WEAPON X (AOA)

BIOGRAPHY

Like everyone else in the divergent timeline known as the Age of Apocalypse, the destiny of the man called Logan was irrevocably altered when a young Charles Xavier was killed, thus giving rise to the dystopian rule of the mutant menace called Apocalypse. Though this Logan shared the same past as his 616 counterpart up until this point, what came after varied dramatically. While much of his subsequent history is unknown, Logan still ended up participating in the Weapon X project, at which point he had Adamantium grafted onto his bones and his memory altered.

At some point, Logan also had an earlier encounter with a teenaged Mariko Yashida in Japan. After saving her from the Yakuza, he earned the anger of her half-brother and guardian, the Silver Samurai, who felt Logan had dishonored him by protecting Mariko in his stead. The two men had met years before and didn't get along back then either. They battled, with Wolverine coming out the victor. He spared the Samurai's life and subsequently began a relationship with Mariko. Shingen, Mariko's father, was displeased at the two being involved and he forced Mariko to call it off. Logan left Japan not realizing that Mariko was pregnant with his child. [Age of Apocalypse Oneshot, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #6, Weapon X (1st series) #2]

Logan traveled the world and was eventually recruited by Magneto to join his group of mutants - the X-Men. Using the codename Weapon X, Logan demonstrated his impressive fighting skills as well as his berserker rage. However, Magneto had Jean Grey use her telepathy to calm the feral mutant so that he could regain his senses during his rages.

Unfortunately, the X-Men's world was about to change, as Xavier's absence in this timeline caused the early rise of Apocalypse, who launched his war on humanity by attacking the US military base Cape Citadel, which housed numerous nuclear weapons. Along with Magneto and the rest of the X-Men, Weapon X raced to intercede and squared off against Sabretooth, one of Apocalypse's Horsemen. Possibly due to mental conditioning both had received over the years, neither recognized the other except by reputation. Ultimately, Weapon X bested Sabretooth and Apocalypse's plans of launching the nuclear weapons were thwarted. Little did the team know that this was the opening salvo of a war that would reshape the entire planet. Having suffered their own losses, the X-Men went back home to await Apocalypse's next move. Over time, Wolverine and Jean grew closer and they eventually began a relationship. [X-Men Chronicles #1]

In another twist of fate, Sabretooth eventually switched sides and joined the X-Men. He and Logan managed to put aside their differences and eventually became friends. Together, they rescued the teleporter Blink, who also joined the X-Men. [Astonishing X-Men (1st series) #3]

At some point, Jean was captured by Apocalypse's forces. Realizing the potential she possessed, Apocalypse tried to convert Jean to his side but she resisted. After searching for months, Logan finally managed to locate his lover and defied Magneto's orders to try and save her. In Logan's way, however, was Cyclops, one of Apocalypse's operatives who had been watching over Jean since her incarceration. The battle was ferocious and both men suffered losses as a result, with Cyclops having an eye removed by Logan's claws and Logan losing his entire left hand to Cyclops's optic beam. Nevertheless, Logan managed to save Jean and the two escaped. Afterward, Logan had a metal stump grafted onto his arm in place of his missing hand. Angry with Magneto for allowing Jean to be captured and then failing to help save her, Logan and Jean left the X-Men. [Factor-X #3, X-Men Chronicles #2]

Despite the interference of the X-Men, Apocalypse's forces were strong and within a short time they took control of North America, after which they began devastating other countries around the world. While baseline humans were rounded up and killed by the millions, Apocalypse offered the mutants a choice: stand by him as rulers of the world or stand in his way and perish. One of Apocalypse's Horsemen, Sinister, took a different view to his master's plans. As Apocalypse was preparing for an all-out war he was sure he would win, Sinister believed that both humans and mutants would end up perishing in the battle. As a result, Sinister decided to play both sides and he handed over crucial data on Apocalypse and his plans to Logan and Jean, who were now working for the Human High Council based in London.

