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| “ | Okay, suckers-- you've taken yer best shot! NOW IT'S MY TURN! | „ |
| ~ Wolverine's famous line from Uncanny X-Men #132 |
Wolverine is a mutant superhero from Marvel Comics and is well-known as a member of both the X-Men and the Avengers.
History
| “ | ...I'm Wolverine. I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice." " |
„ |
| ~ Logan |
Early Years
Wolverine's life began in Alberta, Canada, sometime between 1886 and 1897. The mutant who would come to be known simply as "Logan" was born James Howlett, the second son of Elizabeth Howlett (who was married to John Howlett, owner of a large estate) and the illegitimate son of the Howlett's grounds-keeper, Thomas Logan. As a boy, James was notably frail and prone to bouts of allergic attacks. He was largely neglected by his mother, who had been institutionalized for a time following the death of her first son, John Jr., in 1897. James was constantly under the pressure of his grandfather, Mister Howlett, who believed that James required constant punishment by a strong hand, in order to be raised properly. "Firm, but fair" was what Mister Howlett used to say to justify any of his abusive actions.
James spent most of his early years on the estate grounds with two playmates that lived on the Howlett Estate with him: Rose O'Hara, a red-headed Irish girl who was brought in from town to be a companion to young James, and a boy nicknamed "Dog", Thomas Logan's son (and James's half-brother). The children were close friends, but, as they reached adolescence, the abuse inflicted upon Dog warped his mind. Dog made unwanted advances towards Rose, which James reported to his father. In retaliation, Dog killed James' puppy, in turn leading to the expulsion of Thomas and Dog from the estate.
Thomas, in a drunken stupor and armed with a shotgun, invaded the Howlett Estate with his son and attempted to take his former lover Elizabeth with him. John, Sr. attempted to stop him and Thomas shot him in the head, in cold blood. James had just entered the room while this occurred and his mutation finally manifested; bone claws extended from the backs of his hands and he attacked the intruders with uncharacteristic ferocity, killing Thomas and scarring Dog's face with three claw marks. Already an emotionally disturbed woman since the death of her first son, Elizabeth, completely unhinged, drove James away and took her life, immediately afterward, with a blast from Thomas' gun.
Rose fled the estate with James in tow, hiding in a shed. James experiences his heightened senses for the first time telling Rose that he can smell apple dumplings.
Dog falsely reported to the police and James' grandfather that Rose had murdered John, Sr. and Thomas. Rose led James to his grandfather's house, but Mr. Howlett simply ordered them to flee by train, with cold, cruel eyes, but still used his influence in town to help the pair escape, due to blood ties. Rose then fled the estate with James, who appeared to have been deeply traumatized and his healing factor had somehow drove the trauma from his memories, leaving him partially amnesiac.
"Little Smitty"
James and Rose later found themselves in the Yukon Territories in Canada, taking refuge in a British Columbia stone quarry, under the guise of being cousins. James also assumed the name of "Logan", in order to hide his identity. Within months, as the hard work of mining and the tough environment provoked traumatic changes in his body, Logan grew to be unusually healthy and ferocious, displaying enhanced agility and strength, possessing animal-like heightened senses that rivaled any animal's and learning to break the rocks by hating and bullying them.
Later, Logan stated that it was a piece of his grandfather's devil personality. In his adulthood, James came to resemble the appearance of the groundskeeper much more closely than his legal father. Logan became a valuable and admirable figure amongst the small community of miners, due to his hard work and strong ethics, earning him the respect of his peers.
Even the foreman, Smitty, who became a surrogate father figure to Logan, was impressed with him. Logan even gained the nickname "Little Smitty", due to their similar work ethics, and this brought him into conflict with Cookie Malone, Smitty's original favorite.
Cookie took an instant dislike to Logan and continually hurt him, until Smitty came to his rescue. Cookie even shortened the fuse to an explosive of Logan's, killing five men. Cookie also cut Logan and Rose's rations, so Logan hunted deer in the woods and gave the extra to the neighbors, which made him more loved. Logan was immune to the elements, due to his healing factor, and even ran with the wolves in the forest, learning to hunt like an animal. Logan also defeated Cookie in a cage match, where he earned the nickname "the Wolverine". It was said that no one could beat Logan in a cage fight. After his victories, Logan would hear "It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog" a phrase that he repeated out loud to make it come true. During this period, Logan developed strong feelings for Rose, but could not act on them for the sake of their guise as cousins. Smitty, who had been mentoring Logan all these years, had also grown close to Rose and the two eventually fell in love and became engaged, much to the scorn and surprise of Logan, who later accepted the situation for the sake of Rose's happiness.
Meanwhile, his grandfather, Mr. Howlett, was in failing health and asked Dog to find Rose and his grandson, so he could make peace with them before he died. Dog agreed; however, Dog (who had become a physically formidable man himself) decided to track them down, so he could kill Logan. Dog hunted Logan and Rose down so easily that it seemed he had a preternatural skill for tracking.
On the night that Smitty was due to leave the mining town with Rose, Logan fought him but allowed him to win, hoping to reconcile with him and Rose, but Dog finally found and confronted Logan. Dog reminded Logan of his past as James Howlett and that fateful night back on the estate that had changed all their lives. The two fought fiercely in the middle of the street and, despite being the physically stronger of the two, Dog was eventually overpowered by the enraged Logan.
As Dog lay unconscious, Logan unsheathed his claws, for the first time in public (to the shock of everyone watching), and was about to deal the deathblow, when Rose leaped in to stop him, but was accidentally impaled by his claws. Horrified, Logan held her in his arms as she died. Stricken with grief and guilt for the death of his first love, Logan fled into the nearby woods, where he lived in self-imposed exile in a feral state with a pack of wolves for months, if not years.
