NUKE

Real Name: Frank Charles Simpson

Identity/Class: Enhanced human

Occupation: Convert government agent, assassin, and terrorist; sergeant in the U.S. Army

Affiliations: American P.O.W.s and M.I.A.s (imaginary), "Betsy", Generalissimo Felix Guillermo Caridad, Unnamed colonel, General Lewis Haywerth (U.S. Army), Kingpin,
U.S. Government, Weapon Plus, Wolverine (formerly)

Enemies: Captain America, Daredevil, Viet Cong (imaginary and for real in the past), Wolverine, whoever his assigned targets were

Known Relatives: Charles Simpson (father), unidentied mother

Aliases: Agent Simpson

Base of Operations: Mobile

Education: Extensive military training

First Appearance: (mentioned) Daredevil I#230 (May, 1986); (seen) Daredevil I#232 (July, 1986)

Powers/Abilities: Nuke was very strong for a normal human (possibly Class 10, but at least above peak human) and almost impervious to pain and conventional injury. He also possessed superhuman speed with peak range of 700 mph (see comments).  The latter was due to his skin which had been reinforced with some sort of plastic.  He was completely insane, a savage fighter, and good with a firearm.  He took red pills (placebos, although they were originally thought to be amphetamines) to boost his adrenaline in a fight, white (barbiturates) to bring him down and blue (sedatives) to keep him calm and relaxed.  

Weaknesses: Nuke was quite mentally unstable.  Because of his use of the red, white, and blue drugs, Nuke was more than likely physically and emotionally addicted to them.  He more than likely had a number of physiological as well as neurological problems due to the side effects related to the use of such powerful drugs.  Without the blues, Nuke would have nightmares about combat. 

Equipment: Nuke used an enormous sub-machine gun nicknamed "Betsy" (named after the babysitter he loved as a child) in his missions.  Besides conventional machine gun ammunition, Betsy also held six light artillery rounds and two incendiary missiles.  On Betsy's side Nuke used an LED counter to count the number of fatalities he had inflicted with his weapon.  Nuke also had an unmarked military helicopter for air support, operated by an unnamed colonel.  The copter had two mounted machine guns.  Both the colonel and the chopper were destroyed by Daredevil. 

Height: 6'3"
Weight: 270 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond

Distinguishing Features: Nuke had a colored tattoo of the American flag covering his face.

History: Simpson was part success and part failure.  While certainly a powerful and devoted soldier, he was quite insane.  Nuke was augmented, and he also liked to supplement his strength with red, white, and blue pills that boosted his adrenaline or regulated his moods.  The madness was also an advantage because Nuke generally didn't question his sometimes somewhat illegal orders.

(Wolverine: Origins#3 (fb) ) <1953> Frank was raised in Dayton, Ohio by an abusive, alcoholic mother and a pitiful father. One day Frank tried to make Cherry Kool and made a mess. She insulted Frank before leaving with her husband and told Frank's babysitter to clean up the mess. Frank loved his babysitter Betsy (an agent) and that day she told him that everyone would be better off if Frank's mother was gone forever. When Frank's parents came home, his mother was heavily drunk again. She crawled upstairs where Frank already waited for her. Meanwhile Frank's dad brought home Betsy, who seduced him. Their car was found by Logan, who was disguised as a police officer. He shot Betsy and convinced Mr. Simpson to commit suicide. After that Logan was sent to the Simpson house where Frank opened him the door. He had just killed his mother by pushing her down the stairs. Logan took Frank with him and Frank didn't even ask him where because he trusted policemen.

(Wolverine: Origins#3 (fb) - BTS) - Logan brought Frank to his superiors.

(Wolverine: Origins#2 (fb) - BTS) - Simpson became a major in the U.S. Marines and was stationed in the Quang Ngai province in Vietnam.

(Wolverine: Origins#2 (fb) ) <1968> - Major Frank Simpson was caught in the Quang Ngai province in South Vietnam and tortured by Logan with electric shocks and a knife. Two Vietcong, who thought Logan was a Russian advisor, watched him while he sliced the American flag into Frank's face. Logan repeatedly told Frank "No V.C." during the torture. Logan left and let the two Vietcong continue with the torture, but Frank bit one Vietcong's ear while being electrocuted and the electricity was passed on to the Vietcong. The other Vietcong stabbed Frank and was electrocuted as well (the poor idiot). Frank broke free and stabbed another Vietcong, who just entered the cave with a machine gun, in the head. More Vietcong entered and were shot by Frank. Heavily armed Frank left the cave and the people that saw him all screamed "No Vee-See". He remembered these words from the torture and like a good trained dog Frank attacked and killed everyone in the village Lai Chi. After Nuke was finished Logan returned in a helicopter.

