Merge:Thunderbird

Thunderbird (John Proudstar) is a Marvel Comics superhero who was briefly a member of the X-Men. Created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, he first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975).

An Apache Indian, Thunderbird possessed superhuman strength and speed. He was a member of the "Second Genesis" group of X-Men gathered together in Giant-Size X-Men #1 but died on their second mission.

Fictional character biography
Proudstar was born into an Apache tribe in Camp Verde, Arizona. As a teenager, Proudstar discovered he possessed the mutant abilities of superhuman strength, speed and resistance to injury.

Proudstar was drafted into the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War and earned the rank of corporal. He returned to his tribe afterwards but felt unhappy and listless.

He was recruited by Professor Charles Xavier to join his third group of X-Men. Although Proudstar was reluctant to join another white man's crusade, he agreed and took the superhero title Thunderbird. Unfortunately, he was so volatile and ill-mannered that he constantly threw off the team's synchronization. Thunderbird's tenure with the team was short. During the new team's second mission, he leapt onto an airplane that was carrying the supervillain Count Nefaria. Despite the urging of Banshee, Thunderbird refused to get off of the plane, sealing his fate. The plane exploded, killing Proudstar (in X-Men #95 1975). Metatextually, Marvel editors decreed Proudstar should die because he and Wolverine were too similar, personality-wise. His brother, Warpath (James Proudstar), has similar powers and is also an X-Man.

Powers and Abilities
A mutant, Thunderbird has superhuman strength and speed. He has extra dense skin as well as superhuman endurance.

Exiles
An alternate version of John Proudstar was an original member of the Exiles, a group of superhumans tasked with fixing damaged realities. This Thunderbird was captured by Apocalypse during his time with the X-Men and unwillingly transformed into one of his Four Horsemen, namely War.

Thunderbird's time with the group was relatively short, several months at most, in which he served mainly as the powerhouse of the group. In the third story arc he meets another alternate version of himself, who became the shaman of Alpha Flight, and this arc is largely centered on his internal conflicts. In issue #10, Thunderbird sacrifices himself to hold an anti-matter bomb within the body of Galactus, which forced the world-devourer to leave Earth after the massive injury the bomb caused.

Although his physical body healed from the damage caused by the detonation, his mind was not so fortunate. At the least he was put into a coma, at the worst he might be brain dead. The Exiles never got a chance to find out, as he was replaced by Sasquatch and the team were forced to leave him behind. His body is later discovered in the Panoptichron, a crystal city that lies between realities, but has yet to be returned to his home reality.

During his time with the Exiles, he developed a romantic relationship with fellow teammate Nocturne, who was pregnant with his child when he became comatose. (However, she later lost the child for unexplained reasons.) This relationship was revisited in issue #16, where we see flashbacks of previously unseen scenes between the two characters that further developed it.

This version of Thunderbird is considerably more powerful than the mainstream one, due to Apocalypse's augmentations. His skin is covered by retractable armour plates than harden when he enters battle, considerably increasing his durability, and even at base level his strength and speed are above his 616 counterpart. His power increases with his rage, akin to the Hulk who he once defeated in close combat, and his appearance becomes more bestial as he does so.

Television
In the 1980's cartoon television series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Thunderbird/John Proudstar was one of the X-Men who appeared though only briefly. In this incarnation, he possessed the ability to become a variety of North American animals (and seemed to lack the strength, speed, and durability of the comic version), much resembling Alpha Flight's Snowbird in that respect.