List of Supersoldiers in fiction

The Supersoldier, a soldier or fighter enhanced beyond normal human limitations by some means, is a recurring trope in speculative fiction, particularly science fiction. This list of supersoldier examples is not comprehensive.

Supersoldiers by medium[edit]

Books[edit]

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 harsh penal colony Salusa Secundus, where six out of every thirteen inhabitants die before maturity. 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.
Robert A. Heinlein's book Starship Troopers prominently features the 'Mobile Infantry', a heavily armored and extremely mobile heavy infantry unit. Highly trained, psychologically conditioned, and equipped with powered armor, they are described as being able to individually destroy squadrons of conventional armor, and conduct any imaginable mission profile.
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 (referred to in one book as "mutant hell-planet Boers" for their abnormal strength and stamina. In the follow-up novel Warworld: Blood Feuds, a Sauron expert in genetics also classes those of Frystatter genetics as having capacities beyond those of baseline Earth-human stock). 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, but predating, 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.
Gordon R. Dickson wrote a series of novels and short stories which centered around the Dorsai, one of the Splinter Cultures whose society centers around military service as mercenaries. The Dorsai developed training and conditioning techniques that allowed them to operate at higher than normal levels of effectiveness in combat. The Dorsai, being professional soldiers, concentrated their education on military science which resulted in highly trained soldiers and officers who were highly skilled at tactics, operational art, and strategy.
John Dalmas wrote a series of novels about the Tsai a society of people with several different specialities one of which was military service. Tsai chose their specialities within the first few years of life and those who chose military service were highly trained light infantry mercenaries. The Tsai were not only high skilled with great physical conditioning but also had a telepathic ability allowing the soldiers to operate with an extremely high level of coordination.
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. However, an Uruk-hai was no match for an elven warrior, especially one of the Noldor, greatest of warriors of the Children of Ilúvatar.
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 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.
In the Wild Cards science fiction/superhero anthology series, certain Houses of the ruling class on the planet Takis use genetically enhanced supersoldiers called the Morahk, who possess superhuman strength, speed, durability, coordination, and healing rate, as well as resistance to Takisian telepathy. They are conditioned for fanatical loyalty, as well as occasionally being trained to serve as political advisors to those they protect. A Morahk warrior resembles a short, exceedingly broadly built and muscular human with a delicate, handsome elfen face. The Wild Card virus itself was designed to create supersoldiers by enhancing the Takisians' native psi powers, but its random unreliability made it useless for that purpose.
In the Star Trek novels co-authored by William Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens (the "Shatnerverse"), particularly Ashes of Eden, Kirk's lover Teilani and her people were revealed to be Klingon/Romulan hybrids created as last-ditch supersoldiers in case of those powers warring with the Federation. Their childhood games, dances, and songs were disguised military training, and their genetically engineered bodies were augmented with biological materials taken from living human bodies. When the war never materialized and the Klingon/Romulan alliance broke up, they were abandoned with no knowledge of their intended purpose.
In John Scalzi's Old Man's War series, geriatric humans who volunteer are transferred into cloned and modified bodies based off their original DNA but modified with enhanced strength, senses, and abilities, noticeably the ability to extract some oxygen from the air with green skin through photosynthesis. After the soldier's military service is concluded, they are transferred into a body based off their original, unmodified DNA without enhancements, but at a physical age of around 25.

Movies and television[edit]

