Overview
The U.S. Government had been studying the mutant problem for years. Federal
Judge Chambers headed up the Federal Council on Mutant Activities, which
concluded with a 5-year study that was interpreted to show mutants were a
menace to mankind. Meanwhile, Senator Robert Kelly was also conducting a study
on the mutant situation. He, too, did not trust mutants, but his aspirations
toward the presidency prompted him to be much more vocal about the "mutant
menace."
Mystique, and her Second Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, sought to show people
that mutants could not be pushed around and attempted to assassinate Kelly.
They were stopped in the nick of time by the X-Men. Instead of defusing the
situation, Mystique had only made it worse. Despite the fact that he was
saved by mutants, Kelly clung to his radical mutant deterrent theories and
helped press the White House for more action.
In response to all these pressures, the President secretly instructed the
National Security Council to create a covert, illegal commission to deal
with the problems posed by the increasing numbers of mutants in America.
Codenamed Project: Wideawake, the commission is headed by the National
Security Advisor, Judge Petrie, and includes Frank Lowell of the C.I.A.,
Raven Darkholme of the Defense Department, Dr. Valerie Cooper,Special
Assistant to the National Security Advisor, plus many other currently
unknown members of the U.S. intelligence community. Henry Peter Gyrich, a
top agent for the National Security Council, was chosen to be head of
operations for Project: Wideawake.
Right from the start the commission had troubles, mainly because they did
not completely defined their course of action for handling the American
mutant population explosion. Because mutants were beginning to pop up all
over the world, some members of the administration decided that America
should start enlisting the aid of friendly mutants into the ranks of
government agencies (under careful control, of course) for America's
protection. Other members of the administration felt that the mutants
should be rounded up and used as a resource, but their methods denied
mutants even their most basic civil rights. Still other bureaucrats believe
that all mutants should be destroyed. Project: Wideawake has evolved more
towards the second way of thinking (mutants as a resource) under the
direction of Petrie and Gyrich.
Realizing that they would have a fight on their hands against mutant teams,
such as the X-Men, the government enlisted the aid of various private firms
and interests to develop methods and equipment which would strengthen their
position. Strangely enough, some of the most efficient items and fighters
were recruited from the mutants themselves, whether knowingly or unknowingly.
The mutant named Forge developed many items for the various defense
departments, including a gun that would strip a mutant's powers away from
them for an indeterminate period of time. This item was to be used against
Rogue, but when Storm intervened, stripped her powers away instead. While all
known models of the device have been destroyed, and Forge made sure the plans
were eliminated, he still continues to blindly work for the U.S. defense
agencies. Recently, Mystique and her Second Brotherhood of Evil Mutants
struck a deal with the U.S. Government to become a mutant deterrent force
answerable only to the Oval Office through a Special Presidential Liaison,
Dr. Valerie Cooper. Thus Freedom Force was born, a mutant team designed to
fight mutants. But it was the involvement of Sebastian Shaw, the Black King
of the Hellfire Club, and himself secretly mutant, that turned out to be the
greatest threat to American mutants. As head of Shaw Industries, a major U.S.
defense contractor, Shaw provided the Department of Defense with new versions
of the mutant-hunting Sentinels.
Characters and Activity
Complete Team Roster
| Image | Codename | Real Name |
