Real Name: Sean Cassidy
Code Name: Banshee
From: Ireland
Age: mid-40s
Hair Colour: Red-Blonde
Eye Colour: Blue-Green
Height: 6'
Weight: 170lbs
Family: Maeve Rourke (wife, deceased), Theresa "Siryn" Rourke (daughter), Thomas Eamon "Black Tom" Cassidy (cousin)
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #28
Current Team: None
Previous Team: X-Corps (Leader), Generation X (Co-Leader), X-Men, Factor Three
Powers: Sean's enhanced vocal chords allow him to emit a sonic scream which he uses to fly (at the speed of sound) and to emit sonic vibrations. These vibrations have many effects (shatter steel, send people to sleep, knock over walls) and Sean can calibrate them to any pitch he desires. He also has better than average hearing.
Other: Profile from the Gen X Ashcan
History: Sean Cassidy was born and raised in Ireland as the heir to Cassidy Keep, his family's ancestral castle. Like many, his mutant powers manifested in his adolesence, but Sean hid them from everyone. He gained a Science degree from Trinity College, Dublin and became, first a detective, then an inspector for Interpol, an international police force.
During this period of his life he married Maeve O'Rourke, over whom he and his cousin, Tom (the only person who knew that Sean was a mutant), had been rivals. While Sean was away on a secret long-term mission, Maeve discovered that she was pregnant. She had her child, a daughter named Theresa, before her husband returned home. After the birth of Theresa, Maeve decided to visit some relations in Northern Ireland and was killed by a terrorist bomb. Theresa's body was not found and it was assumed that she was also dead. However, Tom Cassidy had rescued the child and planned to raise her himself in the hope that she would develop mutant powers that he could use to his own benefit.
At the end of his mission, Sean discovered that his wife was dead, but was not told that he had also had a daughter who had been (supposedly) killed along with her mother. Overcome by grief, he left Interpol and worked for the NYPD in America for awhile. However, his grief continued to affect him and he left the police force, becoming a freelance operative. He gradually became involved in crime (although he was never arrested) leading to his association with Factor Three.
The Changeling, a mutant belonging to Factor Three, invited Sean to join the group. When Sean refused, Factor Three kidnapped and enslaved him. They gave him a new code name, Banshee, and forced him to participate in their criminal activities. This led to a clash with the X-Men in New York. The X-Men captured Sean and Professor Xavier was able to disarm the headband Factor Three had used to enslave him. In return, Sean told the X-Men everything he knew about Factor Three. However, Sean was captured by Factor Three again, and set free again. He helped the X-Men to destroy the groups' plans for world domination. He also helped the X-Men to defeat the Mutant Master, who was exposed as an alien.
Leaving his temporary allies, Sean wandered for a few years, having run-ins with the second Secret Empire and the Sentinels. When the original X-team disappeared, Professor X invited Sean to join a new generation of X-Men to search for the first. Sean accepted and stayed with the X-Men for quite some time. Through the team he met Dr Moira MacTaggert, who he fell in love with. The pair were involved in a relationship until her death.
After a battle with Moses Magnum in Japan, Sean damaged his vocal chords
and seemingly lost the use of his sonic scream. Returning to Muir Island,
he and the
Theresa, codenamed Siryn, had developed powers similar to those of her
father. After their first meeting, Sean gained custody of her, but their
relationship was quite distant. Theresa joined, and eventually became the
leader of, X-Force and continued to see Sean intermittently. It is only
recently that the pair have developed a deeper relationship.
Sean left Muir Island to become the co-head of Xavier's next generation of
mutants - Generation X. He, along with Emma
"White Queen" Frost , was responsible for teaching the teenage group
how to deal with their powers. While with the team, Sean battled various
enemies and developed something of a relationship with Emma.
Their burgeoning romance vanished, however, when the
White Queen agreed to trade one of the students (Penance)
to Emplate in exchange for the safe returns of the other students. This
amazed and appalled Sean, causing him to return to something of his old
mistrust for the former leader of the Hellions.
After the death of Moira and the disbanding of Generation X, Sean
founded X-Corps, a militant group dedicated to the protection of
mutants, especially those in Europe. The group captured
mutants on the wrong side of the law and used mind-control to make them work for X-Corps. It was involved in many demonstrations and riots where it often used force,
although never fatally. Sean's methods and ideas became more
and more extreme, causing concern from both the X-Men and his
former students, several of whom worked with him. In an attack planned to
liberate one of his prisoners, Sean's throat was slit by Mystqiue, who left
him to bleed to death. He did not die, however, and was rescued by the
X-Men. He remains ill and seems to have lost the use of his vocal
chords permanantly.