There are many organizations throughout the Marvel Comics universe, and a good many of them are nefarious. Perhaps the most infamous malevolent scientific organization is Weapon X. First mentioned as a codename in associate with Wolverine back in The Incredible Hulk in 1974, the name and institution has taken a life of its own since then. Over the years, there’ve been more and more unveilings about Weapon X and all their sinister acts. Of course, near the top of the list of things that really makes Weapon X stand out, as being notoriously horrible, is their penchant for human and mutant experimentation.
They’re responsible for forcibly bonding adamantium to Wolverine’s skeleton and his years of emotional and mental PTSD. They drove Deadpool insane, tried to make X-23 (Wolverine’s female clone) into their personal slave, and have dedicated much of their time to figuring out increasingly elaborate ways to eradicate mutants. Though time and again they get shut down or destroyed, like a cockroach, Weapon X always comes back. That said, Weapon X and its subset groups are responsible for creating some of the most memorable characters in Marvel Comics and today at CBR, we’re looking at some things you might not know about Weapon X.
17 CREATED TEAM X
Once Weapon X completed experiments on folks like Wolverine, they did what any shady organization does and decided to create a team of their own superpowered people. Even though the roster would change from time to time, the original Weapon X enjoyed utilizing Wolverine and having him serve with other captured mutants. Referred to as Team X, the first unit also featured Sabertooth (who went on to become one of Wolverine’s greatest enemies), Silverfox, Maverick, Kestrel, Mastodon, and Psi-Borg.
Granted, many, if not all of these mutants eventually broke free or went elsewhere, but still unfazed, Weapon X would continue building lethal black ops teams to commit whatever despicable deeds they had on their agenda. We saw a version of Team X in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. This team included the likes of Deadpool and a couple others right from the pages of Marvel Comics.
16 WEAPON H
Two of the Marvel’s mightiest heroes are the Hulk and Wolverine. Virtually indestructible, if either was acquired permanently, the potential carnage caused would be practically limitless. Well, the crazy folks over at Weapon X decided that rather try and make a Hulk or Wolverine, they would create a combination of the two.
A Hulkverine if you will.
Per their modus operandi, Weapon X captured a discharged soldier named Clayton and performed horrifying and torturous experiments on the man, infusing him with DNA of the Hulk and Wolverine. With the size and strength of the Hulk, along with Wolverine’s claws and healing factor, Weapon H became a force unlike any other. And so, as is wont to happen, Weapon H broke out, went on a rampage, fought some heroes for a bit, and is now on a quest for something resembling redemption.
15 WEAPON X IS PART OF A LARGER PROGRAM
Even though Weapon X is infamous for all the horrible experiments they performed on Wolverine, that doesn’t mean they are the only group running around; they are part of a larger program. The first hint in regards to Weapon X first appeared back in 1974, and we got to see the Weapon X facility in 1991. However, it was revealed nine years later that the Weapon X Program was part of a larger whole: the Weapon Plus Program.
Around this time, Weapon X was revealed to be the tenth incarnation of the experimental program, with the “X” standing for the number ten instead of it being darkly analogous to Marvel’s X-Men team. The Weapon Plus Program kept busy, running sixteen separate programs, each dedicated to crafting perfect living weapons and eradicating mutants. The most recent incarnation of the Weapon Plus Program has created the Wolverine/Hulk hybrid Weapon H.
14 DEADPOOL
Before he was Deadpool, the infamous Merc with a Mouth, Wade Wilson was your average mercenary from Ohio. Shenanigans ensued, as they usually do, and Wade was diagnosed with brain cancer. Hearing about a subset of Weapon X and how they might have a cure based off Wolverine’s healing factor, Wade volunteered to be experimented on. The procedure was a success… depending on your point of view.
He became severally mentally unbalanced, lost his memory, and his healing factor, though it saved his life, was flawed.
In fact, his healing factor allowed him to heal faster than his cancer could kill him, which left him disfigured. And so, moving from mercenary, to hero, to villain, and everything in between, Deadpool would become one of the biggest pop culture icons in recent history.
13 GIVES THEIR SUBJECTS MEMORY ISSUES
You know those occasional berserker rages Wolverine goes into when he’s having a violent flashback of something he can’t quite remember? He has Weapon X to thank for that. Aside from his claws and mutant abilities, Wolverine is also know for having a mysterious background. Having been mind-wiped, brainwashed, and generally had his mind messed with multiple times, his memory is a fractured mess. The problem doesn’t only extend to Wolverine, but nearly every test subject for Weapon X.
