Merge:Weapon X


 * This article is about the clandestine government anti-mutant project, for the reality-jumping team of antiheroes, see Weapon X (Exiles); for the individuals called Weapon X, see Wolverine or Garrison Kane; for the Weapon Plus Project, the parent program of Weapon X, see Weapon Plus

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 and also mutates baseline humans. 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. Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men in 2002 revealed that Weapon X was only the tenth of 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.

Weapon X's History
Since the popular Wolverine's first appearance in 1974, it had been implied that he was connected to a shady and malevolent government program. In the 1991 limited series Weapon X, the project was finally named and it was revealed that it was responsible for bonding the adamantium to Wolverine's skeleton, making it unbreakable, and for subjecting him to brainwashing in order to bring out his most basic murderous instincts in order to transform him into the perfect assassin.

Issues of Wolverine's solo series leading up to and following Wolverine #50 (1992) revealed that the Weapon X project also created fabricated memories in the minds of several of its subjects.

Weapon X operated through Canada's Department K and was directed by Professor Thorton. At his side were Dr. Abraham Cornelius, Dr. Carol Hines and Dr. Dale Rice. John Sublime, the director of Weapon Plus, was always behind the scenes.

The Project's original test subjects of were the members of Team X, a covert ops CIA team, Wolverine/Logan, Sabretooth/Victor Creed, Maverick/Christoph Nord, Silver Fox, Mastodon, Kestrel/John Wraith. The telepath Psi-Borg (Aldo Ferro) was been involved in the creation of the victims' memory implants, in exchange for being endowed with immortality. The test subjects were policed by an adaptive robot enforcer, should any of the agents go rogue, called Shiva

What Wolverine and his fellow X-Men ignored for many years is that Weapon X was part of a larger program: Weapon Plus, a United States supersoldier program created in the 1940's with the purpose of creating supersoldiers and assassins not only to be employed in conventional wars, but also to be employed for the extermination of mutants. Weapon X was the first installation of Weapon Plus that victimized mutants.

What the Weapon X scientists did not foresee is that the experimentation on Wolverine would cause him to go on a murderous rampage, which allowed the escape of the other test subjects, and caused the deaths of the Professor and Dale Rice, among dozens of other members of Weapon X staff, both scientists and military.

Weapon X was temporarily shut down but eventually was reinstalled. 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 Weapon X re-creation Project was headed by Dr. Zander Rice, Dr. Sarah Kinney and Dr. Martin Sutter.

At some point, Weapon X branched off from Weapon Plus' control and was solely headed up by Canada's Department K. A new generation of agents was created: 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 project who became an insane mutant-hater after being disfigured by the feral Wolverine, 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 and not only focused on the creation of living weapons, but also on the ultimate goal of Colcord, the creation of death camps.

The Director initially used Weapon X as his personal strikeforce to exact revenge against Wolverine for disfiguring, 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. A number of mutants, such as Cecilia Reyes, Maggott, Ape, Tarbaby, Leech and many others were arrested by Weapon X's agents and sent to Neverland. Those mutants deemed useless to the project were killed in gas chambers, while others were brainwashed to become Weapon X operatives.



The agents of the third Weapon X were Agent Brent Jackson a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent; Sabretooth, who was given new adamantium implants; the shapeshifter Copycat, Deadpool, and Mauvais. Later on, Deadpool went rogue, new operatives, many of them had their powers enhanced or were brainwashed into servitude to Weapon X. Maverick was saved from certain death and his powers were enhanced with the purpose of assassinating Wolverine, thus Agent Zero was created. Former member of Alpha Flight Wildchild was brainwashed and further mutated into a Nosferatu-like feral humanoid. Former mutant terrorist Marrow had her powers set to a controllable level, restoring the young woman's natural beauty. Sauron's personality was merged with that his Karl Lykos self and his energy-draining powers enhanced so he could fire energy blasts. Garrison Kane was furthered transformed into a cibernetic being. Aurora was kidnapped and brainwashed, like Madison Jeffries, who was extracted from the terrorist group known as The Zodiac and used to create hundreds of Boxbots loyal to Weapon X to serve as guards at Neverland. Washout had his powers enhanced, though at the cost of his life. Jack-in-the-Box, and Mesmero joined willingly, Reaper, and Wildside, former members of the Mutant Liberation Front became agents of the program in exchange for their lives.

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.



After some time, 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 Underground, a rebel group created by Cable to destroy Weapon X and expose its existence, along with its human rights violations. 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 from Weapon X, eventually taking over the Mutant Underground, now reformed as the third incarnation of Gene Nation.

Colcord fled Weapon X, with the always loyal Jeffries, and Aurora as well. Director Brent Jackson's team consisted of Wildchild, Sauron, Agent Zero, Mesmero, Jack-in-the-Box, and newly recruited Chamber, whose face was restored by the program's scientists. Chamber was originally a double agent working for the X-Men, but was subsequently brainwashed into Jackson's service. Mister Sinister, under the alias of Dr. Windsor, remained at Weapon X. At some point, Jackson's team fought with Colcord's Boxbots. Colcord regained control of Weapon X. A person claiming to be Chamber has joined a superhero team known as Excelsior, but that person turned out to be an impostor. Following M-Day, both Chamber and Mesmero were rendered powerless.

The Weapon X codename

 * In mainstream Marvel, Logan was the first individual known as 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.


 * In the "Age of Apocalypse" alternate universe, Logan was known as 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 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).

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, all members of this Weapon X team were killed in the fight.

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'.

What If?
In ''What If? vol. II #62'', an alternate reality was shown in which Logan was never apprehended by the Weapon X Project. Weapon X attempted to kidnap Logan, but in this reality, he managed to subdue his attackers and escape. Weapon X then turned to former Mounted Police Officer and Marine Guy Desjardins, who was brainwashed and subjected to the adamantium bonding process. Instead of claws, Desjardins manifested adamantium spikes that protruded from his knuckles. When not sedated by drugs, Weapon X went on a killing spree until he was captured once again by Weapon X and dropped off at Department H. He was taken in by James Hudson for the Canadian superteam dubbed The Flight. Weapon X went on another killing spree, killing the Flight members on the process, as well as the husband of Logan's friend, Rose. Logan set out to hunt down Weapon X and discovered that Department H was partially responsible for the release of Desjardins. Logan managed to kill Desjardins and also exposed the existence of the Weapon X Project to the press.

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 X-Men: 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 X-Men: 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.