Take the case of Wolverine, part of Marvel Comics’ “X-Men”. He was a young, frail boy who acquired the ability to mutate into one with lupine features, most notably the retractable claws that appear at the back of his hands. With transhuman abilities like that of ‘regenerating damaged or destroyed areas of his cellular structure at a rate far greater than that of an ordinary human’, Wolverine remains an amazingly healthy specimen even though his actual age is over a 100 years. He was initiated into the ‘Weapon X’ programme run by the CIA and his abilities were enhanced when his skeletal structure and his claws were artificially bonded to the nearly indestructible metal, Adamantium.
If that sounds a lot like science fiction and comic world gibberish, check this from the US Department of Defense – the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has spent billions of dollars on a programme titled “Metabolically Dominant Soldier”. The programme aims at developing transhuman abilities in humans by melding man and machine, giving muscles superhuman strength or the ability to live off your body fat, if denied food. Superior regeneration
abilities and a better immune system will also contribute to make this specimen of the soldier truly dominant. And suspiciously similar to Wolverine, sans the claws. The fascination with the super soldier is not new; mythology is littered with the ultimate warrior’s tales from Achilles to Arjuna. And today’s convergence of technology – in the fields of nanotechnology, biology, chemistry and of course, computing – has resulted in the best chances armies have had in decades to go full speed ahead. Says Major Gen. Thapliyal, “I don't think we can ever come to a situation where people can be made immortal, but there definitely exists training of soldiers to better their reflexes, their skills, their destructive and safeguarding capabilities, which one might say is close to being a super soldier. These soldiers are trained to use high-end gadgets and perform super quick operations with high destruction chances.”
If that sounds a lot like science fiction and comic world gibberish, check this from the US Department of Defense – the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has spent billions of dollars on a programme titled “Metabolically Dominant Soldier”. The programme aims at developing transhuman abilities in humans by melding man and machine, giving muscles superhuman strength or the ability to live off your body fat, if denied food. Superior regeneration
abilities and a better immune system will also contribute to make this specimen of the soldier truly dominant. And suspiciously similar to Wolverine, sans the claws. The fascination with the super soldier is not new; mythology is littered with the ultimate warrior’s tales from Achilles to Arjuna. And today’s convergence of technology – in the fields of nanotechnology, biology, chemistry and of course, computing – has resulted in the best chances armies have had in decades to go full speed ahead. Says Major Gen. Thapliyal, “I don't think we can ever come to a situation where people can be made immortal, but there definitely exists training of soldiers to better their reflexes, their skills, their destructive and safeguarding capabilities, which one might say is close to being a super soldier. These soldiers are trained to use high-end gadgets and perform super quick operations with high destruction chances.” 
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