WARPATH: Page 4 of 5

Publication Date: 11th Sep 2014
Written By: Peter Luzifer, Monolith and Gremlin.
Image Work: Peter Luzifer and Gremlin.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY - Page 4 

After their teammate, Sunspot, got his assets unfrozen, X-Force ended their time on the road and permanently took up residence at a warehouse in San Francisco, California. Sometime after setting up their new home, James had a startling encounter with Tarot,  one of his old teammates from the Hellions who was supposed to be dead. Her mysterious warnings about the future were an omen, as X-Force came into conflict with a new group of Hellions, whom Tarot was somewhat reluctantly working with. Two other former friends, Magma and Feral, were also working with the Hellions. Tarot's lover and team leader, King Bedlam, had a plan to use a mutant known as the Armageddon Man to blackmail the US government for a large sum of money. X-Force successfully routed the Hellions and got the Armageddon Man back into stasis, but not before Feral lashed out at Siryn, severing her vocal chords with her claws. After the doctors told her she may never speak again, Theresa decided to take some time off to herself, in order to cope with her loss. As she went, she left Jimmy a note thanking him for his friendship and letting him know that his influence was the only thing which kept her from going back to the bottle. [X-Force (1st series) #87-91]

A few months later, Warpath was reunited with Risque, but it happened in the middle of a crisis. X-Force were busy fighting the Demon Bear and, while it was obvious that Risque still had feelings for James, there was no time for them to discuss things through. [X-Force (1st series) #99-100] Whether James and Risque sorted things out after the fight has yet to be revealed, but whatever decision they reached, she did not stay with him in San Francisco.

Only days later, the High Evolutionary unleashed a reverse-mutagen wave over the entire world, completely robbing every mutant on Earth of their powers. Though the effect was eventually reversed, X-Force was left feeling particularly vulnerable after Cannonball nearly lost his life when the wave swept over the Earth. [X-Force (1st series) #101]

Feeling as if they had been adrift without a purpose in life for too long, Cannonball and Jesse Bedlam contacted former intelligence agent and Excalibur member Pete Wisdom, who they had recently gone on a mission with in Genosha. Wisdom offered to turn X-Force back into an elite strike force, seeking out and putting a stop to covert evils committed  on mutants in the "shadow worlds" of international intelligence fields. Proudstar, Cannonball, Bedlam and Meltdown agreed to work with Pete under this new parameter, and he began training them in new tactical skills and uses for the mutant powers. It seems the activation and removal of the High Evolutionary's effect had "rebooted" the genetic codes of mutantkind, allowing some of X-Force to access aspects of their mutation that were previously unknown to them. In Jimmy's case, it turned out that he had apparently been limiting himself to the abilities of his late brother but, under Wisdom’s training, his strength level apparently increased to some degree and he developed the power to fly under his own command. [X-Force (1st series) #106-109]

After uncovering a deep-rooted Russian conspiracy, X-Force faked their own deaths to go underground and anonymously take out anti-mutant organizations and targets. They were successful for a few months before they were found again, only to fake their deaths once more. The team’s undercover status turned out to be a weakness, though, for some new organization consisting of mutants that wanted to get rich and famous thought the name up for grabs. After buying legal rights to use “X-Force“ as their name, this group went public and soon became popular. By the time the original X-Force learned of this, coming out of hiding and confronting the new guys about the name and violating the original concept behind the team, it was already too late. Apparently, the original X-Force disbanded after this, retreating from their recent hardcore offensive stance on mutant issues. [X-Force (1st series) #113, 115, 117]

James was next seen accompanying Siryn to the funeral of her friend Deadpool (who was resurrected shortly afterwards). Afterwards, both of them joined the newly formed X-Corporation, an extension of Xavier’s X-Men with offices all over the world. For some reason, Theresa and James ended up in different branches. While she became a member of the European branch stationed in Paris, Warpath was in Mumbai, India, helping to run the X-Corporation office in that area. James’ former lover, Risque, also served the X-Corporation but in the Hong Kong branch, where she was tragically killed on duty soon thereafter. [Deadpool (2nd series) #61, New X-Men (1st series) #133]

Warpath was later recruited away from his X-Corp duties by Cable, in order to deal with the coming menace of the Skornn. This reformed X-Force squad confronted the Skornn in brutal combat in New York City, and only succeeded in driving it off through Cable's self-sacrifice. [X-Force (2nd series) #2-3]

