Jean-Paul BeaubierNorthstar

Jean-Paul Beaubier, an Olympic and professional ski champion and mutant joins his country’s team of Super Heroes, Alpha Flight, and takes the codename Northstar. Upon joining, he reunites with his long-lost twin, Aurora, and they fight the good fight for a while until Northstar joins the X-Men and leads a team of new mutants he dubs Alpha Squadron in honor of his former glory days.

Twins Separated at Birth

Shortly after their birth in Canada, twins Jean-Paul and Jeanne-Marie Beaubier’s parents die in a car crash. Their mother’s cousins, the Martins, take them in. Unable to afford to raise both children, the Martins send Jeanne-Marie to a Catholic girls’ school; the twins grow up unaware of each other. When the Martins die, six-year-old Jean-Paul enters the foster system.

Raymonde Belmonde catches teenage Jean-Paul stealing, but becomes his mentor and guardian, helping Jean-Paul cope with his emerging mutant nature and come to terms with being gay. Belmonde introduces Jean-Paul to skiing, which becomes a passion and a means to improve control of his mutant super speed. Jean-Paul joins a circus and becomes a talented trapeze artist. He comes to regard his fellow performers as the family he had never known; however, still filled with anger and frustration, he joins the separatist Front de Libération du Québec, becoming the radical Cell Combattre’s courier. The group plants a bomb, and Jean-Paul ends up saving innocent lives, causing him to reject the Cell’s reckless methods. He then severs all ties with the Front.

Jean-Paul returns to skiing, secretly using his powers to become a famous and wealthy world champion and Olympic gold medalist. During this time, the Canadian government’s Department H forms a team of superhuman operatives, Alpha Flight. The team’s founder James Hudson, AKA Vindicator (now Guardian) notes Jean-Paul’s resemblance to the recent recruit Aurora from a photo and discovers they are siblings. The pair’s reunion comes as a surprise to all, for when they shake hands, they create a flash of intense light. Overjoyed to learn that he has a sister, Jean-Paul joins the team as Northstar to be with her, though he has little love for playing the Super Hero. 

Superhuman Speed and Flight

Northstar can move and fly at superhuman speeds. He channels kinetic energy of the atomic motion in his body’s molecules to accelerate in direct proportion to the amount of kinetic energy tapped. Theoretically, Northstar could reach 99 percent of the speed of light, but his inability to breathe at such speeds and the damage his body would suffer from wind and friction prevent this. By partially robbing his molecules of their atomic motion increases the binding forces within and between the molecules, making his skin durable enough to withstand wind, friction, and air turbulence at speeds up to at least Mach 10 without injury. The Children of the Vault’s enhancements briefly increase his abilities. While carrying an unprotected passenger, Northstar does not exceed 60 mph, so that they can breathe easily; Northstar trains himself to breathe comfortably at far higher velocities. Northstar can also move individual parts of his body at superhuman velocities, for instance, to repeatedly strike an opponent with his fists at superhuman speed. 

Northstar can vary his molecules’ acceleration rate to release a photon cascade as bright as a lighthouse beacon. Originally, an involuntary act precipitated by physical contact with his sister, alterations to their powers have periodically allowed each twin to generate light independent of the other. Still, the ability now appears to be reset back to its original status. 

Jean-Paul is also a world-class skier and skilled trapeze artist. He is also bilingual in French and English.

Subversive Enemies

After Northstar is killed by the subversive terrorist group Hydra, they resurrect and then brainwash him to do their bidding. Though captured and held by S.H.I.E.L.D. for his protection and that of others, the Children of the Vault liberate Northstar and reunite him with his sister Aurora, who suffered trauma in the Weapon X program. The Children of the Vault experiment on them and not only briefly increase their powers, but also brainwash them into doing their bidding. They attack the X-Men to get at Victor Creed, AKA Sabretooth, but the X-Men capture them. Members of the X-Men help them heal, and they both recover.

Courageous Company

While born to Jean-Baptiste and Mrs. Beaubier, Jean-Paul grows up with his mother’s cousins, Louis and Genevieve Martin, after his parents die in a car crash. Though the Martins’ couldn’t take care of both Jean-Paul and his twin sister, Jeanne-Marie, so they send her to a Catholic girls’ school. The twins reunite on Canada’s first team of Super Heroes, Alpha Flight, and discover their powers grow stronger when they’re together. This connection, however, is later undone, and their powers operate independently. When together, they often wear matching uniforms, they grow close, and Aurora helps Northstar when he has cold feet before his wedding. 

