Weapon Plus
| Weapon Plus Program | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | New X-Men #128 |
| Created by | Grant Morrison |
| In-story information | |
| Base(s) | various |
| Member(s) | John Sublime Notable Scientists The Professor Notable Test Subjects and Creations Protocide/Weapon 0? Captain America/Weapon I Nuke/Weapon VII Wolverine/Weapon X Huntsman/Weapon XII Fantomex/Weapon XIII Stepford Cuckoos/Weapon XIV Ultimaton/Weapon XV |
Weapon Plus is a fictional clandestine program of the United States government in the Marvel Comics universe, it was created by Grant Morrison during his run in New X-Men. The program's purpose is the creation of supersoldiers intended to fight the wars of the future, especially a Mutant-Human war. The ultimate goal of Weapon Plus is the total extermination of mutantkind. The infamous Weapon X was the tenth installation of Weapon Plus, but eventually it branched off and became an independent program with similar purposes. Morrison's introduction of Weapon Plus retconned Weapon X's origins and also shed new information about the origins of Captain America and other Marvel Comics supersoldiers.
Weapon Plus History
Though during the 1940's the existence of mutants was unknown to the public, few individuals were aware of the coming of Homo Superior, and that they had the potential to replace baseline humans as the dominant species of Earth. Thus Weapon Plus was created to address the so-called mutant problem. What was not known by anyone involved in Weapon Plus is that its mastermind, John Sublime, was actually the host body for a sentient bacteria present on every living creature on the planet, save for mutants, who were genetically inmune to the Sublime infection.
The first nine installments of Weapon Plus were partially successful. Weapon X produced a number of agents, though it branched off and even became opposed to Weapon Plus's interests. To prevent subsidiary programs from going rogue, Weapon Plus's directly oversaw the creation of the last living weapons operating in the clandestine facilities of The World, employing Bolivar Trask's Sentinel technology.
Throughout the decades, Weapon Plus has used increasingly more extreme methods to create its supersoldiers. Captain America was enhanced to peak human levels. Weapon X employed genetic alteration, brainwashing and memory implants. The latest creations were bred specifically to become mutant-hunting weapons much deadlier than Sentinels.
Installments of Weapon Plus and Living Weapons Generations
Weapon I
Weapon I, aka Project: Rebirth, managed to produce the first Captain America (Steve Rogers). Prototypes created by Project: Rebirth include Protocide (Weapon 0), a failed experiment who was placed in suspended animation and was revived in the modern era by AIM, and the African-American soldiers (most prominently Isaiah Bradley) who were subjected to potentially fatal experiments at Camp Cathcart, as seen in Truth: Red, White and Black in an attempt to recreate/improve the formula which worked on Rogers. It's also been revealed that one of the first mutant experiments was created during this time, designated Queen. Weapon Plus considers Captain America as its most successful creation, despite the fact that Rogers has been at odds with the United States government a number of times. Although there were many later attempts to recreate or reverse-engineer Project: Rebirth's Super-Soldier Serum, none are known to have been involved with Weapon Plus.
Weapon II-IV
Weapons II-IV experimented on animals. It is unknown if the experiments succeeded in creating a living weapon.
Weapons V & VI
Weapons V & VI employed various ethnic minorities as test subjects.
Weapon VII
Weapon VII, aka Project: Homegrown, experimented on human soldiers during the Vietnam War. Some of the known participants who died in Project: Homegrown included Andrew Perlmutter, Michael Labash, John Walsh, James MacPherson and fourteen other unknown recruits. The only known successful subject of Project: Homegrown was Nuke, who had armored implants under his epidermis and was addicted to powerful steroids. Logan, who would later become one of Weapon Plus' victims, kidnapped Nuke as a child, who oversaw his conditioning.
The United Kingdom also had its own version of Project: Homegrown, aka the Black Budget, which managed to create the team known as the Super Soldiers: Dauntless, Gog, Dreadnaught, Revenge, Victory, Invincible, Challenger, and some other unnamed super-soldiers.
