Bishop (Lucas Bishop) is the first Black member of
the
X-Men after
Storm which makes him the first Black male member of the X-Men. He joined the team after having traveled back more than 80 years from the then current X-Men's future. He had endured a great deal to become a hero, suffering mutant racism, and poverty. He was actually born in a mutant concentration camp and still wears the genetic brand of a big letter "M" covering half of his face. He proved to be a relatively popular X-Men character though he never achieved the status necessary to maintain his own comic book for more than a miniseries. He appeared in one of the
X-Men animated series and even achieved the distinction of being the first Black comic book character on the cover of
Wizard magazine.
Bishop's mutant power is the ability to absorb, store, and release many forms of energy. He has been known to use that energy to enhance his strength, endurance, and durability. He has a military background from his training in the future and is trained in multiple forms of combat both with and without weapons. His spotty knowledge of the future has also helped to him to save lives and conquer his opponents. He has always been rough around the edges but definitely a good soldier and field leader.
I'm was never a fan of his flowing, (not dread), locks and was happy to seem him finally sport a more clean look. While he could be seen as an angry Black man, his reasons for being angry seemed to be much more about him being a persecuted mutant than anything else. Bishop always had an agenda he didn't share with anyone else and through all his incarnations the fact that he was Black was always clear though he never really seemed to speak of it. Bishop is deep, conflicted, and complicated, which is a good thing and will likely serve him well as an ongoing character of
Marvel Comics.
Maggot (real name Japheth) was one of the X-Men I never got. He's South African and his mutant power is the fact that his digestive system leaves his body in the form of a couple of slugs (hence the name), to consume food. These slugs can apparently eat anything and after feeding they return to his body and provide him with nourishment and some added strength and agility. He actually has to do this to survive because it's the only way he can digest food. Oh yeah, when his strength and agility is enhanced he turns blue.
