Weapon X

Weapon X was a highly illegal metahuman research initiative proposed by Dr. Truett Hudson and the mutant Nathaniel Essex in the 1970s, a spinoff of the Weapon Plus research directive developed under the Department of Extranormal Affairs. Weapon X proposed taking the research conducted by Weapon Plus and CADMUS and applying it to individuals who were not otherwise compliant or willing to volunteer. A covert agreement with Canada's Department K allowed the US Government to operate an otherwise illegal research facility outside of US soil.

Former Weapon Plus research subjects were kidnapped against their will and experimented upon. A broad array of metahumans, hand-curated by Essex, were made to 'disappear' in order to provide research subjects. In 1979, Logan Howlett was captured and his bones forcibly fused with adamantium. Not only was Weapon X able to refine their adamantium-bonding process, they identified the genetic sequence for rapid healing. These techniques were applied to a number of other subjects, including Yuriko Oyama and Victor Creed.

Weapon X assets recovered in the field were picked up by the DEO and assigned to the black bag group called Task Force: X (Suicide Squad). Some were rehabilitated and transferred into Stormwatch. After Howlett's escape, a young US Army Major named William Striker successfully led a coup d'etat and outed Milbury's identity as Nathaniel Essex. Striker was put in charge of what was now an illegal military facility, and Essex was forced to flee. Striker found a valuable ally in Essex's former protege, Ivana Biaul, and helped her recruit, train, and deploy her personal combat units, code-named DV8.

The primary Weapon X facility was destroyed in 2011 by the First Class of Xavier's Graduates. Essex's spin-off, the infamous Hospice, was destroyed by Wade Wilson shortly thereafter.