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 armour. ARC Troopers are also elite soldiers, considered one-man killing machines, with weaker armour, but very advanced training and weapons. They also possess normal human initiative 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 and the ability to spray acid, who act as foot soldiers for the Spirit of the Abyss.
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 the byproduct of chemical and psychological conditioning to create soldiers who would defend their way of life against aggressive planetary governments. While successful they were unable to re-acclimate themselves to civilian life after the war ended. The civil authorities resorted to imprisoning them 'for the public good' in an otherwise comfortable prison that they were prohibited from leaving, until a group of them escaped and overthrew the government. The episode is generally considered^{[citation needed]} to be an allegory for the problem of Posttraumatic stress disorder (and more specifically, Vietnam veteran's syndrome).
In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Dominion genetically engineered the Jem'Hadar, who are gentically programmed to be fanatically dedicated, as well as addicted to a life-sustaining drug, to maintain their absolute loyalty.
The Manticore project and the Familiar cult from the TV series Dark Angel, whose shared end goal is the creation of super soldiers/super humans, either through genetic manipulation or selective breeding, respectively. The heroine, Max, is one of the X5 escapees of the Manticore project. In the series Lydecker justifies the program arguing the sacrifice of a few of his soldiers could save hundreds of conventional soldiers from dying.
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 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). These soldiers are far more resilient than Jaffa and wear black armor. They are almost impervious to most weaponry.
In the spin-off series Stargate Atlantis, the Wraith scientist known to humans as Michael once experimented with combining human and Iratus bug DNA in order to create a horde of strong and aggressive hybrid warriors.
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 Blade Runner, Rutger Hauer plays a commando who is a replicant and possibly a supersoldier.
In the film Batman & Robin, the character Bane is created with supersoldier serum
The Chronicles of Riddick film and videogame series concerns Richard B. Riddick, one of the last of a warrior race called the Furyans, a race which the Elemental Aereon describes as "Defiant to the end". In the series, Riddick demonstrates nearly superhuman combat and athletic abilities. Furyans also have the ability to pass energy to each other and also bestow physical changes such as the Eyeshine, which turns out to be a Furyan ability rather than a prison augmentation as Riddick is well known for explaining it^{[citation needed]}.
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 eventually revealed that the telepaths of many races were engineered by the Vorlons to use as potential soldiers against the Shadows. In the Season 1 episode Infection, it is discovered that inhabitants of the planet Ikarra modified some of their own people to become supersoldiers. These supersoldiers ultimately killed every Ikarran on the planet.
In the TV series Now and Again, an obese man, Michael Wiseman is killed in a subway accident and his brain is used by the United States Government in a super soldier program. He is trained in the arts of espionage by government experts but longs to return to his family.
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.
The plot of Return of the Living Dead 3 revolves around a disastrous attempt by the military to use Trioxin to create controllable zombie supersoldiers.
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.
In the direct-to-video animated film Superman: Doomsday, the monster Doomsday is revealed to be an attempt at a Kryptonian supersoldier gone wrong.
On Smallville, it is gradually revealed that Lex Luthor's company has been secretly experimenting with metahuman and alien DNA as part of a program (Project Ares) to produce supersoldiers, ostensibly to combat the growing threats of metahuman criminals and alien invaders.
In the 2006 film Ultraviolet, Milla Jovovich plays a young woman who was infected with a genetically engineered virus called hemophagia, which turns her into a vampire-like superhuman who is trained in combat by the hemophage rebellion.
The low-budget Sci-Fi Channel film S.S. Doomtrooper has the Nazis creating a giant mutant cyborg soldier during World War II.
In 2002 film adaptation of Spider-Man the Green Goblin was the result of a supersoldier experiment, aimed at producing chemically enhanced soldiers. When the Pentagon attempts to find different contractors other than OzCorp, Noman resorts to testing the chemicals on himself which succeeds, however turning Norman Osborn insane. In the 2007 sequel, his son, Harry becomes the New Goblin using the same supersoldier formula however delivered in periodic doses to retain his sanity.
In the 2003 Ang Lee film adaptation of The Hulk, Bruce's father David Banner was experimenting with combining human/animal DNA to create soldiers that could survive any battlefield, affecting the genes of himself and his son.
In the 2008 adaptation The Incredible Hulk, Bruce Banner's gamma experiments were part of an attempt to recreate the supersoldier serum that created Captain America. During the movie, Emil Blonsky is subjected to a frozen sample of the original serum, becoming much more agile and stronger and able to heal faster.
In Doctor Who, several alien races including the Daleks (genetically engineered cyborgs purged of all emotions save hate and encased in tank-like armour from birth) and the Sontarans (a clone race bred only for war in batches of millions to be much stronger and tougher than any human) would likely be considered super soldiers.

