Real Name: Logan
Code Name: Wolverine
Other Aliases: Patch, Weapon X
Former Occupations: Soldier, secret agent, operative for the Canadian government's Department H
Citizenship: Canada
Marital Status: Single
Age: Unknown
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 200 lbs without Adamantium Skeleton, 300 lbs with Adamantium
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Distinguishing Feature: Ability to project and retract 3 one-foot long claws from the back of each hand
Fighting Skills: Wolverine is experienced in and knowledgable of almost every fighting style on Earth
Special Skills and Abilities: Speaks fluent English, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Cheyenne, Lakota, and Spanish and has some knowledge of French, Thai, and Vietnamese. Also is a accomplished pilot
Mutant Physical Powers: Possesses a "Fast Healing Factor" ability enabling him to regenerate damaged or destroyed areas of his cellular structure. This grants him virtual immunity of poisons and limited immunity to the fatigue poisons generated by his own body. It also retards his aging process. He possesses superhuman acute senses of sight, smell, and hearing. His skeleton was laced with Adamantium, rendering his bones virtually unbreakable. As of late, it has been ripped our through his skin by Magneto in the Fatal Attractions Crossover Series. He also has 3 claws on each hand which until recently we believed to be pure Adamantium. When the Adamantium was removed, however, it was revealed that his claws were bone and therefore he must have been born with them. The Adamantium had laced these too, giving them the appearance of metal and rendering them virtually unbreakable as well.
Source of Mutant Powers: Wolverine's healing ability, superhuman senses, and bone claws were a result of a mutation. The Adamantium was a result of a top secret project called Weapon X, which has not yet been completely revealed.
Known Relatives: Akiko (adopted daughter), Unspecified child by Gahck (a Savage Land native)
Known confidants: Mariko Yashido, Jean Grey, Jubilee
Known Allies: The X-Men, X-Factor, Shadowcat,
Alpha Flight, James and Heather Hudson, Tyger Tiger,
Jessica Drew, Lindsey McCabe, Archie Corrigan,
O'Donnell, Nick Fury, Carol Danvers, the Black
Widow,
Yukio, Maverick.
Known Enemies: Sabretooth, Magneto, Cyber, Ogun,
Lady Deathstrike, the Reavers, Omega Red, General
Nguyen Ngoc Coy, Bloodscream, Cameron Hodge, Shadow King
Usual Base of Operations: Professor Xavier's School
for the Gifted, Salem Center, Westchester County, NY;
The Princess Bar, Madripoor
Former Bases of Operations: The X-Men's Australian HQ, Department H's HQ in Canada
Current Group Membership: The X-Men
Former Group Membership: Alpha Flight
This history is taken from Ronald Byrd's Unofficial Wolverine Chronology (last updated 5/11/00).
Wolverine's history is divided into Stages due to the character's
extensive adventures in the comics"
Stage 1: Previous
Incarnations
Stage 2: Birth
to World War I (late 1890s to 1918)
Stage 3:
Between World War I and World War II (1918 to 1939)
Stage 4: World War II
(1939 to 1945)
Stage 5: Post War Years
(late 1940s)
Stage 6: Freelance
Years (the 1950s)
Stage 7: Team X ( the 1960s)
Stage
8: Unspecified Government Work, Weapon X Program (1970s
to early 1980s)
Stage 9: Department H
(1980s to early 1990s)
Stage 10: X-Men (early or mid 1990s to present)
Stage 1: Previous Incarnations
Untold centuries ago, near Jerusalem, the man-demon Ba'al is seemingly
destroyed by a so-called divine warrior
known only as the Hand of God. In recent years, a being claiming
to be Ba'al comes into conflict with Logan,
Logan is born in the frontier area of the Canadian Rockies, where white
settlers co-exist, sometimes uneasily, with
the Native American tribes of the region, including the Blackfoot.
He is raised at least until early childhood by his
father, whose name has not been revealed. Among the other residents
of the frontier community is a man who
will become Logan's deadliest enemy: Victor Creed, although the
community knows him only as "Sabretooth."
Logan will later recall that Sabretooth had "always helped himself
to whatever was mine, challenging me to stop him. Something always held me back. Knew he hated me, hadn't
a clue why." It is possible that Sabretooth,
unlike Logan, realizes that Logan is, like himself, a mutant. As he
enters adolescence, Logan will eventually
develop several superhuman powers, including preternatural agility
and skill, heightened senses, and an enhanced
healing factor which greatly retards his aging process, all traits
possessed, whether by coincidence or otherwise, by
Sabretooth himself to some degree or another. Logan's mutations
also include sets of claws attached to his
skeleton which he can extend from his hands at will, but it will be
decades before he manifests this power and even
longer before he realizes that his claws are a natural part of his
mutant nature.
(Logan's nation of birth from several sources, including Wolverine
Limited Series #1 and "The Hunter," a Wolverine story from a special comic
book distributed by Sears; "The Hunter" is later reprinted in Les Daniels'
Marvel. The frontier from Wolverine #10. The Blackfoot and
other Native Americans from Marvel Comics Presents #93-98 and Wolverine
#10. Logan's father from Wolverine Limited Series #1. Sabretooth
from Wolverine #10. Logan's claws from Wolverine #75. Timeframe of
birth is conjecture, based on the unproven notion that Logan was in his
late teens at the outbreak of World War I, although several sources have
in fact implied that a period of about a hundred years is an acceptable
parameter for Logan's lifespan to date.)
Logan never knows his mother; apparently she either died in childbirth,
a not uncommon occurrence in frontier
communities, or fled the area shortly after his birth. There
are rumors that the man Logan believes to be his
father is not, in fact, related to him; at least some members of the
community may believe that Sabretooth is
Logan's father, but Logan himself apparently never considers this possibility.
There are rumors that one or both of Logan's parents were at least partially Blackfoot in descent, but this
is never confirmed. Decades later, Logan will
Still in their teens, Logan and Silver Fox fall in love and live together
happily in a cabin for months. During this
period, Logan takes up mountain climbing.
(Cabin and climbing from Wolverine #10. It should be noted that
some accounts imply that Logan and Silver Fox lived together not at this
time but during their years in Team X.)
On Logan's birthday, in winter, Sabretooth brutally attacks Silver Fox,
apparently raping her and leaving her for
dead; Logan apparently witnesses at least part of this attack, and
the memory traumatizes him severely, a trauma
that the Team X Project will later use as a basis for many of his memory
implants. Enraged, Logan attempts to
avenge her by battling Sabretooth, apparently undergoing a berserker
rage for the first time in his life, but the
older man defeats Logan after a harsh battle. Unable to bear this defeat,
Logan leaves the frontier community,
apparently never to return; he will not see his and Silver Fox's cabin
home again for nearly a century. As far as is
known, the two men will not meet again until both serve in Team X,
although it is known that Sabretooth
eventually develops the habit of stalking and battling Logan on his
birthday as a reminder of this earliest tragedy
in his life. Logan will later note that he "threw away" his chance
to go home years ago, presumably a reference to
this incident. Unknown to Logan, Silver Fox is not dead and eventually
recovers from the assault. Silver Fox's
activities after this remain unknown for decades; when next seen, she
appears little older than she is now,
suggesting that she found some method of retarding the aging process
a trait that will be shared by many of Logan's
subsequent friends and enemies. Logan will later serve with both Sabretooth
and Silver Fox in Team X.
(Sabretooth and Silver Fox from Wolverine #10; additional details from
Wolverine #64. Chance to go home from Marvel Comics Presents #40.
It should be noted that some accounts imply that these events took place
not at this time but during Logan's years with Team X.)
Venturing into the eastern Rockies, Logan obtains work for the Hudson
Bay Company, a British corporation.
Among his co-workers are Crawlface Bob and Du Bois, both of whom are
killed by Blackfoot Indians. Venturing
into Blackfoot territory himself, Logan encounters the demonic creature
known as Uncegila, whom he slays after a
pitched battle. At this time, Logan is already using as personal
weapons two steel knives, "Spanish-made and
Mexican-forged," which he claims to have received as a gift from "a
little gambler from Natchez," whom he
evidently encountered either in the frontier town or while working
for the Hudson Bay Company; they are the first
of many bladed weapons that Logan will wield throughout his long life.
The Blackfoot, impressed by Logan's
battle prowess, name him "Skunk-Bear," or "Wolverine"; Logan takes
a liking to the name, but, as far as is
known, he will not use it again for decades. These events, Logan's
first known encounter with the supernatural,
eventually prove so troubling to him that he suppresses them from his
conscious memory, unless his inability to
recall them can be traced to his time with Team X; decades later, he
will recall them in a dream, which his
subconscious sets during the 1840s, although the possibility that these
events in fact happened not to Logan but to
an earlier incarnation of his soul cannot be dismissed.
(Hudson Bay Company, Uncegila, et al from Marvel Comics Presents #93-98.)
Logan travels into more populated areas of Canada, eventually joining
the Army. Still a part of the British
Empire, Canada's armed forces become involved in World War I.
Although, as yet, Logan has not realized that he
possesses superhuman powers, his abilities quickly call him to the
attention of the authorities, and he is assigned to
a special unit of the Canadian military known as the Devil's Brigade;
it may be during this period that he first
becomes familiar with the uses of explosives and the Fairbourne dagger.
Logan's commanding officer is a
superhumanly-strong man known only as Cyber, whom Logan will later
recall as "someone I looked up to in my
misbegotten youth." Although a severe disciplinarian who strikes
Logan on some occasions, Cyber still commands
respect as one of Logan's first teachers. In this new life, Logan
again begins to find love, as he romances a young
woman named Janet. It is possible that he meets American author
Ernest Hemingway, an American
correspondent during the war, during this period. Still troubled
by his encounter with Uncegila, Logan seeks solace
in Christianity; he will later pronounce this effort to be "a mistake."
According to one account, at some point
during World War I, Logan encounters a German agent named Eikert; Logan
and Eikert will meet again decades
later, during World War II.
(Mostly conjecture, a combination of items from Logan's past that do
not seem to fit in any other segment of his biography. Devil's Brigade
from Alpha Flight #33. Explosives and the Fairbourne dagger from
Wolverine #106. Cyber as Logan's superior officer from Marvel Comics Presents
#88; in Iron Fist #15, after being struck by Iron Fist, Logan notes that
he "ain't been hit like that since [he] was a kid," suggesting that he
had been struck by a superhuman during his youth. Janet from Marvel
Comics Presents #134. Acquaintance with Ernest Hemingway implied from Wolverine
#35. Logan and religion from Uncanny X-Men #164. Eikert from
the Marvel/Image crossover WildCATs/X-Men: The Golden Age.)
Under circumstances and for reasons which have yet to be revealed, Cyber
murders Janet; Logan does not learn of
this until after a battle engagement with the Devil's Brigade.
When confronted, Cyber, beside whom Logan had
fought so recently, brutally beats Logan and gouges out one of his
eyes, presumably for daring to confront a
superior officer in such a manner. Logan's Christian faith does not
survive the death of Janet and this experience
with Cyber. His injury at Cyber's hands is the most severe wound
that Logan has suffered up to this time. It will be
months before his mutant healing factor regenerates his lost eye; however,
still unaware that he is a mutant, Logan
simply assumes that his eye, although severely damaged, was not in
fact removed. It will be decades before he
realizes the true nature of his healing abilities; presumably, he wears
a patch over his eye until it heals, and it may
be during this period that he first uses the alias "Patch," a name
he will periodically use for the rest of his life. Still
a young man, Logan is so shaken by these events that he blocks much
of them from his conscious memory,
remembering only that he suffered this severe wound "in the war---with
the Devil's Brigade"; the experience
continues to haunt his dreams for decades until, finally, he confronts
Cyber once more and removes one of Cyber's
own eyes in repayment.
