hard light 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.
Shikari Finds The Legion
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 / Earth-Prime timeline. She somehow found her way back to Earth-247 and her teammates, who were in battle with the Fatal Five. Shikari joined with the New Earth Legion to battle against Superboy-Prime and the Legion of Super-Villains, after the battle she leaves with her team to venture the Multiverse as the new Wanderers to help others without a time and home.
Powers & Abilities
Tracking
As a pathfinder, she can mentally locate anything and can also see through illusions.
Exoskeleton
She has an armored exoskeleton, and can remain active indefinitely in a vacuum.
Flight
While she has wings which move while she flies, the fact that she can fly in a vacuum implies that this is mostly for show.
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