Bishop (Marvel Comics)
| Bishop | |
|---|---|
| File:DstrX2.jpg District X #2, art by Steve McNiven. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Uncanny X-Men #282 (November 1991) |
| Created by | Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, John Byrne |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Lucas Bishop |
| Species | Human Mutant |
| Team affiliations | X-Men NYPD The 198 O*N*E X-Treme Sanctions Executive Xavier Security Enforcers |
| Abilities | Ability to absorb, store or re-emit various forms of projected energy, Ability to instinctively know present location, Skilled marksman and hand-to-hand fighter |
Bishop (Lucas Bishop), is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superhero who is a member of the X-Men. Created by writer John Byrne, artist Whilce Portacio and artist/co-plotter Jim Lee, he first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #282 (November 1991).
Bishop was a member of the Xavier Security Enforcers (initially called the Xavier School Enforcers), a mutant police force from a dystopian future of the Marvel universe. He traveled to the 20th century and joined the X-Men, a team he knew only as legends. A brash anti-hero, he had difficulty adjusting to the norms of the time period.
Bishop was one of the most popular X-Men of the 1990s[citation needed] and made frequent appearances on the era’s X-Men animated series.
Publication history
Bishop had four limited series, one a self-titled one, Bishop, where he tracked and fought Mountjoy, and another XSE, which showcased his past (future), and it's sequel - Bishop: Xavier's Security Enforcers. He also teamed up with Gambit to oppose Stryfe in Gambit and Bishop: Sons of the Atom. He also starred in the series Bishop: The Last X-Man (1999-2001), in which he was trapped in another alternate timeline, and District X (2004-2005), which cast him as a police officer in New York City’s "mutant town." As well as the House of M tie-in, Mutopia X.
Fictional character biography
Born about 70 years in the future of the Marvel Universe, Bishop has a distinctive M brand over his right eye, used to identify mutants in his era. After his parents were killed, Bishop was raised by a man named LeBeau, also called Witness, who was reportedly the last man to see the legendary X-Men alive. He was reunited with his grandmother (a woman probably named Aliyah) and younger sister, Shard in a mutant concentration camp in Nevada or Brooklyn (perhaps both), shortly after the Summers Rebellion, an uprising in which mutants and humans joined forces to destroy the Sentinels. Upon his grandmother's deathbed, she made Bishop swear to protect Shard.
After the Rebellion, the mutants were "emancipated," and sent out of the camps to fend for themselves. Before they met up with a war veteran named Hancock who was a family friend, Bishop and Shard lived alone on the street. They stole to survive and rated among the best thieves in the Lion's Den section of Las Vegas. Such actions brought positive and negative attention upon them. Although somehow blinded by the time he met up with the children again, Hancock also helped raise Bishop and Shard.
Bishop came across an anti-human group of mutants called the Exhumes, who took his sister Shard hostage when the Xavier Security Enforcers arrived. After the XSE defeated the Exhume members, Bishop knew he wanted to join the XSE.
Around the time Bishop was fifteen, some other criminals killed Hancock, who had also helped raise Bishop and Shard, and Bishop got an offer to to join the XSE, accepting only on the condition that Shard could join as well. Soon, Bishop became the youngest XSE officer until Shard surpassed him at that title a year later. It's unknown if Bishop had any contact with the Witness during these years.
While on a mission to wipe out a nest of Emplates, mutant vampires that feed on bone marrow, Shard was critically injured. Bishop went to Witness for help, and Witness agreed to transfer Shard's essence into a holographic matrix, if Bishop would work for him for one year.
Immediately upon his re-installment to the X.S.E., Bishop and his XSE group the "Omega Squad", captured Trevor Fitzroy, a murderous ex-XSE trainee in the ruins of the Xavier Institute War Room, where Bishop found a damaged recording of Jean Grey, which said something about a traitor destroying the X-Men from inside. Witness gave him very few answers on this transcript, and Bishop thought that Witness did more than just witness those events.
Fitzroy escaped from prison and used a large amount of mutant life-force to open a time portal and break out 93 "Lifers" in the process, Bishop found himself in the past, in the time of his heroes, the X-Men. Bishop and the Omega Squad eventually "sanctioned" the Lifers, but did not get Fitzroy, and Professor Xavier offered him a place in the X-Men. When he met Gambit, Bishop recognized him as possibly a younger version of the Witness, and the two even came to blows at one point.