(Janet's death from Marvel Comics Presents #134; surrounding details
conjecture. Cyber, Logan's lost eye, and nightmares from Marvel Comics
Presents #85-92. His first severe wound and his ignorance of his
mutant nature from Alpha Flight #33.)
In either the later years of or directly after World War I, Logan leaves
the army and, taking passage aboard a ship,
travels to China, where he meets Chang, a Chinese businessman with
whom he shares undisclosed adventures.
Although Logan does not realize it at the time, Chang is an employee
of the agency known as Landau, Luckman,
and Lake, with which Logan will later become very familiar; in later
years, LL&L will expand into
interdimensional operations, eventually having operatives on many alien
worlds, but the precise nature of their
activities during this period is unclear. It will
be many years before Chang feels that Logan is suitably prepared to
learn the truth about his employers' activities. At one point,
Logan and Chang are photographed on nineteenth
century tintype at a shipyard, although whether the use of this medium
should be taken to indicate that the pair
had traveled back in time is open to debate.
(China from Marvel Comics Presents #41 et al. Ship implied by
Logan's clothes in Wolverine #113. Chang and photograph from Wolverine
#5. In Wolverine #98, Logan notes that he and Chang "went back a long way"
even during his freelance days of the 1950s, suggesting that they first
met some time prior to that. Landau, Luckman, and Lake from Logan:
Path of the Warlord and other sources.)
In Shanghai, Logan first makes the acquaintance of Ogun, a Japanese
samurai and sorcerer whom some claim to
be immortal, when Logan prevents soldiers under Ogun from assaulting
a Chinese mystic and his young westerner
pupil, noting that "you don't make war on old men and children"; Logan's
comment in this instance may be
indicative of some of his experiences with the Devil's Brigade.
Ogun, at this time a Captain in the Japanese
Imperial Army, is impressed by Logan and offers to instruct him in
the martial arts at the Ogun Ryu Dojo in
Kanasawa, Japan, while the unnamed mystic, similarly recognizing Logan's
potential, offers to instruct him in
"plumbing the mysteries of the universe." Logan, determined to
avoid responsibility after his disastrous stint with
the Devil's Brigade, declines both offers, claiming that he has "places
to see and things to do." It may also be in
China at this time that Logan meets Adam Destine, a man granted indestructibility
and immortality centuries
ago; as yet, Logan does not realize that he himself, to some extent,
shares these qualities with Destine. Logan and
Destine develop a great respect for each other and share at least one
adventure, which culminates in the bombing
of a mountain fortress by someone named Chen Yu. Destine believes
Logan to have been killed in the explosion
and departs the area, but Logan survives and recovers from his wounds;
it will be decades before the two meet
again. It is possible that Ogun and Destine are the first centuries-old
individuals that Logan has encountered; they
will not be the last.
(Ogun and the mystic from Wolverine #113. Ogun's supposed immortality
from Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #4. Destine from X-Men/Clan Destine
#2.)
Although details are vague, it may be during this period that Logan
first encounters two centuries-old sorcerers,
the benevolent Gomurr the Ancient and the malevolent Mister Jip.
Gomurr will later comment that Logan has
never known how to "respect [his] elders," while Jip will recall Logan
as "impetuous"; Logan and Gomurr will meet
again years later, after Logan has become skilled in the art of the
samurai, while he will encounter Jip as part of an
adventure with the X-Men. It may also be during this time that
Logan first meets a man called Black Crane;
decades later, Logan will speculate that Black Crane might be a mutant,
because he has seen Black Crane do some
remarkable things. According to one account, Logan will later
express familiarity with the Cult of Si-Fan,
servants of the notorious criminal Fu Manchu, and it may be during
this period that he first encounters the Si-Fan
and other strange secret societies. During his Chinese exploits,
Logan adopts a carefree, irreverent attitude, but his
past sufferings and his various encounters with the supernatural and
other unexplained phenomena tear at his
veneer of humanity; feeling himself the pawn of forces he does not
understand, he eventually assumes a "predator"
persona to intimidate those around him. Logan will later categorize
his activities during this period as an effort
"to run...an' fight his way beyond the pain," claiming that he "fought
his way clear 'cross the world."
(Gomurr the Ancient from Uncanny X-Men #329-330. Mister Jip from
Uncanny X-Men Annual #13. Black Crane from Uncanny X-Men #363.
Si-Fan from the Marvel/Image crossover WildCATs/X-Men: The Golden
Age. Logan as predator from Wolverine #126; running from Wolverine
'96 Annual.)
After an indeterminate number of years, during which he may or may not
have ventured out of Asia, Logan's
travels lead him to the island nation of Madripoor, where he meets
a woman known only as Seraph, proprietor of
the Princess Bar. Seraph, unimpressed with Logan's attitude,
takes him under her wing and helps him deal with
the tragedies that life has dealt him thus far; through his friendship
with her, Logan learns lessons about
responsibility, morality, and grace. Logan will later credit
Seraph with giving him "free will." Logan makes many
other friends on Madripoor, most notably the prostitute Madame Joy,
and will eventually become part-owner of
the Princess Bar. Logan learns that Seraph has appointed herself
the guardian of Madripoor against the Hand, an
ancient order of mystic assassins. Logan develops a deep devotion
to Seraph, and he will fight by her side a number
of times over the decades; like Logan, Seraph seems to age little if
at all during this period, but the secret of her
apparent immortality has yet to be revealed. Logan, still using
the alias "Patch," develops a notable reputation in
Madripoor which will linger for decades to come; news clippings of
Patch's Madripoorian exploits remain in his
possession to this day.
(Madripoor, Seraph, and the Hand from Uncanny X-Men #268 and Wolverine
#126-127. Madame Joy from Wolverine #10. News clippings from
Wolverine #79.)
Driven to reshape his spirit in order to better assist Seraph, yet unable
to shake his bestial side alone, Logan
remembers Ogun's offer and travels to Japan for what is apparently
the first time; still, in his own words, "a punk
kid" when he makes this journey, Logan will eventually come to regard
Japan as his second home. Logan spends
years studying under Ogun, whom he comes to regard as a father figure.
While in Japan, Logan also takes up
diving, which gives him a sense of peace he has never before achieved.
(Logan's first visit to Japan from Uncanny X-Men #118 and Kitty Pryde
and Wolverine #3; second home from Uncanny X-Men #162 and other sources;
its placement in this portion of Logan's life is based upon his demonstrated
samurai swordsmanship during World War II. Ogun from Kitty Pryde
and Wolverine #4-6. Diving from Marvel Comics Presents #41.)
Despite his newfound devotion to martial arts, Logan's wanderlust proves
too great a temptation, and he does not
complete his samurai training at this time, instead, it would seem,
traveling periodically throughout Asia and
Europe, apparently using Japan as a home base. Little is known
of these adventures, but it is possible that, at some
point during these years, Logan works alongside Irene Adler and "Mr.
Raven," an identity which may be an alias of
the shapechanging Raven Darkholme; decades later, Adler and Darkholme,
as Destiny and Mystique, will found
the second Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and clash with Logan and the
X-Men many times. The precise nature of
this work is unknown, but in 1936, on behalf of Adler and Raven, Logan
aids the time-traveling American
mutants Shadowcat and Phoenix, both of whom are Logan's teammates and
friends in the X-Men some decades
in the future, in their encounter with the ancient entity known as
the Shadow King and the German agents Baron
Strucker and Geist, all three of whom Logan will clash with in later
years. However, it is possible that it is not the
"contemporary" Logan of 1936 who aids the two X-Men on this occasion,
but the Logan of several decades in the
future, brought back into the past under circumstances that remain
unclear, perhaps directly related to the arrival
of Shadowcat and Phoenix, which Adler, a precognitive, could easily
have foretold. Interestingly, a verified
instance of Logan time-traveling from the future occurs less than a
year later; during April of 1937, the Logan of
nearly sixty years in the future arrives in northern Spain, where he
encounters, among others, Ernest Hemingway
and adventurer Eugene Judd, whom Logan will later know as Puck.
A later version of Judd in fact travels back in
time with Logan, apparently merging with his past self. As far
as is known, the "contemporary" Logan, whose
activities at this time are unknown, never learns of this incursion
by his future self; it is possible that, during the
years of 1936 and 1937, Logan was involved in some set of circumstances,
perhaps under the auspices of Landau,
Luckman, and Lake, which rendered this period unusually prone to time
travel by his future selves, although this is
mere conjecture. Following these events, apparently after Judd
has departed the area, Logan himself sees action in
the Spanish Civil War, although no details of his role in the conflict
are available; records of his role in the war
remain in Logan's possession to this day.
(Adler, Raven, et al from X-Men: True Friends #2-3. The
possibility that Logan traveled through time to participate in these events
is suggested by the fact that he is depicted with his adamantium claws
and the knowledge that he is a mutant, both attributes that he allegedly
did not receive until decades later; since he recognizes neither Shadowcat
nor Phoenix, it seems probable that "this" Logan originated from his years
in Canadian Intelligence under Department H. 1937 from Wolverine
#35-37. Spanish Civil War from Wolverine #79.)
At some point during the late 1930s, Logan develops a close attachment
to the Romanoff family in Russia,
particularly young Natasha Romanova, who comes to call him "little
uncle." Logan's connection to the
Romanoffs remains unrevealed, but it may relate to Romanova's natural
aptitude for the martial arts, which will
later make her a target of the Hand; it is, in fact, possible that
at least some of Logan's activities during this period
were part of a search for such gifted children undertaken on behalf
of either Seraph or Ogun, although this is only
conjecture. Upon reaching adulthood, Romanova will, under circumstances
yet to be revealed, be exposed to a
process which will retard or arrest her aging process, and she will
eventually become the espionage agent known as
the Black Widow. If the archaeologist/adventurer Indiana Jones
is in fact a historical figure and not a fictional
character, Logan may encounter him during this period; decades later,
Logan will be impressed enough by the film
"Raiders of the Lost Ark" to watch it at least thirteen times.
It is also possible that Logan spends time wandering
alone through an unspecified jungle during this period, although his
later references to such adventures may
actually refer to Team X-related work in the jungles of Southeast Asia.
(Natasha Romanova from Uncanny X-Men #268. "Raiders" from Micronauts
#37. Jungle from Marvel Comics Presents #117.)
With the outbreak of World War II, Logan, as a westerner, is no longer
welcome in Japan. He returns to
Madripoor, where he uses his newer skills, including swordsmanship,
to aid Seraph against the Hand; Logan's
enmity toward the Hand will eventually come to the notice of Stick,
leader of the Chaste, a sect of warriors who
have opposed the Hand for untold years. During the summer of
1941, Logan and Seraph work in cooperation with
the American adventurer Captain America against the Hand and the Nazi
Baron Strucker, rescuing Natasha
Romanova from being transformed into a Hand assassin; during the war,
Strucker will work with Japanese
criminals in the foundation of HYDRA, a worldwide terrorist organization
that will play a major if peripheral role
in Logan's life and with which he will clash many times. Although
the 1940s are the first recorded period of
extreme superhuman activity throughout North America and much of the
rest of the world, this is the only known
instance in which Logan works alongside one of the several costumed
adventurers who were active during this
period. As far as is known, Logan and Captain America do not
meet again for decades, when Logan has joined the
X-Men and Captain America, his youth preserved by suspended animation,
has joined the Avengers; to this day, it
remains unclear whether or not Captain America is aware that the X-Man
Wolverine is his wartime comrade
Logan.
