Weapon X
Weapon X is a fictional government genetic research facility project appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They were conducted by Department K, which turned willing and unwilling beings into living weapons to carry out covert missions like assassination or eliminating potential threats to the government. It was similar to human enhancement experiments in the real world, but it captured mutants and did experiments on them to enhance their abilities such as superpowers, turning them into weapons. They also mutated baseline humans. The Weapon X Project produced Wolverine, Deadpool, Sabretooth, Laura Kinney, Gwen Stacy, and Weapon H.
The fictional experiment X, or the brutal adamantium-skeletal bonding process, written by Barry Windsor-Smith in his classic story "Weapon X", was eventually revealed as part of the "Weapon X Project." Grant Morrison's New X-Men in 2002 further revealed that Weapon X was the tenth of a series of such projects, collectively known as the Weapon Plus Program, and the X in "Weapon X" referred not to the letter X but the Roman numeral for the number 10. The first project, Weapon I, pertained to the Super Soldier Project that created Captain America.
Publication history
The Weapon X organization was created by writer Len Wein and artist Herb Trimpe, and first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #180.Fictional organization biography
Original installment
The code name Weapon X was originally mentioned in the first appearance of Wolverine in The Incredible Hulk #180 in 1974 since which it has been implied that he was connected to a shady and malevolent government program. In the 1991 story arc "Weapon X", the project was designated Experiment X, and it was revealed that it was responsible for bonding the adamantium to Wolverine's skeleton, making him indestructible. It also subjected him to brainwashing in order to bring out his most basic murderous instincts and to transform him into the perfect assassin. The scientists christened their new killing machine "Weapon X".Wolverine's solo series issues #48-50 revealed that Project X 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 Andre Thorton. At his side were Abraham Cornelius, Carol Hines, and Dale Rice. John Sublime, the director of Weapon Plus, was always behind the scenes. Some of the work of Weapon X was based on the experiments detailed on the journals of Nazi scientist Nathan Essex which were obtained by Weapon Plus after the end of World War II.
The project's original test subjects were the members of Team X, a covert ops CIA team. The telepath Psi-Borg was 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, called Shiva, should any of the agents go rogue.
What Wolverine and his fellow X-Men ignored for many years is that Weapon X was part of a larger program called Weapon Plus, a United States super-soldier program created in the 1940s with the purpose of creating super-soldiers 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 iteration in 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 death of Dale Rice, among dozens of other members of Weapon X staff, both scientists and military.
The Deadpool
Weapon X was temporarily shut down, but eventually was reinstated. Subsequent attempts at recreating the success seen by Weapon X with Wolverine include Native, Kimura and X-23. The Weapon X Re-Creation Project a.k.a. The Facility was headed by Director Martin Sutter, Dale Rice's son Zander Rice, and Sarah Kinney. Like Weapon X once did, the Facility has also branched off from the main Weapon X Program. Latter creations of The Facility, now under the direction of Dr. Adam Harkins, include Predator X.Second installment
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 were created: Deadpool, Garrison Kane, Slayback, Sluggo, Wyre, Wildchild, and Ajax, among others. Weapon X used Logan's DNA to endow its agents with healing powers. The batch produced many additional failures, which 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 merging him with Thetagen-24, a dangerous symbiotic bacterial colony.
Typhoid Mary was also a subject, when she was captured by an Antarctic facility continuing research for the Weapon X Project, specifically the mental faculties of the mutant mind. Their experiments helped give birth to Mary's "Bloody Mary" persona, which exhibited increased psychokinetic powers.
Third installment
In Weapon X series number 6, director Malcolm Colcord forms the third version of the Weapon X Project, designed to monitor and eliminate mutants. Colcord, once a security guard at the first Weapon X project, suffered severe facial lacerations during an escape attempt by the mutant Wolverine. Unlike the previous two installments of Weapon X, the third Project was completely U.S.-based and focused not only on the creation of living weapons, but also on the ultimate goal of Colcord: the creation of death camps where mutants are either executed or forced to serve Weapon X. Maggott, Ape, and Tar Baby are among his victims.The agents of the third Weapon X are Brent Jackson, a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent; Sabretooth, who is given new adamantium implants; the shapeshifter Copycat; Deadpool; and Mauvais. Later on, Deadpool goes rogue and new operatives were recruited into Weapon X, many of whom have their powers enhanced or are brainwashed into servitude. Maverick is saved from certain death and his powers are enhanced with the purpose of assassinating Wolverine, creating Agent Zero was created. Wildchild is brainwashed and further mutated into a feral form.
