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 (Wolverine #13-16). In recent years, a being claiming to be Ba'al comes into conflict with Logan, whom this Ba'al appears to believe is the reincarnation of the Hand of God. Although Logan experiences "deja vu" while battling Ba'al, he has no direct memory of any such previous incarnation.

On one occasion, Logan dreams about encountering the entity known as Uncegila during the 1840s (Marvel Comics Presents #93-98). Logan, although long-lived, does not appear to have been born significantly before the dawn of the twentieth century. It might be assumed, then, that this dream's timeframe was a result of Logan's subconscious denial of its reality, but it is at least possible that this chain of events in fact occurred during an earlier incarnation of Logan's soul.

On one occasion the Logan of the modern era traveled back in time to the year 1870 to prevent an extraterrestrial invasion in the western United States (X-Men: Millennial Visions).

Apparently, Victor Creed’s father, who confined him to the dark basement of their home, psychologically abused him.

It was alluded that Creed was Logan's father. A blood test performed by some considerate S.H.I.E.L.D. medical technicians. Wolverine #42 gave a definite answer: they are not related by blood at all. Apparently, it was merely a vestige of the Weapon X's memory implant procedures.

Logan is born in the frontier area of the Canadian Rockies

In about 1892, James Howlett, later to be known as Logan, Wolverine, Patch, Weapon X, and various other names, is born in Alberta, Canada, to John and Elizabeth Howlett. James is the second of the Howletts' two sons, the elder, John Jr., having been born in 1885. Unknown to his family, James is a mutant who will eventually develop several superhuman powers, including preternatural agility and skill, heightened senses, an enhanced healing factor which greatly retards his aging process, and retractable claws in his hands. (Wolverine: The Origin #1)

According to one account, the second child of the Howletts died in childbirth, and the Howletts found and adopted a infant member of the Moon Tribe, a bestial race which has co-existed with humanity for hundreds of thousands of years. Supposedly, it is this Moon Tribe child who was named James Howlett and would grow up to become Logan, the hero called Wolverine; however, certain other allegations made in the account in question remain dubious at best, and its claims about Logan may not be accurate. (Paradise X #4)

In 1897, shortly after the construction of the Howlett family estate, John Howlett, Jr. dies at the age of twelve, allegedly of illness; Elizabeth Howlett's reaction to the tragedy is so extreme that she is confined to a mental institution for an unspecified period of time. There is some reason to believe that John Jr.'s death is due to the manifestation of mutant abilities similar to those that James will later demonstrate. (Wolverine: The Origin #1-3)

In about 1904, a young Irish twelve-year-old girl named Rose is brought to the Howlett estate to be James's companion (her parents were claimed by influenza); the two children befriend a third youth, "Dog" Logan, son of groundskeeper Thomas Logan. She is driven, in a horse and cart, up the hill to the huge Howlett estate by Mr. Kenneth. (Wolverine: The Origin #1)

"Dog" says that she is pretty and she has nice hair before throwing dirt in her face and running off. The housekeeper Mrs. Hopkins explains that it was Logan’s boy. Thomas Logan is the groundkeeper and Mrs. Hopkins tells her to stay clear of him. Mrs. Hopkins takes Rose inside and introduces her to the friendly Mr. Howlett and his stern father. Outside James is playing with a hoop. It rolls to the feet of the scruffy young boy from earlier. The boy sends the hoop flying down a hill and James joyfully runs after it.

Rose writes in her diary about the different family members. It turns out that James is allergic to just about everything and his mother lives as a near recluse up stairs. The scruffy looking Logan’s boy is affectionately known as Dog as no one seems to know his name. Mr. Logan is a violent drunk who beats Dog regularly. Rose notes that Dog appears to admire her.

The three young children become close friends over the summer. Their friendship ends when in about 1907 James falls into the river and has to be rescued by Dog. Mr. Howlett is unconcerned by these events but the Old Mr. Howlett is enraged. Mr. Howlett cuts off his father and asks Logan to take his son home. That night, he beats Dog before handing him some alcohol to see him right.

It is now winter. Rose and James walk in the snow. James’ mother watches him from the upstairs window but when her eyes meet with Mr. Logan’s she looks sad and goes back inside. James sees Dog and runs to meet him but Dog runs away.