(Stick from Wolverine #100. Swordsmanship, Captain America, et
al from Uncanny X-Men #268. Strucker and HYDRA from various sources,
including Marvel Universe #1-3.)
Eventually, perhaps at the urging of Seraph to embrace responsibilities
in his homeland, Logan returns to Canada
and again enlists in the Armed Forces. Achieving the rank of
corporal, he is sent to Greece where, under the alias
"Canada," he teaches resistance fighters the use of explosives and
the Fairbourne dagger, which he himself wields
on a number of missions. By June 6, 1944, Corporal Logan is a
member of the First Canadian Parachute Batallion
at Ranville, Normandy, where he and other Canadian soldiers parchute
behind enemy lines from a burning C-47;
Canada's role in the Normandy invasion is featured in the 6/7/44 edition
of the Toronto Star, a copy of which
Logan retains as a souvenir to this day. Among the Nazi soldiers
that Logan encounters on this mission is
Bloodscream, an immortal quasi-vampire whom Logan will encounter again
decades later. Logan's memories of
these events will later be adversely affected by the memory implants
he receives as a member of Team X, but he
eventually regains them.
(Greece from Wolverine #106. Normandy from Wolverine #34 and
#85. Toronto Star from Wolverine #79. Bloodscream from Wolverine
#78.)
It may also be during this period that Logan first meets Nick Fury,
a noted American soldier who will, like Logan,
go on to become famous in the espionage field. Like Logan before
him, Fury suffers an eye injury during the war,
although it will not become permanently debilitating until later years,
prompting Logan to call him by the same
nickname Logan once used, "Patch." According to one account,
Logan and Fury, not yet injured, are already
acquainted when both are part of a joint American-Canadian intelligence
operation; on this occasion, Logan is
dispatched by Canadian Intelligence to retrieve an arcane scroll from
Nazi Germany. During this mission, he
again encounters Eikert, now a Nazi officer, and is briefly drawn into
a minor skirmish between two warring races
of extraterrestrials. In this account, Logan claims to "have a history"
with a being named Kenyan, who is
intimately involved in this war, although no details are given.
(Conjecture; although the friendship between Logan and Fury, first
mentioned in Marvel Fanfare #24, is well-established, it has never
been made clear when the two first met. However, when experiencing
hallucinations in Uncanny X-Men #252, Logan envisions Fury as an army sergeant,
suggesting that the two first met under such circumstances. "Patch" from
What If (Volume II) #7. Canadian Intelligence et al from the Marvel/Image
crossover WildCATs/X-Men: The Golden Age.)
Few other details about Logan's World War II service are known, although
he is known to have spent at least one
winter below Monte Cassino, in Italy, presumably serving with Allied
forces. Decades later, under the influence of
a powerful hallucinogen, Logan will, in a dream, live through the Nazi
invasion of an unspecified country, as well
as a brief encounter with Adolf Hitler and the cyborg Nazi Geist; it
is not known if the events of this dream are
based in reality. Logan will also later speak of the British
invasion of Dresden as though he had witnessed the
aftermath of that battle, but, again, whether or not this is the case
is unknown.
(Monte Cassino from Uncanny X-Men Annual #4. Nazi dream and Geist
from Wolverine #21. Dresden from Wolverine #61.)
Following World War II, Logan resigns from the military and again travels
to Japan, hoping to participate in the
reconstruction of that nation following the collapse of the imperial
government. During this time, in Kyoto,
Logan encounters a man named Kimora, who, unknown to Logan, is an extradimensional
despot temporarily
stranded on Earth; the two men battle, with Logan proving victorious,
but, perhaps recalling his moral lessons
from Seraph, he does not kill Kimora when given the chance. The
precise circumstances under which the two
came into conflict are unknown, but years later Kimora will note that
he "once saw in [Logan] a worthy
adversary"; it is possible that Ogun played some role in their meeting,
but this is only conjecture. Logan may also
meet the young Asano Kimura during this time; years later, Kimura will
join the Japanese Secret Service and
again encounter Logan, who will eventually categorize him as one of
his oldest and best friends. Although the
similarity of the names "Kimora" and "Kimura" is suggestive, no known
connection between the two men exists.
(Conjecture, based upon Logan's devotion to Japan. Kimora from
Logan: Path of the Warlord. Kimura from Wolverine Limited Series
#1 and #3.)
From Japan, Logan travels to China, where the People's Republic is forming;
he may also spend some time in
Europe. Logan is deeply troubled by what he sees during the rise
of communism in both "Stalin's Russia" and
"Mao's China," as some of the most talented citizens of these nations
are imprisoned or slain for their refusal to
submit to totalitarian rule. He and Black Crane meet for the
last time in decades during this period, and Logan
incurs a "blood debt" to Crane which remains unpaid to this day; it
may be during this period that Logan was
temporarily enslaved by unknown parties, although the timeframe for
this experience has not in fact been
established, and his freedom may be the "blood debt" he owes to Black
Crane. Logan keeps this period of
enslavement, like many other aspects of the first half of his life,
under great secrecy; years later, not even Carol
Danvers, one of his closest friends, will know about it.
(Mostly conjecture. People's Republic from Uncanny X-Men #363.
Stalin and Mao from Daredevil #249. Blood debt from Deadpool #27.
Enslavement from Uncanny X-Men #238.)
Stage 6: The Freelance Years
Discouraged by his failure to positively affect political events in
his old stomping grounds, yet having retained a
taste for intercontinental travel and adventure, Logan returns to his
earlier, carefree attitude and enters freelance
intelligence work. Hoping to earn "some quick and easy bucks,"
"see the world," and "make a name for [him]self,"
Logan contacts his friend Chang, who arranges for Landau, Luckman,
and Lake to find work for Logan and
handle his business affairs, in exchange for Logan's occasional services.
Among Logan's assets during this period is
a bank account in Edinburgh, Scotland, which LL&L maintains until
recent years. Operating mostly out of
Ottawa and Calgary, Logan establishes a base of freelance clients that
includes a number of government
operations, including Canadian Intelligence, for whom he does "odd
jobs," little realizing that he will one day work
full time for that agency; he develops a reputation as "one of the
most dangerous free agents ever to rise through
the ranks of the intelligence agencies." Another government employer
is an agency known only as "Central"; this
may be the American CIA, for which Logan will also later work full-time.
Logan will continue to perform
occasional "dirty work" for Central even after joining the X-Men, long
after his freelance days are over. During
this phase of his career, Logan often uses a pair of blades as weapons,
as he did early in his life.
(Chang and blades from Logan: Path of the Warlord. Landau,
Luckman, and Lake from Wolverine #98; Edinburgh from Wolverine #79.
Ottawa from Marvel Comics Presents #51; Calgary from Uncanny X-Men #120.
Canadian Intelligence from Classic X-Men #26. Reputation as a free
agent from Captain America Annual #8. Central from Classic X-Men
#25.)
In Calgary, Logan often works with a woman named Cracklin' Rosa, with
whom he becomes romantically
involved; like Seraph, Rosa is a business owner, proprietor of the
Hotel St. Cecil, and Logan becomes her partner in
various business enterprises. Although now over fifty, Logan
has retained the physical appearance and vitality of a
much younger man, and he will later recall himself as "a wild kid"
during these years. Logan's involvement with
Cracklin' Rosa, although never serious, leaves a lasting impression
upon him, perhaps because she is, as far as is
known, the first woman who has not been killed as a result of his affections
toward her. Like Logan himself, Rosa
never realizes that Logan has superhuman powers during these years,
although she recognizes that he can recover
quickly from physical abuse.
(Cracklin' Rosa from Uncanny X-Men #120, Uncanny X-Men #123, and Classic
X-Men #26.)
Few details of Logan's freelance years are known. It may be presumed
that he again encounters Nick Fury during
these years, forging a friendship that continues to this day.
Another close friend of Logan's during this period is a
woman known only as Charlemagne, with whom he works in various intelligence
operations. At some point in
their friendship, the two become lovers, and Logan will later consider
Charlemagne one of his best friends. Like
Logan, Charlemagne ages little if at all over the ensuing decades,
although the source of her apparent immortality,
like Silver Fox's and Seraph's, is unknown.
(Charlemagne from Spider Man Vs. Wolverine #1.)
At one point during this period, Logan spends a year in Brazil, where
he works as a bouncer at the Devil's
Grill, owned by Antonio Vargas. In Brazil, Logan apparently continues
his freelance activities, with his bar
employment as a cover, and he becomes known as "the Man of Harsh Business."
It may also be during this
period that Logan is active in Mexico, where he frequents what he categorizes
as the "rowdiest cantina on
the gulf of California"; it is possibly at this time that Logan encounters
the Nazi geneticist Arnim Zola, who
is known to have operated in Central America following World War II
and who will later claim that Logan
has "long been a nasty thorn in [his] side." During his freelance
years, Logan also returns to Madripoor on
occasion, where Chang maintains a Landau, Luckman, and Lake office
in Lowtown; unknown to Logan,
LL&L has by now entered the field of interdimensional research,
a field that will one day provide the
backbone of their business transactions.
(Brazil from Wolverine: Black Rio. Mexico from Uncanny
X-Men #242. Zola from Wolverine #148. Madripoor and Chang from Wolverine
#97.)
On one occasion, Logan accepts an assignment directly for Landau, Luckman,
and Lake to arrange transportation
and security for Dr. Carling, a scientist who has discovered a method
of interdimensional travel, and his daughter,
Rose; unknown to Logan, Carling is the scientist responsible for bringing
his enemy Kimora into the Earth
dimension. Kimora kidnaps the Carlings in an effort to learn
the method by which he may establish large-scale
transportation between the Earth dimension and his own; when Logan
intervenes, Kimora, deriding his opponent
as "a beast in a man's clothing," defeats him in battle and is only
prevented from killing him when Chang
apparently decapitates Kimora, who in reality manages to return to
his own dimension. Shaken by Chang's
apparent act of cold-blooded murder and haunted by Kimora's words,
Logan ends his freelance operations. The
precise nature of his next activities are unknown, but he eventually
returns to Japan, where, more interested in
self-control and inner peace than in martial arts per se, he seeks
instruction not from Ogun but from an unnamed
sensei in Jasmine Falls, under whose tutelage he spends the next five
years or more. His sparring partner and
friend during these years is another student, Miyagi. In Jasmine
Falls, Logan strives to gain control of his violent
nature but never quite succeeds; nevertheless, he attains a level of
tranquility that has eluded him for years, and he
seems prepared to remain in Japan indefinitely. It may also be
during this period in Japan that Logan befriends
Bando Suburo, a man who teaches him much about achieving spiritual
peace.
(Carling et al from Logan: Path of the Warlord. Suburo
from Wolverine #26.)
Logan's studies with the sensei are interrupted by Chang, who has tracked
Logan down to request his assistance in
opposing Kimora's efforts to conquer the Earth dimension by wresting
the full secrets of interdimensional travel
from the captive Carling, who eventually dies from his mistreatment;
in the intervening years, Carling has
constructed a large interdimensional travel mechanism for Landau, Luckman,
and Lake, which intends to use this
new technology to play an important role in the "great change" and
"certain strife" that some believe will soon
sweep the world, apparently a reference to to the sudden outbreak of
superhuman activity that will occur within
less than four decades. Chang leads Logan into Kimura's dimension,
apparently Logan's first venture into such an
environment, where the two, joined by Carling's half-extradimensional
daughter Rose, invade Kimora's
stronghold. Logan, loathe to resort to brutal force after his years
of meditative training, proves adaptable in
dealing with the stronghold's non-human defenders, but he only manages
to defeat Kimora at the cost of releasing
the animal savagery that he has spent the past few years repressing.