While the program didn’t necessarily erase a subject’s memories, they were implanted with false memories. The scientist achieved this little feat with the assistance of Psi-Borg, who could manipulate memories. And so Wolverine struggled with remembering characters like Silverfox, Sabretooth believed he was Wolverine’s father for a bit, and even Deadpool putting the pieces of his life together.
12 IT'S BEEN SHUT DOWN MULTIPLE TIMES
The Weapon X Program believes that if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. Over the course of its lengthy tenure, Weapon X has faced backlash, especially from former subjects bent on destroying the organization. Even when the CIA sponsored the Weapon X Program, it would get destroyed or shut down; the scientists that remained chose to branch out and make a new Weapon X of their own design.
The process seems to repeat on an endless loop.
To the credit of the Weapon X Program, no matter how many time a rampaging mutant like Wolverine tears through their facilities, they always find a way to come back. At one point the program was absorbed into the Canadian government’s Department K, and created Deadpool. After that ended horribly, they became The Facility and were responsible for X-23, Wolverine’s clone.
11 GIVES THEIR SUBJECTS HEALING FACTORS
An incredibly popular super power these days is rapid healing. Many superheroes and villains have this power, but it’s thanks to Wolverine that regular fans and moviegoers have become acquainted with healing factors. Some characters already come with a built in accelerated healing ability, and of course, the scientists over at Weapon X were pretty blown away with it. To that end, they figured it might be a good idea to try and outfit all their prospective fighting units with healing factors. The scientists successfully harvested the ability from, you guessed it, Wolverine.
Wolverine’s ability aren’t overly flashy, but they are incredible, and the Weapon X scientists went on to not only harvest the ability, as just mentioned, but manufactured the mutation and put it in other team members. This meant Weapon X never had to worry about their fighting machines getting killed.
10 UPGRADES SUBJECTS WITH ADAMANTIUM
Because giving their subjects healing factors and memory issues wasn’t enough, the Weapon X program is also a big believer in implants after a fashion. As it stands, there’s the misconception that Wolverine’s adamantium-laced skeleton and claws are one of his powers. That’s just not true. Granted, he possesses the ability to pop his claws, but in his early days, Logan’s claws were simply bone that he could extend through his skin.
This is how he lived until he had the misfortune of running into an offshoot of the Weapon X program.
It’s hard to know for sure, since many retcons suggest different histories, but what did happen is that a Weapon X related group laced his skeleton with adamantium, which sent Wolverine went into berserker rage. They’d also go onto lace adamantium in characters like Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike.
9 IT'S NOT THAT SECRET
A key component of being a secret organization is that you remain secret. If this was the real world, Weapon X would likely only be discussed in hushed whispers, but in Marvel Comics, the secret program does a pretty awful job at remaining hidden. Repeatedly, and definitely more times than an clandestine organization should ever feel comfortable with, Weapon X is constantly not only getting infiltrated, but destroyed over and over again. This has resulted in the loss of millions, if not billions of dollars of property and research, but a staggering number of lives too, all in the name of mad science.
The X-Men, Deadpool, Captain America, Wolverine, Cable, Amadeus Cho as the Hulk… the list goes on of people who have fought Weapon X; that’s not even counting the villains who have tried to shut it down.
8 THEY'RE RESPONSIBLE FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA
Say what you will about Weapon X and their general horribleness, one positive thing they helped bring to the world was Captain America. During World War II, Steve was used in a secret government program called Operation: Rebirth. He was administered a special serum and then blasted with Vita-Rays resulting in Rogers acquiring borderline superhuman speed, strength and stamina; and so was born Captain America.
He became known as Weapon I.
Yet sinister dealings were going on behind the scenes as Operation: Rebirth was actually part of the Weapon Plus program that started in World War II. Though the benign Professor Abraham Erskine ran Rebirth, he wasn’t aware of Weapon Plus, having fled Nazi Germany to get away from such evil schemes. After he made Captain America, Erskine was killed and his research destroyed. Since then, Weapon X continued trying to copy and improve on Captain America.
7 INSPIRED BY NAZIS
Without question, the biggest insult to our species has been the Nazis. In the world of comics, the Nazis have also left their heinous mark(s). One such smear is that the Nazi scientist, Nathaniel Essex, laid the foundation for the Weapon X Program and its research. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Essex also goes by the colorful nickname Mr. Sinister and has been a foe of the X-Men for years.
As it stands, the Nazis were obsessed with creating the perfect Aryan race, so it made sense that Essex would lead the charge in the Nazi eugenics program; his experiments were the building blocks for Weapon X. Yet there was more going on than anyone realized. Born in the 17th century, Essex made a pact with Apocalypse to live forever and spent the rest of his days manipulating humanity’s evolutionary development.
