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SHADOW KING

Affiliations: X-villain , former head of the Gladiators
Scale of Operations: astral plane / worldwide, formerly Muir Island , formerly Madripoor , formerly Cairo, Egypt

Powers: Amahl Farouk was a mutant with a phenomenally strong talent for telepathy. He could perform nearly any telepathic feat and block any telepathic challenge. In particular, Farouk's extpertise was in the manipulation of the astral plane.

Since his physical death, Farouk exists entirely as a creature of the astral plane. He is normally unable to take control of a host body, but he can do so under certain circumstances, such as in the case of the mutant Karma, whose mental powers allowed him to possess her. Otherwise, he may subliminally affect victims and exert limited mental control.

History: Several years ago, as a young man, the mutant telepath Charles Xavier visited Cairo, Egypt, where his wallet was stolen by the child Ororo, who would later join Xavier's X-Men team as Storm. Xavier used his psionic powers to stop Ororo and took his wallet back. Suddenly Xavier himself was struck by a bolt of psionic energy. Recovering, he realized that the source of the psychic attack lay within a nearby tavern.

Within the bar Xavier met Amahl Farouk, the crimelord of Cairo, who was himself a mutant with vast tele-pathic powers. Farouk had sensed the presence of another powerful telepath and had struck him with the psionic bolt as a warning to leave the area his domain, the so-called Thieves' Quarters of Cairo. Xavier and Farouk sat at different tables in the bar and communicated solely through telepathy. Farouk asked Xavier to join him in his criminal activities. Xavier sensing Farouk's evil and depravity, refused. Contending that mutants like themselves had a responsibility to use their superhu-man abilities for the benefit of others, Xavier vowed to bring Farouk to justice for his crimes. Xavier's and Farouk's astral forms then began a battle which ended when the former defeated his foe with a powerful bolt of psychic force. Xavier's astral form rejoined his body, and he left the bar. When Farouk's physical body died, however, he shifted his astral form to another plane. Weakened by the intensity of his duel with the crimelord, Xavier did not notice that Farouk's consciousness had thus escaped. Farouk wanted vengeance on Xavier but believed him too pow-erful to challenge safely.

Years later, however, Farouk became aware of Xi'an Coy Minh, alias Karma, a member of Xavier's new team of young superpowered heroes, the New Mutants, who had the psionic ability to take psychic possession of another person. Kar-ma disappeared on a mission with the New Mutants after the explosion of a hideout belonging to their foe the Viper. The other New Mutants believed Karma to be dead. How-ever, Farouk had turned Karma's own power against her and taken psychic possession of her body. Inhabiting Karma's physical form, Farouk resumed his criminal career on a worldwide scale. Now that he once more had a corporeal body, Farouk was able to indulge his physi-cal appetites. In his original body, Farouk had been an overweight man, but over the months that he possessed Karma's body, as if to compensate for the years he spent as a disembodied spirit, Farouk became so gluttonous that Karma's body grew grotesquely obese.

Farouk came to control the Gladia-tors, a large group of superhuman mutants who illegally engaged in blood sports for the entertainment of paying customers. Farouk used holographic images of the Gladia-tors' former leader, Alexander Flynn, to convince all but his inner circle in the operation that Flynn was still in control of their activities. Farouk had two of the New Mutants, Magma and Sunspot, abducted and forced them to fight at his secret arena. A team of heroes, which included their team-mates Cannonball and Magik, tried to rescue them. Farouk captured Shadowcat, one of the heroes who had recognized Karma, and put her under his control. When she broke free, the group caused such an uproar that the police invaded the secret complex and shut it down. The New Mutants and their allies caught Farouk and recognized Kar-ma but, still in Karma's body, Farouk got away.

Unaware that Karma was pos-sessed by Farouk, the entire New Mutants team tracked her to Madripoor. There Farouk took control of a portion of the team while others escaped to Cairo, where Farouk had taken his new con-quests. There they joined forces with Storm and learned the truth that Karma was being pos-sessed by Farouk. Farouk planned to use his control of Storm to force her to kill Xavier and planned leave Karma's body eventually and take over someone else, leaving her to pay for his crimes.

Finally, two of the New Mutants freed Storm and the others from his mental control. The heroes attacked Farouk, who fled Karma's body only to take over that of Cypher's instead. Karma was now once more herself and wanted vengeance on Farouk. Her astral form battled his and forced him to flee to another plane, freeing Cypher.

Later, Farouk returned, calling himself the Shadow King and plaguing the life of Storm, who had been reduced to a child by the villain Nanny. With the help of her new ally, Gambit, Storm escaped his machinations.

Farouk soon turned his attention to the mind of doctor Moria MacTaggart, leader of the research facility on Muir Island. Gradually, he influenced her behavior and began to take control of the entire island, which included many of the associates of the X-men (which were defunct at the time) and wounded mutants from the so-called "Mutant Massacre". Farouk also reinstated his gladiator-like arena where the mutants could fight amongst themselves. During this time, Farouk possessed Xaveir's son Legion, using him to kill the mutant Destiny. He also possessed former X-men Polaris, using her as a nexus for the negative emotions of others in order to increase his own power. The X-men eventually reformed and investigated the strange happenings on Muir Island. They ousted Farouk with the help of Professor Xavier after the X-men Psylocke broke Farouk's link to Polaris.

Farouk later resurfaced in Storm's village from her time Africa, taking the form of Anasasi, the legendary spider-trickster of Africa. When the X-men investigated, he tricked Psylocke into creating a psychic shockwave that disrupted the entire astral plane, effectively cutting the world`s telepaths off from their power. However, Psylocke tricked Farouk in return, causing him to overextend himself by tapping into every mind on the planet. While thus distracted, Psylocke mentally tapped into him and psychically shut him down. Psylocke claimed that as long as she did not use her telepathy, Farouk would remain contained by her telepathic powers.

that is all you need to know aboot shadow king

and yes i will have to say sinister is classified as a powerful mutant.