The Creeds
In 1907, Logan had found a family of wolves in the wilderness and began running with their pack. By suppressing the man beneath the instincts of the animal, Logan found a manner of peace. It didn't last, the sinister scientist Nathaniel Essex conducted an experiment by releasing an apex predator like a polar bear further south into the Canadian woods. The bear could not adapt its hunting techniques to the new environment, but its strength and raw power was enough to overcome Logan's pack while he was away, killing and eating the wolves. When he returned, Logan and the bear mortally wounded each other in a struggle, but only one had a healing factor. Logan survived and was alone again.
His victory did not go unnoticed. Essex's hired men soon found the bear's corpse and the signs it was killed by neither man nor beast. One of the men began telling tales of the "savage" at the local watering hole, drawing the curious and entrepreneurial. A circus promoter named Hugo came to the North with a brother and sister team called Saul and Clara, his tracker and animal trainer, respectively. Their skills allowed them to locate Logan where the brute force efforts of Essex and his Marauders failed. Logan remained the wild man and was promoted by Hugo as a "missing link" when he appeared in the big top. Clara believed there was a human soul inside Logan and tried to encourage him to speak, but Logan refused and just accepted his inhumane treatment as a new form of penance.
Essex was undeterred, however, and lured Hugo with Logan to his laboratory to "authenticate" his specimen. Essex killed Hugo and began experimental torture sessions on Logan to study his healing factor, including vivisection. Clara convinced Saul to help her rescue Logan, and the three of them escaped Essex's lab together. Clara spent the next month teaching Logan to behave like a man again, but their relationship made Saul jealous. He sold their location to Essex, but when it appeared as if Clara was killed in the crossfir, Saul and Logan joined forces to kill Essex. Clara and Saul were also mutants with healing powers, however, and when Clara tracked them down and Saul's misdoings were revealed, Logan was furious. Ignoring Clara's pleas, Logan drowned her brother in one of Essex's vats. Clara rejected Logan after that, retorting that the man inside him wasn't worth as much as the animal. (Logan never learned that Clara Creed told her older brother, Victor about Saul's death, prompting an obsession that would last lifetimes.)
Logan's Women
Alone again, Logan wandered back out into the wilderness, but could not return to the wild as the animal he once thought he was. Fleeing Canada, Logan traveled down into California, where he worked in the fruit orchards. He met a young girl, a Mexican migrant worker, and despite the language barrier they left an attraction for one another. One day, she led him without a word into the orchards and they made love for the first time. Logan never learned her name, and they never saw each other again.
Around this time, Logan met and fell in-love with many women. Unknown to him, Logan also fathered a number of children. Romulus, immortal mastermind and ruler of the wolf-like Lupine, had taken interest in the Hudson line, Logan's mother's family, and over coming decades, he whether directly or through proxies, altered or erased Logan's memories to suit him.
Birthday Surprise
Apparently under Romulus' guidance, Logan became a mercenary in Madripoor. Sometime later he met Chang, a businessman working for the firm Landau, Luckman & Lake. He met and romanced Seraph, a diminutive woman employed by Romulus, who had instructed her to form such relationship. In the next years Logan realized that Seraph and other acknowledges were under a single authority, but he didn't know, or care who it was. Possibly on his first trip to Japan, Logan encountered members of the ninja sect known as the Hand. The Hand extorted Logan into fighting Sabretooth, who was another Romulus operative murdering women in Tokyo. Logan defeated Sabretooth and thought he was dead, without knowing of Sabretooth's healing factor.
At some point later, Logan traveled to another frontier community in the Canadian Rockies and met a young Blackfoot Indian woman, named Silver Fox, with whom he fell in love. The two shared a cabin together and lived happily for a time. Logan had made a new life for himself: hunting and farm chores around the homestead now his daily routine, but, as ever, there were other forces at work in his life. On Logan's birthday, Sabretooth, possibly under Romulus' orders, brutally attacked Silver Fox, raping her and leaving her for dead, the first of many birthday "surprises" from him to come. Enraged, Logan battled him in a bar, only to be defeated and left for dead. Sabretooth then manipulated a feral, mindless Logan into believing the people of a nearby town had ordered Silver Fox's death, prompting Logan to slaughter the inhabitants of the town, persuading him that "the townspeople are afraid of you--they don't want you around. So, they got rid of the one thing keeping you here".
Later, employed by The Hudson's Bay Company as a fur trader to the Blackfoot Indians, Logan defeated the demonic snake-worm, known as Uncegila, a feat which earned him the Blackfoot warrior name of "Skunk-Bear" (or "Wolverine").
Abroad, largely unseen conspiracy thus began to shape Logan, now robbed of his conscience and free will, into the perfect killer. Wherever Logan went, Creed, one of his handlers, was not far behind.
World War I
When World War I began in 1914, Logan joined the Canadian Army, where he was assigned to the Devil's Brigade, a special Canadian military unit sometimes used by Romulus. Logan's commanding officer was a super-humanly strong man known as Silas Burr (who would later become the mercenary Cyber), who was formerly an agent of the Pinkerton Private Detective Agency, where he abused his position, committing several atrocities, even burning down a schoolhouse full of children once. After being sentenced to death for his crimes, Burr was rescued from the courthouse, by Creed, and brought to the facility, hired by Frederick Hudson due to his sadistic nature. Yet another Romulus operative, Logan fell in love with female operative Janet per Burr's manipulation.