So far, the council had managed to keep back the force of Apocalypse through their Sentinels, but Logan's data allowed them to create a plan to try and proactively save the remaining humans trapped in North America. A plan was devised and Logan and Jean were sent to one of Apocalypse's sea-wall defense structures to disable it. They were given temporary immunity to the Sentinels whilst they took down the facility, which would allow the Sentinels to enter North America. Unfortunately, they ran into trouble when they came across Havok, who tried to fend off the two mutants. Nevertheless, Logan and Jean bested him and took the facility off-line.

Though they returned to London in victory, Jean was horrified to find the High Council discussing a nuclear strike against Apocalypse. The data had revealed that Apocalypse planned an attack on Europe next, so the Council wanted to preemptively strike against him. Jean was dead set against the use of nuclear weapons but Logan agreed with the council's views of kill or be killed. When Magma burst into the meeting looking to kill the Council, Logan dispatched her quickly. The fact that Apocalypse was on to them prompted the Council to go ahead with the nuclear launch. [Weapon X (1st series)#1]

In the meantime, the High Council used their Sentinels to rescue many of the remaining humans in North America, transporting them to a drop-off point on the west coast of England. When Jean, still angry at his siding with the council, left to assist with the processing of the refugees, Logan tracked her down, just as a group of humans were being scanned. Two of the humans, however, turned out to be mutants, who promptly began wreaking havoc. Logan engaged them in combat, not realizing they were simply a distraction to allow Donald Pierce and his Reavers to slip through the borders.

Logan and Jean returned to one of the High Council's airships to plan their next move. Mariko, now one of the High Council members, aired her worries to Logan at the thought of a nuclear strike against Apocalypse. Before they could talk further, they were distracted by an explosion coming from another airship in the fleet. Pierce and his Reavers had taken control of the ship and were steering it towards the ship that contained the guidance controls for the nuclear attack. Logan jumped from his ship onto the hijacked vessel to try and stop it. Unfortunately, he failed and the two ships collided and the council lost their guidance controls. As he stepped out of the wreckage of the airships, Logan felt Jean saying goodbye over his psi-link with her. He raced to an airfield to find her about to take off on a plane to North America. She told him she couldn't live with herself or him if she didn't try and stop the nuclear strike. When Logan objected, Jean told him he would have to kill her to stop her. Knowing he couldn't, Logan kissed her and watched as Jean flew away. [Weapon X (1st series)#2]

With the guidance airship destroyed and the High Council needing a new way of delivering the nuclear strike to Apocalypse, Logan was sent back to the X-Men's old base at Wundagore Mountain to retrieve the mutant teleporter, Gateway. At the ruins of the base, Logan had to make his way through several cyborgs sent by Apocalypse before he came across his old friend, Carol Danvers, who had been acting as Gateway's protector. Initially, Gateway had no interest in helping out, however when the remaining Reavers attacked and killed Carol, Gateway agreed to return with Logan to Paris to at least hear out the Council's plan. [Weapon X (1st series)#3]

Gateway was still against helping the High Council but Logan showed Gateway the genocide going on in America. Eventually, he agreed to help and the airships began their journey across the Atlantic. En route, they were attacked by Pierce and his Reavers.  While the Human High Council fought for control within the ship, Gateway and Logan fought on the top of the airship. To their surprise and horror, they found Carol fighting alongside Pierce. Pierce had used his own parts to repair and subvert her and her primary directive was to kill Gateway. However, enough of Carol still remained to resist her programming long enough for Logan to kill her, prompting Pierce to try and kill Gateway himself. With Logan's good hand shot up, he was in dire trouble, though he had an ace up his sleeve. Though Cyclops had taken his hand years before, his claws were still sheathed in his arm. Getting close enough to the Reaver leader, Logan popped his claws through the metal stump and killed Pierce. With the threat over, Gateway used his powers and opened up a portal, allowing the entire fleet to get to their destination. [Weapon X (1st series)#4]

