BIOGRAPHY
James Bourne was a dedicated American patriot who served in the U.S. Army. While on active duty overseas in Germany, he met another soldier named Melinda Wallace and they fell in love. During a terrorist attack, Melinda was killed and James found himself adrift in life. Seeking a new purpose, he joined the NATO Special Forces and volunteered for the prototype of an elite unit known as Omega Strike, overseen by their operator Emil Tessler. In addition to advanced combat 
training, the twelve members of Omega Strike also underwent cybernetic surgery. Each of them was outfitted with a bio-chip that enabled personal teleportation (within reason), greatly improving their tactics for deployment, flanking and ambush in the field. Omega Strike was intended to be the new frontline for the world’s ongoing war against terror.
During training, James developed a distaste for another Omega Strike member named Gabriel Gant. Bourne and Gant were the best of the best, but their outlooks were completely different. Bourne had a rigid dedication to duty and the mission which led Gant to nickname him “Square Jaw.” Gant was more reckless and took a sadistic glee from killing terrorists that had nothing to do with duty. Privately, he was the only man Bourne feared. On the other hand, James developed a personal relationship with another soldier named Rowena Maclean. After Melinda, he feared he would never love again, but with Rowena he felt his heart thawing out. For reasons Bourne never understood, Emil Tressler seemed to disapprove of their relationship, even beyond concerns of unit discipline.
The moment came when Omega Strike was deployed on their first field mission. A plane had been hijacked, leading to a hostage situation at an Italian airport. Gant and Rowena led one half of Omega Strike to eliminate the terrorists while Bourne led the second team to rescue the hostages. When Bourne’s unit arrived in the plane’s cargo hold, however, the terrorists were waiting for them. James was the sole survivor of his unit, badly wounded as he teleported to the other unit for aid. Gant and Rowena were the only members standing too, but that was because Gant had murdered his teammates, the hostages and the terrorists. It turned out Tessler and Gant had been paid off to ensure Omega Strike’s failure, and Rowena was helping them. Gant shot the confused Bourne a few more times before he and Rowena prepared to depart. Rowena claimed she loved James, but had no choice except to aid Gant and Tessler. They teleported away, leaving James for dead.
Despite his wounds, James Bourne managed to beam out as well, getting himself medical attention in order to survive. In the weeks that followed, he learned Tessler had thoroughly tarnished his reputation, leaving Bourne disavowed by the USA and NATO forces as complicit in the terrorist act. Before he could find them, Bourne received reports that Tessler, Rowena and 
Gant had died in a plane crash fleeing justice. At loose ends, betrayed and with his life in ruins, Bourne had what he considered an epiphany. Terrorism reigned because those who stood up to terror always had something to lose and feared reprisal. However, as a man alone, without country, without politics, without identity, he could strike at terror without fear, and without mercy. He would be… SOLO. [Solo (1st series) #1]
Solo began his private crusade at a hostage crisis in Berlin. A kill zone outside the embassy prevented local counter-terrorist forces from approaching the gunmen's position. Solo teleported inside the embassy and quickly gunned down the four terrorists. As he teleported away, the authorities found the hostages safe and a note proclaiming his new motto, “While I Live, Terror Dies! – Solo.” [Web of Spider-Man (1st series) #19]
Solo’s efforts uncovered a plot by the anti-nationalist terrorists ULTIMATUM to bomb the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. After killing the field team, he interrogated the last remaining terrorist about the location of his regional leader, Major Toler Weil. Solo left a grenade as a thank you for the terrorist as he teleported out (…which luckily didn’t set off the explosives being set by ULTIMATUM). His lead brought Solo to an isolated lodge on the Symkarian-Latverian border. ULTIMATUM was part of a scheme by the Red Skull to destroy relations between Symkaria and the United States by framing the CIA for the assassination of the Symkarian Prime Minister. Silver Sable, Captain America and Spider-Man were already in pursuit of Weil for his part in that operation when Solo arrived as well. The two 
forces got in each other’s way as Solo was mistaken for one of the OTHER armed nutcases. Neither Captain America nor Spider-Man were willing to tolerate Solo’s methods. Weil escaped and Solo teleported away instead of working with others, who didn’t share the same dedication and intensity for justice that he had. [Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #323]
