COMMANDER
COURAGE
Real Name: Lieutenant-Commander Guillaume Courage
Identity/Class: Human mutate; Belgian citizen
Occupation: Would-be World Conqueror; former member of Belgian Ministry of Defense
Group Membership: Leader of the Were-Borgs
Affiliations: Constrictor (employee), Jennifer Nyles (co-worker), Super-Apes
(former pawns);
Dr. Meyer Hertzog
Enemies: Beast (Hank McCoy),
Constrictor, Red Ghost, unnamed Frenchman;
Dr. Doom, Henry Peter Gyrich, Madison Jeffries, Red Guardian,
Tony Stark (Iron Man)--all planned targets
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Ministry of Defense, Brussels, Belgium
First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents I#85/3 (1991); (fully seen) Marvel Comics Presents I#88/3; mutated form
Powers: Courage held some power in the
Ministry of Defense, as well as via the control of the Were-Borgs
and the Super-Apes.
In Were-Borg form, he was superhumanly strong (Class 10?) and
durable, and could release powerful bursts of energy.
History:
(Marvel Comics Presents I#90/3(fb)-BTS) - Dr. Meyer Hertzog developed several
theories on techno-organics. Like any mad scientist, he tried
them out on himself. Lt. Commander Courage was the lone witness
to the transformation of Dr. Hertzog, who had assumed a bestial
form and attacked him. Courage planned to kill Hertzog in
self-defense, but Hertzog instead exploded--the Wereborg implants
were highly unstable.
Keeping this finding hidden, Courage contacted Dr. Jennifer
Nyles, who had developed technology involved in reprogramming the
human mind. With access to Hertzog's notes, Nyles was able to
perfect the implants.
BTS - Courage slew several unidentified men and
brought their bodies to Nyles, who (apparently unaware of their
true origins) rebuilt them into Were-Borgs.
Were-Borgs abducted and possibly drugged the Red Ghost. He then
used Wereborg technology to take control of the Super-Apes.
(Marvel Comics Presents I#85/3) - Lt. Commander Courage
"investigated" a series of murders, perpetrated by a
Wereborg (actually Courage himself). Courage was chided by his
superior, Captain Mascelwein, for failing to turn up evidence in
these cases. Meanwhile, Jennifer Nyles sent a letter to Hank McCoy, inviting
him to attend the International Symposium on Mutant Research in
Brussels. Courage sent a Were-Borg to intercept the mail carrier,
but the Beast saved the carrier, received the letter, and watched
as the Were-Borg blew up. (Marvel Comics Presents I#86/3) - Courage killed Captain Mascelwein, telling him that
the murders were no longer any of his concern. Courage then hired
the Constrictor to take out the Beast, who arrived in Brussels. (Marvel Comics Presents I#88/3(fb)) - Courage had the Red Ghost arrested (framed) for
the kidnapping of Nyles. (Marvel Comics Presents I#88/3) - Courage had the Red Ghost brought to the Ministry of
Defense. The Beast was invited to meet with Courage, but broke
into the facility on his own. After finding the Red Ghost, McCoy
was confronted by Courage and his Were-Borgs, who
"escorted" him from the building. (Marvel Comics Presents I#89/3) - McCoy convinced the Constrictor that he was being
set up by Courage, and the two broke back into the Ministry of
Defense. The Constrictor occupied the Were-Borgs, while Beast
sneaked into the facility to confront Nyles, who shot him with a
tranquilizer gun. (Marvel Comics Presents I#90/3) - Courage proudly revealed his and Nyles' involvement
with the Were-Borgs, including his plans to use those attending
the symposium as his first living subjects. The Beast broke free
and took Jennifer with him. (Marvel Comics Presents I#91/3) - Nyles and the Beast accessed Courage's files,
learning that he planned to use the Wereborg technology to take
control of several world and industry leaders. By expanding his
control, he planned to recreate mankind in his image. The Beast
accessed control of the Super-Apes, while the Constrictor (and
this French guy who was investigating the death of his colleague,
Dr. Hertzog) overcame a group of Were-Borgs and freed the drugged
Red Ghost. (Marvel Comics Presents I#92/3) - The Beast reprogrammed the Were-Borgs to stop
fighting, and Courage blasted Nyles in retribution. The
Constrictor and the French guy zapped Courage, causing him to
reveal that he, too, was a Wereborg. Courage easily overpowered
the Constrictor and the Frenchman, but then the Red Ghost shoved
a big hunk of metal through his chest while intangible, and then
