Hi, I'm an X-Men fan and during the past year I've read every Uncanny X-Men book, most of X-Men vol 2 (Legacy), and a bunch of other X-related titles. I was wondering about the appeal of Bishop. He started off interesting to me, but then he became a background character that felt like an average 90s character. Are there any stories I missed? What should I read? I want to like him, but he always came off as bland and not someone the writer(s) cared about.

By worldofblackheroes

Summary

Far in the future Burnum and Kadee Bishop escape Australia before the country is bombarded with nuclear missiles. In New York they are apprehended by sentinels and sent to a concentration Camp. Here Lucas Bishop is born right before his grandmother arrives at the camp before his sister shard is born. The branding process is then initiated and he and his family are branded. Throughout it all he his grandmother regales them with tales of the glory days of the X-men, M-day caused by the Scarlet Witch and the birth of Hope Summers. Soon after the summer’s rebellion begins and both Kadee and Burnus Bishop are killed and Bishop loses track of his Grandmother and sister Shard. He escapes to the streets and becomes a thief to survive. One day he runs into an aged Gambit at the end.

The Good

Cover-Gorgeous illustration of Bishop with his new Bionic arm with shadowy figures from his past in the background

Bishop- We finally find out why Bishop Hates hope Summers so much and get the details on the details of his tragic and highly traumatic past.

Family- Introduction of Bishops parentsKadee and Burnus has been a long time coming

Traumatic- One thing was made abundantly clear Bishop valued his family above all else and the trauma of losing his parents and growing up in a concentration camp was made abundantly clear.

The Bad

Art- You may have noticed this issue is unfortunately drawn by Larry Stroman who illustrates the most hideous and formless characters this side of Gianluca Gugliotta (who drew both Klaws of the Panther and the dreadful Mister Terrific). Vomit inducing visuals all across this book. Facial features contort in strange and inhuman ways or pages that are plain unintelligible just mire a book that already has the weight of the world on it’s shoulders.

Makes no sense- Ok this first issue presented us with Bishop’s past and I understand why he would hate the mutant Messiah Hope Summers since her killing of a million humans initiated the resurrection of Mutant concentration camps. What makes no sense is that the writer has retroactively made Bishop aware that the Scarlet Witch would have de-powered mutants resulting in the need for the messiah in the first place. This leaves Bishop as a character highly illogical; to prevent his future then all he would have needed was to kill the Scarlet Witch thus preventing de-powerment and negating the need for the existence of a Mutant Messiah. This Retcon also removes the importance of the “traitor” storyline; for those who don’t know Bishop initially hated Gambit because he was supposedly the last person to see the X-men alive and he was supposedly the traitor who caused the deaths of the X-men. Bishop’s main purpose in the 90’s was to prevent the traitor from destroying the x-men. Now this was prevented when Bishop saved the X-men from an assault from the villain Onslaught. After that Bishop journeyed to space etc and was most recently just a mutant cop. The beauty of Bishop initially is that he knew so little of the past it was easy to blindside him. Now if Bishop knew as much about the past as this story suggests then he could have stopped so many things from happening but didn’t because he was just plain dumb or didn’t care enough! This was bad writing!

Another problem? The Summer’s rebellion is started by Cyclops and his daughter Ruby Summers daughter of Emma Frost. Um….why wouldn’t Bishop Kill either Scott or Emma immediately to prevent their child from causing this event is beyond me! + The writing in X-men has assumed Bishop was caught off guard by the events unfolding around him but there was no red flag when Scott and Emma Started sharing a bed? CRAP WRITING! CRAPPY SENSELESS RETCON!!

Who’s his grandmother?- I’ve seen the debate rage all across CBR that Storm is confirmed as Bishops grandmother here. Really? An old black woman with brown eyes and white hair is Storm? Really? So we assume any black woman with white hair in a comic book is automatically Storm? Yeah and your brain leaked out your fingers as you spread that $hit over the internet right? NOWHERE IN THIS COMIC IS THE GRANDMOTHER GIVEN A NAME OR ALLUDED TO BEING STORM.NOWHERE! This miniseries is meant to retcon Bishop’s original past so NO his grandmother is no longer stated or implied to have been an X-man!

Assumptions- Ok IF we assume Storm is the white haired woman she is the one who plants the biggest seeds in Bishop’s mind to hate Hope. If this is our Stormand she sought out Bishop in hopes of preventing this time from occurring why not tell him to just off the scarlet witch and prevent the need for a mutant messiah all together?

If Storm is his biological grandmother did she do the deed with old man Gateway to have his son, Burnus? Or is Kadee her daughter with the Black Panther? Thus making Bishop a descendant and heir to both the wakandan and Kenyan royal thrones? IF she is Kadee’s mother who was the father?

Further Assumption- Oh Jesus! If we continue to presume that this is Storm and the man at the end is Gambit…how are they still alive 80 years into the future and they are already in their mid-early thirties? At least Cyclops survived by becoming a cyborg and his daughter doesn’t age while she’s in her ruby form?

Retc0n of a retcon- The last time we see this world is in X-factor and there Bishop states while still in the concentration Camp both his parents are dead….now they both live through the camp and die at the end? within months this writer retcon’s a retcon! Oh hell!

For a series which was to answer all the questions relating to bishop it raises for too many!

The Ugly

As they say, it can’t get much worse than this can it? Stay far far away from this one BH fans, especially if you’re a fan of Bishop! 1.5/5

Have you read the original series for Bishop??? It's a four issue series. Then there are are three other series where he is the protagonist( The Last X-Man, The Mountjoy Crisis, and Xavier Security Enforcer).

Cool