Bolt

Origin

Chris Bradley was leading a normal life, until one day when he started to get headaches (a result of his mutant power emerging). An electrical outburst from Chris destroyed all the circuits in his house, which led his mother to keep him home from school. The next day, two strange people started following him, and even parked outside his house after school. Chris got up the courage to ask out Donna Funaro, a girl he had a crush on.

During the first period that day, sparks started shooting out from Chris’s fingers. He managed to escape to the bathroom, but the sensation got worse and Chris started shooting out enough electricity that it was shooting through the whole school. The two people who had been following him turned out to be Gambit and Phoenix of the X-Men, who took him home to explain to his parents. Chris overheard them and ran out of the house in panic. He went to see his friend Jeff for support, but Jeff freaked out and rejected him since he was a mutant. Chris eventually calmed down enough to visit Professor X. Chris’s parents agreed to enroll him in the Institute for observation and training, since he left a good impression on them.

Creation

Bolt was created by Howard Mackie and Tom Grummett and first appeared in X-Men Unlimited issue 8 (1995). He first appeared as Maverick in Weapon X issue 6 (2003).

Mayor Story Arcs

Leaving the School

Chris thrived at the school, until it was discovered that he had contracted the Legacy Virus. He went back home, and found out that Donna still wanted him, even though he was a mutant and had the virus. The X-Men fell out contact with Chris, due to events like Onslaught and the assassination of Graydon Creed.

Chris’s parents tried to find ways to cure the Legacy Virus, but at a clinic where they were willing to treat it, Chris had a run-in with the Friends of Humanity, and was saved by Maverick. Maverick told Chris how to find him if he ever was needed, and when his home was burnt to the ground, Chris suspected the Friends were behind it, so sought out Maverick to help him get back at them. Unfortunately, he led the Friends right to Maverick. The two managed to defeat them with the help of Wolverine and Iceman.

Bolt

After facing the Friends of Humanity, Chris made arrangements for Chris and his family to move to Florida and become the “Johnsons”. Things went well in Florida until the Legacy Virus began to cause Chris to lose control of his powers.

Chris ran away, back to New York, where he once again became a target of the Friends of Humanity. Wolverine, Maverick, and Elena Ivanova came to his aid, and the four barely managed to escape in the midst of an explosion. Maverick told Chris it was time to pick a codename, and so Bolt was born. After that, Chris tried to find himself an identity as a superhero. This came in the form of the young teenage superhero team known as the New Warriors. Chris fought some battles with the team and was a valuable asset to them. However, soon events would arise that would change Chris’ life forever.

Vengeance as Maverick

After the believed death of Maverick at the hands of Sabretooth, Chris swore that he would get revenge for his old friend. He tracked down the mutant Cable in the hopes of receiving combat training. Cable trained him, and Chris took on the look, sound, and even attitude of Maverick. When he was ready, Chris left Cable’s tutelage, and ended up joining Marrow‘s Gene Nation in the hopes of taking them apart from the inside.

For his first mission, Chris was sent to aid a terrorist attack on Grand Central Station. While he was attempting to stop the bomber, Chris was confronted by Agent Zero, who believed he was the terrorist. The two battled, and Chris was mortally wounded. He died without knowing the true identity of Agent Zero.

Necrosha

Chris has been resurrected by Eli Bard’s Techno-Organic virus to become one of Selene’s deceased mutant army to attack Utopia. After Selene was defeated, Chris was laid to rest once more.

Powers & Abilities

Chris’s mutant power manifests as an electrostatic absorption, channeling & redirection. He can manipulate bioneural static discharges from within the atmosphere itself to conduct copious amounts of energy for myriad purposes. Enabling him to harmlessly metabolize or expend this energy at his discretion, being able to store and release it for various effects with focus and a little fine tuning on his part. Erecting force barriers, generating electric currents, infusing his energies through conductive mediums, channel the electricity to short out technological apparati, etc.

Through an act of concentration Bolt can mentally transform himself into pure static electricity. This state of being magnifies his already impressive abilities many times over; the transformation often causing him to take the form of an auric blue electrolyzed plasma. Such a transformation enabled him to emit electromagnetic pulse blasts which can fry all the electronic equipment in his immediate vicinity. As well as shock people and/or objects on contact or simply by getting close to them.

Initially his powers were dangerously unstable upon initial emergence due to his unknowing contraction of the Legacy Virus. Bradley suffering a surge of power that blanked his whole school in electric energy at first. He has never displayed such a level of raw dynamism to date ever since. His time amongst the New Warriors & galivanting as the second Maverick has enabled him better control over his mutant faculties. Being able to better guide and articulate his electrical energy output better ever since he was cured of his affliction.

Appearance in other Media

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Chis Bradly appears as part of Stryker’s team of Mutants. He was their main means of communication & vehicle operations during their first mission in trying to find Adamantium. After Wolverine left, the team fell to the wayside while its remnants began looking for mutants to kidnap. Bolt spent his later years working as a carnival performer before he was later killed by Sabretooth.