While Logan had been working with the Human High Council, the X-Men had been working against Apocalypse in their own way. As the fleet began bombing what was once the United States,  the X-Men were in Manhattan striking a blow against Apocalypse himself in his own stronghold. As the bombing neared the battle, Logan parachuted down to the ground so he could be with Jean in the final moments. However, just as he found her, Logan watched in horror as she was shot in the back by Havok. After killing Havok in revenge, Logan cradled his lover as she faded away and then he waited for the bombs to finish him too. [X-Men: Omega]

The end didn't come, though. As the bombs were falling, they mysteriously fell apart. Everyone assumed it was the doing of Magneto, who decided to go along with the ruse, even though he didn't know what happened either. Logan took Jean's body and gave her to Magneto to be buried alongside all the other fallen heroes. [Age of Apocalypse One-shot]

After the fall of Apocalypse, Logan moved to the Canadian wilderness to hunt down the survivors of Apocalypse's regime who had fled there. After a year had passed, he was approached by a young girl with claws like his, claiming to be his daughter, Kirika. She told him Magneto had found her in a stasis tube in one of Sinister's labs. After being awoken, she was taken in by the X-Men. When they saw she had claws, they realized she must be his child. She asked Magneto to coat her claws in Adamantium and in return she would convince Logan to rejoin the X-Men.  Though Logan told her he wasn't going back, she suggested she could help him get revenge on some of Apocalypse's minions. In fact, she had picked up Northstar and Aurora's scents as she was tracking Logan down. Together, they found the twins and after a short fight, killed them. The incident inadvertently helped change Logan's mind. He realized that he missed the fighting and he decided to go back to the X-Men with Kirika. [X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #1-2]

Back with the X-Men, Logan immediately squared off against the Silver Samurai, who had recently joined the X-Men. Kirika managed to calm the two down just in time for them to go on their first mission, a confrontation with the remaining Guthries, former agents of Apocalypse. Following the battle, as she lay dying, Paige Guthrie urged Magneto to honor his deal with Sinister. This shocked Logan and the rest of the X-Men, all of whom had long believed Sinister to be dead. After some questioning, Magneto ultimately not only admitted that he had known Sinister still lived, but that Jean lived as well. In fact, it was she who had actually been the one who saved Manhattan from the bombs. In order to preserve his secret and humanity's newfound faith in him as their savior, Magneto had allowed Sinister to go unnoticed in the new world order.

Incensed that Jean had been in Sinister's possession all this time, Logan attacked Magneto but then calmed himself. He used a sample of Paige's blood to figure out that Sinister was in New York. After tracking down his base, Logan and the X-Men were confronted by Sinister himself and his "Sinister Six", which boasted Jean Grey amongst their number. Logan was initially delighted to see Jean alive and well but he quickly realized she had been brainwashed. Sinister told them that Jean was an incredibly powerful mutant and he wanted to harness her power for himself.  During the ensuing fight, Logan tried to convince Jean to remember who she was. Ultimately, it was Psylocke, using her psychic knife, who broke Jean free of Sinister's conditioning.

Psylocke then used her powers on Kirika to allow her to clear her memories, confirming that she really was Logan's child with Mariko Yashida and not a clone as she feared. Afterwards, Kirika and the Silver Samurai decided to leave the X-Men so that they could rebuild Japan, which had been decimated during Apocalypse's regime. Logan waved goodbye to the daughter he had only just discovered. Luckily for him, this emotional blow was blunted, as he now had his lover Jean back in his arms. As Magneto was forced to step down due to his mistakes, they became the new leaders of the X-Men. [X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #3-6]

Things were good for a while. Logan and Jean led the X-Men in rebuilding the shattered world, and even found the time to get married. However, things turned sour when a spaceship landed in the middle of Manhattan. Against Jean's advice, Logan led a group of X-Men into the ship to kill whoever was inside. When he entered, he discovered the ship actually belonged to the Celestials, who had returned to Earth to judge it.  His body and mind were modified by their Death Seed technology to the point where he had become a twisted version of his former self. As Weapon Omega, he was now committed to moving evolution forward and to do that he had to remove any opposition, mutant and human alike.