Former mutant terrorist Marrow has her powers set to a controllable level, restoring her body. Sauron's personality is merged with that of his Karl Lykos self and his energy-draining powers are enhanced, giving him the ability to fire energy blasts. Garrison Kane is further transformed into a cybernetic being. Aurora is kidnapped and brainwashed, like Madison Jeffries, who is used to create hundreds of Boxbots loyal to Weapon X to serve as guards at Neverland.
Washout has his powers enhanced, though at a heavy cost. Each usage of his powers endanger his life and eventually, he dies trying to kill Colcord. Mesmero joins willingly, while Reaper and Wildside join in exchange for their lives. The psychic mutant Jack-in-the-Box joins after his legs and arms were amputated. He becomes a living polygraph.
Unbeknownst to all except Sabretooth, Mister Sinister is disguised as Robert Windsor, the head scientist at the Neverland facility. As Windsor, Sinister rescues mutants from Neverland for his own use.
After some time, Brent Jackson takes over as director, during a mutiny by the team in conjunction with an attack by mutants from the Underground. Cable leads this group, in a mission to destroy Weapon X and expose its existence and its human rights violations. Washout and Garrison Kane are killed, while Sabretooth is washed away into the sewers after a battle with Marrow. Marrow escapes, eventually taking over Gene Nation.
Colcord flees Weapon X with Jeffries and Aurora. Director Brent Jackson's team consisted of Wildchild, Sauron, Agent Zero, Mesmero, Jack-in-the-Box, and newly recruited Chamber, whose body had been restored by the program's scientists. Chamber is originally a double agent working for the X-Men, but is subsequently brainwashed into Jackson's service. Mister Sinister, under the alias of Dr. Windsor, remains at Weapon X. At some point, Jackson's team battles Colcord's Boxbots. Colcord regains control of Weapon X.
Following M-Day, both Chamber and Mesmero are rendered powerless. Neverland is shut down and the prisoners, either powered or depowered, are executed by hosts of Boxbots. Records of the massive executions are discovered by Beast in the Endangered Species storyline, which also hints that some of the bodies of the prisoners executed prior to M-Day were sent to Ord and used in the research to develop the cure for mutation.
Fourth installment
As part of the RessurXion event, a fourth installment of the Weapon X Project debuted. During the Weapons of Mutant Destruction storyline, the Weapon X Project is interested in Lady Deathstrike, Warpath, Domino, Wolverine, and Sabretooth for a new experiment. It is shown that the Weapon X Project is turning civilians into cyborgs made of Adamantium sent to hunt a specific group of mutants, forcing Old Man Logan to team up with Sabretooth to stop them. Logan and his allies alongside Amadeus Cho discover that Weapon X has been experimenting on humans by grafting the DNA of Wolverine and Hulk into them while also applying Adamantium to their bones. In addition, it is shown that the director of the latest incarnation of the Weapon X Project is William Stryker.Later, Weapon X creates H-Alpha, a mutate with the abilities of Cho and Logan.
Implosion and Xeno emergence
Following Professor Charles Xavier founding a sovereign nation state for mutants on the living island Krakoa, he made sure all shadow agencies around the world were defunded and disbanded, Weapon X among them.However remnants of those agencies gathered together and established Xeno a global organization with ties to anti-mutant politicians and business leaders. Xeno are dedicated to bioengineering themselves into weapons. Upon discovering this, Professor X tasked Domino to infiltrate the organization to gather intel. Domino was discovered during her infiltration, and The Xeno's operatives used grafts of her skin on their genetically altered soldiers to allow them to evade Krakoa's security protocols. The Xeno strike team was able to attack Krakoa, and assassinate Xavier.