Valerie Cooper

Valerie Cooper's History

Dr. Valerie Cooper, a Special Assistant to the United States President's National Security Advisor, is perhaps the most important figure in the United States government's ongoing efforts to cope with the growing number of superhuman beings in the nation. Dr. Cooper's primary concern is the danger that she believes superhuman mutants pose to the United States. Cooper recognizes that superhuman mutants are emerging throughout the world and that both governments and private interests have begun to exploit their abilities. She believes that superhuman mutants in the employ of unfriendly powers could wreak havoc with the national security of the United States. Hence, she wants the United States government to be able to protect itself against superhuman mutants and to strike back against them if necessary. She sees the United States as engaged in the equivalent of an 'arm race' with other nations to find and develop an effective corps of superhuman mutants of its own before they do. Furthermore, Dr. Cooper disapproves of the activities of superhuman crimefighters who do not have the approval of the United States government. Hence, Dr. Cooper is a supporter of the Mutant Power Registration Act, (passed in the later 1980's) which requires mutants possessing superhuman powers to register them with the federal government. Thus, the government will be able to keep track of those mutants who register. The government later repealed the Act after there was many public outcries against it. Mystique, leader of the second Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, approached Cooper with the proposal of offering the Brotherhood's services as government operatives. Cooper accepted Mystique's offer, and the Brotherhood then operated under government auspices as Freedom Force, which Cooper supervised. She was involved in the Commission's demand of ownership over the identity and property of 'Captain America.' She supervised the recruitment and training of the fifth Captain America (now known as US Agent) and his partner Battlestar. Ultimately, the former Captain America revealed this to be a plot by his archenemy, the Red Skull, and he was reinstated as Captain America. Dr. Cooper who, acting on behalf of the government, commissioned the inventor, Forge, to devise means to detecting superhuman powers. When the majority of Freedom Force was caught or compromised after a mission to Kuwait during the Gulf War, the Freedom Force project was abandoned. About the same time, the villainous Shadow King mentally controlled Cooper. For reasons unclear, the Shadow King ordered Cooper to shoot Mystique. Through force of will, however, Cooper managed to turn the gun on herself at the last minute. Mystique contacted espionage agent Nick Fury who helped cover up to truth, and for a while Mystique impersonated Cooper while the world believed her dead. During the impersonation, Mystique had herself hypnotized to believe herself to be Cooper so that the Shadow King would believe he had succeeded. Cooper resurfaced and Mystique resumed her identity when the hero teams X-Men and X-Factor and assorted allies defeated the Shadow King. Cooper convinced several of the heroes who defeated the Shadow King to be a part of a new government-sponsored team in the spirit of Freedom Force: the new X-Factor. Cooper acted as government liaison to the very publicly operating team, but eventually she was forced to implement policy that she never fully agreed with, such as allowing the villains Mystique and Sabretooth to join. Later, she fell under the mental influence of one of the Acolytes of Magneto, and X-Factor was taken from her control and placed under the leadership of their member Forge. Soon, X-Factor had grown so uncomfortable with the government's heavy-handed involvement that they violently cut their ties to them, choosing to operate 'underground.' Cooper returned to the Commission of Superhuman Activities, but has often used her position to help the X-Men surreptitiously, such as assisting the X-Men after they broke into the Pentagon searching for the Genoshan scientist Doctor Peter Corbeau or giving them tips to the activities of mutant villains. Cooper also helped the Thunderbolts and the V-Battalion defeat Peter Henry Gyrich when he was being controlled by nano-technology.