Annex

Origin

Alex Ellis was a U.S. Army soldier who had fought in the Desert Storm war in Iraq. During his time in Iraq, he was shot in his leg during battle when he was rescuing a teammate. He managed to get home safely, but his teammate died later. Due to complications, Alex lost his leg . Back in America, he heard about the Annex unit, testing to replace lost limps with new high tech robotics. Dr. Hillman Barto created the Annex unit and made a deal with the U.S. Army to see how much potential it had as a weapon. Alex volunteered to become the first person with a robotic limb, without knowing it could also be used as a weapon. Alex eventually donned the Annex exoskeleton suit and started working in the suit. However, the Annex unit uploaded ADARCO programs of weapons, making the Annex unit ADARCO’s stolen property. These programs also made it so that Alex was temporary influenced by the suit. This caused him to wreak havoc upon New York City until Spiderman intervened. It was then that Spiderman managed to let Alex return as the operator of the suit and the two teamed up to defeat the powers at ADARCO. In the end, new hero had been born; Annex.

Creation

Annex was created by Jack Harris and Tom Lyle in 1993 and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual issue 27 (1993).

Major Story Arcs

Becoming a Hero

Alex Ellis decided to use the Annex unit to protect innocent people and bring criminals to justice. ADARCO sent Brace (an assassin and errand boy of ADARCO who used to be an employee of ADARCO but became injured, so ADARCO fixed him up with robotics but they had to keep adding more and more robotics until he was only 20% human) to retrieve the Annex unit, which he would use to become more human. Brace suceeded in retrieving the Annex unit, so Dr. Barto and Alex decided to use Dr. Barto’s latest work, an implant that would give Alex the same abilities as the Annex unit plus a lot more power. Now Brace wearing the Annex unit and Alex with the Annex implant have to battle it out.

The Initiative

Annex was drafted into the Initiative to train. Although a good soldier, he mainly stayed away from his other teammates, not caring much about social interaction. Alex fought the Skrulls during the Secret Invasion, and after his training period he was assigned to the New Mexico Initiative Team; The Mavericks where he stayed for the duration of the Initiative until the corporate Initiative was cancelled after Norman Osborn was taken down during the Siege of Asgard. Whether the Mavericks are still a team and if Annex is still part of it is unclear as of yet.

Powers

The Annex implant gives Alex the powers of flight, super strength, adaption, plasma and electronic weapons and invulnerability.