Animated series[edit]

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 who 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.
In Beast Wars, Rampage, dubbed Protoform X, although not human exhibits the characteristics and has origins strongly reflecting that of a supersoldier. An experiment to replicate Starscream's mutant indestructible spark was what resulted in Rampage's creation, most likely making him the forerunner of an attempt to create an army of Maximal supersoldiers to fend of a potential Predacon attack.
In the Gundam series, artificial Newtypes (or Strengthened Humans) are normal human beings that, though brainwave enchantment machines, drugs and brain surgery, has gotten the telepathic abilities similar to Newtypes. Different from most other super soldiers, where the physical body is the main focus on enchantment, these Artificial Newtypes are enchanted with the main focus being the ability to send out and receive brainwaves, which can be received by mechanical sensors. This ability allows them to directly control their own war machines, called mobile suits, with their mind so that the machine 's movement and dodging ability will not be limited by the pilot's two hands. They are also able to mind-control remote controlled weapons called "bits" and "funnels", which is way too complicated to be operated by hand (until computer assisted versions comes to play in the future). There are many side effects to the Artificial Newtype enchantment. One of the most common side-effect is mental instability. Many artificial newtypes behaves normally as a soldier most of the time, but becomes insane temporarily when certain events triggers and might attack both friends and foes. During their insane state, they will not respond to orders from their commanders or from people they are familiar with. Also, the organizations that trains artificial newtypes often implant false memory into them, either to keep them under control, or to use them to infiltrate enemy bases. This cause a great number of artificial newtypes to suffer from split personality. People that they know from one personality might be complete strangers to them when they are in their other personality.
Coordinators are genetically-enhanced humans in Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny with heightened strength and intelligence. Most Coordinators were not enhanced for the specific purpose of combat, though their abilities do tend to make them superior soldiers. However, a program known as Socius produced a group of "Combat Coordinators", most notably the characters Gai Murakumo and Kaite Madigan. The Extended humans (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.
In Gundam 00, the Human Reform League faction's Super Soldier Special Duty Organization produced the characters Allelujah Haptism and Soma Peries. Allelujah is considered to be "defective" and suffers from a form of dissociative identity disorder as a result of his enhancements, with an extremely cruel personality that sometimes emerges when he has moral qualms about his actions in battle. While Soma does not display such symptoms, her first encounter with Allelujah caused her to go berserk and attack everything in sight.
In the TV series Justice League Unlimited, the superpowered Ultimen (along with an army of mindless Ultimen clones), and a clone of Supergirl called Galtea, were created by the secretive, quasi-legal Project Cadmus as a deterrent against the Justice League, whom were seen as a threat by some factions of the U.S. government. The Project is implied to also have a hand in creating the Royal Flush Gang, Volcana, another version of Doomsday, and later Terry McGinnis.
In Teen Titans, Red Star is a supersoldier from Russia who the Titans meet in Siberia, and who has no control over his radiation-induced powers, until he explodes at the end of the episode.

Comic books[edit]

Captain America, Created by Dr. Erskine 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, Deadpool, Josiah X and Isaiah Bradley.
The Galadorian Space Knights of toy line and comic 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 foot soldier for the Mys-Tech corporation.
Other Marvel UK characters Death Wreck, the second Death's Head and Death Metal were cyborgs created by Doctor Evelyn Necker as part of the MINION project, a program to produce powerful, near-indestructible soldiers for the criminal group A.I.M. in an alternate future; however, all three proved uncontrollable and eventually rebelled.
Marvel UK superteam, Super Soldiers were a group of British enhanced soldiers, using biotech similar to that used by the U.S. to produce Nuke.
Pow!, a British comic magazine featured the Esper Commandos,^[1] a group of powerful psychics secretly working for the British government, in their 1971 annual.
The Gene Dogs were elite covert troops modified with animal DNA to enhance their abilities.
Marshal Law is based on the premise of genetically and surgically enhanced super-soldiers dealing poorly with being demobilized and unable to fit in with normal humans.
The DNAgents were created to serve as soldiers for a covert organization.
The Manga Bio Booster Armor Guyver and its franchise have the monstrous superhuman Zoanoids and the techno-organic Guyver Units developed as living weapons.
Serpentor from G.I. Joe was designed by Cobra to be a supersoldier consisting of DNA from history's most infamous tyrants.

