Banshee
Real name: Sean Cassidy
Occupation: (current) Adventurer and Headmaster at the Massachusetts
Academy, in charge of Generation X, (former) Interpol Inspector and
Agent, freelance detective, professional criminal, involuntary operative
for Factor Three
Identity: Secret
Legal status: Citizen of the Republic of Ireland with no criminal record
Other aliases: None known
Place of birth: Cassidy Keep, Ireland
Marital status: Widower
Known relatives: Maeve Rourke Cassidy (wife, deceased), Thomas (known as
"Black Tom," cousin), Theresa Rourke (alias Siryn, daughter)
Group affiliation: (current) Generation X, (former) Factor Three, X-Men
Base of operations: (current) Massachusetts Academy; (former) Professor
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Salem Center, Westchester County,
New York State; and Cassidy Keep Ireland and Muir Island, off the coast
of Scotland
First appearance: X-MEN (first series) #28
History: Sean Cassidy was born as the heir to the castle and estate of
Cassidy Keep, Ireland, as well as a small fortune. After graduating from
Trinity College, Dublin, with the degree of Bachelor of Science, Cassidy
became a detective at Interpol, the international law enforcement
organization. By the time he married Maeve Rourke, Cassidy had risen to
the rank of Inspector at Interpol. Although Cassidy had discovered his
mutant powers in his adolescence, he kept them secret, even from the
rest of Interpol.
However, Cassidy's powers were known to his disreputable cousin Black
Tom Cassidy, who had discovered that he himself was a superhumanly
powerful mutant. Sean and Black Tom had long been rivals, especially
over the love of Maeve Rourke, before she ultimately married Sean.
Sean Cassidy was assigned by Interpol to a top secret mission which
required that he stay out of touch with his family for a considerable
amount of time. When he left on the mission, Maeve was in her first
month of pregnancy, although neither Tom nor Maeve knew it at the time.
Their daughter, Theresa, was born during Sean's absence. Maeve took the
infant Theresa with her on a visit to her relatives in Armagh in
Northern Ireland. While she was there, Maeve, an innocent bystander, was
killed by an explosion caused by terrorists. No trace of Theresa was
found by the authorities, and they and Maeve's relatives assumed that
Theresa had also been killed in the explosion. In fact, however, Black
Tom Cassidy had been present at the scene of the explosion and had
secretly carried Theresa off with him. Black Tom suspected that Theresa
might develop superhuman mutant powers as she grew older, and therefore
he intended to raise her secretly so that he might exploit her powers
himself.
On returning from his mission, Sean Cassidy was informed that his wife
was dead. Those who knew that Theresa had been born decided not to
inform Sean Cassidy that Maeve had had a daughter in order to spare him
further grief. At first Cassidy attempted to escape his despair over
this news by throwing himself into his work at Interpol. Eventually,
however, the still melancholy Cassidy left Interpol to become a
freelance operative, and as time went on, he found himself engaged in
criminal activities. The legal authorities never discovered that Cassidy
was guilty of crimes, but the mutant known as the Changeling did, thanks
to the technology of the subversive organization of superhumanly
powerful mutants and their underlings known as Factor Three. The
Changeling contacted Cassidy, whom Factor Three's technology had also
identified as a superhumanly powerful mutant, and invited him to join
the organization. Cassidy was appalled upon learning of Factor Three's
goals and adamantly refused. However, the Changeling and his superior,
the so-called Mutant Master, agreed that Cassidy's powers and knowledge
of the workings of law enforcement agencies were too valuable for Factor
Three to lose, and so they sent their agents to capture Cassidy. Factor
Three had a headband containing explosives placed around Cassidy's head.
If Cassidy defied their orders, the headband could be detonated by
remote control; it would also detonate if Cassidy attempted to remove
the headband himself. Furthermore, Factor Three put Cassidy, who went by
the code name of Banshee, under the supervision of one of their trusted
human agents, the Ogre. The Banshee thus felt forced to obey Factor
Three's commands, and, accompanied by the Ogre, performed various
criminal missions for the organization.
