OGUN: Page 3 of 3

BIOGRAPHY - Page 3

Ogun’s spirit followed Logan to Paradise and found Major Sharp as a new host when Logan died. Ogun was too weak to fully control Sharp outright. Instead, he became a voice in Sharp’s head, sharing advice and combat skills with the confused soldier. Cornelius’ upgrade package included innate tactical awareness, and Sharp’s talent with firearms was now augmented by Ogun’s expertise with bladed weaponry. Sharp’s memory was damaged as a result of Cornelius’ experiments, and he awoke in the burning lab with little clue what was going on. He found other test subjects being killed or evacuated and instinctively helped them against the Paradise guards. Sharp impulsively acquired one of the guards’ gas masks – a tactical decision at first, but also influenced by Ogun’s innate connection to his demon mask. Sharp commandeered a helicopter and fled from Paradise with a motley crew of superhuman lab rats including Neuro, Skel, Junk and Endo.

The escapees from Paradise were allies of circumstance and found it hard to trust one another. Ogun constantly whispered in Sharp’s head to abandon the dead weight, but Sharp naturally gravitated back into the role of commanding a unit. Neuro hacked into some of Cornelius’ Weapon X Files from Paradise’s computers and, for a time, Sharp thought the voice in his head might belong to Wolverine. An encounter with Sabretooth proved that to be false. Once Endo abandoned the group to seek out her fiancée, the unit fractured and Major Sharp went off on his own to commune with his inner voice. After threatening suicide, he finally convinced Ogun to reveal his true nature. Ogun admitted he was not strong enough to control Sharp or flee from his body… they were tied inextricably to one another. However, once Sharp learned the other prisoners had been recaptured, he acknowledged that he needed Ogun’s help to rescue them. A bargain was struck.

Sharp and Ogun became Shogun, a symbiotic partnership of both minds and skill sets operating as one. He penetrated the Arcadia labs and broke his associates out of custody. Neuro had betrayed them, selling out their locations after learning from the downloaded files that each test subject had an “expiration date” that acted like a genetic time bomb and would kill them in short order. He thought Arcadia would save them if they returned to the corporation’s service, but he overestimated their value. The Paradise subjects believed they were super-soldiers who would be programmed to serve Arcadia. In fact, they were only “proof-of-concept,” disposable people used to test the genetic upgrades which would be installed in Arcadia’s true believers. Learning this, Neuro switched sides again to join Shogun and the others in searching for another way to save their lives. [Death of Wolverine: The Weapon X Program #1-5]

Neuro’s research files did not reveal the means of saving them, but they did uncover something else useful. Cornelius’ attempts at recreating the healing factor led him to capture, study and release several other subjects before Logan, including Sabretooth, X-23, Daken, Mystique and Lady Deathstrike. Considered too dangerous to keep, these subjects instead had their memories erased and were implanted with behavioral controls: four words each which, when spoken by anyone, activated conditioned responses in Creed in the others such as Sleep, making them subject to Commands, a word which would Kill regardless of healing factors, and finally a word to Erase all the behavioral conditioning. Shogun’s team captured these “Wolverines” and used the Words as collateral. In exchange for helping the Paradise crew prevent their early deaths, Shogun promised to use the Erase words to eliminate their conditioning when the mission was complete. [Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #1-7]

Shogun and Neuro believed the secret to curing them lay in Cornelius’ notes about Wolverine and his healing factor. Together, the “Wolverines” and the Paradise subjects returned to Paradise in order to collect Logan’s body, trapped in the wreckage under a layer of Adamantium. Unfortunately, Mr. Sinister was also interested in the genetic secrets of Logan’s body, and he sent the Wrecking Crew to recover it. Sinister entered Paradise himself and ripped out one of Daken’s eyes and an arm before teleporting away with Wolverine. Daken had recently lost his own healing factor, putting him in dire straits. Shogun found a sample of the Regen serum while the group was evacuating and, against Ogun’s advice, used it to stabilize his teammate. [Wolverines #1-2]

Neuro’s Paradise files had reference to a genetically-engineered thief named Fantomelle, and so they recruited her to help them infiltrate Fortress Sinister to recover Wolverine. Ogun continued to provide counsel and tactical advice to Sharp internally but, since that advice largely centered on betraying his allies and using them as living shields, Shogun tended to ignore it. Fortress Sinister proved chaotic as the group was separated and forced to contend with the X-Men trying to recover their friend’s remains. Neuro recognized Sinister’s superior genetics knowledge and decided to betray the Wolverines. He wanted to give Sinister the Control words in exchange for the geneticist saving their lives. Sharp’s sense of honor would not let him condone these actions and he remained loyal to his word to the others. Neuro, Skel and Endo stayed with Sinister while Shogun and Junk stayed with the Wolverines and fled the confrontation empty-handed. [Wolverines #3-6]

