Spotlight: Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal

If you’ve ever played Club Penguin, you may have noticed that there is a surprising lack of superheroes in the game. Despite there being situations that we would expect super heroes to act in, we often see other forces such as secret agents or ninjas come to the rescue instead.

There are, however, two clear exceptions: Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal.

These fictional superheroes made their debut in January, 2008 in the stage play “Squidzoid vs Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal” where they prevented a giant squid (Squidzoid) and his sidekick (Melmonst) from eating Metropenguinopolis.

In the show, it was revealed that Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal have two unique powers each. Shadow Guy is able to create either a ball or directed beam of pure shadow while Gamma Gal is able to create either a ball or directed beam of pure light. When the heroes strike in the play, they call their powers by names (“shadow wave” and “plasma glow wave”, respectively), but it’s unclear which powers they’re actually referring to – or if they’re referring to a combination of both at the same time.

It should also be noted that the two heroes can combine their powers to create lightning. This lightning had an effect on Squidzoid that somehow caused him to transform back into a penguin.

Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal were also given their most iconic suits in this production: Shadow Guy in a blue and grey outfit with a blue cape and mask, and Gamma Gal in a pink and white outfit with a pink cape and mask. The penguins’ colours weren’t as fixed, however, and tended to change with each piece of artwork.

Later that year, we received some more information about the two characters through the “Shadow Guy & Gamma Gal” power card. Through the description on the real-life trading card, it was revealed that Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal had actually fought Squidzoid multiple times due to him attempting to eat the city more than once, and through the in-game power card animation, it was revealed that the heroes have another two powers. Shadow Guy has the ability to transform into a two-dimensional shadow, supposedly allowing him to travel around more quickly, and Gamma Gal has the ability to transform herself into a miniature, pink meteor.

Two years later, we received a bit more information about the two heroes through a comic book which explained their origin stories—Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal: Heroes Unite. While there’s a bit too much in the book to explain here, Shadow Guy is actually a reporter called Sam who obtained his powers when he was zapped by the Toaster 3000 while interviewing Gary. Gary trained him to control his powers until Sam saved a pizza chef from an out-of-control blob of pizza dough.

Gamma Gal, or Amy, obtained her powers when she found a meteorite while sledding on the Ski Hill. After touching the clump of rock, she fell asleep and was rescued by Sensei who then trained her to control her powers until she was able to save everyone from a puffle stampede.

Then, a yellow sea monster emerges from the ocean forcing the two heroes to take action, and they meet each other for the first time. After a moment of confusion, the two learn to work as a team and find that the sea monster is actually just looking for his friend.

The book reveals even more powers that Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal have: Shadow Guy can activate “shadow mode” allowing him to transform into a sort of three-dimensional shadow, creep across flat surfaces, manipulate other shadows, and add others’ shadows to his own to make himself bigger. Gamma Gal is shown to be able to emit a bright light and shoot lightning on her own. The two heroes are also shown to be able to fly in this book.

Unfortunately, the canonicity of the events shown in the book have been met with skepticism due to the multiple timeline errors in the story and the comic book itself being written by a simple superhero enthusiast (Joe).

It wasn’t until five years later that we received any new content surrounding the two heroes. In 2015, both Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal received a reboot. While Shadow Guy kept his blue mask and cape, he was given a new suit and a blue wig. Gamma Gal received similar treatment with a new suit and a pink wig, however, she also was given a white cape to replace the original pink one. It should be noted that they finally received determined colours with Shadow Guy always appearing black and Gamma Gal always appearing arctic white.

Alongside the new look, it was revealed in issue #499 of the Club Penguin Times by Rookie that the superheroes would get their own comics section in future newspapers. He also gave us some more details about their powers stating that Gamma Gal can shoot “Gamma Glow Waves” (which may or may not just be an alternative name for Plasma Glow Waves), and is unable to be hurt by energy beams, while Shadow Guy can “become a shadow and move through anything except for bright light”. He also revealed that neither of them have ever been beaten.

He also references Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal: Heroes Unite saying that “No one knows how the duo really got their powers.” before giving some terrible evidence on why Gamma Gal can’t be Amy.

It should also be noted that at the end of the article, Aunt Arctic left a special note reminding everyone that the duo are just fictional superheroes.

Unfortunately, Rookie’s article about the upcoming comics was more interesting than the actual comics themselves as, for unknown reasons, the idea was abruptly put to a stop after just the second issue. We did find out that Gamma Gal can create a plasma shield to deflect lasers, though.

Printed in the same issue of the Club Penguin Times as the last superhero comic was the news that the Stage would soon be replaced by Puffleberry Mall full-time, making Squidzoid vs Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal both the last and most frequently performed show to ever appear at the Stage, and putting an end to the two superheroes’ story.

But what do you think? Do Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal really exist? Which of their powers would you rather have? Let me know your thoughts and theories down in the comments and, until next time,