Major Story Arcs

Defenders

Danny Shepard is a young man with the power to absorb other people's sadness and heartbreak and pain. After absorbing it, he can release it, making them feel whole, and even joyful.

He lives in a small town out west that has traditional values. His father is the sheriff. One day he visits his African-American teacher, and realizes that she is repressing some deep pain. He uses his powers to make her think that he raped her, a feeling equivalent to her original experience years ago. Then he lets himself get caught, and blatantly refuses to apologize, and even makes it worse by acting extremely racist.

The town gets in an uproar. Everyone hates him, and lots of hate and fear about his crime, and race, abounds. A Neo-Nazi group shows up and demands his freedom, and the Defenders only barely manage to calm things down.

When he goes on trial, he exacerbates the situation even more, acting even more racist and remorseless. Someone finally stands up and shoots at him, but Moondragon stops the bullet. Using her powers, she makes Danny and the teacher admit what really happened.

Danny explains that he was intentionally dredging up everyone's worst feelings so that he could collect them and dissipate them, which he does. Everyone feels better.

He walks out, and the Defenders wonder if they should let him go, but do.

Spider-Man

Danny was later shown to have met with Peter Parker. He offered to take away his pain about Uncle Ben's death, but Peter said he wanted to keep it.

Powers and Abilities

Danny can absorb other people's emotional pain and turn it into a small flame, which he can then put out, healing them. He can also seem to control people's minds or memories to some extent, as when he planted false memories in his teacher.

Moondragon said this was more of a spiritual power than a psychic one.