James Marcus (Resident Evil)

James Marcus is a male video game villain that features in Resident Evil.

Biography

Long before the events of the first Resident Evil, Marcus befriended Ozwell E. Spencer during his college years. Decades later, Marcus would go on to discover the Progenitor Virus in 1967 with Spencer and Edward Ashford. Despite Ashford's ideas to use the new found virus to benefit the medical community, The Wesker Report claims that Spencer focused on using the find to create a powerful biological weapon. To mask their motives, the group formed the Umbrella Corporation, camouflaging their sinister intentions with the benevolent image of a pharmaceutical company.

In 1968, Marcus was appointed as the general manager of Umbrella's training facility, as well as the company's creative output, leaving the financial duties to Spencer. During the late 1970s, Marcus managed to create the T-Virus by combining leech DNA with Progenitor, leading to the development of the a lethal bioweapon known as Tyrant. This remarkable find gave Marcus much attention from his fellow researchers, especially his future protege, Albert Wesker. Intimidated by his findings, Spencer began to grow increasingly paranoid of Marcus. Before Marcus could present his findings to Umbrella's board of directors, Spencer intervened by moving the project's development to the Arklay Mountains facility, the setting of the first Resident Evil.

During the 1980’s, Marcus was confined to a research facility located in the depths of the Spencer Mansion. After various experiments that lead to the development of Eliminators, Plague Crawlers and Lurkers, Marcus inferred that mammalian organisms would serve as perfect hosts for the T-Virus. After using twenty of his own coworkers as guinea pigs, Marcus made tremendous strides towards completing the Tyrant project. As Spencer’s paranoia culminated, he ordered Albert Wesker to assassinate Marcus whilst he least expected it.

On a mundane day in 1988, Albert Wesker, William Birkin, and a plethora of soldiers from the Umbrella Special Forces Unit stormed into Marcus’ laboratory and killed him. As Marcus slowly began to expire, a Queen Leech, one of his experiments, entered Marcus’ body and bonded with his DNA. Over a period of ten years, the two became one, and Marcus was "reborn." The newborn creature assumed the physical characteristics of Marcus from his younger years, as well as his memories and personalities. The Queen Leech managed to develop a control over the myriad of other T-Virus infested leeches, manipulating them into humanoid shapes resembling Marcus. In Umbrella Chronicles, Marcus does not take on a "younger" form, rather as a leech-like humanoid, still resembling his true, older self.

The revived Marcus managed to release the T-Virus throughout the Arklay Research Facility and Management Training Facility. Afterwards, he attacked the Ecliptic Express, a luxury train devoted to transporting Umbrella employees. All the inhabitants of the train were instantly mutated into "Zombies" due to the high concentrations of the T-Virus Marcus unleashed. Furthermore, Marcus continued his deadly vendetta by attacking and infecting two members of Umbrella’s Special Forces Unit.

During the events of Resident Evil 0, S.T.A.R.S. operative Rebecca Chambers and convicted war criminal Billy Coen encountered several creatures and Marcus mimics during their search of the train and training facility. Marcus, consumed by his anger, displayed a video transmission across the facility, claiming his betrayers will soon receive their ill-fated comeuppance. Eventually, Rebecca and Billy confronted Marcus in an underground location under the facility. Although Marcus transformed into his monstrous leech form and was impervious to small-arms fire, Rebecca and Billy managed to defeat by hatching a brilliant scheme to expose him to sunlight, which weakened him enough for Billy to finish him off with a single bullet.

Notes

• James Marcus was created by Shinji Mikami.

Appearances

• Resident Evil 0:

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