Walter Simmons
| This article is about the "old man" of Sector Seven. For the member of Triple-I , see Walter Barnett. |
- Walter Simmons is a human from the 2007 movie franchise in the live-action film continuity family.
In his younger days, Walter Simmons filled his life with adventure, exploring the fantastic and the unknown alongside his longtime friend Theodore Wells. Although he describes himself as a man of reason, this particular trait only extends as far as preferring to think his way out of situations rather than resort to violence; when it comes to seeking explanations for the mysteries he and Wells encounter in their adventures, "reason" does not often enter into Simmons's thought processes, and he will willingly embrace the supernatural and otherworldly as an answer. Indeed, it is this openness and eagerness that causes Wells to fear for Simmons's well-being, as it seems all too possible for him to be consumed by the terrifying and wonderful worlds and possibilities that their discoveries have opened up to him.
Putting his life of adventure behind him, Simmons became one of the First Seven, the founders of the organization which would become Sector Seven. He has lived long enough to remain in a position of power with the organization for the majority of its existence, becoming known and feared by many. It is said he knows where most of the skeletons are buried, and how they became skeletons in the first place. Those within Sector Seven refer to him as "The Old Man", but likely never to his face.
Walter is the father of Margaret Simmons, grandfather of Felix and/or William Simmons, and great-grandfather of Seymour Simmons.
Fiction
IDW Publishing comics
While exploring a cave system beneath the Sierra Nevada mountains on New Year's Day 1898, Simmons and Wells were attacked by a race of inhuman monsters. Fleeing to the surface, Simmons opted for reason over firearms, and quickly fashioned a lever from a tree branch to collapse the cliff-face and entomb the creatures. Mere seconds later, the pair found themselves approached by agent Billy North of the United States Secret Service, who had come to draft the pair on the orders of the President. Original
Simmons and Wells were brought to the Boston Secure Hospital, where they were presented with patient Archibald Witwicky, a ship's captain who had returned from an expedition to the Arctic Circle blind and mad, claiming to have discovered a giant metal man frozen in the ice. Movie Prequel #2 While Wells was unconvinced by the story, Simmons believed that Witwicky had seen something, and recruited his first mate, Reginald Danco, to lead them, North, and three other men—explosives expert Philippe Bowen, geologist Theodore Grant and metallurgist Jack Arden—to the site of the metal man's discovery so he could see for himself. There, in the frozen depths of the Arctic, Witwicky's claims proved true: a fact that so amazed Simmons that Wells was moved to caution his friend against becoming too consumed by the enormity of the discovery.
As misfortune would have it, the team's entrance into the cavern stirred the frozen giant, causing it to send out a signal that summoned another of its kind to the Arctic. When Agent North began shooting the newcomer, it responded in kind, but Simmons and Wells were able to distract it long enough for Bowen and Grant to blast the ice out from underneath it, dispatching it to the ocean depths. North, alas, did not survive the ordeal; Simmons was forced to admit to Wells that the guilt he now felt for North's death meant that to be consumed by the endeavour now seemed inevitable. Original
Although Simmons was willing to absolve the other members of the group of their duty to the project, they all agreed to stay alongside him and study the "Mega-Man". Excavation of the cave containing the robot began, and construction on an environment dome around the area so the the robot itself could be dug out. By the time the dome's construction neared completion in 1899, Simmons's obsession with the Mega-Man had grown to the point that he had begun shutting himself off from others, his family included, and talking to the creature. It took the news of a discovery in Nevada in 1902 to draw him away... the discovery of a large metal cube in the Colorado River, covered in runes matching those on the Mega-Man's hide. Movie Prequel #2
It took a further eleven years for mining expert Herbert Hoover to orchestrate the diversion of the river so the cube could be excavated. During this time, Simmons had his wife Clara and daughter Margaret moved to a dwelling in the Nevada desert close to the work site so they could notionally be closer to him, but the obsession had taken hold of his mind and heart, and he spent no more time with them than he had during his sojourn to the North Pole. When the cube was eventually removed from the earth in 1913, a cave system was discovered beneath it containing the same glowing material that Simmons and Wells had found on their 1897 adventure, and Wells believed that he saw a spark of the old Walter when his friend insisted that they explore it. Before going too far into the caves, however, they found themselves attacked by the same robot they had faced in the North Pole: truly, as Simmons had suspected, everything was connected. Scrambling for the surface, Simmons instructed that the cube be dropped on the robot even though Wells had not yet emerged, but thankfully, Wells was able to get clear before this happened. Subsequently, a surge of energy from the cube brought several surrounding machines to life, forcing Herbert and his wife Lou to break open the dam holding the river back to "drown" the automatons. Despite his willingness to leave him behind, Wells dragged the mesmerized Simmons away from the cube. Having seen how far gone his friend now was, Wells abandoned him, and gave into his feelings for Clara, entreating her to run away with him. Irreplaceable It is presently unknown if Clara did run away with Wells, but it seems doubtful that it would have much affected the obsessed Simmons by that point.
