Banshee (comics)

For the Marvel legacy character, see Siryn.

Banshee
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	X-Men vol. 1 #28 (January 1967)
Created by	Roy Thomas Werner Roth
In-story information
Alter ego	Sean Cassidy
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	Interpol NYPD Factor Three X-Men Generation X X-Corps
Abilities	Superhuman hearing Sonic screams Flight Concussive blasts Sonic energy lances Ability to cause nausea, disorientation, or unconsciousness Immunity to powers of Black Tom Cassidy

Banshee (Sean Cassidy) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superhero who operates as a member of the X-Men. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Werner Roth, Banshee first appeared in X-Men #28 (January 1967).

An Irish mutant, Banshee possesses a "sonic scream," capable of harming enemies’ auditory systems and causing physical vibrations. He is named after the banshee, a legendary ghost from Irish mythology, said to possess a powerful cry, although the banshee spirit is invariably female and the Irish Gaelic to English translation of Bean Sidhe (Banshee) is literally Fairy Woman, making it an odd choice for a male character.

A former Interpol agent and NYPD officer, Banshee was always a decade older than most of the X-Men and had only a relatively short tenure as a full-time X-Man. He was, however, a mentor of the 1990s-era junior team Generation X. Caleb Landry Jones played the role of Banshee in 2011's X-Men: First Class.

Publication history

Banshee was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Werner Roth, and first appeared in X-Men #28 (January 1967). When the character first appeared, he acted as an adversary to the X-Men under coercion, but soon befriended the team and eventually appeared as a member of the X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975). The character is forced to leave the team when his superpowers are damaged in battle in Uncanny X-Men #119 (March 1979), and remains an occasional supporting character for the team for several years. Banshee eventually heals fully, and rejoins the team in Uncanny X-Men #254 (Dec 1989) for a short stint, before later becoming a central figure in the title Generation X, which lasted from 1994-2001. Banshee is killed in issue #5 of the 2006 X-Men: Deadly Genesis limited series.

Fictional character biography

Sean Cassidy is the heir to both a small fortune and a castle in Cassidy Keep, Ireland, where he was born. In his youth, he marries Maeve Rourke and takes a job with Interpol as an Inspector. While Cassidy is away on a long mission, his wife discovers she is pregnant and gives birth to their daughter, Theresa Cassidy. Not much later, Maeve dies in an IRA bombing. With no means to contact Sean, his cousin Tom takes care of Theresa. When Sean returns to learn of his wife’s death, he is devastated. Before Tom can even tell him of the existence of his daughter, Sean lashes out at Tom with his sonic scream for not having taken better care of Maeve. While Sean flies away in anger, Tom falls into a chasm, breaking his leg as a result of the attack, which leaves him with a limp. Angrily, Tom swears to make Sean pay and vows to never tell him about his daughter, raising her himself instead.

Cassidy leaves Interpol (later retconned as being due to Deadpool unintentionally botching one of Sean's missions), and becomes a freelance detective. The villainous Changeling discovers him through the group Factor Three and invites him to join the organization. Cassidy is appalled upon learning Factor Three's goals and adamantly refuses. However, Factor Three, with the Ogre, captures him and places a headband containing explosives around his head to force him to obey them. Code-named after the banshee, a spirit from Irish mythology, Cassidy is forced to obey Factor Three's commands and performs various criminal missions for the organization. On a mission in New York City, Banshee encounters the mutant team of superheroes called the X-Men. Professor Charles Xavier is able to use his telepathy to disarm the headband and remove it, allowing Banshee to help the X-Men defeat Factor Three.

Later, Factor Three again capture him but he helps the X-Men defeat Factor Three's ally, the Mutant Master. The Sentinels capture him, but he is released from their captivity. While on the run from the Secret Empire, who were capturing mutants in order to harness their powers, he fights Captain America and the Falcon, mistaking their then fugitive status for a link to his pursuers.

A few years later, Xavier approaches Banshee to join his second group of X-Men and Banshee accepts. After the mission at Krakoa, Banshee remains with Xavier and, along with Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Thunderbird, becomes a part of the first core team of "New X-Men." Banshee accompanies the team on many different missions and is present for several key moments in the X-Men's history, including the first appearance of the Phoenix and the team's first encounter with the Shi'ar. While with the X-Men, he meets the X-Men's ally, Dr. Moira MacTaggert, and then falls in love with her. Alongside the X-Men, he first fights his cousin Black Tom Cassidy and the Juggernaut.

However, Banshee loses the use of his powers when his vocal cords are severely damaged in battle with the terrorist Moses Magnum and leaves the X-Men to stay with Moira MacTaggert.

Banshee later learns of his daughter Theresa's existence. Theresa has developed sonic powers of her own, which she uses under the alias of Siryn. Siryn feels obliged to assist Black Tom with his crimes, as he had raised her. Siryn reforms after the pair were defeated by Spider-Woman and the X-Men, and she is reunited with her true father.

