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Project Rebirth (Earth-616)

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History

Overview[]

Project: Rebirth,[4] also called Operation: Rebirth,[2] and Project: Super Soldier,[1] was a U.S. government project originally administered by the U.S. Army to create a new line of Super-Soldiers for its World War II effort. Its success allowed the concept to grow and expand, becoming the larger operation known as Weapon Plus.[5]

Origin[]

Steven Rogers (Earth-616) from Captain America Comics Vol 1 1 0001

The project working on Steve Rogers, Captain America.

In February 1941, Nazi scientists; Dr. Abraham Erskine, Professor Hans Bruder and Professor Eric Schmitt worked for Project Nietzsche. They hoped to create the first "Ubermensch" Dr. Erskine however defected to the United States of America.[6]

Now in the US the project began as a collaboration between American and British governments. He was given the code name of "Joseph Reinstein"[7] and became the primary source of the American program. Dr. Erskine independently created both the chemical portion of the project, the Super-Soldier Serum, that has been recreated to certain degrees, as well as the Vita Ray housed in the Vita-Ray Chamber treatment that has not been recreated since.

Prototypes[]

The project created two failed subjects: Clinton McIntyre, a.k.a. Protocide, and Adriana Soria, a.k.a. Queen. Protocide was placed in suspended animation and was revived in the modern era by A.I.M.[8] Queen was the first mutant experiment. Experimentation on her seems to have occurred prior to the serum being tested on Steve Rogers.[9]

Captain America[]

Steven Rogers began volunteering to join the United States military, but due to his frail body, he was rejected.[10][11][12][13] Steve's dedication to serving his country attracted the attention of General Chester Phillips, who offered him an alternative way to contribute.[1][10][14][12] This opportunity was Project Rebirth, a secret military initiative to create a new breed of super-soldiers. After being accepted into the program, Steve met the project’s lead scientist, Dr. Abraham Erskine.[1][10][15] He then underwent initial testing and met project member Cynthia Glass, who, unbeknownst to him, was a Nazi spy.[1][15][16][12][13][17] When Nazis attempted to infiltrate the facility, Steve was defended by Dominic Fortune, a soldier of fortune who had once been considered for the project but was ultimately rejected due to his questionable background.[4] In the winter of 1940, the final preparations were made, and Steve Rogers underwent the full procedure. He was injected with and ingested Erskine’s formula, then bathed in Vita-Rays, resulting in his transformation into the pinnacle of human physical potential. During the experiment, the project was sabotaged by Nazi agent Heinz Kruger, who assassinated Dr. Erskine.[18] Dr. Nathaniel Essex was there on the day to witness the experiment.[19]

Sadly before being killed by the newly enhanced Steve Rogers. As no written records of the complete super-soldier formula existed, Rogers remained the only recipient of the perfected treatment at that time—though others would later follow.[18][2][1][15][20][21][22] Shortly after the procedure, an attempt by Nazi agents to steal a urine sample from Rogers was thwarted.[23] All of the refinements Erskine had made to the program were lost with his death, as he never fully documented all of his research to the recorded notes. What had made the process successful with Rogers, especially the Vita-Ray portion, could not be recreated at the time. William Burnside (a.k.a. Steve Rogers II) eventually found and used the chemical portion of this process to become the Captain America of the 1950s.[24]

Camp Cathcart[]

With Erskine's murder, Wilfred Nagel took over the American program under the code name of Josef Reinstein. Nagel's attempt to recreate Erskine's successful process with Rogers, did not succeed in mass production. Nagel's early attempts to recreate Erskine's successful chemical formula resulted in African-American super soldiers (most prominently Isaiah Bradley). Three hundred African-American soldiers were taken from Camp Cathcart and subjected to potentially fatal experiments at an undisclosed location in an attempt to recreate Erskine's successful Super-Soldier Formula. Only five men survived the original trials; hundreds of test subjects left behind at Camp Cathcart and the camp's commander were executed by US soldiers in the name of secrecy. The families of the three hundred were told that they had died in battle.[25]

While Nagel failed to create a working mass-production version of Erskine's formula, Nagel did make relatively successful samples, such as the one that kept then Colonel Walker Price younger than his chronological age and still muscular and fit into his 90's.[26]

Josiah X[]

Although there were many later attempts to recreate or reverse-engineer Operation: Rebirth's Super-Soldier Serum in detail, none are known to have been involved with Weapon Plus, nor have been successful in replicating the missing Vita Ray portion. The exception was an attempt which resulted in the creation of Isaiah Bradley's son Josiah X. Weapon Plus considers Steven Rogers its most successful creation.[27]

Project Rebirth 2.0[]

A second Project Rebirth later began as an offshoot of the Sym-Soldier Program, a super-soldier operation using captured Symbiotes to create super-soldiers.[28] After capturing the Venom symbiote, Project Rebirth 2.0 attempted to bond it to military hosts to create "Agent Venom" - killing Cal Henriksen after he lost control before succeeding with Corporal Flash Thompson, who was initially signed up for 20 missions.[29][30] Project Rebirth 2.0 came into conflict with Crime Master's syndicate and was raided by the Spider-Queen's horde during the Spider-Island incident.[31] Upon being made aware of Project Rebirth 2.0's existence, Captain America personally shut it down,[32] and its resources were appropriated by Weapon V.[33]

The Mercury Team was created in response to Project Rebirth 2.0's successes and failures with Agent Venom.[34]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Notes

  • The original history wrongly states Rogers was the only test subject with no one else involved before him.[18][35][15]

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Captain America #109
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Tales of Suspense #63
  3. ↑ Iron Man (Vol. 3) #73
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Marvel Super-Heroes (Vol. 2) #3
  5. ↑ New X-Men #145
  6. ↑ Marvels Project #2
  7. ↑ Giant-Size Invaders #1
  8. ↑ Captain America 2000 #1
  9. ↑ Spectacular Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #15–20
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Captain America #176
  11. ↑ Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #7
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Marvels Project #4
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Captain America (Vol. 5) #27
  14. ↑ Captain America Annual #10
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Captain America #255
  16. ↑ New Warriors #4
  17. ↑ Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier #1–2
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Captain America Comics #1
  19. ↑ X-Men: Before The Fall - Sinister Four #1
  20. ↑ Captain America #301
  21. ↑ Captain America (Vol. 5) #25
  22. ↑ Captain America (Vol. 6) #19
  23. ↑ Nextwave #9
  24. ↑ Captain America #155
  25. ↑ Truth: Red, White & Black #1–7
  26. ↑ Truth: Red, White & Black #7
  27. ↑ Crew #4–7
  28. ↑ Venom (Vol. 4) #1
  29. ↑ Amazing Spider-Man #654
  30. ↑ Venom (Vol. 2) #1
  31. ↑ Amazing Spider-Man #670
  32. ↑ Venom (Vol. 2) #10
  33. ↑ Absolute Carnage: Weapon Plus #1
  34. ↑ Carnage, U.S.A. #2
  35. ↑ Captain America #119
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