[Note: In Age of Apocalypse #5, a different version of Weapon X's ascension was described. Jean Grey outlined her last memories of her husband, where they confronted each other over the fate of an Apocalypse child, very similar to the template of Genesis from Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #1-4. Despite Jean's pleas, Logan murdered the child and the Apocalypse power passed into him, making him Weapon Omega. Taken at face value, this scene implies Jean fought against the Overlord for ten years, knowing it was Logan, without telling her fellow X-Men.]

Over the next ten years, Logan, now calling himself Weapon Omega, reduced the world to a wasteland in a bid to kill the remaining human population. He also assembled his own force of mutates called the Black Legion, who aided him in his quest. Billions of humans died during his regime and those that remained were forced to hide in squalor. His former allies were not exempt from his fury, as he sent men to kill Rogue and Magneto's son, Charles, along with any X-Men who stood in their way. Storm, possibly the only other survivor of the X-Men who first visited the ship, had her flesh turned to stone and was kept as a blind seer named Orordius. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #12-13]

With the X-Men at an all-time low and with a fraction of the numbers they once had, Weapon Omega had little interference to worry about. However, the X-Men rallied and attacked when their numbers were bolstered by a group of inter-dimensional travelers from Earth 616 calling themselves X-Force. The leader of X-Force was Wolverine, a counterpart to Weapon Omega himself. After their teammate, the Archangel, had been corrupted by the same Celestial Death Seed technology as Weapon Omega, Wolverine and X-Force had come in search of the Life Seed, which they needed to save him and prevent him from committing the same atrocities that Apocalypse and Weapon Omega had committed in this timeline. News of the Life Seed also gave the X-Men of the Age of Apocalypse hope of securing a weapon against their own Celestial overlord.

The intruders had already faced powerful opposition by his Black Legion when Weapon Omega came across them and coldly killed his own daughter, Kirika. Completely in the thrall of the Celestial programming, Weapon Omega felt nothing at the death of his own daughter, in stark comparison to Wolverine, who seemed devastated at the death of his daughter from an alternate reality.

Against Weapon Omega, the X-Men were clearly outmatched. However, Jean intervened and mentally stopped everyone with the exception of her former lover, Weapon Omega. The two took the opportunity to talk, something which they had not done in a long time. She berated him for the atrocities he committed but he simply stated that he was doing the Celestial's bidding and he did what he did to save them. He asked Jean and her Phoenix-powers to join him in rebuilding the world. She declined, so he knocked her out and teleported her back to his home. He was about to use a Death Seed on her but Wolverine and his squad arrived in time to stop him. He fought the intruders but failed to stop them from taking Jean back. The rest of the team had managed to get a Life Seed and with their mission complete, Jean forced them to leave their world before they were killed. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #11-13]

After that, Weapon Omega continued his task of eradicating the remaining humans. After torturing and killing some remaining mutants, including Rogue and Magneto, he learned of the last city of humans called the Vestry, a stronghold hidden under St. Petersburg, and quickly moved to attack it. Unknown to him, Jean Grey was attempting a daring plan to replicate an incident she had gleaned from Wolverine's mind during his visit, in which her human allies cultivated a clone of the Scarlet Witch to depower all mutants. However, Jean's effort backfired, depowering herself and her ally, Sabretooth. The two fled, as Weapon Omega destroyed the entire city in one huge explosion, killing all the humans inside it. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #19.1]

Over sixteen thousand humans died in the Vestry attack and, with their deaths, Weapon Omega declared the age of humans over. He wasn't ready to celebrate just yet, though, as he still needed to find Jean Grey and her human collaborators. Plus, a new war was beginning between the remaining mutants to see who would reign supreme. He decided to recruit some mutants onto his side but as all the powerful ones were dead, he needed to do something special. Weapon Omega ordered Dr. McCoy, one of Apocalypse's scientists who had siphoned off some energy from a Life Seed, to use the energy on the body of Cyclops, returning him to life. Once they realized what they could do, McCoy and the Sugarman began resurrecting some of the most powerful mutants on the planet and mentally conditioning them to fight for Weapon Omega. They managed to resurrect Emplate, Havok, Colossus, and more before the facility was taken down by the Red Prophet and his X-Terminated. [Age of Apocalypse #1-4]