Returning to the Earth dimension, Chang
offers both Rose and Logan employment with Landau, Luckman, and Lake.
Logan declines, although he admits
that he will consider the offer and rethink his way of life.
Rose accepts Chang's offer, becoming an operative with
LL&L and eventually heading an office in Hong Kong, where she uses
the name "Rose Wu"; whether this is an
alias or an indication that Rose married a human at some point is unknown.
Logan and Rose remain friends for
many years after these events; it is not clear if they ever worked
together on any subsequent missions, although a
photograph taken of the two in a futuristic, alien city suggests that
they shared at least one additional
extradimensional experience.
(Kimora et al from Logan: Path of the Warlord. Rose Wu
from Uncanny X-Men #257-259.)
Little is known of Logan's subsequent activities as he works to change
his own nature, although he apparently
resumes his career as a freelance agent. On one occasion, in
Tehran, Iran, Logan, under unknown circumstances,
incurs a debt to a man who, after achieving status as a crimelord years
later, will use the name "Morrow"; Logan
knows him by another name during this period, but that name has not
been revealed. While at this time Logan
continues to embrace the moral lessons taught to him in Japan, which
he hopes to integrate into his life, "Morrow"
is unimpressed, later characterizing Logan as "a murderer...so proud
and arrogant in [his] "principles.," a remark
suggesting that Logan once again proved incapable of fulling restricting
his violent nature. It will be years before
"Morrow" finally calls in the favor owed to him, but over the intervening
time he often tantalizes Logan with the
knowledge of this debt. Logan will later note of "Morrow":
"I don't like [him]. I never have. But he's a man I
have to respect."
("Morrow" from Wolverine #25.)
Under circumstances which have yet to be revealed, Logan suffers a severe
wound, his most serious since Cyber's
attack; it is possible that his survival of this incident is the debt
that he owes "Morrow." He is treated after this
injury in Canada by a Dr. Giloski, whom Logan can count on to "keep
quiet" due to Giloski's own experience in
freelance espionage, and whom Logan will occasionally consult in later
years. Despite his recovery from a wound
that would have killed any other man, Logan still does not realize
that he is a mutant. Unknown to Logan, Giloski
reports the incident to an intelligence contact, and Logan's name is
submitted for consideration in Team X.
Under circumstances which have yet to be revealed, Logan is recruited
for Team X, a multi-national intelligence
operation overseen by the Black Ops Special Services Section of the
American CIA. The Team X Project, also
known as the Weapon X Program, although employing a number of super-agents
for various missions, most
notably in conflict with the super-agent programs of communist powers,
is ultimately intended to selectively
suppress those agents's memories and awareness of their super-powers,
to be renewed as necessary, making them
the perfect sleeper agents; memories are also implanted as deemed necessary,
by the Team X Project's ally
Psi-Borg, usually bonding such implants to actual memories of severe
trauma. Although Logan himself remains
unaware of his mutant nature, the scientists of the Team X Project
recognize his unique age suppression factor and,
without his knowledge, isolate it and implant it within other agents;
Psi-Borg is also promised such an
age-suppression implant in return for his work but for unknown reasons
does not receive it, a betrayal that will
prompt him to seek vengeance on the members of Team X years later.
Another aspect of the Team X Project is the
Shiva Scenario, a contingency in which heavily armored robots will
be employed to terminate the agents as
necessary; this scenario is evaluated by scientists Dr. Alexander Ryking,
Dr. Kurt Marko, and Dr. Brian Xavier.
Sons of the first two men, Hazard and the Juggernaut, will later be
numbered among Logan's enemies, while the
As a member of Team X, Logan is often partnered with Sabretooth, almost
as if the Team X Project is testing his
ability to put his memories of Sabretooth's previous activities behind
him. In 1963, Logan and Sabretooth are
operational in Cuba when Silver Fox betrays them to Cuban soldiers.
Fox's treason may be due to a deviation in
her memories of the attack by Sabretooth, leading her to recall the
full extent of the attack and to erroneously
believe that Logan abandoned her; this may be an extreme reaction to
the Team X memory implants, perhaps due to an interaction with the unknown procedure which arrested her aging.
Following this betrayal, Silver Fox
becomes a terrorist, clashing with her former teammates on a number
of occasions, and eventually rises high
within the ranks of HYDRA. The Team X Project, presumably hoping to
salvage her services, monitors her
activities for some time but finally loses track of her at some point
in the 1970s.
(Sabretooth, Cuba, and Silver Fox's betrayal from Wolverine #49; betrayal
also from Wolverine #61. Silver Fox's memory reaction conjecture.
Terrorist activities from Wolverine #48-49. HYDRA et al from Wolverine
#50.)
In keeping with US interests of the times, Team X is often dispatched
to Cuba and southeast Asia, although details
of these missions are sparse; in later years, Logan will prove capable
of recognizing the jungles of Vietnam at a
glance. According to one account, the group also ventures into
the Sultanate of Numidia in the Middle East,
where they encounter a similar team of super-agents sponsored by another
government agency. Logan's Team X
activities are often of quite a different nature than his previous
freelance work, and thus it remains unclear if he
ever encounters, or even clashes with, Nick Fury, Chang, Charlemagne,
or other friends during this period.
(Cuba and southeast Asia from Wolverine #61. Vietnam from Uncanny
X-Men #226. Numidia et al from the Marvel/Image crossover
Team X/Team 7.)
In 1968, Logan, with Sabretooth as backup, returns to the USSR when
he is dispatched to Tyuratam to sabotage a
moon voyage by assassinating the Soviet super-agent Epsilon Red; the
mission is called off before Logan can do so,
but Sabretooth murders Epsilon Red's wife on a whim. Logan will
meet Epsilon Red again years later. It is also
during this period that Logan, Sabretooth, and Maverick are sent on
a joint NATO operation to recover a foreign
national in East Germany. In Logan's final known mission with
Team X, he, Sabretooth, Maverick, and John
Wraith are again dispatched to East Germany to sabotage a Soviet super-soldier
program in Berlin and retrieve
an experimental piece of technology known as the carbonadium synthesizer,
along with a double agent named
Janice. Team X is confronted by another super-agent, Omega Red,
who will later become one of Logan's deadliest
enemies. During their efforts to escape, Sabretooth murders Janice
to prevent her lack of field experience from
slowing the team's withdrawal. In the aftermath of the escape,
Logan's rapid recovery from the fiasco leads him to
finally realize that he is a mutant with enhanced healing abilities
and other superhuman powers. Disturbed by this
revelation and unwilling to continue working with the murderous Sabretooth,
Logan resigns from Team X. Team
X itself disbands shortly thereafter, perhaps due to repercussions
from Sabretooth's actions or Logan's resignation;
Logan's Team X files are officially rendered dormant on October 5,
1972, although the reason for the time lapse
between his resignation and this acknowledgement is unclear.
It will be many years before Logan speaks freely of
his Team X years, and his memories of them eventually become vague
due to memory tampering both during his
membership and afterward; he will claim only that he was a "commando"
prior to entering Canadian Intelligence.
(Tyuratam and Epsilon Red from Wolverine #65-68. NATO from X-Men
Unlimited #15 and Maverick #2. Berlin and Omega Red from X-Men #5-7
and Wolverine #60. Realization of mutant nature and resignation from
X-Men #6. Disbandment from Maverick #2. October date from Wolverine
#50. "Commando" from Uncanny X-Men #163.)
Having resigned from Team X but unsure of how to deal with the knowledge
that he is a mutant, Logan goes to
work for an unnamed branch of the Canadian Defense Ministry, an agency
"so secret that not even the Prime
Minister knows of its existence" and for which he will work for years;
it is not clear precisely how much time
elapses between Logan's resignation from Team X and his recruitment
by this unnamed agency, although the
closure of his Team X files in 1972 is suggestive. Operating
out of Ottawa, he is partnered with Neil Langram, who,
like Logan, is a mutant, although the nature of his superhuman power
has never been revealed; it is possible that
the mutant nature of both Logan and Langram played some role in their
recruitment by this unnamed agency, but
this is as yet unverified. As a part of this agency, Logan, eventually
reaching the rank of commander, is equipped
with false I.D. cards from a wide variety of intelligence agencies,
including the Federal Air Marshalls, the KGB,
the CIA, the GRU, MI-5, Shin Beth, and the UN Peace-Keeping Force;
it may also be during this period that
Logan acquires a (presumably) false I.D. as "Jim Logan, Detective"
with the Nassau, NY, Police Department, an
I.D. which he maintains in recent times. Emerging from Team X's ultra-covert
activities, Logan renews his
partnership with Cracklin' Rosa on at least one occasion, during which
he nearly crosses paths with Interpol agent
Sean Cassidy, whom he will meet again in later years; presumably he
renews his friendship with Charlemagne as
well, although no such reunion has been documented. Among Logan's
civilian friends during this period is a young
woman named Rose, who may be Cracklin' Rosa's daughter; when operational
in Canada, Logan drives a
Lotus-Seven and, despite a personal dislike of guns, carries a Colt
1911A1, although he often prefers to wield a
pair of blades as personal weapons, as he did during his freelance
days. As he did while a member of Team X,
Logan uses the codename "Wolverine."
(Unnamed agency, Langram, et al from Logan: Secret Society.
Ottawa and false I.D.s from Wolverine #66. Commander rank and Rose
from What If (Volume II) #62. Nassau from X-Men #74. Cracklin'
Rosa from Classic X-Men #26, which, given Cassidy's presence in the story,
evidently took place years after her earlier partnership with Logan.
Lotus-Seven from Wolverine #48; dislike of guns from Wolverine # Minus-1;
Colt from Wolverine #76.)
At times, Logan uses the alias "Agent Ten," perhaps in memory of his
work wth Team X, "X" being the Roman
numeral for "10." As Agent Ten, Logan works in cooperation with
a US organization known only as "the
Agency," overseen by his old friend Nick Fury; although the two have
presumably shared many adventures prior to
this period, this is the first recorded example of their work together.
On at least one occasion, Logan also works
with Richard and Mary Parker, married government agents who, months
after their first meeting with Logan,
have a son, Peter, who will eventually become the noted super-hero
Spider-Man, whom Logan will encounter on
many occasions. It will be over sixteen years before Fury goes
on to head the international espionage agency
known as SHIELD.(Agent Ten, the Agency, and the Parkers from Untold Tales of Spider-Man
# Minus-1.)
At one point, Logan is given a special assignment to investigate corruption
on the Canadian docks. In the course
of this undercover investigation, he encounters the sorcerer Abdul
Alhazred, who is involved in the illegal
activities. Despite his many decades of adventure, Logan remains
relatively inexperienced in dealing with the
supernatural and proves no match for Alhazred's magic, and the experience
leaves him deeply shaken. Years later,
the mere sight of the mark of Abdul Alhazred will prove so inherently
frightening to even Logan's bestial personathat the shock of it will snap him back to humanity when temporarily
out of control.
(Abdul Alhazred from Marvel Comics Presents #154. Logan's subsequent
reaction to the sight of his mark from Marvel Comics Presents #63.)