While in New York City on a mission for Factor Three, the Banshee
clashed with the original X-Men, who captured both him and the Ogre. The
X-Men's leader, Professor Charles Xavier, used a psionic "mental bolt"
on the Banshee's headband which prevented the detonation mechanism from
functioning so that the Banshee could remove it. Once freed of the
headband, the Banshee told the X-Men all that he knew about Factor
Three. Later, the Banshee discovered Factor Three's secret European
headquarters, only to be recaptured. But the Banshee participated in the
X-Men's battle with the Mutant Master, and it was the Banshee's powers
which exposed the Mutant Master as an extraterrestrial.
The Banshee returned to an honest life, and time passed without major
incident for him, except for his brief captivities by the Sentinels, and
by the second Secret Empire. Professor Xavier later invited the Banshee
to join the X-Men when he was recruiting new members to battle the
menace of Krakoa. The Banshee remained in the X-Men for some time. It
was during this time that he met Xavier's silent partner, the Scots
geneticist Moira MacTaggert. Cassidy and MacTaggert soon fell in love,
but while Cassidy was based at Xavier's mansion, MacTaggert was based at
her mutant research center on Muir Island off the coast of Scotland.
While in Japan the X-Men found themselves in battle with Moses Magnum, a
criminal mastermind who had been endowed with psionic power to cause
earthquakes. Magnum unleashed tremendous psionic energy in an attempt to
create seismic waves great enough to cause a chain reaction that would
destroy Japan. The Banshee simultaneously used his powers to create
waves of vibratory force that would cancel out the waves of force that
Magnum was creating. The Banshee succeeded to the extent that only small
uninhabited islands in the vicinity of Magnum's base were destroyed.
However, the tremendous strain that the Banshee had placed upon his
powers in performing this heroic feat seriously damaged his vocal cords.
Cassidy soon regained his ability to speak, but his superhuman sonic
powers, which were dependent on his vocal cords, appeared to have been
destroyed.
Cassidy accompanied the X-Men to Muir Island where they battled the
menace of Proteus, Moira MacTaggert's mutant son, who at one point took
his mother prisoner. Proteus was defeated, and the experience of seeing
the woman he loved in danger made Cassidy realize that he wanted to stay
by her side. Therefore, Cassidy retired from the X-Men, and he and Moira
MacTaggert divided their time between Cassidy Keep and Muir Island.
Cassidy briefly returned to aid the X-Men against operatives of Arcade
during an emergency situation when most of the X-Men were simultaneously
engaged in conflict with an android which Doctor Doom had created in his
own image.
Later, the X-Men battled Black Tom Cassidy, his partner the Juggernaut,
and Theresa, who had developed sonic powers of her own, which she used
under the alias of Siryn. Theresa felt obliged by her duty toward Black
Tom, the man who had raised her (and whom she called "uncle" out of
respect, although they are actually cousins), to assist him in his
crimes. After they were defeated by the X-Men, Black Tom gave Theresa a
letter to Sean, explaining that she was his daughter. Sean and Theresa
were joyfully united at Xavier's mansion. Banshee is now the
co-headmaster at the Massachusetts Academy, where he teaches young
mutants in the use of their powers alongside Emma Frost.
Height: 6'
Weight: 170 lbs.
Eyes: Blue-green
Hair: Reddish-blonde
Strength level: Sean Cassidy possesses the normal human strength of a
man of his age, height, and weight who engages in regular exercise.
Flight speed: Speed of sound
Stamina: (lungs, throat, vocal cords) Superhuman, (rest of body) Athlete
Known superhuman powers: Sean Cassidy is a mutant who has the same
powers as his daughter Siryn, but who cannot use them in as many ways as
she can. His powers function in the same way that hers do: he creates
powerful sonic waves with his voice with which he can achieve various
effects, often with the assistance of limited psionic abilities which
function only in unison with his sonic power. The Banshee can use his
sonic powers to propel himself through the air in flight, to shatter
solid objects, to place human beings temporarily into a hypnotic trance,
or to cause human beings to fall temporarily unconscious.
Special limitations: Vocal cords susceptible to injury from excessive
strain in using sonic powers