Later in the war, Logan and other soldiers were sent to Europe, and while fighting in Ypres, Belgium, on April 22, 1915, Logan encountered a being, called Lazaer (an anagram of Azrael, the Angel of Death), who was armed with a large broadsword and had been using it to kill soldiers on the same battlefield. They began to fight one another, with Lazaer initially gaining the upper hand, but, after being impaled with Lazaer's sword, Logan pulled it from his chest and stabbed it through his surprised opponent.
Besting Lazaer in combat sent Logan in to a deep depression, even causing him to put a gun to his own head at one point. Logan started drinking considerably more as the war dragged on and ate less and less, until Lazaer finally confronted him. Lazaer explained that the depression was a punishment for defeating him and defying the natural order of things. It was also later revealed that because Logan defeated Lazaer, whenever Logan was wounded severely enough to tax even his healing factor, he recovered by defeating Lazaer in an astral arena.
Afterwards, Logan was re-stationed in Canada, and Burr, under orders from Romulus' proxy, killed Janet as a lesson that whenever Logan overcame his inner bestial nature to care for someone, that person would die. Seeking for vengeance, Logan fought Burr, who severely beat him and gouged out his left eye. Logan descended to a near-feral state, his healing factor again obscuring his traumatic memories, and he fled Canada to travel abroad, as Romulus intended. Logan went to Shanghai, China, and he intervened in a conflict between locals and Ogun, a Japanese soldier, samurai and sorcerer. Impressed by Logan, Ogun offered to train him in the martial arts, but he declined.
Kansas City Bank Robbery
In 1921, Logan found himself in the Mexican Sondran Desert beaten, locked up by the local police, and accused of horse thievery. As Logan was blindfolded and tied to a post to be shot, by a firing squad, a voice next to him asked if he was a murderer. Logan answered, “…worse, a horse thief.”, and the person next to him turned out to be Mystique, who was also about to be killed for being blue. The locals thought she was a witch, even though she explained that she was simply born different, and Logan laughed at meeting someone like him there of all places. Mystique managed to untie herself, just before the firing squad shot, and Logan survived, due, once again, to his healing factor, and killed the guards.
After they both escaped, Mystique stood surprised that Logan was able to survive and asked how he knew she would be able to free herself and escape. Logan responded, “I didn't.”, and, when she asked where he was going to next, he said the nearest bar. Mystique introduced herself to Logan and said that she had a group of friends in Kansas City, that he would probably like to meet.
Once in Kansas City, Mystique told Logan about her group, who scammed people. After meeting her crew, and saving one of them from an angry customer that was scammed, Mystique informed Logan that she and her crew were planning a bank heist and she wanted him to take part in it. When Logan expressed his reluctance to get attached to people, she told him that she knew it was hard to trust people, but that they could be a family and to trust her. They both kissed and Logan decided to help her.
However, he tipped off the police about the planned bank robbery. Mystique cut and ran, and despite Logan's protests, her crew was killed by the police. Logan again found himself alone and with a festering hatred for the woman he had come to trust. He continued his own criminal activities for a few years, smuggling bootleg alcohol during Prohibition of the mid-1920s.
Prohibition Era
In the Prohibition Era, Logan also happened across a young vampire hunter named Eric Brooks in New York City, New York, and saved his life from a marauding vampire. Around this time, Logan worked as a bootlegger bringing hooch down from Canada to Chicago or Minnesota. He ran afoul of Al Capone, who was using Victor Creed as a hitman. Capone and Creed lured Logan to the site of the imfamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre, which he barely survived. He had another encounter with rival bootleggers in Minnesota while working with his friend Elias from the Great War. Elias was killed by the mobsters and Logan tried to fulfill his last request of getting Elias' four kids to safety at their aunt's farm. In South Dakota, Logan was gifted with a motorcycle for his efforts protecting the kids, possibly his first motorcycle.
By 1932, Logan was in Madripoor again, and Seraph taught him how to be a better assassin. Around this time, Logan started to use his recurrent alias "Patch", if not before. Some time later, Logan remembered Ogun's offer and he went to Japan to better learn self-discipline. There, he spent years under Ogun's tutelage, and Logan regarded him as a surrogate father. Around the mid-1930s, Logan formed a partnership with Raven Darkholme and Irene Adler, two mutant adventurers and lovers. Maybe because of memory alteration, Logan was unaware that the apparently male Raven was Mystique. Later, Logan went into action in Spain during its Civil War. In 1937, Logan, under Romulus' orders, spent two years learning espionage from Tara$ Romanov, and in turn Logan gave hand-to-hand combat lessons to Natasha Romanoff, Taras' ward. Taras then told Natasha to kill Logan, but Logan instead killed him and allowed Natasha to depart.
World War II
In 1939, when World War II began, Logan returned to the Devil's Brigade, again under Burr's command, although his memories of Burr's crimes were mostly purged. Seraph was like Logan's handler in Madripoor, and she prepared him for more covert missions for Romulus. In the summer of 1941, both she and Logan worked with the US super-soldier Captain America and others in order to sabotage an alliance between the Hand and Baron Strucker, luring the Hand's Jonin, their leader, out of hiding. Natasha Romanoff, now a Romulus operative, wanted to kill the Jonin, but Logan, regretting how he trained her to be an assassin, killed the Jonin himself. Later that same year, Logan, under orders to recruit or kill the Cap, worked with him and Bucky in Tunisia, where Logan met Sgt. Nick Fury. Finally, Logan decided not to kill Captain America, creating a rift between Seraph and himself.
