Marvel Chronology Project

Hello all,

Spoilers for X-Men: The Times and Life of Lucas Bishop #3.

I just finished reading X-Men: The Times and Life of Lucas Bishop #3. Unlike the first two issues, which contained only minor deviations from established chronology, this last one seems to rewrite large swaths of Bishop's history, including his first encounter with the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #283.

This leads me to two possible conclusions.
One: We excise the contradictory material from XTLLB and chock it up to mistaken memories.
Two: We are actually dealing with 2 Bishops. When Bishop was revealed as a villain in Messiah Complex, it seemed like a huge break in character. Is it possible that the original Bishop disappeared some time after Civil War 6 (which I believe was his last appearance prior to Messiah Complex), and was replaced by a Bishop from another similar timeline where the precipitating disaster was not Onslaught's murder of the X-Men, but rather Hope's as-yet-unrevealed evil in restoring mutancy to the world? A major point in favor of this theory is the capture of Fitzroy. In UX 287, Bishop and crew discover the remains of the X-Mansion and Jean's video warning about Onslaught/"The X-Traitor". In XTLLB 3, Bishop instead finds a garbled MP3 player warning of Hope. In this system, XTLLB becomes the official origin of this new Bishop and XSE, etc., remains the origin of the original Bishop.

It is not a perfect theory, and since I have not re-read Messiah Complex to double check, I may be off. What do you all think?

PS. I was not sure if this post fell under 616 continuity or alternate continuity. I hope it is in the right place.

This kind of reminds me of some of the rumors about Booster Gold during Infinite Crisis and 52. Pure fanwank, certainly, but intriguing concepts (namely that the Booster who left was the original Booster, the one who came and died was the new future timeline's Booster, and the original was now Supernova). When was the last time Bishop did any time traveling? Back around his "Last X-Man" series? Perhaps there is when this variant Bishop dropped in.

gregorynbaker wrote:In UX 287, Bishop and crew discover the remains of the X-Mansion and Jean's video warning about Onslaught/"The X-Traitor". In XTLLB 3, Bishop instead finds a garbled MP3 player warning of Hope.

Can these be combined? Could Bishop have thought that Jean warned about Hope?

They can be two different events. The scene in "Times and Life" #3 wasn't explicitly in the X-Mansion, and the voice wasn't identified as Jean's. And there's enough room between finding the old cellphone and the Pool riot for him to also find Jean's message.

It IS a bit awkward that both messages were found in quick succession while chasing Fitzroy through tunnels, but hey. That's comics.

-Jeph!