Though Marvel's X-MEN will always be remembered for debuting one of the superhero genre's most memorable Black characters, the feature didn't have as much luck with Real Americans.
Apache John Proudstar, a.k.a. Thunderbird, debuted with the other new X-heroes in GIANT SIZE X-MEN #1. Yet he was at base a forgettable character, distinguished only by a cool Dave Cockrum costume. He was nothing more than an "angry young brave," and when the editors realized that his character was not much different from Wolverine's, they killed him off in his second adventure. In death he was more impressive than in life, since his demise furnished the fledgling feature with a great deal of enjoyable angst.
Much later, the NEW MUTANTS title revealed that John had a brother named James, and he had roughly the same mutant powers as his late sibling. He hung out with the White Queen's mutant-student group The Hellions for a time, and at some point donned a reasonable facsimile of his brothers's outfit. Still later, he changed his name to Warpath, but my general impression is that in none of his identities did he compel much interest from creators or from fans.
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