Abraham Cornelius

Doctor Cornelius
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Marvel Comics Presents #73
Created by	Barry Windsor-Smith
In-story information
Alter ego	Abraham Cornelius
Team affiliations	Weapon X, Matsu'o Tsurayaba, The Hand, Fenris
Abilities	none baseline human

Doctor Cornelius was first mentioned in Barry Windsor-Smith's eight page preview prequel chapter to the original Weapon X Saga in Marvel Comics Presents #72 but only first appeared in Marvel Comics Presents #73.

Character biography

Dr. Cornelius, one of the senior scientists for Weapon X, employed by the mysterious Professor. Sometime after World War II, Wolverine was taken in by the project and Cornelius was assigned with the task of to perfecting and using a technique that would bond the indestructible element adamantium to human bone cells. This Adamantium bonding process was first created by Lord Dark Wind (Yuriko Oyama's father), but was only put into use after being perfect by Cornelius when he succeeded in bonding Logan's skeleton with adamantium, and was indoctrinated into the Weapon X assassin program.

Years later, Japanese crimelord Matsu'o Tsurayaba and his allies, including former Weapon X scientist Doctor Cornelius, resurrected the Russian super-soldier Omega Red. In order to stabilize his mutant power, Omega Red required the Carbonadium Synthesizer, a device stolen from him by Team X decades earlier. Omega Red captured Wolverine, who had the location of the C-Synthesizer buried in his memory, and several of Wolverine's teammates in the X-Men. Maverick was hired by former Team X liaison Major Arthur Barrington to prevent Omega Red from obtaining the device, and he tracked another former Team X member, Sabretooth, to Omega Red's location. With Maverick's help, the X-Men were able to defeat the villains, and he subsequently killed Cornelius in an act of revenge.

Ultimate Doctor Cornelius

Ultimate Doctor Cornelius
File:Ultcornelius.jpg Disfigured Cornelius from Ultimate X-Men #68. Art by Tom Raney.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics (Ultimate Marvel Imprint)
First appearance	Ultimate X-Men #8
Created by	Mark Millar Adam Kubert based on Dr. Abraham Cornelius by Barry Windsor-Smith
In-story information
Alter ego	Abraham Cornelius
Team affiliations	Weapon X, Sabretooth, John Wraith, Deathstrike
Abilities	none baseline human

In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Doctor Cornelius plays a much larger role than his mainstream counter part. He first appeared in the Ultimate X-Men story arc Return to Weapon-X.

In this version, Doctor Cornelius along with his benefactor, Colonel John Wraith headed up the Weapon X Program. Unlike his benefactor though, he does not seem to harbor any anti-mutant sentiments, but he merely wishes to conduct experiments on mutants to indulge his own curiosities. The Weapon X Program was sanctioned by S.H.I.E.L.D. during the Gulf War and resulted with the creation of Wolverine, which has been their greatest achievment ever. After Wolverine escaped, Weapon X captured serveral other mutants to be his replacements and eventually captured the X-Men as well. In their captivity, Cornelius augmented the Beast's natural abilities along with giving him a keen sense of smell. This procedured caused Beast to trasnform even more by growing blue fur all over his body and growing claws on his hands and feet. After Wraith was killed by Nick Fury and Weapon X was shut down by S.H.I.E.L.D., Cornelius' whereabouts were unknown. It is not confirmed if he had anything to do with the rogue Weapon X agents led by Tara who hunted Wolverine down all over Manhattan and participated with the coup against the President of the United States.

Later on, he recruited the quadriplegic Yuriko Oyama and offered her a chance of revenged against Ororo Munroe, the person who was responsible for her present condition. He spliced some of Wolverine's DNA with hers which gave her a healing factor that was twice as fast as Wolverine's and also bonded her with adamantium. Cornelius' true objective however was to capture Wolverine since he was accompanied by Storm at that time and he used that fact to manipulate Deathstrike. His attempts however ended in failure with Deathstrike being captured an imprisoned in the Triskelion and his chopper being blown up. He was presumed dead.

It has recently been revealed that he survived the helicopter crash and has been horribly disfigured. He is responsible for Sabretooth's lastest attack on Wolverine in an effort to gain tissue samples from him. He has stated that if he couldn't get Wolverine to do what they want, then they'll make their own Wolverine. This plot remains unresolved.