Super Soldier Serum

Overview
The Super Soldier Serum is something of a misnomer as it refers to not just the serum itself, but the surrounding processes that stabilize the serum's transfromative properties within the individual. The original purpose of the serum was to enhance a subject to their peak physical performance and capabilities, transforming them into the apex of human development. The first subject of the Super Soldier Serum is Steve Rogers though many others would come to follow in his foot steps. Additionally, the serum and the pursuit for it has led to an expansive and clandestine array of more powerful serums and projects, often coming with more prominent mutations and unstable developments. Overall, the super soldier serum leaves a complicated legacy.

Granted Capabilities
The original purpose of the Super-Soldier Serum is uplifting their human subject to peak physical and mental potential.The individual is stronger, faster and more durable than the finest human capabilities, reaching the pinnacle of the natural capabilities of baseline humanity. The following capabilities have been recorded in all recipients of the Super-Soldier Serum and its baseline relatives:


 * Lifting around 800 pounds over their heads.


 * Running at speeds of 30 mph or possibly more.


 * Maintain strenuous physical activity for up to 12 hours on end before tiring.


 * Increasing the individual's metabolism, allowing them to heal faster than normal humans.


 * Increasing the individual's durability to where they can survive falls from several stories high, gunshots, seemingly fatal wounds, etc.


 * Granting individuals heavy resistance to virtually any disease, illness, and poisons due to being able to process it, to where they are often describe as being "practically immune." This includes most known drugs and alcohol which has no effect on the Super-Soldier Serum recipient. Many have described not being able to become intoxicated


 * Individuals to retain and recall any information they take in, such as Captain America, who possesses enhanced mind and is capable of remembering any military tactic and can apply it to any situation.


 * Increase the individual's reflexes to a degree of enabling dodging gunfire.


 * Extensive deceleration of aging process due to the consistent reproduction of healthy cells, enabling the recipients to maintain physical capabilities to their autumn years and have longer lifespans. A related ability is being able to enter a state of "dormancy" and surviving being frozen for decades, as seen with Steve Rogers.

Side Effects
The Super-Soldier Serum possesses another key factor in that it enhances and refines key personality features of the individual within as a result. In Erskine's own words: "good becomes great, bad becomes worse". As such, it's postulated individuals with unresolved truama, suppressed personality issues or so on would have their vices magnified and render them mentally unstable. This risk is amplified with the serum's more powerful variations.

Inspiration and Origins
While myths of men with beyond mortal capabilities are prevalent within various aspects and cultures, the idea of making a superhuman soldier through scientific developments entered the modern age through the stories and myths of John Steele. Once an ordinary Union soldier during the American civil war, an incident occurred while he was escaping Confederate soldiers during an espionage mission led to his disappearance and upon the return of just him after several months, came back changed considerably. He now possessed superhuman strength, speed, agility, durability and capabilities, becoming a legend of sorts among certain individuals. According to his family, he would often have nightmares, explaing that he was "abducted" and "changed", leading to the suspicion that during his disappearance, he was augmented by extraterrestials through genetic manipulation.

Research into his unique condition only started when he was captured by Nazis after recalling his capabilities during World War I and when he reenlisted during World War II. However, the research in trying to examine him was very limited, only getting the basic details. However, it's this that served as the starting point for the various reseasrch programs for creating super-soldiers. Steele himself remains an obscure figure though it's believed his feats and capabilities were the inspiration for the protagonist of the novel "Gladiator". Additionally, the initial research into possibly creating apex humanity was more grounded. Dr. Abraham Erskine outlined a special Brazilian revolutionary diet and isometric exercise regimen that he theorized would result in the individual achieving the peak of human potential.

However, because the diet and regime required the subject adhere to the regime since very early childhood, this research was rejected by the US government as they needed a more time-effective method due to the nature of the war. The diet and exercise regime research would be validated as seen in Erskine's great grandson, Micheal Van Patrick, who was raised since infancy on it. Additionally, biological descendents of Super-Soldier Serum recipients can utilize the regime to achieve peak human performance without having to start since infancy, as proven by Elijah Bradley (who was an adolescent when he commenced the regime and achieved peak human condition after a couple of years), the grandson of Super-Soldier Serum recipient, Isaiah Bradley.

Project Nietzsche & Project Rebirth
During World War II, after the capture of John Steele, this body was kept in stasis at a lab located in Frankfurt, Germany. In February 1941, the Nazis had Dr. Abraham Erskine & Professor Eric Schmitt put in charge of Project Nietzsche, with the hopes of turning German soldiers into ubermensch. However, both Erskine and Schmitt were secretly Jewish and thus worked to delay or sabotage the Project while keeping Steele in good enough condition and researching his unique capabilities. As the war intensified, American spies within the Nazi government enabled Dr. Erskine to pursue his opportunity in escaping. He would fake his death and escape to the United States with help of American forces, where he introduced them to his work regarding John Steele and the possibilities of creating super soldiers to combat the Nazi menace. He was given the alias of "Professor Reinstein" to hide his identity

And thus was born Project Rebirth.

