History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

[OddHat]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

Heh... allow me to quote from my initial post to the ML on which this was being discussed.

 

Thanks.

 

As I said, sounds very interesting.

[loraxxx]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

an important thing to consider about "the super-soldier program," at least as it's portrayed in the ULTIMATE universe is that a very broad ranging and sweeping program, using various, methods, some related, some not, some based on previous work, some newly develped...

 

the idea is to apply science towards making the ultimate soldier--while there was substantial effort to re-create the process that created CAPT. AMERICA, recovery of erkine's "super-soldier process" wasn't it's only goal...

 

with that in mind, it may not be necessary to link all forms of "crypto-science" to the work of one scientist, Frankenstien, or whomever--it may be less work to simply recognize these characters, as "founding fathers," or "leading lights" in their respective fields--FRANKENSTIEN, MOREAU for biology, and genetics, TESLA, NEMO, AND TOM SWIFT, etc. for mechanics and engineering, and so forth...

[OddHat]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

with that in mind, it may not be necessary to link all forms of "crypto-science" to the work of one scientist, Frankenstien, or whomever--it may be less work to simply recognize these characters, as "founding fathers," or "leading lights" in their respective fields--FRANKENSTIEN, MOREAU for biology, and genetics, TESLA, NEMO, AND TOM SWIFT, etc. for mechanics and engineering, and so forth...

 

The work of these great men, together with information derived from captured alien technology (most notably the technology obtained from the "Martion" incursion of 1898, the Rogue Planet Crisis of 1933, and the so-called Giant Robot incident of 1966) has lead to the establishment of the wildly controversial field known, even to its most successful practitoners, as Mad Science.

 

(I will eventually get around to doing a full article on the history of Mad Science for my web site.)

[freakboy6117]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

I was working on something similar for my Uk hero project

 

Time line went something like this

 

Approx 1894 the Agents of the crown a group of extraordinarily talented people who serve and protect the British Empire are sent to investigate a mysterious island.

 

They recover notes and equipment that is packed up and sent to England where analysis, these files and equipment are code named Avalon after the legendary island from Arthurian legend. Later that year the bare bones of the island story is passed to writer used by the British government to make light and cloud the truth of inexplicable events who on 1896 he publishes a novel on about the island.

 

1937 advances in the science of genetics finally reveal some of the techniques of the process used by the islands master animal tests are promising but without human test subjects nothing is possible.

 

1939 war begins the scientist behind the research into the so-called Avalon data push for human test to create super soldiers to help Britain win the war.

 

As Poland and other nations start to fall the government moves the Avalon data scientists to a country house and starts to recruit various specialists (including a number of 1920s and thirties mystery men now retired). This becomes the Avalon project; the manor is referred to as the orchard

 

1940 with the fall of Norway and Denmark, the British government is frantically searching for an edge the Avalon project has recruited the world’s greatest chemist professor Dante who devises a number of experimental drugs to improve soldiers genetic and biological grafts from animals are also tested. But more subjects are depsratly needed for headway.

 

May 1940 Dunkirk a huge number of dead and dying soldiers from the evacuation at Dunkirk are sent to the orchard. The men volunteered are exposed to extreme experiments in the knowledge they would die anyway.

 

Over the following months only a hand full of the patients used to test the processes survive but the scientist believe they have developed a technique that I’ll improve basic genetic traits

 

August 1940 the army covertly recruits dozens of people with minor unusual mental physical and sensory abilities. These volunteers are all tested and attempts to create improved serums from those shown to have above human abilities are made.

 

Most subjects show now improvement but a tiny few go on to form an elite commando unit. the remainder of those who survive though disfigured or deemed lacking in strategic importance go on to form a infantry group dispatched on seeming suicide missions they are known as Ryan’s rejects after there commander sergeant major Daniel Ryan

 

1941 the final stage of the Avalon project is underway using the various serums and drugs created by so far the scientist believe they can create a perfect soldier a number of test subjects are selected and trained by the mystery men attached to the project. The first subject to under go the process was selected and the serum and drug cocktail administered.

 

Unfortunately fate intervened and in the end only one subject would receive the full treatment before a nazi spy who has infiltrated the project makes him self-known.

 

Seeing the project nearing completion. The infiltrating agent (disguised as a Dutch biologist) destroyed the main labs, shooting professor Dante in the head (and leaving him for dead) in the process. He fled with a satchel filled with the experimental drugs but the alarm was raised and he was caught by the project chaplain and lady June markeith (daughter of the former ambassador to Japan and martial arts trainer) in the ensuing fight the vials of chemicals are broken a unstable mixture of experimental drugs ignites and explodes showering all three with a unknown cocktail of the project serums.

