Meltdown (Tabitha Smith)

[Eric J. Moreels]

Meltdown II

Real Name: Tabitha Smith
Former Aliases: Boomer, Boom-Boom II, Time Bomb
First Appearance: Secret Wars II #5 (as Boom-Boom II), X-Force (1991) #52 (as Meltdown II)
Known Relatives: Marty Louis Smith (father), Amanda “Mandy” Smith (mother), Wanda Jo Bialowsky (step-mother)
Group Affiliation: Formerly Underground, X-Force I, New Mutants I, X-Terminators, Fallen Angels
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 120 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde

Thirteen year old Tabitha Smith, nicknamed "Boom-Boom", had not gotten along with her parents for most of her life. Tabitha's mutant power to create balls of explosive concussive energy, which she calls her "time bombs", emerged when she was thirteen, and when her parents discovered them, they were appalled. Resentful towards her father, Tabitha put a small explosive ball of energy in his lasagna. In retaliation, her father beat her severely.

Somehow learning there was a school for mutants in New York's Westchester County - which was, in fact, Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, headquarters for the X-Men and the New Mutants - Tabitha started journeying there by train, and had decided to give herself the codename Time Bomb.

Near Washington, D.C. the train was wrecked on a whim by the cosmic entity calling itself the Beyonder. Thinking he was a mutant, Tabitha accompanied him. The Beyonder abandoned her but returned and took her to Xavier's school. There the X-Men and New Mutants attacked the Beyonder, who escaped. Tabitha, frightened and bewildered by witnessing the attack, left, but was later found by the Beyonder, who brought her to a distant planet that he called "World Complex Headquarters" of the alien Celestials. There, threatening to destroy the universe, the Beyonder fought and seemingly defeated a number of Celestials. However, that planet was not truly the Celestials' headquarters, and the Celestials allowed the Beyonder to "defeat" them, presumably in order to observe him in action.

Terrified, Tabitha demanded that the Beyonder transport her back to Earth and leave her, and the Beyonder complied. Back on Earth, Tabitha alerted the Avengers about the Beyonder. Summoning the Beyonder, Tabitha thereby led him into an ambush by the Avengers and other costumed champions. The Beyonder, who had regarded Tabitha as his only friend, allowed the Avengers to defeat him, but then left. Tabitha left during the battle.

She eventually encountered the mutant criminal known as the Vanisher, who made her a member of his gang of thieves, the Fallen Angels, and taught her how to steal. Believing that the Vanisher was treating her badly, Tabitha alerted X-Factor, whom she believed to be a group of mutant hunters, about him, but when two members of X-Factor arrived, who were actually the Beast and Iceman, Tabitha changed her mind about turning in the Vanisher and used her "time bomb" power on the Iceman as a prank. The Beast and Iceman pursued her and caught up to her in their costumed identities. She agreed to leave the Vanisher's gang and live at X-Factor headquarters instead.

Later, after Tabitha set off another of her "time bombs" in the X-Factor laboratory as a prank, Iceman pursued her through the headquarters. Another member of the Vanisher's gang, Ariel, used her powers to enable Tabitha to escape X-Factor headquarters. Thereafter, Tabitha again stayed for a time with the Fallen Angels. After an adventure on another planet with the Fallen Angels, Tabitha returned to X-Factor headquarters only to be captured by the anti-mutant organization called the Right. Tabitha and other mutants associated with X-Factor regained their freedom, however, and she and her fellow X-Factor trainees went into action as the team called the X-Terminators.

Still later, Tabitha joined the New Mutants. As a member of the New Mutants, she became enamored with Samuel Guthrie, a.k.a. Cannonball. She served as a member of the team until Cable took charge and moulded them into the X-Force team. Boom Boom decided to change not just her costume but also her name, and for a short time she called herself Boomer.

Boomer then went though a deeper and more drastic change in looks and attitude and changed her code name to Meltdown. Possessed of greater control over her powers, even to the point where she can reabsorb the energy of non-detonated bombs, Meltdown is no longer afraid to use her time bombs in nearly lethal ways.

