Nuke (comics)
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For the Squadron Supreme and Supreme Power character, see Nuke (Squadron Supreme)
Nuke (real name, Frank Simpson) is a fictional villain in the Marvel Universe. He first appears in Daredevil #232 and was created by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli. Nuke's most distinguishing feature is an American Flag tattooed on his face.
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[edit] Biography
Nuke is actually a test subject of one of the installments Weapon Plus, the supersoldier program that had created Captain America and would later transform Wolverine into a killing machine. The enhancing and conditioning process went awry, leaving Nuke seriously deranged.
[edit] Early life
The origins of Nuke are tangled with those of Wolverine, and so explained during the miniseries Wolverine: Origins. While Logan was an operative for Weapon Plus, he was sent to stage the kidnapping of Frank Simpson, the disturbed son of a wealthy, alcoholic abusive upperclass woman in Ohio, Frank soon developed an unhealthy affection for his babysitter, the only real maternal figure in his life. The young woman, capitalizing his affection for her and harboring feeling for Charles Simpson, his father, talked the young disturbed boy into killing his mother. Wolverine then showed up, dressed as a cop, stalked Charles Simpson and the babysitter, who were having sex in Charles' car, and shot the girl with Charles' own gun, forcing his suicide. He then went to Frank's place to get him into the Super Soldier Project.
Years later Frank Simpson was sent into Vietnam as a black-ops agent. Captured by the Vietcong, Frank was deeply tortured by Logan, who pretended to be a Russian intelligence liaison, shattering Frank's still unbalanced mind. While torturing him, even carving with a knife in his face the american flag that years later would make part of his superpowered persona, he implanted the phrase "No V.C.!" as a trigger word, along with the compulsion to kill gruesomely, in retaliation for the tortures suffered, anyone who uttered the words. He then allowed Nuke to escape, testing his work with a village of peasants, who, seeing an American soldier, tried to soothe his anger and convince him to spare them, shouting the "No V.C.!" phrase, meaning that they weren't Vietcong. Frank, in response to the trigger word, burnt the village to the ground killing every inhabitant. The experiment being a success, Logan was instated as the handler of the human weapon. Due to his trauma, Nuke often hallucinates that the enemies he is fighting are the Vietcong.
At some time during the Vietnam War Nuke was inducted into the final part of the Project Homegrown, the Weapon VII programs, that turned him in a partial cyborg with a subdermal mesh able to deflect bullets, and a second heart that, working in conjunction with some (placebo) pills, controlled his aggression, leaving him addicted as well. His whereabouts after the war are still unknown.
[edit] First Appearance
Nuke resurfaced, employed by Generalissimo Felix Guillermo Carridad, of Tierra Verde, to destroy a rebel base. Carridad was impressed with his skills, and he enjoyed using Nuke periodically as a superhuman iconic symbol.
In the Born Again story arc, the Kingpin hired Nuke through several corrupt military officials and sent him to kill Daredevil. Nuke went on a rampage in New York City, blowing up part of Hell's Kitchen, causing Daredevil and the Avengers to capture him. He escaped soon after, going for Daredevil again, but was intercepted by Captain America and shot by a military chopper. Apparently dead, he was in fact taken in care by the Government, still controlled by the Tierra Verde enclave.
[edit] Origins Events
After Wolverine discovered his full past and set out to take care of loose ends, the U.S. government dispatched Nuke, who was kept at the United States embassy in Chile, to hunt down Wolverine.
Wolverine, with some efforts, quickly dispatched his foe, seeking a way to redeem, or kill him. After the battle he discovered that Nuke's enhanced physiology was furtherly mutated, and he has become a cyborg, with artificial limbs, bones and skull, able to survive and being rebuilt after the most gruesome injuries, yet devoid of any personality or conscience. Acknowledging that now he was beyond any hope of redemption, he tried to kill him, only to be stopped by Captain America, who had arrived because he believed that Nuke was a failed subject of the Super Soldier Program. Now without any legs, the leftovers of Nuke's body were handed over to Emma Frost by Wolverine, who wanted Emma to try to restore Nuke's broken mind, if possible. And, if it turned out impossible, Logan told Emma to call him, because in that case he'd come back and kill Frank.
Apparently Nuke's metabolism is now remote controlled from a secret base on Tierra Verde, whose technicians are able to shut down the biomech systems in Nuke's body.
[edit] Pill Colors
Nuke has a second heart, and takes different colored pills to produce different bodily effects. Nuke's pill colors are: red, for increased adrenaline; white, to bring him down; and blue, to relax.
While it was previously believed that the red pills Nuke took affected his mental state, sending him into his bloodthirsty rages, the Wolverine: Origins series reveals that these pills are placebos, suggesting that Nuke lives in a constant state of increased adrenaline, but doesn't know it. The pills, therefore, trigger his violent behavior, but the effect is purely psychological.
A monitor in the Tierra Verde laboratory from which Nuke is controlled, showing three lines, red, white and blue, suggests that currently the same remote control system that turn on or shut down the biomech system in Nuke controls his adrenaline production and his behaviour.
[edit] Powers and Abilities
Nuke possesses various superhuman physical attributes as a result of various cybernetic enhancements. Nuke's bones have been replaced with advanced cybernetic components, granting him superhuman strength of an unrevealed limit. Aside from his strength, Nuke's body is considerably more resistant to physical injury than that of an ordinary human. Nuke's skin has been replaced with an artificial type of plastic that looks identical to human skin but is much more durable. In addition, he has an artificial second heart that works in conjunction with his colored pills. Nuke is the victim of decades of systematic physical and mental abuse and conditioning at the hands of various individuals working for the United States government. As a result, Nuke is insane. He is now little more than a puppet in the hands of his current handler, and able only to follow issued commands.