When Professor Xavier's insane son, the mutant Legion went back in time to assassinate Magneto, Bishop was one of the X-Men sent to stop him. When they failed, and Legion accidentally killed Professor Xavier, Bishop was the only time-traveler to remain when history was altered and became the Age of Apocalypse. He convinced the Magneto of that era that their existence was wrong, and with a great amount of sacrifice, managed to correct the error and stopped Legion. After the timeline reset itself, Bishop still had unsettling memories of the Age of Apocalypse.
The traitor in the X-Men was eventually revealed to be Professor X in the form of Onslaught. Bishop's knowledge of the future was the only thing that stopped Onslaught from killing the X-Men, although it was not enough to prevent Onslaught from nearly destroying all of humanity. He made peace with Gambit, who was not the traitor after all.
When trapped in deep space, Bishop became romantically involved with Deathbird, but when she turned on him and the X-Men, he seemingly killed her.
At one point, Bishop was a founding member of Storm's splinter team of X-Men searching for the Books of Truth, the diaries of the precognitive Destiny.[1] He started using "Lucas" as a first name to go with his fake police ID. Even though the diaries became invalid due to a prediction being stopped, the team stayed together for a while before returning to the mansion. His team has recently formed their own XSE, the X-Treme Sanctions Executive. Bishop has also begun a friendship with the new X-Man Sage. Bishop has recently been seen getting close to Angel's ex-girlfriend Detective Charlotte Jones.
Recently, Bishop joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation and appeared regularly in District X, a police procedural set in a mutant ghetto in New York City.
Since the House of M, Bishop continues to visit New York, but since a majority of the mutant population of District X was wiped out by the Scarlet Witch, Bishop has instead turned his attention back to the X-Men and school primarily. He has been going on missions with the team, such as taking down the Shi'ar Death Commandos, or fighting the Foursaken. Bishop helped Psylocke deal with the Foursaken and the First Fallen, as well as helped Storm save Africa from soldiers taking children from villages.
In the Civil War: X-Men miniseries, Bishop is siding with the O*N*E* to bring in the X-Men and the 198. He even argued with Cyclops over letting them go. Val Cooper and Tony Stark let Bishop lead Micromax and Sabra into action against Domino, Shatterstar, and the 198. Bishop led them to the base where the 198 were hiding and told the X-Men to stand down. However, General Lazer betrayed him by ensuring that Cyclops attacked Bishop. Though at first he simply absorbed it, the power was too much for him to control as he was overwhelmed, and he was forced to direct the energy he had absorbed upwards in a powerful blast that would easily destroy a O*N*E* Sentinel. He later teamed up with the X-Men to save the 198 from a bomb explosion, and then went his own way, leaving the X-Men. Bishop is among Iron Man's pro-registration forces that guard the Negative Zone prison. When Captain America's team breaks in, a fight ensues, putting Bishop at odds with his former teammate, Storm.[2]
Powers and abilities
Bishop's mutant ability enables him to absorb all forms of radiant or conductive energy that are directed towards him and to release that energy from his hands. This power is passive allowing Bishop to absorb energy at all times.
When he releases the energy, he can release it as many different types of forms, usually in concussive blasts or in the same form as he had absorbed the energy although he can emit microwaves as well. He can also store energy in his personal reserves for increasing his strength, endurance and (to an extent) his healing.
He also has enhanced durability, and resistance to poison and injury.
His powers make it difficult to harm him with energy-based attacks, although he can become overloaded from absorbing too much energy, although his upper limits are unknown, even to himself.
He is also vulnerable to non-energy weapon attacks. If he were to be shot by a projectile weapon or hit with a crowbar, it could harm him.
He is also a skilled marksman and hand-to-hand fighter. He carries XSE guns that fire laser beams and plasma charges through which he can channel his personal energies.
He can also "let his spirit go" as seen in X-Treme X-Men Annual #1. It's unknown if this is a mutant talent, or an ability taught to Bishop sometime in his life.