Meltdown was once romantically linked with Cannonball, but the two called off their relationship after Cannonball joined the X-Men. Tabitha was briefly enamoured of another of her X-Force teammates in Sunspot, but then resumed her relationship with Cannonball after he rejoined X-Force.

Under the guidance of Pete Wisdom, who introduced X-Force to the shadowy world of black ops, Meltdown learned to further expand her powers to be able to fire beams of energy. When Wisdom was seemingly killed, the team continued Wisdom's crusade until they were all seemingly killed in a colossal explosion. They later resurfaced, but by then a privately owned outfit had assumed the mantle of X-Force and trademarked the name. In the ensuing battle, Meltdown was defeated by U-Go Girl.

Meltdown was later a member of Nathan Summers' Underground, which planned to take down the Weapon X program and free the mutants they're holding captive. She was also part of Cable's X-Force that assembled for one particular mission.

Meltdown can create balls of energy of an unknown kind, which she calls her "time bombs". These "bombs" explode with concussive force. She can produce marble-sized "bombs" which have little concussive impact and which she uses for playing pranks. She has produced "time bombs" ranging up to the size of beach balls, which, when they explode, can smash tree trunks and even metal objects. To at least some extent, Meltdown can control the amount of time between the creation of one of her "bombs" and the time it detonates. She can also mentally muffle the sound of the detonation to a limited extent. The limits on her power to create and control her "time bombs" are as yet unknown.

APPEARANCES:
Cable (1993) #21, 29, 71, 73-74
Cable & Deadpool (2004) #18
Deadpool (1997) #22
Excalibur (1988) #82
Fallen Angels #3-8
Marvel Comics Annual 1998 Starring X-Force & Champions
Marvel Fanfare (1st series) #50
Mutant Misadventures of Cloak & Dagger #4
New Mutants (1983) #72-74, 76-80, 82-100
New Mutants (1983) Annual #5-7
New Mutants Summer Special
New Warriors (1st series) 45
New Warriors (1st series) Annual #1
Spider-Man #16
Uncanny X-Men #270-273, 294-295, 304, 326, 328, 331, 375, 388
Uncanny X-Men Annual #14-15
Weapon X (2nd series) #6-8, 10-13
Wolverine (1988) #92-93
Wolverine: Evilution
Wolverine: Rahne of Terra
X-Factor (1986) #11-18, 22-23, 27-33, 40-41, 60, 62, 84-85, 106
X-Factor (1986) Annual #3, 5-6
X-Factor: Nation X (2010) #1
X-Force (1991) #-1, 1-2, 5-17, 19, 21-29, 32, 34-54, 57, 62, 69-87, 89-115, 117
X-Force (1991) Annual #1
X-Force (2004) #2-6
X-Force & Cable '95 Annual, '97 Annual
X-Force/Youngblood
X-Man #18
X-Men (2nd series) #14-15, 30, 41, 47
X-Men (2nd series) '96 Annual
X-Men: Odd Men Out (2008) #1
X-Men: Prime
X-Men: The 198 Files (threat level rating "significant")
X-Men Unlimited (1st series) #23
X-Terminators #1-4
Youngblood/X-Force

[Peter Luzifer]

She is Meltdown II, there was a Meltdown before in the Havok and Logan limited series.

Peter Luzifer

[Eric J. Moreels]

Whoops, forgot about that mini! Thanks for the reminder, Peter.

[Monolith]

As an added bonus, she is also Boom Boom II, The original was a hired assassin sent after Moon Knight. Also, her current powers seem to allow her to generate her explosive energy not as time bombs, but as plasma energy streams that respond to her thought directions.

[Eric J. Moreels]

Excerpted from the above bio:

Meltdown learned to further expand her powers to be able to fire beams of energy.

And what issue(s) did this first Boom-Boom appear in, and were they before Secret Wars II?

[Monolith]

Moon Knight (1st Series) #4. He died there-in.

[Tom 2TUM Toner]

in x-force 87 it says that she has a new step-mother, Wanda Joe Bialowsky

[Gouki]

Her father's name is Marty Smith. I think it was confirmed in X-Force 49.

[Mesran]

Originally posted by Peter Luzifer
She is Meltdown II, there was a Meltdown before in the Havok and Logan limited series.

