Warning: contains spoilers for X-Force #43!Super-soldiers aren’t a new concept in Marvel lore, but Captain America. Gone are the days of Captain America's enhanced speed and strength putting him a cut above the rest; Mikhail Rasputin’s super-soldiers are lethal on a whole new scale. Krakoa has fallen, but there are plenty of mutants left alive to suffer under the disturbing powerset of Marvel's new mutant-killing super-soldiers.

In X-Force #43 - by Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill, Guru-eFX, and Joe Caramagna - Mikhail Rasputin, Colossus’ brother, makes his return while surrounded by a thousand of his henchmen. Speaking through the Chronicler, he lists the myriad abilities of the "Super-Soldiers" he purchased from the mad geneticist known as the Man with the Peacock Tattoo. This isn’t the first appearance of his soldiers, but the extent of their abilities is finally revealed just as Mikhail’s plotting comes to light for X-Force. They’re leagues beyond Captain America’s enhancements, which proves how hard the fight ahead will be. Mikhail boasts:

In addition to their firearms, they carry a biotech arsenal that includes nesting dolls, enhanced musculature, reinforced bones, hyperactive adrenal glands, detachable and remote-control appendages and a self-destruct mechanism that reduces them to gelatinous matter.

Mikhail's Super-Soldiers Are Genetic Horrors

In his letter penned by the Chronicler, Rasputin lays out just what his army is capable of. Each soldier is packed with several layers of 'nesting dolls' - smaller back-up bodies which sprout on death, and get so small that they can infiltrate the bodies of their targets (as they did in X-Force #24, costing Beast his eye.) They can also fire their hands to use as grappling hooks or whips, and have special bones in their arms which can be extended to use as Wolverine-style claws. Even killing one of these soldiers is just the start, as they're as likely to unleash a smaller version who jumps right back into battle as they are to explode, taking out anyone around them. Captain America was branded a 'Super-Soldier' for reaching peak human potential, but Mikhail's soldiers go way beyond that, and he has one thousand of them under his command. They're also surprisingly gross, as their detachable limbs and skinless nesting dolls create a gory spectacle in any fight.

X-Force Face a True Super-Soldier Army

In comparison, Captain America is a prime physical specimen with superhuman levels of agility, durability, strength, speed, and reflexes. He’s an expert hand-to-hand combatant, a tactical genius, and an inspiring leader. However, plenty of other heroes (and villains) possess similar physical abilities, including other genetically modified humans like Black Widow and Mockingbird. In contrast, Mikhail's Super-Soldiers possess a unique range of abilities that make them as capable in a direct assault as they are at infiltration - they can even control their adrenaline to operate as peak energy and efficiency. Mikhail planned to invade Krakoa with his army, but the recent attack by Orchis has changed his plans, as X-Force #43 sees Colossus' team follow their corrupted leader through a teleportation gate and directly into Mikhail's hands.

Captain America Is Yesterday's Super-Soldier

As seen in X-Force #11, Rasputin’s soldiers can’t be killed in any ordinary way. Just one of the nesting dolls running loose managed to ambush and kill Kid Omega, compromise Beast, and steal vital data. Colossus is slated to confront his brother in the X-Force #46, but it's hard to see how he and his team can win. Captain America may have been the first true Super-Soldier, but X-Force's new enemies show that compared to the newest models, Steve Rogers is outdated technology.

X-Force #43 is available now from Marvel Comics!