The nature of Jillian Woods is unclear. She’s reportedly a ’shade‘, but the word seems to refer to a category of magical beings rather than a specific species. As far as we know she is a rekindled human soul that occupies the shadow of what was once her body. However, Jillian can turn into a living, breathing woman whenever she wants and for as long as she wants, and seems to have a normal body working in all the usual ways when she does.

When she assumes her natural shadow form, Woods can become intangible, fly, project concussive jets of Darkforce and create fields of preternatural darkness. Her form is usually the shadow of a human female, but she can expand to become a much larger, amorphous volume of Darkforce.

Her shadow form seems to be a mystical gate to the Darkforce dimension - this is where the additional volume of Darkforce (for instance to shoot blasts) comes from. This interface can also be used for some very specialised purposes - for instance to absorb creatures from the Darkforce dimension and dump them back home. Another stunt is to diffuse Darkforce into the body of a supernatural creature such as an undead animated by the stuff, to reinforce them - though that requires Woods’ full concentration and she’ll usually ’ride‘ within the creature she’s feeding when she does that. Dr. Druid referred to this as “compress[ing her] shadow into a minute pocket of non-being [which would] effect a trans-temporal null-space” - whatever that means.

It is possible that Shadowoman has some sort of Darkforce-related Omni-Power, with Druid feeding her Hero Points through Leadership so she could actually use it. That would fit with the observation, as the stranger applications of her properties were all performed under direct instructions from Druid and conveniently matched the problem at hand.

Shadowoman can also survive seemingly lethal damage and quickly regain consciousness, and can slip through strong binding spells that should be able to hold a creature like her.

Love of the common people

Woods is somewhat charismatic and seemed personable, but she has a terrible track record when it comes to friendship and romance. There seems to be some odd property about her that pushes people away - and this apparently was the case even before she became a shade. It is possible that this is tied to a previous life of hers - perhaps one where she had magical powers.

Whether animals react strangely to her is unknown, but is certainly possible.

History

Jillian Woods had an unremarkable life, marred by poverty and difficulties in establishing lasting links with people. As a child she had more imaginary friends (named Annandale and Tennyson) than real ones. Her father left with another woman, leaving her mother to struggle with constant financial problems.

Woods drifted from home as she hated the sort of men that her mother was dating, and had a long string of short-lived minimum-wage jobs, usually getting fired for disagreeing with her manager. However she did qualify for financial aids to go to college, and enrolled at the USF. Her student life was mostly spent partying, drinking and chasing men, but her above-average intelligence allowed her to graduate anyway.

Some years before, one of the flakes her mother was dating had given her New Age stuff such as tarot cards and crystals. Woods felt a connection with those and developed an interest in the occult. Thus, when Dr. Anthony Druid came to the USF to give a lecture a few months before her graduation, she attended.

They were instantly smitten with each other, and Druid determined that they were the reincarnation of a couple. In their previous lives as an English noblewoman (Druid) and a wandering Celtic alchemist (Woods), they had shared a romance during the reign of King Arthur. The alchemist was found and slain by the brethren of the Englishwoman, but swore with his dying breath he would find his love again in another life. Soon, the present-day Woods and Druid (re)started their relationship, and she came to live in his place in Boston.

The transmigration of Jillian Woods

Jillian insisted on accompanying Dr. Druid during some of his outings, though her lover was concerned about the risks. While recovering artefacts, she tripped a mystical ward and was killed by a demon.

A small spark of life remained. Refusing to see his lover die and full of hubris, Druid used his mastery of the unknown and a nearby mystical statuette, the Bride of Slorioth, to fan that spark. Once this bit of life force was stable, Druid transfused it into Woods’ shadow. Woods’ thus didn’t pass on to the afterlife - and to keep her going Druid tied her soul to his.

When Jillian awoke, Druid lied to her, telling her that he had repelled the demon in the nick of time and the attack had somehow given her shadow powers. Unbeknownst to Woods, Druid often “stored” her in the statuette, releasing her to serve him like a genie when she was needed or wanted. Unbeknownst to Druid, his actions and repeated use of the statuette drained his soul, powering Slorioth - the demonic creator of the statuette.

Defense efforts

Some time later, Druid assembled a team known as the Shock Troop to help him police occult threats. Jillian was a member and made herself a super-hero costume obviously based on the original costume worn by Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew). She took the name Shadowoman. The other two members were n’Kantu (aka the Living Mummy) and John Scully (aka the second Blazing Skull).

The Shock Troops was seen but once - it would seem that n’Kantu and Scully’s participation was not wholly voluntary and they left quickly. During that case they fought Darkforce creatures allying with Quasar and some Shi’ar Imperial Guardsmen ; the Darkforce-powered Shadowoman found these creatures easy to handle.

After Dr. Strange cursed Dr. Druid to take up his duties as protector, Druid assembled another group, called the Secret Defenders. Woods was the founding operative as Shadowoman - since the two men who were in the field with her for the first mission, Deadpool and Cage, were just mercenaries. Druid used a little mesmerism as well as a paycheque to persuade the two men to take the mission. When Shadowoman survived a wound that should have been fatal and wondered what was going on, Druid erased her doubts using hypnotism. Though Woods’ doubts about her true nature slowly grew, Druid would just have her absorbed by the statuette, where no time passed, to keep her out of his hair.

Agamotto’s Pale Horseman (later known as Cadaver) joined the Secret Defenders, but members beyond him and Shadowoman continued to be manipulated into joining for a short while.

All that remains… is a living sepulchre !

One day, Jillian became aware whilst “stored” within the statuette. A demonic-looking shadow giant (actually Druid’s evil nature, which was taking over) confronted her there, telling her that she was actually dead and that Druid was keeping her tethered and manipulated. These revelations fanned Woods’ anger as intended, and she somehow evolved into a different form, changing her name to Sepulcre.

Sepulcre then burst out of the statuette, intending to have a showdown with Druid.

Description

When living with Druid, Woods adopted a distinctive manner of dress, looking sorceress-like through her choice of accessories, occult symbols and black clothing.

Personality

During her early days as Shadowoman she was enthusiastic and somewhat flippant, seeming confident and light-hearted, and producing fairly bland super-hero banter. This was all an attempt at hiding her lack of experience and acumen, though, and not a very good one either. That Woods didn’t quite know what she was doing and missed the extraordinary qualities of a genuine super-hero was visible.

Jillian’s odd social ’curse‘ made her somewhat bitter and hungering for affection and friendship. Though she has her dignity and will not really come across as needy, a lifetime of subtle ostracism have made her feel a bit off, and she has a problem with authority since her ’curse‘ means she tends to be singled out by managers as the black sheep. Her long alienation has made her a sucker for emotional manipulation, and romantic predators can often sense this. She spends a fair bit of time prowling for guys in single bars, and while her attractiveness brings success her overall track record consists of one-night stands or one-week wonders.

Jillian drinks a little bit too much, especially when she’s stressed or afraid - and socially. This may be a side effect of spending too much time in bars, or maybe a way to cope with her weird life and the knowledge that she is on some level a demonic undead shadow thing.