BIOGRAPHY - Page 2
Nuke was kept in deep seclusion at a hidden chamber in the U.S. embassy for Chile. He was upgraded with a control pump as a second heart, feeding him his red, white and blue chemicals by remote control. Eventually, Wolverine discovered the truth about his past, shaking off all his behavior programming and remembering the existence of Romulus for the first time in years. 
Logan’s quest for answers pushed Romulus to maneuver his pawns into releasing Nuke. Agent Simpson was sent back to the site of the Lai Chi Massacre to provoke Logan into confronting him. Nuke was a mad dog in the field, and he failed to do any serious harm to Wolverine. Instead, he lost several limbs and most of his face with his reckless fighting style and munitions. In fact, this was part of Romulus’ plan as he made sure Nuke was powered down through his control pump remotely, in order to engineer a secondary confrontation between Logan and Captain America. [Wolverine: Origins #1-5]
When Norman Osborn gained control of the Initiative, Nuke’s files crossed his desk and he decided to redeploy Nuke in the field. Although he was rebuilt after his injuries, Nuke still took time to re-scar his face due to his psychological issues. To side-step any unnecessary questions, 
Osborn gave Nuke a new identity as Scourge, with an all-concealing ballistic mask to hide his features. Scourge joined Osborn’s shadows ops kill squad the Thunderbolts, operating out of a retrofitted prison known as the Cube. The team leader was purportedly the Russian mercenary Yelena Belova, but it was actually Natasha Romanoff in disguise. Osborn knew this and was using the infiltrator for his own ends, but installed the blindly loyal Scourge as replacement field leader shortly before Black Widow showed her true colors. [Thunderbolts (1st series) #133-136]
Scourge’s military record initially seemed to be an asset to the Thunderbolts. Staffed with mercenaries and madmen, the kill squad had little loyalty to Osborn or to their mandate. Scourge could barely conceive of anything except following orders, and he tried to impose unit cohesion on the group. The Thunderbolts failed to yield to his leadership style, though, and Nuke’s mind began 
to fray under the stress. His rigid attachment to the necessity of the chain of command led Scourge to threaten the lives of his teammates repeatedly when they failed to show military discipline. This did little to impose order on his motley crew, which only furthered his difficultes. He started to have hallucinations of his past kills and fallen comrades as his mind began to unravel. [Thunderbolts (1st series) #138]
Scourge’s mental problems reached a critical point when the Thunderbolts were ordered to eliminate Jimmy Woo and the Agents of Atlas. The team set a trap at one of the Atlas Foundation’s factories, but Scourge was already showing signs of instability when he detonated the explosives at the factory before Ghost and Ant-Man were clear, nearly killing his teammates. The Thunderbolts laid an ambush for Atlas when they arrived, but poor intelligence on Atlas’ defensive assets meant they quickly lost the element of surprise. The siren Venus began to sing and incapacitate the Thunderbolts, but Nuke’s twisted associations of love and violence made him more aggressive instead of passive. He opened fire and Venus was injured enough for the Thunderbolts to shake off her spell and engage the enemy.
Nuke’s mind for military tactics recognized the Thunderbolts were outgunned against Atlas, but he could not reconcile that with the idea that his commanding officer would send them out as cannon fodder. Scourge lashed out and seemingly gutted the Uranian with a sword. Venus’ cry of agony incapacitated him and the Thunderbolts all over again, until the Uranian revealed it was only a telepathic illusion that was struck. Uranian and Jimmy Woo took the opportunity to telepathically infiltrate Scourge’s head. They implanted a post-hypnotic suggestion for Scourge to terminate 
Osborn with extreme prejudice next time he saw him. Atlas then escaped before the rest of the Thunderbolts could recover from Venus’s cry. Back at the Cube, the Thunderbolts received a holographic recording of Osborn detailing their next mission. Scourge’s programming triggered and he fired through the hologram, killing his teammate Headsman before the other Thunderbolts restrained him. [Thunderbolts (1st series) #139-140]
Osborn’s control of the Initiative was failing, and he threw everything into a highly public strike on Asgard, floating above Broxton, Oklahoma. While his Avengers and Initiative troops fought the Asgardians directly, Osborn’s holo-message ordered the Thunderbolts to infiltrate the weapons’ vault of Asgard and recover Gungnir, the Spear of Odin. As powerful as Mjolnir in its own way – 
and with no enchantment of worthiness to prevent thieves – Gungnir was an asset Osborn wanted for himself. The Thunderbolts were increasingly insubordinate considering they were down several members and their field leader was a nutcase who killed one of them but “got better.” Still, Scourge forced them back on mission, at gunpoint when necessary, and they made their way to Asgard.
The Thunderbolts located Gungnir, but they were also found out by a team of genuine Avengers instead of Osborn’s dark counterparts. In the melee that followed, Scourge squared off against another super-soldier, the former Captain America turned U.S. Agent. Walker was an honorable soldier and true patriot who was disgusted by Scourge, especially after his mask was knocked off, revealing his flag tattoo. U.S. Agent took this obscenity personally and beat down the unstable cyborg while denouncing him as the “American Nightmare.” However, Scourge got his hands on 
the Spear of Odin and used it to sever U.S. Agent’s arm and leg. By this point, Paladin, Ant-Man and Ghost were actively opposed to Osborn getting his hands on the spear. Paladin blasted Nuke in the face with his weapon, separating the super-soldier from Gungnir. The spear never reached Osborn, and Norman fell in battle with the real Avengers, leading the Initiative to be handed over to Steve Rogers. [Thunderbolts (1st series) #141-143]
Nuke was held in medical stasis on the super-villain detention facility, the Raft. Some doctors had ideas for radical therapy to coax him out of his coma, but John Walker was made the warden after Nuke crippled his career as U.S. Agent, and he told the doctors to focus their efforts on more deserving candidates. [Thunderbolts (1st series) #145]