Publisher Marvel Comics Team affiliations New Mutants | Alter ego Bird-Brain Notable aliases Bird Boy | |
First appearance New Mutants #56 (Oct 1987) Created by Louise Simonson and June Brigman | ||
Bird-Brain is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
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Publication history
Bird-Brain first appeared in New Mutants #55 (September 1987), and was first fully seen in New Mutants #56 (October 1987). Bird-Brain was created by Louise Simonson and June Brigman.
The character subsequently appears in The New Mutants #57-61 (November 1987-March 1988).
Bird-Brain received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #1.
Fictional character biography
Bird-Brain is one of a number of "Ani-Mates", creatures created by an insane geneticist named the Ani-Mator, combining the characteristics of human beings and other animals. The Ani-Mator subjected his creations to a number of cruel and deadly experiments, but Bird-Brain escapes the Ani-Mator's island and befriends the New Mutants. They try to acclimate him to regular society, which fails miserably time and again, mainly because Bird-Brain would eat all the food he saw. For the most part, Bird-Brain is unable to communicate with the New Mutants, despite the language powers of the New Mutant Cypher, because of how simplistic Bird-Brain's language is. In his first conversation with Cypher, Bird-Brain explains that he has been trained with food by starving him and using food as a reward.
Bird-Brain develops relatively close relationships with Cypher (who is fascinated by Bird-Brain's language) and Wolfsbane for her changeling ability, through which he sees her as a kindred spirit, and her general kindness to him. Feeling he had abandoned the other mutated creatures on the island, Bird-Brain eventually returns with the New Mutants to free them. The Ani-Mator, attempting to shoot Wolfsbane, instead kills Cypher, and Magik exiles the Ani-Mator to the dimension of Limbo in retaliation. Once freed from the Ani-Mator's tyranny, Bird-Brain decides to remain on the island with the other Ani-Mates.