Shape shifting

Shape shifting
Sylar shifts to his original appearance.
Originally held by:	James Martin
Absorbed by:	Sylar
Ability to:	Shift one's physical characteristics to match another's.
Examples of shape shifting

Shape shifting is the ability to alter one's own appearance to match another's.

Characters

• James Martin is the first character to use this ability on-screen.
• Sylar has acquired this ability from Martin.

Limits

Physical touch with the person that the user wishes to appear to be necessary. The ability also mimics the voice of the person the user shifted into. The process takes around 5 seconds and is painful to the shape shifter.

James Martin

Martin is the first character shown to have shape shifting (Into Asylum). He first used it (off-screen) to surprise a group of Danko's men and kill them while they were hunting him. He then made his way into Danko's office and touched the Hunter, "taking" his form. He then runs when Sylar calls Danko and tells him Martin is a shape shifter. Martin, during the chase, touches another man to "take" his shape and shifts to appear like him and escape. Apparently, unless the person shifts back into their original form, the form they die in is the one they stay in. This phenomena was shown when James was killed by Sylar and Danko, where he stayed in Sylar's form even after death.

Sylar

When he changed forms, it seemed to have caused Sylar a great deal of pain.

Selected

• 
  James infiltrates Danko's team...
  (Into Asylum)
• 
  ..shakes hands with Danko...
• 
  ...and later pretends to be him.
• 
  James touches the janitor's arm...
• 
  ...shifts into a painful transformation...
• 
  ...and successfully copied the host's physical appearance..
  (Into Asylum)
• 
  James pretends to be Sylar...
  (Into Asylum)
• 
  ...but is unsuccessfuly as Sylar enjoys his newly acquired ability.
  (Into Asylum)

Fan Theories

Please refer to the following link for fan-created theories and other speculation.

See also

• For a similar ability that can alter one's appearance, see illusion.
• For other uses of shifting, see shifting (disambig)

Evolved Human Abilities edit
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Evolutions Abilities	Extension:DynamicPageList3 (DPL3), version 3.6.1: Error: MediaWiki\Extension\DynamicPageList3\Query::buildAndSelect: The DynamicPageList3 extension (version 3.6.1) produced a SQL statement which led to a Database error.<br/>The reason may be an internal error of DynamicPageList3 or an error that you made; especially when using parameters like 'categoryregexp' or 'titleregexp'. Usage of non-greedy <code>*?</code> matching patterns are not supported.<br/>The error message was:<br/><code></code>
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See Also: Extension:DynamicPageList3 (DPL3), version 3.6.1: Error: MediaWiki\Extension\DynamicPageList3\Query::buildAndSelect: The DynamicPageList3 extension (version 3.6.1) produced a SQL statement which led to a Database error.<br/>The reason may be an internal error of DynamicPageList3 or an error that you made; especially when using parameters like 'categoryregexp' or 'titleregexp'. Usage of non-greedy <code>*?</code> matching patterns are not supported.<br/>The error message was:<br/><code></code> • Examples of shape shifting