| |
|
| |
|
| A Native American man named Thunder Arrow and his wife gave birth to a son whom they named Black-Cloud-In-Morning. Black-Cloud grew up in Queens, New York, but rather than adopt the tradition of his family, he preferred the more anglicized ways of the modern world. As an adult, he legally changed his name to John Ravenhair. John became an instructor at Bradley High School where he met the head nurse, Vanessa Tremont. The two soon fell in love, much to the chagrin of John's great-grandfather, Bison-Black-As-Midnight-Sky. |
| As the years passed, Thunder Arrow passed away and John found himself taking care of his aging great-grandfather. Bison-Black-As-Midnight-Sky resented the fact that John changed his name and turned his back on his tribe's heritage. He tried to school John in the ways of the ancient Black Bison Cult, but John refused to cater to the bitter old man's passions. |
| One day, Bison-Black-As-Midnight-Sky discovered that John was taking his students on a school trip to the New York Museum of Natural History. An affluent New York senator named Walter Reilly had donated his private collection of Native American artifacts to the museum, several pieces of which represented the late Black Bison Cult. Bison-Black-As-Midnight-Sky gave John a special talisman and made him promise to wear it at all times. John reluctantly acquiesced to his ancestor's strange demands. Not long after, Bison-Black-As-Midnight-Sky walked to Central Park where he conducted a mystic ritual binding his own spirit to the talisman. Two muggers named Zero and Beanbag attacked the old man, accidentally killing him. Though Bison-Black-As-Midnight-Sky's body was dead, his soul lived on. He took physical possession of John Ravenhair, transforming him into the super-villain known as Black Bison. |