In 1942, Logan participated as a paratrooper for the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, during the Normandy landings on D-Day, as well as the liberation of the Netherlands. Logan may have also been a spy for the Allied Forces and he spent time in the Sobibor Death Camp in Poland, where he psychologically tortured three Nazi commandants by simply never speaking and returning every time they ordered him executed. While at Sobibor, Logan was known as "Prisoner Zero". A year later, he surfaced in Newell, California, overseeing inhumane experimentation on Japanese prisoners of war. Even though Logan had been a hardened killer, he was atypically cruel during this period, his personality probably altered by Romulus. In 1945, Logan was captured by Japanese soldiers in Japan, where he was sent to a prison camp in Nagasaki. Logan escaped from his cell along with Atsuko. Unfortunately, Lt. Warren, himself a mutant, returned and murdered the girl and the two men fought, until both were caught in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima that destroyed much of the city. Logan survived, but was devastated to lose another woman in his life.
Fathering Daken
After the war ended, Logan sought redemption in Jasmine Falls, Japan, and he studied with Bando Suboro, in order to learn how to be a man and leave his warrior nature behind. Finally at peace since Silver Fox's supposed death, Logan met and fell in love with a local woman, named Itsu Akihiro and they married and conceived a child together, unknown to Logan.
In 1946, while Logan was proving himself worthy of being a father in combat, the demon sword-smith, Muramasa, created an explosion, that caused Logan to accidentally stab a villager with his claws. Logan was banned from the village, but wanted to say good-bye to Itsu. Returning to their self-built home, Logan found Itsu murdered, by Bucky Barnes, now the brainwashed Winter Soldier. Although Barnes ostensibly served the USSR, he was acting under Romulus' orders. Believing their child to be dead, Logan mistakenly blamed Muramasa, who captured and tortured him. When Muramasa's underlings prepared to dispose of Logan, Romulus, or maybe his operative, killed them. Unknown to Logan, Romulus took the child from Itsu's womb, and he was safely born and adopted by a Japanese couple. This child was named Akahiro, but he eventually took the name "Daken", which means "Mongrel". Nine years later Daken fell under the influence of Romulus, and he was told lies that his father despised him and abandoned him, filling Daken with hatred.
CIA and Cold War
Logan resurfaced as a mercenary. It's unknown if he retained his memories of Itsu. Chang arranged for Landau, Luckman and Lake to handle Logan's business affairs and find assignments, and Logan would in exchange do occasional services. He operated most of the times from Ottawa and Calgary, with few exceptions into South America and Madripoor, working for government agencies, and he became one of the deadliest free agents of the intelligence field. Working for the CIA, Logan, indulged in this brutal mission per Romulus' command, helped participate in turning a boy, named Frank Simpson, into the deranged super-soldier, Nuke. In 1953 Frank, growing up watching his alcoholic mother constantly verbally abuse his meek father, was influenced by his babysitter into killing his mother. Meanwhile, as Frank's father drove the babysitter home, she abruptly pulled out his flask and began to drink it and then seduced him. After pulling over into the nearby woods, the couple was interrupted by a police officer, who was revealed to be Logan. Logan asked Frank's father to sit back in his seat and shot the babysitter, with Frank's gun. Logan then suggested that Frank's father had taken advantage of the babysitter, plying her with alcohol and even going so far as to shooting her because she resisted. Frank's father realized the gravity of the situation and, seeing no other way, he shot himself.
Logan continued his espionage work, becoming a favorite of both America's and Canada's secret services, even teaming up with Ben Grimm (later known as the Thing) to participate in a Cold War-era government mission. When guarding Michael Carling, a scientist, for Landau, Luckman and Lake, Logan fought Kimora, who was after Carling's expertise in large-scale transportation between Earth and Kageumbra, his home dimension. Kimora defeated Logan, and even called him a beast in a man's clothing; however, Chang seemingly decapitated Kimora after this. Logan retired for a while, returning to Jasmine Falls and spending years there seeking his lost tranquility, until Chang found him and asked for his help to prevent Kimora from conquering Earth via Carling's technology. They both traveled to Kageumbra, where Logan and Kimora fought once again. Logan relied this time upon meditative training and berserker rage, and he hurled Kimora into a dimension-travelling device, which he destroyed. Again on Earth, Chang offered Logan a position with Landau, Luckman and Lake, but Logan declined.
During his time into the CIA, Wolverine had also allegedly participated in strikes against three African leaders, stating on records and information of the Mbangawi rode by the Doctor Crocodile.
The Team X Project
By 1961, Logan, known as Wolverine now, joined the Weapon X Project, part of the Weapon Plus Program, which had been created to fight the mutant menace. Nevertheless, Weapon X only used mutants as superhuman operatives on international tasks. He was then placed on the Black Ops squad run by the CIA, called Team X, with Sabretooth and Silver Fox (it's unknown if they remembered their past history at this point), Maverick, Kestrel and Mastodon. During this time, Logan and the others received memory implants via staged scenarios, telepathic manipulation by Aldo Ferro, and other technology. Weapon X also duplicated Wolverine's healing factor and implanted it in Team X, slowing their aging processes. In 1963 Silver Fox betrayed Wolverine and Sabretooth to enemy soldiers, and she fled Weapon X.
In 1968, Wolverine was shot with Carbonadium bullets, which slowed his healing factor so that Weapon X or Romulus could know how to kill him. The bullets were removed, but he awoke earlier than expected, and he regained his memories for the first time in years, because they hadn't been altered yet. Logan tried to keep the secret, and he rendezvoused with Team X in Berlin, East Germany. The team retrieved experimental Carbonadium technology and Janice Hollenbeck, a double agent. However, Sabretooth, apparently aware Wolverine had regained his memories, killed Janice to reinforce Wolverine's conditioning about innocents dying when he overstepped Romulus' boundaries. He quit Team X, but fell back under Romulus' influence, turning to atypically sadistic activities. On that same year, while in Vietnam as a Russian adviser, Logan tortured and brainwashed Frank Simpson, now a soldier, into becoming a murderous madman, known as Nuke.
