NUKE: Page 3 of 3

BIOGRAPHY - Page 3

Somehow, Nuke was extracted from custody and revived by a radicalized ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent known as the Iron Nail. Posing as “the general,” the Nail took advantage of Nuke’s programming and deployed him to Nrosvekistan in Eastern Europe, the site of an American military action years ago. Like Vietnam, this war was inconclusive by the end, publicly considered a mistake and embarrassment for America by many at home. Nuke was encouraged to do right by “our boys” and prove the war in Nrosvekistan wasn’t over, only on pause. With the Iron Nail in his earpiece provoking him onwards, Nuke single-handedly fought the foreign army to prove America never loses. He overwhelmed entire towns and occupied them, raising the American flag for all to see.

The Iron Nail intended to stain America’s reputation internationally, and S.H.I.E.L.D. barely threw up a media blackout when they learned of Nuke’s rampage. Maria Hill dispatched Captain America and the Falcon to stop Nuke and bring him in before his actions created more of an international incident. Nuke was relentless, and the two super-soldiers fought for hours without rest when they met. Cap eventually tried talking to Agent Simpson, pressing on him the difference between patriotism and fanaticism. Nuke started to listen but, when he spotted a press photographer, his mind snapped back to the welcome home his boys received from Vietnam, and the fighting continued. Captain America had to beat Nuke unconscious with raw force, and only the Falcon stopped him from taking things even further.

Nick Fury, Jr. arrived with a military escort to extract Nuke and the others. They were surprisingly sympathetic towards Agent Simpson, as Fury had read his full classified file and knew that Nuke had been cognitively modified to blindly follow orders. Part of the S.H.I.E.L.D. escort was an Agent Lamia, whose father was one of the soldiers in Vietnam that Nuke personally saved through great physical risk. Fury brought Lamia along to help remind Agent Simpson of why he started fighting in the first place. Rogers, Fury and Lamia did what they could to help Simpson recognize that he had been manipulated and his orders were wrong. Unfortunately, the Iron Nail had planned for Nuke’s capture. Mind blocks prevented Nuke from remembering too much about his current employer, and his cybernetic parts were secretly housing a powerful explosive device. On the verge of seeing reason for the first time in decades, Agent Simpson detonated in order to allow the Iron Nail access to the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility where he was being held. [Captain America (7th series) #11-15]

Nuke was tough enough that there was still something that roughly resembled a human body left over after he exploded from the inside out. [Captain America (7th series) #17] Someone eventually put Nuke back together, restoring his cybernetics and getting him functional again. Nuke’s mind became his own, allowing him to act without any direct supervisor providing him commands. Still, left to his own devices, Frank Simpson remained a hired mercenary and aggressively patriotic American. He became cocky and overweight, losing some of the military discipline which defined his character before now. Nuke took an open contract to hunt down Wolverine and bring him in alive for the Viper out of Madripoor. Even without his healing factor, though, Logan was more than a match for Nuke and all the other mercs who kept coming for him. [Death of Wolverine #1] Later, Wade Wilson’s Mercs for Money were hired by Umbral Dynamics to acquire dangerous radioactive super-beings and bring them in for study and containment. Deadpool started to doubt the intentions of his employer, though, and brought his Mercs to fight Nuke instead of Nuklo while stalling to make a new plan. [Deadpool and the Mercs for Money (2nd series) #3]

Eventually, Nuke returned to military service and got back into fighting shape as a deployable government asset. He was sent to assassinate the tyrannical dictator of Central America’s country, Santo Marco. Unfortunately, Nuke was captured and President Emilio Duarte had his scientists reverse-engineer the chemical stimulants in his system. In time, Duarte had his own team of Nuke mercenaries addicted to the “reds” his factory produced. The egomaniacal dictator used his Nuke platoon to begin hunting down and killing all the mutants in his country. This got the attention of the mutant Weapon X team, whose member Warpath was in touch with the Santo Marcan mutant Acero.

While fighting with the platoon, Sabretooth forced his way into the pill factory and found Nuke behind bars. Creed released the original Nuke to take back his identity from the rip-offs. Simpson was incensed that American soldiers would sell out to Duarte while wearing his flag, and he started ripping them apart. Nuke fought alongside Weapon X against the platoon, but only because they were both temporarily facing the same direction. When Weapon X tried to blow up the factory, Nuke was equally defensive about his pills and refused to let anybody else make decisions about his “reds.” Nuke intimidated the Nuke Platoon into falling in line and fighting with him to retake the factory for their pills.

Weapon X decided to boost themselves using the pill supply and took the fight to the platoon. The steroid-enhanced mutants battered their way through the platoon and regained the upper hand. After the pill supply was successfully blown up, Warpath got Nuke’s attention and reminded him he still had a mission to complete. Acero and Weapon X perp-walked the surviving platoon members through the streets of Santo Marco to put the government’s corruption on full display. While they built up public support, Nuke invaded the President’s mansion and killed Duarte, completing his mission and allowing democratic elections to return to Santo Marco. [Weapon X (3rd series) #12-14]

After the fall of Hydra’s America, a new cabal known as the Power Elite was formed. Figures of dubious or criminal backgrounds, they gained notoriety as resistors to Hydra and therefore received support from the country’s democratically elected government once it was reinstated. Ezekiel Stane was a bio-technologist who began mass-producing Nuke clones, controllable soldiers who would burn out after a few days. It’s uncertain what became of the original Nuke and if Stane had access to him for his experiments. [Captain America (8th series) #1-3]