(New X-Men#145) - Nuke was part of the Weapon Plus Program, a multi-national effort to develop various types of super-soldiers.  Simpson was empowered in some of the later super-soldier trials, when criminals, psychopaths and "violent mutations" were experimented on; Nuke was one of those psychopaths.  Weapon Plus attempted to control the aggressive impulses of these test subjects with medication, but the approach failed and was discontinued.

(Wolverine: Origins#4 (fb) - BTS) - All this experiments were part of an attempt to recreate Wolverine.

(Wolverine II#18 (fb)) - Nuke was employed for Generalissimo Felix Guillermo Caridad of Tierra Verde (who had managed an alliance with certain members of the US government) to penetrate and destroy a rebel stronghold.  Nuke's proficiency impressed Caridad, who liked the idea of having a superhuman government agent/national symbol.

(Daredevil I#230 - BTS) - While Nuke was stationed in Nicauragua, the Kingpin managed to persuade (via some form of bribery) General Lewis Haywerth to bring Nuke to Hell's Kitchen to be deployed against Daredevil.

(Daredevil I#232) - Nuke asked for a red pill on his way to his next mission.  The Colonel flying the helicopter he was riding  in tried to explain, probably not for the first time, that he wasn't in Vietnam looking for MIA's, but rather in Nicaragua.  Nuke reset the kill counter on "Betsy" from 162 to 000, and promised he would break that number for the Colonel.  Nuke said that they are holding "our boys" as he pulled on his gas mask.  The red pill started to work as Nuke leapt from the helicopter.  He started by firing napalm at the tower.  Nuke ended up killing 197.  Haywerth then sent him to New York to be in service of the Kingpin.  The Kingpin sent Nuke to Hell's Kitchen, in an attempt to destroy Daredevil.  The Colonel dropped Nuke off low.  He told him to skip the Napalm because these were Americans.  Daredevil heard from four blocks away a baby's lung collapsing from Nuke's gunfire.  Nuke moved up on the helicopter.  They were being shot at by another copter.  Nuke destroyed it.  Just then a billy club bounced off Nuke's temple, and back to Daredevil.  Nuke asked for a red...

(Daredevil I#233) - A water tower exploded as Nuke shot at Daredevil.  When Daredevil became out of sight the Colonel tried to abort the mission, but Nuke leapt from the copter saying, "Won't let you down…won't let…our boys down."  Daredevil heard people dying every time Nuke fired his gun.  Nuke went on to beat the snot out of Daredevil, not even feeling pain from Daredevil's strongest attacks.  Until eventually,  Daredevil kicked him off the top of the building into some power lines.  Nuke fell onto an on fire police car.  Nuke fired up, but Daredevil leapt onto him and knocked him through the roof.  Daredevil took Nuke's gun and rolled off as the car exploded.  Daredevil broke of the butt of the gun on Nuke's face.  The colonel started to shoot, but Daredevil blew up the helicopter with Nuke's gun.  The Avengers arrived.  Daredevil had Nuke by the throat yelling that he wants to hear that it was Kingpin that sent him.  Nuke just kept asking for a white.  

The Avengers took Nuke into custody.  As Nuke begged for a white pill, Captain America looked dejectedly downward.  Haywerth was talking to the Kingpin as Captain America barged in. Haywerth said Cap wasn't cleared for information.  Cap didn't leave, but broke into the sub-level six, the Vault.  Cap found out about Agent Simpson and the super soldier info.  Haywerth told Nuke that he was being shipped off against the enemy.  Nuke said that the enemy was there.  He grabbed the newspaper and said, "This is the enemy…this...they lie about us…make us feel ashamed."  He grabbed a guard's gun and shot everyone in the room killing them all but Haywerth.  He broke off his handcuffs, and reached for the red pills.  Nuke took the whole bottle.  Then Captain America showed up when he heard the siren.  Nuke pushed some soldiers down and took his rifle.  Nuke fired on Cap, but his last shot bounced off Cap's shield.  Cap pushed him through the outside wall.  They fell through the building next door.  Cap struggled up, and picked up Nuke.  Daredevil tried to move Nuke, but another helicopter fired multiple shots through Nuke's chest.  Cap stopped the other soldiers as Daredevil tried to drive Nuke to a hospital.  Nuke didn't want to go.  Daredevil took Nuke to the Daily Bugle and put Nuke's dead body on Ben Urich's desk. 

