Weapon X

Weapon X a clandestine government project in the Marvel Universe, which turns mutants into living weapons. It is most famous for bonding the metal alloy adamantium to the skeleton of the X-Man Wolverine.

It is also a name used by several characters associated with the program, including Wolverine himself and several comic book series published by Marvel Comics, most of which involve the program.

Variations of the Weapon X program have also been featured in the X-Men film franchise and Ultimate X-Men, a series featuring modernized, simpler variation of the X-Men, set outside the regular Marvel universe.

Marvel Universe

The Weapon X/Weapon Plus Project

Since the popular anti-hero's first appearance in 1974, it had been implied that Wolverine was connected to a shady and malevolent government program. In the 1991 miniseries Weapon X, the project has named and it was revealed that it was responsible for bonding the adamantium to Wolverine's skeleton, making it unbreakable, and for conditioning him to bring out his more animalistic instincts. Also, Wolverine was not a willing participant.

Early 1990s issues of Wolverine's solo series, revealed that the Weapon X project also erased the memories and/or created false memories in the minds of several of its subjects, thus making information about the project sketchy at best and the project also produced the savage Sabretooth and the mercenary Maverick among others.

The X-Men spin-off X-Force introduced two other products of the Weapon X program: Garrison Kane a former ally of X-Force's war hawk leader Cable and Deadpool, a mutant mercenary who volunteered for the program in the hopes of curing his cancer.

Originally it was implied that Weapon X was a Canadian government project, since Wolverine is Canadian, but later developments seem to have retconned it to be a United States government project.

Events in the series New X-Men revealed that the full project was actually called Weapon Plus, and that the X was the Roman numeral 10, thus meaning that Wolverine was the 10th product of the larger program. Weapon I was the World War II-era super soldier Captain America. Weapon 0 was Josiah Bradley, an African-American who tested the super soldier serum eventually given to Captain America. Nuke, a Daredevil foe was also a creation of the Weapon Plus Project. The mysterious theif and mercenary Fantomex is Weapon XIII (13), and the telepathic, quintuplet teenagers Stepford Cuckoos are alleged to be Weapon XIV (14).

Currently, Weapon X is active once again and has drafted (sometimes forcibly) several hard-edged characters previously seen in various X-Men series including Sabretooth, Garrison Kane, Marrow, Sauron, Aurora, Wild Child, Mesmero, Washout and Maverick, now called Agent Zero.

The group was originally formed by The Director to hunt down other mutants and either recruit them for his team or send them to Neverland, a secret mutant concentration camp. This original group was infiltrated and defeated by the Cable and the Mutant Underground, and the Director was presumed killed in the conflict.

Weapon X is now led by Director Brent Jackson and has actively recruited the one-time X-Man Chamber (not knowing that Chamber is infiltrating the project on behalf of the X-Men) and seems to have different goals than before.

Characters Called Weapon X

While the project was underway, Weapon X was the name given to Wolverine. In the Age of Apocalypse reality, Wolverine is at present still known by that name. Garrison Kane has been called Weapon X.

Series Called Weapon X

The chronicle of Wolverine's days with the Weapon X project, from the bonding of adamantium to his bones to his escape from the project, were revealed in the mini-series Weapon X, written and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith and published in installments in the anthology series Marvel Comics Presents in 1991.

In 1995, Weapon X became the name of the Age of Apocalypse variation of Wolverine's ongoing series (During the Age of Apocalypse storyline, each X-Men series was renamed and then reverted to the original name after the storyline ended).

Weapon X is also the name of an ongoing series published by Marvel, featuring the last variation of the project mentioned above. The series began in 2002 and is slated to end in 2004.

Ultimate Marvel Universe

In Ultimate X-Men, which takes place in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, the Weapon X project has a similar intend and similar methodology as its Marvel Universe counterpart as was also responsible for bonding adamandium to Wolverine’s skeleton.

However, the Weapon X project is lead by Colonel Wraith and is an international program. It also captured and attempted to condition all of the X-Men in the second major story arch of the series. With help from The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the X-Men ended the program.

X-Men films

In the X-Men film franchise, thus far consisting of 2000’s X-Men and 2003’s X2: X-Men United, Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, is an amnesiac searching for clues to his past, which definitely includes unwilling participation in a paramilitary program that bonded adamantium to his skeleton, although the program was not named.

X2 introduced Colonel William Stryker, a military scientist who invented the adamantium bonding process and has performed other experiments on mutants (the Marvel Universe version of Stryker has no affiliation with Weapon X.