Mikhail Uriokovitch Ursus (Russian: Михаил) was on the run from the state security apparatus when he crossed paths with Margaret Carter's operations team. He acted as the team's guide in Russia as the team sought out a Hydra base. In the base's destruction, he was able to reunite with his mother. He was imprisoned for his safety but was abducted and indoctrinated when Russian forces invaded the Hydra base.
Russian mutants were deemed a threat and were to be killed as soon as their mutation was discovered. However, Professor Phobos was able to convince the Soviet government to allow him to train them as potential agents loyal to the government. His real motive, however, was to use them to gain power for himself. Ursa Major was one of the first trainees along with Darkstar and Vanguard. As part of the Soviet Super-Soldiers, they investigated a radioactive area along with the Hulk and discovered that Phobos was attempting to irradiate the USSR to provide more mutants for him to feed off of. Phobos was defeated and the three mutants vowed they would not serve the government without question.
Mikhail continued to be part of the Soviet Super-Soldiers, along with Darkstar, Vanguard, and Gremlin, for several years. While hunting for Magneto, they faced both the Avengers and X-Men in southeast Asia.
After discovering Crimson Dynamo was spying on them, the three left the Soviet Super-Soldiers and joined Siberforce, a group of exiled mutants.
Ursus and Vanguard were later tricked by General Tskarov into attacking American businesses while searching for the missing Darkstar. Black Widow and Daredevil exposed Tskarov's plan, revealing that he had kidnapped Darkstar to manipulate the two.
Mikhail was one of the mutants who retained his powers after M-Day. He later returned to Russia, joining the new Winter Guard, investigating the death of Abomination, repulsing the efforts of the Lady Liberators when they attempted to interfere in international business, joining with War Machine to repel the Skrull Invasion in Russia, and then facing the Remont 6 and mentoring the new Darkstar, Sasha Roerich.
He was later imprisoned in a gulag on trumped-up charges manufactured by Colonel Rostov, where he was pitted against several opponents, usually ripping through his competition in two minutes. He eventually fought an incarcerated Winter Soldier, who bested him.
When Ursa Major and the Winter Guard tried to capture the Intelligencia, the group used the Zero Cannon on them, sending the team to space,[15] though they survived.
Following the reinstatement of the Red Room, Ursa Major was recommissioned to its new base of operations in America, though he considered himself to have become a prisoner instead of the soldier he used to be. Following the Black Widow's death at the hands of Captain America, the Red Room created a clone of her to bring her back to their fold, making her retain only the original memories of her service at the Red Room. Unwilling to let the Red Room erase all of Black Widow's memories as a hero, Ursa Major bribed the psychic operative responsible for granting any clones the memories he had previously obtained from the originals. As a result, Natasha's clone possessed all the memories of the original, though Ursa Major told her to keep it a secret. When Black Widow found out about the Red Room cloning program on her own, as well as the fact that she was a clone herself, Ursa Major urged Natasha to destroy the Red Room and put an end to its operations. He was able to escape the compound and was last seen running into the wilderness.
Mikhail was imprisoned in a gulag in Siberia, where he developed alcoholism, a problem that caused him to become increasingly aggressive and unpredictable. When the Russian government decided to revamp the Winter Guard in light of an increase in global tensions, namely the formation of the Defenders of the Deep by Namor to drive off human presence in the oceans, a mission that included the attack of Russian submarines in the Black Sea, the President and the Minister of Justice themselves signed a letter of pardon for Ursa Major to convince him to get back into action. The Winter Guard intercepted Namor and his Defenders when they were attacking Hydropolis. The Avengers were already on the scene and briefly joined forces with the Russian team, until in-fighting between Winter Guard members Perun and Chernobog resulted in She-Hulk attacking them, breaking out a fight. The battle came to a standstill after the Defenders escaped, and the Red Widow forced Crimson Dynamo to have his team retreat.
When the Black Panther held an international super-summit between representatives of the superhuman community all over the world to discuss the scaling tensions, Ursa Major was sent to represent the Winter Guard. Ursa Major disregarded T'Challa's attempts at diplomacy and tried to goad him before attacking him. Before Ursa Major could land the hit, Black Panther had him teleported to Siberia.
When the Avengers reassemble under Wakandan rule and headquartered at the North Pole, they get a lot of attention from several different teams. One such team is the Winter Guard, however, Ursa Major had his doubts about the team. He contacted the Agents of Wakanda, the newly established Avengers support staff, to trade intelligence on the Winter Guard for Avengers protection.
Gorilla Man was assigned to be his contact point. Unfortunately, Gorilla Man's curse of immortality was depressing him. Behind the Avengers' back, he had been making deals with both Dracula and the Winter Guard in exchange for them officially killing him. After letting the Winter Guard into Avengers Mountain, Red Widow betrayed Gorilla Man. She left him alive to face the consequences of his action and tried to kill Ursa instead.
Ursa was moved to a veterinary facility on a Wakandan nature preserve, where he remained in a coma.
Much later during the Avengers' battle against Mephisto and the Mak Multiversal Masters, Mikhail arrived at the battle after waking up from his coma accompanied by Gorilla-Man, who led the body of the Celestial Progenitor, who was possessed by a Deathlok.
