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| “ | Any brute can kill. The skills needed to employ a club or gun are easily obtained. I am a true master of the lethal arts! | „ |
| ~ Prime-Earth Lady Shiva. |
Lady Shiva (real name Sandra Wu-San) is an assassin in the DC comics and universe, and is a recurring protagonist or antagonist in the Batman comics and the Birds of Prey comics. She is considered one of the greatest martial artist in the world, and is a enemy of Batman, Black Canary, The Question, and Richard Dragon.
She was created by Dennis O'Neil and Ric Estrada.
Background
She is an occasional ally of Batman and a member of the Bird of Preys. Shiva has also helped Batman after his fight with Bane in Knightfall. She also joined the Birds of Prey and helped them with their missions multiple times.
At one point, Shiva helped Batman fight against Ra's al Ghul who tries use a deadly virus to kill off half of the Earth's population. With her help, they prevented the virus from spreading and defeated Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins.
Biography
Early Life
Sandra Wu-Shan was born to China to unnamed parents, and is the sister to Carolyn Wu-Shan, and niece to Shiruto. However, there are many different origins of Lady Shiva, as the original origin, Carolyn was a traveling companion to Ben Turner and Richard Dragon, who were master martial artist. There, Shiruto was killed by a spy named the Swiss, who then kidnapped Carolyn, and Sandra's sister later died during a battle between Dragon and the Swiss. Heartbroken by the loss of sister, Sandra became Lady Shiva to avenge her sister's death.
In a different and new timeline, Sandra and Carolyn grew up in Detroit, and they practiced in martial artist constantly, and people would travel to watch them spar. David Cain, an assassin, observed them and noticed that Sandra was holding back due to her love for her sister. David decided to murder Carolyn, and left her body for Sandra to find, thus allowing Sandra to gain her full potential in martial arts.
Sandra sought out Cain to kill him and avenge her sister's death, but she was defeated by the League of Assassins. Sandra forgave Cain when she realized that he set her free, and he allowed her to live if she could bear him a child. Sandra bore him a daughter named Cassandra, and she gave her up to David, who trained her himself.
Lady Shiva
Sandra swore revenge on the person who murdered Carolyn, and she was tricked by Guano Cravat, who hired her sister's killer, into believing Richard Dragon was responsible. Sandra became Lady Shiva, and took a position at Global Organization of Organized Defense to get close to Dragon, and she battled Richard with the help of Cravat. Dragon managed to convince Sandra to turn on Guano, and she decided to return to America. However, they were attacked by a pirate named Slash, who defeated Sandra.
Lady Shiva became to enjoy being around Dragon, due to his life being surrounded by danger, and she began to follow him. Cravat returned to get his revenge on the two by hiring Doctor Moon, and Lady Shiva and Dragon managed to defeat Moon and his men. Around this time, Dragon called Lady Shiva to inform her that Slash returned, and the two worked together to take him down. Sandra later reunited with Dragon and Turner when they were sent to the Caribbean by Barney Ling, and they defeated Preying Mantis, a martial artist.
The trio later worked on taking down Hatchett, a corrupt logger who had killed Turner's sister, and the group were later sent by Ling to China on an undercover mission. Sandra and Turner were later captured by Madame Sun, but Dragon came to the rescue, and helped them escape. Lady Shiva and Dragon work together on stopping the League of Assassins after they attacked Turner, and nearly get answers when intercepting an assassin known as the Viper.
Lady Shiva decided to become a mercenary, as she became addicted to a dangerous life or death life, and also to finance her activities and training. She was later hired to kill The Question, but she saw something in him due to his potential skills, and saved him from death. Lady Shiva took him into the mountains to meet with Dragon, and he later improved his skills every time he encountered Lady Shiva. Afterward, she crossed paths with the League of Assassins and Ra's al Ghul, who handed her many operations and cause a rift between their need for control. Despite this, Sandra only concern was perfecting her skills, and has kept close to the League since then.