 

The Chaplin was driven insane by the changes wrought by the process, lady markeith became super strong durable and agile combined with her fighting [prowess and knowledge of the orient she becomes a formidable asset for the war effort with the international brigade.

 

The nazi spy closest to the blast his right arm is blacked by the explosion the chemicals coating his hand make it incredibly strong and tough like iron he escapes into the night with fragments of the research and becomes a deadly threat to the nation as Eisen Faust.

 

With professor Dante in a coma and much of the research destroyed by the fire that consumed the orchard only the single test subject is given the full treatment he becomes lion heart but samples of the unfinished formula plus lionhearts blood samples are sent to the united states where a gifted chemist and former student of dates is hoped to be able to resurrect the project.

 

He succeeded but dies at the hands of another nazi agent alerted to the transfer of the serum shortly after creating his first super soldier and taking the secret to perfecting eth formula with him.

 

The various Avalon project survivors go on to serve with distinction through out the war but many of this generation of heroes are killed in a final grand conflict with the nazi elite somewhere in Norway

 

Later attempts to resurrect the project have some successes and crude experiments are conducted the Russians using the Avalon project data stolen by various traitorous moles within the British establishment many contemnor Russian superheroes owe there powers to attempts to recreate Avalon project techniques.

 

still needs some work

[Superskrull]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

Here are some ideas that I found and that may be of some use to you:

 

 

 

Source

 

And don't forget about the Universal Soldier program, that turned dead soldiers into Super-Soldiers

 

Amusingly enough, while I don't like Rob Leifield's stuff, he did introduce a government program entitled Project:Rebirth. Said project reanimated dead soldiers into supersoldiers. Obviously you tie this in by using Dr West's reanimation research applied to otherwise unsuitable subjects. An early subject of this was Supreme, who would have been brought back to life due to the introduction of both the reanimation treatment and a further application of either Hugo Danner's or Clark Kent's blood. Considering the results, is it any wonder the US gov would be hesitant to fire up the chem-vats and bring any more uncontrollable super-psychos into the world. Especially considering later subjects such as Battlestone & Bloodstrike.

[OddHat]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

Amusingly enough' date=' while I don't like Rob Leifield's stuff, he did introduce a government program entitled Project:Rebirth. Said project reanimated dead soldiers into supersoldiers. Obviously you tie this in by using Dr West's reanimation research applied to otherwise unsuitable subjects. An early subject of this was Supreme, who would have been brought back to life due to the introduction of both the reanimation treatment and a further application of either Hugo Danner's or Clark Kent's blood. Considering the results, is it any wonder the US gov would be hesitant to fire up the chem-vats and bring any more uncontrollable super-psychos into the world. Especially considering later subjects such as Battlestone & Bloodstrike.[/quote']

 

Of course, some Paranormal Researchers argue that Hugo Danner was Clark Kent.

 

Even if Susano wants to drop the idea of Krypton, the idea of Hugo going to Kent Allard and Clark Savage to learn how to fit into society and use his powers in a positive way appeals to me; it provides a nice link between all sorts of characters with similar abilities.

[OzMike]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

How about a failed attempt to recreate the metagene bomb which led to the infamous 'Night of the Living Dead' event in 1968? An event which has been duplicated at least twice more...

 

As far as an antoagonist for the release of the bomb... how about one Dr Albert Zerstoiten (spelling?). Or Fu Manchu?

 

And why not have the history of the serum stretch back to Paracelus?

 

Other experimenters could include (from Wikipedia search for Mad Scientists)

Francis Galton

Dr Ishii Shiro

Trofim Lysenko

Sidney Gottlieb

[Susano]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

How about a failed attempt to recreate the metagene bomb which led to the infamous 'Night of the Living Dead' event in 1968? An event which has been duplicated at least twice more...

 

As far as an antoagonist for the release of the bomb... how about one Dr Albert Zerstoiten (spelling?). Or Fu Manchu?

 

No... I have a name for that guy, I just don't recall it right now. It is, of course, my steal from Wild Cards. Dr. Death? Was that it?

 

Hmm.... hold on.

 

1947 - Dr. Thanatos' attack on New York, May 27. Death of Mr. America. This date is later made into a national holiday. (Called Memorial Day, Memorial Day is known as Veterans Day.)

 

Okay, so I had a cooler name than just "Dr. Death."

[OzMike]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

Oh I don't know - Dr Death is a pretty cool name. And it works better with those ownership apostrophes....