On another mission, Logan travels to the USSR to accompany the defecting
scientist Dimitri Suhkarov and his
young daughter Viktoria from Soviet territory. Doctor Suhkarov
is murdered by the Russian agent Volk, but
Logan is successful in bringing Viktoria Suhkarov to Canada; Logan
will be a close friend to Suhkarov as she grows
up, and she herself will eventually work for the Canadian Secret Service.
(Suhkarovs and Volk from Wolverine '97 Annual.)
At some point during his years of service, Logan's superiors in the
unnamed agency offer him the opportunity to
become a cyborg, his already heightened skills and senses to be augmented
further by cybernetic implants. Logan is
intrigued by the notion but ultimately decides against it, little realizing
that, years later, he will be subject to a
similar procedure against his will.
(Brush with cyborg nature from Uncanny X-Men #132. It is presumed
that this offer was made during Logan's years with the unnamed agency,
if not earlier, since he would almost certainly never have considered it
in the aftermath of his transformation by the Weapon X Program.)
At some point during this period, while on a government mission in Maracaibo,
Venezuela, Logan finds himself in
indirect conflict with adventurer Eugene Judd, who, like Logan, was
involved in the Spanish Civil War. Like
Logan, Judd is a man born many decades ago whose aging has been greatly
retarded, in his case via his possession
by a demonic sorcerer called Razer; coincidentally, Logan himself will
later be proven to have risked a similar fate
through his relationship with Ogun. Judd, whose possession by
Razer shortly after the Spanish Civil War resulted
in his physical transformation into a dwarf, has a reputation as a
deadly freelance operative during this period, and
although the two, on opposite sides during this occasion, do not actually
meet, Logan deduces his adversary's
identity and confirms it years later, when the two meet on friendly
terms; Judd will later feel flattered that Logan
"could recognize [his] signature in the midst of all that mess."
It is also during these years that Logan first meets
Carol Danvers, a young American operative, who, although still in her
teens, serves in Air Force Intelligence;
inexperienced when she and Logan first meet in the field, she quickly
becomes an expert agent, working with both
Logan and his partner Langram on a number of occasions, and Logan will
count her as one of his closest friends
for the rest of his life.
(Maracaibo and Judd from Alpha Flight #16-17. Danvers from Logan:
Shadow Society; her status as AFI agent when she first met Logan from Uncanny
X-Men #133.)
Langram is approached by representatives of the Hellfire Club, an international
elite organization whose highest
ranking membership, the Inner Circle, has recently been infiltrated
by mutants who, under the leadership of
Sebastian Shaw, intend to purge the Circle of non-superhuman members
and form a mutant army to achieve
further power, goals whose realization he will not approach until years
later. Although superhuman beings,
including mutants, have existed for millennia and been periodically
active in the public eye throughout the world
since at least World War I, the general public still has little understanding
of the true nature of mutantkind, and
Shaw intends to prevent the spread of such knowledge to the public
until his plans are fully formulated. Langram
turns down the Hellfire Club's offer and ultimately decides to publicly
reveal their activities, but is subsequently
slain by Sabretooth, who, apparently having become a freelance agent
following the disbandment of Team X, is on
this occasion working for the Hellfire Club. Prior to his death,
Langram had been slated to assist Danvers in a
Canada-based operation, and Logan is dispatched to replace him in this
assignment. Learning of Langram's
death, and dissatisfied with the Canadian government's procedures in
the matter, Logan and Danvers launch their
own investigation.
Seeking information, they break into a Defense Ministry facility known
as Department H, a special government
branch that, at this stage of its development, even Logan knows nothing
about, little realizing that he will later
spend years as one of its operatives; among Department H's operations
is the "Mutant Agenda," apparently a
multi-national project in which Canada, the U.S., and perhaps other
nations are cooperating with the Hellfire
Club to form teams of mutant operatives, although Logan does not realize
any of this at the time. Department H's
information leads Logan and Danvers to Dr. Perry Edwards, an American
author who has published a book, "The
Shadow Society," correctly theorizing that the U.S. government is concealing
the existence of superhuman
mutants "in order to exploit them for their own purposes." Edwards's
information leads the two to the Hellfire
Club, where Logan in turn receives a lead to the club's Canadian installation;
although this installation, apparently
a holding facility for uncooperative mutants, is presumed to be a part
of Shaw's operation, it may in fact be
managed, covertly or otherwise, by Shaw's fellow Inner Circle member
Edward Buckman, an anti-mutant fanatic
who will later cooperate with Steven Lang in the construction of the
third known series of anti-mutant robots
known as the Sentinels. Edwards, whose information, although
incomplete, has led him to also be targeted by the
Hellfire Club, is slain shortly afterward by Sabretooth, who then proceeds
to Canada himself, where, under Shaw's
orders, he slays two of Logan's fellow Canadian operatives---Sidney
Hallorman and a man known only as
Malcolm, both of whom were apparently involved in the Mutant Agenda---as
well as three unidentified
American operatives, apparently due to Shaw's concern that the activities
of Logan and Danvers would otherwise
expose the Hellfire Club's activities.
Confronting Logan in battle, Sabretooth reveals some of the details
of the operation which Logan and Danvers
have become involved in, noting that both Logan and Langram had been
selected for contact by yet another party,
"some farm team down in the states," seeking to form a team of mutants;
although it cannot be confirmed, this
may be a reference to Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters,
whose founder, Professor Charles Xavier, will organize the team of mutant heroes known as the X-Men within less
than five years. Following Shaw's orders
to "clean up" the operation, Sabretooth detonates a bomb which destroys
the Canadian installation, although he,
Logan, and Danvers all survive; it is not known if the unseen mutants
presumed to be held at the installation were
evacuated prior to its destruction, nor, if not, whether any of them
survived the explosion. In the aftermath of
these events, Danvers, hoping to expose the mutant conspiracy, prepares
to bring the matter to the attention of
Senator Robert Kelly, who will years later become a noted anti-mutant
legislator, motivated by his fear of the
damage that mutants can inflict upon society; the outcome of Danvers's
plans has never been revealed.
(Langram et al from Logan: Shadow Society. Additional Hellfire
Club information from Classic X-Men #47, among other sources; Buckman's
possible involvement conjecture.)
Following these events, Logan becomes obsessed with his own mutant nature,
which he comes to realize has played
a far more important role in his past successes than he had previously
believed; disillusioned with himself and more
troubled than he cares to admit by recent events, he turns to drugs
and alcohol, perhaps in an effort to test the
extent of his healing factor. Sabretooth's prediction of a war
between mutant factions preys upon his mind, but
Logan's reports of the alleged mutant conspiracy are dismissed by his
superiors, who apparently begin to distrust
him as a paranoid; it is not clear if any of Logan's superiors were
in fact involved in the Mutant Agenda
themselves. Ultimately, Logan is dismissed from the unnamed agency
for accidentally shooting a fellow agent at
the firing range. Disgusted, Logan "ties some loose ends" in
his civilian life and prepares to travel to the Yukon in
an effort to "get away...from...what's comin'," presumably the predicted
mutant strife.
(Obsession with mutant nature, dismissal for shooting, and desire for
isolation from Marvel Comics Presents #72; Yukon also from Logan: Shadow
Society. Drugs and alcohol from article in Comics Scene #18; alcohol
also mentioned in Wolverine #66. Reaction of superiors from Logan:
Shadow Society.)
Per the specific instructions of an individual whose identity remains
a mystery, Logan is kidnapped by agents of the
Weapon X Program, an outgrowth of the Team X Project. Logan's
bones, including his claws (whose existence has
apparently remained unknown to him throughout his life), are bonded
with the indestructible metal known as
adamantium, making them unbreakable; they will retain this status for
many years. This adamantium bonding
process was apparently stolen by the Weapon X Program from the Japanese
scientist known as Lord Dark Wind.
Work in this field has also been done by American scientist Dr. Ronald
Rankin, whose son Calvin will, years later,
develop superhuman powers and become known as the Mimic; whether or
not Rankin is directly involved in the
experiment upon Logan is unknown. Years later, upon being confronted
by his fellow X-Man Archangel after the
latter has been surgically altered by the immortal mutant Apocalypse,
Logan will sense something
"familiar---pain" in Archangel's scent, suggesting that technology
created by Apocalypse was also involved in
Logan's own transformation; curiously, Logan will sense no such familiarity
when visiting a lair of Apocalypse
himself. At this time, in contrast to its previous ties to the
CIA and others, the Weapon X Program is apparently
not directly sponsored by any government agency, although some of its
employees are deceived into believing
otherwise; it will later be absorbed into Canada's Department H, whose
head, James Hudson, also comes into
possession of notes on Lord Dark Wind's bonding process.
(Weapon X Program from Marvel Comics Presents #72-84. Lord Dark
Wind, Hudson, and adamantium from Alpha Flight #34. Rankin from Marvel
Comics Presents #61. Archangel from Uncanny X-Men #242; Apocalypse
from Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure.)
Although the head of Logan's experiment, known only as the Professor,
is alleged to have previously worked on the
Team X Project during Logan's tenure, he and his staff remain unaware
of Logan's mutant nature until
unexpected developments in the procedure make it evident: Logan's
claws manifest for what is apparently the first
time in his life. Logan proves too difficult for the Weapon X
Program to control, and he eventually escapes,
devastating the Weapon X facility. Driven into savagery by the
experiment, Logan wanders the forests of the
Canadian Rockies for months, living in a feral state, ironically, not
far from the place of his birth; it will be many
years before he fully regains his memories of his earlier life. During
this period, Logan saves 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 is established between the two, to resurface in later years.
On occasion, Logan's human personality surfaces to
the extent that, years later, he is able to recall pleasant experiences
in these woods. Years after this experience,
Logan's memories of much of his past will remain clouded as a result
of the Weapon X experiment, and it is
possible that he received additional false memories during the procedure
as well.
(Professor and Team X from Wolverine #64 et al. Canadian Rockies
from X-Men: Heroes for Hope and several other sources. Hunter
in Darkness from Wolverine #34; psychic link from Wolverine #84.
Good memories from Marvel Comics Presents #130.)
Wandering the woods, Logan is eventually discovered by James and Heather
Hudson, a young couple
honeymooning in the Rockies, who return him to Canadian society and
are instrumental in his eventual recovery.
Some months prior to this, Hudson, at the assignment of the Prime Minister
himself, was appointed head of
Department H, a special superhuman resources project of the Canadian
Ministry of Defense, whose facilities
Logan broke into mere months ago and which will, ironically, be combined
with the Weapon X Program within
months more; however, despite speculation to the contrary, Hudson played
no direct role in Logan's experiment.
At this time, Department H is conducting research in several fields
of superhuman study but as yet has no clear
direction, and Logan is one of Hudson's first recruits for the operation.
As Logan slowly recovers from his ordeal,
he lives with the Hudsons for some time, and he is present when Heather
Hudson's parents, objecting to their
daughter's elopement, confront her at the Hudson residence; Logan is
also present when the Hudsons renew their
Following his recovery, Logan, this time under the supervision of Department
H, again goes to work for Canadian
Intelligence, where he is given "dirty, brutal, necessary assignments
no one else would touch." In this new phase of
his life as an agent of the Canadian government, Logan serves primarily
in Siberia and the Western Pacific,
notably the Pacific Rim of Asia and the islands along that coast, including
his old stomping grounds of Japan.