(Wolverine: Origins#2 (fb) - BTS) - After his apparent death Nuke was retrieved by the U.S. government and brought to a bunker beneath the U.S. embassy in Santiago, Chile. There scientists worked on him for years. He was outfitted with further cybernetic enhancements until he was barely human anymore. The pill-system was replaced by a remote-controlled hydraulic pump.

(Wolverine: Origins#1) - Two government agents went to the bunker to tell Nuke that his country needed him again. He was ready to take the assignment.

(Wolverine: Origins#2) - Nuke's physical condition was tested one last time before he was sent to his current mission. During the tests one of the agents got the permission to use Nuke from the White House and a scientist told him about all the changes made to Nuke over the years. The scientist also revealed that the red pills originally used were placebos.

A helicopter brought Nuke back to the village Lai Chi where he was tortured by Logan in 1968. Again he slaughtered everyone in the village without mercy and the media soon covered the incident in the news. Logan, who saw the news, took his sword and went to the village to oppose Nuke.

(Wolverine: Origins#3) - When Wolverine asked Nuke to surrender, he immediately shot at Wolverine. Wolverine managed to hide from Nuke until he was out of ammo, but Nuke was also a good hand-to-hand combatant. He took Wolverine down by hitting him in the head with his gun and then stepped onto Wolverine's face to squash his head like a bug, but Wolverine just cut off Nuke's legs with his Adamantium claws. Nuke still had his gun and changed its mode to Rocket Launcher. He shot, but Wolverine kicked the gun and the rocket exploded right next to Nuke. The gun was destroyed, Nuke heavily damaged as well. Parts of his skin fell off and revealed the metal beneath it. Wolverine was ready to kill Nuke, who was powered down to be even more helpless. Wolverine was stopped by Captain America.

(Wolverine: Origins#4) - Nuke crawled to Wolverine's sword when after he had lost it in the fight against Captain America, but Captain America took it before Nuke could reach it. Nuke continued to watch them from the bushes. Nuke crawled to Cap and Wolverine and called Captain America a traitor when he reached him, but Cap was able to avoid Nuke's grip and even kicked Nuke in the face.

(Wolverine: Origins#5 - BTS) - Nuke was handcuffed.

(Wolverine: Origins#5) - Wolverine left Nuke in the X-Men's custody and asked Emma Frost to help him.

Comments: Created by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.

    The process used on Nuke later evolved into the process used by the UK's Super Soldiers, in which the super soldiers had genetically engineered organs to produce the same effects as the pills Nuke took.

The peak range of Nuke's superhuman speed (700 mph), as stated in the Marvel Knights Encyclopedia, seems a bit off to me, but whatever works - Madison Carter
    Actually, the range means greater than human, but no more than 700 mph, so while I personally dislike the power charts and take no responsibility for them, they are correct in this case--Snood.

    The Kingpin's involvement with Nuke later came out at his trial in Daredevil I#300 when Nuke's colonel (who apparently survived the helicopter explosion) testified against the Kingpin.

    His fear of POWs being held in secret prison camps is a motif going back at least as far the Shadow novel the Shadow Unmasks. For Vietnam, this idea of missing veterans held in secret camps has been used in the following books and films, Mission MIA by J.C. Pollock, Uncommon Valor, Wolf, Missing in Action, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Executioner#43: Return to Vietnam by Stephen Mertz, and others. Nuke's delusion may have been intended as a parody of these books.
--Per Degaton

In addition:

    In Spider-Man/X-Factor#1.  Various lab guys are talking about Shadowforce and an unnamed lab guy says "yes, but the nuke protocols" and then gets cut off.  When Spider-man downloads the information on Project: Homegrown he discovers that they are trying to create designer superheroes using fragmentary data and incomplete records from Captain America's Super-Soldier Serum, the Fantastic Four's space flight, the Gamma bomb explosion that created the Hulk and "more". While Spidey doesn't actually say that the nuke protocols were a part of it, as they obviously had access to that information it would be logical to assume they had used it in the creation of Shadowforce.  Each member of Shadowforce wore a harness that temporarily altered their body chemistry, but the process wasn't perfect General Macauley Sharpe (the head of Project: Homegrown) was having them kidnap superbeings (apart from mutants who are born with their powers) like Spidey to scan them and help stabilize the Shadowforce process.
--Changeling

There are actually a few classifications of "Super Soldiers":

