SCOTT: So you know how Wolverine is largely associated with, and even calls himself, "Weapon X"?
Well, as this guy points out in one of the worst movies ever made, it is not an "X",
but a Roman numeral, "ten".
So if Wolverine is the tenth weapon, then what are the first nine? And are there more
after him? Well get ready, because we're about to explore all the secrets of the Weapon Plus
program right now!
[PHONE VIBRATING]
SCOTT: Ross, my brother from another country, how's it goin'?
ROSS: I really need your help! Have you ever heard of the, "Weapons Plus Program"?
SCOTT: Ross, that's perfect!
ROSS: What?
SCOTT: Yes, oh my goodness, because then you have Wolverine, who's "Weapon X" --
ROSS: No -- Scott, I just need, no, just tell me, urgh!
SCOTT: But then you get to do Captain America, and that's where it really gets interesting.
Of course that plays into fourth of July; you know how Youtube works. Tentpole programming
and all that. Also, you wouldn't happen to know the density of Vibranium off the top of your
head, would you? It doesn't really matter, I think we got the numbers workin' out pretty
well. Well you know, Ross, it has been great talkin' to ya, I love these little chats,
but -- I have an episode to film,
ROSS: No no no no don't hang up, ohhh! Well that was no help...
Welcome to Comic Misconceptions, the show that takes you into detail about the things
you think you know about comics, I'm your host: Scott Niswander.
The Weapon X program has a lot of history behind it. Casual comic book fans might recognize
it as major plot points in both X2 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as well as being kind
of threaded throughout the rest of the X-Movies.
But Weapon X is the tenth installment of the parent organization: the Weapon Plus Program.
So, let's run through all of the other installments. But first, a little history about why the
Weapon Plus Program exists in the first place.
The Weapon Plus Program was created as a response to the mutant threat. Largely the general
public in the Marvel Universe does not like mutants. Now the reasons could vary, but,
most likely, it's because we're just afraid of them.
So in World War II, the Weapon Plus Program was created to build super-human soldiers
that would fight alongside of humanity when the inevitable war between humans and mutants
breaks out.
Although, because it is a comic book, things have to get a little bit more confusing. John
Sublime, the head manipulator of the Weapon Plus Program, is actually sentient bacteria
that has been around since the dawn of life on Earth, and as long there are living hosts to
infect, he can't die.
Unfortunately for him, mutants are immune to his infection. So, out of self-preservation,
he infected humans with an aggression towards mutant-kind so that the mutants wouldn't become
the dominant species of life on the planet, leaving him without a host to infect.
It started out with Weapon 0, which is classified, and I couldn't get much information
on it. So we'll skip it.
But, last week I asked you guys if you knew who the most famous and successful subject
of the Weapon I program was, and Thorfan85, amongst others, got it correct by saying it
was none other than Captain America!
Weapon One, or Project: Rebirth as it's been called, successfully started with Steve Rogers,
a.k.a. Captain America. If you don't know his origin, the basic structure goes: scrawny
kid takes Super Soldier Serum, sometimes he's also hit with vita-rays, but the outcome is this.
But the only man who can replicate the formula is killed, leaving Steve Rogers as the world's
only Super Soldier as he takes up the mantle of Captain America. And without going into
too much detail, he gets himself frozen and thawed out in modern life where he continues
to fight for what he believes.
Weapon II was said by a guy named Fantomex to be animal test subjects. Now we don't have
much more info than that, so we'll move on. We'll be talking about Fantomex a lot
in this episode, as he plays a huge role in the future of the Weapon Plus Program,
and also we're gonna be looking at this one panel, a lot, so get used to it.
Weapon III was the Skinless Man. Appearing in Uncanny X-Force #21. He was a lawyer who
had sentient skin, and he was taken in by the Weapon Plus program who enhanced his powers
and deployed him into the field. But one mission, he was sent to another dimension known as
Otherworld, where he gets betrayed by Fantomex, who he had worked with on previous missions.
Fantomex left him there to face his punishment with the authorities in Otherworld who ruled
to have the man's skin removed, but also that he would be left alive to feel the pain. Over
time, the Skinless Man trained his muscles to do what his skin used to: murder. He even
cut off Fantomex's face. Long time viewers of the show will know how I feel about that.
Not great.
Weapons IV through VI were said to be various ethnic minorities like those in the story,
"Truth: Red, White, and Black", which touches on a few of the test subjects, including
Isaiah Bradley who you can see here in the Captain America get-up.
Weapon VII produced one successful test subject named, Nuke, who makes his appearance
in Wolverine Origins #1. His backstory is a little weird so I'm going to skip over it.
But notably, he was tortured by Wolverine during the Vietnam War when he carved an American
Flag onto Nuke's face. After twenty years of experimentation, he barely remains human.
But Weapon Plus is about to make the first leap away from human test subjects.
And that's where Weapons VIII and IX come in. All we know about Weapons VIII and
IX are that they were the start of Weapon Plus using kidnapped mutants as test subjects.
Other than that, we got nothin' else.
But then Weapon X, or "Weapon Ten", comes around, and there is so much history behind
it! It even branched off of the Weapon Plus program to become it's own organization. But
typically the person most associated with the Weapon X program, is Mr. Weapon X
himself, Wolverine. Wolverine is a mutant with an incredible healing factor that allowed
him to have a super strong metal, known as Adamantium, to be bonded to his skeleton,
turning him into the ultimate killing machine.
Weapon XI, quite frankly, is the one that we know the least about. We know it that it
logically has to exist, but other than that we have no other information. It could be...anything!
....anything....
In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Weapon XI was said to be, Deadpool, but I don't take
that movie as canon. So, we move on.