By 1972, Wolverine joined Department K, a secret Canadian Defense Ministry branch with ties to Weapon X. Based in Ottawa, he partnered with Neil Langram and worked with Nick Fury, now a high-ranking CIA agent, and with Richard and Mary Parker. Years later, Langram was sought as an operative by the Hellfire Club, but he refused, and he was then slain by Sabretooth, hired as a mercenary. Wolverine and Carol Danvers, a young US spy, investigated and confronted Sabretooth at the Club's Canadian facility. Sabretooth told Wolverine details of the Club's intent to guide a war between mutants and humans. Sabretooth then bombed the facility, but he, Wolverine and Danvers survived. A troubled Wolverine turned to drugs and alcohol, and he was dismissed from Department K after accidentally shooting a fellow agent. Disgusted with himself, he planned to lose himself in the Yukon.
Weapon X Program
But before leaving Canada, while in his Lotus Seven, Logan was pumped full of Thorazine, beaten, and kidnapped, by a group of armed men from the Weapon X Project, possibly under Romulus' orders. The man known only as the Professor, Dr. Abraham Cornelius, and Dr. Carol Hines began to examine Logan, while he floated in a containment tank. Logan's skeleton, including his claws, was bonded with the indestructible metal known as Adamantium, making it unbreakable, and his personality was buried beneath the most intense brainwashing he had ever undergone. While in the tank, Logan was put under deep hypnosis, telling him that he was not a man or individual, and being a man disgusted him. The Project wanted Logan to believe that he was an obedient animal and that individuality lead to suffering and death. Reduced to a near-mindless state, Logan was forced by Weapon X to slaughter every inhabitant of the small town Roanoke as a test. Logan proved too difficult for the Weapon X Program to control and, after many years, he broke free of the programming, fell into a berserker fury and escaped the facility, with the help of the Winter Soldier, killing nearly everyone except for the Professor, Dr. Cornelius, Dr. Hines, and Malcolm Colcord, who later became the Director of a new Weapon X Program. Wolverine's healing factor was probably exhausted by his ordeal, since over the next few years he healed more slowly than ever before.
Driven into savagery by the experiment, Logan wandered the forests of the Canadian Rockies for months, living in a feral state, ironically, not far from the place of his birth. It was during this period Logan saved the life of a creature, known as a Hunter in Darkness, one of a race of feral beings apparently mystical in origin. A psychic link of some sort was established between the two, to resurface in later years. On occasion, Logan's human personality surfaced, to the extent that, years later, he was able to recall pleasant experiences in these woods. Years after this experience, Logan's memories of much of his past would remain clouded, as a result of the Weapon X experiment and additional false memories during the procedure as well.
Department H
Wandering the woods, Logan was eventually discovered by Heather and James "Mac" Hudson, a young couple honeymooning in the Rockies, whom he attacked, only to be shot by Hudson, whom neither knew was Wolverine's cousin from his maternal Hudson line. While he recovered, Logan regained enough of his human persona to be horrified at his claws, believing them to be artificial implants. Recovering his mental faculties with the Hudson's help, Logan became a member of Canada's Department H, the superhuman-oriented government agency James Hudson founded. Sometime later, Wolverine consulted Adamantium expert Myron MacLain, and he was targeted by Sabretooth and, under Silver Fox's leadership, Hydra. Wolverine was aided by Nick Fury, Carol Danvers and Natasha Romanoff, now the Russian super-spy Black Widow. Even though Wolverine and his allies triumphed, his full memories remained unrestored, and he didn't recognize former friends or enemies. Logan eventually regained memories of Burr, Seraph, Captain America and other parts of his life, but due to Weapon X intervention and his healing factor, some areas were left blank, like his life with Itsu and much of his Team X service. Logan also underwent ongoing intense psychotherapy to help him control his berserker rages. As a Department H operative, he returned to espionage and served primarily in Siberia and the Western Pacific, like Asia's Pacific Rim and its adjacent islands, including Japan. He accepted deadly and brutal assignments that no other agent would, and he soon rose to Captain in the Canadian Armed Forces. Eventually, Romulus or his proxies contacted Wolverine, who received secret orders to facilitate Romulus' interests even while on Department H missions.
After the Fantastic Four's debut, Hudson steered the Department H's resources to form a super-team sponsored by the government. He nominated Wolverine for leadership of this team, which was called the Flight. Contemplating the wisdom of this move, Wolverine temporarily returned to Madripoor to reunite with Seraph. He helped her and Viper, her new student, against Sabretooth, probably a case of infighting in Romulus' forces. Seraph sacrificed her life for Wolverine, but before dying, she made him promise to help Viper in the future. Seraph's heroism influenced Wolverine to agree to Hudson's proposal, although he also continued espionage missions abroad.
When a 40th century time-traveler called D'von Kray invaded Canada trying to hunt fellow time-traveler Cable, Wolverine captured Kray and turned him over to Department H. Hudson hoped Kray's technology could empower super-agents, but Kray soon escaped and resumed tracking Cable, pursued by Wolverine. Kray was defeated by Wolverine and Cable, and Cable became a mercenary whom Wolverine encountered during select missions. After this, Wolverine worked with CIA agent Rick Stoner to retrieve one of Hudson's prototype empowered-armor suits, stolen by Hydra. Meanwhile, Hudson subjected William Nowlan, a convicted murderer, to experimental procedures to manifest superhuman powers. Wolverine, maybe remembering his Weapon X experimentation, warned Hudson that Nowlan, now called Bedlam, might prove uncontrollable. His prediction accurate, Wolverine assisted Hudson in placing the insane Bedlam in suspended animation. Months after the Avengers' debut, Wolverine recruited Canadian Detective Sean Bernard to be a member of the Flight. As Groundhog, Bernard wore Hudson's Guardian armor. Some weeks later, the criminal Egghead led superhuman mercenaries to extort funds from Canada, threatening via a nuclear warhead. Wolverine led Flight trainees against Egghead and his minions, and even though the mission succeeded, trainee Saint Elmo died, Groundhog resigned, and some other trainees proved unsuited for such missions. Hudson, taking notice of this, divided the Flight into three divisions of increasing proficiency: Gamma Flight, Beta Flight and Alpha Flight.
