Thunderbird

Thunderbird's History

John Proudstar was born on the Apache reservation in Camp Verde, Arizona. During his childhood and adolescence, he proved to be an exceptionally strong and vigorous athlete.

Proudstar, however, regarded himself throughout his life as a loner and an outcast. He wished to prove himself to be a warrior in the tradition of his ancestors, and he was dissatisfied with what he regarded as the complacent lives led by his fellow Apaches on their reservation.

Although too young to join the armed forces, Proudstar lied about his age and entered the United Stated Marines, intending to lead the kind of active life he desired. He became a corporal and earned a number of medals. But still, Proudstar was dissatisfied with his life once his tour of duty was over and he had returned to the reservation.

Proudstar's mutant superhuman strength first manifested itself when, at the age of twenty and using only his bare hands, wrestled and threw a charging bison to save an endangered little girl. This feat earned Proudstar fame among his tribes people on the reservation, but the true nature of his abilities remained unknown until Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men, a team of superhuman mutant adventurers, discovered him.

Through the use of his mutant-detecting computer Cerebro, Xavier located Proudstar, whom he invited to become one of the X-Men. The first mission that Proudstar and six other new recruits undertook was the rescue of the original X-Men from the "living island" of Krakoa in the South Pacific. With the exception of Sunfire, all of these new recruits, including Proudstar, decided to stay on and became the "new" X-Men. Xavier gave Proudstar the code name "Thunderbird."

On their next known mission, the new X-Men went to Cheyenne Mountain in the Colorado Rockies, the location of a North American Air Defense command center, which had been taken over by Count Luchino Nefaria as part of an international extortion scheme. After the X-Men had foiled his plans, Nefaria attempted to escape in a small aircraft. Thunderbird managed to climb onto the plane as it took off. Defying Xavier's telepathic warnings to get off the plane, Thunderbird asserted that he was finally going to prove he was a true Apache warrior. Using his superhuman strength, Thunderbird ripped open part of the plane and wreaked havoc on its internal systems. Furiously, Thunderbird pummeled the aircraft until finally it exploded, killing him instantly. Nefaria, however, survived by using a teleportation device.