Soviet Super-Soldiers (Marvel)

The Soviet Super-Soldiers are a government sponsored team of extraordinary individuals with special abilities. They fight for the people of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. They were created to rival the American team the Avengers.

The Soviet Super-Soldiers were initially established by the government of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a counterpart to American teams such as the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. The program was the inspiration of Professor Piotr Phobos, a latent mutant with megalomaniacal tendencies who convinced the government establish a program designed to identify and train superhuman beings in a program called the School for Super-Soldiers.

The program’s first trainee was Mikhail Ursus, an orphan with the power to transform into a grizzly bear. The next two students were Nicolai Krylenko and Laynia Petrovna, children of the nuclear scientist Sergei Krylov. Other students were identified by the KGB and sent to the School, though some remain unidentified and many died during training. When the Red Guardian revealed the motivations behind Phobos’s operation, he gave talismans to his two prize pupils, Krylenko and Petrovna, and fled into a radioactive region of Khystym known as the Forbidden Zone.

First Appearance

Incredible Hulk #258
(April, 1981)