Supersoldier

Supersoldier is a term often used to describe a soldier that operates beyond normal physical human limits. Supersoldiers are common in science fiction literature, films, TV programs, computer and video games, but have also made appearances in other related genres, such as military fiction and spy fiction. Many depictions of supersoldiers treat them as shock troops or heavy infantry, although others feature them as elite commandos or special forces personnel.

Supersoldiers are usually heavily augmented, either through eugenics(especially selective breeding), genetic engineering, cybernetic implants, drugs, brainwashing, an extreme training regime (usually with high casualty rates, and often starting from birth or a young age), or other scientific and pseudoscientific means or a combination of any of those. Occasionally, some instances also use paranormal methods, such as black magic, and/or technology and science of extraterrestrial origin. The creators of such programs are viewed often as mad scientists or stern military men, depending on the emphasis, as their programs will typically go past ethical boundaries in the pursuit of science or military might.

=In Popular Culture=

Science Fiction books

 * Frank Herbert's Dune saga has many examples of entire armies of supersoldiers, such as the Padishah Emperor's Imperial Sardaukar, who hail from the penal colony Salusa Secundus. In their training, six out of every thirteen recruits die. The strongest of these prisoners are selected and subjected to inhuman conditioning that kills a third of the remainder. Conditioned with a disregard for safety and human life and an inability to disobey orders, a single Sardaukar was a match for ten soldiers in the service of the other Houses of the Landsraad, although Leto Atreides' elite shock troops were considered near equals to the Sardaukar. They were eventually replaced by the Fremen of Arrakis under the command of Paul Atriedes as the foremost soldiers of the known universe. Under the Emperor Leto Atreides II, the Fish Speakers, an all female fighting force who were fanatically trained and eugenically bred, became the preeminent and most effective military force in the known universe. The Fish Speakers were eventually eclipsed by the Honoured Matres, evolved from offshoots of the Fish Speakers and the Bene Gesserit, an organization that also has a superhuman reputation.


 * In Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Universe, the Saurons are a genetically engineered race of supersoldiers. The army of the planet Frystaat also fields what might be called supersoldiers, being an elite, highly trained commando force bred to survive on a harsh, high-gravity world. The alien Moties also have a specialized Warrior caste, a subspecies bred for tens of thousands of years to be the perfect fighters and bodyguards.


 * Though it does not play a large role in the series, Larry Niven's Known Space universe makes reference to a group who wear the Hellflare, a flame tattoo that signifies the wearer is trained to fight Kzinti warriors in single combat. The majority, perhaps all, of these individuals are implied to be Jinxians, another group of Humans adapted to a high-gravity planet by selective breeding. The Hellflare wearers were first mentioned by Niven in the short story "Flatlander" (from the collection Neutron Star) as 'background color'; the first one to be used as a character is the Jinxian Daff Gambiel in the novelette "Hey Diddle Diddle" by Thomas T. Thomas in Man-Kzin Wars V.


 * The Galactic Patrol of E. E. "Doc" Smith was a military organization made up of the Lensmen, the end results of centuries of breeding programs among several races on dozens of worlds, designed to be not only physically and mentally superior, but morally superior as well, and armed with Lenses that give them telepathic abilities. The Patrol also had ground troops in the form of the Valerian marines, a human-offshoot subspecies bred on a high-gravity world (similar to the Frystaaters and Jinxians, above).


 * In David Brin's novel The Postman (though not in the film adaptation), the United States military is described as having experimented with 'Augments', a type of supersoldier. There were at least two different forms of the modifications, one based one the use of strength enhancing cybernetics, the other using a combination of cybernetics, hormone stimulation, hypnosis and biofeedback to enhance agility and endurance. The project apparently also experimented in the psychology of augmentation; the protagonist notes that the strength-enhanced cyborgs were chosen for being psychopaths whose loyalty was entirely to the project and each other (but not, as things would go, the US as a whole), while those in the adrenaline-control project were chosen for their psychological stability and strong sense of social conscience.


 * The crossover novel Planet X by Michael Jan Friedman has the X-Men and the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation teamed up to deal with a group of people from the planet Xhaldia who begin displaying various, mainly destructive, super-powers; it develops that they were genetically engineered by an aggressive alien race to use as supersoldiers, and these beings have returned to "harvest" their handiwork.