He has also demonstrated the ability of instinctively knowing where he is and the present hour and date even if asleep, first mentioned in X-Treme X-Men #1. Although being the great-grandson of Gateway, a mutant possessing extensive dealings with time travel, this aspect is not a mutant power of Bishop's, as stated in X-Treme X-Men X-Posé #1. Bishop's explanation is that due to training, he knows where he is at all times (X-Treme X-Men X-Posé #1).
In the Time's Arrow trilogy of books (an X-Men/Spider-Man team-up novel) Bishop is able to use his energy absorption ability as an active power.
When fighting "growing men" in limbo, he was able to stop one from growing by reaching out with his power and draining it of the energy it had absorbed. He was then able to immediately release that energy back into his opponent and start the process again.
Trivia and speculation
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Given that very little is known about Bishop's past before he appeared in the present time, much has been hinted at and speculated about regarding his origin. One theory that has prevailed is that Bishop is one of Storm's descendants. Some questioned this theory's legitimacy once Bishop and Storm began to start something of a flirtatious relationship. Others have argued the possibility that a relationship between Storm and Bishop in the present might lead to descendants, one of which would become Bishop himself someday and creating a predestination paradox.
In an early issue of Generation X, Bishop becomes disoriented and mistakes M for his mother. It has also been indicated that the Australian aboriginal mutant Gateway is his great-grandfather, confirmed in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe X-Men 2004 edition. Interestingly, Gateway was M's mentor prior to her joining Generation X. The matter of M being Bishop's mother is still speculation, as it has yet to be confirmed.
In the Marvel Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, a history is provided to explain Bishop's origin. It writes:
- "Lucas Bishop was born in the late 21st Century A.D. of an alternate future timeline in which mutant-hunting robot Sentinels had taken control of North America....Bishop's parents escaped to America shortly before the island nation of Australia was destroyed in a tactical nuclear strike. They were soon captured and interred in a mutant relocation camp in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York. There, Bishop and his sister Shard were born and, like other mutants, they were branded with 'M' tattoos over their right eyes for identification."
This sheds some light onto the fact of Bishop and Shard being Aboriginal Australians, their great-grandfather being Gateway. However, back in 1991 during the early international releases of X-Men, official trading cards from Marvel state that he is of American nationality but of Filipino ethnicity (the card says he was born in Tondo, an impoverished district of Manila, the Philippines' capital city), which is not unlikely as Whilce Portacio, Bishop's creator is himself half Filipino.[citation needed] Many fans do consider him to be African American as that was his intended ethnicity during his first appearances.[citation needed]
In the first Bishop miniseries, Bishop is confronted by another escapee from his original timeline - a killer named Mountjoy. This character had the ability to enter people's bodies and "ride" them using his own personality. At the climax of the fourth issue, Mountjoy planned to use Gambit to kill the X-Men, and then "ride" him back into his own timeline. Bishop prevented this from happening but not before he witnessed the real life occurrence of Jean Grey's emergency message that he'd uncovered in his own time, stating that they "knew so little" and "shouldn't have trusted" Gambit. This clarified the mystery of the X-Traitor and also how Gambit (in the guise of the Witness) was the last person to see the X-Men alive, yet Marvel did not go this more obvious (and purposefully misleading) route in favor of the Onslaught storyline.
In the issue of Uncanny X-Men after Juggernaut sought asylum at the X-Mansion (running from Onslaught), it was revealed that the message from Jean was actually referring to Charles being overtaken by Onslaught. The statements "knew so little" and "never should have trusted" was a reference to 'never should have trusted that there was no effect of mindwiping Magneto', which has been recognized as the trigger to the 'birth' of Onslaught. The "Professor Xavier" and "first to die" was a major gap, as that issue revealed that Jean actually stated it appeared Juggernaut was the first to die.
There is also the possible matter and confusion of Bishop having a daughter unknown to him with Deathbird, an occassional Shi'ar Empress: An issue of X-Treme X-Men shows the X-Man Sage viewing an image through her cyber-shades of an unnamed young girl with slightly curly hair, with the same facial markings as Deathbird is featured along with prophetic excerpts from Destiny's Diary. She fights in profile, wearing an orginal X-Men uniform on the side of a team consisting of Bishop, Storm and a few other X-Men. Sage does not share this information with Bishop, and it's never referred to in X-Treme X-Men again.