Logan masters various languages of the Orient during this period, and
he is also specifically taught Russian,
although he never achieves the same level of skill in it as in other
languages. Years later, Logan will note that, as
both a wartime soldier and a secret agent, he earned many medals and
commendations; since his full memories of
his time with Team X will not re-surface until some time after he makes
this remark, it is presumably during this
period that he earns some of these commendations. During the first
few years of this period of his Canadian
service, he will use only the alias "Weapon X," perhaps in subconscious
recall of his Team X days. Having already
attained the ranks of Major and Commander in other agencies, Logan
eventually attains the rank of Captain in
the Canadian Armed Forces during this period.
(Assignments from Uncanny X-Men #140. Siberia and the Western
Pacific from Classic X-Men #10 and Wolverine Saga #1. Languages from
Wolverine Saga #1; Russian from Wolverine and Nick Fury: Scorpio
Rising and Uncanny X-Men #268. Medals and commendations from Uncanny
X-Men #140. Rank of captain from Uncanny X-Men #120 and #158.)
One of Logan's first missions as Weapon X takes him to Iraq, where Iraqi
militants, supported by mercenaries,
have taken over an American embassy; Canadian citizens---including
a Canadian nun---are among the
hostages, and the Canadian government sends Logan to support Delta
Force, a special team of US government
On one mission for the Canadian government, Logan spends four months
in Hong Kong, a place that he has
Three years into Hudson's directorship of Department H, over two years
after Logan was found by the
Logan, contemplating the wisdom of this new career, returns to Madripoor,
the site of some of his earliest heroic
To better prepare for his eventual role as Flight leader, Logan receives
intensive psychotherapy, including
Despite Hudson's plans for a Canadian super-team, at this time Logan
remains his only candidate, and Logan
Still active in Canada at this point as an agent of Canadian Special
Services, Logan is partnered with Colonel Rick
Under pressure to produce additional super-agents, Hudson subjects a
convicted murderer, offered amnesty, to an
As an operative of the Canadian Secret Service, Logan cooperates with
intelligence agents from many other
While in Japan, Logan also works extensively with Asano Kimura of the
Japanese Secret Service, whom he may
At times, Logan accompanies Danvers and Rossi to the US. He visits
Chelsea, NY, on occasion, and for a time,
Some months after the debut of the American super-team known as the
Avengers, Logan recruits Canadian
At some point during these years, while stationed in Canada with the
Flight, Logan has an affair with fellow
While tracking a terrorist assassin from Canada to Australia, Logan
meets David Nanjiwarra of ASIO, an
Five years after the Iraqi mission, over three years after first assuming
the costumed identity of Wolverine, Logan
At some point during his intelligence operations abroad, Logan encounters
Wade Wilson, the mercenary
During these years, as the super-villain population steadily grows,
Logan apparently encounters a number of
By this time, certain parties in SHIELD, concerned by the potential
threat posed by the growing number of
On an unspecified mission in the Soviet Union, Carol Danvers is captured
by the KGB and sentenced to Lubyanka
As Alpha Flight's preparations for public activity continue, Logan,
still considering the life of a full-time
Eager to avoid thoughts of his confrontation with Ogun, Logan prepares
to make his debut as a Canada-based
One of his final missions abroad is over the Berlin Wall, in communist
territory. On this occasion, Logan, as
Upon his return to Canada, Logan assists James Hudson in containing
Bedlam, who has resisted all efforts to
The American team of mutants, the X-Men, are captured by the sentient
island Krakoa, and X-Men founder
Although Logan quickly becomes more comfortable with the freelance nature
of the X-Men's activities, he is slow
Although Logan has been to New York City before, his membership in the
X-Men marks the first time he
Logan's career as an X-Man is the best documented period of his life
to date. Early in Logan's tenure with the
Several months after replacing Marvel Girl, the Phoenix apparently perishes;
it will be years before Logan and the
During a later trip to Japan, Logan first meets the woman known as Yukio,
a free-spirited adventurer who has
Following an adventure in which the X-Men, including Logan, are believed
by the general public to have been
Stage 3: Between World War I and World War II
(Wound from Alpha Flight #33. Giloski from Marvel Comics Presents
#52. Team X contact conjecture.)
Stage 8: Unspecific Government Work, Weapon X Program
operatives. Logan assists in re-taking the embassy, killing at
least one of the Iraqis. The nun, who had been
violently abused by one of the mercenaries, Bruno Malone, dies shortly
afterward; before dying, she asks Logan to
avenge her sufferings. Logan is prepared to act upon this vow
of vengeance immediately, but apparently his new
responsibilities as an agent of Department H prevent him from doing
so, since he will later claim that he
"got...busy" immediately following the Iraqi mission. Logan does
not forget his vow, however, and he will fulfill it
years later, after he has assumed the costumed identity of Wolverine.
Still suffering from memory loss and
recurring berserker rages, Logan goes through a period of adjustment
to his new role, and it may be during this
period that he incurs several debts to fellow Canadian Intelligence
agent Jack Oonuk, who possibly covers for him
with the authorities.
(Iraq from Wolverine #9. Oonuk from Punisher War Zone #19.)
presumably visited often in the past, where he finds himself in conflict
with the organized crime unit known as the
Triads; he also encounters the noted assassin McLeish, known as the
White Ghost, whom he will meet again years
later. It may also be during this period that Logan first meets
a woman named Linn Chow, to whose aid he will go
in later years.
(Hong Kong, Triads, and McLeish from Wolverine #119-121. Linn
Chow from Marvel Comics Presents #40.)
Hudsons, the Fantastic Four, the first verified public team of super-heroes
in several years, debuts to
worldwide acclaim. Inspired by this, Hudson elects to orient
Department H toward the formation of a
government-sponsored Canadian super-team that will operate in the public
eye; Logan is Hudson's first
recruit, and Hudson in fact nominates him for the eventual leadership
of this team, which, in its early
stages of development, is known as "the Flight." In preparation
for his career as a publicly-known
super-hero, Logan is outfitted with a distinctive yellow-and-blue costume.
(Initial planning of Alpha Flight from Alpha Flight (second story)
#3. Logan as Hudson's first recruit from Alpha Flight #52 and other
sources.)
activities, for what may be the first time since his freelance years
and spends some months there, where he is
reunited with his old friend Seraph. Seraph introduces Logan
to another pupil of hers, Viper, who is, as Logan
once was, a freelance espionage agent, although, presumably unknown
to the others, Viper's activities are usually
terroristic in nature, and, by coincidence, among her clientele is
HYDRA, in whose ranks she will eventually rise
high. Like Logan and Seraph, Viper, born prior to World War II,
ages very slowly; in Viper's case, this is due to a
pact she made with the Elder God known as Chthon decades ago, during
her youth in war-torn Europe. During
this time, Logan and Viper assist Seraph in her ongoing activities
against the Hand, and this appears to be the
earliest instance in which Logan wears his yellow-and-blue costume
in battle; on one occasion, Seraph and Viper
risk their lives to rescue Logan from Sabretooth, who may have been
working with the Hand at this time. It is
possible that Seraph is in fact slain during these events, but this
is as yet unclear. This incident marks Logan's last
visit to Madripoor until recent years. Moved by Seraph's example
of heroism, Logan returns to Canada, agreeing
to work with the Flight and eventually become its leader, although
he continues to divide his time between
Canada-based Flight training and espionage missions abroad; to mark
this transition in his life, he renews the use
of the alias "Wolverine" from his earlier activities. As for
Viper, she and Logan will periodically clash after he has
joined the X-Men, until the two eventually marry for the sake of maintaining
peace between criminal factions.
(Seraph, Viper et al from Wolverine #126. Last visit to Madripoor
from Marvel Comics Presents #1.)
hypnotism and drug therapy, to help him control his berserker rages;
this process in fact appears to have begun
shortly after his initial recovery from his ordeal in the Weapon X
Program, if not during his service with the
unnamed intelligence agency. As a part of this therapy, which
he will intermittently receive throughout his career
with Department H, Logan apparently spends time in asylums in the United
States; at least one of these facilities is
operated as part of an American prison, which Logan will later claim
houses "the biggest bunch of hardened
criminals you could find...the lowest of the low."
(Psychotherapy from Uncanny X-Men #96. Asylums from Marvel Comics
Presents #44. Prison from Marvel Team-Up #117.)
lingers in Canada for months while Hudson continues his search for
other suitable candidates. While on leave
following his Madripoor exploits, Logan is recalled to duty to confront
D'Von Kray, a Canaanite warrior from the
fortieth century in pursuit of the mutant time-traveller known as Cable,
who himself has only recently arrived in
the twentieth century; wearing his yellow-and-blue costume on a Canada-based
mission for the first time, Logan
battles and defeats Kray, who is taken into custody by Department H,
only to escape soon afterward and track
Cable to New York City in the United States, with Logan in pursuit.
Following Kray's defeat and recapture, Logan
and Cable briefly meet for the first time; despite their shared efforts
in battling Kray, the meeting is not a friendly
one. Some time after this, Cable becomes active as a mercenary
and leader of the team of operatives known as the
Wild Pack or the Six Pack, and, over the next few years, he and Logan
periodically re-encounter each other and
develop a less-than-friendly rivalry, although they will later work
together under the aegis of the X-Men.
(Logan as sole recruit from Alpha Flight #52. Cable from Wolverine/Cable:
Guts and Glory, New Mutants #94, and other sources.)
Stoner of the CIA to retrieve a prototype of Hudson's original Guardian
armor, stolen from the US/Canadian
research facility Am/Can by HYDRA; although Hudson used a reconstruction
of this prototype in his earlier
adventure against Chinook and will later use a far more advanced model,
presumably this earlier model remained
in Am/Can's custody due to legal technicalities. On this occasion,
Logan, apparently in order to distance his
espionage efforts from his role as super-hero, does not wear his costume
into battle and refrains from using his
claws, instead relying on a large dagger in battle, much as he did
during World War II. Shortly after this, Stoner is
recruited as head of the newly formed international espionage agency
known as SHIELD; some months later,
Stoner suffers fatal wounds in a battle with HYDRA, and the SHIELD
directorship falls to Logan's old ally Nick
Fury.
(Stoner et al from Fury one-shot #1; although Logan's appearance and
actions seem to indicate that this story took place prior to his transformation
by the Weapon X Program, Iron Man is already active as of this story, and
Iron Man did not debut until months after the formation of the Fantastic
Four, which, as noted, occurred nearly three years after Logan's transformation.)
experimental process designed to manifest any latent superhuman powers.
Logan is leery of the idea, and he warns
Hudson that the convict, who will later become known as Bedlam, may
prove uncontrollable; he will be proven
right some years later. Disturbed by Hudson's revelation, Logan
elects to return to his intelligence operations,
although he will remain on call for the Flight as necessary; over the
next few months, Hudson, having placed his
experiments with Bedlam temporarily on hold, recruits nearly a half-dozen
other superhumans as potential Flight
members, whom Logan trains in combat at select intervals. While dividing
his time between the Flight and
espionage, Logan shares few details of the latter work with the Hudsons;
it is only years after this period that
Heather Hudson even learns that Logan speaks Japanese.
(Bedlam from Alpha Flight #52. Japanese from Alpha Flight #34.)
nations. Foremost among these is his old friend Carol Danvers,
still with USAF Intelligence; Logan works
frequently with both Danvers and her partner in USAFI, Michael Rossi,
on "some pretty hairy capers," some of
them in Saigon, Vietnam, and Tokyo, Japan, where Danvers teaches Logan
how to play poker. At some point
during these years, Logan and Danvers become romantically involved.
When working with Logan, Danvers uses
the codename "Ace," while Logan resurrects his former alias of "Patch."