Movies/TV

 * Clone troopers in the Star Wars series are the precursors to the original trilogy's Imperial stormtroopers: mass-produced troops with superior training, and all-around physical prowess. Clone commandos are far more powerful, operating in squads of four, and using the most advanced weapons and armor. ARC Troopers are also elite soldiers, considered one-man killing machines, with weaker armor, but very advanced training and weapons. They also possess normal human behaviour while the other Clone troopers are engineered to be obedient.


 * The TV series Andromeda featured the Nietzscheans, a highly competitive, genetically enhanced offshoot of humanity. Andromeda also featured the Magogs, a highly dangerous, genetically modified creature with enhanced strength and aggression, clawed hand and feet & ability to spray acid, who act as foot soldiers for the Spirit of the Abyss.


 * In The X-Files, Super-Soldiers are human-alien hybrids that exhibit extreme strength and seemingly cannot die. They were apparently designed to colonize the earth.


 * In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Dominion genetically engineered the Jem'Hadar.


 * Also in the Star Trek Universe, Khan Noonien Singh was one of the Augments whose superior abilities and ambition led to the Eugenics War.


 * The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Hunted" involved an army of super-soldiers who were unable to re-acclimate themselves to civilian life after the war they were created for ended, due to their extensive psychological conditioning. The civil authorities resorted to imprisoning them 'for the public good', until a group of them escaped and overthrew the government. The episode is generally considered to be an allegory for the problem of post-traumatic stress disorder (and more specifically, Vietnam veteran's syndrome).


 * The Manticore project and the Familiar cult from the TV series Dark Angel, whose shared end goal is the creation of supersoldiers, either through genetic manipulation or selective breeding, respectively. The heroine, Max, is one of the escapees of the Manticore project and the story is centered with the supersoldiers being hunted down and forming alliances together.


 * In Stargate SG-1, the Goa'uld use Jaffa, genetically modified soldiers that act as incubators for their symbiotes. They possess great strength, perfect health & long life-- so long as their symbiote is intact.


 * The Goa'uld System Lord Anubis develops the Kull Warriors (first named supersoldiers or Anubis drones by the SGC personnel).


 * In the film Universal Soldier, the two lead characters are biologically-enhanced reanimated cyborg soldiers as part of an American supersoldier project. Robocop also has a similar premise.


 * The movie Soldier was based entirely on the premise of supersoldiers, particularly the psychological effect of raising someone to be a human weapon.


 * In the movie Bladerunner, Rutger Hauer plays a commando who is a replicant and possibly a supersoldier. The movie maintains tenuous links with the movie Soldier.


 * River Tam, a character in the television series Firefly and the subsequent film Serenity, was a physically, intellectually and psychically gifted young girl whom the Alliance attempted to turn into a supersoldier/assassin.


 * In the TV series Babylon 5, it was suggested that the telepaths of many races were engineered by the Vorlons to use as potential soldiers against the Shadows.


 * In seaQuest DSV, G.E.L.F.s (Genetically Engineered Life Forms or "Daggers") were created for the sole purpose of waging war. As they were outlawed in 2004, they were all relocated to a remote colony island and essentially imprisoned. The prototype G.E.L.F., Dagwood's fighting skills and intellect were not as developed as the others, and as such, he was reassigned to custodial duties aboard the seaQuest.

Animated Series

 * Shane "Goose" Gooseman, one of the heroes of The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, was the result of a government genetic engineering experiment to develop "supertroopers". Other supertroopers exist, but many were exposed to a gas to speed up their mutation and became aggressive and unstable in the process.


 * In the animated television series Exosquad, the Neo Warriors were mass-produced as brutish shock troops, while the smarter Neo Lords were designed for infiltration and commando activities. Even the common Neosapien troops, while not specifically designed as soldiers, are physically superior to humans in strength, reflexes, endurance, and senses.