1. Captain America derivations (including Master Man, Warrior Woman, Mighty Destroyer, Union Jack (Brain Falsworth), Mighty Destroyer (Roger Aubrey), Captain America of the 1950s/Grand Director, Victorius, Blockbuster, and many, many, others)
       These also include the weirdo Nightmericans from the Hulk: Nightmerica series.
       Otomo, a Japanese warrior inherited power from his grandfather who had synthesized and taken a variant SSS, from X-51#4
       CRAFT, TRENTON - Vanguard, empowered during late World War II via continued efforts to replicate Super-Soldier serum
   --Most variations evolved from this attempt, but they are still different enough for me to split them up somewhat.
2. Man-Thing derivations
       Including those from Glob (Beckwith), Project: Glamor, Deke Wainscroft
       And Prime Eternal reminds us that Ted Sallis' partner, Dr. Wilma Calvin, is still alive and kicking as far as we know.
3. Nuke derivations (including Power Broker strength augmentation as a variant/spin-off) - Shadowforce, Super Soldiers (MUK)
   +/-
4. Weapon Plus/Weapon X variants--the most recent issue claimed that both Cap and Nuke were early products of the program.
5. There are also an endless number of potential beings that could be classified as "Super Soldiers" such as Warhawk, who was actually a precursor to the process that empowered Cage.
6. Extremis, from recent Iron Man issues

The Weapon Plus Program designated their various trials using a roman numeral.  According to Fantomex and the Weapon Plus files seen in New X-Men#145, the subjects of the trials were as follows: 

• Weapon 0 -- classified, around World War II (Protocide for example) - retroactively numbered as 0?
• Weapon I -- Project: Rebirth, which empowered Captain America/Steve Rogers, a volunteer 
• II-III -- animals 
• IV-VI -- various ethnic minorities (probably Isaiah Bradley, the character from the TRUTH miniseries)
• VII and up -- kidnapped mutants (though some products of the Weapon X program, including Deadpool and Kane, were normal humans) 
• X -- Wolverine and others; the first use of memory implants to control behavior

The way NEW X-MEN words it, it sounds like the use of medicated psychopaths ended with the Weapon IX trial.  So what part of the Weapon Plus Project did Nuke come from?  As far as we knew, he was neither a mutant (VII-today), nor an ethnic minority (IV-VI), and he certainly wasn't an animal.  So what was his designation? 

Flank's Answer: We've seen the Weapon Plus project return to previous experiments; Wolverine, Maverick, Sabretooth, etc. were part of the original Weapon X, but it was resurrected at some point to produce Deadpool, Slayback, Kane and others, and it's currently been revived and has a whole comic series following its exploits.  Nuke seemed to be another attempt to recreate the Project: Rebirth serum, which was said to be the most successful of all the Weapon Plus ; perhaps he was designated Weapon I as well?  Or maybe he was just an ethnic minority and it wasn't obvious.

Tarantula Serum
An attempt at recreating the Super Soldier Serum, this formula was developed by Dr. Karl Mendoza and used to give the second Tarantula (Luis Alvarez) his heightened abilities.
type: strength enhance, speed enhancer
form: liquid (injectable)
comic: Web of Spider-Man#35
see also: Super Soldier Serum
--John McDonagh

Jackie Dio was exposed to SSS.2 gas, a super-soldier variant with steroid-like properties, as part of his evolution into Underworld.

Nuke was the inspiration for Caridad, who unwittingly attempted to empower agents via cocaine tainted by the deviant known as Spore.

    In 2099 AD of Earth-928, the Anarquistadores used White Heat, a drug that "when taken in megadoses kicked the metabolism into overdrive, boosted the IQ, the whole superhuman nine yards.It's like a more potent version of the Captain America Super-Soldier serum from the twencen--except turned into an addictive street drug."
--Snood

This profile would not have been possible without the help from Jake at Leader's Lair. The image and some of the information was his.  Thanks Jake!

The massacre in Lai Chi is made up, but it was likely a reference to the Mai Lai massacre that happened in 1968.
--Markus Raymond

Nuke has a full entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1980s Handbook.

Updated by Markus Raymond.

CLARIFICATIONS: Nuke should not be confused with:

• NUKLO - (Robert Frank) - son of Whizzer & Miss America --GS Avengers#1
• NUKE - Of Earth - (Albert Gaines) Squadron Supreme
• Nuke of Earth-Amalgam, Bane Simpson, Nuke + Bane, @ Bruce Wayne: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.#1
• other Nuclear characters
• any other super-soldier character

images: (without ads)
Daredevil I#233, p17, pan4 (main image)