Video games[edit]

Syndicate and Syndicate Wars
The Nanosuits or "Nano-Muscle Suits", from Crysis are powerful, technologically advanced and extremely versatile battle armor derived from technology from an alien race known as the Ceph. This is permitted through the suit's ability to adapt and absorb energy in various forms from heat, solar, electrical, carbon and radiation. In addition, the suit's CryFibril (artificial, semiorganic muscle) made it possible for the creation of nanites at a cellular level, therefore leading to drastically enhanced combat and physical performance, and allowing the operator to execute super-human feats. The foremost function of Nanosuits are their ability to dedicate their energy supply to a specific function which ultimately augments and greatly enhances certain properties of the wearer.Overtime, it is found that people who wear Nano-Suits begin to connect to it on a psychic and cellular level as seen in Crysis 2. The connection reaches the point where any attempt to completely remove the suit can be lethal. Furthermore, since the Nano-Suit was derived from Ceph technology and enhanced with Ceph DNA, the distinction between being a human wearing the powered exoskeleton or being a chimera is rapidly blurred as seen in Crysis 3.
The SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN III Special Ops soldiers, Master Chief (SPARTAN "John" 117) and Noble Six (SPARTAN-B312), from the video games Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars, and Halo: Reach, are cybernetically and biologically enhanced soldiers that are armed with experimental armor and weapon systems. [List of Dead or Alive characters#Nicole-458|Nicole]], also known as SPARTAN-458, in the Dead or Alive series is also a SPARTAN. However the two programs had ethical concerns with the usage of children as recruits to achieve the best results. This was due to the fact that the earlier augmentations could only be applied to children with specific genetic markers. [ The earlier SPARTAN Is (also known as the Orion Project) were genetically enhanced adult volunteers with SgtMaj Avery Johnson being a known member. However, the results considered underwhelming and with side effects becoming prevalent among personnel, the program was quietly decommissioned. It did however serve as a source of inspiration for it's successors. Halo 4 also introduces the late-model, mass-produced SPARTAN-IV troops. The Spartan-IV's were adult volunteers who were given cybernetic and biological enhancements that were safely derived from the last two programs' own augmentations. However, the effects were slightly underwhelming compared to the two previous generations and were compensated with improved powered armor.
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. The combat-oriented Combine Synths could also be classified as non-humanoid supersoldiers.
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. In Metroid Prime 3, it is revealed that the Galactic Federation has refined a type of powered armor that directly infuses Phazon into the wearer.
In Mass Effect, genetic augmentation is commonplace throughout humans and other species. Ashley Williams, for example, received gene therapy for nearsightedness after birth and "Infantry Package B" after signing up for Systems Alliance Navy marines; Commander Shepard had most likely undergone similar enhancements. Mass Effect 2 offers several stand-out examples: firstly, Commander Shepard was resurrected with the use of cybernetics and can further improve them over the course of the game, granting markedly increased strength and resilience; also, Grunt is a genetically engineered "pure" krogan, stronger, tougher and more aggressive than most krogan, who are already notorious for those qualities; Miranda Lawson's genetic augmentations and training do not have a strictly combat purpose, but she uses them as such; Legion is a unique geth platform that contains 1183 geth, more than ten times the number contained in standard platforms, enabling it to function independently and to interact with organics (standard geth platforms are about as intelligent as trained dogs); in addition, Jack was a subject in a Cerberus-ran program to improve biotic capabilities, which could have led to the development of a biotic supersoldier.
In the video 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 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, William Birkin and Alexia Ashford are infected with special versions of the virus.
The Chimera from the Resistance series could be considered supersoldiers in the same way, because they are stronger and faster than the average human. Several characters, including the series' main character, Nathan Hale, gain superhuman abilities from exposure (and brief immunity) to the Chimera virus. However most characters who survive infection become extremely aggressive, and eventually become Chimera. In Resistance 2 the Sentinels are an elite US Special Forces unit who have all been exposed to the virus, and must constantly take medication to prevent the transformation (in Hale's case, every 19 hours).
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 video 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 video 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. Oddly enough, their final transformation into Dark Knights turns them into lightly armored axe-wielding undead who are far less challenging to fight. It has been suggested that those Dark Knights, who were nigh unstoppable in their time, are outclassed because they were the top of the line in the 10th century, long before the invention of gunpowder and explosives. The transformation ritual has actually downgraded those super-soldiers into the 10th century equivalent of super-soldiers, obsolete and fragile versus WWII weapons and technology.
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.
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 role-playing video game 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 (the company's supersoldier program) and Cloud was a regular Shin-ra infantryman, 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.
TimeSplitters 2 on the Siberia Level the Russian Scientists tried to generate supersoldiers from DNA from the Alleged TimeSplitter, but the results ended badly creating hybrid mutants in which acted like zombies in the level.
Many gamers joke about or seriously consider the characters from the Call of Duty franchise to be supersoldiers, as they are able to sprint long distances, absorb multiple bullets before going down and having outstanding kill records. This can easily be said about the multiplayer aspect as well, including the perk abilities such as being invisible to thermal sight, sprinting without rest (in theory a character could run forever without a break) or dropping a grenade after vital signs stop.
- As to that, many other player characters would be considered supersoldiers due to similar traits.
In the Starcraft franchise, Terran Ghosts are gifted humans with psionic powers. They are trained at early age by the government and enhanced with cybernetics to become stealth assassins. Project Shadow Blade further transforms Ghosts into Specters via biological enhancements; making them even deadlier. In game, the ghost is a terran unit which can cloak, lockdown mechanical units, fire sniper shots or EMP rounds, and call down tactical nukes.
The Original Characters (Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki) from Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: World at War are supersoldiers as a result of test preformed by Edward Richtofen. Evidence is given that he later put himself through the procedure as well. This is given by the radios scattered through various maps.
XCOM: Enemy Within, an expansion pack for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, gives the titular organization the ability to capture containers of "Meld", an alien-made nanomachine paste. Using it, XCOM develops both biological and genetic modification based on alien biology (e.g. secondary heart, ability to leap onto structures or sense invisible enemies) as well as Mechanized Exoskeleton Cybersuit (MEC) troopers, who are soldiers that trade all their limbs for the ability to be built into an oversized bipedal heavy combat platform.
In the Fallout cRPG series Mutants and Super Mutants were originally a result of experiments conducted by US government to create supersoldiers. Test subjects were placed into big vats containing FEV - a man-made virus designed to mutate humans into stronger, more effective warriors. During a nuclear war the FEV virus has spread all over the continent and in conjunction with radiation it mutated many species of animals and plants that are now a part of post-nuclear wasteland.