Using the work he and Schmitt had done along with the own research of the Americans, he would construct the first ever Vita-Ray chamber as part of the process to create a super-soldier. The Super Soldier Serum was split into two compounds to be taken in different ways; the first compound would be taken orally which would begin the process within the body and then have it be accelerated through the second compound introduced intravenously while being bombaded in the Vita-Ray chamber to stabilize the process. The first test subject was a brave enlistee in Steve Rogers. The test would prove to be very successful as seen by the radial transformation on him.

However, shortly after the successful transformation of private Steven Rogers/Captain America, a Nazi sympathizer named Heinz Kruger attempted to kidnap Rogers and Erskine for the purposes of sending the information and subject back to Nazi Germany.

Erskine instead triggered his own demise and as a contingency plan, triggered the destruction of the Vita-Ray Chamber to ensure it would not fall into the hands of the Nazis. While the initial blueprints remained in tact, Erskine kept a large portion of the knowledge by memory and many of his notes on the serum and chamber were written in a code based on Hebrew. Despite this, Steve Rogers, christened Captain America, would go on to lead the Liberty Legion into many victories before his disappearance in 1945 and subsequent rediscovery in 1995.

Project Rebirth 1.5
After the loss of Steve Rogers and with only basic information on the Super-Soldier Serum, they saw the need to further pursue the goal. While Captain America was deemed still living by having the Spirit of '76 and then the Partiot masquerade as Captain America, they sought to replicate the Super-Soldier Serum in a secondary phase that remains one of the most controversial decisions in modern American history. Under the command of Col. Walker Price, 300 African-American solders were brought in under the guise of being granted "miracle shots" to try and recreate the Super-Soldier Serum. The process was overseen by a recruited scientist, Dr. Wilfred Nagel (codenamed Josef) over at Camp Cathart.

The project became infamous for its high mortality rate as Dr. Nagel was overruled regarding time constraints and developments of the serum, with many of the soldiers suffering painful deaths throughout it all (all of whom were given the Purple Heart and Bronze Star medals posthumorusly when truth of their deaths came to life, partially out of Nagel's final will and testament). Out of the 300 African-American soldiers, only a handful of men survived the gruesome process. These survivors became a covert black ops team, being whittled down until only Isaiah Bradley remained. Information on the program existed primarily through post-mortem documents written down by Nagel, who would be murdered in 1951 (with some speculated he was killed under orders) while Col. Walker Price would help establish the Weapon Plus Program.

The closest success within the United States was Private First Class Isaiah Bradley, having achieved the most stable process known. As such, his survival and dedication to his missions and nations, including leading the black ops team. To where he was recognized as a Captain America by some of the overseeing officers (it's unknown whether he or Naslund came directly after Rogers though dating seems to indicate Bradley was considered second after Rogers). While achieving peak human condition, he would suffer the beginnnings of mental deterioration (surmised to be the result of an incomplete recovery from a concussion.) This mental atrophy would be exacerbated by his wrongful imprisonment of several years before he was released by President Eisenhower. Additionally, documents indicated that President Kennedy had plans to explain the incident to the public days before his assassination, hoping to mend times and planned to award Bradley the Medal of Honor along with official recognition of him as a Captain America (a ceremony that would not happen until the 2000s).

Similar Super Soldier Projects
The success of the United States with the creation of Captain America have led to similar attempts across some of the major powers during World War II though to varying successes and degrees. The most successful was through Professor Eric Schmitt's version of the serum. Unlike Dr. Erskine, he remained in Nazi Germany, if to sabotage the process. This would backfire as he would be caught by the Red Skull and sentenced to a concentration camp. Unaware to the Red Skull, Schmitt created his own version of the Super-Soldier Serum which he entrusted to Brian Falsworth, an Englishman who would use the serum to become the second Union Jack. The Schmitt variant serum only needed to be administered orally though it lacked the Vita-Ray treatment for stabilization (though he was able to stabilize it through biolelectricity, courtesy of Namor the Sub-Mariner). The Schmitt serum was also lost with Schmitt dying from wounds soon after passing the flask of serum to Falsworth. Falsworth himself would pass away in 1953 in a car crash.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, awed by the success of the Super-Soldier Serum, strived to make their own and did have their own agents within to gather some information. Most of the details came from the accounts of Aleksey Lebedev, the first Red Guardian. However, their own approach would be spun to creating more to try and not repeat the Americans' failure. The USSR would design two variants of the serum, both by Dr. Lyudmila Kudrin. The Black Widow Ops Program had the Red Room serum; this varient of the Super-Soldier Serum was given to children, ranging to their prenatal stages, up until approximately 5 years old. Upon injection, they would be able to grow and develop into peak human potential along with have their rate of post-adulthood aging decelerated like the original Super-Soldier Serum. The second was the Red Guardian serum, which was a deriative of the Red Room serum. It functioned more to prevent fatigue and physical atrophy, allowing the Red Guardians given it to remain in their prime for longer periods of time.