Later, on an espionage assignment, Wolverine went to Vladivostok, Russia, where he worked with Nick Fury before him being appointed director of SHIELD. While Alpha Flight's preparation continued, Wolverine traveled to Japan to seek Ogun's advice, but he found out that Ogun had surrendered himself to dark magic and he was now an assassin, a role into which he intended to enslave Wolverine. Escaping this situation and deeply disturbed, Wolverine vowed to never return to Japan.
As Wolverine prepared to publicly debut as a super hero, he was kidnapped by the Leader, as were Hercules and Karkas, all of whom the Leader intended to use against the Hulk. Wolverine and the other prisoners escaped, but coincidentally the Hulk arrived in Canada shortly before Wolverine. The Canadian military mobilized to fight the Hulk, but Wolverine received orders from Romulus to attract an unidentified party's attention by fighting the Hulk. Wolverine started a battle with the Hulk and a Wendigo. Wolverine's speed and maneuverability proved to be a match for the two plodding powerhouses, but after realizing Hulk was a more formidable opponent, he changed tactics. Teaming up with Hulk to take out the Wendigo, Hulk threw the Wendigo into a patch of trees and Wolverine then delivered the finishing blow. The Hulk and Wolverine kept on fighting, and as Hulk had by now grown so enraged that Wolverine's adamantium claws failed to penetrate Hulk's skin, the Hulk emerged victorious and abandoned the unconscious Wolverine, unaware of his healing factor. The defeated Wolverine returned to Department H. Still slated to take leadership of Alpha Flight, Wolverine spent weeks completing some espionage missions, even when various factors made him increasingly troubled by his service to Department H.
Joining the X-Men
During his leadership of Alpha Flight, Wolverine was approached by Charles Xavier, attracted by his fight with the Hulk (as Romulus expected), who was looking for mutants to help his students, the X-Men, to escape from the island-being known as Krakoa. Wolverine resigned from Department H to accompany Professor Xavier and rescue the captured X-Men. Wolverine, under Romulus' instructions, tried to assassinate Xavier, but he broke Romulus' hold on Wolverine by blocking the effects of his programming. Neither man knew their enemy's identity at the time. After Krakoa was defeated, Wolverine decided to stay with the X-Men, at the School for Gifted Youngsters, with fellow new recruits Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Thunderbird, and Banshee, as the original members left to pursue a normal life.
Logan remained with the X-Men for quite some time, but a rivalry grew between him and Cyclops, one of the reasons being that he had fallen for Scott's girlfriend, telekinetic telepath Jean Grey, who soon rejoined the group. Despite decades of hard-earned cynicism and at first skeptical of Xavier's hope for mutant and human coexistence, Wolverine began to respect his ideals, determination and goals, and grew to be a loyal and trusted member of the X-Men. Wolverine also developed a strong friendship with Nightcrawler.
When the X-Men traveled to Agarashima, Japan, the first time for Wolverine since breaking with Ogun, he met Lady Mariko Yashida and aided her cousin, former X-Man Sunfire, in battling Moses Magnum. Romantically interested in her, but unable to requite his love, Wolverine fell in love with Lady Mariko, heir to an extremely powerful Yakuza family in Tokyo. Initially frightened, Mariko was soon set at ease by Wolverine, who was attracted to her gentle demeanor, and both fell in love. The X-Men departed, but they were diverted to Calgary, Alberta where they battled James Hudson, now calling himself Vindicator, aided by Alpha Flight, who wanted to arrest their former would-be leader. Wolverine surrendered to the Canadian team, but somehow escaped and returned to the mansion with his team.
After Wolverine and Nightcrawler sneaked into the Hellfire Club, Jean Grey fell under Mastermind and the Hellfire Club's control and transformed into the Black Queen. After the X-Men battled the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle, Jean underwent another transformation into Dark Phoenix and soared through the universe, where she devoured an entire star and the five billion inhabitants of one of its planets. When Jean returned to Earth, she threatened to kill everyone, but Professor Xavier was able to keep Dark Phoenix under control and helped Jean regain control of herself. The X-Men were then teleported away by the Shi'ar. The Shi'ar Empire had witnessed Dark Phoenix consuming the star and the X-Men were forced to battle with the Imperial Guard over Jean's fate. The battle triggered her transformation into Dark Phoenix once more. Jean realized that she would never be able to fully control the dark hunger inside and, as a horrified Cyclops watched helplessly, committed suicide by disintegrating herself with an ancient Kree weapon.
Wolverine later made the first change to his costume and journeyed to Canada to make things right with Alpha Flight and Department H, accompanied by Nightcrawler. Together with Alpha Flight, they battled a Wendigo. Logan grew closer to his friends and even dared Nightcrawler to walk down the main street of Salem Center undisguised, in his natural shape and took the underage Colossus to bars. Logan also aided Spider-Man in battling Mentallo. Later, the Brood retaliated by implanting embryos in all of the X-Men, but Logan's healing factor and Storm's new connection to an Acanti saved them all. The X-Men returned home to battle the Brood Queen that was inside of Professor Xavier and saved his life by transplanting his mind into a cloned body.
