Real Name: Lucas Bishop
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Created by: John Byrne, Jim Lee, and Whilce Portacio
1st appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #282, 1991
Nationality: Australian, Aboriginal or First Nations Peoples
Team Affiliations: X-men, X.S.E, X-treme X-men, Interpol, NYPD
Legal Status: Unknown
Height: 6’6 Weight: 285 lbs
Eyes: Brown Hair: Black
Relatives: Kadee (Mother, deceased), Burnum Bishop (Father, Deceased), Gateway (Grandfather), unnamed grandmother (Deceased), Shard Bishop (Sister), Aliyah Bishop (Daughter)
Skills and Abilities: Trained in armed and unarmed combat by the X.S.E also excellent street fighting skills thanks to life on the street.
Powers: Bishop is a mutant with the ability to absorb and re-channel energy; whether in its original form or converted into concussive force. He can also internalize absorbed energy to boost his stamina and healing. This internalized energy also gives him a measure of resistance to injury and superhuman strength.
After losing an arm he got a cybernetic one powered by nuclear energy. This enables him to self-generate energy by feeding off the arm.
Biography
Childhood
Bishop was born eighty years in the future in Australia to mutants Kadee and Burnum who were of Aborigine descent [X-men: The Times & Life of Lucas Bishop #1]. The Bishop’s family managed to escape Australia before it was subject to a nuclear missile strike, Kadee was pregnant at the time. In New York, they are captured after being identified as mutants and sent to a mutant concentration camp. Seven months later Kadee gave birth to Bishop at seven months, she barely survived the birthing process. Three years later his sickly sister Shard was born. His father was their primary caregiver in these early stages of life as his mother grew distant, cold, and militant. Burnum also tried to pass on Aboriginal culture to his son but didn’t know enough to do so effectively. Bishop later branded along with his sister. He meets a ‘grandmother’ who regaled him with tales of the mythical X-men and the birth of the mutant messiah ‘Hope’ [X-men: The Times & Life of Lucas Bishop #1]
Despite his grandmother’s best intentions, Bishop grew bitter and hateful as he heard that the ‘mutant messiah’ grew up to kill one million humans and thus caused the widespread hate mutants now faced and their cruel lives [Uncanny X-men #494 and X-factor v3. #27]. When Summers’s rebellion erupted both his parents were killed which further traumatized him [X-men: The Times & Life of Lucas Bishop #1]. Bishop also lost his sister in the ensuing chaos and he escaped through the fences. Free of the concentration camp alone and orphaned he began to steal and came to the attention of Lebeau also called ‘the witness’ who had apparently been the last to see the X-men alive [X-men: The Times & Life of Lucas Bishop #1, XSE #4]. For the next several years he was trained as a thief by Lebeau who told him his version of the X-men tales. He detailed how the “Askani son had protected the messiah until it was too late to stop her”. Just as mysteriously as he came into Bishop’s life Lebeau then disappeared. He was later captured and sent to the only remaining concentration camp in Las Vegas where he was reunited with his ‘Grandmother’ and sister Shard. When the government later freed the mutants during the emancipation they were kicked out onto the streets [Uncanny X-men Annual 1996 and X-men: The Times & Life of Lucas Bishop #2]. A year later their ‘grandmother’ died and Bishop promised her he would take care of Shard at all costs. Using the skills he learned from Lebeau he made a life for himself and his sister Shard. Mutant rebels known as the Exhumes had then taken root and the X.S.E Xavier’s security enforcers had been created by the remnants f the Summer’s rebellion to police their own. After aiding the X.S.E rescue Shard he vowed to join their ranks one day [X.S.E #1].
When his friend is killed before his eyes and the perpetrator threatens Shard he manifests his powers for the first time. This is witnessed by X.S.E officers and they offer him a place in their ranks. He agrees but only if Shard comes as well [Bishop #3].
Xavier’s Security Enforcer
As a recruit, he became rivals with Trevor Fitzroy. After surviving an attack by ‘Emplates’ he became the youngest cadet to become an X.S.E officer. A year later Shard would bet his record [X.S.E #1-2]. Fitzroy also dated his sister. Randall and Malcolm were later put under his command, they were the Omega Squad. When Fitzroy defected from the team and became the most notorious criminal in their time their rivalry only got worse. Going against orders he brought in Fitzroy who told him of a place where many exhume were located in hopes of getting leniency. Having had a falling out with Shard earlier he gave her the info in hopes that she would get a promotion. It was a trap and Shard became an Emplate. Battling the Omega squad Bishop took his Emplate sister to Lebeaue who managed to store her essence in a holographic projector. In exchange, he worked for Lebeau for one year [X.S.E #3-4]. Hellbent on revenge Bishop and his squad tracked Fitzroy and stumbled onto the X-men’s war room with a cryptic message from Jean Grey right before she is seemingly killed [Uncanny X-men v1. #287]. Bishop was present when Fitzroy materialized a huge portal transporting the very worst criminals of his time back to the past. His team leaped through the portal in hopes of ending the threat. Face to face with the legendary X-men he was reluctant to believe he had been sent back in time. He and his friends started killing the villains much to the shock of the X-men, Fitzroy however escaped [Uncanny X-men v1. #282-283]. The team tracked the prisoners to a nightclub where his friends sacrificed their lives to save him and Storm took him to the X-men [Uncanny X-men v1. #287].
Life as an X-man
Upon joining the team he met Gambit who he suspected of being the traitor who would betray the X-men. This caused much tension on the team. Forge helped to fix the Holographic projector which housed his sister’s consciousness [Bishop #1-4]. Bishop was one of the X-men sent back in time to stop Legion from killing Magneto. When they failed the Age of Apocalypse was created.
When his counterpart from the AOA died the memories from that dystopic future entered his mind [X-men Omega]. He helped Generation-X to fend of Emplate and his hellions [Generation-X #13-14]. The traitor has later revealed as Xavier himself possessed by Onslaught [Onslaught X-men, 1995]. Bishop then met with his sister who had been made a hard-light projection thanks to Forge. At first, he refused to accept her as his sister but when the projector was destroyed she reformed as a Photon based life form. Bishop accepted that his sister was finally back [X-men Annual 1996]. He demanded she join the X-men but she refused to decide that she would not follow in his footsteps the way she had before, reluctantly Bishop allowed her to join X-Factor instead [X.S.E #1-4]. Lucas was then abducted into space [Uncanny X-men v1. #341-345] and shared a brief romance with Shiar Princess Deathbird [Uncanny X-men v1. #348-372 and Team X 2000] (in an alternate time she gave birth to their daughter Aliyah Bishop) [X-men The End Book 1 #1]. Upon being returned to earth he was taken into another timeline to battle Fitzroy. The resulting battle saw his sister and Fitzroy killed [Bishop #12-14]. Back on Earth 616, he joined Storm‘s Extreme X-men team where he learns that Gateway was his grandfather [X-treme X-men #4]. Over the course of these adventures, he would befriend and mentor the third Thunderbird, witness the death of Psylocke and become mutually attracted to teammate Sage. When the mutant population swelled to millions he became a police officer in charge of District X also known as mutant town [District X #1-12].
Going Rogue
When the mutant Messiah was born Bishop went against his teammates and tried to kill the child since in his time she would kill millions of humans and cause his entire timeline. Bishop faced the entire team of X-men who had become his friends and family. He even lost an arm in his bid to kill Hope [X-men: Messiah Complex]. When the child was taken by Cable into the time he commandeered a time machine and cybernetic arm from Forge to follow [Cable v2. #1]. In his obsessive bid to kill the child, he murdered or lead to the death of billions and in the process becomes Earth’s most notorious mass murderer [Cable v2. #9]. When that failed he allied with Cable’s clone Stryfe the heir to Apocalypse [X-men Messiah War]. When that failed he allied with the Brood [Cable v1. #18-20]. By the time he tracked them down Hope was a teenager and started manifesting her powers. In a final battle with the duo he was sent into the desolate and dystopic future of year 6700 he had created through his many schemes and left stranded there [Cable v2. #22-24].
The Return
Bishop realized he was wrong when he tried to kill Hope and, while on the verge of death, he was saved by a group of humans called The Order. They nursed him back to health, gave him a home, and trained him to be a hunter so he could help them destroy monsters called Revenants that possessed people and turned them into monsters. Bishop would kill one every day, but when he came across a possessed father and his daughter, he killed the father but couldn’t bring himself to kill the girl. She begged him not to kill her as she wasn’t completely taken by the Revenants inside her and still human. Bishop spared the girl, Amber, who became his companion and friend. While on a hunt Bishop was lured into a trap by the queen of the Revenants, Ghost Owl. Bishop was attacked and possessed by the Demon Bear and the Ghost Owl who used him to travel back in time. Bishop found himself back in the present and was overjoyed with his return. However, his mind and body were taken over by the Demon Bear.
