The Super Soldier Serum
August 30th, 2006
Taking a look at the Super Soldier Serum and the effects it has had in just in the original Marvel Universe:
- As part of Operation: Rebirth, Steve Rogers was given the Super Soldier Serum and exposed to Vita-Rays. This granted him enhanced abilities and led him to become Captain America.
- An early version of the Super Soldier Serum was tested on Isaiah Bradley. It gave him enhanced abilities, but also caused mental illness. Later, Isaiah’s blood was transfused into his grandson Elijah Bradley (a.k.a. Patriot), granting him the super-powers he pretended to have in the first place (though hopefully not his grandfather’s insanity).
- A sample of the Super Soldier Serum was stolen by General Maxfield Saunders and given to Clinton McIntyre. It gave him enhanced abilities, but led to insanity and a fatal heart attack. Later resurrected by AIM, he became the villain Protocide.
- Keen Marlowe was an American reporter captured by the Nazis. A pre-Allies German scientist slipped him a version of the Super Soldier Serum and he became the Golden Age hero “The Destroyer.” In a later ret-con, it was Brian Falsworth who was given the Serum and used his enhanced abilities to first become the Destroyer, and then Union Jack.
- An attempt to recreate the Super Soldier Serum led to the creation of Man-Thing.
- In the recent mini-series Underworld, Jackie Dio is exposed to SS-2, a gaseous form of the Super Soldier Serum, and gains super strength and invulnerability.
- The Nazi version of the Super Soldier Serum led to the creation of their champions Master Man and Warrior Woman.
August 31st, 2006 at 7:29 am
Dare we reach into the allegations that this serum was an offshoot of the Weapon-Plus programs…?
August 31st, 2006 at 7:56 am
Official Comment
Yeah, I’m pretty much ignoring that idea…
August 31st, 2006 at 8:14 am
One of those things where it’s suspected that Morrison went way over the top?
August 31st, 2006 at 8:23 am
Official Comment
I suspect if Grant Morrison had his way, everything in the Marvel Universe would tie into the Weapon Plus program: Reed Richards spacecraft? Weapon-Plus flunkies snuck in at night and removed the cosmic ray shielding. Spider-Man’s spider-bite? It was really Weapon-Plus operatives who radiated that spider, not to mention the fact that they bullied Rick Jones until he drove out into the desert. After that, they were driving the truck whose lost cargo blinded Matt Murdock and then they killed Frank Castle’s family.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:11 am
To be fair, I’m sure that Morrison thought “unstoppable super soldier” and “unstoppable killing machine” was a natural link to make.
August 31st, 2006 at 2:45 pm
I thought Isaiah Bradley brain was brought somewheres along the level of a major stroke victim or maybe a child, and not insanity .
August 31st, 2006 at 2:50 pm
Official Comment
John,
In the end, the Super Soldier Serum did have that effect on Bradley. In the beginning, there is the suggestion that it caused the rage issues seen in Protocide.
August 31st, 2006 at 3:41 pm
The SSS (gotta love that acronym) when used without Vita-Rays to “stabilize” it was also blamed for the insanity of the Anti-Communist Cap of the 1950, as well as the numerous ups and downs of his Bucky, Jack Monroe, nee Nomad, nee Scourge.
“Caution: Use of the SSS without proper star status may result in the loss of mental function, insanity, unending also-ran subplots, and even death.”
August 31st, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Isn’t the Red Skull also a beneficiary of the SSS is someway (either is a clone of Captain America or stole his blood or something)?
August 31st, 2006 at 4:58 pm
You forgot the part where Barry Bonds took the super soldier serum and set the major league record for home runs in a season.
August 31st, 2006 at 7:10 pm
None Dare Call It: The Super Steroids Serum
August 31st, 2006 at 7:26 pm
Don’t forget Nuke, the whacked-out soldier from “Daredevil: Born Again”. He had a few rage issues too.
And Ka-Zar’s old sparring partner, Victorius:
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/victoriu.htm
September 1st, 2006 at 12:49 am
Outside of the main Marvel continuities, there was a lot about the Super Soldier Serum in the 1994-1998 “Spider-Man: The Animated Series.” This included a group of heroes whose powers were remarkably different, and not quite stable, explained as resulting from attempts to re-create it; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Forgotten_Warriors.
This involved revisions of some actual World War II-era material (e.g., Miss America and The Whizzer, among others), also re-used in other Marvel continuity. I’ve never figured out how much overlap there was between the various retcons.
In the same storyline, there was, much, much later, exactly one completely satisfactory use of the Super Soldier Serum. This was the Kingpin’s experiment on Felicia Hardy, whose father, a thief with a photographic memory, had seen the original formula as a child, and was finally forced to reveal it. Naturally, Wilson Fisk wanted to be sure that what he had extorted from the elder Hardy was safe to use, and thought using it the man’s own daughter would insure accuracy.
He seemingly failed to realize that, if it worked, his precautions against producing an enemy with Captain America’s abilities, and a serious grudge, might be entirely inadequate.
This is an odd, but interesting, variation on the usual martial artist with “mutant ability to alter probability fields” approach to Black Cat: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cat_%28comics%29#Spider-Man_.281994-1998.29
September 3rd, 2006 at 6:40 pm
What about Josiah X the super-soldier baby of Isaiah Bradley?
September 4th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
The six-issue Hulk miniseries “Nightmerica” (2003) features a crew of deformed experimental subjects, the Nightmericans, created by the defunct defense contractor Wright-Armstrong as part of a failed super-soldier experiment. One of the Nightmericans, Stu Wendel (codenamed “Manifest Destiny”), has become a weird, armless lump of flesh who nonetheless is genially proud that his “origin” parallels Captain America’s.
May 29th, 2007 at 11:11 am
I think they’ve retconned the Super-Soldier Serum to being a retrovirus-type thing, not a series of steroid injections. Can’t have the Symbol of America (R.I.P.) be a druggie, now, can we?
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