Having enhanced Wolverine and many others, the Weapon Plus Program is perhaps the most infamously villainous organization in the history of Marvel Comics. As advertised, its goal is to create the ultimate weapon, specifically by either turning people into superhumans or making the already superpowered mutants even deadlier and totally under the organization’s thumb.
While the most famous ‘weapon’ to come out of the Weapon Plus Program is undoubtedly Weapon X himself, Wolverine, there are plenty more who are just as dangerous – and some many fans may not have even known were associated with the program at all. Besides Wolverine, here are the 10 most dangerous creations from Marvel’s Weapon Plus Program!
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10 CAPTAIN AMERICA Has Another Codename Some Fans Might Not Know: Weapon I
New X-Men #145 by Grant Morrison and Chris Bachalo
Steve Rogers was given a super soldier serum that turned him into Captain America under the government-funded operation: Project Rebirth. However, in New X-Men, it’s revealed that Project Rebirth inadvertently gave life to the Weapon Plus Program under its founder, Truett Hudson, as every experiment conducted within Weapon Plus was to create super soldiers just like Captain America, who was retroactively designated Weapon I.
Captain America is a dangerous extension of Weapon Plus not because he, himself, is a danger to others – as there aren’t many people as good or righteous as Captain America – but because his mere existence helped create this entire villainous organization in the first place, and his ‘Weapon I’ moniker is a constant reminder of that.
9 LUKE CAGE’s Invincibility Is A Product Of Weapon Plus Experimentation
Wolverine & Captain America: Weapon Plus #1 by Ethan Sacks and Diógenes Neves
Fans have known since his debut that Luke Cage’s unbreakable skin was a result of experimentation, but the true nature of that experimentation wasn’t revealed until Wolverine & Captain America: Weapon Plus #1. As it turns out, Luke Cage was another example of this villainous organization’s efforts to create a human weapon that could surpass the original Captain America – a perspective that makes Luke Cage absolutely terrifying.
Based on his powers alone, Luke Cage could murder any human he wanted (with the right training), as well as a number of iconic superheroes – maybe even Captain America himself. Luke Cage is a good man, and that’s why he’s a hero and not a borderline unstoppable villain, and that’s a scary thought, indeed.
8 NUKE Was Turned Into A Drug-Addicted Cyborg By Weapon Plus
Wolverine: Origins #2 by Daniel Way and Steve Dillon
Frank Simpson aka Nuke was a soldier in Vietnam who totally lost his mind after he was tortured by Wolverine (who was posing as a Russian intelligence liaison at that time). He was therefore the perfect subject for the experimental Project Homegrown, which operated under the umbrella of Weapon Plus. Homegrown turned Nuke into a cyborg, implanting armor under his skin with other additional cybernetic upgrades. They also surgically implanted another heart within his body, as Nuke also had to take adrenaline pills to maximize his deadliness factor, and a second heart would ensure he’d survive a high dose.
Nuke is like a hodgepodge of Weapon Plus experiments, as he’s part drug-induced super soldier, part technologically enhanced cyborg, with a mind that was already fractured beyond repair, making Nuke that much easier to control.
7 TYPHOID MARY Owes Her Terrifying Deadliness To Project Psyche
Wolverine & Captain America: Weapon Plus #1 by Ethan Sacks and Diógenes Neves
Typhoid Mary is a mutant with telepathic, telekinetic, and pyrokinetic powers, though the true threat she poses stems from the state of her fractured psyche, which was exasperated to the fullest extent by the Weapon Plus-backed program, Project Psyche. Project Psyche, aka Weapon IX, worked to create sleeper agents that could be called upon at any moment, and Mary’s powers made her an ideal candidate. However, the experimentation left her mind broken, and she was twisted into a vicious villain who could create extensive carnage with a mere thought.
Unlike most of the other Weapon Plus creations, Typhoid Mary wasn’t granted her abilities through experimentation, she was simply corrupted into using them for evil, which is perhaps even more dangerous and irresponsible on the part of Weapon Plus.
6 STEPFORD CUCKOOS Were Created To Contain The Phoenix Force
X-Men Phoenix: Warsong by Greg Pak and Tyler Kirkman
The Stepford Cuckoos were the result of cloning Emma Frost from her stolen ovaries, making them as much her own daughters than her clones – and Weapon Plus planned to use them for a very specific purpose: contain and channel the power of the Phoenix Force. The reason being that Weapon Plus wanted to use the Phoenix’s power to kill every mutant in the world, and the combined might of the Stepford Cuckoos was the only thing that could achieve such a lofty goal.