On occasion, Danvers also calls Logan
by the affectionate nickname of "Wildboy." It is not known if,
during this time, either Logan or Danvers ever
regain their memories of their previous exploits together.
(Danvers and Rossi from Uncanny X-Men #154. Poker and romance
with Danvers from Marvel Fanfare #24. "Ace" and "Patch" from Uncanny
X-Men #238; "Wildboy" from Uncanny X-Men #236.)
have met decades earlier as a youth. Kimura develops a great
respect for Logan, whom he will later characterize
as "more truly Japanese than any westerner I have ever known." During
his time in Japan, Logan occasionally
observes Japanese government efforts against various gigantic monstrous
creatures, many of them prehistoric
life-forms released from natural suspended animation, which periodically
attack populated areas and which much
of the rest of the world mistakenly believes to be fictitious.
It is not known if Logan ever directly participates in
such operations. In Japan, Logan, pleased to be able to renew
old ties, continues his samurai studies under Ogun
and others; years later, martial artist Yuji Watanabe will claim that
he and Logan have "several mutual
acquaintances," although the two do not meet during these years.
It may also be during this time that Logan
renews his acquaintance with Gomurr the Ancient; other acquaintances
of Logan's from these years, fellow
intelligence agents, include Irish Interpol agent Sean Cassidy, Clive
Reston of the British MI-6, and Jack Bascomb
of the American CIA. As an agent of the Canadian Special Intelligence
Service, Logan's direct CIA liaison is
Henry Peter Gyrich, who will later go on to be involved in the US government's
mutant-control operation
Project: Wideawake. Presumably Logan renews his friendship
with Nick Fury during this period as well.
(Kimura from Wolverine Limited Series #1. Japanese anti-monster
activities from Uncanny X-Men #181. Reality of Japanese "movie monsters"
established in Godzilla #2. Watanabe from Marvel Comics Presents
#67; Cassidy from Wolverine #141; Reston from X-Men #62; Bascomb from Wolverine
#19; Gyrich from Uncanny X-Men #228.)
under the aegis of the Canadian military, he is stationed at Valhalla
Base, part of the NORAD defense system; at
some point during this stage of his life, Logan, visiting the Hudsons
in Canada, suffers from a berserker rage and
nearly kills them, and this event may take place during this period,
since he is wearing a military uniform at the
time. Another American colleague of Logan's, whom he may have
met prior to this period, is an unnamed
superhuman, who, like Logan, holds the rank of captain; years later,
when this man has lost his super-powers and
fathered a daughter who manifests powerful mutant abilities, Logan
will arrange false identities for them in
Kansas, where they will live under the name "Beck." According
to one account, during these years Logan even has
a longterm residence in San Francisco, CA, which he shares with a young
woman named Sung Li; according to
this account, Sung Li's relationship with Logan is ultimately intended
to manipulate him into destroying a mystic
artifact, which he does in the company of another adventurer.
It may also be during this period that Logan
undertakes an assignment in Houston, TX, in which at least some intelligence
agencies will later believe him to
have been killed. About a decade later, an American intelligence
operative named Roberts will claim to have
worked with Logan in "Frank's division" on a mission in which they
"shared the trenches"; however, Logan will
have no recollection of this mission, and since Roberts is, like Logan,
a victim of memory implants, in his case by
the US government operation known only as the Project (which may or
may not be identical to the Team X
Project), it is unclear whether or not this claim is based in reality.
(Chelsea from Classic X-Men #10. Valhalla Base from Uncanny X-Men
#94-95. Hudsons from Uncanny X-Men #147. "Beck" from Marvel
Comics Presents #50. San Francisco, Sung Li, et al from the Marvel/Image
crossover Deathblow and Wolverine #1-2. Houston from Havok and Wolverine
#1. Roberts from Marvel Comics Presents #109.)
Detective Sean Benard for the Flight; Benard is assigned the use of
the Guardian armor, which he uses under the
codename "Groundhog." Over a month later, the American criminal
known as Egghead leads a team of
super-powered mercenaries in an operation to blackmail Canada through
the use of a nuclear warhead. As
Wolverine, Logan leads a team of Flight trainees---Snowbird, Smart
Alec, St. Elmo, Stitch, and
Groundhog---against Egghead's forces; although Logan has periodically
trained with the Flight over the past
several months, this appears to be his first public appearance as a
Canadian super-hero since his clashes with
D'Von Kray. Although the mission is a success, St. Elmo perishes,
Groundhog resigns, and other members prove
themselves as yet unsuited for such missions. Based upon this
lack of preparation, Hudson will eventually divide
the Flight into three divisions of increasing efficiency: Gamma,
Beta, and Alpha, with Alpha Flight as the
finalized public super-team.
(Groundhog, Egghead, et al from Alpha Flight Special #1.)
member Narya, the half-goddess known as Snowbird. Unlike Logan,
who is far older than he looks, Narya,
although an adult in appearance, is chronologically and emotionally
a child, far younger than she looks; the
relationship ends badly. Among the other Flight trainees with
whom Logan periodically works is Gamma Flight's
Wild Child, a young man who was mutated by the Secret Empire using
DNA from the superhuman mercenary
Wyre, whom Logan had encountered at some point in the past. Logan,
recognizing an inherent berserker nature
similar to his own, advises against Wild Child's inclusion in the super-hero
program, but Wild Child will remain
until the program's cessation and, eventually, master his rages to
join one of the various incarnations of Alpha
Flight. Logan himself will recruit a future Alpha Flight member
during these years: Jeanne-Marie Beaubier,
later known as Aurora. Few other details of Logan's activities
with Alpha Flight are known; he apparently spends
most of these years abroad on various intelligence assignments, returning
to Canada and Department H only on
occasion.
(Affair with Snowbird inferred from dialogue in Uncanny X-Men #140.
Wild Child from Marvel Comics Presents #51; Logan refers to Wild Child's
"old man" as someone who, like Wild Child and himself, has had to struggle
to control a bestial rage; this implies that Wild Child is in fact the
son of Sabretooth, but this suggestion is later abandoned, and presumably
the "old man" to whom Logan refers is Wyre. Wild Child's origin from
Alpha Flight #118; Logan's earlier encounter with Wyre conjecture.
Aurora from Alpha Flight (second story) #9.)
Australian intelligence agency. When the two are stranded together
in the Australian outback, Nanjiwarra helps
Logan to survive long enough to reach civilization. Logan learns
that Nanjiwarra, a descendant of native
Australians, is disenchanted with ASIO work due to Australian prejudice,
and Logan recommends that he seek
work with SHIELD, which at this time is still in the process of organization.
At some point during these years, in
Vladivostok, USSR, Logan again encounters Nick Fury; soon afterward,
Fury is appointed to the directorship of
SHIELD, and the two will not meet again for years. Logan himself
apparently works directly with SHIELD on a
few occasions during his Department H career; he is issued SHIELD identification
for a time, although he is
apparently never officially inducted into the organization, and, years
later, he will have some familiarity with the
layout of the SHIELD Orbital Platform after it has fallen into the
possession of the anti-mutant Project
Armageddon.
(Australia and Nanjiwarra from Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio
Connection. Vladivostok from Marvel Fanfare #24.
SHIELD I.D. from Wolverine #50. SHIELD Orbital Platform from Uncanny
X-Men #100.)
hunts down the mercenaries who helped take control of the US embassy
and, over a period of days, kills all of them
save for Malone, who commits suicide rather than give Logan the satisfaction
of killing him. This is one of only
three occasions in which Logan is known to wear his yellow-and-blue
costume on a mission away from Alpha
Flight, and he deliberately implies that he is no longer working for
the Canadian government, although, of course,
this is not the case.
(Malone from Wolverine #9.)
known as Deadpool; like Logan, Deadpool is a product of the Weapon
X Program, possessing a healing
factor that was apparently derived from Logan's own. It is possible
that Logan had previously encountered
Wilson prior to the mercenary's assumption of a costumed identity,
but this cannot be confirmed; Logan
will later characterize his dealings with Deadpool as a part of his
life that he would prefer "never sees the
light of day." It may also be during this period, if not earlier,
that Logan encounters the centuries-old
occult mercenary known as Terror, Inc. Logan dislikes dealing
with him, perhaps seeing in Terror's
cynicism a reflection of what he himself might become later in his
long life.
(Deadpool from Deadpool #27. Terror, Inc., from Wolverine #58.)
mutant criminals, including Mystique, Mesmero, and Magneto, although
his encounter with the latter is brief. It is
possible that he encounters the cyborg CIA operative known as Bushwacker
during this period as well, an
encounter that must surely have driven home to Logan how narrowly he
avoided assuming such a role as
Bushwacker's. Such incidents, along with his discouraging encounters
with Deadpool and Terror, Inc., may play a
cumulative role in Logan's decision to accept the role of Alpha Flight
leader, as he comes to recognize the
necessity of such a super-team. It may also be at this time,
if not earlier, that Logan clashes with superhuman
Soviet operative Vladimir Zaitsev; although having earlier worn his
yellow-and-blue costume even in the field
abroad, on this occasion Logan wears a brown-and-orange costume, presumably
to prevent his actions on this
occasion from being linked to his eventual public image as leader of
Alpha Flight. Logan will wear this alternate
costume again years later.
(Mostly conjecture; Logan's conversation with Mystique in Wolverine
#51 seems based on a closer familiarity than would be inferred from their
previous recorded encounters, although this may be attributable to his
alleged work with her in Team X or even during the 1930s. Logan seems
to already have some knowledge of Mesmero in Uncanny X-Men #111 and of
Magneto during their first recorded encounter in Uncanny X-Men #104, but
his behavior throughout his early months with the X-Men indicates that
he has little familiarity with the level of superhuman power exercised
by their enemies. Implicit familiarity with Bushwacker from Daredevil
#249. Zaitsev and brown-and-orange costume from Uncanny X-Men #228.)
superhumans, begin to train select SHIELD agents for the express purpose
of engaging such superhumans in
combat. One group of such agents, specifically trained to defeat
the Avengers and led by Sgt. Harry "Hardcase"
Malone, becomes known as the Harriers, and they apparently encounter
Logan during this period, perhaps several
times; it is possible that Logan and Hardcase have additional history
as well. When SHIELD itself begins to recruit
superhuman agents, the Harriers are dismissed, and they become mercenaries.
(Harriers from Uncanny X-Men #261. Hardcase from Wolverine #139
and other sources.)
Prison in the USSR. Logan, Michael Rossi, and possibly others
disobey direct orders and break into Lubyanka to
free her. During the mission, Rossi is apparently slain, and
the other members of the team abandon the effort,
leaving Logan to smuggle Danvers out of the USSR alone, despite her
insistence that he abandon her to save
himself. Following these events, Danvers, despite her youth,
is recruited as Security Chief for Cape Canaveral,
becoming, in her twenties, the youngest person ever to hold the position;
it is in this role that she will meet the Kree
warrior known as Captain Marvel, whose involvement with her will change
her life dramatically. She and Logan
will not meet again for years. As for Rossi, he is later learned
to have survived, although, as far as is known,
Danvers is never informed of this; whether or not Logan is aware of
it is unclear. Rossi will eventually work in
cooperation with Professor Charles Xavier, a man who will play an important
role in Logan's own life. With his
friend and lover out of the intelligence field, Logan has less reason
to remain in it himself, and it may be at this
point that he decides to accomodate Hudson and quit field work altogether,
to assume full-time leadership of
Alpha Flight.
