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Quote1 I refuse to accept that. My own homeland has suffered for too long from such unreasoning hatred -- between castes, between religions. It eats at our soul like a cancer. If not fought, it will be the end of us. Quote2
Neal Shaara[src]

History

Omega Sentinels[]

Neal Shaara comes from a family of tea planters from Assam, India, and had an emotional connection to the Himalayas.[3] His father became a well-respected officer of the Indian National Police. As a young man who was part of an upper-class family in Calcutta, Neal enjoyed the frivolous life of a playboy obsessed with fast-driving automobiles. His life would change with the disappearance of his older brother Sanjit, who had gone missing when investigating the disappearance of vulnerable people in the impoverish sections of the city. Neal got out of this comfort zone to search for his brother, with his father assigning detective Karima Shapandar to watch for him. An emotional bond developed between Neal Shaara and Shapandar as they joined forces to search for Sanjit. On the verge of beginning a romantic relationship, they were attacked and captured by the anti-mutant robotic activist Bastion, who ran Operation: Zero Tolerance.[1]

Bastion used his deadly technology to transform humans into mutant-hunting Sentinels and was behind the kidnappings in Calcutta. Sanjit had become one of his victims, being programmed to seek out and destroy mutants. Bastion intended to do the same to Shapandar and Neal, but the process catalyzed Neal's latent mutant powers of generating hot solar plasma, which destroyed the building around them. However, Shapandar was successfully transformed. Sanjit and Shapandar were momentarily able to fight their programming long enough to disable the other Sentinels. As Sanjit perished in battle, Karima Shapandar quietly asked Neal to run away. As an Omega Prime Sentinel, she would soon achieve combat mode to destroy mutants in her proximity, which forced him to flee.[1]

X-Men[]

Shaara's family has shared a long relation with mutant specialist Dr. Moira MacTaggert, which prompted Neal to travel to Muir Island for clarifications. There, he expressed how uncomfortable he was with the idea of being a mutant, especially when meeting Moira's associates, the X-Men, who were also mutants. Jean Grey invited him to join the X-Men as a way for him to learn how to control his abilities and adapt to his condition.[1] He adopted the mantle of Thunderbird as an X-Man and got close to his teammate Psylocke, sparking the jealousy of her boyfriend Archangel.[4]

When driving around with Psylocke as his companion and Archangel as their watcher, Thunderbird put his powers to test against the X-Man Storm, who had been possessed by the N'Garai as part of the demon Belasco's machinations to get revenge on the X-Men. The mysterious Magik recruited Thunderbird to deal with the incident and defeat the beast Pilgrimm before he could harm Psylocke, but Archangel got injured.[4] She also recruited Wolverine to stop the attacks and free the X-Men from N'Garai in the hellish Limbo. Meanwhile, Thunderbird kept combatting N'Garai hordes at the Xavier Institute.[5] In the end, Thunderbird fully released his potential to end the N'Garai alongside Wolverine and Jean Grey, partially contributing with Magik deposing Belasco.[6]

Thunderbird quickly became adapted with the astonishingly adventurous life of the X-Men. In one of the X-Men missions, he used his powers to repair the damaged spaceship of the High Evolutionary for Peter Corbeau. This action had the X-Men to become targets of the Neo, mutants who had been severely harmed by the Evolutionary's actions.[7] The X-Men battled the Neo's Warclan after landing on Earth.[8] Next, alongside Psylocke and Archangel, Thunderbird tackled villainous mercenaries who responded to the Goth in Harry's Hideaway. He refused to use his dangerous powers to fight in a limited space, which contributed for the trio of X-Men to be captured.[9] Although captured, Thunderbird and the other X-Men joined forces to break free from Goth and defeat him.[10][11] In a subsequent adventure, Thunderbird and the X-Men helped Psylocke and Archangel fend off the Twisted Sisters.[12] After a final battle against the Warclan, the X-Men ceased their disputes with the Neo.[13] Around this period, Psylocke's relationship with Archangel did not resist her flirtatious interactions with Thunderbird.[3]

X-Treme X-Men[]

Distrusting the X-Men's idealistic founder Professor Xavier, Storm gathered a team of X-Men to obtain the missing volumes of the prophetic diaries of the clairvoyant Destiny. To accompany her in her quest, she invited trusted allies, including Thunderbird.[3] Psylocke was also a member of the team, and the two audacious mutants fully embarked on an exciting romance.[14] To gather the volumes, the team made its first stop in Valencia, Spain, where they met their first enemy, the warrior Vargas.[15] After duelling Vargas, Psylocke was killed in combat.[16] Thunderbird's views about the life of an adventurer were severely affected by her death, with his optimism being gradually shaped into thoughtfulness during his mourning process.[14] While coping with Psylocke's death, Thunderbird's teammate from the future Bishop informed him he was destined to become relevant in mutant history.[17]

When the X-Men investigated the puzzling murder of an Australian crime-lord known as Viceroy in Sydney,[18] they decided to protect Viceroy's illegitimate children and potential targets, the lifeguard Heather and the surfer Davis Cameron. Thunderbird got instantly close to Heather Cameron, approaching her with a flirtatious attitude.[19] Targeted by the criminals of the Triad, Thunderbird and Storm learned Heather Cameron was a mutant herself and were able to escape the attack.[20] In the end, with Heather Cameron's help as Lifeguard, the X-Men solved the mystery, but were not able to bring the culprit Sebastian Shaw to justice.[21]

Neal met and became close to Heather Cameron while the team protected her and her brother. When Davis agreed to have Sage 'jumpstart' his powers, Neal cautioned him. Davis was not comfortable with himself or his sister's transformation into Lifeguard, and left after the team battled Khan.[22] Thunderbird joined the X-Corporation's Singapore branch, where he found the Camerons. While part of the X-Corporation Xavier contacted him while in Genosha.[23] He was one of the few mutants to retain their powers after the events of M-Day.[24] He was still involved with Lifeguard, and both were presumed to be still on the trail of Davis at the time of the Second Coming.[25]

Krakoa[]

Neal was later revealed to be living on the Mutant island of Krakoa, joining Penance and Angel's X-Corp after being recommended by Red Bishop due to his solar energy powers' potential to power X-Corp machinery.[26]

Attributes

Power Grid[27]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Experienced Fighter:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Single Type: Medium Range:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Learned

Powers

Heat Conversion and Solar Energy Mimicry/Generation: He has the ability to convert ambient heat into solar plasma. Neal can transform his body into solar plasma, enabling him to release and manipulate thermal discharges, focused beams, or shaped plasma fields from his eyes or limbs. He is able to fly via directed thrust, and can radiate blinding light or explosive energy from his entire body.[7]

Notes

  • X-Men: Declassified #1 contained conflicting and potentially disturbing information about Neal's history. According to files recovered from Operation: Zero Tolerance, Neal was born in the state of Assam to a prosperous family owning a successful tea plantation. He and his brother were bullies to poor mutants in Calcutta, and he later attended and completed studies at Oxford University in England. Declassified was full of misinformation about the X-Men, however, deliberately seeded by Bastion, so this intelligence should be considered suspect.

See Also

Links and References

References

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