Real Name: Jean-Paul BeaubierJean-Paul was an athlete at school when he discovered his mutant powers. He became so fast that people immediately suspected he was a mutant, and refused to allow him to join competitions any longer, fearing Jean-Paul had an unfair advantage because of his powers. Jean-Paul promised not to use his powers in competitions, but nobody believed him.
In the same year, Jean-Paul also discovered he was gay and people began ignoring him more. Standing on a rooftop thinking about what to do with his life, Jean-Paul was visited by Nightcrawler and Colossus, two members of the X-Men who thought Jean-Paul was going to commit suicide by jumping off the roof. A battle broke loose and Jean-Paul made it clear he didn’t want to have anything to do with the X-Men, but was attracted to Colossus, who’s also gay. He ran away from them, and later was approached by a madman called Sinister.
Sinister was out to kill mutants in honor of Apocalypse, and Jean-Paul was to become his latest victim. Jean-Paul was shot but luckily the bullet didn’t hurt anything vital. He was placed in a hospital where he was visited by Jean and Colossus. With Jean-Paul’s help the X-Men knew where to continue their hunt for Sinister, and Jean-Paul again flirted with Colossus, who also became attracted to him.
After Sinister was defeated and imprisoned, Jean-Paul was approached by Emma Frost to join her special school called “the Academy of Tomorrow”, which trained mutants much like Xavier’s. Jean-Paul gained a uniform of his own and received the codename “Northstar.” He was placed in a team that had other mutants on it, and Jean-Paul helped them deal with a murder case concerning his teammate Lorna. He volunteered to run Havok to New York to try and break Lorna out of the Triskelion. They ended up confronting the X-Men and the Ultimates, though they never got to the island.
When Lorna’s innocence was eventually proven, the Academy gave a school dance and Jean-Paul invited Colossus to join him. They were attacked by a new incarnation of the Brotherhood of Mutants (conjured by Magician), and during the battle Jean-Paul and Colossus grew even closer.
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