Shogun’s alliance appeared to be over before it began, but Mystique took charge of the group, claiming she had her own uses for them. She even claimed that, if everyone followed her directives, they would get what they desired. She recruited Shogun for a theft at the National Museum of Taipei, using him as a distraction while she acquired what she needed. During their extraction to her ship the Changeling, however, Mystique put him in a position where he would die unless he spoke her Erase word. Freed from Cornelius’ control implants, Mystique also manipulated Sharp in the direction of Lady Deathstrike, a one-time student and lover of Ogun. Shogun revealed his “passenger” to Yuriko by using a countermove that only Ogun knew, creating a unique dynamic between the three of them. [Wolverines #7]

Fang of the Imperial Guard came to Earth looking for Logan’s murderer, and tested the Wolverines one-by-one as he spirited them away on adventure quests. This led to some down time on the Changeling for the others while Mystique worked on a plan against him. Shogun and Deathstrike grew closer and began a sexual relationship while Sharp explained to Yuriko how Ogun bonded to him in a weakened state, leaving him more in control as the host than Ogun usually allowed. Yuriko discovered she could speak to Ogun without Sharp knowing it whenever he was exhausted. Ogun revealed he could take full control over Sharp if their body was brought to the brink of death, where Sharp’s spirit would be weakest. As Yuriko considered her options, Fang got to Shogun’s turn and whisked him away to an alien world, Shogun confessed his final fight with Logan, and bore some burden for the man’s death. Fang disagreed, and used his powers to suppress Ogun’s presence in Sharp’s mind before returning him to Earth. Yuriko and Sharp were on uncertain terms after that. [Wolverines #8-12]

Mystique continued to manipulate the team, putting them in a position to capture two prisoners, Portal and Siphon, without explaining what she needed them for. Shogun wasn’t against Mystique’s “leadership,” but he didn’t enjoy being manipulated. Mystique swore her plan would solve all their problems, including Shogun’s genetic death sequence, but refused to divulge the answers he wanted. And, thanks to her machinations setting him and Deathstrike against each other (among other moves), the Wolverines didn’t trust each other enough to act together against her. [Wolverines #14-15]

Shogun and Junk realized their time was up as they started experiences nosebleeds and progressive tissue scarring. After they saw a news report of Neuro, Skel and Endo fighting against Arcadia’s superhumans, they felt they owed it to their old comrades to mount a rescue mission. Many of the Wolverines agreed to join, mostly just to be contrary to Mystique telling them no. However, it turned out to be a trap set by Sinister out of revenge for the damage they did to his fortress. Sinister now knew the Control words, and used them to turn X-23, Sabretooth, Deathstrike and Daken against Shogun and Junk. Shogun had to speak the Erase words to each of them to save his own life, but Sabretooth killed Junk before being freed from Sinister’s control. An irritated and vengeful Mystique moved through the scene and gunned down Endo, Neuro and Skel as well. [Wolverines #16-18]

Shogun took a savage beating during all this, leaving him on the brink of death as his injuries mixed with the genetic deterioration. Even as Yuriko admitted she didn’t want him to die, Ogun’s spirit arose anew. Ogun now believed he could escape Sharp upon his death, seeking a new body. Out of affection for Yuriko, he chose to spend his last minutes in battle with Mr. Sinister, giving the others time to escape. Sinister was overconfident at first, but the Father of Blades proved strong enough to give him pause. Instead, Sinister reasoned he could dispose of Ogun by making Sharp stronger, and injected Shogun with the genetic cure he administered to Neuro and the others. As Siphon emerged from the Changeling and devoured Mr. Sinister’s healing energies, Sharp’s mind returned to him and he ended the fight by cutting off Sinister’s head. [Wolverines #19]

What happened next is questionable. Sinister’s serum saved Sharp’s life and locked away Ogun’s spirit again. However, Mystique’s long-awaited plan involved using Siphon to steal the healing energies from the Wolverines and channel that power into Portal at the Nexus of All Realities, creating a gateway strong enough to bring Destiny back to life for her. Shogun and the Wolverines tried to escape and stop Mystique, but she proved vicious enough to beat them all and leave them for dead. [Wolverines #20]

These events took place on the eve of the final Incursion crisis, and much from those days did not carry over into the Eighth Cosmos when the multiverse rebooted. The Wolverines have all reappeared, alive and with their healing factors. Nothing has yet been seen of Shogun or Ogun, though, leaving their fate(s) a mystery.