The X-Men are technically part of the Marvel Universe, but those of us who have been around for a while know that they basically are their own superhero universe (which is why it was such a big deal selling their film rights back in the day). This began in the 1980s, when creators like Chris Claremont, Louise Simonson, and the various artists they worked with started creating heroes and villains, populating the growing family of titles. By the time that decade ended, there were five ongoing titles – Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, Wolverine, New Mutants, and Excalibur – as well as numerous miniseries and one-shots, and they all needed characters. The ’90s would see even more titles added to the mix, with the line usually topping out at nine books on top of the miniseries. That’s a lot of pages to fill.
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The ’90s were all about the X-Men, so Marvel creators were constantly creating new characters, including Bishop. This mutant from the future was a tried and true type of character – come from a terrible future where he knows the broad strokes but not the exact events and is more violent because he grew up tough – and he was everything readers wanted. However, his future was never all that fleshed out, something that would be fixed when his sister Shard started appearing. Most fans don’t even remember her and Marvel bringing her back in Bishop (Vol. 2) is something of a surprise. Shard is a better character than all that, though, and her return has been a long time coming.
Shard Was the Only Link to One of Marvel’s Least Defined Alternate Futures
Bishop’s future first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #282. It was a rather standard X-Men future dytopia, definitely inspired by “Days of Future Past” (it was scripted by John Byrne, so that makes sense), with Bishop as a member of the X.S.E., which seemed like a mutant police agency going after mutant villains. That was pretty much all we knew about his future, other than the fact that the X-traitor story line was related to it somehow. We’d get glimpses here and there, with his sister first appearing as a hologram in Uncanny X-Men Annual #17 and a year later would make her first full appearance in 1994’s Uncanny X-Men #314.
Bishop and Shard were raised by their grandmother 80 years in the future (I’m not sure if this is Marvel sliding scale 80 years or 80 from 1991), taking to the streets after her death and eventually joining the Xavier Security Enforcers, a militarized version of the X-Men working to fulfill Xavier’s dream in a dark future. The two of them would train with the X.S.E., with Shard developing the power to absorb and control photons energy. She became a star in the organization, becoming the youngest field leader, but it ended in tragedy.
She was tricked by her boyfriend Trevor Fitzroy into becoming an Emplate – mutant energy vampires – and Bishop killed her. However, he was able to absorb her essence, which he kept in a bracelet on his wrist. Eventually, he popped her into Cerebro and she would end as a photonic lifeform thanks to her powers. She ended up fighting alongside her brother and joining X-Factor, becoming a main focus of the book because of the villain Greystone and would end up dead in 2000’s Bishop: The Last X-Man #14.
Shard is an important part of Bishop’s past. He chased Fitzroy into the past because of his actions against her and she holds a somewhat important spot in the history of the original X-Factor, one of the most storied X-teams. Her old appearances were fine – I preferred her when she was a member of X-Factor when Forge was the team’s leader more than I did when she was dealing with stuff that related to her future later in the book – and her upcoming return is rather tantalizing for fans who waited years for her return.
What was your favorite Shard story? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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