Tabletop role-playing games[edit]

In Battletech the warrior caste of the Clans is largely composed of soldiers created by means of eugenics and genetic engineering, 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, spatial awareness, perceptions and cognitive capabilities, and MechWarriors, the operators of BattleMechs are somewhat a combination of the two.
In Warhammer 40,000, Space Marines are a monastic order of elite physically enlarged soldiers, modified through genetic modification, surgical treatments and hypnotic indoctrination performed on carefully selected adolescents due to the requirement for the modification processes to take place during puberty. A large part of their effectiveness comes from combat experience gained during their extended lifespans of several centuries. Several variations exist, such as traitor Chaos Space Marines and the Grey Knights. Storm Troopers also appear as lesser supersoldiers, with cybernetic augmentation and intense training from a young age.
In Rifts, there exist many forms of supersoldier mercenaries such as the Borg, or full-conversion combat cyborgs; the Juicer, a chemically-enhanced soldier 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.
In Underground, the genetically-enhanced supersoldier has become predominant form of warfare in the 21st century, created by "conflict firms" using recovered alien technology and virtual reality.
In Exalted the Dragon-Blooded were originally created as super-soldiers. They are the weakest type of Exalted. However, unlike the Celestial Exalted, the Terrestrial Exaltation is hereditary.

Webcomics[edit]

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.^[2]

References[edit]

This article "List of Supersoldiers in fiction" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

[1] The Esper Commandos

[2] Inhuman comic

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