50 – SHIVA

Subject: Shiva
Real Name: Shiva
Height: 7’6″ Weight: 500 lbs
Group Affiliation: None
First Appearance: Wolverine #50, January 1992

Power Ratings:

• Energy Projection: 5/7
• Mental Powers: 1/7
• Strength: 6/7
• Fighting Ability: 6/7
• Intelligence: 4/7

I have a sinking suspicion that Shiva got the (not really) coveted card #50 spot because he was featured villain of the (not really) anticipated Wolverine #50 , which was published almost simultaneously with this trading card set. Too bad Shiva, who was really nothing more than a guard dog for the Weapon X program, smacked of 90′s fad synergy: the face and body of Apocalypse in Stryfe‘s armor, and said armor made of adamantium.

Not surprisingly, Shiva was dispatched relatively quickly (though being an artificial intelligence, Shiva’s not  too hard to resurrect), appearing only twice more since 1992, and both instances were essentially rehashes. Wolverine just really works best against psychotic, outgoing villains full of personality (Sabretooth being the best). Even connecting Shiva to Wolvie’s past doesn’t amount to much, since his history has been retconned to a point where every mutant had encountered Logan somewhere in the past anyway.

The art suffers again for being too loose, especially for a character that’s supposed to look super sharp, a cold calculating robot. The pose is uninspired and Shiva’s outstretched fist looks really weird (instead of a fist with sharp knuckles, it looks more like an open hand with really stubby fingers.

The high Power Ratings are clearly the result of wanting to create a super x-treme villain, which makes it even more pathetic when Wolverine just went and cut the sucker in half with a samurai sword.