THUNDERBIRD I: Page 3 of 3

BIOGRAPHY - PAGE 3

One of the many changes John had woken up to was the fact the mutant race had recently colonized Mars and renamed it Arakko. Bitter about the leadership on Krakoa, he took one of the portals to Arakko to see what this new land had to offer. He immediately got into a fight with Vulcan, the younger brother of Cyclops, whom Xavier had recruited before John had ever joined the team. Their fight was stopped by Cable and Abigail Brand, who oversaw Arakko and were doing their best to keep the peace. [X-Men: Red (2nd series) #1]

Arakko became a place of great political unrest with the leadership in a perpetual state of disarray. Cable became aware that Abigail Brand was secretly looking to capitalize on it for her own motivations and he sought to counter her schemes. One of his first ports of call was Thunderbird, who didn’t trust Cable much due to him drafting Warpath into X-Force years previously. Despite his misgivings, he could also see that Brand posed a threat and he agreed to work alongside Cable to stop her. [X-Men: Red (2nd series) #3]

It didn’t take Brand long to make her move, forcing Cable to gather Thunderbird and a small team together to counter her. John found himself teleported to the other side of the galaxy, acting as the team muscle whilst the rest gathered information. They discovered that Brand had been working with a human-run, anti-mutant organization called Orchis, and she was looking to play both sides. [X-Men: Red (2nd series) #8-10]

With Brand’s schemes laid bare for all to see, she escaped before anyone could hold her to account. However, the threat of Orchis was starting to grow. When a small town in America was seemingly attacked by a mutant, Krakoa responded by sending a team, including Thunderbird to help the survivors. It became obvious that it was a false flag operation and, as Thunderbird investigated around the town, he discovered the presence of the Heritage Initiative, the same one that had tried to take his family’s DNA weeks before. The team soon managed to link Orchis to the Heritage Initiative but making the rest of the world believe that a mutant hadn’t caused the devastation wasn’t so easy. [X-Men Before the Fall: Mutant First Strike]

It wasn’t long before Orchis showed their true face to the world and struck Krakoa a devastating blow. The island was all-but-destroyed, with many mutants losing their lives in the chaos. Those who survived the initial onslaught fled and were scattered around the globe. John and James were some of the lucky ones, as they managed to make it back home to Camp Gozhoo with their lives. With many of the X-Men seemingly dead, they used their reservation as a home for the wayward mutant children, but it wasn’t long before some Orchis goons came calling. Thunderbird fought against the External Crule but, despite help from Dani Moonstar, the Orchis soldiers kidnapped the children. Warpath was injured in the battle and so remained behind at the camp, whilst Thunderbird travelled with Dani to find the children. She took him to a base she had set up alongside a number of other survivors of Orchis’ attacks. [X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #121-125]

Thunderbird and the team set out to try to figure out the connection between Orchis and the Externals, but they soon realized there wasn’t one. Selene had put centuries of bad blood between her and the other Externals behind her and they were now working together. Using her array of powers, she had resurrected a number of dead Orchis goons as her unwitting foot soldiers to do her dirty work and throw everyone off her scent. Selene and the Externals were once again making a bid to become God-like by draining the life force of mutants. After many skirmishes between the two sides, Thunderbird and the team made their way to the External’s base at Nova Roma in the hopes of rescuing the children and stopping the ascension.

Their presence drew the Externals’ attention, with Saul, Absolom and some others leaving the city to fight the team. Going against his instincts, Thunderbird ignored the fight and slipped off with Dani to find the kidnapped children. The fight soon came to John when Crule caught the two sneaking around. Thunderbird squared off against him and fought a bloody battle, with the timely arrival of his brother turning the tide as the External was violently subdued.

The other Externals soon fell to the rest of the team, leaving only Selene. Whilst she nearly achieved her goal, she was once again denied her ascension, with all the mutants she kidnapped being set free. Afterwards, John and James returned to Camp Gozhoo with some of the mutant children and began rebuilding once again. [X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #126-142]