After the X-Men watched a televised debate, between Professor X and Reverend William Stryker, they received news that Cyclops, Storm, and the Professor had died in a car accident. While investigating the scene of the accident, the X-Men were attacked by the Purifiers and rescued by Magneto. After capturing their attackers, the X-Men and Magneto tortured them for information and rescued Kitty, who was being pursued by Purifiers. After arriving at Stryker's base, the X-Men and Magneto rescued Cyclops and Storm and Magneto resuscitated them. Professor X was taken to Madison Square Garden, where he was attached to a machine that, using his brainpower, would kill all living mutants. Magneto, with his psi-shielded helmet, was able to distract the Professor enough for the X-Men to destroy the machine. Televised, Cyclops entered into a debate with Stryker about his actions and Stryker pulled a gun, attempting to kill Kitty. Before he could fire, Stryker was shot in the chest by a police officer. Later at the mansion, Professor admitted that Magneto was right and began to accept his offer to join, until Scott stopped him and stated that he believed in the Professor's dream and will see it come true. Following Storm, Kitty, and Colossus, the X-Men battled Dracula again. This time, Logan was bitten by Dracula and attacked Cyclops until Rachel van Helsing destroyed Dracula. Logan stopped Storm from assisting Rachel in suicide, per Rachel's request, stating that killing was his profession and while embracing her, drove a wooden steak through her heart.
Engaged to Mariko
After investigating the return of his lettersto Mariko, Logan learned that she had been married to an abusive husband, Noburo Hideki. Logan intended to kill her husband, but was then drugged and challenged to a duel of wooden swords by Mariko's father, Lord Shingen.
Amiko
Weeks later, the X-Men battled a giant dragon when they were teleported to Japan. Unable to save a dying woman, Wolverine vowed to protect her daughter, Amiko Kobayashi. Logan initially left Amiko in the care of Mariko and the X-Men next battled Selene. Amiko would eventually become Wolverine's foster daughter.
Personality
| “ | There's a part of me as wild an' fierce as my namesake. I'm a hard man.. given to hard ways.. when I fight, it's to win. That isn't pretty, an' it sure isn't nice. But bein' a man.. that means choosin' to grow an' change an' put aside the old ways. | „ |
| ~ Wolverine |
Wolverine is a gruff loner who had a strong sense of personal honor. He also had a wild, animal-like nature to him and a savage, or "berserker," rage which he tired to control. He is also perfectly at home in the wilderness. He is known as one of the most fearless, brave, and dangerous men in the world, stated by Steve Rogers. Wolverine had established himself quickly as the X-Men most willing to permanently deal with their adversaries. He developed close friendships with his teammates Nightcrawler, whose personality diametrically opposed Wolverine's, and Colossus, who often performed the "fastball special" with him. He was something of a father figure to Natasha Romanoff, Shadowcat, Rogue, X-23, and Jubilee. He loved many women, including Rose, Itsu, Viper, Silver Fox, Phoenix, and Mariko. There are only a few people that Wolverine truly trusted, which are Captain America (Steve Rogers) , Nick Fury, Jean Grey, and Spider-Man (Peter Parker) .
Powers & Abilities
Powers
Wolverine's healing factor
Enhanced Mutant Physiology: Wolverine is a mutant who had been given an unbreakable skeleton by the Weapon X Program and augmented by Apocalypse. Nick Fury's intel classified him as Power Level 9, while the O*N*E classified him as a Severe Threat.
- Regenerative Healing Factor: Wolverine's primary mutant power is an accelerated healing process that enables him to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue with far greater efficiency than an ordinary human. He can regenerate greatly damaged or destroyed tissue with few seconds. Wolverine's accelerated healing powers have been commonly referred to as his mutant healing factor. The full extent and speed of Wolverine's healing factor isn't known. He has been shown to fully heal from numerous gunshot wounds, severe burns covering most of his body, and regenerate missing eyes within a matter of seconds. Among the more extreme depictions of his accelerated healing factor involves him having his skin, muscles, and internal organs incinerated from his skeleton only to fully regenerate the tissue within minutes. Adamantium plays a crucial role in the speed of Wolverine's healing as well because of the fact that it produces a poison that his immune system fights off regularly. It is said that without the Adamantium, his healing rate increases. This power even amends psychological wounds inflicted as a result of traumatic experiences. However, Wolverine's healing powers force his mind to suppress the memories, sometimes resulting in amnesia. Wolverine sometimes calls this his mental scar tissue. Wolverine's healing factor has cured him from the mystical curse of the Werewolf after he had been bitten and turned into a werewolf and into a vampire, though it should be noted that the time it took to cure the Werewolf curse was longer than the time it took to cure him from turning into a vampire.
- Foreign Chemical Immunity: Wolverine's natural healing also affords him the virtual immunity to poisons and most drugs, except in massive doses.
- Alcohol Immunity: It's extremely difficult for him to become intoxicated from alcohol.
- Disease Immunity: Wolverine's highly efficient immune system, which is part of his accelerated healing factor, renders him immune against all known diseases and infections.
- Decelerated Aging: In addition, Wolverine's healing factor provides him with an extended lifespan by slowing the effects of the aging process. Wolverine was born sometime during the late 19th Century. Although, well over 100 years of age, Wolverine retains the health, appearance, and physical vitality of a man in the physical prime of his life.
- Insulated Weather Adaptation: Wolverine's body is highly resistant to certain elemental extremes, particularly cold, to the extent that he can sleep nude in subarctic conditions with no apparent injury.
- Superhuman Acute Senses: Wolverine possesses superhumanly acute senses that are comparable to those of certain animals. These senses stem from, at least partially, his constant cellular regeneration, as are his enhanced physical capabilities.
