Bishop (comics)

Bishop (Lucas Bishop), is a Marvel Comics superhero, and a member of the X-Men. Created by writer Whilce Portacio and artist/co-writer Jim Lee, he first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #282 (November 1991).

Bishop was a member of the Xavier Security Enforcers, a mutant police force from a dystopian future of the Marvel universe. He traveled to the 20th century and joined the X-Men, a team he knew only as legends. A brash anti-hero, he had difficulty adjusting to the norms of the time period.

He was one of the most popular X-Men of the 1990s and made frequent appearances on the era’s X-Men animated series. He starred in the series Bishop: The Last X-Man (1999-2001), in which he was trapped in another alternate timeline, and District X (2004-2005), which cast him as a police officer in New York City’s "mutant town."

Character History

Born about 60 years in the future of the Marvel Universe (in the parallel world of Earth-1191), Bishop has a distinctive M brand over his right eye, used to identify mutants in his era. After his parents were killed, Bishop was raised by a man named LeBeau, also called Witness, who was reportedly the last man to see the legendary X-Men alive. He was reunited with his grandmother and sister in a concentration camp in Nevada, shortly before the Summers Rebellion, when mutants and humans joined forces to destroy the Sentinels.

After the Rebellion, the mutants were "emancipated," and sent out of the camps to fend for themselves. Bishop came across an anti-mutant group called the Exhumes, who took his sister Shard hostage when the Xavier Security Enforcers arrived. After the XSE defeated the Exhume member, Bishop knew he wanted to join the XSE. When he got the chance, he accepted only if Shard could join as well.

While on a mission to wipe out a nest of Emplates, mutant vampires that feed on bone marrow, Shard was critically injured. Bishop went to Witness for help, and Witness agreed to transfer Shard's essence into a holographic matrix, if Bishop would work for him for one year.

Bishop and his XSE group "Omega Squad" captured Trevor Fitzroy, a murderous ex-XSE trainee in the ruins of the Xavier Institute War Room, where Bishop found a damaged recording of Jean Grey, which said something about a traitor destroying the X-Men from inside. Witness gave him very few answers, and Bishop thought that Witness did more than just witness those events.

Fitzroy escaped from prison and used a large amount of mutant life-force to open a time portal and break out 93 "Lifers" in the process, Bishop found himself in the past, in the time of his heroes, the X-Men. Bishop eventually "sanctioned" the Lifers, but did not get Fitzroy, and Professor Xavier offered him a place in the X-Men. When he met Gambit, Bishop recognized him as possibly a young Witness, and the two even came to blows at one point.

When the insane mutant Legion went back in time to assassinate Magneto, Bishop was one of the X-Men sent to stop him. When they failed, and Legion accidentally killed Professor Xavier, Bishop was the only time-traveler to remain when history was altered and became the Age of Apocalypse. He convinced the Magneto of that era that their existence was wrong, and with a great amount of sacrifice, managed to correct the error and stopped Legion. After the timeline reset itself, Bishop still had unsettling memories of the Age of Apocalypse.

The traitor in the X-Men was eventually revealed to be Professor X in the form of Onslaught. Bishop's knowledge of the future was the only thing that stopped Onslaught from killing the X-Men, although it was not enough to prevent Onslaught from nearly destroying all of humanity. He made peace with Gambit, who was not the traitor after all.

When trapped in deep space, Bishop became romantically involved with Deathbird, but when she turned on him and the X-Men, he killed her. Bishop spent some time in an alternate timeline, where he finally defeated Fitzroy.

Although a little lacking in humour, he has been a loyal fighter, and rejoined the X-Treme X-Men searching for the Books of Truth, the diaries of the precognitive Destiny. He started using "Lucas" as a first name to go with his fake police ID. Even though the diaries became invalid due to a prediction being stopped, the team stayed together for a while before returning to the mansion. His team has recently formed their own XSE, the X-Treme Sanctions Executive. Bishop has also begun a friendship with the new X-Man Sage.Bishop has recently been seen getting close to Angel's ex-girlfriend Detective Charlotte Jones.

Recently, Bishop joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation and appeared regularly in District X, a police procedural set in a mutant ghetto in New York City.

Since the House of M, Bishop continues to visit New York, but since a majority mutant population of District X was wiped out by the Scarlet Witch, Bishop has instead turned his attention back to the X-Men and school primarily. He has been going on missions with the team, such as taking down the Shi'ar Death Commandos, or fighting the Foursaken. Bishop helped Psylocke deal with the Foursaken and the First Fallen, as well as helped Storm save Africa from soldiers taking children from villages. In the Civil War: X-Men miniseries, Bishop is reported to be siding with the O*N*E* to bring in the X-Men and the 198.

Powers and abilities

Bishop's mutant ability enables him to absorb all forms of energy that are directed towards him and to release that energy from his hands. When he releases the energy, he can release it as many different types of forms, usually in concussive blasts or in the same form as he had absorbed the energy although he can emit microwaves as well. He can also store energy in his personal reserves for increasing his strength, endurance and to an extent his healing. His powers make it difficult to harm him with energy-based attacks making him invulnerable although he can become overloaded from absorbing too much energy.

