Bandit

Origin

Donyell Taylor is the half brother of the original Night Thrasher of the New Warriors, a product of a one night stand that Dwayne’s father had.

Originally he took the name Bandit and worked to take down old foes of Dwayne to prove he was the superior brother. He was also a mutant with the power to discharge electric energy through his hands. During a mission where the original New Warriors were sent back in time, Bandit led a new team of Warriors to rescue them. Following this mission, ther brother were able to reach an understanding, but Bandit left the team along with Silhouette. It is not known exactly how things ended between then but he is known to have dated Gambit’s ex-wife Belladonna Boudreaux of the Assassin’s Guild.

Major Story Arcs

The New Night Thrasher

Following the death of his brother in the now infamous Stamford catastrophe that sparked the superhero Civil War, Donyell became regretful of his tumultuous relationship with his brother over the years.Even worse, Donyell lost his mutant abilities following the events of M-Day, where 90% of the mutant population lost their mutant abilities.

In an effort to redeem the name of both his brother Night Thrasher and the New Warriors, Donyell has formed his own team with fellow de-powered mutants, notably including former X-Men Jubilee (now known as Wondra) and Wind Dancer (now known as Renascence). The team are vigilantes who are considered lawbreakers, often under the close watch of Tony Stark for defying the Superhuman Registration Act. He himself has taken up the identity of Night Thrasher, having apparently reconciled with his brother at some point prior to his death.

After the death of Longstrike during a fight with the Zodiac, Donyell considered disbanding the New Warriors, before the team was able to convince him to let them stay together. Shortly after this, the team took a break from crime-fighting, whilst Donyell went and visited his brother’s grave. Once there, he was approached by both Silhouette, who deduced his identity almost immediately, and her brother Midnight’s Fire. After a short fight with Midnight’s Fire, who was fooled into believing that Donyell was Dwayne, Donyell made an arrangement with Midnight’s Fire for Midnight’s Fire to steal several mystical artifacts, as part of a larger plan Donyell had.

Jubilee also started to get suspicious of Donyell, as he still hadn’t revealed his identity to the New Warriors, and he kept disappearing during battles. To counter this, Donyell pretended to have created a device which could register superhuman activity across the globe, which he called the Transmap. He then claimed that Machinesmith was creating a new version of the tecno-organic virus, giving him an excuse to raid Machinesmith’s base and get his nanite technology. Unfortunately, whilst Donyell was doing this, his team was almost killed by Machinesmith, and by the time they had been rescued, Jubilee had found out that Machinesmith hadn’t been making a new version of the techno-organic virus. Once more, the team was wary of their leader.

Secret Invasion

During Secret Invasion, Donyell started to wonder whether the “Night Thrasher” who died at Stamford could have been a Skrull, as making a reality series didn’t sound entirely like his brother. Whilst trying to find out whether his theory was correct, Donyell encountered Counter Force, who thought that he might be a Skrull, seeing as how he hadn’t asked any former members of the New Warriors to join the new team. Donyell’s team soon found him, and the two New Warriors teams erupted into battle before Donyell revealed his identity, as well as that he thought that his brother might have been a Skrull. The two teams then managed to make their way to where Dwayne’s body was being held, but unfortunately, it was confirmed that it had been the real Night Thrasher whom had died.

After the Secret Invasion, the New Warriors ran into SHIELD’s capekiller units, who had been after them for some time now. In trying to get away, Ripcord and Skybolt were both killed. Although the team was angry with Donyell, he told them that it didn’t matter, as with the mystical artifacts that had been gathered by Midnight’s Fire, he could create a time machine and go back and save his brother from dying, which had been his original plan and the reason he had formed the New Warriors, which in turn would save Ripcord and Skybolt from death. Unfortunately, when the team activated the time machine, they were transported to an alternate future instead, where Iron Man rules with an even harsher fist than in the present day.

Donyell became separated from the New Warriors, and found out that the Iron Man of this era was his brother Dwayne, somehow returned from the dead, whilst the team discovered that the Night Thrasher of this era was Tony Stark. When the New Warriors tried breaking into Iron Man’s fortress to reach the only available time machine and return to their own time, Donyell turned against his team for his brother’s sake, and imprisoned them. However, when Dwayne ended up killing Tony Stark in cold blood, Donyell saw his how evil his tyranny was, and killed him before rejoining his team and escaping to the present. Donyell then disbanded the New Warriors, thinking that they would never trust him again.

Following this, Donyell joined the Avengers Resistance, and despite being offered the chance to have Dwayne returned from the dead by the Hood, Donyell stayed loyal to the team, and attacked the Hood instead.

Powers

Prior to losing his mutant power due to M-Day, Donyell was capable of electric discharge. Much like an electric eel he was able to shock opponents but only though touch. As Bandit he wore wrist mounted crossbows that would fire cable with sharp barbs capable piercing and hooking in skin. The cables could conduct electricity so he could shock his opponents via his crossbow cables.

As Night Thrasher now, Donyell has very good martial arts skills, good enough to fool Midnight’s Fire into thinking that he was his brother. His armour may also have some additional capabilities not yet revealed.

To hide his identity, Donyell uses an image inducer pretending to have lost the use of his legs during a car accident to keep suspicions off of him.

His costume is smaller and more lightweight, it has a retractable helmet and numeroues gadgets