The fact that these five clones of one of the strongest telepaths on the planet had the power to harness an energy so cosmically immense as the Phoenix is absolutely terrifying, and beyond dangerous.
5 WEAPON H Is Perhaps The Deadliest Amalgamation In Marvel History
Totally Awesome Hulk #21 by Greg Pak and Robert Gill
Clayton Cortez aka Weapon H is a product of a resurgent cell of Weapon Plus trying to outdo the successes of its predecessors, and it does so by taking perhaps the greatest thing to come out of the program – Wolverine – and effectively merge him with arguably the strongest entity on Earth, the Hulk.
The danger Weapon H presents speaks for itself, as he’s a giant, gray Hulk with ‘Wolverine claws’ and a healing factor. Weapon H is vicious and deadly, truly encapsulating the best qualities of the two original ‘weapons’.
4 X-23 Is Wolverine’s Clone/Daughter (& Arguably Much Deadlier)
NYX #3 by Joe Quesada and Joshua Middleton
Just as Weapon Plus was a pseudo-extension of Project Rebirth, so too was the Facility an extension of the Weapon Plus Program, and its creation of X-23 proves it. X-23 – aka Laura Kinney – is a product of Wolverine’s cloned DNA used to impregnate the woman who carried Laura to term, meaning she was born naturally but under the most unnatural circumstances imaginable. After that, it was only a matter of training X-23 to be the deadliest ‘Wolverine’ there is, and it could be argued that that goal was achieved.
X-23 is now a prominent member of the X-Men, making her as much of a superhero as her iconic father. However, that doesn’t mean she isn’t dangerous, especially to those unfortunate enough to call her their enemy.
3 DEADPOOL Became Cosmically Dangerous Thanks To Department K
Deadpool and Death Annual 1998 #1 by Joe Kelly and Steve Harris
Department K was a disguised branch of the Weapon X operation under the larger Weapon Plus umbrella, and it was a continuation of the experimentation that was done on Wolverine. This time, however, the experiments were conducted on a human with terminal cancer: Wade Wilson. Department K wondered if they could mutate this mercenary into a perfect weapon using everything they learned and obtained from Wolverine – and it absolutely worked.
Deadpool would go on to not only attack the New Mutants and carry out countless assassinations, but would also slaughter an army of his own variants from other realities, and even end the entire Marvel Universe single-handedly in the aptly named Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe. His experience with Department K transformed Wade Wilson into a deadly force of nature far beyond the scientists’ initial expectations.
2 MAN-THING Became A Nexus Being As A Result Of Weapon Plus
Wolverine & Captain America: Weapon Plus #1 by Ethan Sacks and Diógenes Neves
Theodore Sallis was a scientist who was exposed to a substance of his own design called the SO-2 Serum. That exposure happened at the same time Sallis crashed his car into a swamp near the Florida Everglades, resulting in Sallis mutating into Man-Thing. These facts have been associated with Man-Thing’s origin since the character was first introduced, though none of them would be tied back to Weapon Plus until Wolverine & Captain America: Weapon Plus #1 (something that can be said for a few other entries as well).
Man-Thing stands out as perhaps the most unique mutation to come out of Weapon Plus, as he would gain access to the Nexus of Realities, and become something of a multiversal being. That, mixed with his god-tier power set, makes Man-Thing truly dangerous to those who would dare face him.
1 ALLGOD Is A Living Virus That Can Take Over The Multiverse
Dark Reign: The List – Wolverine #1 by Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic
The perfect creation, an unthinking, uncaring, sentient weapon that will utterly decimate any target its given, Weapon Plus’ Weapon XVI or Allgod is a “living religion” virus that clings to one’s belief in a higher power, and twists that belief into subservience. Allgod was used by The World (another continuation of the Weapon Plus Program) to bend its enemies to its whim, but proved too dangerous even for this ultra-villainous organization to use.
Most of the world’s population believe in something greater than themselves on a spiritual level, even if it’s in a purely agnostic sense, which means Allgod would likely be able to take over the entire planet in no time at all – not to mention other universes. That’s why this deadly creation of the Weapon Plus Program is one of the 10 most dangerous in Marvel Comics.