 * In the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comics and cartoons released by Marvel Comics and Sunbow Productions respectively, a number of supersoldiers or supersoldier-like characters make appearances, the most supersoldier like being the Strato-Vipers and the Star-Viper of Cobra; pilots whom have been exposed to extreme gravity and have had cybernetics implanted in their brains to increase their reflexes. Also supersoldier like are the powerful Royal Guards and Nemesis Enforcer of the pre-human civilization Cobra-La. Zartan, with his holographic and camouflage abilities, (the nature of which are something of a mystery) may be considered a supersoldier by some.  Although not strictly superhuman or artificially enhanced, some might consider the characters of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow to be akin to supersoldiers due to their great skill, which has come from rigorous, at times quasi-mystical ninja training.  The genetically engineered characters Serpentor and venomous Maximus can be consider supersoldiers due to their highly enhanced attributes.


 * Coordinators are genetically-enhanced humans in Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny with heightened strength and intelligence. The enhanced naturals used by Blue Cosmos and LOGOS could also be seen as supersoldiers owing to their enhancements through implantation and drug usage (only in Gundam SEED) and mental conditioning (SEED Destiny) but it is debatable as they were more along the lines of Super Pilots (like those in the Battletech universe) as opposed to true super soldiers.

Comic Books

 * Captain America was to be the first of an army of Super-Soldiers, a plan that was derailed when the creator of the Super-Soldier serum was assassinated, and the serum itself destroyed. Other characters in the Marvel Universe, such as Wolverine and Nuke are continuations of those experiments, as part of the Weapon Plus program. Other Marvel Super-Soldiers include the mutant Cable, Omega Red, X-23, and Deadpool.


 * The Galadorian Space Knights of toy adaptation Rom: Spaceknight were a form of Super-Soldier, cybernetically enhanced to fight the alien Dire Wraiths.


 * OMAC, the One-Man Army Corps, is a superhero created by Jack Kirby and published by DC Comics. Set in the near future, OMAC is a corporate nobody named Buddy Blank who is changed by an A.I. satellite called Brother Eye into a super-soldier. Sasha Bordeaux, Checkmate's Black Queen, is a Super-Soldier produced by OMAC technology.


 * The Wildstorm Universe, Team 7 was exposed to the Gen-Factor in order to turn them into super-powered soldiers. This is, directly or indirectly, the origin of many of Wildstorm's major superheroes.


 * The Authority's Apollo and Midnighter were black ops soldiers surgically modified by Henry Bendix of Stormwatch.


 * T.A.O. of the WildCats was genetically designed by the Halo Corporation to be the perfect Tactically Augmented Organism.


 * Rogue Trooper and the other G.I.s are genetically modified troops designed to be resistant to all known NBC dangers.


 * Lobster Random of 2000 AD was adapted to never feel pain or need to sleep. This was originally believed to be through gene therapy and neurosurgery, but it was later revealed that the lobster claws (delivered by a god from another reality) grafted to him were the real cause.


 * Marvel UK character Killpower was genetically engineered by Dr. Oonagh Mullarkey as a prototype footsoldier for the Mys-Tech corporation.

Video/Computer Games

 * The SPARTAN-II Special Ops soldiers, including the main character, Master Chief, from the video games Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, are cybernetically and biologically enhanced. Nicole, also known as SPARTAN-458, in the Dead or Alive series is also a SPARTAN.


 * In the Metal Gear video game series, the Les Enfants Terribles project is used to develop the ultimate soldier and spawns the main character, Solid Snake, as well as his brothers Liquid Snake and Solidus Snake. In addition, many of the main characters throughout the series would be considered supersoldiers, due to their superhuman and paranormal abilities.


 * The Combine Elite is referred to as a supersoldier in Half-Life 2. They are heavily augmented cyborgs and have faster reflexes and can endure more than the other human and trans-human forces of the Combine Overwatch.


 * In the Marathon trilogy, a first person shooter series made by Bungie Studios where the main protagonist, a marine, is a biologically and genetically enhanced super soldier. The game takes place aboard the ship Marathon which has been invaded by a race of aliens called the Pfhor.


 * In the Metroid series, Samus Aran was strengthened with cybernetics, infused with Chozo blood (and later Phazon and Metroid DNA) which gave her superhuman abilities. Also, the fearsome bounty hunter Kanden is the result of many years of research into creating a Supersoldier - However, the mental strain drove him utterly insane. His only goal is to prove himself the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. He has never reached the popularity of Sylux and Samus Aran, and seeks out the secret of the Alimbics in order to prove himself the very best. Also, the Elite Pirates, from Phazon experimentation on Space Pirate embryos, resulted in huge mutants, incredibly strong, heavy, and slow soldiers with the higher-tier soldiers having an addiction to Phazon.