Peter Luzifer

Originally posted by X-Fan
Whoops, forgot about that mini! Thanks for the reminder, Peter.

I believe the whole codename was "General Meltdown".

Originally posted by Gouki
Her father's name is Marty Smith. I think it was confirmed in X-Force 49.

Yup, just noticed that myself, I'll add it in.

I think the last time we saw her father was around X-Force #50, when he was in the middle of telling Tabitha that her mother wasn't dead like she had thought, she was... and then Sebastion Shaw and Holocaust blew the house apart. So she may have an unnamed mother still around.

[tyran80]

Could Sabretooth fall under the Enemies listing? After all, Creed tricked Tabitha into nurturing him back to health, and then betrayed her. She held on to that spite for a long time.

[SpaceCowgirl]

Just looking for confirmation on a few things:


1. During Counter X, was Tabitha romantically linked with Pete Wisdom for a time as well? I've heard that they were, but since I don't have the issues, i can't check.

2. Is it possible that in that battle she wasn't just defeated by U-Go Girl, but killed a well? I know we don't have any visual confirmation that she was KIA, but I remember her being teleported high above a freeway, and since she can't fly/teleport herself....

[loganalpha30x3]

Well during the Counter X issues that I have to me he was just turning on the charm and doing a lot of sweet talking to her, but I don't think it went any farther than that as after he "died" it didn't take to long for her and Sam to patch things up. And wasn't ole Mr. Wisdom hitting on other women during that time and I don't think Tabitha said anything.

As to if she's dead well I'd say until we get the confirmation of her death she's still alive, but are we sure as to exactly when the old X-Force members fought the new ones as I remember a lot of confusion about that. I just think, and hope, that she's still alive but probably injured somewhat. Who knows, she could have been with Sam and the others in Europe for all we know, just not a member of the team. I'll go now....................

[Wolverine]

Meltdown didn't appear in Uncanny X-men 375. also her face appeared on sage's Tv screen in X-treme X-men five. That came out after X-force 117 so she is alive. also you that count as a appearance?

[tyran80]

Originally posted by Wolverine
Meltdown didn't appear in Uncanny X-men 375. also her face appeared on sage's Tv screen in X-treme X-men five. That came out after X-force 117 so she is alive. also you that count as a appearance?

Well, Bedlam's face was up on that computer too. The problem is, the computer won't pick up if you're dead or not. Those may well could have been badly updated files.

[Wolverine]

Originally posted by tyran80


Well, Bedlam's face was up on that computer too. The problem is, the computer won't pick up if you're dead or not. Those may well could have been badly updated files.

Thats very true

[Joey Meyers]

Fun Fact:Tabitha isn't a natural blonde, she's stated several times that she bleaches her hair.

[phoenix4rce]

She's alive. Tabitha's gonna be a member of Cable's underground along with Domino.

[Irv_Washington]

I like Tabitha especially her spotlight during her time with the (seemingly) reformed Sabretooth, some good issues of x-force there especially the intervention. I also liked her PinkBunny slippers.

[Wolverine]

Her Affilliation should now be Underground.

[Frans de Witte]

Wasn't there a Wolverine one-shot called Evilution, in which she also made an appearance.

[Brett White]

I don't know if this matters, but her second code-name was "Boomer", first appeared in X-Force #19 as part of the costume redesigns Greg Capullo created. Tabitha's costume spelled "boomer" down her leg and she was referred to as it until X-Force 51, where she became Meltdown.

This is left out in the "first appearances" part. This might be because it wasn't as radical a change as that of Meltdown, but I just thought I'd toss this in.

[Rayeye]

So, is it now clear if the Nextwave series is being set in the (616)continuity?
If so, Meltdown's bio can be updated with her Nextwave membership and her appearances in this new serie.

[Frans de Witte]

Her appearances of Secret Wars II seem to have been deleted from the list. However in the text-part her first appearance still states Secret Wars II 5.

Also I'm not sure what has happened to the listing of the one-shot "Wolverine: Evilution". She actually does appear in this issue. I've also mentioned this two year ago.

[Ann Nichols]

Tabitha's appearance in X-Force (2008) #1 is a two-panel, non-speaking cameo.