(Lubyanka mission from Marvel Fanfare #24 and Uncanny X-Men #163, #236,
and #251. Danvers's post at Cape Canaveral from Marvel Fanfare #24
and her earliest published appearances, beginning in Marvel Super-Heroes
#13. Rossi's alleged death from Uncanny X-Men #182; his work with
Xavier from New Mutants #2.)
super-hero, seeks the advice of his longtime sensei Ogun in Japan.
Logan is shocked to learn that Ogun, who has
taught him so much about honor and moral codes over the years, has
given himself over to the darker forces of the
Ninjitsu magic he practices, becoming an assassin and evil magician
and ultimately intending to psionically
enslave Logan to his will, a fate that Ogun will later force upon Logan's
fellow X-Man Shadowcat. Deeply
disturbed by this meeting, Logan vows to never return to Japan, and
he and Ogun will not meet again for years.
Logan returns to Canada and, symbolizing his break with his former
mentor, discards the bladed weapons he has
used on occasion; accepting his fate, he exclusively uses his adamantium
claws from now on. Logan will not wield a
sword again for years.
(Break with Ogun from Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #4-6. Intention
to never return to Japan from Uncanny X-Men #118. Sword from Wolverine
Limited Series #1.)
publicly known super-agent and is dispatched to disrupt terrorist activities
in Ontario; however, James Hudson
informs him that the "assignment," Logan's first public Canada-based
mission since the Flight battled Egghead's
forces years earlier, is actually a test developed by Department H
to observe Logan's reactions in battle. During the
course of this test, Logan is teleported to the New Mexico headquarters
of the mutated genius known as the Leader,
as are the Greek demigod Hercules and the Deviant Karkas, all of whom
the Leader intends to use to capture the
American mutate known as the Hulk. Logan escapes the Leader's
restraints and frees his fellow captives, although
the Leader flees from the debacle. By coincidence, the Hulk himself
arrives in Canada shortly before Logan's
return; the Canadian military mobilizes to oppose the Hulk, but Logan
requests to be given the opportunity first. In
this genuine assignment, Logan meets both the Hulk and the Wendigo,
a human mutated into a monstrous mystic
form, in battle; Department H had previously received reports of the
Wendigo's activities but dismissed them as
fabrications. Despite his best efforts, Logan fails in this mission,
although he remains the prime candidate for
leadership of Alpha Flight; shortly afterward, he leaves Canada once
more, "doin' [his] "James Bond" number"
and completing his current roster of international assignments.
Wolverine (in his yellow-and-blue costume), works with his old friend
and lover Charlemagne; although it seems
probable that he and Charlemagne have worked together on a number of
occasions during his Department H stint,
no record of such adventures exists. It will be the last time
the two see each other until recent times, when
Charlemagne, hunted by various intelligence agencies, arranges for
Logan to participatein her own death. During
Logan's last months as an intelligence operative abroad, Alpha Flight
is organized into what will become its final
form, and he is expected to take over leadership of the team upon his
return; among its members are Logan's own
protege Aurora, as well as Shaman and, the last recruit, Sasquatch,
who, as Michael Twoyoungmen and Walter
Langkowski, had worked with Logan during his earlier years with the
Flight.
("Terrorists," Leader, et al from Wolverine #144. Hulk and Wendigo
from Incredible Hulk #180-181. Period out of Canada from Uncanny
X-Men #139. Berlin Wall from Spider-Man Vs. Wolverine #1. Alpha
Flight from Uncanny X-Men #120. Twoyoungmen and Langkowski from Alpha
Flight Special #1.)
control him and is finally placed in a state of suspended animation.
Logan draws no satisfaction from being
proven correct about Bedlam; his disillusionment with Hudson over this
incident leads him to question the wisdom
of continuing to work for Department H in any capacity. Moreover,
Logan begins to realize that he has developed
an unacknowledged attraction to Heather Hudson, an inappropriate feeling
that further complicates his current
situation. These issues, among others, will play a role in Logan's
ultimate decision to resign from Department H.
(Bedlam from Alpha Flight #53. Feelings for Heather Hudson from
Alpha Flight #33)
Charles Xavier seeks out other mutants to aid him in their rescue.
While most of these are younger mutants whom
Xavier had previously been considering for X-Men membership, Logan,
of whom Xavier has presumably learned
through his own government contacts, is another potential recruit;
neither Logan nor Xavier know that Xavier's
father, Dr. Brian Xavier, played a role in the development of aspects
of the Team X Project. Disillusioned with his
Canadian intelligence work, interested in resuming the free agent's
life which he has not led for nearly thirty years,
and intrigued by Xavier's offer, Logan resigns from Department H; leadership
of Alpha Flight will fall to James
Hudson, who, using a more sophisticated version of his battlesuit which
has been in development since shortly after
Department H's foundation, will use the codenames Weapon Alpha, although
the codenames of "Vindicator" and
"Guardian" have been previously suggested and will in fact both be
used by Hudson in later years. The higher
echelons of Department H resent Logan's resignation, and Hudson and
other members of Alpha Flight will be
dispatched at least twice in unsuccessful efforts to force Logan to
return to Department H; eventually, Department
H accepts the situation, and Logan's Canadian national military records
are sealed until 2026. Logan and the
other new X-Men successfully rescue the previous team with no loss
of life, marking the beginning of a new period
in Logan's life; at this time, Logan has been in psychotherapy for
ten years, some of it pre-dating his involvement
with Alpha Flight, but he will later claim that little if any progress
has made in helping him control his berserker
rages.
(X-Men et al from Giant-Size X-Men #1. Early development of battlesuit
and "Vindicator" from Deadpool/Death '98 Annual; "Guardian" from Alpha
Flight #12, at the time of Hudson's initial debut in his new battlesuit.
Department H efforts from Uncanny X-Men #109 and #120. 2026 from
Venom: Tooth and Claw #3. Ten years from Uncanny X-Men #96.)
in adjusting to the different standards by which his new team operates,
and it will be several months before he even
reveals his name to his fellow X-Men; to this day, few of them know
much about his previous activities. Among
the stronger attachments Logan forms is an immediate friendship with
the young German mutant Kurt Wagner,
Nightcrawler, who may remind Logan of Maverick, and a strong attraction
to Jean Grey, Marvel Girl. Logan's
Interpol acquaintance Sean Cassidy, now known as the Banshee, is also
among the new X-Men, although Cassidy
apparently does not recognize Logan from his intelligence days for
some time.
(Name revealed in Uncanny X-Men #139. Nightcrawler from Classic
X-Men #4 and Marvel Girl from Classic X-Men #1, both among other sources.)
has ever had occasion to spend much time there, and he spends weeks
exploring the city. During one such
venture, he encounters Sabretooth for what may be the first time since
their clash in Madripoor, when
Sabretooth renews his habit of attacking Logan on the anniversary of
Silver Fox's apparent death; as far as
is known, the two will not meet again for years more, when Sabretooth,
acting as a member of the
Marauders, participates in the slaughter of the subterranean mutant
community known as the Morlocks.
(Exploration of New York and Sabretooth from Classic X-Men #10.)
X-Men, Marvel Girl, unknown to any of her teammates, is replaced by
a cosmic entity called the Phoenix; the
X-Men believe that Phoenix is in fact Marvel Girl, her powers greatly
enhanced, and even Logan's heightened
senses are fooled. It is during these early years of his career
as an X-Man that Logan first travels to the Savage
Land, a prehistoric jungle hidden deep in the Antarctic Circle; Logan
takes an immediate liking to the place and
will return there on a number of adventures. It is also during
this time Logan, in the course of his adventures with
the X-Men, returns to Japan for the first time since his break with
Ogun many months ago, where meets Mariko
Yashida, a young Japanese woman who is the daughter of noted crimelord
Shingen. Logan and Mariko soon fall in
love, and their relationship gives Logan an excuse to again visit the
land that he has loved for so long.
(Phoenix from Uncanny X-Men #100-101. Savage Land from Uncanny
X-Men #114. Yashida from Uncanny X-Men #118.)
other X-Men learn that the Phoenix was not, in fact, Jean Grey.
Sobered by the loss, Logan takes to wearing the
brown-and-orange costume that he once wore to battle Zaitsev, perhaps
to serve as a reminder that his role as
super-hero is no less dangerous than his previous one as government
agent; Logan will wear this alternate costume
for years before returning to his more familiar yellow-and-blue one.
Shortly after this change, Logan elects to
resolve his difficulties with Department H and, accompanied by Nightcrawler,
briefly returns to Canada, where,
alongside Alpha Flight, they battle the Wendigo. At this time, Logan
and Hudson satisfy their differences, and
Logan's resignation is finally accepted; ironically, shortly after
this, Department H discontinues its super-hero
program altogether, although it will be periodically revived in later
years.
(Phoenix from Uncanny X-Men #137. Brown-and-orange costume from
Uncanny X-Men #139. Alpha Flight et al from Uncanny X-Men #139-140.)
much in common with Logan's earlier persona; Logan also briefly clashes
with the Hand for the first known time
since initially assuming the identity of Wolverine, although, perhaps
initially mistrusting Yukio, he feigns an
unfamiliarity with the organization. Despite an immediate attraction
to Yukio, Logan becomes engaged to
Mariko Yashida, although the marriage is called off because Yashida
feels obliged to break her family's criminal
ties before marrying Logan. While again visiting Japan not long
afterward, in the aftermath of an adventure in
space with the X-Men, Logan, assisting in rescue operations when Japan
is attacked by an alien dragon who
accompanied the X-Men from space, rescues a young girl named Akiko,
of whom he will later become guardian.
Months later, one of Logan's fellow X-Men, Shadowcat, travels to Japan
alone and is victimized by Logan's sensei
Ogun, whom Logan must confront to free his friend from demonic influences.
Ogun will return on several
occasions to plague Logan again.
(Yukio and the Hand from Wolverine Limited Series #2. Engagement
from Wolverine Limited Series #4. Cancelled wedding from Uncanny
X-Men #173. Akiko from Uncanny X-Men #181. Ogun from Kitty
Pryde and Wolverine #1-6, among other sources.)
slain, Logan, made introspective by the experience, begins spending
more time away from the team, taking up his
old wanderings and becoming involved in adventures that do not involve
his fellow X-Men. He again visits
Madripoor, Hong Kong, and other places of his earlier life, becoming
romantically involved with the
Madripoorian crimelord Tyger Tiger, although this relationship, as
with Cracklin' Rosa decades earlier, never
grows serious. Briefly rendered amnesiac in the course of one
adventure, he finds contentment for the first time in
decades on the island of Rumika, although this tranquil existence is
soon interrupted; it is possible that his brief
amnesia on this occasion is a factor which triggers the Team X memory
implants and suppressions which he
received years ago. He also spends months living in the Savage
Land, during which time, unknown to him, he
fathers the child of a Savage Land native named Gahck; although Logan
has known the love of many women
throughout his century or so of life, only Gahck is known to have borne
his child. Some time later, Mariko
Yashida is poisoned, and, obeying her request for a death without suffering,
Logan kills the woman he has loved
more than any other. Logan's heroic activities, both with the X-Men
and alone, continue to this day, and several
alternate futures reveal that Logan will remain a heroic figure throughout
the years to come.
(Madripoor, Hong Kong, et al from various issues of Marvel Comics Presents
and Wolverine. Rumika from Wolverine #28. Gahck and Logan's
child from Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure. Yashida's death
from Wolverine #57. Various potential futures depicted in Uncanny X-Men,
Guardians of the Galaxy, J2, and other sources.)