However, the alternate storyline world of X-Men: The End, #1 vol. 1 (subtitled Dreams and Dreamers), features a young dark-skinned girl who wears her hair in dreadlocks named Aliyah Bishop (named after her grandmother) and is the daughter of Bishop and Deathbird. The same entry from Destiny's Diary from X-Treme X-Men is listed above a picture of Aliyah. Aliyah Bishop is a main character in this series. The X-Treme X-Men "Aliyah" looks more European than the one listed in X-Men: The End, and the later Aliyah doesn't have the same facial markings as the one featured in Destiny's Diary.
Yet the transforming mutant codenamed Lifeguard (Heather Davis) of the X-Treme X-Men is later shown looking almost exactly like a taller version of the young "Aliyah" seen in the Diary entry and Heather is said in X-Treme X-Men to have a royal Shi'ar mother. Some fans wondered if Heather -- a blonde haired, blue-eyed White woman -- was somehow Bishop's possible daughter. (As an aside, Shard, Bishop's sister had blonde hair as well.) This entire matter has never been settled.
Alternate versions
Ultimate Bishop
In Ultimate X-Men #43 when Emma Frost introduces some of the candidates for the new, government-supported mutant team to the President, a muscular African American with braided hair and a golden chain around his neck is shown on a screen.
The President says, "No to Bishop with his criminal record."
A time-traveling Bishop appears in Ultimate X-Men #76; it is unknown if this Bishop is connected to the cameo from #43. Moments after the battle with Cable concludes, he appears asking if he's too late to stop Cable.
Wolverine knocks him unconscious and the X-Men interrogate him. He is wearing the same uniform as the members of Cable's squad. He then leads the team into battle with Cable's squad.
However he fails to stop Cable from killing Xavier and is now trapped in the present day, due to the fact that Cable destroyed the device that allowed him to time travel.
In Ultimate X-Men #80, Bishop has a conversation with his younger self, who is incarcerated, in which he tells him not to use his powers.
Appearances in other media
Books
- Bishop plays a small part in the X-Men: The Last Stand novelization by Chris Claremont. He is mentioned as a NYPD Officer who is in charge of crowd control at Worthington Cure Clinics in the city of New York. He is also mentioned to be a former student at Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, and he is an acquaintance of Iceman.
- Bishop is a main character in the Spider-Man and X-Men novel trilogy Time's Arrow by Tom DeFalco with Jason Henderson (The Past), Adam-Troy Castro (The Present) and eluki bes shahar (The Future), in which he and Spider-Man travel through time and into parallel universes.
Television
- Bishop guest starred in a few episodes of the X-Men animated television series. He travels back in time to stop the assassination of Senator Kelly and prevent the Days of Future Past timeline from occurring (with Bishop assuming Kate Pryde's role from the comic version of this tale). Bishop believes Gambit to be the assassin, but it is later revealed that Mystique attempts the assassination in the guise of the cajun X-Man. Upon returning to his own time after saving Kelly, he finds the world infected with a deadly plague. He returns in a later episode to stop the spread of Apocalypse's techno-organic virus, however, he also faces resistance from Cable, who knows the virus is necessary as it will create antibodies necessary to the stabilization of the mutant genetic code. He was voiced by Philip Akin.
- He also shows up in some more episodes, where he and his sister travel back in time to stop Fitzroy from killing Xavier in the past, causing constant war between mutants and humans in the X-Men's time, and his time changes into one in which mutants have been all but exterminated by Master Mold. They eventually manage this, but Bishop gets trapped in the Axis of Time during Apocalypse's attempt to control all of time in the Beyond Good and Evil episode.
Video games
- He is a playable character in the video game X-Men: Next Dimension and in the console role-playing game X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse.
- Bishop makes a cameo in X-Men Legends as a child. Though the playable adult Bishop's status as a time traveller is mentioned in a trivia minigame, it is not confirmed that these two are one and the same.
Footnotes
- ^ X-Treme X-Men
- ^ Civil War #6