REINCARNATION AS THOMAS SHEPHERD
Agatha erased Wanda’s memories of her children to ease her pain, reducing Tommy and Billy to lost souls wandering around the edges of existence. However, powerful entities like Young Immortus and M’Kraan helped and protected Tommy and Billy, shepherding their wandering souls into new bodies. Tommy was born as Thomas Shepherd in New Jersey, the son of Frank and Mary Shepherd, who were completely unaware of his heroic lineage.
As his super-speed powers developed, Tommy got into trouble with the law and vaporized his high school. He was sent to the New Jersey Youth Correctional Facility, where his jailers tried to turn him into a weapon. After a group of teen heroes called the Young Avengers learned about Tommy’s existence from the Avengers Failsafe Program, they freed him in YOUNG AVENGERS (2005) #10 by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung. This also marked the first meeting between Tommy and his reincarnated twin brother, Billy Kaplan, who somehow retained a nearly identical appearance. They came to suspect that they were the long-missing sons of the Scarlet Witch.
After helping the Young Avengers rescue Hulkling and stop an interstellar war, Tommy officially took the name Speed and joined the Young Avengers.
