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This article is about the clandestine government anti-mutant project, for the reality-jumping team of antiheroes see Weapon X (Exiles)
Weapon X was a fictional clandestine government project in the Marvel Universe conducted by the Canadian Government's Department K (and secretly funded by the US government) which turns willing and unwilling beings into living weapons. The project often captures mutants and experiments on them to enhance their superpowers. Other test subjects have included normal human beings, as well as aliens. The Weapon X Project produced the anti-hero of the X-Men team, Wolverine, and other characters such as Deadpool and Sabretooth.
The Weapon X Project was first called by that name in 1991. According to Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men in 2002, Weapon X was only the most successful in an entire series of a such projects, collectively known as the Weapon Plus Project, and the X in "Weapon X" referred not to the letter X, but to the Roman numeral for the number 10.
The Weapon Plus and Weapon X Projects
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 limited series Weapon X, the project was 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.
Issues of Wolverine's solo series leading up to and following Wolverine #50 (1992) revealed that the Weapon X project also created false memories in the minds of several of its subjects. It was here revealed that the project had also produced Sabretooth, Maverick (then called Wildcat), Silver Fox, Mastodon, Kestrel (John Wraith), and that the telepath called Psi-Borg had been involved in the creation of these memory implants.
Later on, it was revealed that a second team was created, this time producing Garrison Kane, Copycat, Sluggo, Deadpool, Slayback and many more.
Eventually, a third Weapon X was installed, now on US soil and conducted by Director Malcolm Colcord, a former guard at the first Weapon X Project run by the Canadian Government's Department K. His unit consisted of former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Brent Jackson, Garrison Kane, Copycat, Sauron, Wildchild, Washout, Aurora, Sabretooth, Marrow, Madison Jeffries/Box, Mesmero, Reaper, Wildside and Deadpool. Deadpool didn't last long, upon seeing the Program's Nazi-like behavior in executing an uncontrollable mutant child. Deadpool was then pressed back into service, charged with returning Copycat, who was missing in action. After Sabretooth killed the defecting Copycat, Deadpool was liquified during his one-man assault on the Weapon X base.
Before branching off, Weapon X was merely the tenth installation of the Weapon Plus Project, an undercover Canadian-U.S. government program that dates back to the 1940's and is intended to create living weapons for the wars of the future.
Seemingly since its beginning, Weapon Plus' head has been none other than the sentient bacteria Sublime, an organism that intends to exterminate mutantkind because it sees them as the only threat to its potential dominance of the biosphere. Sublime operates in a human body known as John Sublime, who is also the leader of the U-Men movement.
In the aftermath of the House of M, with mutantkind reduced by approximately 90%, it seems that Weapon X has been shut down as there's no longer a "mutant problem" to be solved.
Characters called Weapon X
- In the Age of Apocalypse alternate universe, Wolverine was known as Weapon X.
- In mainstream Marvel, Wolverine was also called Weapon X. After Wolverine, Garrison Kane went by the alias of Weapon X as well, before leaving the Canadian Government to work as a mercenary again.
- A short-time later, a New Zealand terrorist was captured by the Canadian Government and subjected to an experiment which bonded him symbiotically to a bacteria colony. This symbiosis proved dangerous, as the union created a deadly energy field, which could only be contained by an armored suit, which was powered by the energy field.
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 limited 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 renumbered for 4 monthly issues and then reverted to the original name and numbering after the storyline ended).
Weapon X is also the name of a canceled series published by Marvel, featuring the last variation of the project mentioned above. The series began in 2002 and ended in 2004 despite not receiving time for any real closure, but was followed by the limited series Weapon X: Days of Future Now in 2005 supposedly to close any dangling storylines but, in fact, left even more questions. It was written by Frank Tieri (no relation to the infamous mafia boss).
Installments of Weapon Plus Project
Weapon I
Weapon I, aka Project: Rebirth, managed to produce the first Captain America (Steve Rogers). Prototypes created by Project: Rebirth include Protocide, 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 - Weapon 0) who were subjected to potentially fatal experiments at Camp Cathcart, as seen in Truth: Red, White and Black. 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 any successful subjects were created.Writer Grant Morrison, who wrote the issues of New X-Men that revealed the existence of Weapon Plus, later wrote a series for Vertigo called We3, which featured four government-created cyborg animals, designated Weapons 1-4, although that series is set in the present rather than in the point in the past in which Weapons II-IV would have been active.