The twins join Alpha Flight alongside teammates Michael Twoyoungmen, AKA Shaman, Anne McKenzie, AKA Snowbird, Walter Langkowski, AKA Sasquatch, and their leader Guardian, on many missions, some that pit them against the X-Men. After Alpha Flight disbands, Northstar joins the X-Men and becomes a teacher of business and economics. He leads a team of new mutants that he names Alpha Squadron after his former team.

After discovering a baby in a dumpster who shows symptoms of the AIDS virus, Jean-Paul adopts her and names her Joanne Beaubier. Though she dies, Jean-Paul relinquishes his silence about his sexuality in the hopes that his homosexuality opens doors to conversations about HIV prevention and education. He later dates Kyle Jinadu. Though Jean-Paul struggles to balance his Super Hero and love life, and it impacts their relationship, they eventually work it out and get married.

Speeding Through History

One of Alpha Flight’s earliest missions was to reclaim former government operative Logan/James Howlett, AKA Wolverine, who defected to the X-Men. Ambushing the X-Men in Calgary, Alpha Flight captured Wolverine, and the two teams fought. Though when Wolverine almost immediately escaped, the government opted to let him go. Shortly after that, Department H closed, and Alpha Flight disbanded. 

Later visiting his sister, Northstar discovered that her strict upbringing had created a dual personality, alternating between the free-spirited Aurora and the shy, reserved Jeanne-Marie. When Hudson re-formed Alpha Flight without government funding, Northstar again joined to watch over his sister. Her continuing personality switches drove him to seek psychiatric help for her, but he found he could not properly discuss the case without endangering their secret identities.

Taking Jeanne-Marie to visit Belmonde, Northstar witnessed his old mentor’s murder by Ernest St. Ives, AKA Deadly Ernest, who then kidnapped Aurora. Aided by the enigmatic Jane St. Ives, AKA Nemesis, and Ernest’s daughter, Northstar rescued his sister. Still, the siblings argued when Aurora learned Northstar had wrongly assumed that Aurora had romanced Ernest to prevent him from harming her, and an enraged Aurora told him she never wanted to see him again. Aurora remained resolute despite Northstar’s pleas for forgiveness, and he soon quit Alpha Flight. Meanwhile, Aurora sought to completely break her family ties by having her teammate and then-lover Sasquatch alter her powers to differ from Jean-Paul’s. Their split worsened when Aurora learned of Northstar’s terrorist past and threatened to inform Alpha Flight. Ultimately reconciling their differences following Sasquatch’s seeming death, the twins joined Alpha Flight in opposing the gamma-spawned Bruce Banner, AKA Hulk’s rampage through Vancouver. During the battle, the twins discovered that, as a result of Aurora’s power alteration, touching each other canceled out their powers temporarily. The Hulk’s attack convinced the Canadian government that Alpha Flight was needed, and they reinstated the team’s funding. Northstar returned to active status, but his terrorist past returned to haunt him when the armored Giles McHeath, AKA Scourge, began slaying Cell Combattre’s former members. Still, Scourge was eventually arrested. Canada’s prime minister pardoned Northstar for his past indiscretions. Soon after, Jean-Paul attended a skiing exhibition as a special guest, but when a woman appears to commit suicide, he revealed his powers to save her. This heroic act led to accusations that he had cheated in past competitions and forced him to give up any hope of returning to his former profession.

Shortly afterward, Northstar gradually became deathly ill from an unspecified ailment which the villain Pestilence accelerated. While Alpha Flight sought a cure, the Asgardian (Norse) trickster god Loki appeared to the twins seeking revenge for past humiliations he blamed on Alpha Flight. Loki duped them into believing that they were the offspring of Asgardian Light Elves and that Northstar was dying because he could not exist without his light. Willingly expending her power to bathe Northstar in her light, curing him, Aurora was captured by demons and trapped in Svartalfheim (home of the evil Dark Elves). At the same time, Northstar, unaware of his sister’s fate, entered Asgard to be with his supposed brethren. Summoned before the higher gods, They Who Sit Above in Shadow, Loki was berated for his actions, and he attempted atonement, transporting Aurora to a monastery on Earth. Northstar remained trapped in Asgard until Alpha Flight rescued him from Dark Elves worshipping Llan the Sorcerer; during the ensuing battle against Llan, Northstar restored Aurora’s powers. As a side effect, both siblings proved able to generate light individually. Sometime later, Northstar discovered and adopted an abandoned baby girl who had been born with AIDS, naming her Joanne. When she died, Northstar publicly revealed his homosexuality, hoping to use his celebrity status to increase HIV education and prevention. 