Nazi Germany would also attempt to replicate the Super Soldier Serum, but the various setbacks in Project Nietzsche meant that the success was varied. They were able to get some information on Erskine's formula through their spy Julia Frieda Koenig who used it along with the stockpile of the preserved blood of John Steele. Koenig was assisted by American Nazi sympathizer Wilhelm Lohmer. Koenig created a prototype of her serum and used it on herself with success, becoming Frau Kriegerin or Warrior Woman. After the success, she recreated it on orders of superiors and gave the serum to Lohmer, who was also injected with the blood of John Steele, thus creating Meistermenchen or Master Man. Unlike the others, Lohmer possessed clearly superhuman capabilities though it was the most unstable as Lohmer would suffer physical & mental deterioration with a few years. Koenig, who took her serum herself, did not undergo physical atrophy, but the formula was not as potent in protecting her from the affects of aging. Additionally, the formula of the Koenig serum variant would get lost amongst the collapse of the Reich along with Koenig's disappearance, with only her partial notes remaining. It has been speculated these notes were acquired by the Soviet Union or by agents aligned with terrorist organizations such as HYDRA or Leviathan.

Legacy
The legacy of the Super Soldier Serum is defined by the attempts at reproducing or enhancing the serum to create more peak humans or even superhumans in a practical and feasible manner. While some of these persisted in official if clandestine political operations, most of the underpinnings were done by criminal organizations or terrorist groups in the hopes of creating a legion of super-powered soldiers for their own agendas. This was compounded by the increasing unethical procedures that some of the governments took in the pursuit of such endeavors.

The Next American Super-Soldiers
During the Cold War, the United States of America continued their endeavors in recreating the Super-Soldier Serum and maintain a Captain America throughout the ages, though the attempts would meet in grim fates. William Burnside [Captain America V] would be chosen to be active during the 1950s and was given the first modern recreation of the formula. However, the formula's instability and the lack of the Vita-Ray treatment led to Burnside suffering increasing mental psychosis, episodes of paranoia and hallucinations, most prominent seen in a psychotic breakdown during a Civil Rights march in the 1950s. He would be put under a form of stasis in the hopes of curing his psychosis in the future. It also spelled the end for official atempts at recreating the serum until decades later. Burnside himself would be thawed out in the 1990s though the shell-shock only worsened his psychosis though he regained sanity briefly to give his life in a final act of heroism.

The Super-Soldier Serum attempt would be seen through an indirect attemption through Power Brokers Incorporated. A private company who's front operations was of the development of energy sources and similar operations such as constructing power plants covering for their real buisness: providing private superpower augmentations for paramilitary operations and related superhuman-based organization, most famously the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation. Using their government connections, their first major successes would be in augmenting U.S. Army Major John Walker & First Lieutanant Lemar Hoskins through the first stable implementation of the Power Broker process. This would be the first major collaboration of the Power Brokers working with the US government on the matter, as seen when John Walker would briefly become Major America.

Project: Sentry
Project: Sentry remains one of the most controversial projects within American history, if primarily due to how little is known about the project. Initially starting as a project to recreate the Super Soldier Serum, it delved into creating the "ultimate super soldier". Little is known of the project itself, but it has been confirmed that besides research on the original Super Soldier Serum, the project also delved into other research factors such as on Professor Horton's Solar Gem, genetic discoveries by Herbert Wyndham along with the medical files of Emmett Proudhawk, an individual associated with Project Starship. Other information besides that remains lost and anyone knowing the information of the project has been declared deceased.

The Weapon Plus Program
Even after the lack of success with the Super-Soldier Serum itself, the idea behind it was maintained through the establishment of the secret American program known as the "Weapon Plus" program. Founded in 1945, when Truett Hudson, a civilian adviser to the U.S. Army nicknamed Professor Thorton, discovered a hidden laboratory under a liberated concentration camp with research from radical geneticist Dr. Nathaniel Essex. Funded by the U.S. Government, Thorton formed the Weapon Plus Progam alongside various other individuals, such as Col. Walker Price. The goal of the program was the creation of super-soldiers and superhuman weapons and served as a successor to Project Rebirth, so much so that Steve Rogers is retroactively considered to be Weapon I with Isaiah Bradley considered Weapon II.

Most of the Weapon Plus programs did not focus on following in the traditional footsteps of the Super-Soldier Serum except for Project Power, designed to create Weapon VI, and spearheaded by Dr. Noah Burstein, which created the superhuman Warhawk for the purposes in the Vietnam War. Despite Weapon Plus moving on, Project Power was spun off into its own independent project though now shifted for the purpose of restoration properties and got private funding from Stark Industries. The Project would ironically produce a stable superhuman that surpasses the work of the previous serum in the subject known as Luke Cage.

Successors of Rogers & Bradley
One side-effect of the Super-Soldier Serum was it would affect the cells in the reproductive systems as well. This would be observed in Josiah Bradley, the son of Isaiah Bradley who had managed to inherit most of his father's peak human capabilities and having reached peak human capabilities thanks to military training in the Vietnam War. This would be reinforced with the grandson of Isiash, Elijah Bradley. Unlike Josiah, Elijah did not display any significant physical advantages over his peers though he was able to reach peak human performance without external sources by following a condensed variant of Erskine's original diet (as seen on Erskine's great grandson, Micheal Van Patrick). As such, it's speculated that any biological child of Steve Rogers would also yield similar capabilites.