OVERKILL HORN

Classification: Terrestrial weapon

Creator: Unrevealed scientists of both Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D.

Users/Possessors: Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D., the Overkill Squad, Nicolas Weir

First Appearance: Strange Tales I#150 (November, 1966)

Powers/Abilities/Functions: The Overkill Horn produces sonic vibrations so powerful that they can tear through any substance up to secondary adamantium in strength. They can also trigger nuclear warheads with their vibrations. Overkill Horns seen thus far have been both mobile and immobile.

History: (Strange Tales I#150) - Nick Fury conducted a test of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Overkill Horn to see if anything could withstand its power. He encased himself within a protective armored chair for the test, but the blast still tore it apart, injuring him, and managed to detonate a nuclear warhead miles away.

Fury feared that another Overkill Horn was in existence which could trigger every nuclear warhead on Earth, and set up Operation: Overkill to find it and launch a hydrogen missile at that location. However, the Overkill Horn was in the possession of Baron Strucker of Hydra, and he activated the Horn to blast S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, just to demonstrate his power to them.

(Strange Tales I#151) - After Fury was captured by Baron Strucker, Strucker brought out a smaller version of their Overkill Horn and had it destroy a model of the Earth as a demonstration of their power. Fury managed to escape from Hydra aboard one of their ships, but was unaware that one of the jet engines of the craft was actually an Overkill Horn, and that as he sped up, the horn would come closer to activating, and then detonating all of Earth's nuclear warheads.

(Strange Tales I#152) - However, Fury guessed Hydra's plan when he saw his own men pursuing him. He turned the craft back to Hydra's base and bailed out. Hydra tried to shoot the plane down, but S.H.I.E.L.D. had already launched their strato-mine which tracked the Overkill Horn down and destroyed it, taking the Hydra base with it.

(Super-Villain Team-Up#17) - When S.H.I.E.L.D. went to invade the island base of the Red Skull and Hate-Monger, the two villains surrounded the island with a dome made of secondary adamantium. Employing their "Overkill Squad", they used the Overkill Horn to break a hole through part of the dome, allowing them to invade the island.

(Iron Man IV#29-32) - Embittered S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nicolas Weir used nanobots to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Overkill Horn into the world's most powerful weapon control system, but the machine developed a consciousness and absorbed Weir into its form to process its actions. Weir was eventually set free from the Overkill Mind by Iron Man, but later willingly entered it again to help Iron Man remote detonate a nuclear weapon.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, John Buscema and Frank Giacoia.

by Prime Eternal

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Overkill Horn should not be confused with:


The Overkill Squad is a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents trained to operate the Overkill Horn. The Overkill Squad was employed to unleash the horn upon the secondary adamantium dome concealing the Red Skull and Hate-Monger's base.

--Super-Villain Team-Up#17
















Images taken from:
Strange Tales I#150, page 3, panel 1
Super-Villain Team-Up#17, page 19, panel 2


Strange Tales I#151-152 (December, 1966 - January, 1967) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (pencils), Jim Steranko (inks)
Super-Villain Team-Up#17 (June, 1980) - Peter Gillis (writer), Arvell Jones (pencils), Bruce Patterson (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Iron Man IV#29-32 (July-October, 2008) - Stuart Moore (writer), Roberto De La Torre, Carlo Pagulayan (pencilers), Jeffrey Huet (inker), Nicole Boose (editor)

Last updated: 08/27/08

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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