Fictional Obituary: John Proudstar / Thunderbird, Marvel Comics (Comic spoilers: X-Men #95)

Fictional Obituary: John Proudstar / Thunderbird, Marvel Comics (Comic spoilers: X-Men #95) John Proudstar, the Apache veteran and member of the X-Men known as Thunderbird, died while attempting to prevent Count Nefaria from escaping after the attack on the North American air-defense installation at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. He was aboard Nefaria's aircraft when it exploded. His death came shortly after he joined the team. Proudstar came from Camp Verde, Arizona, where his family and community knew him long before he wore the X-Men's uniform. He had served in the United States Marine Corps and returned home with military experience, exceptional physical ability and considerable uncertainty about where his life should go next. His strength and endurance exceeded ordinary human limits. Those abilities were part of what brought him to the attention of Charles Xavier, who was assembling a rescue team after the original X-Men disappeared on the island of Krakoa. Proudstar accepted Xavier's invitation and traveled to New York, entering a household of people whose countries, languages and experiences differed substantially from his own. The rescue succeeded. Alongside the other recruits, Thunderbird helped bring the missing X-Men home. He remained when the emergency group began becoming a permanent team under Scott Summers, known as Cyclops. Proudstar did not settle quietly into the arrangement. He challenged decisions, argued with his teammates and resisted being treated as someone who should simply be grateful for a place in the group. His pride could make him difficult to lead. The others were still learning how to work with him, and he was still deciding how much of himself he could entrust to them. There was little time for those relationships to develop. The mission to Cheyenne Mountain followed soon after Krakoa. Nefaria and his associates had seized a military installation and threatened a catastrophe far beyond the people inside it. Thunderbird joined the effort to stop them and pursued Nefaria when the confrontation turned into an escape attempt. He climbed onto the departing aircraft and tried to disable it. Xavier urged him to get clear. Proudstar remained, and the plane exploded before his teammates could bring him to safety. For the X-Men, his death ended any assumption that their new strength as a group made each individual safe. They had survived Krakoa together. At Cheyenne Mountain, they lost someone whose place among them had barely begun to take shape. Cyclops was left to carry the loss as his commander, while Xavier faced the death of a young man he had personally recruited. Proudstar leaves his family, including his younger brother, James, and the community in Arizona from which his brief public life as Thunderbird had taken him. His remains were brought home. James's farewell belonged to their family and Apache heritage, beyond the uniforms and mission reports through which others would come to know his brother. Those who served with John will remember his physical courage, his impatience with condescension and the force with which he made himself heard. Those who knew him before the X-Men will have a longer memory of him than the world was given time to acquire. His service with the team was brief. His life extended well beyond it.