Bishop (comics)
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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 Xavier's 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 made frequent appearances on the X-Men animated series of the 1990's.
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[edit] 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 its 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.
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Early life
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. According to LeBeau (in XSE #4), Bishop's grandmother (a woman probably named Aliyah) took Bishop away from him. Bishop was then raised by his grandmother with his younger sister, Shard in a mutant concentration camp in Nevada or Brooklyn (perhaps both). This was in the aftermath of the Summers Rebellion, an uprising in which mutants and humans joined forces to destroy the Sentinels.
Bishop's grandmother taught him many legends of the X-Men, who were old allies of hers. Depowered by unknown means, she had entered the camps in secret to raise her grandchildren. Upon his grandmother's deathbed, she also made Bishop swear to protect Shard.
After the Rebellion, the mutants were "emancipated," and sent out of the camps to fend for themselves, even Bishop and Shard, who were only children. They lived on the streets, stealing, before they met up with a veteran named Hancock, a family friend. Slightly blind, Hancock nevertheless took on the task of raising the two.
Bishop came across an anti-human group of mutants called the Exhumes. They took his sister Shard hostage when Xavier's Security Enforcers arrived. Up until that time with a (now disillusioned) idea of the X-Men in his heart, Bishop admired the Exhumes. After the XSE defeated the Exhume members and saved Shard however, Bishop knew he wanted to join the XSE.
Around the time Bishop was fifteen, Hancock was killed by criminals whom were soon arrested by the XSE. Bishop and Shard joined up, Shard soon surpassing him in becoming the youngest XSE officer. It is unknown if Bishop had any contact with the Witness during these years. During a training class, Bishop's class instructors and some of his fellow students were killed. Bishop rallied the survivors and fought back until reinforcements arrived.
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 the Witness, then employed/housed/imprisoned at the New York Stark/Fujikawa building agreed to transfer Shard's essence into a holographic matrix if Bishop would work for him for one year. The details of Bishop's work there is unknown, but in XSE #4, he refuses to tell Shard of his actions there.
Immediately upon his re-installment as a commander in the XSE, Bishop and his XSE group the "Omega Squad", captured Trevor Fitzroy, a murderous ex-XSE trainee. This happened in the ruins of the Xavier Institute War Room. While there, 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.
[edit] Joining the X-Men
Fitzroy escaped from prison and used a large amount of mutant life-force to open a time portal and break out 93 mutant criminal "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. Bishop encountered the X-Men for the first time, but not believing who they said they were, he battled them at first. He then allied with the X-Men in trying to stop Fitzroy, and Malcolm and Randall, the two members of his Omega Squad, died in the process.[1] Professor Xavier offered him a place in the X-Men, and he was placed under Storm's tutelage. He fought and defeated Styglut.[2] When he met Gambit, Bishop recognized him as possibly a younger version of the Witness and fought him.[3] Bishop also recognized Jubilee as the 'last X-Man', but this has been proven false.
He soon met Mystique for the first time,[4] and alongside the X-Men he battled the Morlocks[5] and the Death Sponsors.[6]
Bishop assigned himself the role of Xavier’s personal bodyguard, which he failed at when Stryfe, the evil double of Cable, critically wounded Xavier. Initially, the X-Men believed that Cable was the would-be assassin, so Wolverine and Bishop tracked down Cable, but then traveled to Cable's "Professor" starship, and then joined with them in finding Stryfe.[7] Citing his failure to protect Professor X, Bishop offered to resign from the X-Men. His resignation was rejected by Xavier, and then alongside the X-Men he battled the Acolytes.[8]
Later, Bishop would be the one to save lives when Sabretooth escaped from his cell and the only other X-Men were busy or unable to fight him.
[edit] Age of Apocalypse
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 eventually convinced the Magneto of that era that the existence of this reality was wrong, and with a great amount of sacrifice, managed to correct the error and stop Legion. After the timeline reset itself, Bishop received some of his counterpart's unsettling memories of the Age of Apocalypse.
[edit] Onslaught
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.
[edit] Deathbird
On a mission in deep space to stop the Phalanx, Bishop became separated from the rest of the X-Men. Despite trickery and base manipulation by Deathbird, he entered into a romantic relationship with her. They had many adventures far out in space but when she turned on him and the X-Men, he seemingly killed her.