After Alpha Flight disbanded again, bigoted businessman Carl Kerridge, who viewed Northstar as a stain on humanity, hired the assassin Arcade to frame the speedster for tabloid reporter Ritchie Ward’s murder. The Canadian government dispatched Department K’s Weapon PRIME (PRototype Induced Mutation Echelon) unit to bring Northstar in. At the same time, Arcade also targeted him, but former Alpha teammate Heather Hudson, AKA Guardian (now Vindicator) helped Northstar prove his innocence and Kerridge’s culpability.

Northstar then reunited with former teammates to uncover the truth about the new Department H and assisted a new Alpha Flight team against the latest Weapon X. Northstar published an autobiography, “Born Normal,” and while at a Philadelphia book signing, Jean Grey, AKA Phoenix, recruited him to join an ad-hoc X-Men team to combat Max Eisenhardt, AKA Magneto—who planned all-out attack against mankind. Returning to Canada, Northstar established himself as a successful businessman, but was intrigued when the X-Men’s leader Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X, invited him to join his Institute as a teacher of business and economics. While considering his answer, he accompanied the X-Men on a mission to help a newly discovered mutant, Peter Sneddon. The boy had an uncontrolled explosive power which led to his death in Jean-Paul’s arms. Deeply affected, Northstar accepted the Institute’s job offer. He soon found himself opposing his former teammates when Alpha Flight was sent to retrieve Canadian teenager Sammy Paré from the school.

Northstar’s classes expanded to include a flight class for new students, and he became advisor to a team of students he dubbed Alpha Squadron in honor of his former team; however, Northstar was later killed on behalf of the subversive group Hydra by his brainwashed teammate Wolverine, only to be resurrected and brainwashed in turn into leading Hydra’s forces attacking S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarrier. A deprogrammed Wolverine aided in the Helicarrier’s defense but was unable to prevent Northstar from seriously injuring S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury. Being controlled by a triumvirate of evil formed by Hydra, the Hand, and the Dawn of the White Light, Northstar then led Hydra’s forces on a killing spree, murdering anti-mutant bigots and homophobes until confronted by Wolverine. Capturing him, Northstar tortured Wolverine until S.H.I.E.L.D. Sentinels, Sentinel Squad O*N*E, intervened, killing Hydra’s other brainwashed super-beings. Wolverine overpowered Northstar, and the speedster remained in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s custody at their Utopia holding facility.

Placed in a virtual reality simulator where he lived a subjective month for every real hour, Jean-Paul resisted deprogramming. The Children of the Vault, a secretive, hyper-evolved human subspecies liberated him only to use him. Reunited with Aurora, who had undergone traumatic conditioning under the Weapon X organization, the pair had their powers augmented. Sent to slay Sabretooth, then in the X-Men’s custody, the twins end up captured by the X-Men. Hoping to heal their psychic damage, the X-Men used S.H.I.E.L.D.’s VR simulators to make the twins relive their lives from birth. Despite the process being interrupted when the Acolytes attacked, the treatment helped start the healing process, and physical contact between the twins completed it. Together they helped the X-Men battle a subsequent Skrull invasion, and later, with Northstar’s new boyfriend Kyle Jinadu’s assistance, established a new company, Team Northstar Extreme Snowsports, before Wolverine convinced Northstar to rejoin the X-Men. He helped confront Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin’s Dark X-Men, and saved Illyana Rasputin, AKA Magik, from limbo after Hope Summers returned. Though his hero life often conflicted with his romance with Kyle, they eventually overcame this issue and got married. 

After the events of the Chaos War, Northstar reunited with all his former Alpha Flight teammates, several of which returned from the dead thanks to Amatsu-Mikaboshi, AKA Chaos King, and they re-formed the team. He did not rejoin Alpha Flight but moved back to Canada with his husband, Kyle.

When Nate Grey, AKA X-Man, created a reality where everyone was a mutant, and romantic entanglements were deemed illegal, Northstar joined the police force Department X, charged with arresting nonconforming mutants. He turned on his teammates if they violated protocol. Though he had recurring dreams of his past life with his husband and only revealed them to Julio Rictor, AKA Rictor, and Bobby Drake, AKA Iceman, after a night of heavy drinking. The trio soon joined Jubilation Lee, AKA Jubilee, to rebel against their reality as they were all experiencing their memories returning. After Betsy Braddock, AKA Psylocke, returned everyone’s memories, Northstar and Iceman remembered their friendship and embraced. 

Upon being returned to his reality, he joined the mutants on the sovereign nation-state of Krakoa, created by Professor X, Magneto, and Moira MacTaggert. He and his sister joined in on scouting missions led by Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, Krakoa’s Captain Commander.