Frank Simpson (Earth-616)

Early life[]

Frank Simpson was the disturbed son of a wealthy, abusive, alcoholic, upper-class woman in Ohio. Frank soon developed an unhealthy affection for his babysitter, the only real maternal figure in his life. The young woman, who was harboring feelings for his father Charles, capitalized on Frank's affection and talked the boy into killing his mother. Wolverine, whom at that time was an operative for the ruthless organization Weapon X, had been sent to kidnap Frank. Logan showed up, dressed as a police officer. He then stalked Charles Simpson and the babysitter; eventually shooting the girl with Charles' gun, after which Charles committed suicide. Wolverine then went to Frank's place and abducted him for Project: Homegrown.^[5]

Vietnam War[]

Years later, Frank was sent into the Vietnam War as a black-ops agent. Captured by the Viet Cong, Frank was severely tortured by Logan (who was posing as a Russian intelligence liaison), shattering Frank's still unbalanced mind. While torturing Nuke (even carving into his face the American flag that years later would become part of his super-powered personality) Logan implanted the phrase "No V.C.!" as a trigger word, along with the compulsion to kill gruesomely, in retaliation for the tortures suffered, anyone who uttered the words. He then allowed Frank to escape, testing his work with a village of peasants, who, seeing an American soldier, tried to soothe his anger and convince him to spare them, shouting the "No V.C.!" phrase, meaning that they weren't Viet Cong. Frank, in response to the trigger word, burnt the village to the ground killing every inhabitant. The experiment being a success, Logan was instated as the handler of the human weapon. Due to his trauma, Nuke often hallucinates that the enemies he is fighting are the Viet Cong.^[6][1]

Project Homegrown[]

At some time during the war, Nuke was then inducted into the final part of the Project Homegrown, the Weapon VII program, part of the Weapon Plus program, the super-soldier program that would later transform Wolverine into a killing machine. They turned him into a partial cyborg with a sub-dermal mesh able to deflect bullets, and a second heart that, working in conjunction with some Adrenaline Pills, controlled his aggression, leaving him addicted as well. His whereabouts after the war are still unknown.^[7][8]

Daredevil[]

Nuke resurfaced, employed by Generalissimo Felix Guillermo Caridad, of Tierra Verde, to destroy a rebel base. Caridad was impressed with his skills, and he enjoyed using Nuke periodically as a superhuman iconic symbol.^[9] Kingpin hired Nuke through several corrupt military officials and sent him to kill Daredevil. Nuke went on a rampage in New York City, blowing up part of Hell's Kitchen, causing Daredevil and the Avengers to capture him. He escaped soon after, going for Daredevil again, but was intercepted by Captain America and shot by a military chopper. Apparently dead, he was in fact taken in care by the Government, still controlled by the Tierra Verde enclave.^[10][11]

Origins Events[]

After Wolverine discovered his full past and set out to take care of loose ends, the U.S. government dispatched Nuke, who was kept at the United States embassy in Chile, to hunt down Wolverine.^[12]

Wolverine, with some efforts, quickly dispatched his foe, seeking a way to redeem, or kill him. After the battle he discovered that Nuke's enhanced physiology was further mutated, and he has become a cyborg, with artificial limbs, bones and skull, able to survive and being rebuilt after the most gruesome injuries, yet devoid of any personality or conscience.^[5]

Acknowledging that now he was beyond any hope of redemption, he tried to kill him, only to be stopped by Captain America, who had arrived because he believed that Nuke was a failed subject of the Super Soldier Program.^[13] Now without any legs, the leftovers of Nuke's body were handed over to Emma Frost by Wolverine, who wanted Emma to try to restore Nuke's broken mind if possible. Logan also told Emma Frost that should restoring Nuke's mind be impossible, she was to call Logan so that he could come back to kill Nuke.^[14]

Thunderbolts[]