In 1934, Simmons appointed his now-adult daughter Margaret to a low-level position within his organization, now named "Sector Seven", seeking to give her employment following the recent end of her marriage but wanting to ensure her safety. Together
In 1935, Simmons, allegedly on the cusp of retirement, visited the Hoover Dam, which had since been constructed under Herbert Hoover's direction to serve as a more permanent housing for the cube. Walking through the station and discussing his history with a younger operative, Simmons watched as cryo-blocks were prepared for the forthcoming arrival of the Mega-Man, soon to be transported the from the North Pole. Gazing at the AllSpark, he mused aloud that it was not a matter of "if" others of the Mega-Man's race would find the cube and the Earth... it was a matter of "when". Movie Prequel #3
Some delays in establishing the cryo-blocks prevented Megatron from being moved by the predicted date, and the subsequent outbreak of World War II put both his move, and apparently, Simmons's retirement, on permanent hold. In 1943, discovering that the Nazis had captured an N.B.E. of their own, Simmons arranged the temporary transfer of his grandson Billy to Sector Seven, so that he could take part in a mission behind enemy lines to destroy the robot. Simmons walked Billy through the now-completed Hoover Dam base, telling him the history of the organization and briefing him on his task, but Billy had no desire to join up permanently... until he learned a lot more about N.B.E.s and the threat they posed while on the mission. Weapon
Ghosts of Yesterday novel
During a briefing on Vietnam, Simmons famously called the President a "barely literate peasant". In the buildup to the Ghost 1 launch, and the relocation of the Ice Man from the Sector Seven High Arctic Base, Simmons had a squad of army rangers under Staff Sergeant Martin assigned to the base for "training exercises", so that they would be around should their services be required.
When Ghost 1 was lost, Colonel Kinnear decided not to immediately inform his superior, as there was really nothing substantial to report. Later, when Simmons did hear, he was upset, but not as badly as Kinnear had feared. He also assigned Kinnear to oversee the moving of the Ice Man from the Arctic base to a more secure facility holding another alien device. They had received some intelligence that the Soviets might know something about the Ice Man, and Simmons wanted Kinnear to ensure everything went smoothly.
Everything didn't go smoothly, and Simmons received the news that the convoy carrying the Ice Man had gone missing. He rang Philip Nolan, who'd been left in charge of the Arctic base and instructed him to put a team together to go and find Kinnear. Nolan put up a token protest as Ghost 1 was still missing, but Simmons asserted that the convoy was more important and ordered him to go. Nolan's mission resulted in the Ice Man successfully reaching Nevada. Ghosts of Yesterday
Notes
- Simmons and Wells first appeared, unnamed, in the second issue of IDW's Movie Prequel comic book (seen at right); in the same month, Simmons also appeared in the Ghosts of Yesterday prequel novel, not intended at the time to be related to the character seen in the comic. The pair were repurposed (and Simmons from the novel retroactively established to be one of them) a few years later for the Sector 7 comic, but some fudging-slash-retconning of the details took place. The second issue of the prequel depicted the dark-haired, bespectacled, mutton-chopped character (Wells) as being the one with the family and the growing obsession with the Mega-Man, but the third then placed the silver-haired, moustachioed character (Simmons, in the picture at the head of his article) in that role in a scene where he wistfully returned to Hoover Dam. These elements were all united in Simmons for Sector 7.
