CITADEL

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Former "terrorist," soldier

Group Membership: Formerly a group of disillusioned former soldiers;
    formerly the Canadian government and/or military

Affiliations: Formerly the Canadian government;
    mutated by unidentified parties (presumably associated with Weapon X)

Enemies: Aurora, Canadian government, Canadian Governor General, agent Kinney (Canadian Intelligence), Shaman, Snowbird, Wolverine (Logan/James Howlett)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Weapon Y

Base of Operations: Identified secret base North of Quebec

First Appearance: Wolverine: First Class#5 (September, 2008)

Powers/Abilities: Citadel was large and strong (enhanced human to Class 10?), and he was covered from head to toe in an Adamantium exoskeleton that rendered him virtually invulnerable. He was vulnerable to psionic or neurologic attack (such as from a neuro-taser). He had military training in armed and unarmed combat.

Height: Approximately 6'7"
Weight: Approximately 500 lbs. (with exoskeleton); original weight undetermined
Eyes: White (no visible iris); original color unrevealed
Hair: Unrevealed

History:
(Wolverine: First Class#5 (fb) - BTS) - The man who would become Citadel was one of several men wounded while fighting overseas for his country. They were told they were being shipped back home to a clinic where they would get the latest in cutting edge medical treatment. Instead, they were experimented on by government scientists who grafted synthetic metal to their bodies, metal which slowly began to destroy them from the inside. They cipher-coded their greatest success "Weapon Y," but he broke himself and his men out of the facility.

(Wolverine: First Class#5 (fb) - BTS) - "Weapon Y" took the new name Citadel after Quebec City's la Citadelle de Québec, which he led his men to invade and take over, holding Canada's governor general hostage and demanding just compensation for their suffering.

(Wolverine: First Class#5 (fb)) - The Canadian government had Department H send Wolverine and a strike team (he chose Aurora, Shaman, and Snowbird) to liberate la Citadelle and free the hostages. The strike team infiltrated the base while Wolverine went to locate the Governor General, but his adrenaline overrode his senses, and he failed to detect an ambush by Citadel, who knocked him across the room. Citadel was angered that they had tried to negotiate and felt that the government had sent in assassins to silence them. Wolverine, who at the time did not recall his own past, was intrigued with Citadel's Adamantium armor and asked him where he got it, and Citadel told him his general history. He threatened the Governor General that he and his men might hold a press conference so the public could learn where their tax dollars were going. Wolverine offered to help Citadel, telling him he had been Weapon X, but Citadel thought he was just another lying government agent and threatened to toss his body over the walls of la Citadelle to show they meant business. Having replaced the regimental mascot, a goat named Baptiste, Snowbird was able to approach and punch Citadel, knocking him to the ground. Rather than press the advantage, Wolverine tried to convince Citadel he agreed that the public needed to hear his story, and that he wanted to know the details as well. Citadel refused to give anything more than name, rank, and serial number, but before he could even give that, Canadian Intelligence agent Kinney dropped the distracted Citadel with a neuro-taser. Kinney refused to give any information on Citadel to Wolverine or anyone else, and his men took Citadel away.

(Wolverine: First Class#5 (fb) - BTS) - Citadel was moved to the same secret base Wolverine was usually deployed from, north of Quebec City. Citadel never regained consciousness, and his condition deteriorated as the metal continued to slowly destroy his nervous system. Because of his Adamantium exoskeleton, he could not be treated, as no needle could penetrate his skin; they couldn't even pry open his jaw to administer medication orally. They worked to develop an aerosol to spray into his eyelids that would bind and inactivate the toxic metal in his bloodstream

(Wolverine: First Class#5 (fb) - BTS) - James MacDonald Hudson determined where Citadel was kept. Hudson twisted enough arms to allow Michael Twoyoungman (Shaman) to examine him.

(Wolverine: First Class#5 (fb)) - While Citadel lay in an oxygen tent, Twoyoungman briefed Logan on Citadel's status, further noting that Wolverine's healing factor merely kept him alive, but that his bestial rages and memory losses might all be partially a result of long-term Adamantium poisoning.
    It was later that same day that Wolverine agreed to leave Department H to join the X-Men at Charles Xavier's request.

(Wolverine: First Class#5 (fb) - BTS) - Months later, Shaman called Wolverine to tell him that Citadel's condition had taken a turn for the worse. It then occurred to Wolverine that Kitty could phase through Citadel's Adamantium skin to deliver medical treatment, and he flew to Quebec with her. Citadel died before their arrival.

(Wolverine: First Class#5) - Wolverine sat at Citadel's bedside as Shaman pulled a sheet up over Citadel's head. Kitty noted that this was the loss of a link to Wolverine's mysterious past.

Comments: Created by Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry.

    On of the flashbacks scenes in Wolverine: First Class#5 seems to indicate that Kinney was the agent whose tie Wolverine cut off in Giant-Size X-Men#1. That guy was actually Major Chasin, so, going strictly from the narrative, Kinney was behind the scenes in those flashbacks, having organized the meeting with Xavier and being none too pleased when Wolverine cut off Chasin's tie and left Department H.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:

CITADEL's agents

    They were wounded while fighting overseas for their country, Canada. They were told they were being shipped back home to a clinic where they would get the latest in cutting edge medical treatment. Instead, they were experimented on by government scientists who grafted synthetic metal to their bodies, metal which slowly began to destroy them from the inside. They cipher-coded their greatest success "Weapon Y," but he broke himself and his men out of the facility.

    "Weapon Y" took the new name Citadel after Quebec City's la Citadelle de Quebec, which he led his men to invade and take over, holding Canada's governor general hostage and demanding just compensation for their suffering.

    The Canadian government had Department H send Wolverine and a strike team (he chose Aurora, Shaman, and Snowbird) to liberate la Citadelle and free the hostages. The strike team infiltrated the base, with Snowbird using her psychic power of postcognition to view the recent events, after which Shaman used a fog of invisibility to cover their approach and then dust from the realm of dreams to put both enemy and innocent to sleep. Wolverine and the other superhumans took out the agents they encountered, but Snowbird saw their metal implants in a defeated agent's face and realized there was more going on than they realized. Citadel explained the truth to Wolverine but was then incapacitated. Citadel, and presumably the other agents, were moved to the same secret base Wolverine was usually deployed from, north of Quebec City.

    Citadel died because his Adamantium skin prevented him from being treated. It is unrevealed if therapy was successful in any or all of his other allies.

--Wolverine: First Class#5 (5 (fb) - BTS, 5 (fb)

images: (without ads)
Wolverine: First Class#5, p11, panel 3 (three of Citadel's agents, masked)
    p13, panel 4 (full body, standing over Wolverine)
    p15, panel 5 (three of Citadel's agents, unmasked)
    p16, panel 5-6 (Citadel's mask, close-ups)

Appearances:
Wolverine: First Class#5 (September, 2008) - Fred Van Lente (writer), Clayton Henry (artist), Nathan Cosby (assistant editor), Mark Paniccia (editor)

Last updated: 10/24/08

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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