Norman Osborn added a man named Scourge to his black ops team the Thunderbolts; Osborn seemed to know who Scourge was, but did not reveal Scourge's identity.^[3] On their next mission, Osborn ordered Yelena Belova to lead the current Thunderbolts to kill former Thunderbolt, Songbird. During the mission, Osborn promoted Scourge to field leader, and Belova was revealed to be the original Black Widow, Natasha Romanova in disguise.^[15] Scourge led the team into capturing the Black Widow, Songbird,^[16] and Nick Fury.^[17][18][19] When Scourge ordered the Thunderbolts to execute Songbird, Headsman turned on him and tried to kill him. Paladin helped out by shooting Scourge, and Ghost used an electroconvulsive shock to make Scourge forget what happened as Songbird and the Black Widow escaped. When Osborn confronted Scourge about the botched mission, the man revealed himself to be Nuke, stating that his new name was not who he really was; Osborn then demoted Nuke from the position of team leader.^[20] He was then assigned to assassinate the Agents of Atlas with the Thunderbolts.

When the Agents of Atlas arrived, he and the Thunderbolts attacked them. While Venus was singing, he had hallucinations about women he killed and fired his gun wildly at her. He was then taken down by Namora. After he came to, he picked up a sword and sliced Bob Grayson's stomach open and was then attacked by Ken Hale.^[21] When Venus realized Bob was dead, she started crying, causing a more negative effect than her singing, and he saw a world with no more war. Bob then revealed that he was not dead but projecting a mental illusion while investigating Frank's mind. As the Agents of Atlas escaped, Jimmy Woo and Bob planted a command in Frank's mind to assassinate Norman Osborn on contact. When the Thunderbolts returned to base, Norman left a recorded message for the team, and seeing Norman's face, Frank pulled out his gun and fired, killing Cleavon Twain.^[22] The team battled Spider-Woman.^[23]

Siege[]

During Siege, Nuke and the Thunderbolts fought against the Mighty Avengers.^[24] The Thunderbolts sought out the Spear of Odin to help Osborn storm Asgard. Nuke battled ferociously with US Agent for the Spear and after an intense battle, seriously injured and dismembered US Agent with the Spear.^[25]

Before Nuke could bring the Spear to his "master", Osborn, he was betrayed and shot by his fellow Thunderbolt Paladin who took the spear from him and with the help of another Thunderbolt, in the shape of Ant-Man, made sure that Osborn didn't get his hands on the spear.^[26][27]

The Heroic Age[]

After the battle of Siege climaxed, a grievously injured Nuke was left in a coma and captured by authorities where he was taken to the Raft to receive medical treatment and serve out a sentence for his crimes. The surviving US Agent, who was now crippled, bitterly insisted that any attempt to bring him out of his coma was a waste of time as Nuke has no chance of ever reforming. Steve Rogers shared similar feelings and saw little reason to try and salvage Nuke, as he was far beyond saving, and any revival would likely just allow him to fall back into the hands of someone who would use him for further killing. Steve had also appeared to have made peace with his unease for being the basis of the creation of Nuke.^[28]

Most recently, Simpson had been spotted in Eastern Europe, still attacking individuals he perceived as enemies of America. He was allied and handled by the "Iron Nail" until Captain America urged him to stop his unnecessary violence.^[29] Taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, Dr. Mindbubble ignited a massive explosion inside of Nuke's body which seemingly killed him.^[30]

Hunting Wolverine[]

Nuke was later shown alive, and part of a group of mercenaries who took a contract from Viper to bring her the Wolverine alive. They confronted a bartender in British Columbia, Canada, he showed them a map which marked an island left by Wolverine for who came for him. He sent one of his men to the bay, which he knew was set to explode. Logan sank the boat from below and killed his men as they tried to swim, leaving only the two of them. Wolverine defeated Nuke by head-butting him with his Adamantium skull. Logan told him to spread the word that he was the last one he let live and forced him to tell him who put the bounty on him.^[31]

Santo Marco[]

Having returned to working for the United States government, Nuke was one of the numerous soldiers sent to assassinate the dictator of Santo Marco, Emilio Duarte. He failed, and like many of his comrades, he was captured. After Duarte got hold of the technology to produce Nuke Pills, he used them as an incentive to have the soldiers he captured work for him. Simpson remained in custody,^[32] as he despised Duarte's actions and his use of the American flag in the Nuke Platoon.^[33]