Banshee's powers gradually return as he heals, and he remains an ally of the X-Men and especially of Moira MacTaggert. He reveals that he had an encounter with Wolverine before either of them joined the X-Men. Eventually, Sean heals fully and regains his sonic powers. After the near dissolution of the team following the events of Inferno, Banshee is instrumental in piecing the X-Men together and returns to the team for a second stint.

Shortly after the team is formed into the "Blue" and "Gold" teams, Banshee's jaw is broken in battle, and he leaves the X-Men again to be with Moira MacTaggert.

For a time, Banshee is the co-headmaster at the Massachusetts Academy where he teaches the young mutants of Generation X in the use of their powers alongside Emma Frost. Banshee and his students investigate odd occurrences and Cassidy Keep. Banshee also becomes part-guardian, for a time, to Franklin Richards, Artie, and Leech. However, the Academy eventually closes its doors due to the students abandoning their teachers. During this time period, Dr. MacTaggert dies from injuries sustained in an explosion set up by the shapeshifter Mystique.

Banshee, distraught and possibly suffering from a breakdown, founds the "X-Corps", a group of mutant adventurers who came into conflict with the X-Men over their questionable methodology and membership. Among the group are several former members of the Brotherhood of Mutants. It is revealed that Banshee was having the new Mastermind, the daughter of the deceased original Mastermind, manipulate the Brotherhood's members into having them work with him. However, it turns out that Mystique was posing as one of the members, Surge, and she is working with the new Mastermind behind Banshee's back. Mystique helps the brainwashed members revolt; two members of the X-Corps are killed and Mystique stabs Banshee through the throat before being stopped by the X-Men. Banshee survives the attack and recuperates in the hospital. Siryn later joins a similarly named yet less militant organization known as the X-Corporation, in order to atone for what she perceives as her father's misdeeds.

Banshee attempts to save an airplane full of innocents from Vulcan who is piloting the X-Men's jet, the Blackbird. Flying towards the Blackbird, Banshee attempts to alter the craft's trajectory with a sonic scream. His plan is unsuccessful, however, as Banshee's throat has not completely healed, and his scream is not strong enough to deflect the jet. The Blackbird flies straight through Sean and collides with the passenger plane. Wolverine and Nightcrawler find Sean's lifeless body in the crashed Blackbird and confirm that he and all the civilians died in the crash.

Cyclops delivers the news of Banshee's death to his daughter, Siryn. Siryn is given a video tape that Banshee made for his daughter in the event of his death. In the message, Banshee states that he felt he had done more good than bad in his life, and that he hoped St. Peter would allow him entrance into Heaven. He expresses the hope that he would there be reunited with Siryn's mother. In his will, Sean gave his daughter the family castle—Cassidy Keep—as well as his pipe. Some time later, Siryn is pregnant with Jamie Madrox's child and, upon his birth, names him Sean, in honor of her late father. The child dies soon after, however (he is inadvertently absorbed by Madrox into his own body, due to a mix-up of the condition of his birth and Jamie's mutant powers), and Siryn falls into deep mourning for both her losses, and takes a brief leave of absence from the team. Upon her return, she adopts her father's code name as her own, now going by the code name of Banshee herself.

During the Dark Reign storyline, Banshee is among the dead people seen in Erebus gambling for his resurrection when Hercules travels to the Underworld. It is the belief of some of the characters that the gambling is not a normal state of affairs.

During the Necrosha storyline, Banshee is among the dead mutants resurrected by the transmode virus that Selene sends to attack the X-Men. Although Sean attacks Cyclops, Emma and others, he briefly regains his senses before he's once more overwhelmed by Selene's control. He was last seen being pushed out of Utopia by Cyclops's beam.

During the "Chaos War" storyline, Banshee is among the dead people released by Pluto in order to defend the Underworld from Amatsu-Mikaboshi. Banshee is among the dead X-Men who briefly return to the world of the living because of Amatsu-Mikaboshi's victory in the death realms. He remembers his time as a slave for Selene, despite it being brief. Alongside the resurrected X-Men and Moira, Banshee is able to fight back the forces of the death realm before presumably vanishing back out of existence.

Powers and abilities

Banshee is a mutant whose superhumanly powerful lungs, throat, and vocal cords could produce a sonic scream for various effects, in concert with limited, reflexive psionic powers which directed his sonic vibrations. He could hover or fly at the speed of sound, and could carry at least one passenger. He could overwhelm listeners with deafening noise, stun them with tight-focus low-frequency sonic blasts (effective even against shielded ears by penetrating the skull via bone conduction), plunge them into a hypnotic trance, disorient them, nauseate them, or simply render them unconscious. Using sonic waves, he could rapidly vibrate himself or other masses at will. He could generate sonic blasts which struck with tremendous concussive force, liquefying or outright disintegrating targets at his highest levels of power. By radiating sound waves outward and reading the feedback, he could locate and analyze unseen objects in a sonar-like fashion. By modulating his scream's harmonics, he could confuse most scanning equipment. He could instinctively analyze, replicate, and block sonic waves or vibrations from other sources.

