SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Astonishing X-Men #9 by Charles Soule, Matteo Buffgani, Giada Marchisio and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.

Bishop remained in the present day under a number of different roles, most notably as a police officer for the NYPD whose beat was the newly emerged Mutant Town neighbourhood. When the first mutant baby was born post-M Day, Bishop believed the child would grow up to doom mutantkind. He chased Cable and the child further and further into the future in an attempt to kill her and remove that possibility. He later joined Storm and Psylocke’s LA based X-Force and helped them fight Cassandra Nova. Regretful for his actions, he even made his piece with Hope Summers and attempted to atone for his sins.

Ends of the Worlds

Since Bishop joined the Astonishing X-Men, it’s been hinted that he has access to knowledge of the end of the world, and the most recent issue confirmed it. He now has a database on his wrist with knowledge and data of all the signposts that point towards various possible apocalypse scenarios. In this case, the green sun caused by Proteus is indicative of the Mindkiller Apocalypse, which isn’t a lot to go on but it gives the X-Men something to work with regarding the severity of the threat Proteus’ causes.

A great storytelling device within Astonishing X-Men, it’s kind of too interesting to remain a background detail in a team book. Bishop has been a leading man before, and this new mission of his is the perfect jumping off point for him to become one again. Marvel has once again become a bit more experimental with who gets ongoings or even miniseries; just look at this year so far and we have Legion, Rogue and Gambit and New Mutants, with a new Multiple Man series later in the year. Whether he meant to or not, Charles Soule provided the perfect hook for a Bishop series and Marvel would be foolish not to capitalize on it.

KEEP READING: The X-Men Have Just Been Retconned Into… Child Killers?