Tabitha Smith
Tabitha Smith is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with The X-Men and related titles. Created by Jim Shooter and Al Milgrom, the character first appeared in Secret Wars II #5. She then appeared as a member of X-Force and later as a member of Nextwave.
Tabitha is mentally able to create variably-sized yellow orbs of pure energy that explode with concussive and destructive force. Since her first appearance, she has used a number of different codenames, including Time Bomb, Boom-Boom, Boomer, and Meltdown.
Publication history
Created by Jim Shooter and Al Milgrom, the character first appeared in Secret Wars II #5, in which she and the Beyonder are the primary characters. She next appears as a main character in the 1987 limited series Fallen Angels. This led to her becoming a supporting character in the X-Factor series beginning with issue #11, which then led to a co-star role in the X-Terminators limited series. Following this series, she appeared in The New Mutants, initially guest-starring as a member of the X-Terminators, and eventually becoming a member of the titular group.The team then became X-Force and she remained a member of the team for most of the X-Force series. Sometime later, she appears as a member of Nextwave throughout the Nextwave series. Writer Warren Ellis said that he picked Boom-Boom to be in Nextwave because Boom-Boom is his favorite superhero name in the history of comics for its sheer oddness and silliness, and he loved it when she was in Uncanny X-Men when Joe Madureira was the artist.
Fictional character biography
Early life
Tabitha Smith was born in Roanoke, Virginia and is depicted as a rebellious but normal teenager, and the daughter of divorced parents, in her first appearance. Her mutant powers manifest at age 13, and her parents immediately show their disgust, with her father even beating her. Running away from home, she gives herself the alias "Time Bomb" and meets the cosmic entity known as the Beyonder. He brings her to Charles Xavier, headmaster of the School for Gifted Youngsters, who ignores her to combat the Beyonder.Fallen Angels and X-Terminators
Living on the streets, Tabitha becomes involved with Maurice "Tiger" Antonini and, after he threatens her and murders her friend Gina, she uses her powers to kill him. Then, the villain known as the Vanisher recruits her for his band of thieves, called the Fallen Angels, and she officially takes on the codename "Boom-Boom." She eventually betrays the Vanisher, calling in the help of X-Factor, with whom she stays afterward. Tabitha's former teammate in the Fallen Angels, the alien Ariel, kidnaps the Angels and takes them to her home where they are experimented on by her planet's scientists. Ultimately, she is unable to go through with the plan and helps them escape.New Mutants
Following two successful team-ups with the New Mutants, Tabitha and some members of the X-Terminators, Rusty Collins, Skids, and Rictor, join the group. During her time with the New Mutants, Tabitha falls in love with her teammate, Cannonball. When the team is transported to the mythical realm of Asgard, it is partially through Tabitha that the team is able to foil a plot to kill Odin. There she becomes close friends with the wolf-prince Hrimhari. They encounter the man known as Cable, and when he starts to mentor the team, Tabitha gains greater control of her powers. Tabitha is captured by Stryfe and the Mutant Liberation Front but is rescued.X-Force
The New Mutants team, under the continued tutelage of Cable, is reformed into X-Force. The team undergoes a revamp, employing new, more aggressive methods. During this time, Tabitha acts on her crush on Cannonball, and the two have a relationship. Although she questions the team's new methods, Tabitha sticks with the team, rechristening herself "Boomer." She battles the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants alongside her new team in one of their early missions.Following an attempted murder of Professor X, mutual distrust places X-Force in conflict with the X-Men and X-Factor, and X-Force is apprehended. Cannonball arranges for the team to be temporarily released so that they can help take down their arch-enemies, the Mutant Liberation Front. Among the MLF are two of Boomer's former X-Terminators and New Mutants teammates, Rusty and Skids, who breaks Boomer's jaw. After X-Force's names are cleared, Tabitha is confronted by Cannonball's ex-girlfriend Lila Cheney, who gives the couple her blessing.
Peter Wisdom
In the meantime, the sudden power loss really hit home for Cannonball, as to just how little they had been doing lately to help mutant-kind. He got back in touch with Pete Wisdom, and together they devised a plan for reactivating X-Force as a covert strike team. Meltdown, along with Warpath and Bedlam, agreed to enter into this new arrangement, and they took up residence in an abandoned Nevada Hulkbuster base for extensive retraining for martial combat and the use of their powers. In particular, Tabitha learned how to direct the explosive force of her power into streams of guided energy and was also heavily trained in computer hacking and manipulating digital information.''Weapon X'' and the ''X-Force'' mini
When Cable discovers hints regarding the existence of a revamped Weapon X program, one designed to use mutants to hunt down and intern other mutants, he creates an organization to investigate the program and the existence of its internment camp, Neverland. He dubs the organization "the Underground" and invites Meltdown to join his elite group. Ultimately, Cable's Underground group is joined by Weapon X agent Brent Jackson, who hopes to stage a coup against the project's director and has formed his own resistance group with fellow agents Washout, Marrow, Wild Child, and Sauron. Jackson betrays the Underground team, however, after the coup is successful and alters/wipes their memories of the events.Tabitha is one of the few mutants who retain her powers after the events of M-Day.