Most of us can see that in real life if you take the one thing a man treasures most away from him, chances are he'll either be real pissed off at the world, or live his life hurting others. Both can be said for James Proudstar, formerly known as Warpath. The thing James always treasured most was family and freinds, and the bastard writers at Marvel had to just take it all away from him. It started with his brother John Proudstar, when John began showing signs of a mutant ability for super-strength he was asked by Charles Xaiver to join the X-Men, but only to be killed on the teams first mission. James blamed his brothers death on the X-Men. Soon after James himself found that he was a mutant with the same powers as his late brother, he joined the Hellions, a group that were to be groomed to become the next Hellfire Club (A group of mutants who are enimes of the X-Men). Soon after realizing that his brothers death was not the fault of the X-Men, he quit the Hellions and went back home to Camp Verde, an Apache reservation in the deserts of Arizona. After returning home James found that the entire Apache tribe that had lived at Camp Verde were all massacred, and nothing but ruins remained of the place. Once again James placed the blame on the wrong people, this time it was on the Hellfire Club. James had thought that the Hellfire Club killed off his entire family as punishment for leaving the Hellions. But after searching them out once more, he had found that the Hellions had all suffered death as well at the hands of Trevor Fitzroy. James was then later found by Cable and The New Mutants. Cable offered James his help in finding the people responsible for the Camp Verde massacre in exchange for membership to X-Force. From there on James took his anger out on those who threaten the dream of peaceful co-existance with humans and mutants alongside X-Force.
Since the formation of X-Force, James has never left their side. He has always fought and bled with his teamates, never questioning thier loyalty and never turning the other way when they despratly need his help. One person in paticular to this fact would be Syrin, James' former love intrest. Together they have always shared each others problems and tried to help the other cope with them. Its no longer a relationship of respect, but that of one of great care, remaining only freinds the two still help the other out in great need, whether its Syrin with her alcoholism (X-Force #31)or James being seduced by Risque (X-Force #49)
This character has gone through quite a bit of changes since his first appearance. But it happens so slowly that you really don't notice it. James has no real arch-rival, and hardly any of the story arcs are dedicated to him, so hes mainly one to just hang in the background and never be noticed. But his absence from the team would be a grave mistake. I have few hopes for this character except that I really do wish he would grow his hair long again, and rely more on his strength than his other powers. Heres hoping that James Proudstar will find his "Warpath" again.
