No it's not. Shadowcat is VASTLY more powerful than SS. SS is just a breaker. Kitty at full power adds brute (at least Brute 6, this is not a minor thing, resulting from hyperdensity shenanigans), mover (depending on the version, she's either a Mover 2-ish or a Mover 12, depending on whether or not she can duck into parallel dimensions), and striker (she can phase objects the same way Rune does TK) to the list. Possibly also a thinker power, as she has superhuman reflexes that somehow outdo Spiderman's omnicog. Shadowcat would wreck face in Worm.
Okay, it's Shadowkat's well-known powers. I also left out her Days of Future Past mental time travel trick.
My point was that phasing is powerful and useful, not weak.
Would that work, given the electricity issue?
The only problem electricity seems to pose is that it electrocutes her thoroughly if she tries to phase through it. As long as the implement getting electrocuted is not her, she should be fine. So she could swing that shadow-halberd through the electric fence and not be inconvenienced. At least, that's how I'd write it, and I don't have any canon that I know of to say it can't work that way. We only ever see it being a problem when
Sophia tries to phase, herself, through it. (Admittedly, we don't see her shoot her phased bolts through electrically charged stuff, but nothing about the electricity seems to actually disrupt her ability to cohere; it just hurts and possibly does real damage. A bolt isn't going to care about electrocution. Neither is a halberd.)
And if you're asking about the halberd itself being electrical, I'm sure Armsmaster can work out something non-electric if he has to.
She could be, but she's not.
Which is an indictment of Sophia, not of her power.
I've seen people claim this before; the best citation they've been able to give was what amounted to a reddit conversation where somebody asked if Calvert was black, and Wildbow said "I dunno, why not?" Which, given Wildbow's lackluster clarity and known trollish nature is not exactly a resounding "yes."
Eh, good a reason as any. Though this is going to seriously mess with my perception of the guy. Say what you will, but it's a lot easier for a white guy to pull off the sleazy look than it is for a black man.
I dunno. Samuel L. Jackson's character in Kingsmen is kinda sleazy.
I think it's just that "sleazy" appearance shades strongly towards unpleasant stereotypes, and if you characterize black men in unpleasant stereotypes, it gets messy. A lot easier to use greasy-haired white men in ill-fitting suits than whatever you have to do to get the same "feel" from the cultural associations with black men.
That said, if Coil is sleazy, it's the "snake-like lawyer" kind of sleaze, not the grease used-car salesman sort that I usually associate with the adjective. I actually think black men can pull that one off as easily as white men. It's the same look: wearing a suit, insincere grin, and a sneering manner of talking like you think not only is everybody in the room dumber than you, but they're too dumb to realize you're talking down to them.
I will avoid naming real people who fit this bill, as it will tend to start needless arguments.
The villain from the first season of Luke Cage pulled it off pretty well, though.
personally, I am at least okay with deciding random details out of spite for racists, but your mileage may vary
