Neal Shaara

Superherobox|

caption=Thunderbird
Brett Booth, artist
character_name=Thunderbird
real_name=Neal Shaara
species=Human Mutant
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="X-Men" (v2) #100
creators=Chris Claremont
Leinil Francis Yu
alliances=X-Men X-Corporation
aliases=
powers=Generation of superheated plasma|

Neal Shaara, also known as Thunderbird, is a Marvel Comics superhero, who was briefly a member of the X-Men. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Leinil Francis Yu, he first appeared in "X-Men" #100 (May 2000).

An Indian pyrokinetic, he has no connection to the previous X-Men characters called Thunderbird. He is a vegan and was originally intended to be called Agni, after the Hindu god of fire.

Fictional character biography

Early life

Neal Shaara comes from an affluent family in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, where his father is the city's chief of police. When his journalist brother Sanjit disappeared, Neal decided to investigate, against his parents' wishes. Neal was shadowed by his father's best detective Karima Shapandar, and when Karima had to save him from a group of thugs, the two fell in love and began a romantic relationship, looking together for Neal's missing brother.

Karima turned into a Prime Sentinel

They were ultimately captured by the villain Bastion, who planned to turn them into Prime Sentinels as he had already done to Sanjit. Unlike his plans however, the shock of the transformation caused his latent mutant powers to manifest, the power to generate and control solar plasma and heat.

Sanjit was able to disable the other Sentinels, fighting with his programming, but was fatally wounded in the attempt. Karima told Neal to leave her, as her own transformation process was beginning, and she would surely kill him when she could no longer fight the programming.

Joining The X-Men

Neal was now lost, alone and with strange powers that he neither comprehended or wanted. Neal contacted Moira MacTaggert, an old friend of his family, and soon arrived on Muir Island, and he met the X-Men, although he did not know that when he first saw them. Later, the X-Men revealed themselves, when they used their powers to stop Cable when his T.O. (techno-organic) virus ran out of control. Although frightened at first, Neal would later join the team as Thunderbird.

Psylocke

While with the X-Men, he struggled with the same difficulty the X-Men's Havok did years before - his fear of killing or hurting someone with his incredibly powerful plasma. Not only that, but he also fell in love with the X-Man Psylocke, even though she was in a relationship with Archangel. The two would break up and Psylocke was free to pursue a romantic relationship with Thunderbird.

X-Treme X-Men

A short while, Thunderbird and five other X-Men formed a splinter group of X-Men (dubbed the X-Treme X-Men), cutting all ties with the rest of the team whilst searching for Destiny's Diaries. Psylocke would die at the hands of Vargas, leaving behind a grief-stricken Neal.

For a time he was seen working with Lucas Bishop, another mutant with energy-related powers, in an attempt to overcome his fears and gain greater control over his powers. During this time, it was revealed that his plasma, however powerful, could not burn through adamantium, a testament to the metal's already impressive durability.

Lifeguard

Some time after, Neal started a relationship with Heather Cameron, who was also known as Lifeguard. He and her brother Davis (who would become Slipstream) joined the off-shoot group of the X-Men. After the inter-dimensional Invasion at Madripoor by the villain Khan, Thunderbird and Lifeguard left to search for her brother Slipstream, who left the team.

X-Corporation

Neal and Heather would later be seen as a member of the X-Corporation, although Slipstream was nowhere to be seen. However this was short-lived as there was a synchronized attack on several of the X-Corporation offices after the catastrophic events of M-Day, leading Cyclops to call for the disbanding of all offices. If they aborted their search for Slipstream, or did find him, is as of yet unknown.

Current status

In the 198 files, he is one of the few mutants to retain their powers after the events of House of M.

Powers and abilities

Thunderbird has the ability to convert ambient energy into superheated plasma and project it as focused blasts, flashes, or explosive spheres . He can also use his power to generate sufficient propulsive thrust to fly at subsonic speeds. In his initial appearances, Shaara was relatively unskilled in the use of his powers, but received further training from Psylocke and Bishop.