- Enhanced Vision: He can see at far greater distances, with perfect clarity, than an ordinary human.
- Night Vision: He retains this same level of clarity even in near total darkness.
- Enhanced Hearing: His hearing is enhanced in a similar manner, allowing him to detect sounds ordinary humans couldn't hear at a greater distances, enough to hear a teardrop in another room that have thick walls with enough focus.
- Enhanced Smell: He is able to recognize people and objects by scent, even if they are well hidden.
- Enhanced Tracking: He can track a target by scent, even if the scent has been greatly eroded by time and weather factors, with an extraordinary degree of success.
- Lie Detection: Wolverine can also detect lies due to chemical changes within a person's scent.
- Enhanced Vision: He can see at far greater distances, with perfect clarity, than an ordinary human.
- Superhuman Strength: Wolverine's mutant healing factor enables him to push his muscles beyond the natural limits of the human body without injury, granting him some degree of superhuman strength. His natural strength is augmented by the demand placed on his musculature due to the presence of over 100 pounds of Adamantium bonded to his skeleton, which also removes the natural limitations of the human skeletal structure by allowing him to lift weights that would damage a human skeleton. Wolverine has been depicted with sufficient strength to break steel chains, support the weight of a dozen men with one arm and lift the 955 lb Ursa Major over his head before tossing him across a room. Wolverine's strength is enough to allow him to press somewhere in excess of 800 lbs but no more than 2 tons.
- Superhuman Speed: Wolverine is able to move at low level superhuman speeds. He has attacked faster than the eye could follow and even Peter Parker (Spider-Man) briefly thought Wolverine was faster than he was in their first fight. His combat speed seems to have been more enhanced than anything else, as he has frequently kept up with Spider-Man in combat, and blitzed people before they pull their trigger fingers.
- Superhuman Stamina: Wolverine's mutant healing factor grants him high immunity against lactic acid and other fatigue toxins generated by his muscles during physical activity. Wolverine can exert himself at peak capacity for several days before fatigue toxins in his blood begin to impair him. He has shown himself capable of fighting Arkady Rossovich (Omega Red) for at least 17 hours without any rest, despite he was exposed to Omega Red's death spores. His lung capacity is at the superhuman level enabling him to hold breath for hours underwater.
- Superhuman Agility: Wolverine's agility, balance and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels far beyond the natural physical limits and capabilities of the finest human specimen. Wolverine's agility is sufficient to allow him to dodge multiple bullets. Other times, able to jump extremely high and evade several yards.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Wolverine's reflexes are similarly enhanced, they are also superior to those possessed by the finest human specimen and are equal to the likes of Steve Rogers' (Captain America) due to his superhumanly acute senses, although most of the time he relies highly on his regenerative healing factor.
Animal Empathy: Wolverine has the ability to sense the emotional state of animals on a basic level such as fear, anger, happiness or pain.
- Animal Communication: He can even communicate with them to make the animal aware of his actions and or his intent.
Bone Claws: Wolverine's skeleton includes six retractable 12-inch long bone claws, three in each arm, that are housed beneath the skin and muscle of his forearms. Wolverine can, at will, release these slightly curved claws through his skin beneath the knuckles on each hand. The skin between the knuckles tears and bleeds, but the blood loss is quickly halted by his healing factor. Wolverine can unsheathe any number of his claws at once, although he must keep his wrists straight at the moment his claws pass from his forearms into his hands. When unsheathed, the claws are entirely within his hands, allowing him to bend his wrists when they are extended. The claws are made of bone, unlike the claws of normal mammals which are made of keratin, and were originally believed to be bionic adamantium implants. Like his son Daken, the bone claws are sharp and dense enough to slice through substances as durable as most metals, wood, and stone.
Telepathic Resistance: Wolverine reveals that his mind is highly resistant to telepathic probing and assault due to the high level psionic shields implanted in his mind by Professor Charles Xavier.
Abilities
Master Tactician: Though seemingly brutish, Wolverine is highly intelligent. When Forge monitored Wolverine's vitals during a Danger Room training session, he reported Logan's physical and mental state as "equivalent to an Olympic-level gymnast performing a Gold-medal-winning routine whilst simultaneously beating four chess computers in his head", which gives something of an idea of the level of sophistication and tactical processing Logan is capable of utilizing while in combat. He remembers Ogun teaching him Sun Tzu's The Art of War.
Master Martial Artist: Due to his extensive training as a soldier, a CIA operative, a samurai and a member of the X-Men, Logan is an exceptional martial artist and has mastered at least 15 forms of martial arts. His extraordinary hand-to-hand combat ability makes him one of the finest combatants on Earth.
Expert Marksman: He is an expert marksman skilled in throwing weapons and firearms, but operates more efficiently without them.
Expert Swordsman: Logan is proficient in Japanese sword fighting having studied under Ogun.
Skilled Acrobat: He is skilled in gymnastics, acrobatics and aerials, but is not on the same scale as other fighters such as Captain America and Daredevil.
Advanced Covert Ops Expert: Due to his experience traveling the world and working for various government agencies, Wolverine is also a trained expert in multiple types of weapons, vehicles, computer systems, explosives, and assassination techniques.
Skilled Mechanic: Along with Kurt Wagner, Wolverine has also been the mechanic of the X-Men's Blackbird jet for a long time.
Multilingual: A polyglot; Wolverine is fluent in many languages including English, Arabic, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Cheyenne, Lakota, and Spanish; he has some knowledge of French, German, Thai, Vietnamese, Farsi and Portuguese. Ogun taught him Japanese ideograms.
 Heroes
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