He is also a skilled marksman and hand-to-hand fighter. He carries XSE guns that fire laser beams and plasma charges through which he can channel his personal energies.

He has also demonstrated the ability of instinctively knowing where he is and the present hour and date. This later aspect may be linked to some chronal energy remaining in his system, or possibly some aspect of being Gateway's descendant, but the only explanation he gives about it is that "his body knows it".

Trivia and speculation

Given that very little is known about Bishop's past before he appeared in the present time, much has been hinted at and speculated about regarding his origin. One theory that has prevailed is that Bishop is one of Storm's descendants. Some questioned this theory's legitimacy once Bishop and Storm began to have a romantic relationship. Others have argued the possibility that a relationship between Storm and Bishop in the present might lead to descendants, one of which would become Bishop himself someday and creating a predestination paradox.

In an earlier issue of Generation X, Bishop becomes dizzy and mistakes M for his mother. It has also been revealed that the Australian aboriginal mutant Gateway is his great-grandfather although it is not certain. It is interesting, as Gateway was M's mentor prior to her joining Generation X. The matter of M being Bishop's mother is still speculation, as it has yet to be confirmed.

In the Marvel 'Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe', a history is provided to explain Bishop's origin. It writes: "Lucas Bishop was born in the 21st Century A.D. of an alternate future timeline in which mutant-hunting robot Sentinels had taken control of North America....Bishop's parents escaped to America shortly before the island nation of Australia was destroyed in a tactical nuclear strike. They were soon captured and interred in a mutant relocation camp in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York. There, Bishop and his sister Shard were born and, like other mutants, they were branded with 'M' tattoos over their right eyes for identification." This sheds some light onto the possibility of Bishop and Shard being Aboriginal Australians, their great-grandfather being Gateway. However, back in 1991 during the early international releases of X-Men merchandise official cards from Marvel state that he is of American nationality but of Filipino ethnicity (the card says he was born in Tondo, an impoverished district of Manila, the Philippines' capital city), which is not unlikely as Whilce Portacio, Bishop's creator is himself half Filipino.

In the first Bishop limited series, he is confronted from another escapee from his original timeline - a killer named Mountjoy. This character had the ability to enter people's bodies and "ride" them using his own personality. At the climax of the fourth issue, Mountjoy planned to use Gambit to kill the X-Men then "ride" him back into his own timeline. Bishop prevented this from happening but not before he witnessed the real life occurrence of Jean Grey's emergency message that he'd uncovered in his own time, stating that they "knew so little" and "shouldn't have trusted" Gambit. This clarified the mystery of the X-Traitor and also how Gambit (in the guise of the Witness) was the last person to see the X-Men alive, yet seemed to be completely forgotten by Marvel and it's readers in favour of the Onslaught storyline.

Ultimate Bishop

Bishop has a cameo appearance in Ultimate X-Men #43. When Emma Frost introduces some of the candidates for the new, government-supported mutant team to the President. He is shown on a screen in one panel only as a muscular African American with braided hair and wearing a golden chain around his neck. The only reason he can be identified as Bishop is because the President says "no to Bishop with his criminal record".

Bishop's powers are never revealed and he is probably not a time-traveller in this universe. Though long considered unlikely to reappear because of his time-travelling background, the confirmation of Ultimate Cable may change this.

Appearances in other media

Bishop guest starred in a few episodes of the X-Men animated television series. This version goes back in time to stop the assassination of Senator Kelly and prevent the Days of Future Past. While he succeeds in saving Kelly, his timeline remains the same. Later, he returns to stop the spread of Apocalypse's techno-organic virus, however, he also faces resistance from Cable, who knows the virus is necessary as it will also lead to the salvation of mutantkind. He was voiced by Philip Akin.

He also shows up in some more episodes, where he and his sister travel back in time to stop Fitzroy from killing Xavier in the past, causing constant war between mutants and humans in the X-men's time, and his time changes into one in which mutants are known only as slaves. They eventually manage this, but Bishop gets trapped in the Axis of Time when Apocalypse throws him out of time. He eventually saves the entire timeline when he accidentally begins to free the psychics in the Beyond Good and Evil series

He is a playable character in the video game Next Dimension and in the console role-playing game Rise of Apocalypse.

Bishop makes a cameo in X-Men Legends as a child. Though the playable adult Bishop's status as a time traveller is mentioned in a trivia minigame, it is not confirmed that these two are one in the same.

Bishop plays a small part in the The Last Stand novelization by Chris Claremont. He is mentioned as a NYPD Officer who is in charge of crowd control at Worthington Cure Clinics in the city of New York. He is also mentioned to be a former student at Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, and he is an acquaintance of Iceman.

External links

Bishop - Marvel Database Project
Bishop at X-Peoples Central
Spotlight on Bishop
Bishop on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki
Bishop (House of M) on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki