A super soldier (or supersoldier) is a concept soldier capable of operating beyond normal human abilities through technological augmentation or (in fictional depictions) genetic modification or cybernetic augmentation. Soldiers that obtain greater-than-normal physical abilities by wearing powered armor or a technological exoskeleton (such as the Mobile Infantry in Robert A. Heinlein´s Starship Troopers novella) are a distinct, but related concept and the two often overlap, as is the case for Halo and Warhammer 40,000 universes, for example.
Fiction
Super soldiers are common in military science fiction literature, films, and video games. Well-known examples include the novel The Forever War by Joe Haldeman and the Halo franchise. Super soldiers are also prevalent in the science fiction universe of Warhammer 40,000 and its prequel The Horus Heresy. Critic Mike Ryder has argued that the super soldiers depicted in these worlds serve as a mirror to present-day issues around sovereignty, military ethics and the law. Marvel Comics, and by extension the Marvel Cinematic Universe, feature a wide array of heroes and villains whose powers are obtained through various competing attempts to create a super soldier, including Captain America, Hulk, the German Red Skull, and the Russian Red Guardian.
Fictional super soldiers are usually heavily augmented, either through surgical means, eugenics, genetic engineering, cybernetic implants, drugs, brainwashing, traumatic events, an extreme training regimen or other scientific and pseudoscientific means. A few stories also use paranormal methods or technology, and science of extraterrestrial origin. The fictional masterminds of such programs are depicted often as mad scientists or stern military personnel depending on the needs of the plot, in stories that typically explore the ethical boundaries of the pursuit of science and victory. Some depictions can be categorized as cyborgs or cybernetic organisms due to their augmentations taking the form of technology integrated into a living organism.
China
In 2022, the People's Liberation Army Academy of Military Sciences reported that a team of military scientists inserted a gene from the tardigrade into human embryonic stem cells in an experiment with the stated possibility of creating soldiers resistant to acute radiation syndrome who could survive nuclear fallout.
U.S. Army
In the book The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004), Welsh journalist Jon Ronson documented how the U.S. military repeatedly tried and failed to train soldiers in the use of parascientific and pseudoscientific combat techniques during the Cold War, experimenting with New Age methods and psychic phenomena such as remote viewing, astral projection, "death touch" and mind reading against various Soviet targets. The book also inspired a war comedy of the same name (2009) directed by Grant Heslov, starring George Clooney.
Fictional examples
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The following are examples of fictional super soldiers in various media:
- Abomination from the Marvel Comics universe, a nemesis to the Hulk, who also appears in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, a part of the Marvel cinematic universe and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law television series, published by Disney+.
- Bloodshot from Valiant Comics
- Bane, Captain Atom, Deathstroke, KGBeast, Major Force, and Ravager from DC Comics
- Captain America, Deadpool, Deathlok, Nuke, Sabretooth, U.S. Agent, Winter Soldier, and Wolverine from Marvel Comics
- The Clone troopers and the Stormtroopers from the Star Wars franchise
- Duke Nukem
- Genetic infantry (G. I.) soldiers from Rogue Trooper comic strip by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons, featured in the comics anthology 2000 AD.
- Hannah from the 2011 live-action film of the same name and the 2019 TV series of the same name
- Jill Valentine from Resident Evil
- Lars Alexandersson from the Tekken franchise
- Kull warriors from the Stargate television series.
- Master Chief and other SPARTAN soldiers from Halo
- The Doomguy (Protagonist in the Doom Franchise)
- The protagonist of the 2006 First-person shooter game ÜberSoldier.
- Universal Soldier franchise.
- Solid Snake and Big Boss from Metal Gear. Also unit FOXHOUND and Genome solders appearing in Metal Gear Solid 1, Cobra unit soldiers appearing in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Beauty and the Beast Corps soldiers appearing in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and the characters of Quiet and the Parasite unit, "Skulls" soldiers appearing in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
- The Space Marines from the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
- Coloninal Defense Forces soldiers from the Old Man's War military science fiction novel series by John Scalzi.
- The Terminator
See also
- First Earth Battalion
- Future Soldier 2030 Initiative
- Human enhancement
- List of psychoactive drugs used by militaries
- Superhuman
- Übermensch
- Space marine
- Superhero
Other
References
- The future soldier. Archived 2019-08-06 at the Wayback Machine A Soldier Domain for Full Spectrum Warfare. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
- Ryder, Mike (2021). "Conscripts from birth: war and soldiery in the grim darkness of the far future" (PDF). Fantastika. 5 (1). Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
- Hood, Cooper (June 3, 2020). "All 23 Super Soldiers Created In The MCU (Not Just Captain America)". ScreenRant.
- Krishnan, Armin (24 October 2013). "The Cyborgization of Human Soldiers". Footnote1. Archived from the original on 24 May 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
- Chen, Stephen (March 29, 2023). "Chinese team behind extreme animal gene experiment says it may lead to super soldiers who survive nuclear fallout". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on March 29, 2023. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
- Adams, Tim (21 November 2004). "Acting the giddy goat". Book review. Guardian News. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson, Picador, pp.240.
- Heussner, Ki Mae (Nov 9, 2009). "Psychic Spies: Any Truth in 'Men Who Stare at Goats?'". ABC News. Archived from the original on 29 July 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
Ronson, Jon (2009). The Men Who Stare at Goats. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1439181775.
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