History
As a child, Danielle Moonstar's emerging psionic powers granted her a vision that appeared to show the deaths of her parents William and Peg at the hands of a bear. A week later, the vision apparently came true when Dani's parents went on a hunting trip and never returned.[1]
Years later, in the early days of her enrolment at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Dani experienced what she thought was a nightmare of the bear that had killed her parents, come to kill her as well. In her dream, she lashed out at the beast, stabbing it with her knife, but when she awoke, she discovered the blade streaked with blood. Dani initially assumed that the experience was the product of a psychic attack carried out by Professor Xavier while he was possessed by the Brood Queen,[2] but in time, it transpired that the bear was a real being, who continued to haunt Dani's dreams—a fact she kept a secret from her team, the New Mutants.[3]
After the Demon Bear appeared to Dani once more, threatening that it would soon come for her,[3] she began running various Danger Room scenarios to prepare for the coming battle. Moonstar felt confident in confronting the demon; however, the bear took advantage of her premature assumption that it was defeated, and mauled her, severely damaging her spine.[4]
Upon discovering Dani (thanks to Wolfbane's telepathic link to Dani) out on the campus grounds, heinously mauled, the New Mutants rushed her to the Mid-County Medical Center. The Demon Bear was not through with Danielle, and infiltrated the hospital, planning to finish the job and possess Danielle's soul. [5] The beast transported the team to a mystical dimension named the Badlands, where they fought both it, and its minions: nurse Sharon Friedlander and Officer Tom Corsi, who had been possessed and transformed by the bear's power into demonic Native American warriors. The bear was ultimately defeated by Magik, who used her magical Soulsword to cleave its body in two. Friedlander and Corsi were freed from the bear's influence, while the two halves of the creature's dead body transformed into Dani parents, William and Peg, revealing that they had not been killed all those years ago. In actuality, they had been enslaved and transformed into the bear[6] by the evil Native American spirit known only as the Adversary.[7]
Another Demon Bear appeared after Eli Bard desecrated the corpses of Warpath's apache tribe. It was released by Warpath, with the help of the Ghost Rider.[8]
Another Demon Bear appeared after it is accidentally awoken by experiments conducted by Peter Parker and Crystal Catawnee.[9]Attributes
Powers
Paraphernalia
Transportation
Notes
- The Adversary was not credited in-story as the evil force responsible for turning William and Peg Lonestar into the Demon Bear, with only a nameless "master" being blamed. A few months after the end of the story, the letters page of New Mutants #24 identified this evil being as the same one that appeared in Uncanny X-Men #188, which would later be named "The Adversary" in Uncanny X-Men #220.
See Also
- 16 appearance(s) of Demon Bear (Earth-616)
- 7 minor appearance(s) of Demon Bear (Earth-616)
- 5 mention(s) of Demon Bear (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Demon Bear (Earth-616)
- 1 invocation(s) of Demon Bear (Earth-616)
- 25 image(s) of Demon Bear (Earth-616)