 * The Terran Ghosts from the game StarCraft are psychic Special Forces soldiers. Terran Marines contain a mutant gene which makes them superior to regular humans in all respects.


 * In the PC game F.E.A.R. the player is an experimental Special forces operative with superhuman reflexes, who must fight against an army of cloned soldiers that are telepathically linked to their insane commander.


 * In the Sonic the Hedgehog series, several attempts at creating the "Ultimate Life Form" were made by Dr. Gerald Robotnik. The most successful of these was "Project: Shadow", which produced Shadow the Hedgehog.


 * In most games of the Command & Conquer series there appeared tiberium-enhanced infantry soldiers. These often appear as expensive troopers whose cost and firepower (but mostly the latter) rival those of vehicles. Stronger ones often serve as "hero" units or, in the case of Renegade, boss characters.


 * In the survival-horror video game series Resident Evil, the Tyrants can count as super soldiers, they are humans infected with the T-Virus to turn them into Bio-Organic Weapons. Also the villains Albert Wesker and Alexia Ashford are infected with special versions of the virus.


 * The Chimera from Resistance: Fall of Man could be considered supersoldiers in the same way, because they are stronger and faster than the average human.


 * In the video game Breakdown, the main character is somewhat of a super-soldier; however, the powers are unknown to him at first and he must work to "regain" them.


 * In the MMORPG City of Heroes, one of the main villain groups, the Council, gives their experienced soldiers "supersoldier serum" to turn them into deadly fighting machines.


 * In the computer game Deus Ex, the player character JC Denton, and his brother Paul are nanotechnologically-augmented agents. Augmentation canisters that can be found and installed in the game allow for new and improved abilities, enhancing agility, stealth or combat.


 * In Star Wars: Dark Forces, Dark Troopers are a class of robotic Imperial Stormtroopers, tougher and deadlier than ordinary stormtroopers. In the Expanded Universe, they are cyborgs of Elite Stormtroopers.


 * In the PC game ÜberSoldier, the player takes on the role of a German soldier in World War II who is killed in battle, but reanimated by scientists who give him superhuman abilities. With the help of other rebels, the player escapes and turns against the Nazis.


 * In No One Lives Forever 2, supersoldiers are created by H.A.R.M., an evil crime organization.


 * In Return to Castle Wolfenstein, there are Nazi machine-men, created by a mad scientist named Wilhelm Strasse, aka. "Death's Head". They are created through a "bizarre synthesis of robotic and biological engineering", and they serve as a springboard toward the creation of paranormal Dark Knights. Despite their interim status, they were formidable in their own right. Their equipment included highly advanced armor, autocannons, and rocket launchers, among others.


 * In Crackdown, the main protagonists of the Agency that you play are so-called super soldiers apparently cloned and enhanced with nanotechnology.


 * In Haze, the main character Shane Carpenter (and the rest of the Mantel soldiers) is a supersoldier, working for Mantel, who is empowered by a substance called Nova-Keto-Thyrazine - also called NECTAR which enhances strength, speed, perception, and reflexes; however if used in excess it causes an overdose which makes the user lose the ability to tell friend from foe and makes them extremely aggressive.

Tabletop Role-Playing Games

 * In Battletech the warrior caste of the Clans is largely composed of soldiers created by means of eugenics, intended to give them superior skills in their respective fields of action. Infantry units (elementals) have superior size, strength and endurance, pilots of air- and spacecraft have improved reflexes, perceptions and cognitive capabilities, and MechWarriors, the operators of BattleMechs are somewhat a combination of the two.


 * In Warhammer 40,000, Space Marines are elite soldiers, modified through gene therapy, surgical modifications, and hypnotic indoctrination. Several variations exist, such as Chaos space marines and the Grey Knights. Stormtroopers also appear somewhat as supersoldiers, with cybernetic augmentation and intense training from birth.


 * In Rifts, there exist many forms of supersoldier mercenaries such as the Borg, or full-conversion combat cyborgs; the Juicer, a chemical-enhanced soldier gifted with incredible speed, reflexes, and strength from a constant supply of performance-enhancing drugs and substances, but with a severely shortened lifespan; and the Crazy, named because of the M.O.M. conversion (Mind Over Matter), that rewires their brain to increase their speed, reflexes and ability, but leads to mental instability and eventually insanity.

