NUKE (Frank Simpson, aka Scourge)
Created By: Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli
First Appearance: Daredevil #232 (July 1986)
Role: Evil Government Goon
Group Affiliations: The United States Government
PL 10 (116)
STRENGTH 6
STAMINA 7
AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 12
DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE -1
AWARENESS -1
PRESENCE -2
Skills:
Athletics 8 (+14)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+13)
Expertise (Soldier) 5 (+4)
Intimidation 10 (+8)
Perception 3 (+2)
Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Equipment 5 (Military Gear), Diehard, Fast Grab, Great Endurance, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Initiative 2, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 8, Startle, Withstand Damage
Powers:
"Hyper-Adrenaline & Cybernetics"
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
Immunity 5 (Fatigue Effects) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [2.5]
"Bulletproof" Impervious Toughness 10 (Flaws: Limited to Ballistics) [5]
"I Guess You Can Just Rebuild Him" Immortality 2 (Flaws: Source- Other People Rebuilding Him) [2]
Offense:
Unarmed +13 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Firearms +10 (+6-7 Ranged Damage, DC 21-22)
Initiative +6
Defenses:
Dodge +12 (DC 22), Parry +12 (DC 22), Toughness +7 (+5 Impervious), Fortitude +8, Will +4
Complications:
Responsibility (Insane)- Driven crazy by the Weapon Plus program, Frank Simpson is a homicidal madman. He frequently believes that he is back in Vietnam, attacking Viet Cong soldiers.
Responsibility (The Pills)- Nuke is controlled by three different kinds of pills: Red for adrenaline, White to bring him down, and Blue to keep him docile between missions. It was later retconned in that the pills were merely placebos, and that Nuke is actually ALWAYS fully-adrenalized.
Total: Abilities: 58 / Skills: 27--13.5 / Advantages: 22 / Powers: 12.5 / Defenses: 11 (116)
Nuke- Crazy One-Off "The Government SUCKS" Monster to Recurring Journeyman Villain:
-Is it any wonder that most of Marvel Comics' fans didn't take the Pro-Registration side in
Civil War? I mean, this is the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT we're talking about here- the same people who, in the pages of
Captain America and
Wolverine, have been depicted almost uniformly as a dark, shadowy, hidden cabal of self-serving ass-hats who habitually destroy lives and show no mercy using their agents like puppets. No matter HOW good the idea of Registration would appear to be in real life, the government in the Marvel Universe is ENTIRELY evil and never to be trusted- hence Nuke. Nuke was created (largely by Wolverine, back in his "government agent" phase) to basically be a living weapon of the U.S. Government, but the processes involved left him a homicidal wreck who frequently massacres civilians on his way to the real target.
-Nuke debuted in the classically anti-government-type Frank Miller's run on
Daredevil, largely as a one-off, but he later feuded with Captain America (the "good side" of America... though he usually ended up fighting his bosses or their other agents anyways) and Wolverine, who would be tied to his origin. In his debut, Nuke is already crazy, acting as a misanthropic Vietnam War vet-turned-bulletproof-cyborg hired by the Kingpin (via a corrupt high-level general) to kill DD- he has a schtick where he takes a red pill to make him violent, and a blue pill to calm him down. Of course, we the readers are informed that both pills are placebos- he just has "triggers" that make him nuts. Nuke kills tons of people and nearly burns down Hell's Kitchen until Daredevil stops him. Enraged by a Daily Bugle article on the mass murder, Nuke tries to attack their offices, but Captain America stops him- he's then shot by a military chopper, seemingly to death. This was clearly intended by Miller to be a one-off, and the character remains dead for TWENTY YEARS, showing up only in "government is BAD" stories via flashback.
20 Years Later- Nuke Returns:
-It would be later revealed in 2006's
Wolverine: Origins that Logan, as a loyal government agent, had been instrumental in Nuke's origin: Frank Simpson was the mentally-disturbed son of a rich alcoholic woman, and grew up a bit unhinged- he had a crush on his babysitter, who convinced him to kill his mother since she was in love with Frank's father. Wolverine then kidnaps Frank as part of "Weapon Plus", torturing and brainwashing him and murdering the babysitter (which caused Frank's father to commit suicide). Nuke was programmed to go mad the second the phrase "No V.C." was uttered, and this was used to have him massacre an entire village of Vietnamese as part of his training. This ties Nuke a lot to Wolverine, then to Cap, who realizes that Nuke is an offshoot of the Super-Soldier Program that created him. Nuke is thus brought back to life.
-In a 2009
Thunderbolts run, he was used as the new Scourge as a loyalist to Norman Osborn and his eyes & ears on the team, but his craziness allowed him to be hypnotized into an assassination attempt- but he instead shot at a holographic projection of Osborn, slaying teammate The Headsman instead. He also later severed U.S. Agent's arm trying to steal the Spear of Odin, but got shot in the head by Paladin for his actions, who swiped the Spear himself. He then fought Cap and The Falcon, and was fittingly turned into an ACTUAL nuke by agents out to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D.- he was brought in by Cap, but detonated, killing Nuke and 166 agents. But like right away, post-
Secret Wars, Nuke is brought back to life, as it's implied he's just SO cybernetic now that it's easy. He fights Wolverine a few times, then Deadpool's Mercs For Money, now just a Journeyman Villain. In 2018, he's captured by a South American dictator who uses the red pills to make assassins do his bidding (note: They were originally placebos, but now I guess not?), and the heroes calm him using a white pill, then allow him to execute the dictator and escape.
-So all in all, Nuke is a weird kind of guy who threaded from being a Daredevil villain almost immediately into fighting Cap (who, to be fair, is a more "fitting" opponent, as Nuke symbolizes that dark side of America and the history of its military) & Wolverine.
Nuke's Abilities:
-Nuke is crazy, strong and fast, able to match elite human hand-to-hand fighters like Daredevil or Wolverine for certain periods of time- he's not in the upper-tier with them or say, Iron Fist & Shang-Chi, but his enhanced strength and cybernetic enhancements (in addition to an arsenal that can involve just about anything- in his debut he used a huge gatling gun) can really close that gap in a hurry. I took a couple things from Thorp's build as well (I wasn't sure about Immunity to Fatigue, since he IS calmed by his pills, but a half-effect is a good bit), and overall he's a nasty PL 9.5 build who can be seriously hard to bring down.