The First X-Men To Die In Battle Finally Admits It Was His Own Fault
Warning: contains spoilers for Giant-Size X-Men: Thunderbird #1!
The first X-Men to officially die in battle, Thunderbird, finally admits his untimely demise was his own fault. Though Marvel's mutant team is rather infamous for constantly dying and resurrecting in the modern era, such deaths were quite rare during the organization's early days. ButGiant-Sized X-Men: Thunderbird #1 tells a story that chronicles the life after the death and rebirth of Proudstar, and contains an important realization almost 50 years in the making.
Released in 1975, Giant-Sized X-Men #1 marked a new beginning for the X-Men franchise. The classic «first class» team was gone, and Professor X replaces them with an international team of mutants recruited from all over the world. He recruits Nightcrawler from Germany, Wolverine from Canada, Storm from Kenya, Sunfire from Japan, and may more. Among the others is a man from Camp Verde, Arizona named John Proudstar, a member of the Apache tribe living on a reservation armed with super-strength. Taking the name Thunderbird, Proudstar joins the X-Men — but his time on the team would be short-lived, as Thunderbird died while pursuing Count Nefaria in X-Men #95.
Related: The X-Men's Original Thunderbird Finally Gets His Own Giant-Sized Comic
Thunderbird would stay dead for almost 50 years, an eternity when compared to other superheroes (and especially other X-Men). He was finally resurrected properly at the end of 2021's The Trial of Magneto, and in Giant-Sized X-Men: Thunderbird #1, written by Steve Orlando & Nyla Rose with pencils by David Cutler, John Proudstar returns home after a long absence. «I was the first X-Men to die for Xavier,» he thinks to himself as he walks to his old reservation. «More
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