Banshee generated a psionic field which protected him from the detrimental effects of his sonic vibrations, though his sonic powers could still injure him when pushed beyond safe limits. For a while, his sonic powers were gone after having to use them up and down the harmonic scale to stop a weapon of Moses Magnum's. His physiology seemed fully vulnerable to conventional injury when his sonic powers were not engaged. Banshee had selective hearing, enabling him to focus upon, enhance, or totally block out any given sound in his environment; this shielded him from the deafening sound of his own screams, and made him a superhumanly acute eavesdropper in surveillance situations. Sean and his cousin Black Tom were immune to each other's natural mutant energy powers, though Sean's immunity did not extend to the new powers Tom later developed via artificial mutations.

A gifted detective, veteran undercover operative, and formidable unarmed combatant, Cassidy was an excellent marksman and a competent amateur machine-smith, well-versed in combat strategy & tactics, and teamwork drills, from his training at Interpol. An effective educator, organizer, and lobbyist, he was also an avid American country music aficionado and skillful amateur piano player. As Cassidy, he wielded conventional firearms, sometimes loaded with explosive "micro-bombs." As Banshee, he wore synthetic costuming designed to resist air friction, usually including underarm wings that helped him glide on air currents and his own sonic waves. The "ribbons" on Banshee's costume (a visual trademark of the character) aid him in his flight.

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse, Banshee was a member of the X-Men. He had retired, but Magneto had convinced him to join the fight against Apocalypse once more. He had a close bond with Quicksilver. Over the course of events in those comics, he fights the Horseman Abyss twice, the second time sacrificing his life to destroy the dangerous mutant.

House of M

Banshee is a member of the Genoshan Black Ops version of the Marauders.

Marvel Noir

In X-Men Noir Sean Cassidy is depicted as a heroin dealer and an inmate at Welfare Pen and one of Angel's childhood acquaintances.

Ultimate Banshee

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Banshee is the name of a drug similar to Mutant Growth Hormone. The drug was being made and distributed by Moira MacTaggert, who displayed the powers of Earth-616's Sean Cassidy.

In other media

Television

• Banshee appeared in the X-Men Animated Series voiced by Jeremy Ratchford. He fought Black Tom Cassidy in the Phoenix Saga and alongside the X-Men in the episode "Proteus". His last appearance was in the episode "The Phalanx Covenant" part 2.

Film

• Actor Jeremy Ratchford portrays the character in a 1996 live-action Generation X television movie. In the movie, Banshee runs Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters with Emma Frost. Sean is much more laid back in his teaching approach than Emma, and wants to make sure that the students bond as a team. In the movie, he can produce a sonic scream that can stun people. While multiple sources have listed Jeremy Ratchford as the voice of Banshee in the X-Men Animated Series, he has said in interviews that he did not provide Banshee's voice in the cartoon.
• In the film X2, his name along with his daughter's appears on a list of names Mystique scrolls through on Stryker's computer while looking for Magneto's file. His daughter, Siryn, also appears in the second and third films.
• Actor Caleb Landry Jones played Banshee in X-Men: First Class. He fought Angel Salvadore during the climatic battle at the end of the film. He became one of the earliest members of X-Men.

Internet

Banshee makes an appearance in the internet meme The Juggernaut Bitch!! claiming that his "Jamaican colors" (because his uniform is green, yellow, and black) protect him from harm.

Video games

Banshee appeared as a NPC in the video game X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse voiced by Quinton Flynn. Havok mentions that Banshee had rescued some New York refugees before being captured by Apocalypse. Banshee is encountered in the Western Sewers after escaping Apocalypse's New York Pens. He also leaves a recording revolving around Stryfe and having the X-Men and Brotherhood obtain codes from soldiers to get one of the Psychic Demons to help with fighting him. At the X-Mansion, he reveals how he escaped by letting out one last scream that took out the door and the three guards nearby.

Action figures

• Banshee appears in the early 1990s Toy Biz X-Men figure line. He had a whistle glued into his body that could be blown into.

• Banshee had another figure released during the Generation X series of toys released by Toy Biz in the late 90s. His figure appeared in the second series.

• Banshee appears in figure form in the Marvel Legends Annihilus build a figure series.

The Classic Marvel Figurine Collection

Banshee was the 100th issue in the Classic Marvel Figurine Collection.

External links

• Banshee at Marvel.com
• Banshee at Marvel Wiki
• UncannyXmen.Net's Spotlight on Banshee