bishop

Name: Bishop

Aliases: None

Known relatives: Shard (sister/deceased - exists as a photon-based life-form), grandmother (deceased)

Place of birth: A mutant relocation camp in an undisclosed location on an alternate 21st Century Earth

Height: 6'6"

Weight: 275 lbs.

Eyes: White

Sometimes red

Hair: Black

Known Powers: Bishop is a mutant with the power to absorb and redirect all forms of energy.

Current affilition: Bishop is currently allied with a group of young mutants in a possible future time-line

Previous affiliations: X.S.E (Xavier's Security Enforcers), X-Men, Team X, the Twelve

Base of operations: Mobile

First appearance: X-MEN #282

History: Born roughly seventy years into one of Earth's alternate futures, Bishop grew up in a dark and desolate world - where human/mutant segregation followed a long period of Sentinel oppresion. Bishop and his younger sister, Shard, was born in a mutant concentration camp and orphaned at an early age. They were raised by their grandmother, and later, a family friend named Hancock.

Shortly after the manifestation of his powers, Bishop attracted the attention of the Xavier Security Enforcers, a group who embodied the legacy of the X-Men. The X.S.E was founded in the aftermath of The Summers Rebellion, when humans and mutants joined forces to overthrow the tyranny of the Sentinels, in the belief that mutants should police themselves. Bishop's bravery and skill was recognized by X.S.E officers, and he was offered a place at the X.S.E Academy. He accepted their offer, on the grounds that they allowed his sister to attend the academy as well.

Bishop's skills as a leader, detective, and combatant served him well at the academy, and he quickly began to stand out among even the best cadets, including a young Trevor Fitzroy. He was the youngest graduate in the academys history, until his sister took the same honor a year later. Shard later became her brothers commanding officer after he refused any promotion above Squad Commander, prefering to remain on street duty. This was a cause of friction between the siblings, with Shard feeling that people would always see her as nothing more than Bishops little sister. The situation came to a head when Bishop was asked to evaluate a prototype sentinant hologram developed by Stark/Fujikawa. Despite his sisters involvment, Bishops critisism of the project resulted in the withdrawal of X.S.E funding.

Bishop was later forced to return to Stark/Fujikawa after Shard was ambushed by Emplates and turned into one of them. Realising that she could not be cured, Bishop volunteered her memories to be encoded into the holomatrix, effectively killing her body. In order to pay for this procedure, Bishop agreed to do mercenary work for the Witness for a year. The Witness, a man named LeBeau, was a known associate of the X-Men, and was rumoured to have been the last person to have seen them alive.

Bishops first mission upon returning to the X.S.E. was to capture Trevor Fitzroy, who he supplied the information that led to Shards ambush. While pursuing Fitzroy, Bishop and his two best officers, Malcolm and Randall, found a videotaped message of Jean Grey, wherin she claimed that the X-Men had been killed by a traitor. With this startling descovery, Bishop returned to Stark/Fujikawa, where he tried unsuccessfully to get the truth from the Witness.

Meanwhile, Fitzroys arrest seemed sure to lead to a conviction, but using his ability to syphon life-energy to create temporal portals, he escaped from prison, taking nearly 100 other prisoners with him. Bishop's squad followed Fitzroy through his portal in order to apprehend them but found themselves a century in the past, in the midst of a battle between the refugee mutants and the X-Men.

Bishop initially doubted the X-Men for who they were, beleiving that they were imposters. But after Randall and Malcolm were killed in a skirmish with the renegade criminals, he was later convinced of their authenticity and joined their ranks, hoping to prevent the actions of a traitor to the team, which he assumed to be Gambit.

Bishop was also the only X-Man to live through the so-called "Age of Apocalypse," and it was his knowledge of the true timeline that allowed the heroes of that reality to set time right again.

Bishop soon descovered that the traitor he had beleived to have been Gambit, was actually Onslaught - a sentinent being born from aspects of Charles Xaviers and Magnetos personalities. It was Bishop's presence in the battle with Onslaught that may have prevented his future from coming to pass, as his energy-absorbing abilities took the brunt of a lethal blast and saved the X-Men from certain doom.

While it took time for him to adjust to the present era, and to actually living among the legends of his youth, seeing them as the humans they were and not the near-mythic figures they had become in his time, Bishop learned to live in the moment and was a key member of the X-Men family.

After the X- Men saved the Shi'ar Empire from the Phalanx, Bishop was "saved" by Deathbird when their ship was destroyed. Believing the other X-Men to be dead, Deathbird kept Bishop in paralysis until she was convinced that he loved her the way she professed to love him. Bishop was then stranded with his would-be lover on a trader's planet, having missed the opportunity to use a local stargate before it was destroyed. Whether or not Bishop returned Deathbird's feelings wasn't definite. The two happened upon a Stargate and went through it, but ended up in the future on an Earth controlled by the Shi'ar. The daughter of Lilandra and Professor X, a telepath of tremendous power, had killed most of the heroes, including her father, and annexed the Earth to her Empire. The few surviving heroes had formed Team X and operated out of the old Alley. With Bishop's help they attacked the Shi'ar and Deathbird fought her future niece and paralyzed her. Then Bishop and Deathbird were sent back to their own time.

Unfortunately for Bishop, Deathbird betrayed him when they happened upon the inert form of The Living Monolith floating in space. Intrigued by the human mutagenic signature coming from this "asteroid," Bishop didn't notice Deathbird pull a gun on him. He awoke back on Earth and, confused, made his way back to the Mansion, only to find that the X-Men had been disbanded. He took this oppurtunity to find his sister, and found her a broken mess in a charnel house created by Fitzroy. Before they could reminisce any further, Fitzroy's new Chronotroopers appeared from the future and attacked. During the fight Bishop was knocked out and transported to the future Fitzroy now resided in. He was taken in by some young mutants, who remembered the legends of "The Last X-Man" told to them by their leader, Witness (future Gambit). Sadly, though, Fitzroy learned of their location and destroyed the camp. Bishop assumed command of the surviors, and had them switch the M they painted on their faces to an X.