The Weapon's Legacy: Maverick

(Brought to you by the Logan and Ororo Shrine)

Maverick finally got some of the attention that his character merited in his own regular series (as told by Jorge Gonzalez and Jim Cheung). Unfortunately, this was followed up by a clumsy, heavy-handed treatment in Weapon X. The stories that appear on this page do not contain continuity from that series, though I do not (dino-like) reject it. There may be some stories from that era in the future.

The Weapon X program recruited and shaped a number of living weapons for the C.I.A. for use during the Cold War. The program was funded by the Americans but implemented using Canadian technology and methods. The program produced such noted mutants as Wolverine and Sabretooth, both Canadians who were called to serve their country. Not everyone knows that there were other mutants in that program; that not all of them were Canadians. One of them, in fact, was a disenfranchised German by the name of Christoph Nord. The world knows him better as Maverick.



MAVERICK

Christoph Nord (David North on this side of the Atlantic) was first introduced in the pages of X-Men, but he had a long history with Wolverine prior to his first comic book appearance. Wolverine's struggle with memory implants made Maverick unfamiliar to him at first, but he proved an important ally against the threat of Omega Red. When he was introduced, it was unclear what his powers were; eventually, he was revealed to have force-absorbing abilities.

Originally, Maverick was slated to have special precognitive powers; Marvel went so far as to describe them briefly on his first trading card. He was supposed to be able to sift through possible futures and pick the one in which he came out on top.

Instead, his rather innocuous force-absorbing power suite prevailed; it was expanded in his short-lived but well-written series. The Legacy Virus mutated his force-absorbing abilities, allowing him to convert it directly to strength or to super-heated plasma.

The main theme in the series was David's struggle with the Legacy Virus. His powers were unstable, and he would eventually die. He had a young ward, Chris Bradley, who was also afflicted with the Virus; Maverick served as a mentor and protector to him.

He also had a romantic interest in the series. She was Elena Ivanova, the daughter of the Soviet super-kosmonaut, Epsilon Red. She had become attached to David in his one-shot (which set up the status quo for the series), promising to take care of him while he was dying.

David is private, and a little gruff. His english shifts back and forth between the proper, formal language that he first learned and the business slang that was so favoured by his teammates. He has a strong sense of duty, but he tries not to let it get in the way of morality or pragmatism. Loyalty to his teammates was his first principle; it's not far from his thoughts even now.

Chris Bradley found out that he was a mutant almost at the same time as he discovered that he had the Legacy Virus; his electrokinetic powers were lashing out uncontrollably. Threats of violence against Chris and his family brought him to the attention of the X-Men, who promised to protect him. Their failure in this regard brought Maverick sharply at odds with Iceman. Given a choice, Chris decided to change his name and follow Maverick, who promised to protect him and his family.

Chris is an adolescent, forced to mature before his time. He stayed with Maverick for quite a while, learning what he could from David's attitude and professionalism. David's clumsiness with issues concerning the Virus highlighted their differences, however, and sometimes brought them into conflict.

Chris is a hothead, but an intelligent one who is capable of reading a situation. He is clear about his priorities, and doesn't do anything to endanger his family or friends. He eventually left Maverick to join the New Warriors.

Elena Ivanova was born shortly before the first manned mission to the moon. Wolverine was assigned to assassinate her father, but this mission was aborted at the last minute. Sabretooth, who brought the news that the assassination was off, listened to Epsilon Red's pleas to kill him, to end his misery, but instead shot his wife. She was heavily pregnant, and was rushed to deliver before she died. Elena's nascent telepathy joined her to her mother, and she felt her mother die as she was born.

She first met Maverick when she was trying to track Sabretooth, many years later. As a former KGB operative, Elena felt that she had the training to kill him. She certainly had the motive. Elena believed that Maverick would know where Sabretooth was hiding. She found him dying in the Prophecy Hotel in Ottawa, in the final stages of Legacy infection. Unfortunately, she had been tracked by the canny Omega Red, who was hunting Maverick himself.

After a tangle with the Soviet Super-Soldier, Elena did get the location of Sabretooth from Maverick, but elected to stay with him until he died.

Ivanova is a powerful telepath. She is cool and calculating most of the time, but is rather less than rational when she thinks of Sabretooth. When David's virus went into remission, she renewed her hunt.

There isn't a lot of fiction here as of yet; this is a new page. There should be more in the future. Please submit all fan fics involving Maverick and/or related characters to poet at sharecom dot ca.

Last update: Last illustration for A Beautiful Night added June 7.

Stories by John Duffin:

From Light into Shadow:

A Tissue of Lies

A young Maverick must decide who to believe when faced with the most important decision of his life.

Empire Building

David has fallen into the hands of American scientists. Will the fate forecasted in A Tissue of Lies prove to be true?

Ginetta

A near-fatal encounter with a KGB assassin introduces Maverick to his first true love.

Night of Rain

The world darkens for Christoph Nord in this final installment of the series.

or, you can download all of From Light Into Shadow at once in a ZIP archive. It's in Macintosh text encoding, so be sure to set your ZIP extractor to account for that. You have permission to download it for your personal use, but you may not distribute it, post it, or change it without my expressed permission.

Rifle Sights

An older, colder Maverick contemplates a target assigned to him by the CIA. Prior in continuity to Ginetta.

Though I Shame To Wear A Heart So White

The final installment of the Fox series (see the Logan and Ororo shrine for the rest of it). The dead cast long shadows in this tale of lies and misdirection.

A Beautiful Night

A short piece set after the cure for the Legacy Virus was found.
Now illustrated by Dark Angel.

Stories by Josh Benton:

Cold Fire

Mercenaries working for the Department decide to interrupt Logan and David while they're having a quiet beer, by kidnapping a guyver named ColdFire. Not such a good idea. The sequel to Symbiote Genesis.

For your viewing pleasure, The Weapon's Legacy has commissioned a number of works of fan art, and the very first artist to respond is Mr. Alvarez, who has already submitted several excellent works for the Logan and Ororo Shrine. If you'd like to see some more, mail me at poet at sharecom dot ca and I'll try to pester him into doing some more work.

Click here to enter the Eduardo Alvarez gallery which has been approved for viewing by all audiences.

After quite a hiatus, we've found a new artist in Ms. Williams, who has submitted a colour piece for the Weapon's Legacy. I'm quite taken with it, personally.

Click here to enter the Dark Angel gallery which has been approved for viewing by all audiences.

There isn't enough fan art yet, and I'd love to have some more! Check out these guidelines, and then send a sample or two. I'd be happy to take a look. Particularly, I'm interested in your depictions of Maverick, Elena Ivanova, Bolt, and any of their rogues' gallery.

Back to the Poet's Home Page