solidified it. Courage exploded. Nyles life was saved via
Wereborg technology. Comments: Created by Scott Lobdell, Jae
Lee, and Rob Liefield. When reading this series in 2 week
installments, it appeared disjointed. However, when you read the
issues from start to finish, it is...REALLY disjointed. Jennifer Nyles was actually the high school
girlfriend of Hank McCoy, but Professor X erased her memory of
him when he joined the X-Men. This memory erasure subconsciously
stimulated her interest in mental programming, and their past
relationship is what brought Hank to Belgium. It's a common misconception that the prefix
"were" means hybrid/transformation, etc. In fact, it
means "man." So, a werewolf is a wolfman, which is
fine. However, you also end with descriptions of Tigra as
"the were-woman", which actually means man-woman, which
isn't what they were going for, I'm pretty sure. Fantastic Four III#3 showed the Super-Apes as
now highly intelligent, while Kragoff had become more ape-like in
his mental powers. This was never explained, but possibly the
Wereborg technology had something to do with this. There is no mention of the Techno-organics used
by the Were-Borgs as having any connection to the
Technarch/Phalanx, but who knows? (The Shadow does) Courage's first name was revealed in Marvel Atlas#1. CLARIFICATIONS: Appearances: Last updated: 08/02/02 Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know. All characters mentioned or pictured are
™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights
Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real
thing! Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
(Marvel Comics Presents I#87/3) - The Beast
defeated Constrictor and attended the conference, where he met
Courage. The Symposium was interrupted when the Super-Apes broke
in and kidnapped Jennifer Nyles.
(1) Why'd that letter go out to Hank? Who sent it? Jennifer Nyles
had no memory of Hank at that point?
(2) Why was the Beast invited to meet with Courage and then
thrown out as soon as he got to the Ministry?
(3) Nyles was distressed to learn that Courage planned to use the
Wereborg technology on living beings in Marvel Comics Presents I#91, but didn't seem
to mind in the least when she was standing right next to him as
he told the Beast his plans in the previous issue.
(4) Meyer Hertzog was later called Werner, but that's no bigger
deal than Robert Bruce Banner.
That being said, the term Were-Borgs isn't incorrect, whichever
way it was meant to be. They were originally men, and some of
them transformed into their bestial state. It's all good, baby.
No known connections to:
any other Command-- characters, especially:
Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Spacemen:
"My pappy said, 'Son, you're gonna drive me to drinkin
If you don't stop drivin' that hot rod Lincoln!"
They were based on experiments in techno-organics by Dr.
Meyer Hertzog. Hertzog used the technology on himself, becoming the
first Wereborg, but also found that the system was highly
volatile when he blew up shortly thereafter. Jennifer Nyles
improved on the technology, using human corpses as her
Were-Borgs. She then used the technology on the Super-Apes, which
were her first successes. Courage planned to use the technology
to take control of world and industry leaders, but his plans were
aborted by the Red Ghost. Jennifer Nyles was saved from certain
death by Wereborg technology, which, like nanotech, apparently
infiltrated and rebuilt her badly damaged body (sounds like
unfinished plot to me...)
Almost all of the Were-Borgs seen were bestial, somewhat
wolf-like, in form and mind. The initial Were-Borgs were strong
(enhanced human), but were very fragile, and exploded after a
short period of use.
The Super-Apes retained their own powers, but were under the
mental control of Courage (or at least his computer programs).
Courage gained the power of the Were-Borgs, but retained his own
mind. Nyles' enhancement of the technology allowed the mind to be
re-programmed and controlled, while still retaining intelligence,
memories, etc. Nyles form was rebuilt in apparently human form.
--Marvel Comics Presents I#85/3 (90/3(fb), 85/3-92/3
Marvel Comics Presents I#85-92 (1991) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Rob Liefeld (#85-86) & Jae Lee (pencils), Tim Dzon & Don Hudson (#89) (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
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