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

call me a dork...

 

But what about Professor Julius Kelp in 1963

[Susano]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

call me a dork...

 

But what about Professor Julius Kelp in 1963

 

Who?

[OddHat]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

Who?

 

THe Nutty Professor, Jerry Lewis version. Another researcher trying to refine Jekyll's work who goes astray.

[Susano]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

THe Nutty Professor' date=' Jerry Lewis version. Another researcher trying to refine Jekyll's work who goes astray. [/quote']

 

*bangs head on desk*

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

*bangs head on desk*

 

Aww..

 

Slightly increased physical attributes, heavily increased PRE and COM, (possibly some sort of mind control, ala Purple Man- but weaker?), personality shift...

Kelp intended to forward his research to the government.

And at the end, Julius's father unscrupulously sells the formula at the college.

 

The universe doesn't have to be THAT serious in tone, does it?

========================================

One could also consider the Disney classics: {all taking place in Midvale}

The Computer wore Tennis Shoes: college science, 'cyber'skilled

The Strongest Man in the World: Super strength formula

Flubber: great material substance for a supers universe

========================================

 

 

Okay- I'll go away now...

[OddHat]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

 

Aww..

 

Slightly increased physical attributes, heavily increased PRE and COM, (possibly some sort of mind control, ala Purple Man- but weaker?), personality shift...

Kelp intended to forward his research to the government.

And at the end, Julius's father unscrupulously sells the formula at the college.

 

The universe doesn't have to be THAT serious in tone, does it?

========================================

One could also consider the Disney classics: {all taking place in Midvale}

The Computer wore Tennis Shoes: college science, 'cyber'skilled

The Strongest Man in the World: Super strength formula

Flubber: great material substance for a supers universe

========================================

 

 

Okay- I'll go away now...

 

Actually, the Disneyverse makes a great Supers setting. Maybe all of those scientific advances lead to the world we saw in Sky High.

[Highwayman]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

For the most part, the West reanimation formula sat on the shelf after the doctor's 1922 disappearance. There were rumors that both the Nazis and the Soviets managed to steal or derive the formula, but any experiments they made along those lines evidently left fewer living witnesses than West's own.

 

When an enterprising government researcher did start looking at the formula in the early '60s, he was smart enough to decide it was too dangerous to use as originally intended. He was dumb enough to instead conceive of a weaponized, aerosol version of the formula, intended to raise legions of the angry dead behind enemy lines. How this version came to be released near Pittsburgh in 1968 has never been completely explained, as was exactly why the animated dead behaved differently than in West's experiments. The zombies created when improperly-stored waste from the Pittsburgh outbreak was released in Louisville in 1985 behaved differently still, although this was attributed to chemical breakdown in the stored formula. A substantial amount of this waste is still unaccounted for.

 

The 1968 outbreak did inspire new Pentagon interest in the original West formula. They actually achieved some success using an altered version of the formula to resurrect dead soldiers for combat use, but a rouge subject blew the project's cover in 1992. Since then, the U.S. government has officially renounced any interest in reanimating the dead.

[OddHat]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

For the most part, the West reanimation formula sat on the shelf after the doctor's 1922 disappearance. There were rumors that both the Nazis and the Soviets managed to steal or derive the formula, but any experiments they made along those lines evidently left fewer living witnesses than West's own.

 

When an enterprising government researcher did start looking at the formula in the early '60s, he was smart enough to decide it was too dangerous to use as originally intended. He was dumb enough to instead conceive of a weaponized, aerosol version of the formula, intended to raise legions of the angry dead behind enemy lines. How this version came to be released near Pittsburgh in 1968 has never been completely explained, as was exactly why the animated dead behaved differently than in West's experiments. The zombies created when improperly-stored waste from the Pittsburgh outbreak was released in Louisville in 1985 behaved differently still, although this was attributed to chemical breakdown in the stored formula. A substantial amount of this waste is still unaccounted for.

 

The 1968 outbreak did inspire new Pentagon interest in the original West formula. They actually achieved some success using an altered version of the formula to resurrect dead soldiers for combat use, but a rouge subject blew the project's cover in 1992. Since then, the U.S. government has officially renounced any interest in reanimating the dead.

 

Repped.

[Superskrull]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

Of course' date=' some Paranormal Researchers argue that Hugo Danner was Clark Kent.

 

Even if Susano wants to drop the idea of Krypton, the idea of Hugo going to Kent Allard and Clark Savage to learn how to fit into society and use his powers in a positive way appeals to me; it provides a nice link between all sorts of characters with similar abilities.

