Zander Rice was a scientist and the surgical head of Alkali-Transigen, gaining notoriety for being the one responsible behind the near extinction of mutants.
Quick Answers
Who was Zander Rice's father and how did he die?
What was Zander Rice's role in the Alkali-Transigen project?
How did Zander Rice contribute to the near extinction of mutants?
What was the purpose of the Transigen Project that Zander Rice worked for?
What method did Zander Rice use to curb the spread of mutants?
Biography[]
Early Life[]
In 1983, when Rice was a child, his father Dale Rice was killed by Wolverine when the mutant was freed from confinement at the Alkali Lake facility, killing anyone that tried to subdue him.
Logan[]
Decades later, Zander Rice worked for the Transigen Project, which sought to curb the spread of mutants on the planet. Using genetically modified food, Rice spread a virus through the population that ended natural mutant births. After the success of the project, Rice initiated a project to create mutant children to sell as weapons known as X-23 and X-24.
With the success of the X-24 project, Rice ordered the X-23 project terminated, leading staff in the facility to escape with several of the child test subjects. X23-23, known as Laura, ended up on the run from Transigen's security force, the Reavers, with her genetic and biological father, Logan, and Charles Xavier. Rice oversaw the operation to capture her, authorizing the use of X-24.
In North Dakota, as Rice and the Reavers attempted to round up the children trying to cross the border into Canada, he came face to face with Logan. While explaining his plan, Logan took the opportunity and shot Rice in the throat, killing him.
Personality[]
A sophisticated genius would be one of the best ways to describe Dr. Zander Rice. He talks in a smooth, collected way almost all the time in order to make the person he is talking to believe that he is affable.
While he does seem genuinely nice at times, he is also often arrogant, underestimating Wolverine's powers when Donald Pierce was torturing Caliban. Rice is callous and cruel who tortures and enslaves mutant kids for monetary gain, making their lives absolute nightmares in the process. Not only that, but he's also delusional, and sees what he does as less brutal than it truly is.
Abilities[]
- "My goal was not to end mutant kind, but to control it. I realized, we needn't stop perfecting what we eat and drink, but we could use that as part of us to perfect ourselves. To distribute gene therapy discreetly through everything, from sweet drinks to breakfast cereals. And it worked. Random mutantcy went through the way of polio."
- ―Zander Rice[src]
- Genius-Level Intellect: To be added
- Scientific Ingenuity: To be added
Relationships[]
- Dale Rice † - Father
- Rednecks † - Enemies
- April - Kidnap Victim
- Bobby - Kidnap Victim
- Charlotte - Kidnap Victim
- Delilah - Kidnap Victim
- Erica
- Gideon
- Jackson - Kidnap Victim
- Jamaica
- Joey - Kidnap Victim
- Jonah - Kidnap Victim
- Julie - Kidnap Victim
- Laura
- Mira - Kidnap Victim
- Rebecca
- Rictor - Kidnap Victim
- Stephen - Kidnap Victim
- Tamara - Kidnap Victim
- Tomás
Trivia[]
- In the comics, Zander Rice is part of the scientific team that created the female clone of Wolverine called X-23 alongside Dr. Kinney. His father, Dale, worked on the Weapon X project and was killed by Wolverine during his escape from the project. All of these characteristics of Rice are adapted in Logan.
- In the March 2017 issue of Empire, it is revealed that Rice's father was killed by Wolverine during the events of X-Men: Apocalypse, a moment adapted from comic format.
- Logan is able to recognize Zander Rice as the son of the man who injected him with adamantium. However, Logan does not have the memories of the Logan who became Weapon X in 1983, during the events of X-Men: Apocalypse; he would have remembered the procedure performed by William Stryker as shown in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and his flashbacks in X2: X-Men United. This is because when the Logan of the original timeline altered the events of the past in 1973 and awoke in 2023, his old consciousness took over his revised timeline self, thus eliminating the consciousness of the previous Logan.
- While it is possible that at some point Professor X or Jean Grey found some of the other Logan's memories and restored them, it is most likely that this is a continuity error.
- However, Logan could have also remembered him from the procedure from both timelines, as it was stated in X-Men: Days of Future Past that he is the only person who would know both timelines. It is possible Rice's father assisted in the procedure in the original timeline, and Logan was simply referencing that instance as well. Zander himself confirms that his father was one of the men responsible for the procedure.
- Zander is the last person Logan ever kills before dying at the hands of X-24.
- Due to his weakened state, after the serum wears off, Logan kills Zander with a gun despite his earlier stated hatred for using guns.