At Christmas, Mr. Howlett gives Rose a new dress to cheer her up. A commotion is heard and Kenneth enters pulling Dog buy his ear. Dog has been watching them all through the window. Mr. Howlett takes pity on the young boy and gives him one of James presents - a train. This causes Mr. Howlett and his father to have yet another argument, which upsets young James. Meanwhile Mr. Logan has got well and truly hammered at a bar and sits complaining about the Howletts, on how they are two good for them.

When Dog arrives home to show his father they gift he has been given he gets another sound beating and his Train is smashed. A broken picture of James’ mother lies on Mr. Logan’s table. The end shot is of Dog sitting on the roof of his shack staring out to the light in one window of the Howlett estate.

Thomas and Dog Logan return shortly afterward to the estate, Thomas Logan killing John Howlett in the presence of James, Rose, and Elizabeth Howlett. The grief-stricken James, in his mid-teens at this time, extends his mutant claws for the first time, wounding Dog and killing Thomas Logan. Elizabeth becomes hysterical and drives James from the house, and James's grandfather orders James and Rose to leave Alberta by train; as they travel, James's mutant healing factor helps him to recover from his ordeal. The two find refuge at a stone quarry in northern British Columbia, where Rose gives James's name as "Logan" and claims to be his cousin. Within a few months, the rough environment provokes a change in "Logan," causing him to become rougher and more violent, perhaps an indication of his mutation's further development; he takes to hunting in the wild, bringing down game with no more than his claws and an increasingly bestial nature. (Wolverine: The Origin #2-4)

In about 1910, after a few years in the quarry community, Logan becomes estranged from Rose when she decides to marry Smitty, the camp's foreman; Logan works off his frustrations in a series of cage fights, and his fighting prowess wins him the nickname of "the Wolverine." Following a fight with Smitty, whom he allows to win and with whom he makes peace, Logan is confronted by his former friend Dog, who has been sent by the ailing elder Howlett to retrieve him but who intends to instead kill him. During his fight with Dog, Logan accidentally kills Rose; horrified, Logan flees the quarry community, into the surrounding woods. Smitty searches for him to no avail; Dog's fate remains unrevealed. It will later be claimed that Logan's healing factor suppresses his painful memories of this incident and others of his youth but, considering that Logan will later demonstrate the ability to successfully retain memories that are at least as traumatic as these, this claim seems questionable; it may be that in later decades Logan's healing factor will, for one reason or another, cease to affect his memories as it allegedly does at this time. (Wolverine #175)

It is not known how long Logan lives in the wild nor what experiences he undergoes during that time; decades later, Logan will tell a young boy a story (Wolverine #25) about a boy who "had been cast out by his people," to be adopted by a pack of wolverines. To what extent, if any, this story is based upon his own childhood is unknown. (Marvel Comics Presents #72, 93-98; Havok and Wolverine #1)

Over the years, Logan's fragmented psyche attempts to restructure his youth with limited success, leaving him with only vague memories of his father and none of his mother. Among Logan's apparently false memories of his childhood are recollections of attending the first grade, where he got "in trouble... for not listenin' to instructions," and of receiving a knife from the effects of his deceased father. It remains unclear at precisely which point Logan lost his accurate memories of the first eighteen or so years of his life, although it appears that knowledge of his superhuman traits passes from his memory almost immediately, but presumably they are definitively erased when he is victimized by the Weapon X Program decades later. (Marvel Comics Presents #44, Wolverine #49)

After an unknown length of time living in the wild, Logan takes up residence in another frontier community in the Canadian Rockies, where white settlers co-exist, sometimes uneasily, with the Native American tribes of the region, including the Blackfoot (Wolverine Limited Series #1, Wolverine #10, Marvel Comics Presents #93-98); decades later, Logan will express uncertainty about whether or not he himself is partially Blackfoot in descent, an impression that may derive from this point in his life. Among the community's residents is a man who will become Logan's deadliest enemy: Victor Creed, although the community knows him only as "Sabretooth."

Among his friends is a young Native American girl named Silver Fox (Wolverine #106).

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 (Wolverine #10).

Victor Creed lived in the same community. Logan will later recall that Creed 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, himself a mutant with abilities remarkably similar to Logan's (and, according to one account, a member of the Bear Clan, a second tribe of the same bestial race as the Moon Tribe - Paradise #4), senses Logan's powers and wishes to maintain "dominance" over him like one wild animal over another, while Logan himself, although as yet unaware of his mutant nature, may subconsciously sense the similarity between them, leading him to restrain himself against someone so like himself.