Good day, readers. It's with great excitement that I, your host Raffi, introduce a new weekly topic called The Weekly Z-Lister. Each week I'll give readers a run down on the most obscure comic book characters. Whether they simply never stuck to public eye or they were killed as soon as they were introduced. The latter referring to this week's Z-Lister, Thunderbird!
John Proudstar was a mutant who grew up on a reservation in Camp Verde, Arizona. As a teenager he discovered his mutant abilities, as a young man he was drafted into the Vietnam War and as a returning soldier he was invited to join The X-Men, a group of superpowered people much like himself. However, John was too confident and brash, often butting heads with their leader Cyclops. During his second mission with the X-Men he disobeyed a direct order and attempted to pummel a helicopter to pieces in mid-air. This resulted in the helicopter exploding and Thunderbird dying in the process. His brother Warpath would later join the X-Men to avenge his brother.
Thunderbird was introduced to the X-Men during a time when comic book creators wanted to show more diversity among characters. Along with this Native American mutant, German, African, Canadian, Russian, Japanese and Irish mutants were added to the team. Obviously presenting more flare and character, these mentioned mutants stuck around for years. However, there must always be a sacrifice in the vein of good story telling. Thunderbird wasn't killed off because of his race or lack luster powers (he was pretty much Wolverine with no claws). He was killed off to show readers that among a cast of outcasted characters there is always one person who can't emotionally amount to his gifts. Thunderbird served as a reminder to readers that not every superhero team is a family soup opera, sometimes they are stories of fallen soldiers and birds incapable of flying.
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