Lucas Bishop is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer John Byrne and artist Whilce Portacio, the character first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #282 (November 1991). Bishop belongs to a subspecies of human known as mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. Bishop has the ability to absorb and redirect energy.

Bishop debuted as a member of a mutant police force known as the Xavier's Security Enforcers (XSE), from a dystopian future of the Marvel Universe known as Earth-1191. Travelling back in time to capture a fugitive, he remained behind and joined the X-Men, a team he idolised from legends in the future. The character is often involved in storylines involving time-travel, including the Age of Apocalypse and Messiah Complex. His sister, Shard, also appears in the comics as a member of the X.S.E. and X-Factor.

Since his original introduction in comics, the character has been featured in various other Marvel-licensed products, including video games, animated television series, and merchandise. Omar Sy portrayed Bishop in the 2014 live-action feature film X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Creation During an interview Whilce Portacio discussed the creation of the character:

Visually Bishop was my John Ford days, the blue and yellow that's why the scarf, that's why the blue and the yellow and the high officer riding boots, it was all Cavalry... and this was the last element the Jheri curls and you got to remember Prince was big back then.

According to Portacio, he originally intended for Bishop to be Filipino like himself, using Efren Reyes and Gary Valenciano as inspirations for the character. However, editor Bob Harras asked for Bishop to be black instead, as many African American children sent fan mail to the X-Men office and Harras wanted a hero who could inspire these readers. Portacio agreed, remarking "understanding as a minority, I couldn't say no. I was already operating in the mood of being Pinoy, diba? Learning about our ugali. And that's another part of it. Pagbigyan, diba? (give it up, right?) there's always another time."

Publication history

1990s Bishop debuted in The Uncanny X-Men #282 (November 1991), created by Whilce Portacio and John Byrne. He appeared in the Bishop (1994–95) series, his first solo comic book series, in which he tracked and fought Mountjoy, in the 1995 X-Men: Alpha one-shot, the Onslaught: X-Men (June 1996) one-shot, XSE (November 1996-February 1997) series, which showcased his past (future), the sequel Bishop: Xavier's Security Enforcers (January–March 1998), his second solo comic book series, the eight-issue Gambit and Bishop: Sons of the Atom (2001) series, where he teamed up with Gambit to oppose Stryfe, and the Bishop: The Last X-Man (August 1999-January 2001) series, his third solo comic book series, in which he was trapped in another alternate timeline.

2000s Bishop appeared during the first volume of X-Treme X-Men (2001-2004), District X (2004–2005) series, a police procedural set in a mutant ghetto in New York City,, and its House of M counterpart, Mutopia X (2005-2006). He also featured during the X-Men: Messiah Complex crossover event, hunting Hope Summers and ending up stranded in the future. He featured in a three-issue miniseries titled X-Men: The Times and Life of Lucas Bishop (2009).

2010s Bishop reappears in Uncanny X-Force, and makes appearances in Uncanny X-Men and Astonishing X-Men, as well as the Age of X-Man event.

2020s Bishop appears throughout the comics of the Krakoan Age, notably in the Marauders series (2019-2022), the X-Men Legends series (2022–2023), and the Bishop: War College series (2023), his fourth solo comic book series. He also featured in the four-issue Children of the Vault miniseries (2023-2024) and Timeslide one-shot (2025), both alongside Cable. Bishop will appear in a five-issue limited series created by Saladin Ahmed and Mario Santoro.

Fictional character biography

Early life Bishop was born about 80 years in the future of the Marvel Universe. He was raised in a mutant concentration camp in the aftermath of the Summers Rebellion, an uprising in which mutants and humans joined forces to destroy the Sentinels. Bishop has a distinctive M brand over his right eye, used to identify mutants in his era. After his parents were killed, Bishop was taken in by a man named LeBeau, also called Witness, who was reportedly the last man to see the legendary X-Men alive. According to LeBeau, Bishop's adoptive grandmother took Bishop away from him. Bishop and his younger sister, Shard, were then subsequently raised by his grandmother within the same mutant concentration camp in Brooklyn.XSE #4

Bishop's grandmother taught him many legends of the X-Men, who were old allies of hers. Depowered by unknown means, she had entered the camps in secret to raise her grandchildren. Upon her deathbed, she made Bishop swear to protect Shard. After the Rebellion, the mutants were "emancipated" and sent out of the camps to fend for themselves. Bishop and Shard, who were only children, were left alone. They lived on the streets, stealing to survive until coming under the care of a family friend, a war veteran named Hancock. Slightly blind, Hancock nevertheless took on the task of raising the two.

One day, Bishop encountered an anti-human group of mutants called the Exhumes, who took Shard hostage just before the XSE arrived. Until that time, Bishop had admired the Exhumes, attributing to them his proud, idealized notion of the legendary X-Men. It wasn't until the XSE defeated the Exhume and saved his sister that Bishop knew he wanted to join the XSE. When Bishop was 15, Hancock was murdered by criminals who were promptly arrested by the XSE, and he and Shard enlisted in their ranks. Shard soon surpassed Bishop to become the youngest XSE officer.

