Shathra's History
Shathra hailed from Earth-001 before it became Loomworld. Daughter of Goddesses Oshtur and Gaea, she was tasked by them with designing the Celestial Map of Humanity. After long labors, Shathra created the "Great Nest" only for her younger sister
Neith to see a problem with it and create a "Great Web" of her own. Oshtur and Gaea were impressed with
Neith's design and offered to help her bring it to fruition, making her the shaper of the Multiverse.
Neith agreed on the condition that Shathra would not mind and Shathra wished her well, even though her own heart had become blackened with jealousy and rage. By the time
Neith finished building the Web of Life and Destiny, which was presented to other gods, Shathra became disgusted with the Spiders that inhabited it and turned into a wasp-like dark goddess, determined to one day have her spider-wasps take revenge on all Spiders and make her Great Nest a reality to supplant the Great Web.
Shathra learned of
Spider-Man when he strayed from the safe path during a visit to the Astral Plane to locate the inter-dimensional kidnapper known as Shade. Shathra immediately realized
Spider-Man's true nature and determined that he would make the perfect meal for her hungry young hatchlings.
Following
Spider-Man's scent back to Earth, Shathra quickly engaged her chosen victim in a battle that demonstrated her clearly superior speed and strength. Though
Spider-Man was able to use his superior knowledge of New York to find temporary escape, he knew that Shathra would soon locate him once more.
Shathra devised a plan and changed into a human form and adopted the name “Sharon Keller”. Posing as
Spider-Man's jilted lover, she went on live TV to reveal a series of convincing and humiliating details. Spurred by Mary Jane Watson's distress, Peter Parker took the bait and interrupted the interview at the studio, attacking Sharon Keller in full view. Fortunately, Shathra reverted to her Spider-Wasp form, but her ruse had achieved its goal of pushing
Spider-Man to act on pure instinct, bringing the conflict to the simple level of “natural order”, in which the Spider-Wasp is the hunter and the Spider is the meal.
Spider-Man managed barely to avoid descending into mindless fury and though drugged by Shathra's paralyzing agent, managed to escape to brief safety. He was rescued by
Ezekiel Sims, who took him to a sacred temple in Ghana and helped Peter to set a trap for Shathra.
Spider-Man now consciously allowed his arachnid side to take the forefront, or enough so to capture the Spider-Wasp, and to feed her to whatever spider dwelt in the depths of the temple. The food chain, it seems, can run in both directions.
Years later,
Madame Web sent a letter to
Kaine Parker in Houston telling him to get out of town secretly encoding a message that Shathra was coming, but the letter never got to him, so he was ignorant of the incoming threat. Shathra appeared to
Kaine in the form of his girlfriend Annabelle Adams and after sleeping with him revealed her true form to him.
Kaine had to succumb to his form of The Other in order to kill Shathra, who had revealed she wanted
Kaine to use him to feed her "children."
While repairing the Great Web on the Loomworld (Earth-001),
Spiderling inadvertently touched the Primal Strand of the Web, releasing Shathra. Recognizing her as a broodling of
Peter Parker, Shathra sent Spider-Wasps to sting her, corrupting
Annie and transforming her into Shathra's
Nestling.