 

 

Sure, but it all depends on whether you want to use both simultaneously or not ala Young All-Stars & Iron Munro, post-Crisis.

[Southern Cross]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

This is true,but remember that the version of Hugo Danner that appeared in the series was almost identical to Phillip Wylie's original version,save for the fact that he was still alive in the '40s-as a supervillian!

Creator of the Sons of the Dawn (Indians with his powers) he apparently committed suicide when it was revealed that they had little or no resistance to the germs outside Maple White Land.

[Superskrull]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

This is true,but remember that the version of Hugo Danner that appeared in the series was almost identical to Phillip Wylie's original version,save for the fact that he was still alive in the '40s-as a supervillian!

Creator of the Sons of the Dawn (Indians with his powers) he apparently committed suicide when it was revealed that they had little or no resistance to the germs outside Maple White Land.

 

Sure, and then there was that not-explored-at-all subplot with Ubermensch, who claimed to have a connection to Danner and Munro. 'Course, that whole Children of the Dawn story was the last in the series before the cancellation blues claimed another comic. Now that I think of it, they'd also established a connection between Flying Fox and Arak. The next time we saw Arn was in Damage's comic, just before Zero Hour. Amusingly, he'd apparently gone to work for the OSI using the codename Gladiator.

 

Oh, and does anyone else think Danner's later suicide attempt was any more convincing than his first one? Ooh, I'm even tougher than Iron Munro and diving down this chimney and having the factory it's attached to explode is gonna finish me off. Right...

Made as much sense as when Spidey dumped his clone's body into that chimney in Marvel only to have him turn up alive and well and heralding the Maximum Clonage storyline.

[OddHat]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

This is true,but remember that the version of Hugo Danner that appeared in the series was almost identical to Phillip Wylie's original version,save for the fact that he was still alive in the '40s-as a supervillian!

Creator of the Sons of the Dawn (Indians with his powers) he apparently committed suicide when it was revealed that they had little or no resistance to the germs outside Maple White Land.

 

I re-read Wylie's book a few months ago when I was putting together the Danner-Kent sheet. One caveat to the above: the original Danner would never have become a villain, though he did have a few brief fantasies in that direction. He was a frustrated, angry teen and 20 something, but in key moments in his life when going the villainous route would have been a much more comfortable choice (letting the guy in the bank vault die, just walking out of the office and going on the run, just walking out of the police station, smacking around the assembly line foreman, etc) he generally took the high road and suffered for it. I can see how his final "I will create a race of Supermen" rant can be seen as Evil from a post-WWII perspective, but at the time I'd say Wylie intended it as just one more ambitious goal that Danner would never achieve.

[Southern Cross]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

True enough.In fact,from my memory of the novel,I'd say that Danner would never have done what Roy Thomas had him do in Young All-Stars,as he was too afraid of what would happen if his new race fell out and began to fight amongst themselves.

My objection to the Hugo Danner/Clark Kent connection is that Abnego's serum didn't provide any protection against poison or disease.The Golden Age Superman was as resistant toward disease & poison as he was to everything else.

[OddHat]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

True enough.In fact,from my memory of the novel,I'd say that Danner would never have done what Roy Thomas had him do in Young All-Stars,as he was too afraid of what would happen if his new race fell out and began to fight amongst themselves.

My objection to the Hugo Danner/Clark Kent connection is that Abnego's serum didn't provide any protection against poison or disease.The Golden Age Superman was as resistant toward disease & poison as he was to everything else.

 

We only saw Danner's first few decades of life before his (possible) return as Superman. Maybe the serum continued to more slowly change his body over time. Thus, the addition of the vision powers, the progression towards true flight, immunity to poison, etc.

 

Also, I could have sworn I remembered a GOlden Age story where Superman was taken down by gas. More evidence that his full power took time to emerge.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

[This snippet is meant to be part of the supers universe I am developing. Borrowing an idea of Ultimate Spider-Man' date= I like the idea of linking various characters together through a common thread/theme, in this case the super-soldier serum and efforts to create/replicate it. I stop in the early 60s, with the Hulk, and would love to add more examples -- like Solomon Grundy, who could be a failed experiment (I'm not sticking with Marvel, even though Captain American and the Hulk are mentioned). Anyways, any comments? Thoughts? Feedback? Suggestions?]

 

Snipped for space

 

 

This is some great stuff here, Susano.

[zornwil]

Re: History of the Super-Soldier Serum (need suggestions!)

 

Well, It's been a busy day and I'm tired, so no real great comments to add but to say this is cool stuff, Michael, very bump-worthy, will rep when can.