Sebastian Shaw's powers first manifested shortly after he was accepted to engineering school and his father died, when he was beaten by some rednecks in a bar. Shaw devoted himself to his studies and created Shaw Industries, becoming a billionaire by the age of 40.
Shaw fell in love with a woman named Lourdes Chantel, and was soon initiated into the Hellfire Club along with Warren Worthington Jr., Howard Stark, and John Braddock. Soon, Shaw rose to the position of Black King, and gathered mutant associates to his side, including Emma Frost and Tessa. Unfortunately, Chantel was soon killed by Sentinels in a battle. Upon discovering that Ned Buckman, the White King of the Inner Circle, supported Stephen Lang's Project: Armageddon and its Sentinels, Shaw executed a coup, using Emma's telepathy to make Buckman kill his own White Queen and then himself. Shaw then appointed himself Black King and his associate Frost as White Queen of the Hellfire Club.
Sebastian Shaw is an Alpha-Level Mutant with the following abilities:
--Energy Absorption: Sebastian has the superhuman ability to absorb kinetic energy and metabolize it to enhance his own physical strength, speed, and stamina. This makes him extremely difficult to defeat in battle, as every blow struck against him only makes him stronger. Unusual tactics are required to defeat him, usually by incapacitating him or by attacking him psionically. Shaw absorbs the energy of any blow he is struck by, not just punches, but also projectiles like bullets, and to a less successful degree, electricity and physically based energy beams. Without absorbing energy, Shaw is merely a strong ordinary human, though normally he works to keep his strength at a superhuman level. For example, in one instance, he was shown to spend time hitting a wall after waking in order to build up his power reserves. --Enhanced Metabolism: Shaw can forgo sleep if he receives enough kinetic energy. Often he will have his mercenaries pummel him to give him enough stored energy that he need not sleep for some time. --Enhanced Durability: Shaw can still be crushed/cut, but cuts are superficial because he saps the blade of all its thrusting/cutting energy. Shaw is adept at not letting enemies realize his power until they have hit him one too many times. Hitting Shaw is often described as "punching a mattress". --Enhanced Strength: If properly energized, Shaw can lift and hold approximately one hundred times his weight. If bound, he can be punched by a teammate until he is strong enough to break the bonds. He is also adept at taunting foes into attacking him. --Enhanced Speed: When he has absorbed kinetic energy, Shaw's speed is increased. After absorbing enough energy, he can attack more quickly than opponents can react. --Enhanced Stamina: Shaw's stamina in increased beyond normal human levels when he absorbs kinetic energy. --Regenerative Healing Factor: Shaw has healed from being hit repeatedly in the nose by Colossus in less than an hour. However, his healing factor may not heal catastrophic injuries such as a blast to the head or a broken neck. --Age Reversal: Shaw's healing factor decelerates his aging process & restores most of his youth when he has absorbed energy, effectively making him immortal in a sense. Secondary Mutation: Having loaned some of the Hellfire Club's services to Emma's cause, Shaw underwent the Mothervine enhancement process giving him a Secondary Mutation, one that enables and capitalizes on his already impressive abilities: --Ambient Energy Conversion: Magneto describes the Black King's secondary mutation as the absorption of ambient kinetic energy around him into himself, eliminating the need to build his own kinetic stores by requisite physical activity. --Energy Wave Emission: Shaw can also release the absorbed energy as AoE (area of effect) discharges which have devastating effects on the surrounding environs if he so chooses to unleash them. --Concussion Blasts: With the power of his secondary mutation, Shaw can direct the energy absorbed into direct buffeting rays from his hands at will, they are potent enough to keep the likes of Magneto off balance while battling him. --Energy-Enhanced Strike: Shaw can seemingly coat his fists in raw dynamic force in order to strengthen his physical based melee to an uncertain degree.
There is an upper limit to the amount of energy that Shaw can absorb and convert: once he was "overloaded" by electrical energy discharged from the X-Man named Storm, and fell into a temporary coma. However, the exact extent of this limit remains unknown.