Weapon XII is known as, Huntsman, who made his appearance in New X-Men #128. He was created
at a Weapons Plus program known as, The World, which was built so that the Weapon Plus Program
could have a more hands on approach and hopefully prevent other installments from going rogue,
like Weapon X did.
Huntsman is made of nano-sentinel technology. You'll recognize the sentinels of being these
giant, mutant-killing robots, which fits snuggly into the mission statement of the Weapons
Plus Program to destroy all mutants. Huntsman had the ability to turn people into...zombies,
I think? Something like that. He was also created to be a part of the Super-Sentinel
team, which we'll touch on a little bit more, later.
He was defeated by Professor X, Jean Grey, and of course, Fantomex who was then revealed to be --
♫ wait for it ♫
Weapon XIII! Bet you didn't see that coming. Unless you
already knew who Fantomex was, then of course you saw that coming.
Fantomex, or Weapon XIII, was also created at The World, to be a part of the Super Sentinel team.
The Super Sentinels was a way for the Weapon Plus Program to introduce the idea of killing
mutants as public entertainment. Sublime had envisioned them to be "A Saturday morning
cartoon come to life, scripted and sold as a 24-hour reality soap opera." The public
would love them, and root for them as they go around killing mutants, which would again
reinforce the idea that mutants should be hated and destroyed.
Fantomex rebelled against the Weapon Plus Program and took on a faux French accent for
no other reason than he liked it. He also had his heart ripped out by the Skinless Man,
but came back to life via cloning, because, hey, it's a comic book.
Weapon XIV was revealed to be the Stepford Cuckoos in New X-Men #154. They have powerful
psychic abilities that allow them to do fun things like this. And if you follow me on
Instagram, you'll notice that I posted a screenshot from, "X-Men 3: The Last Stand",
that many believe to reveal the Stepford Cuckoos. But who are they, and where did they come from?
Revealed to be grown, once again, in The World from Emma Frost's genetic material, the Stepford
Cuckoos were designed to be basically a living computer. Five of them infiltrated the X-Men
and, using nanotech laced throughout their skeletons that allowed them to communicate
with the other thousand sisters, collect and transmit data on mutants to help aid Weapon
Plus. And also probably be released as an army of psychic diamond warriors if the time came.
But the Phoenix Force manifests strongly inside one of the sisters named Celeste. It uses
her to destroy the lab with the thousand sisters in an attempt to shut down Weapon XIV
and protect mutant-kind.
Celeste regains control and splits the Phoenix in three. Frozen in each of the living sisters
hearts, Celeste, Phoebe, and Mindee. Their hearts were made permanently diamond which
will trap the Phoenix Force inside, but also make it so they can't feel feelings.
Out of all the comics I read for preparation to this video, this one was one of my favorites,
so I encourage you guys to read it. Links to everything I talk about, in the description below.
Weapon XV is Ultimaton, who was again created at The World, to be a part of the
Super Sentinels with Huntsman and Fantomex.
What's great about this character is that he was designed by Weapon Plus to be this
big strong power house, but, as you do, he started to question the purpose of life. Ultimaton
strikes me as this lovable strong, innocent character who's just...great.
For Weapon XVI, we once again travel back to The World as Wolverine and Fantomex team
up this time with a Kree Warrior known as, Noh-Varr, in "Dark Reign - The List: Wolverine".
Norman Osborn wants The World for himself, but it has become sentient and released
Weapon XVI, Allgod.
Allgod is, as Fantomex puts it, a living religion. It's a virus that attacks the faith reserves
of the brain, turning everyone who believes in some type of god, into
the World's personal immune system.
This issue is really weird, but in a good way. It's fun and funny and just bizarre.
Allgod is stopped when Noh-Varr kisses the brain of The World to let it know that it's
not in any danger, buddy. And it ends with Fantomex shrinking down The World with a shrink
ray he stole from some sort of Doctor, named 'Doom'?
Lastly, there's Weapon Infinity, a.k.a. Project: Deathlok. In an Uncanny X-Force story, "Deathlok
Nation", an alternate timeline has superheroes of all kinds being turned to Deathloks, which
are essentially cyborgs. In the future, their only mission is to kill, reanimate, and convert
all superhumans into Deathlok troopers.
This was actually a law that was passed after the public was fed up with superheroes. They
get turned into a controllable police force, and help usher in Utopia.
And again, there's so much going on here, that I really wish I could have gone into
more detail, but I didn't want to confuse anyone who might be new to the Marvel Universe.
That being said, If you think I skipped over anything that you find extremely important,
which I'm sure that I did, please let me know in the comments below, and I'll be
down there talkin' with you guys like I always do. I hope somebody mentions Protocide,
because I have some stuff to say about Protocide.
But here's a question: we all love mutants, but if you were employed at the Weapon Plus Program,
what would be the type of weapon you would deploy to destroy all of mutant-kind? Let me know, in the comments.
You should also go check out my buddy Ross's video, right here, if you want to see the
other half of the phone call. He does visual FX superhero stuff, and it looks incredible,
so go check it out.
Lastly, on a sad note, we're going to be taking a break on making videos for a month, as I
get moved into my new house, and also get caught up on comic books 'cause I'm very
far behind. And, of course, gotta revamp the show for you guys, make it look even prettier.
In the meantime, you can follow me on Instagram and Twitter, @ScottNiswander. I'm always
posting stuff on Instagram from panels of comics that I'm reading that I think are
funny, upcoming video ideas, as well as you can see, some of my golden tweets, like this
one...that make my followers think I'm a lunatic.
Take it easy guys. Hit up that comment section. And I will see you in about a month to talk
about more things that you thought you knew about comics. See ya!
you knew about comics.
See ya!