DEO

The Department of Extranormal Affairs is an agency of the Executive Branch of the United States government. Formed in 1955, the mandate given to the DEO was to monitor, report, and if necessary, control metahuman activities within the United States. Due to the highly classified nature of the DEO's scope of operations, there is a great deal of murkiness about their activities, costs, and results.

The DEO inherited the Super-Soldier program from the Strategic Scientific Reserve following the end of World War II. Over the following decades, other sub-directorates were established to expand the DEO's knowledge and containment of metahuman related issues.

Multiple directorates currently exist under the larger umbrella of the DEO. Project: CADMUS began in 1960. It was aimed at research into genetic manipulation and had early breakthroughs into the nature and location of the metagene. Later iterations of CADMUS would explore cloning and genetic manipulation of living bioweapons-- creatures bred for specific military or industrial applications. After the arrival of Kara Zor-El, CADMUS began exploring alien genome sequencing in an attempt to develop a clone or hybrid of Kryptonian descent.

The Weapon Plus program was developed as an offshoot of the Super-Soldier Program. The first Weapon Plus program began in 1948, and a new directive was issued each decade. It was derived largely from the work of Abraham Erskine and Nathaniel Essex, first in Germany, then in America. The Weapon Plus program targeted individuals who had no known or active metagene sequences to prepare them for superior military activity. Notable successes included Alexander Fairchild and Slade Wilson. Active Weapon Plus assets were transferred to Team 7 and, later, the operational detachment code-named Stormwatch.

Weapon X was a joint DEO/Canadian operation located in Alberta, near Roanoke. The Canadians had their own metahuman research team: Department K. A mututally beneficial information sharing relationship was proposed and a facility established. However, ethicists and researchers objected to the proposed scope of activity and it was, on paper, shuttered.

Professor Thorton, chief researcher for Weapon Plus, had proposed a series of highly unethical experiments to turn existing metahumans into more specialized weapons. With the help of Essex, Thorton managed to move their operation to the Roanoke facility. There, Essex and Thorton captured several metahumans (particularly several mutants) and forced them to endure sadistic and cruel tests and surgical procedures. 'Graduates' of Weapon X include Logan Howlett, Wade Wilson, and Laura Kinney.

The DEO maintains a borderline illegal and highly classified program called Task Force: X-ray. Colloquially, it is called Suicide Squad. Metahuman criminal offenders with violent tendencies are offered a contractual term serving the US government, in exchange for Presidential pardons.