Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 148. Who is Banshee in Marvel Comics?!

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Ep. 148. Who is Banshee in Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

• 0:18
  Hello Marvel fans, comic geeks, whatever you are, thanks for
• 0:22
  watching. My name is Megan and I am coming
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  to you from Vigilante Vibes podcast and I am here with
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  another character breakdown and I'm continuing my breakdowns of
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  Marvel's mutants. And today I want to talk about
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  someone I feel is very underrated, Banshee who?
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  His name is Sean Cassidy. So who is Banshee?
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  Sean Cassidy was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist
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  Werner Roth. The character first appeared in
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  X-Men #28 in January of 1967. The Cassidy family has a long,
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  colorful history in Ireland, full of legends, secrets, feuds,
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  adventures, and a fair bit of tragedy.
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  And Sean Cassidy has inherited a piece of all of it.
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  Their ancestral home, Cassidy Keep, is an old stone castle
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  perched on a Cliff called Cassidy Crag, Way out on the
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  coast of County Mayo, overlooking the Atlantic.
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  The Cassidy name has been tied to that land for longer than
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  anyone can remember, and the castle itself was built over
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  1000 years ago by Liam Cassidy, who fend off Viking invasions.
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  But it wasn't just a fortress, it also secretly protected the
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  Families, a hidden group of small magical beings like
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  leprechauns or elves. These days the castle is still
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  looked after by Eamon O'Donnell, a long time steward who also
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  watches over the Families. Sean grew up in the keep, having
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  a pretty carefree childhood filled with dreams of slaying
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  Dragons and saving princesses as kids tend to do.
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  But as a teenager things got complicated.
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  When he started to develop strange Sonic powers.
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  He kept them under wraps, especially after his scream
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  freaked out some of the older folks who thought it sounded way
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  too much like a banshee whale from an old Irish ghost story.
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  Banshee, that's John Cassidy's name, has some seriously
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  powerful pipes. His lungs, throat, and vocal
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  cords are built to unleash a Sonic scream that could do all
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  kinds of wild stuff thanks to a bit of psionic help that helps
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  him control and direct the vibrations.
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  He can fly at the speed of sound even with someone riding along,
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  and his voice can be weaponized in all sorts of ways.
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  He can blast people with deafening noise, knock them out
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  with focused Sonic hits even if they got ear protection, or mess
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  with their heads by disorienting them, making them nauseous, or
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  even putting them into a trance. He can also use sound waves to
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  vibrate himself or other things at insane speeds.
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  His screams can hit hard enough to smash Mel and even
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  disintegrate stuff when he's going full force.
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  He's got kind of Sonar 2 by bouncing sound off things.
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  He can see what's around him, which is pretty cool.
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  He can even jam scanners and tech by tweaking the pitch of
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  his scream, and he has a knack for picking up, copying, and
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  blocking other sound base attacks to keep from wrecking
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  himself with all that power. Banshee generates a psychic
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  buffer that protects him from his own Sonic output, though if
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  he pushes too far it can still do damage.
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  If he's not using his powers, though, he's just as physically
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  vulnerable as any regular guy. He's got what you might call
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  super hearing, so he can zone in on certain things, block out
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  background noise filtered through a crowd, which is handy
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  when he's doing spy work or trying not to blow out his own
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  eardrums. So he's pretty.
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  He's really powerful, and I don't know why he's so
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  underrated. Sean and his cousin Black Tom
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  Cassidy can't hurt each other with their mutant powers.
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  They're immune to each other's energy.
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  Outside of being a mutant, Sean's got a ton of skills.
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  He's a sharp detective, a seasoned undercover agent, great
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  in a fight, a crack shot, and even knows his way around
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  machines. He's also a solid team leader
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  and teacher. Plus, he's really into American
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  country music and plays a mean piano on the side.
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  He's a busy guy. When he's operating as Sean
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  Cassidy, he sometimes uses regular guns or small
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  explosives. As Banshee, he wears a high tech
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  costume that can handle high speed flight and wing like
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  panels under his arms that can help him ride the sound waves.