X-Force stayed together for a short while but disbanded when M-day hit and the mutant race was reduced to a fraction of its previous size. Warpath was one of the few mutants who managed to retain their powers and so he traveled to the X-Mansion for protection. One of the many ramifications of the mass depowering was that Gabriel Summers, aka Vulcan, had woken up from years of suspended animation.  After attacking the X-Men, he set off into space to take the fight to the Sh’iar, whom he saw as being responsible for the death of his mother and his enslavement as a child. Professor Xavier decided to take a team into space to stop Vulcan from doing any harm and causing an intergalactic war. At the time, Xavier was on a path to redemption due to some of his past decisions and he chose Warpath to join him on the team, as no one had ever hated him more than James did.

After collecting the rest of the team, they headed into space. James was mainly used as the team’s muscle, as he would often have to fight various Sh’iar guards, as well as the occasional Skrull. When the Sh’iar prisoner Korvus joined the team in their quest, Warpath took an instant dislike to him, as he felt he couldn’t be trusted. Vulcan staged a coup on the Sh’iar Empire by dethroning Lilandra and marrying her older sister, Deathbird. After teaming up with the Starjammers, the X-Men attacked Vulcan head on, but the fight was brutal. Xavier was gravely wounded and so Lilandra rigged his ship to teleport him to safety. James and a few of his team members were on board when the ship made the jump back to Earth, leaving the rest to continue the fight out in space. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #475-487]

One of the group which had returned to Earth was the alien Hepzibah. Her husband, Corsair, had been killed by Vulcan during the final fight and she was now grieving for her fallen lover. In the weeks after they returned to Earth, Warpath and Hepzibah grew closer.  He would often help her out with adjusting to life on Earth, such as being there when she was feeling down about Corsair. One day when they were both training, they were interrupted by the arrival of the injured Caliban. They discovered that he was attacked by some of his fellow Morlocks, so Warpath took a small team into the Morlock tunnels to discover that had happened. After discovering a train full of deformed people, they knew they were dealing with Masque. On a second excursion into the tunnels, Warpath and the team ended up being captured by the villain but they eventually broke free and thwarted his plans to orchestrate a huge terrorist attack. One of the silver linings to the ordeal was that Hepzibah was able to confront her feelings for James and she told him she wanted to enter into a relationship with him. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #487-491]

When the first mutant child after M-Day was born, there were many factions who wanted to get their hands on her. It was an all out war as the X-Men, Purifiers and Mister Sinister fought each other in a bid to find her. The O.N.E. Sentinels that had been guarding the X-Mansion since M-Day were corrupted by nannites and sent to attack the X-Men. Warpath, having never trusted the Sentinels, was more than happy to dispatch the giant mutant-killing robots. Afterwards, the X-Men learned that Cable was in possession of the baby but was on the run. Cyclops decided it was time to set X-Force up again and Warpath was enlisted to the team. This version had the specific purpose of tracking down Cable and the baby and bringing them back in. Wolverine, who was leading the team, was wary of Warpath’s allegiance, as he knew that he had strong ties to Cable. Warpath explained that, even though he wanted to help Cable, he knew that the baby was the key to saving their species, so the mission would come first.

Cable was eventually tracked down to the Canadian wilderness, where he was fighting against Lady Deathstrike and her Purifiers. X-Force caught up with them and jumped into the fight. However, Caliban was killed when he jumped into the line of fire to save Warpath’s life. The grief stricken Warpath wasted no time in killing the Purifier who murdered his friend. The baby was later kidnapped by the Marauders and taken to Muir Island for Mister Sinister. The X-Men arrived, saved the baby and then gave her back to Cable so he could take her into the future to raise himself. [Messiah Complex]

After the dust settled, the first thing Warpath did was to take Caliban’s body to Camp Verde, and buried him alongside the rest of his tribe. The X-Men had disbanded and were scattered across the globe. Warpath, Hepzibah and a few others ended up in San Francisco, where they were caught in a city-wide illusion cast by Lady Mastermind. After Cyclops and a few others broke everyone free, it was decided to set up the X-Men in San Francisco, where the city was more tolerant to mutants. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #495-499]