The pages of Wolverine & Captain America: Weapons Plus #1 reveal a surprising connection between Logan and Cap that fans were not prepared for. The two superheroes share many similarities, with both being the result of experiments carried out by the military to create the perfect breed of super soldiers. Yet, their personalities are so dissimilar that they have rarely teamed up or felt any particular kinship towards each other.
But, all of that’s about to change. The new comic starts with Wolverine crashing into Captain America’s house with a contingent of soldiers after him. The amnesiac X-Man has unearthed a piece of his past that directly relates to Steve Rogers. The link between Steve and Logan is explained via a holographic message by Fantomex, also known as Weapon XIII, who tells them:
Ever since I escaped my creators, I have pulled at the threads behind the Weapon Plus program. It’s all connected, Captain. the patriots that forged you, the monsters that violated Logan, and my own “Dr. Frankensteins”… They are the same. The programs weren’t contiguous… They were concurrent… And they’ve been escalating their plans from the beginning! Eliminating anyone who got too close to the truth.
Science requires trial and error, necessitating a human cost for every advancement. With the right indoctrination, you needn’t catch new stock… They’ll volunteer. Decades of death and destruction can be traced back to you, Captain. You did what you do best… Inspired them.
That’s right. We find out that Steve was the first super soldier that the program, called Project Rebirth, tried to make during the Second World War. The serum used to create Captain America was lost, but the government continued trying to make the next super soldier army, subjecting countless test subjects to the most horrific medical procedures in the process. Wolverine and Fantomex were victims of the same program, but they were far from the only ones.
As ScreenRant puts it:
Without Captain America a.k.a. Weapon I, there would never have been a Weapon II, let alone a Weapon X. Without such a famous and undisputed success, future mad scientists wouldn’t have had the chance to ‘improve’ on the formula… or enjoy an ongoing supply of recruits eager to become the next Captain America.
Obviously, Steve is shocked to discover that his legacy as Captain America had such a bloody history attached to it. In a very real way, he was responsible for the torture that Logan had to endure at the hands of the scientists who turned him into the Wolverine.
The example he set as the first super soldier was also responsible for an army of soldiers being brainwashed and turned into quasi-Captain Americas who attacked Steve and Logan during the issue. It now remains to be seen whether the two heroes can put aside their freshly painful history and bring some kind of closure to the legacy of Project Rebirth, but we’re certainly excited to see where things go from here.