This, however, is located in the Vertigo universe, which is a subset of DC Comics, not Marvel. It just has notably similar themes.
Weapons V & VI
Weapons V & VI experimented on various ethnic minorities.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, participated on Nuke's 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. It is speculated that Typhoid Mary was a one of the results of either Weapon VIII or Weapon IX.Weapon X
The tenth incarnation of the Weapon Plus Program was the first one that employed mutants as test subjects. Weapon X's trademark is the employment of memory alteration and endowing some of its agents with a healing factor derived from Wolverine's DNA.Weapon X operated through Canada's Department K, its first generation of mutant agents was created by Professor Thornton, Dr. Abraham Cornelius and Dr. Carol Hines, with John Sublime, as always, behind the scenes. The first line up consisted on the members of CIA's Team X: Wolverine, Sabretooth, Maverick, Kestrel/John Wraith, Mastodon and Silver Fox. The first team was also policed by an adaptive robot enforcer, should any of the agents go rogue, called Shiva. The team was also controlled through memory implants created by Psi-Borg (Aldo Ferro), who was falsely promised the gift of suppressed aging in exchange for his services.
Following Wolverine's escape, which also allowed the escape of the other test subjects, Weapon X went into remission.
Omega Red and Epsilon Red are two other successful subjects from the former Soviet Union's own version of the Weapon X Project.
Subsequent attempts at recreating the success seen by Weapon X with Wolverine include the feral woman called the Native, and X-23, the 23rd attempt to clone Wolverine, who was designed to also hunt down rogue agents.
The second Weapon X lineup was designed a few years later, after Weapon X branched off from Weapon Plus' control and was headed up by Canada's Department K, but this time the focus was for lone agents, and consisted of Deadpool, Garrison Kane (who took on the moniker "Weapon X"), Slayback, Sluggo, and Ajax, among others. Weapon X used Logan's DNA in order to endow its agents with healing powers. The batch produced many additional failures, who were sent to a facility for dissection to determine the cause of their failures. These rejects were freed by Deadpool when he escaped from the facility.
A smaller experiment was later developed by Department K with a New Zealand terrorist, who would become the third individual to be known as Weapon X, merging him with a symbiotic bacteria colony.
The third installment of Weapon X project was designed to help monitor and eliminate mutants, formed many years later by Director Malcolm Colcord, once a security guard at the first Weapon X installation who became an insane mutant-hater, and whom John Sublime had installed in the position. Unlike the previous two installments of Weapon X, the third Project was completely U.S.-based. However unlike the previous two projects, the third Weapon X was now a rogue organization known only to a few United States government officials, due to the ultimate inhuman goal of Colcord, the creation of death camps. Through the decades, he had risen through the ranks, until he managed to become the Director of the third Weapon X project by convincing various government officials the effectiveness of such a program.
The Director initially used this team as a method of revenge against Wolverine for disfiguring his face decades ago during his escape, but eventually began the capturing of mutants, and imprisoning them in his now-realized dream, the secret government death camp called Neverland. Mutants who are not suitable to be used as military weapons would be executed, while those that are suitable are given the choice to join Weapon X or die.
The third team consisted of Agent Brent Jackson, Wildchild, Marrow, Sauron, Agent Zero, Aurora, Mesmero, Washout, Jack-in-the-Box, Sabretooth, Madison Jeffries, Copycat, Deadpool, Mauvais, Reaper, and Wildside. Unbeknownst to all, except Sabretooth, Mister Sinister was disguised as the head scientist at the Neverland facility, Doctor Robert Windsor. As Windsor, Sinister supposedly helped some mutants escape from Neverland, but he was only taking them to his own secret labs.
During the time of the third team, brand-new Weapon X Projects emerged, after Sabretooth sold stolen secrets to high bidders around the world.
