Early life Neal Shaara comes from an affluent family in
Kolkata, where his father is the city's chief of police. His family also owned a large tea estate, where they all lived. He was popular among girls because of his good looks. When his journalist brother Sanjit disappears, Neal decides to investigate, against his parents' wishes. Neal is shadowed by his father's best detective
Karima Shapandar, and after Karima saves him from a group of thugs, the two begin a romantic relationship while they search for Neal's missing brother.
Karima turned into a Prime Sentinel Neal and Karima are captured by the villain
Bastion, who plans to turn them into
Prime Sentinels as he has done to Sanjit. However, the shock of the transformation causes Neal's latent mutant powers to manifest, the power to generate and control solar plasma and heat. Sanjit disables the other Sentinels, but is severely wounded in the attempt. Karima, who is able to temporarily defy her programming, tells Neal to leave her as her own transformation process commences, which will result in her killing him when the transformation is complete. The couple eventually breaks up, and Psylocke pursues a romantic relationship with Thunderbird. He trains with Psylocke to gain better control of his powers, and learns to use only a small amount of plasma to blind or singe his opponents. Psylocke dies at the hands of
Vargas, leaving behind a grief-stricken Thunderbird. He comes to think of Bishop as his mentor. After Psylocke's death, he begins questioning the purpose of his life. Bishop tells him that while none of the X-Men are mentioned in the history books of his time, Neal is, a revelation that greatly motivates him.
Relationship with Lifeguard Some time after, Neal started a relationship with Heather Cameron, also known as
Lifeguard. She and her brother Davis (who would become
Slipstream) join the offshoot group of the X-Men. After the inter-dimensional Invasion at
Madripoor by the villain Khan, Thunderbird and Lifeguard leave to search for Slipstream, who has left the team.
X-Corporation Neal and Heather later appear as members of the
X-Corporation in Singapore. Following a synchronized attack on several of the X-Corporation offices after the catastrophic events of
M-Day,
Cyclops calls for the organization to disband.
Current status Thunderbird is one of the few mutants to retain their powers after the "Decimation" storyline. During the X-Men battle versus X-Man, aka
Nate Grey,
Jean Grey summons all current and former X-Men to assist in the fight, including Thunderbird. He later appears in the
Reign of X phase of the X-Men reboot, being interviewed by
Monet and
Angel for a seat in the X-Corp directors' board. ==Powers and abilities==