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Superhero cartoons began in 1992, starting with the superlative “Batman: The Animated Series” and “X-Men.” The latter even killed the shapeshifting superhero Morph (Ron Rubin) in his pilot, “Night of the Sentinels”, to show that the X-Men’s fights had life and death stakes. Compare the 1980s cartoon “The Transformers,” which had to wait for a spin-off to kill off Optimus Prime.
Morph, loosely based on the obscure X-Men character Changeling, was an unexpected choice to appear in animation. It is because he was not the first choice for the X-Men’s victim. In previous versions, Thunderbird/John Proudstar died fighting the Sentinels, as “X-Men” story editor Eric Lewald explained in his book “Previously in X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series.”
It was a choice with a comical story behind it; Thunderbird died in “X-Men” #95, the second issue of writer Chris Claremont’s titanic 16-year run of “X-Men.” The cartoon would essentially do the same trick that “X-Men” #95 did in 1975, that is, kill off one of the main actors to provide real stakes. So why not adapt the death of Thunderbird as well?
Because, as Lewald’s book explains, someone in production suggested that killing off the only Native American character would be in poor taste. So, with the help of series director (and walking Marvel encyclopedia) Larry Houston, Lewald chose another long-dead X-Man, Changeling (renamed “Morph” because the DC character Beast Boy had taken the Changeling name).
“I liked [Morph] much better for the role since Thunderbird was an angry badass, too similar to Wolverine,” Lewald wrote. While Wolverine called the good-natured Morph “the only one who could do [him] laugh, “presumably his friendship with Thunderbird would have been a feather in the cap. Oddly enough, this overlap with Wolverine is what made Thunderbird at the time.
Thunderbird was the X-Man who was supposed to die for the first time in Night of the Sentinels
The original “X-Men” comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were a bit of a failure. The characters looked like B-grade Fantastic Four, the stories didn’t break out, and the book was outright canceled from 1970 to 1975 (issues #67-93 were reprints of old issues). When writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum rebooted the X-Men, they formed a new team that debuted in the very long issue “Giant-Size X-Men” #1.
The X-Men of “Second Genesis” were an international team – the comics’ first embrace of true diversity. Wein reused his co-creation, the Canadian superhero Wolverine, and two previously introduced mutants: the Irish Banshee and the Japanese Sunfire. Wein and Cockrum also co-created Colossus from Soviet Russia, Storm from Africa, Nightcrawler from Germany, and Thunderbird, part of the Native American Apache tribe.
Thunderbird was a hothead with a chip on his shoulder because of the discrimination his people have faced since the colonization of America. He has threatened to time Professor X and is only goaded into joining the X-Men when Xavier calls him a coward if he doesn’t. When Claremont (along with Wein’s co-plot) and Cockrum began creating a team dynamic for an ongoing series, they realized that Thunderbird’s angry characterization was redundant. In Wizard Magazine’s 1993 special “X-Men Turn Thirty” issue, Cockrum explained:
“Unfortunately, we created [Thunderbird] like an obnoxious loudmouth, and we already had an obnoxious loudmouth in Wolverine. So one of us [Wein, according to Claremont] After all, I decided to kill him, just for shock value. The only thing I regretted about killing him was that he wore such a smart suit!”
It probably didn’t help that Thunderbird’s enhanced senses were also similar to Wolverine’s, but without Logan’s unique adamantium claws.
The legacy of Thunderbird and Morph in X-Men
So, Thunderbird sacrificed his life in “X-Men” #95. The X-Men battle the evil Count Nefaria, who attempts to escape on a jet plane. Thunderbird jumps into the plane and, when it explodes, is caught in the inferno and killed.
Marvel Comics
Remarkably, this tone-setting death endured, but Thunderbird was not forgotten. In 1984, Claremont and artist Sal Buscema introduced James Proudstar/Warpath, Thunderbird’s brother, to avenge his brother’s death on Professor X.
Thunderbird also appeared as X-Man in the 1981 cartoon “Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.” Although he didn’t get his doomed lead role in “X-Men,” he made appearances, even appearing in the title sequence as one of Magneto’s minions. (Houston included it here for “balance,” according to Lewald.) Yet Thunderbird remained dead for nearly 50 years of publication, only returning in the 2021 “Trial of Magneto” storyline.
Morph’s disappearance turned out to be much more temporary. He returned in season 2, resurrected by the evil Mister Sinister (Christopher Britton). However, when “Night of the Sentinels” was written, Morph’s death was supposed to be real. The show’s creative team had killed off Morph to set the stakes and were proud of the decision, Lewald explained in his book. Then, while writing Season 2, the “X-Men” team received a call from Fox Kids Vice President Sidney Iwanter. It turned out that most of the kids had named Morph as their favorite X-Man, so the network wanted him back on the show. “We made him too likable! Or maybe he stood out as a buffoon among a team of intense fighters for good,” Lewald speculated.
In the “X-Men ’97” revival series, Morph is back full-time and even gets his own action plan in the title sequence. Perhaps Thunderbird can also get a long-overdue starring role.