Later on, Sandra was often hired to train assassins, mercenaries and terrorist, and it was later learned that she a connection to Robin's (Jason Todd) father. Batman and Robin decided to see her out, as they thought she could be Jason's mother, but a battle ensued between the Dark Knight and the assassin. After being given sodium pentothal, she laughed when asked if she was Robin's mother, as she found it amusing. Afterward, Lady Shiva became to track down those who referred to themselves as Shihan or any title that proclaimed their mastery in the art of fighting. During this time, she would train with those who thought they were the best, and would choose to spare or kill them if they had no further use of her. Also, Sandra was seeking Green Arrow, but she encountered and fought Black Canary.
Lady Shiva developed an interest in finding the man who defeated Koroshi, and heard rumors that it was King Snake. During her search for King Snake, she met Tim Drake, who was going to be the next Robin after Jason Todd, and she trained him in martial arts. However, Time focused his training on the bo staff, as he didn't want to cause any lethal harms to criminals and other opponents. At the end of his training, Tim managed to defeat Lady Shiva with his bo staff, and she gifted him a collapsible one. Afterward, she worked with Tim and his ally Clyde Rawlins in stopping King Snake and the Ghost Dragons from releasing a virulent plague. When she ordered Tim to kill King Snake, and he refused, and so she kicked King Snake off a cliff to his death (though it was later revealed he survived).
Batman later asked for Sandra's help to regain his skills that he lost when Bane broke his back, and she agreed to train him. She attempted to teach Batman a deadly technique, but he refused to learn the Leopard Blow, and so she devised a new way to continue his training. She murdered the Armless Master while wearing the Mask of Tengu, and made sure that the Master's Seven Disciples learned who was responsible. She gave the mask to Batman, who was attacked by the disciples, and he later killed one of his opponents, much to her satisfaction.
Lady Shiva later took the alias "Paper Monkey" to prove her worthiness to the Brotherhood of Monkey Fist, who was holding a tournament after Gotham suffered from an earthquake. She later fought Connor Hawke in the arena, and she managed to defeat him, but she didn't kill since Robin came and reminded that he saved her life previously. After the tournament, she had many followers who believed that she was the Hindu Goddess Shiva, but she paid them no attention, only using them as henchman or killing them.
Meeting Cassandra
Lady Shiva sought Cassandra Cain, who had become the new Batgirl, and wanted to test her skills. Sandra was disappointed, as Cassandra could barely defend herself, but was had the ability to analyze the body languages of others. After Cassandra was taught in the art of fighting, she became a gifted martial artist and lost her ability to understand body language.
Lady Shiva and Cassandra struck a deal, Sandra would re-teach Batgirl the skills she had lost, but she would face her in a battle to the death a year later. During one battle at the Forum of The Twelve Caesars, Lady Shiva defeated Batgirl, who was rendered dead, but was revived by Sandra when she realized that she didn't give her all. Batgirl admitted that she was becoming suicidal, as her father David Cain had forced her to kill a man when she was a child.
Batgirl managed to overcome her death wish, and fought Lady Shiva once again, and defeated Sandra by breaking her jaw, but refused to kill her. Cassandra accused Sandra of having a death wish herself, and doing one last battle, Lady Shiva appeared dead, but she was near a Lazarus pit.
Birds of Prey
Lady Shiva joined the Birds of Prey after switching places with Black Canary in order to experience the other person's life. Sandra joined and used the name "Jade Canary", but she retained her cold personality, and Oracle believed that was possibly a sociopath. When Cassandra disappeared and the League of Assassins had an upheaval, Lady Shiva worked with Tim to discover the truth. Despite losing to her daughter, Lady Shiva showed no ill-will to Cassandra, and hoped that she was doing well.
After Lady Shiva and the Birds of Prey were defeated by Prometheus, she released herself from Black Canary, and left the group. Sandra continued her training and worked with Bethany Throne on training a new heir in the art of her lethal martial arts. Despite leaving the team, Sandra was very protective of her former teammates, as she warned Spy Smasher to never go after Oracle after they fought for control for the team.
Lady Shiva continued her career, and later returned to Gotham to duel Robin, but was defeated due to him poisoning her with tainted chocolates. The poison caused her to experience paralysis when her heart rate went up, and she was taken to prison by Nightwing.
Gallery
Trivia
- She is considered one of the world's greatest martial artist, alongside Batman, Green Arrow, Cassandra Cain, and Richard Dragon.
- She was defeated once by Time Drake (who was using enhances speed drugs) and Prometheus.