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  Sean's cousin Thomas Cassidy Black Tom, like I said, ended up
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  becoming his lifelong rival. Like Sean, Tom was a mutant, but
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  he was also a high stakes gambler who loved living on the
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  edge. He was also originally set to
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  inherit the Cassidy family estate, but in a pretty reckless
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  bet, he lost those rights to Sean.
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  Even after that, Sean kept his cool image charming slig Oxford
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  educated. Compared to him, Sean sometimes
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  felt like a rough around the edges country guy who didn't
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  quite measure up back when they were younger.
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  Both cousins also found themselves competing for the
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  same woman, Maeve, who Shawn met while in Northern Ireland.
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  Later on when Black Tom teams up with Kane, Marco, better known
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  as the Juggernaut Shawn now fighting as Banshee, goes up
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  against the two of them with backup from the X-Men.
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  Shawn's relationship with Maeve doesn't start off easy,
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  especially with his cousin Black Tom also trying to win her over.
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  The two get married and have a daughter, Teresa, who later
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  becomes a hero known as Siren. Tragically, Sean thinks he loses
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  both Maeve and Teresa in a terrorist bombing.
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  What he doesn't realize is that Teresa actually survives and is
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  secretly raised by Black Tom, who never tells Sean he she's
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  alive. So he is a true villain, which
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  is so messed up. Sean always had an interest in
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  justice, so he joined the NYPD in later Interpol and even doing
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  undercover work in the shadowy group known as the Factor 3.
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  Once he takes on the name Banshee, he becomes part of
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  several mutant teams of the years like the X-Men, Generation
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  X, Mutant Liberation Front, and the X Corpse, Always fighting to
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  help make Professor X's dream of a peaceful coexistence between
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  humans and mutants a reality. Thanks to the X-Men, Sean meets
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  brilliant geneticist Myra Mctaggart and the two end up in
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  a long, meaningful relationship. Sean Cassidy's life has been a
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  roller coaster, from wild youth to heartbreak to heroism,
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  tragedy, and rebirth. Sean helped found and lead
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  Generation X, mentoring young mutants alongside Emma Frost.
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  Though Kim Emma clashed at first, they grew to respect each
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  other and their students. Which is wild because it's Emma
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  Frost and her and Banshee actually dated for a little bit.
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  But life didn't stay peaceful. Myra died in a bombing by
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  Mystique, sending Sean into a spiral of grief and heavy
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  drinking. He eventually pulled himself
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  together and launched Ex Corpse, a mutant LED law enforcement
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  team. Unfortunately, Mystique
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  infiltrated the group, unleashed chaos, slit Sean's throat,
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  stripped him of his powers once again.
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  After a long, long recovery, Sean uncovered a major threat,
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  Gabriel Summers, who is Vulcan. While trying to warn the X-Men,
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  he sacrificed himself by attempting to stop a jet
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  collision midair. He didn't survive the explosion,
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  but died a hero, saving countless lives.
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  This wasn't the end though. Banshee was resurrected multiple
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  times, first as a pawn of villains like Celine, later by
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  the Apocalypse Twins who turned him into their Horsemen of
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  Death. After a long road of mind
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  control, trauma, and unstable powers, he started regaining
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  control and joined the Mutant Liberation Front.
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  He battled the Brotherhood of Mutants, fought alongside Hope
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  Summers, and eventually returned to the X-Men for good.
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  On Krakoa, the new mutant nation formed by Xavier Magneto, Myra
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  Banshee was fully resurrected and cured of his Death Seed
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  corruption. Reunited with his daughter
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  Serene, he settled into a life on the island, finally at peace
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  after decades of chaos, loss, and redemption.
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  So that is basically who Banshee is.
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  As usual, I have comics for you to get to know Banshee a little
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  better. You can check out the original
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  run of Generation X. You can check out cable #16,
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  Excalibur #82, Uncanny X-Men #316, Uncanny X-Men #317,
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  Wolverine volume to #85, X Factor #1O6X, force #38, X-Men
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  volume to #36 and #37, and Age of Apocalypse.
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  That is all the Phalanx Covenants crossover.
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  I don't know if I said that word right, but if I did, if I
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  didn't, I'm so sorry. So please make sure you like and
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  subscribe and have a marvelous day.