6 PREDATOR X
If you’re a bunch of mad scientists thinking up new and gruesome ways to evolve a species, then you’re not going to settle for implanting mutants with adamantium. When the Weapon Plus program became the Facility, a new monster was born: Predator X. Introduced in New X-Men #34 Predator X was actually a project commissioned by William Stryker and his anti-mutant cult to kill the mutant “antichrist.” The Predator X creatures were given huge claws, liquid metal skin, super-strength, and the ability to detect mutants, who they would then pursue and devour.
After Hope was born, the first mutant birthed since all mutants were de-powered in “M-Day,” the Predator X creatures were drawn to her. Though the first batch was destroyed, the Facility made more and designed these new Predator X monsters to hunt targets like Wolverine.
5 FANTOMEX AND THE WORLD
Weapon Plus’s obsession with evolution took form of their project “The World.” The World was a secret laboratory that could mutate any species put inside; the scientists could slow down and speed up the World’s time to cause generations of evolution in seconds. Those raised in it were led to believe it was the entire world. So essentially, the Weapon Plus Program literally developed their own personal world, ecosystem and all, just so it would churn out weapons.
The mutant Fantomex was a crowing achievement for the Weapon Plus Program; they were successful at artificially evolving him in the World.
While there, he created a sentient external nervous system known as E.V.A.; she grew into a flying saucer. Furthermore, Fantomex ended up being one of the most powerful mutants to come out of the Program; his power of misdirection, multiple brains, and healing factor made him a match for anyone.
4 HARVESTED WOLVERINE'S DNA
After kidnapping and brainwashing Wolverine, along with forcing adamantium into his body, Weapon X realized they were on to something. Despite Logan breaking free, Weapon X was incredibly impressed with Wolverine’s abilities and lethality. They spent years tampering with Wolverine’s harvested DNA, so they could duplicate his healing power, and pass it on to others. Their experiments led to individuals like Ajax and Deadpool. There were many failed experiments, but Weapon X eventually figured it out.
The Facility took the process one step further with cloning. They wanted to engineer a Wolverine of their own; a weapon they could point and shoot that wasn’t freethinking. And so, after many botched attempts, someone suggested to try creating a female clone. The result was X-23. Later, she broke away, killed nearly everyone in the facility she was being held in, and eventually became a hero.
3 THEY HAVE A FAILSAFE
When you’re running a government organization that doesn’t always bring its subjects in willingly, your subjects typically lack the incentive to remain with you and not try and escape or murder you. Though those involved in Weapon X were brainwashed to follow orders, occasionally their memories would return or they’d decided enough was enough and attempt to break free, killing everyone in their path along the way.
Weapon X prepared for this with Shiva.
First appearing in Wolverine #50, Shiva was a computer program, which came to life as a deadly robot. Shiva was responsible for going after rogue members of the Weapon X Program, and it could learn from experiences. This meant if a team or individual defeated Shiva, the program created a new robotic clone that learned from its mistakes.
2 WOLVERINE
Out of every Weapon X experiment, their most notorious project was Wolverine. Comic book readers associate the two instinctively. When Wolverine originally popped up, he was referred to as Weapon X, but the name was later applied to the program that made him, rather than his actual name or codename. For literally decades, no one in the Marvel Universe, Wolverine included and even readers, knew Logan’s origin. The mystique that developed around him was one of a kind.
It wasn’t until Marvel Comics Presents #72 by that Logan’s dark history with Weapon X was revealed.
By now, many know the story: Weapon X kidnapped Logan, forced his bones to bond with the indestructible metal adamantium, and then erased his memory and installed implants, turning him into a remote controlled slave. It took time, but Logan would break free, kill his captors, and then later join the X-Men.
1 BUILT CAMPS TO END MUTANTS
The ultimate goal of Weapon X wasn’t to capture and experiment on mutants, but it was to destroy them all in mass genocide. They’ve gone to many extremes to get it done, and one such way involved copying the Nazis by developing their very own concentration camps. It was revealed in 2002’s Weapon X #1, that the program had created a camp called Neverland. Built under the pretence of a prison, in actuality it was a murder camp.
Whenever a mutant would arrive at the camp, they’d have their minds scanned and then be sorted into groups according to their powers. Mutants with powers Weapon X desired would be experimented on or turned into agents for Weapon X. All others deemed too dangerous or useless would be killed. In the end, thousands of mutants were slaughtered before the camp was exposed and shut down.