John Zullo

## Background

### 1972 - 1997: John Zullo

Johnathon "John" Zullo grew up in a military family in the small town of Manchester, Vermont. Every man in his family had served in some capacity, with most of them being army men. His parents had even met through the army as his mother was an army surgeon. With a lack of direction & his family constantly pressuring him, John enrolled at the West Point Military Academy after high school.

After graduating from West Point, John was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the army & got married to his high school sweetheart Savannah. He quickly became the paragon of the ideal grunt soldier. He served two back to back tours somewhere in Asia, though his actions there are classified. Upon his promotion to First Lieutenant two years later, he was approached to lead a covert black ops military group as they had become impressed with his ability to lead soldiers into combat. Seeing it as another way to serve his country, he agreed & became the leader of Wetworks.

### 1997 - 1999: Claymore

Taking the codename Claymore, he excelled as the leader of the Wetworks, only wishing to serve his team & leading them on the right path. Though he came to see many of the members as extended family, he began to feel something more for the team's sniper & recon expert, Maritza Blackbird (aka Deadeye). The two never acted upon their feelings, as both were fully aware of the repercussions not only on their team, but John's life at home with Savannah.

During the team's last mission, they were ordered to infiltrate a terrorist base in the Raanes Peninsula of Eastern Europe. Miles Craven, the leader of the International Operations & overseer of the Wetworks, told them the goal was to extract a biological agent in the terrorists' possession, claiming it was dire to the safety of the country. Claymore had Pilgrim scout the place beforehand & upon her return, Claymore made the plan of attack.

After infiltrating the compound & taking out every enemy they saw, they realized the base had already been raided. Confused, the team began investigating the area further until they found large transparent tubes containing golden fluid. Knowing something was amiss, Claymore was about give the order for them to retreat when the explosive the team was carrying were activated remotely. With a twenty second countdown, they knew there was no way they could escape & knew they had been double crossed. The team & the tubes were caught in the blast, leading to the gold fluid to engulf some of the team. Claymore was one of the "lucky" ones, having been bonded with the fluid, allowing him to not suffer any damage from the explosion.

### 1999 - 2013: John Zullo

While the remaining members went AWOL together, Claymore was left behind as the members had believed he died in the explosion. However, he ended up in a coma & was taken in by International Operations, who then faked his death. He remained in their care for nearly fifteen years before the Department of Extranormal Operations raided the I.O. compounds & rehabilitated Zullo.

Back in society, Zullo became reacquainted with his old comrade & classmate, General Clayton Abernathy. Seeing the man needed some new purpose in life, Clayton personally vouched for Zullo to join the Joes, an elite covert special mission unit. Going back to his former days, Zullo became Claymore again.

## Romantic Relationships

* Savannah Zullo: Girlfriend (1989 - 1994); Wife (1994 - 1999)
* Maritza Blackbird: Lover (2013)

## Powers & Abilities

* **Golden Symbiote:** Claymore is bonded to a symbiote which normally hides inside him but can flow out to coat his skin with a golden armor.
	+ ***Invulnerability*:** The golden symbiote allows him to be invulnerable as long as he is coated in the symbiote, resulting in him being bulletproof, immune to human strength, surviving falls from several stories & be unscathed from numerous energy attacks. Only something of the same strength or more can pierce it.
	+ ***Invisibility*:** He can turn himself invisible when fully coated.
	+ ***Longevity*:** As a result of the symbiote, he has retained a youthful image & has had retained the appearance of a man in his late 30s.
	+ ***Enhanced Strength*:** His strength becomes intensified when his body is coated in the golden symbiote.
	+ ***Telepathic Link***: He has a telepathic link with the other symbiote wearers, the rest of Wetworks.
* **Demolitions**: Claymore is highly skilled in demolitions, being the team expert for the Wetworks & helping Ripcord on the Joes.
* **Hand to Hand Combat:** Claymore has mastered many forms of martial arts.
* **Multilingualism:** He is fluent in English, Japanese, Chinese & Rhelasian.
* **Weaponry**: Fascinated with weapons, he has become an expert on virtually every weapon ever used by mankind. He is an expert in NATO long distance sniper rifles & all NATO & Warsaw Pact small arms.

### Ratings

* **Intelligence:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Strength:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Speed:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Occult:** 1 - Nonexistent
* **Weapons:** 6 - Expert / Advanced
* **Range:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Strategy:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Combat:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **TOTAL:** 120 - Threat Level 3 / General Threat

## Trivia

* When he woke from his coma, he was informed his wife had remarried after he was declared legally deceased. He decided to spare her any more pain & has not contacted her since.
* At West Point, he became good friends with Rick Flag & Clayton Abernathy.
* John's departure to Wetworks led to a more intense but friendly rivalry between Flag & Abernathy.
* He currently has the rank of Major (MAJ), earning the officer grade of OF-3.

## Notes

* The character is a composite of Wildstorm's Claymore/Clayton H. Maure & G.I. Joe's Claymore/John Zullo.
* His wife's name, Savannah, is a nod to Savannah from the *Dear John* book/movie. However, instead of sending him a Dear John letter, she believed him to killed in action.