Wolverine's History
Early Years
Wolverine's life began in Alberta, Canada, sometime around the 1880s and 1890s. The mutant who would come to be known simply as "Logan" was born James Howlett, the second son of Elizabeth Howlett (who was married to John Howlett, owner of a large estate) and the illegitimate son of the Howlett's grounds-keeper, Thomas Logan. As a boy, James was notably frail and prone to bouts of allergic attacks. He was largely neglected by his mother, who had been institutionalized for a time following the death of her first son, John Jr., in 1897. James was constantly under the pressure of his grandfather, Mister Howlett, who believed that James required constant punishment by a strong hand, in order to be raised properly. "Firm, but fair" was what Mister Howlett used to say to justify any of his abusive actions.
James spent most of his early years on the estate grounds with two playmates that lived on the Howlett Estate with him: Rose O'Hara, a red-headed Irish girl who was brought in from town to be a companion to young James, and a boy nicknamed "Dog", Thomas Logan's son (and James's half-brother). The children were close friends, but, as they reached adolescence, the abuse inflicted upon Dog warped his mind. Dog made unwanted advances towards Rose, which James reported to his father. In retaliation, Dog killed James' puppy, in turn leading to the expulsion of Thomas and Dog from the estate.
Thomas, in a drunken stupor and armed with a shotgun, invaded the Howlett Estate with his son and attempted to take his former lover Elizabeth with him. John, Sr. attempted to stop him and Thomas shot him in the head, in cold blood. James had just entered the room while this occurred and his mutation finally manifested; bone claws extended from the backs of his hands and he attacked the intruders with uncharacteristic ferocity, killing Thomas and scarring Dog's face with three claw marks. Already an emotionally disturbed woman since the death of her first son, Elizabeth, completely unhinged, drove James away and took her life, immediately afterward, with a blast from Thomas' gun.
Rose fled the estate with James in tow, hiding in a shed James experiences his heightened senses for the first time telling Rose that he can smell apple dumplings.
Dog falsely reported to the police and James' grandfather that Rose had murdered John, Sr. and Thomas. Rose led James to his grandfather's house, but Mr. Howlett simply ordered them to flee by train, with cold, cruel eyes, but still used his influence in town to help the pair escape, due to blood ties. Rose then fled the estate with James, who appeared to have been deeply traumatized and his healing factor had somehow drove the trauma from his memories, leaving him partially amnesiac.
"Little Smitty"
James and Rose later found themselves in the Yukon Territories in Canada, taking refuge in a British Columbia stone quarry, under the guise of being cousins. James also assumed the name of "Logan", in order to hide his identity. Within months, as the hard work of mining and the tough environment provoked traumatic changes in his body, Logan grew to be unusually healthy and ferocious, displaying enhanced agility and strength, possessing animal-like heightened senses that rivaled any animal's and learning to break the rocks by hating and bullying them.
Later, Logan stated that it was a piece of his grandfather's devil personality. In his adulthood, James came to resemble the appearance of the groundskeeper much more closely than his legal father. Logan became a valuable and admirable figure amongst the small community of miners, due to his hard work and strong ethics, earning him the respect of his peers. Even the foreman, Smitty, who became a surrogate father figure to Logan, was impressed with him. Logan even gained the nickname "Little Smitty", due to their similar work ethics, and this brought him into conflict with Cookie Malone, Smitty's original favorite.
Cookie took an instant dislike to Logan and continually hurt him, until Smitty came to his rescue. Cookie even shortened the fuse to an explosive of Logan's, killing five men. Cookie also cut Logan and Rose's rations, so Logan hunted deer in the woods and gave the extra to the neighbors, which made him more loved. Logan was immune to the elements, due to his healing factor, and even ran with the wolves in the forest, learning to hunt like an animal. Logan also defeated Cookie in a cage match, where he earned the nickname "the Wolverine". It was said that no one could beat Logan in a cage fight. After his victories, Logan would hear "It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog" a phrase that he repeated out loud to make it come true. During this period, Logan developed strong feelings for Rose, but could not act on them for the sake of their guise as cousins. Smitty, who had been mentoring Logan all these years, had also grown close to Rose and the two eventually fell in love and became engaged, much to the scorn and surprise of Logan, who later accepted the situation for the sake of Rose's happiness.
Meanwhile, his grandfather, Mr. Howlett, was in failing health and asked Dog to find Rose and his grandson, so he could make peace with them before he died. Dog agreed; however, Dog (who had become a physically formidable man himself) decided to track them down, so he could kill Logan. Dog hunted Logan and Rose down so easily that it seemed he had a preternatural skill for tracking. On the night that Smitty was due to leave the mining town with Rose, Logan fought him but allowed him to win, hoping to reconcile with him and Rose, but Dog finally found and confronted Logan. Dog reminded Logan of his past as James Howlett and that fateful night back on the estate that had changed all their lives. The two fought fiercely in the middle of the street and, despite being the physically stronger of the two, Dog was eventually overpowered by the enraged Logan.
As Dog lay unconscious, Logan unsheathed his claws, for the first time in public (to the shock of everyone watching), and was about to deal the deathblow, when Rose leaped in to stop him, but was accidentally impaled by his claws. Horrified, Logan held her in his arms as she died. Stricken with grief and guilt for the death of his first love, Logan fled into the nearby woods, where he lived in self-imposed exile in a feral state with a pack of wolves for months, if not years. Around this time, Logan met and fell in-love with many women. Unknown to him, Logan also fathered a number of children. Romulus, immortal mastermind and ruler of the wolflike Lupine, had taken interest in the Hudson line, Logan's mother's family, and over coming decades he, whether directly or through proxies, altered or erased Logan's memories to suit him.