After some time, Agent Brent Jackson, the only human officially on the team, took over as Director, during a mutiny by the team in conjunction with an attack by mutants from the Mutant Underground. Washout and Garrison Kane died in the event, while Sabretooth was washed away into the sewers after a battle with Marrow. Marrow used the battle to escape the third Weapon X Project, eventually taking over the Mutant Underground, now reformed as the third incarnation of Gene Nation, under the leadership of Marrow herself.
Director Brent Jackson's team, the fourth Weapon X lineup, consisted of Wildchild, Sauron, Agent Zero (II), Mesmero, Jack-in-the-Box, and Chamber. Mister Sinister was still with the group as Doctor Windsor. This unit's activities after the cancellation of Weapon X are unknown, although Sinister has reappeared elsewhere. A person claiming to be Chamber has joined a superhero team known as Excelsior, but that person turned out to be an imposter. After his disappearance, Chamber was mindcontrolled by Weapon X. Following M-Day, both Chamber and Mesmero were rendered powerless.
Weapon XI
No individual with the 'Weapon XI' moniker was ever revealed. The possibility of Cassandra Nova being Weapon XI is debated amongst fans.Weapon XII
Weapon Plus created Weapon XII (aka Huntsman, real name Zona Cluster 6) at the England-based facilities of The World, 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 Dr. Sublime (one of the many aliases 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.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 is debated among fandom, primarily because many other events near the end of Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men have been retconned and because the connection between the Stepford Cuckoos and Weapon Plus has never been mentioned elsewhere. Furthermore, issues 151-154 were set in an alternate future which would never come to pass, although presumably Weapon XIV (the Stepford Cuckoos) would have been created before Weapon XV, who was first seen several issues prior to the future storyline.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 was destroyed when agents of AIM attacked the facilities in order to recuperate the technology Weapon Plus stole from them. However, they are killed by Weapon XV.
In other continuities
Exiles
see Weapon X (Exiles) main article
In the series Exiles, whose cast is a group of characters from alternate timelines who travel to other realities, Weapon X is a group of superbeings that have been torn from their respective realities to fulfill various missions for the Exiles' employer, the Timebroker. To return home, they have been forced to jump from reality to reality, repairing the broken links in the chain of time. Unlike their more heroic counterparts, the Exiles, this ruthless assemblage will resort to any means necessary to attain their goals. They act without mercy and without conscience.
The team's membership has changed through time. The first known mission given to Weapon X was to capture the Hulk. At the time, the membership of Weapon X consisted of Sabretooth (Victor Creed of the Age of Apocalypse, the father figure of the Exiles' leader Blink), Deadpool, and Garrison Kane, later it was revealed that the team also included Wolverine, Maverick and Mesmero. The six chose the name 'Weapon X' due to their common ties to the Project in their native timelines, although, save from Sabretooth, the background of all the other members are a mystery. The Exiles completed the mission without realizing the existence of Weapon X, but the Weapon X trio saw the Exiles and their leader, Blink.
When the two teams met face-to-face for the first time, Weapon X was already a sextet: Sabretooth, Deadpool, the Spider (Peter Parker, an alternate version of Spider-Man, here a psychotic murderer with the symbiotic alien costume of Carnage), Storm (Ororo Munroe, here only sixteen years old and already ruler of more than half of Africa), the Vision (a version that remained an emotionless robot), and the Hulk (Jennifer Walters, normally called the She-Hulk, here a former mob bookkeeper transformed into an eight-foot green-skinned powerhouse). It was mentioned that the Vision had replaced Kane and that the Spider had replaced Matt Murdock (Daredevil). Later, Iron Man replaced Deadpool.
The next time the team was seen, Angel (now a gun-toting assassin) replaced Iron Man and the team leader was now Gambit instead of Sabretooth. Later, the Hulk was replaced by Colossus, and eventually Angel was replaced by Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers).
When Storm died, she was replaced by Hyperion. Later, Colossus and the Vision were replaced by the Hulk (Bruce Banner) and Firestar. These two, along with Gambit tried to stop Hyperion, the Spider and Ms. Marvel when they decided to abandon their mission and rule a world. They failed, and the next mission given to both the Exiles and Weapon X was to kill enough members of each team so that there would be only six survivors in total. Ultimately, the entire Weapon X team was killed in battle.
Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse alternate timeline, Wolverine was never actually called Wolverine. He retained the "Weapon X" codename through his entire career. As Wolverine and Sabretooth were teammates in the Age of Apocalypse universe, it may be that the Weapon X project or its operatives fought against Apocalypse in that timeline rather than performing black ops missions.Dead Man Wade, the AoA counterpart of Deadpool, after receiving his healing factor from the Second Weapon X Program became part of Apocalypse's elite assassin trio dubbed the 'Pale Riders'.
Ultimate Marvel Universe
In Ultimate X-Men, which takes place in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, the Weapon X project has a similar intention and similar methodology as its Marvel Universe counterpart, as it was also responsible for bonding adamantium to Wolverine’s skeleton.Ultimate Weapon X was headed by Colonel John Wraith, a mutant-hating commando, and Dr. Cornelius. The program was sanctioned by S.H.I.E.L.D. sometime before or during the Gulf War to capture mutants and force then to carry out covert missions for the US Government. Their main facility was located in Finland (as opposed to the mainstream that was originally located in Canada). The lineup included, at times, Wolverine, Sabretooth, Rogue, Juggernaut, Nightcrawler, and the rest of the original Ultimate X-Men, for a short time after the program invaded Xavier's mansion and took them captive.
However, the Weapon X project is lead by the savage Colonel John Wraith and is an international program. It also captured and attempted to condition all of the X-Men in the second major story arc of the series. With help from the Brotherhood of Mutants, the X-Men ended the program. Yet some of the members of the program continue clandestine operations. One team of rogue soldiers was employed by an anti-mutant government conspiracy within the Bush administration, while Dr. Cornelius, seeking revenge against Wolverine, was responsible for the transformation of Yuriko Oyama into Deathstrike and now has recruited Sabretooth.
Weapon X in television & film
In the X-Men film franchise, thus far consisting of 2000's X-Men, 2003's X2: X-Men United, and 2006's The Last Stand, Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, is an amnesiac searching for clues to his past, which definitely includes participation in a paramilitary program that bonded adamantium to his skeleton, although the program was not named. He also encounters Lady Deathstrike, who has been put through an identical procedure.
X2 introduced Colonel William Stryker, a military scientist who invented the adamantium bonding process and has performed other experiments on mutants, such as developing a mind-controlling drug used on Lady Deathstrike, Magneto, Nightcrawler, and Cyclops. The Marvel Universe version of Stryker has no affiliation with Weapon X. In fact, Stryker is a reverend in the God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel upon which X2 is based.
The upcoming Wolverine spin-off from the X-Men movies is expected to explain Wolverine's origins and connection to Weapon X.
In the X-Men animated series, the Weapon X program was responsible for Wolverine's adamantium implants and faked memories. The Program, directed by The Professor and Dr. Cornelius, captured the four members of Team X (Logan, Creed, Maverick and Silver Fox) in order to brainwash them to become an elite team of mind-controlled assassins. However, Wolverine escaped and his rampage through the Weapon X HQ's allowed Creed, Maverick and Silver Fox to escape.
After the success of the three X-Men films, Lauren Donner, producer for the first two movies, has said the movie studio is interested in producing two spin-off films. One of these films, apparently titled Wolverine, is said to explain and expand on the origins of Logan/Wolverine, most likely including his time at the Weapon X facility. David Benioff has been hired to pen the screenplay, and Hugh Jackman will once again reprise his role of Wolverine.
In the cartoon television series Evolution, another Weapon X creation, the young female clone of Wolverine named X-23, was introduced. She was eventually worked into the Marvel Comics universe. In the animated series, the name is explained to mean that X-23 is the 23rd clone based on Logan's DNA because the producers deemed the comic book explanation (involving damage to the 23rd chromosome pair) would be too difficult for children to understand.
External links
- Knightmare6.com - Weapon Project FAQ
- Mutant High - Mutant Profiles
- Uncanny X-Men.Net - Mutant Profiles
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"Weapon X"