Fantasy

 * In J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth mythology, Saruman's Uruk-hai could be considered a form of supersoldier, having all the strength of Orcs while eliminating hindrances such as the Orc's weakness to daylight.


 * In Warcraft, the Chaos Orcs become supersoldiers after drinking Mannoroth's blood.


 * The Final Fantasy series of role playing video games has featured supersoldiers of various sorts as plot elements in several titles. Several characters in the PlayStation RPG Final Fantasy VII, including the protagonist of the game, Cloud Strife, his deceased best friend Zack, and the villain of the game, Sephiroth, are humans that have been augmented by exposure to high levels of an energy source known as Mako, as well as infusion of cells from the alien life form Jenova.  Cloud, Zack, and Sephiroth all had former connections with Shin-ra (Sephiroth and Zack were ex-members of SOLDIER and Cloud was a Shin-ra grunt, who was badly injured and experimented on after his confrontation with Sephiroth; if should also be noted that Zack was injected and infused twice while Cloud and Sephiroth weren't, whereas Sephiroth was injected with Jenova cells while he was still an embryo, giving him abilities beyond those of a normal SOLDIER), which created supersoldiers through a more simplified process using only Mako.  Another Final Fantasy version of Supersoldiers are the elite mercenaries known as SeeD's from Final Fantasy VIII, who augment their fighting skills by "junctioning" magic to themselves.  Another example comes from Final Fantasy VI, in which Cid and Emperor Geshtal sought to fuse magic and biology to create elite soldiers known as Magitek Knights, and other magic using superhumans.  One of the protagonists of the game, Celes Chere is an example of these efforts, just like the game's primary villain Kefka. In the movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, the characters Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz seem to be superhumans with incredible speed and deadly accuracy with their weapons.


 * In Illuminatus!, Hagbard Celine claims that a division of Waffen S.S. troops were ritually sacrificed and sunk under 'Lake Totenkopf', so that they might be reanimated as mystically-enhanced supersoldiers at some later date.


 * The 1977 film Shock Waves, where Nazi zombies were failed subjects in a project to develop a soldier who can survive in a multitude of hostile environments (such as the freezing cold of the Russian winter) with a minimum of protective equipment. The subjects became impervious to normal weapons but went insane in the process and where eventually abandoned on a deserted island.

Webcomics

 * The Abductees in the webcomic It's Walky! were altered to serve as supersoldiers using transplanted Martian DNA and psychological conditioning. Abilities gained can include enhanced strength, durability, and healing rate, the ability to control certain alien technologies, and occasionally telekinesis, super-speed and other powers.
 * In the webcomic Schlock Mercenary, many members of the mercenary company Tagon's Toughs have received "soldier-boosts", illegal genetic and biochemical alterations which boost combat abilities. The former bounty hunter Doyt Gyo is a combat cyborg, and his gate-clone Doythaban can excrete explosive and toxic substances as well.


 * In the webcomic Inhuman the mainish character Grey is an attempt to breed a supersoldier from animal stocks.Inhuman comic

Miscellaneous

 * In the virtual band of Gorillaz it has been revealed indiscreetly that Noodle is a supersoldier.

=Notes= There are numerous characters in fiction who utilize advanced technology to indirectly enhance themselves, such as powered armor, mechas, and other "wearable weapons". These characters, while powerful, are probably not supersoldiers any more than a man driving a tank; while exceeding the destructive potential of an unarmed man, he is not himself superhuman.

Characters who are human (or human-like) and individually extremely successful in combat solely by virtue of being a main character in an action movie or videogame and thus protected by a character shield or depicted as defeating hordes of enemies with the Stormtrooper effect are not generally considered supersoldiers.

Groups not inherently militaristic or anti-military, yet possessing superhuman qualities, such as the Jedi Order, or comic book Superheroes, may or may not be considered to be supersoldiers despite their martial prowess.

Throughout human history, there have been many real life attempts to create "super" soldiers, from the practices of the Spartiates, the warrior class of Ancient Sparta, to the Lebensborn program of Nazi Germany; Notably, none of these attempts have ever produced a soldier who exceeded normal human limitations.

= References =

=See also=
 * Superhuman
 * Superhero
 * Human enhancement

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