This is "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking," a feature spotlighting notable examples of retcons that don't fit into the framework of Abandoned an' Forsaked, which is specifically about stories that outright "overturn" older stories. There are many examples of "retroactive continuity" that do not actively abandon the works of the past. Some of them are minor, some of them are major, all of them are interesting enough to me that I figure that they are worth writing about.

Today, we look at how the Shadow King evolved as a villain over the years through one major retcon. I thought about this one the other day when writing about how the Shadow King apparently had some sort of confrontation with Magneto in the past that has never been touched upon in the comics.

As far we know, in X-Men #117 (by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin), Professor Charles Xavier met a man named Amahl Farouk, who was dubbed the Shadow King.

Farouk was very important because he was the first truly "evil" mutant that Xavier had ever met and once it became clear that Xavier wasn't about to become an evil mutant, as well, then Farouk turned on him and challenged him to a mental battle to the death...

Their battle was fierce and Xavier began to suffer physical wounds from Farouk's telepathic attacks. However, Xavier was the ultimate winner...

This experience with an evil mutant is what caused Professor X to get a bunch of teenagers to work out his paramilitary fixations....or help protect the world from other "evil" mutants. One or the other.

Years later, the New Mutants member known as Karma disappeared. When her friends ran into her again in New Mutants #32 (by Claremont and Steve Leialoha), she was now extremely obese and a supervillain...

However, it was soon evident that Farouk found a way to make his consciousness remain intact in the astral plane, so he could control others. However, Karma proved too powerful for him to control her as a host...

You will notice that even though his consciousness is possessing other people now, it is clear that he is still FAROUK. Even when he popped up again in the late 1980s as Claremont had the X-Men split up and slowly get back together while Farouk controlled other people's bodies, it was only then that he began to be referred to as the Shadow King, but again, the idea was that it was the name that they called Farouk as he possessed other people, like Xavier's son, Legion...

That, though, is not the case.

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In the miniseries, X-Men: True Friends, which was intended to be released in the late 1980s originally, starred Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers being sent back in time to World War II. Once there, they encounter Farouk, but it is clear that "The Shadow King" is a separate entity from Farouk, one that was around before humanity itself...

That has been the set-up ever since, that the Shadow King is a psionic being that lives on the Astral Plane and possesses humans and when they die, it moves on to a new host. Farouk had no peers for many years, so he stayed in that body for decades.

As you might have noticed, when he takes over people's bodies, he likes to make them eat a lot.

The psionic being possessing people is a great hook and it's a good thing Claremont came up with that twist.

Okays, folks, I am sure that you all have tons of examples for this feature, so feel free to send them to me at brianc@cbr.com!