[edit] X-Treme X-Men
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.[9] They left against the will and knowledge of the main team, as the splinter group did not trust in Xavier and the others to use the diaries for the benefit of humanity.
He started using "Lucas" as a first name on a fake police ID though it turned it out to be real. Even though the X-Men came to believe the diaries to be self-fulfilling, the team stayed together for a while before returning to the mansion. His team started believing that the others had grown more mutant-supremacist and less interested in integration (the original reason that many of them joined the X-Men). While with his splinter team, Bishop was second-in-command, would participate in solving murder mysteries, and even used false IDs to convince the local authorities he was one of them.
[edit] XSE
His team has recently formed their own XSE, the X-Treme Sanctions Executive which was officially recognized by the government. Bishop has also begun a friendship with the new X-Man Sage. They helped to uncover the killer of the White Queen. Bishop has recently been seen getting close to Angel's ex-girlfriend Detective Charlotte Jones.
[edit] District X
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 primarily turned his attention back to the X-Men and school. 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 helping Storm save Africa from soldiers taking children from villages.
[edit] Civil War/The Initiative
In the Civil War: X-Men miniseries, Bishop sides 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 Demetrius 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.[10]
Bishop has been identified as one of the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic book Avengers: The Initiative #1. [11]
[edit] Messiah Complex
Bishop is set to have a big role in the upcoming X-Event, 'X-Men: Messiah Complex'. It has been stated by the Marauders that he is the only target they were unable to locate and terminate.
[edit] 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; however, he can become overloaded from absorbing too much energy, though his upper limits are unknown, even to himself.
He is however 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 guns that fire laser beams and plasma charges through which he can channel his personal energies.
He can "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 one of Bishop's mutant powers. Bishop's explanation is that due to training, he knows where he is at all times (X-Treme X-Men X-Posé #1).
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.
Bishop is a highly athletic man, an excellent hand-to-hand combatant with many years of armed and unarmed combat training, and a superb marksman with firearms. When he first came to the modern era, Bishop carried XSE guns from his time that fired laser beams and plasma charges. He also wore his XSE uniform, modeled after X-Men uniforms, which contained body armor.
[edit] Other versions
[edit] 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 not with his criminal record."
A time-traveling Bishop appears in Ultimate X-Men #76. 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 appears to be much older than the mainstream Bishop, because of his gray hair. He then leads the team into battle with Cable's squad. However he fails to stop Cable from kidnapping Xavier (everyone believes Xavier is dead) 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 to escape. By Ultimate X-Men #84, Bishop has formed a new team of X-Men (consisting of: Wolverine, Storm, Pyro, Dazzler, Angel, Psylocke and himself). He is using the new team to stop a new wave of Sentinel attacks on mutants, caused by an unknown enemy, revealed in that issue to be the Fenris twins and Bolivar Trask. Wolverine appears to distrust Bishop, promising to gut him if he tries anything suspicious. He was unconscious during the fight with the Fenris twins and the Sentinels, but when Psylocke's life was at risk, he woke up to defend her and revealed that she was his future wife.
He killed both the Fenris Twin's with his abilities and went on to lead the New X Men against the sentinels. But, at the end of the battle, it was surprisingly revealed that he was in fact working with Cable, and that the entire "Cable" affair had been a ruse to make the X Men a stronger team.
His powers have been revealed as density control. For example, he recently destroyed a Sentinel robot by causing its shell to increase in density and crush its inner parts. Bishop then reduced his own density and floated to the ground. He also has access to teleportation technology.
[edit] In other media
[edit] 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. In these books Bishop is able to use his energy absorption ability as an active power.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Video games
- He is a playable character in the video game X-Men: Next Dimension
- Young Bishop makes a cameo in X-Men Legends voiced by Grey DeLisle.
- Khary Payton voices Bishop who is a playable character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse. Bishop's status as a time traveler is mentioned in a trivia mini-game.
[edit] References
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #282
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #287-288
- ^ X-Men Vol. 2 #8
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #289-290
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #291-293
- ^ Uncanny X-Men Annual #16
- ^ X-Factor #84-86; X-Force #16-18; X-Men Vol. 2 #14-16; Uncanny X-Men #294-296
- ^ Uncanny X-Men #298
- ^ X-Treme X-Men
- ^ Civil War #6
- ^ Avengers: The Initiative #1 Character Map
