Martin Sutter

Creation

Martin Sutter was created by writers Chris Yost and Craig Kyle, along with artist Billy Tan. He first appeared in 2005’s X-23: Innocence Lost #1.

Major Story Arcs

Innocence Lost

Dr. Martin Sutter was a part of the original Weapon X program and was the head of the Facility which sought to recreate Weapon X’s experiments. He was friends with Dale Rice, father of Zander Rice, who was killed by Wolverine during his escape from Weapon X. He is often shown as cold and emotionless except when seen with Zander who he views as a son. He hired Dr. Sarah Kinney to clone Wolverine after numerous specimens did not survive the Weapon X procedure. She was eventually successful with the creation of X-23.

He eventually married Rachel Sutter, his former secretary, although it was later revealed that she was having an affair with Zander which led to her having a child, Henry. Rachel told Martin that it was his (at the time he was unaware of the affair) at the behest of Zander.

Things started to get complicated with the project: Zander left X-23 behind on a mission claiming she didn’t make rendezvous – only for her to turn up alive afterwards, Dr. Kinney took X-23 out to find her missing niece, and they were starting phase two (creating clones X-24 to X-50). Using the pretense of being worried about the effects of the stress on Sutter’s health, Zander convinced him to sign the project over to him. After Sutter signed it and went home, Zander gave X-23 the orders to kill him, his wife, his son, and to make it look like a fire. While Zander was giving his orders to X-23, inside the house Rachel was confessing her affair to Martin. He became very angry, but before he could do anything, X-23 crashed through the window and killed him, then Rachel. She wound up sparing his son though.

His death at the order of Zander and phase two is what prompted Dr. Kinney to try to rescue X-23 and destroy the Facility.