Marvel’s BRUTE FORCE Returns (With a Connection to Wolverine)

Warning: SPOILERS for Weapon Plus: World War IV

No matter how obscure or short-lived a superhero property is, fans of that property exist, and someone with the right to use them will eventually use them to create new stories. Case in point: Marvel has revived Brute Force, a team of intelligent animals wearing powered armor deployed to fight companies that threaten the environment. The zoological super-soldiers star in a backup story of the newly-released Weapon Plus: World War IV, written by Ryan Cady and illustrated by David Baldeon. Brute Force has also been given a significant new role in the history of the Marvel Universe that connects them directly to Wolverine and Captain America.

Originally conceived in 1990 by a toy designer working with creators at Marvel Comics, Brute Force was a set of brightly-colored heroes meant to follow in the footsteps of toy-based properties like Transformers and G.I. Joe, except in reverse, meaning that they were developed as a comic book which would serve as a pitch to licensors. They were given to writer Simon Furman and artist Jose Delbo, both Transformers veterans who knew how to create characters that would work well as toys, for a four-issue miniseries. Unfortunately for Marvel, interest was low, and action figures of the cyborg animals never made it to shelves.

The impetus for the return comes from a revival of Weapon Plus, the super-soldier program that created Wolverine. Grant Morrison’s 2001 series New X-Men revealed that the X in the Canadian mutant’s original codename “Weapon X” stands for “ten”, meaning there were at least nine more super-soldier projects before Logan ever went under the knife. The original that inspired the others? Weapon I, aka Captain America himself. This common origin has tied the duo to many other super-soldier projects throughout history, including Deadpool, artificial symbiotes derived from Venom and Carnage, and Luke Cage, among others. The one-shot Weapon Plus: Wolverine and Captain America revealed that, after difficulty reproducing Steve Rogers’ transformation, the program began to experiment on animals. Enter Weapon II: Brute Force.

In Weapon Plus: World War IV, we see a Brute Force deployed on an Orchis supply ship. The story is firmly rooted in the present day, as it references the Orchis organization’s initial appearance in 2019’s House of X. The same team members are here: avian tactical genius Soar, enhanced kangaroo Hip-Hop, Wreckless the trigger-happy bear, and the prideful Lionheart. The team leader is Dr. Echo, a dolphin with robotic limbs and a Ph.D. in an unknown discipline.

This iteration of Brute Force is more serious than the original. Instead of spouting cheesy banter, the new models emote via icons like green circles and question marks. This trick is reminiscent of the Vertigo miniseries We3, which used the same basic premise and gave each animal a unique mode of communication. The storytelling also immediately goes darker than the 1990 edition, as Dr. Echo is brutally slain by an Orchis agent, indicating that no intelligent animal is safe.

The story concludes with the new director of Weapon Plus, Billy Junger, talking to Brute Force’s human handler. Junger is snide but congratulatory and offers the handler a job leading an additional project: Weapon V. Readers of recent Weapon Plus issues will remember the fifth program: the Super-Symbiote project. Brute Force has resurfaced in grim new territory, but if Carnage’s even more unstable family is getting involved with them, these beasts are about to get far more brutal.

Weapon Plus: World War IV is available in comics stores now.

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