During a training class, Bishop's instructors and some of his fellow students were attacked and killed. Bishop rallied the survivors and led the struggle against the assailants until reinforcements arrived. Bishop gradually climbs the ranks of the XSE until finally becoming their commander.

While on a mission to wipe out a nest of Emplates, mutant vampires that feed on bone marrow, Shard was critically injured. Bishop went to Witness for help. Witness, then imprisoned at the New York Stark Fujikawa building, agreed to transfer Shard's essence into a holographic matrix if Bishop would work for him for one year. Bishop agreed, leaving the XSE for a time. The details of Bishop's work during this period are unknown; Bishop appears reticent on the subject, later refusing to tell Shard of his actions.

Immediately upon his re-installment as a commander in the XSE, Bishop and his XSE group the "Omega Squad" captured Trevor Fitzroy, a murderous ex-XSE trainee in the ruins of the Xavier Institute War Room. While there, Bishop discovered a damaged recording of Jean Grey, in which she spoke of a traitor destroying the X-Men from inside. Haunted by his discovery, Bishop confronts Witness for details, but receives only a vague, ambiguous response, leaving him to suspect his former master of being more than simply a witness to the downfall of the X-Men.

Joining the X-Men Fitzroy escaped from prison and used a large amount of mutant life-force to open a time portal and break out 93 mutant criminal "Lifers" in the process. Bishop found himself in the past in the time of his heroes, the X-Men. Bishop and the Omega Squad eventually "sanctioned" the Lifers, but did not get Fitzroy. Bishop encountered the X-Men for the first time but did not believe that they were really the X-Men. He then battled them but later allied with the X-Men in trying to stop Fitzroy. Malcolm and Randall, the two members of his Omega Squad, died in the process.The Uncanny X-Men #282 Professor Charles Xavier offered him a place in the X-Men, and he was placed under Storm's tutelage. He fought and defeated Styglut.The Uncanny X-Men #287-288 When he met Gambit, Bishop recognized him as possibly a younger version of the Witness and fought him.X-Men #8

He soon met Mystique for the first time,The Uncanny X-Men #289-290 and alongside the X-Men he battled the MorlocksThe Uncanny X-Men #291-293 and the Death Sponsors.The Uncanny X-Men Annual #16 Bishop assigned himself the role of Xavier's personal bodyguard, which he failed at when Stryfe, the evil double of Cable, critically wounded Xavier. Initially, the X-Men believed that Cable was the would-be assassin, so Wolverine and Bishop tracked down Cable, but then travelled to Cable's "Graymalkin" space station and joined with him in finding Stryfe.X-Factor #84-86; X-Force #16-18; X-Men #14-16; The Uncanny X-Men #294-296 Citing his failure to protect Professor X, Bishop offered to resign from the X-Men. His resignation was rejected by Xavier, and then alongside the X-Men he battled the Acolytes.The Uncanny X-Men #298

Age of Apocalypse When Professor Xavier's insane son, the mutant Legion, went back in time to assassinate Magneto, Bishop was one of the X-Men sent to stop him.The Uncanny X-Men #320 When they failed and Legion accidentally killed Professor Xavier, Bishop was the only time-traveler to remain when history was altered and became the Age of Apocalypse.X-Men: Alpha one-shot He eventually convinced the Magneto of that era that the existence of this reality was wrong, and with a great amount of sacrifice, managed to correct the error and stop Legion.X-Men: Omega one-shot After the timeline reset itself, Bishop received some of his counterpart's unsettling memories of the Age of Apocalypse.X-Men: Prime one-shot

The traitor in the X-Men was eventually revealed to be Professor X in the form of Onslaught. Bishop's knowledge of the future was the only thing that stopped Onslaught from killing the X-Men. As Onslaught fired a massive blast of psionic energy at the distracted X-Men, Bishop threw himself in front of them and absorbed the blast that would have killed them. Onslaught, winded from such a massive attack, said that his blast was enough to kill a thousand mutants and "Another time, another place, I would have been proud". Bishop lost consciousness after absorbing the blast but soon recovered, although it was not enough to prevent Onslaught from nearly destroying all of humanity. He made peace with Gambit, who was not the traitor after all.Onslaught: X-Men one-shot

Following this, Bishop was captured by Trevor Fitzroy's henchmen and taken to a distant possible future, detailed in the Bishop: The Last X-Man series. He again faced Fitzroy, with Bishop eventually killing him. He was temporarily returned to the present by Apocalypse who needed him as one of The Twelve, before finally returning permanently during the Maximum Security crossover.Bishop:The Last X-Man #15 (Jan. 2000)

X-Treme X-Men Bishop was a founding member of Storm's splinter team of X-Men, whose mission was to search for the Books of Truth, the diaries of the precognitive mutant Destiny.X-Treme X-Men #1 They left against the will and knowledge of the main team, as the splinter group did not trust in Xavier or the others to use the diaries for the benefit of humanity.X-Treme X-Men #3

District X Bishop joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation. District X, or 'Mutant Town', had a high-population density. It was also a poverty-stricken area with high crime rates. Bishop was assigned to the area to resolve mutant-related crimes.District X #1 (2004)

Civil War