Before the facility was destroyed, however, Prophet gambled on resurrecting Monet St. Croix, only without the loyalty conditioning the other returning mutants received. Now going by the name Penance, she began to rally the remaining mutants and humans together. Earning his attention in doing so, Weapon Omega sent some of his associates to try and convince her to join his regime. Not only did she decline, but she even used her telepathy to undo the brainwashing on one of them. Intrigued by her audacity, Weapon Omega went to see her himself. They both agreed to keep things civil between them, even though they were rivals. [Age of Apocalypse #5-6]

In the meantime, Prophet and the X-Terminated were devising a way to strip Weapon Omega of his Celestial power. They believed Reed Richards knew a way and had written it in his journals before he died. They ended up tracking the journals to Victor von Doom in Latveria, where they discovered he had found a way of capturing and harnessing the power of the Death Seed. He told them he had destroyed the journals but, as a safeguard, had memorized them. He ended up having his head chopped off and taken back to America, where it was handed over to the now captive Sugarman to extract the information from. [Age of Apocalypse #7-9]

Weapon Omega had long been using his operatives to track Jean. However, when he discovered that she was in New Apocalypse, Weapon Omega decided to go after her himself. He found her in the sewers beneath the city, fighting off the dregs of the society. Before he could do anything, Sabretooth got to them and began to fight him, whilst Jean slipped away. She met with her allies, who gave her a small pill that Sugarman had created. If ingested by Weapon Omega, the bean would strip him of the Celestial influence. Weapon Omega easily beat Sabretooth and began to hunt Jean down. She took the pill and decided to stay behind, whilst the others fled. Weapon Omega captured her and had McCoy run extensive tests on her, at which point he learned she was now irrevocably human. Going to visit her one last time, Weapon Omega did not notice when she slipped the pill into her mouth. As they kissed for one final time, she slipped the pill from her mouth to his, where its effects immediately began to show.

Weapon Omega stabbed her in response, but it was too late. The death energies tore out of him and were absorbed by Jean as the next host. Thanks to her history with the Phoenix Force, though, Jean was strong enough to reject the power of the Death Seed and displaced it. After everything died down, Weapon Omega emerged from the rubble as Logan once again, his mind now clear of the corrupting force of the Death Seed. Unknown to him or Jean, however, the energies of the seed had in fact been contained by Bolivar Trask in a giant machine under the Nevada Desert. [Age of Apocalypse #10-12]

In the aftermath, Logan began hunting down all the mutants who worked for him under his regime. It was in New York, where he had tracked and killed Cyclops, that Logan was in turn found by Jean. Having spent a long time trying to find him, she asked him to come home. He declined though, as he was still feeling guilty over his actions when he became Weapon Omega. He told Jean there would never be peace for him in this new world and now released her from any obligation she had to him. With Emplate on the loose in Brazil, his sights were set on his next target. [Age of Apocalypse #13]

Just as the world was once again free, another situation quickly arose. The constant travelling between dimensions by various teams had broken down the barriers between the worlds. Three giant creatures, the beginnings of a powerful army, broke free of their inter-dimensional prison and descended upon their world. The X-terminated, along with two teams from other dimensions, fought off the creatures. In the end, it was Jean Grey, using the Death Seed power that Bolivar Trask had captured, who saved the day. The downside was their reality was now locked off from all others and the creatures were trapped there along with them. The fate of Logan and the rest of the world is unknown. Whilst the creatures are near omnipotent, the residents of the world once ruled by Apocalypse have shown they are strong and can survive the worst the universe has to offer. [X-termination crossover]