Cerebra's Files

Sublime, John


Affiliation: U-Men / 3rd Species, Weapon Plus Program
Aliases: Michael Grand
Powers & History: None (human), perhaps. However, he appears to have regenerative capabilities, and two possible futures have shown that "Sublime" is in fact a sentient virus that possesses hosts and operates through them. The first Sublime known at this point was the "Professor's" research assistant in the Weapon Plus Program around the time that they were preparing to launch their tenth version, Weapon X, who would later be known as Wolverine. The Professor didn't like Sublime much, and they later parted ways, as Sublime became the new head of Weapon Plus at "The World," and closed down the Weapon X project, forcing it to operate independently and leading to the so-called "Weapon X Program" and its later incarnation under Director Colcord. Under Sublime's leadership, Weapons XI-XV were then developed, among them Fantomex, E.V.A. and the Weapon XII who attacked the Chunnel train and killed Darkstar.

Years after taking over Weapon Plus, Sublime began to recruit powered agents in a different way. Adopting the guise of a successful New Age businessman, Sublime wrote a book called "The Third Species" that outlined a philosophy that demanded that humans should be able to advance themselves in the ways that genetics allowed mutants to improve. However, Sublime didn't stop there and used his pharmaceuticals company as a front for kidnapping mutants and harvesting the body parts that produced their powers, which were then grafted onto human recipients that they called U-Men. Sublime tried to give himself wings, but his body rejected the grafts time and again.

The X-Men were alerted to Sublime's activities by Domino following Risque's murder at the hands of some U-Men. They uncovered his plans and rescued the mutant named Xorn, but were unable to shut down Sublime's full operation at the time. Meanwhile, some humans were killing mutants for their body parts, hoping to become members of the Third Species. At the same time, Sublime was secretly funding the Winterbrand Corporation's Augmen project, which had succeeded in doing mutant power grafts on children and were working their way up to adults. This operation was soon shut down by Iceman, who was lured there to be used as a superconductor.

Soon, however, Sublime made his most ambitious moves, capturing the girl known as Angel, who was picked up by Cerebra and rescued by Wolverine. He also sent his U-Men to attack the Xavier Institute, which he planned to use as an organ farm. At the same time, he was confronted by Cyclops and Emma Frost, who wanted him to admit his crimes. Sublime turned a disembodied telepathic brain named "Martha" on them and had them taken down for organ harvesting. Emma managed to overcome the brain before surgery, and returned to Sublime's office and beat him severely. She was holding Sublime out the window when Cyclops came in with Martha, who apparently made Sublime let go of Emma's hand, whereupon he fell to his death on the street below.

However, Sublime survived somehow, and began to cross swords with the Weapon X Program. Weapon X sent its newest recruit, Chamber to kill Sublime, which he did. Sublime's grave, though, was found to be empty afterwards. Later, Sublime re-appeared under the guise of Michael Grand, head of Megacorp to hire Sabretooth to find and kill Sinister. Sabretooth succeeded, but at the last minute he was paid off and told to leave, as Sublime revealed his true self and struck a deal with Sinister himself! Allying his U-Men with Sinister's Children, Sublime appears to have been battling both Director Colcord's and Director Jackson's factions of the Weapon X Program when M-Day hit. What happened to him and to his forces is unknown...
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