He was quickly attacked by the Los Angeles Police Department, and defeated them easily. He then attacked Storm and Psylocke in Spiral’s flat, when the three of them and Puck were called upon to fight for the fate of a young telepath, Ginny. Spiral protected and used her to produce TAO, a hive-mind drug.
Bishop kidnapped Ginny and escaped into Los Angeles’ sewer system. X-Force and Spiral chased after Bishop. Psylocke entered Bishop’s mind and learned of his possession by the Demon Bear. With help from Storm, Psylocke freed Bishop from the Demon Bear’s possession. Storm took the opportunity to erase Bishop’s memory of his obsession with Hope, hoping to have her friend back. Bishop was left comatose.
It was later revealed that Bishop had returned to the present due to the machinations of the Revenant Queen of Earth-TRN342. She had hidden away in Bishop’s mind when he traveled through time so she could ensure that her future where she ruled the world would come to pass. She planned to use Ginny as a sacrifice and used a possessed Bishop as a distraction to make off with Ginny. After awakening from his coma, Bishop revealed to X-Force what Nova did to him and helped them stop Nova’s plan.
Bishop was later targeted by Hope Summers so she could exact revenge for attempting to kill her, but both of them ended up getting held captive by Stryfe. Stryfe attempted to manipulate Hope into killing Bishop, even though Bishop was chained up and was remorseful for his actions, so Stryfe could get back at Bishop for betraying him during the Messiah War. After Cable’s X-Force and Storm’s X-Force arrived to rescue Bishop and Hope, Hope chose not to give in to vengeance and spared Bishop’s life as it would have undone all the lessons Cable had taught. Hope, however, did severely injure him. After Stryfe escaped, Bishop and Hope both made peace with one another, though it was an uneasy truce.
Sometime later, Bishop joined Psylocke, Archangel, Gambit, Mystique, Fantomex, Old Man Logan, and Rogue in trying to stop the Shadow King from escaping the Astral Plane through the targeting of psychics. During the fight against the Shadow King, Bishop was infected with a psychic infection the Shadow King spread using the energy of the reality-warping mutant Proteus. With help from the spirit of Charles Xavier, the Shadow King’s plan was stopped. Bishop was later cured of the Shadow King’s psychic infection.
Bishop was one of the many mutants that opposed the crazed X-Man from remaking the world in his image. When X-Man realized that his vision of the world would never come about with the X-Men around, X-Man made his enemies vanish in an instant, including Glob.
Age of X-Man
Bishop and the other mutants that vanished were transported to a reality created by Nate Grey and a Life Seed, a world where everyone on Earth was a mutant, and relationships were strongly discouraged or illegal. The memories of their previous lives were also erased and new ones put in their place. Bishop was a member of that reality’s X-Men team. After a successful mission to help a young mutant named Luna, Bishop, and teammate, Marvel Girl, relaxed together on a couch at Jean’s house before becoming more intimate and spending the night together. Their forbidden love was soon discovered by Department X members Iceman, Moneta, and Psylocke. Jean had her memory wiped again and all traces of Bishop were erased from the X-Men and society. The rest of the X-Men had no idea that Bishop had once been a part of their team, his position, and house filled by X-23.
As it was his “third offense of the guiding principles,” Bishop was excommunicated and transported to the Danger Room Prison Complex, a prison for other captured mutants who had “disturbed the status quo multiple times” and violated the guiding principles. Bishop was eventually allowed to return to the real world by X-Man after realizing the flaws in his new world.
Krakoa
Bishop was named as one of the Great Captains of Krakoa.
So is Bishop alive is it another way for Marvel to get rid of the black guy again?!?!??!
I just hope he has dreads and not the white boy hair! And now I’m hear’n that a new cyclops is gonna be black?!?
Have not heard that one Erik. Source?
Story wise, I hate two things: Clones and time travel. As cool as Bishop was, every time he got onto the “I must do this to save the future” jags I got bored. I did love his no nonsense, practical, military attitude.
When he Turned on the X-men he became one of the absolute worst villains of all time. A baby killing psychotic, willing to do anything to eliminate his target, even if it meant killing so many more to get the job done.
Recently, it seems he’s back in the present, with his missing arm grown back, and once more on the side of the good guys. I can’t tell if it’s terrible writing, or the return of a great character.