Back in New York, Spider-Man and Solo crossed paths again stopping an ULTIMATUM attack on Ellis Island while looking for leads. Solo began a long pattern of infuriating Spider-Man as he murdered the terrorists Spider-Man had already restrained in his webbing. Despite their acrimony, Solo and Spider-Man agreed to share leads on ULTIMATUM. Intelligence pointed to the Metropolitan Museum but, while Spider-Man needed Weil alive for his testimony to stop an American-Symkarian War, the driven Solo made no promises. ULTIMATUM’s defenses at the Met 
set off an explosion as Weil tried to make another getaway, and Spider-Man narrowly snagged the terrorist’s leg as he fell off the roof. Solo appeared over the awkwardly hanging Spider-Man and told him to drop Weil or else he would shoot through the both of them. Spidey held his ground (figuratively speaking), and Solo recognized a man willing to die for his convictions. He walked away, this once, and allowed Spider-Man to take Major Weil into custody unmolested. [Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #324]
Solo’s next mission brought him to a bombing in Barcelona, Spain. Toro Mendoza and his Cascan separatists threatened innocent lives, and Solo sought out the general in his armored fortress to the north. As he infiltrated the fortress alone, Solo was momentarily daunted when a teenaged Cascan threatened him to prove he was dedicated to the cause. Solo disarmed the youth rather than killing him and teleported directly into Mendoza’s office once he had the location. He executed the ringleader, but then had to fight his way out until his teleport ability recharged. He had to risk it when he set off a grenade to deter pursuit, and barely managed to teleport through 
the blast. The Spanish government used his demolition as an entry point and began rounding up the terrorists. The young Cascan spotted the dazed and powerless Solo and prepared to shoot him down, but his brothers warned him more shots would bring the soldiers, and they must flee to keep the cause alive. Only the young terrorist’s dedication to his cause saved Solo’s life that night. [Amazing Spider-Man Annual #24]
Solo’s focus fell upon the South American dictatorship of Delvadia. Their national agent, Tarantula, was hunting and killing Delvadians abroad who spoke up against the repressive government. Solo attacked Tarantula at his training facility to seek justice for the murdered citizens. He avoided Tarantula’s poisoned toe-spikes and drove the assassin outside. Tarantula was considered a hero at home thanks to Delvadia’s tightly-controlled media, however, and the civilians on the street came to his aid. Solo failed to convince the people that he was their liberator and Tarantula was the oppressor – they only saw a man with a gun prepared to shoot another man helpless on the ground. Unwilling to shoot through the crowd and harm innocent lives, Solo reluctantly teleported away to fight again another day. [Marvel Comics Presents (1st series) #88]
Doctor Octopus reformed the Sinister Six and began an aggressive campaign to arm themselves 
and murder their enemies. Their killings raised their profile and led Solo to deem them terrorists as well as super-villains. He tried to lend his assistance to Spider-Man, but the web-slinger was still unwilling to resort to murder to deal with his foes. Solo adamantly retorted that that was why his foes kept coming back. Solo traced Spider-Man and found the Sinister Six invading a research facility specializing in inter-dimensional travel. Solo came in guns blazing, but he was unfamiliar with Mysterio’s tricks. The master of illusions lured Solo into believing he had killed most of the Sinister Six, and then guided him to believe Spider-Man was his last target, Doctor Octopus. Only the arrival of a silent super-soldier named Cyborg X drove off Solo and prevented him from inadvertently killing his one-time ally. [Spider-Man (1st series) #20-21]
Solo eventually realized his mistake and prepared to continue his hunt for the Six. Doctor Octopus and his cronies attacked Hydra to add the terrorists’ weapons to their own. Solo found himself joined by Spider-Man, Deathlok, Sleepwalker, the Hulk, Ghost Rider, Nova and the Fantastic Four during the final fight with the Sinister Six and their massive, extra-dimensional new member, the giant known as Gog. Mysterio’s illusions proved effective against the overcrowded heroes, and Spider-Man had to disarm Solo again before he shot and killed his allies. Still, it was Solo who picked up one of the discarded Hydra weapons and used it to bring down the imposing Gog. When the Sinister Six was routed, Solo teleported to safety rather than risk Spider-Man or the other heroes trying to arrest him. [Spider-Man (1st series) #22-23]