When Duarte had the Nuke Platoon exterminate mutants and mutant sympathizers, Weapon X traveled to Santo Marco to stop the slaughter. Sabretooth stumbled upon Nuke's cell while he was being cornered by the Nuke Platoon at their supply factory.^[32] Creed freed Simpson and gave him his pills to help him confront the soldiers. This move initially worked out until Nuke turned against Weapon X, since his schizophrenia made him believe they wanted to take the supply of pills from him. Nuke took the leadership role of the platoon and charged against the mutants.^[33] Weapon X managed to hold off the Nuke Platoon by taking some of the pills for themselves. After Logan used explosives to detonate the remaining supply of pills, Warpath popped the contents of a calming capsule on Nuke's body through an open wound in his skin. Having regained focus, Nuke went on to finish his mission and assassinated President Duarte.^[34]

• Cybernetic Enhancements: Simpson possesses various superhuman physical attributes as a result of various cybernetic enhancements.^[4]
  • Superhuman Strength: Simpson's bones and muscles have been replaced with advanced cybernetic components, granting him superhuman strength of an unrevealed limit.^[4] He was shown to be strong enough to match U.S.Agent's physical strength and make him bleed with the power of his blows.^[35]
  • Superhuman Stamina: Simpson's cybernetic enhancements grant him enhanced endurance in all physical activities.^[36]
  • Superhuman Reflexes: Simpson's reaction time is enhanced to superhuman levels.^[36] Daredevil himself found his reflexes too fast even for him.^[10]
  • Superhuman Durability: Simpson's body is considerably more resistant to physical injury than that of an ordinary human. Nuke's skin has been bonded with an artificial type of plastic that looks identical to human skin but is much more durable and fire resistant; these enhancements also made him almost completely impervious to pain.^[4] His body is so resistant that the first time that Daredevil fought him he almost broke his fingers just by punching him.^[10] Simpson's cybernetic body can keep functioning even after suffering heavy damage like being stabbed and having a limb cut off^[20] or being hit several times by superhumanly strong foes and set on fire.^[35] Later enhancements made his body almost completely bulletproof.^[37]
  • Artificial Second Heart: In addition, he has a remote-controlled hydraulic pump that introduced chemical control agents directly into his bloodstream.^[4]
  • Regeneration: Simpson's accelerated metabolism feeds on his increased adrenaline, which enables him to heal from injuries over a good night's sleep.

• Master Combatant: Nuke was a savage fighter and very deadly in knife combat, he's also an expert in hand to hand combat.^[4] Through the years he has fought with skilled martial artists like Daredevil^[10], Wolverine^[5], U.S.Agent^[35] and Captain America.^[38]
• Firearms: Nuke is trained in the use of multiple firearms^[4] including assault rifles and granade launchers.^[9]

• Schizophrenia: Simpson is the victim of decades of systematic physical and mental abuse and conditioning at the hands of various individuals working for the United States government. As a result, Nuke is insane. He is now little more than a puppet in the hands of his current handler, and able only to follow issued commands. Nuke is completely schizophrenic, suffering from hallucinations. When Venus' song hits him, his greatest desires turn into nightmares, including his fear of the loss of war.^[39]

• Adrenaline Pills: Simpson has a second heart, and takes different colored pills to produce different bodily effects. Nuke's pill colors are: red, for increased adrenaline; white, to bring him down; and blue, to relax.^[40] At times these pills have been placebos.^[1]

• "Betsy" Nuke used an enormous sub-machine gun nicknamed "Betsy" 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. Frank is also equipped with various knives.^[39]

Conventional US Army vehicles.^[39]

• The Frank Simpson of the House of M reality was stated by Wanda Maximoff to be intelligent in that world because that was what he wanted the most, as this Earth split off from Earth-616 and Wanda had given people what they believed they wanted most, the Earth-616 version of Simpson most likely had this as his deepest desire at one point in time.^[41]