BIOGRAPHY — PAGE 2
John’s brother soon developed mutant powers of his own, similar to those of James’. Blaming the X-Men for his brother’s death, James joined the Hellions, a group antagonistic to the X-Men’s New Mutants, and took the name Thunderbird, in his brother’s memory. Eventually, James realized his error in blaming the X-Men and went back home to Camp Verde. However, when he found his entire tribe slain, he joined the first generation of X-Force as Warpath and eventually even became an X-Man. Years later, a man named Eli Bard, a disciple of the sorceress Selene, came to the mass graveyard at Camp Verde in search of one of Warpath’s fallen teammates, Caliban. Using a modified version of the techno-organic virus, he brought Caliban, Thunderbird and the entire Apache tribe back from the dead. Though Selene needed to absorb the life forces of mutants for her plan, she also was amassing an army of undead mutants to assist her and through the T-O virus the undead Thunderbird became one of her thralls.
Selene went on to resurrect the millions of dead mutants on Genosha and used the ruins as a base for her final ascension. She also needed a ritual dagger to complete her spell and by chance Warpath had it in his possession. Warpath was kidnapped and brought back to Genosha, where he came face-to-face with his older brother. John was forced to fight his brother and use his blood to write sigils for the ritual. However, even though he was under Selene’s thrall, he still managed 
to give James a hint as to how to take Selene down. James escaped, and then managed to kill Selene with help from his X-Force team. With Selene dead, the power keeping John alive started to fade. As he passed back into the afterlife, he managed to speak to his brother and get him to put an end to the journey of vengeance he was on. [X-Force (3rd series) #10-11, Necrosha crossover]
John’s peace wasn’t to last, though, as he was soon brought back to the land of the living once again. An ancient entity known as the Chaos King had threatened all of existence and the world’s superheroes had all been incapacitated. The various realms of the underworld were all under threat and the dead started to rise. John was brought back, alongside a number of other dead X-Men including Banshee and Moira MacTaggert. It soon became apparent that they needed to find and protect one of Destiny’s diaries from falling into the hands of the Chaos King. The diary contained information on how to defeat him and so he sent the Carrion Crow, a corrupted Apache god, to retrieve it. Ever since the moment he had been brought back, John had seen the Thunderbird symbol lighting up the sky. When the Carrion Crow appeared and attacked them, John prayed to his god and he was rewarded when the team was teleported to Muir Island.
Arriving on the island, Moira was taken over by the mind of Destiny, and the pre-cognitive mutant told John that he must unleash the spirits of the Earth to help defeat the Chaos King. The Carrion Crow soon found them and continued his onslaught. As his team members started to fall, John prayed to the Thunderbird god once more. This time, he confessed that his pride and anger had 
killed him before but he knew now that to be a true warrior he needed to work as part of a team. The god spoke to him again and gave him the power to join with the elements of the Earth. However, the Carrion Crow revealed that he had tricked them all and John had now allowed him to corrupt the elements of creation. The Carrion Crow underestimated the Apache warrior though and it was destroyed by the raw power of the Earth itself. John and the team had done their part and unleashed the ancient elements to aid the other heroes in the war. With the Chaos King defeated, the realms of the dead were once again at peace and John returned to the afterlife once more. [Chaos War: X-Men #1-2]
The mutant world went through many trials and tribulations whilst John was gone again, but a glimmer of hope emerged in the form of Krakoa. A new mutant nation had been set up on the very island where John had originally battled alongside with the X-Men. Professor X and the rest of the mutants even found a way to cheat death. By using the DNA of a given mutant, a cloned body could be created, which would then have the psyche of the mutant placed inside it. Sadly for John, it was this last part that would prove a problem to bring him back, as Cerebro was used to collect and store the psychic back-ups of mutants, but he died before the device had ever come online.
All seemed lost until the Scarlet Witch came up with a convoluted plan to create the magical “eldritch garden” that did not follow the laws of time and space. It was a place that connected the past and present, and allowed the likes of Professor X to find the psyche of a mutant who died many years ago. John became the first of the “lost” mutants to be brought back in a new cloned body. [X-Men: Trial of Magneto #5]
After the celebration of John’s resurrection died down, he realized that he had not seen his brother James yet. He sought him out and found that his younger brother now stood tall over him. Their reunion became awkward when John bluntly asked why James had failed to be there when he first woke up to the new world. James broke down and apologized for everything, admitting he felt like a failure for not avenging John. John embraced his brother and told him he couldn’t be prouder of the man he had become. [New Mutants (4th series) #24]
Now that he was back, there were a lot of people looking at John, expecting him to do something great. Given that he was more famous for dying than living, he decided to take a trip down memory lane to figure out what he wanted to do with his new life. He learned that most of his family were killed, whilst he himself was dead, however his grandmother was still alive as she had separated from her husband and moved away years before. John travelled to Camp Gozhoo to see her but, when he arrived, he found all the adults missing. After asking around, he discovered that someone had sold the rights to the DNA of any of the mutants in the camp to an organization 
called the Heritage Initiative. When the cops came to collect the DNA samples, they were met with resistance and everyone was arrested.
Fearing that history was going to repeat itself, Thunderbird stormed into the local police station and demanded that the prisoners be released. Things turned violent, so the Heritage Initiative sent in their armed soldiers to apprehend John. He easily beat the soldiers too, forcing the head of the operation to reveal himself as Martynec, the scientist who had tried to experiment on his family many years before. Martynec still had the ability to shift into a werewolf-form and so he and John fought a brutal and bloody battle. Thunderbird gained the upper hand and was about to kill Martynec when his 
grandmother stopped him. She had been freed during the fight but she refused to allow John to murder someone, despite the crimes the man had committed. John saw sense and spared Martynec’s life, but he made sure to humiliate the scientist in front of the news cameras which had arrived.
Afterwards, John and his grandmother talked and he got to introduce James to her too, as his brother was too young to ever remember her. The threat that Martynec posed also helped show John that he was a fighter and would always be there to protect both his Native family and his mutant one. [Giant-Size X-Men: Thunderbird]