The Mercy Corporation, an off-shoot of S.H.I.E.L.D. that worked on super-soldiers and eventually broke off, also had its own unit of super-soldiers, using a serum similar to previous derivatives of the Super-Soldier Serum from Weapon I. Their agents included Jack Reno, Keel, Kyle, Agent Villarosa, Agent Davis and Agent Milo.
Weapon VIII & IX
Weapons VIII & IX experimented on criminals and psychopaths.
Weapon X
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See Main Article: Weapon X
Weapon X, tenth in the series, is the X-Man Wolverine, and this project would spin off into its own series of subjects.
Weapon XI
No individual with the 'Weapon XI' moniker has been seen, but John Sublime has mentioned it. A likely candidate for Weapon XI's true identity is the Hound, a mutant with the power to hunt and kill other mutants, who was transformed by the Hound Program of the US government into a technorganic killing machine. He battled the government-sponsored incarnation of X-Factor after massacring scientists at a US government research facility, nearly killing Sabretooth in the process, but was stopped by Polaris, who was forced to use her power at its full limit. He was later after Shard, but was destroyed in an explosion after being defeated by her and Bishop.
Weapon XII
Weapon Plus created Weapon XII (aka Huntsman, real name Zona Cluster 6) at the England-based facilities of The World. He was the first living weapon created employing artificial evolution and nanosentinel technology. Weapon XII was "accidentally" unleashed on the Channel Tunnel and fought X-Corporation members Cannonball, M, Darkstar, Rictor, Siryn and Multiple Man. Weapon XII was eliminated by Fantomex with the aid of Jean Grey and Professor X, but at the cost of Darkstar's life. Huntsman was created to be part of the Super-Sentinels a mutant-hunting team of superheroes with a base in a Weapon Plus space station. This team, a brainchild of John Sublime, was intended to be a publicity stunt to make the genocide of mutants much more acceptable to the public.
Weapon XIII
Weapon Plus created Weapon XIII Fantomex, whose real name is Charlie Cluster 7, also at The World. He was designed to be the Super-Sentinels' cool stealth assassin, the team member women want and men want to be like. However, Fantomex rebelled against his creators. Like in the case of Weapon XII, Fantomex's powers derive from Nanosentinel technology.
Weapon XIV
In New X-Men #154 (May 2004), Grant Morrison's last issue of New X-Men, the telepathic quintuplets called the Stepford Cuckoos were identified as Weapon XIV. The Stepford Cuckoos link to Weapon Plus has finally been addressed in the Phoenix: Warsong miniseries, written by Greg Pak, which explores unresolved storylines from Morrison's New X-Men and Phoenix: Endsong.
Weapon XV
So far, the last creation of Weapon Plus is Weapon XV, aka Ultimaton, designed to be the Super-Sentinels' grand powerhouse. He dies when Wolverine destroys the Weapon Plus space station that was designed as the Super-Sentinels HQ's.
The World
The World is a secret lab owned by the Weapon Plus Project, in which the program scientists intend to create superior humans employing eugenics, nanotechnology and artificial evolution (time is "artificial" at the World and it can be frozen or altered in any way the Program Scientists desire). The artificial time technology employed by Weapon Plus was stolen from AIM.
The World's facilities contains its own population (with its own religion, history and culture) that is led to believe that beyond the World's limits there's nothing else than endless rock and that mutants are coming to destroy them. The World is also filled with numerous experiments and prototypes of Weapon Plus, such as car-cops.
The World was partially destroyed when agents of AIM attacked the facilities in order to recover the technology Weapon Plus stole from them. However, they are killed by Weapon XV.
Post-M-Day
Following M-Day, the enormous number of mutants are no more; mutantkind has been reduced to the brink of extinction, with millions rendered powerless. However, it is unknown whether the depowered mutants are immune to the Sublime infection. In any event, Weapon Plus is set to appear in the upcoming Phoenix: Warsong.