Originally a priest, Carl Burbank abandoned his vows following the drug-related deaths of young parishioners. He joined the C.I.A., which outfitted him with a cybernetic arm and made him an assassin under the codename Bushwacker, but ultimately he went freelance.

At some point, an event took place that compelled Bushwacker to begin a war against all mutants. Bushwacker began hunting and murdering mutants, most often those mutants whose abilities Bushwacker perceived as making them especially talented in the arts. (Bushwacker also claimed that he was paid large sums of money to kill mutants, but this has yet to be verified.) Burbank's killing spree brought him into conflict with both Wolverine and Daredevil. Wolverine learned of Bushwacker's activities and began to hunt the killer himself. At the same time, Bushwacker's wife believed her husband was insane and needed to be placed in a hospital. She sought aid from lawyer Matt Murdock (secretly the hero Daredevil). Daredevil found Wolverine fighting Bushwacker, and he would have killed him if Daredevil hadn’t stopped him. Unfortunately, this allowed Bushwacker to escape to continue his rampage. Bushwacker was ultimately tracked down and defeated by the two heroes, which left the right side of his face horribly scarred, and he was placed in police custody.

Later, Bushwacker joined with Typhoid Mary and other Daredevil-foes in a plan to beat up their common enemy. After the completion of the plan, Mary took Daredevil's body, and Bushwacker was left to his own activities.

Entering the Kingpin's employ, Burbank attacked the Punisher but was left for dead. It was during this time that his wife finally left him. He reappeared in the employ of a drug lord who hired Bushwacker to kill reporter Ben Urich who was about to run a story of his illegal activities. Instead, when Burbank learned the truth, he allowed Urich to live and to complete the exposee. However, it was Bushwacker that was proved right, as the drug lord managed to bribe himself out of jail. Bushwacker shot him, instead.

Subsequent jobs brought him into conflict with Daredevil, Nomad, the Punisher, Deathlok, Boomerang, and Elektra. His run-in with Nomad, in particular, was over the life of a young baby that Nomad had taken under his care. The baby was the daughter of Troy Donohue, Burbank’s ex-brother-in-law, and Bushwacker hope was that his wife would have approved of the rescue and welcome him back.

Imprisoned in the Raft, Burbank escaped during the mass breakout engineered by Electro and was subsequently employed by the Jackal to kill the Punisher, but he was defeated once again by Daredevil.