Birthday Surprise
Apparently under Romulus' guidance, Logan became a mercenary in Madripoor. Sometime later he met Chang, a businessman working for the firm Landau, Luckman & Lake. He met and romanced Seraph, a diminutive woman employed by Romulus, who had instructed her to form such relationship. In the next years Logan realized that Seraph and other acknowledges were under a single authority, but he didn't know, or care who it was. Possibly on his first trip to Japan, Logan encountered members of the ninja sect known as the Hand. The Hand extorted Logan into fighting Sabretooth, who was another Romulus operative murdering women in Tokyo. Logan defeated Sabretooth and thought he was dead, without knowing of Sabretooth's healing factor.
At some point later, Logan traveled to another frontier community in the Canadian Rockies and met a young Blackfoot Indian woman, named Silver Fox, with whom he fell in love. The two shared a cabin together and lived happily for a time. Logan had made a new life for himself: hunting and farm chores around the homestead now his daily routine, but, as ever, there were other forces at work in his life. On Logan's birthday, Sabretooth, possibly under Romulus' orders, brutally attacked Silver Fox, raping her and leaving her for dead, the first of many birthday "surprises" from him to come. Enraged, Logan battled him in a bar, only to be defeated and left for dead. Sabretooth then manipulated a feral, mindless Logan into believing the people of a nearby town had ordered Silver Fox's death, prompting Logan to slaughter the inhabitants of the town, persuading him that "the townspeople are afraid of you--they don't want you around. So, they got rid of the one thing keeping you here".
Later, employed by The Hudson's Bay Company as a fur trader to the Blackfoot Indians, Logan defeated the demonic snake-worm, known as Uncegila, a feat which earned him the Blackfoot warrior name of "Skunk-Bear" (or "Wolverine"). A broad, largely unseen conspiracy thus began to shape Logan, now robbed of his conscience and free will, into the perfect killer. Wherever Logan went, Creed, one of his handlers, was not far behind. On one occasion in Madripoor, Logan was rescued from Victor, by Viper and Seraph. Seraph died, but not before making Logan swear an oath of loyalty to Viper.
World War I
When World War I began in 1914, Logan joined the Canadian Army, where he was assigned to the Devil's Brigade, a special Canadian military unit sometimes used by Romulus. Logan's commanding officer was a super-humanly strong man known as Silas Burr (who would later become the mercenary Cyber), who was formerly an agent of the Pinkerton Private Detective Agency, where he abused his position, committing several atrocities, even burning down a schoolhouse full of children once. After being sentenced to death for his crimes, Burr was rescued from the courthouse, by Creed, and brought to the facility, hired by Frederick Hudson due to his sadistic nature. Yet another Romulus operative, Logan fell in love with female operative Janet per Burr's manipulation.
Later in the war Logan and other soldiers were sent to Europe, and while fighting in Ypres, Belgium, on April 22, 1915, Logan encountered a being, called Lazaer (an anagram of Azrael, the Angel of Death), who was armed with a large broadsword and had been using it to kill soldiers on the same battlefield. They began to fight one another, with Lazaer initially gaining the upper hand, but, after being impaled with Lazaer's sword, Logan pulled it from his chest and stabbed it through his surprised opponent. Besting Lazaer in combat sent Logan in to a deep depression, even causing him to put a gun to his own head at one point. Logan started drinking considerably more as the war dragged on and ate less and less, until Lazaer finally confronted him. Lazaer explained that the depression was a punishment for defeating him and defying the natural order of things. It was also later revealed that because Logan defeated Lazaer, whenever Logan was wounded severely enough to tax even his healing factor, he recovered by defeating Lazaer in an astral arena.
Afterwards, Logan was re-stationed in Canada, and Burr, under orders from Romulus' proxy, killed Janet as a lesson that whenever Logan overcame his inner bestial nature to care for someone, that person would die. Seeking for vengeance, Logan fought Burr, who severely beat him and gouged out his left eye. Logan descended to a near-feral state, his healing factor again obscuring his traumatic memories, and he fled Canada to travel abroad, as Romulus intended. Logan went to Shanghai, China, and he intervened in a conflict between locals and Ogun, a Japanese soldier, samurai and sorcerer. Impressed by Logan, Ogun offered to train him in the martial arts, but he declined.
Kansas City Bank Robbery
In 1921, Logan found himself in the Mexican Sondran Desert beaten, locked up by the local police, and accused of horse thievery. As Logan was blindfolded and tied to a post to be shot, by a firing squad, a voice next to him asked if he was a murderer. Logan answered, ��worse, a horse thief.�, and the person next to him turned out to be Mystique, who was also about to be killed for being blue. The locals thought she was a witch, even though she explained that she was simply born different, and Logan laughed at meeting someone like him there of all places. Mystique managed to untie herself, just before the firing squad shot, and Logan survived, due, once again, to his healing factor, and killed the guards. After they both escaped, Mystique stood surprised that Logan was able to survive and asked how he knew she would be able to free herself and escape. Logan responded, �I didn't.�, and, when she asked where he was going to next, he said the nearest bar. Mystique introduced herself to Logan and said that she had a group of friends in Kansas City, that he would probably like to meet.
Once in Kansas City, Mystique told Logan about her group, who scammed people. After meeting her crew, and saving one of them from an angry customer that was scammed, Mystique informed Logan that she and her crew were planning a bank heist and she wanted him to take part in it. When Logan expressed his reluctance to get attached to people, she told him that she knew it was hard to trust people, but that they could be a family and to trust her. They both kissed and Logan decided to help her. However, he tipped off the police about the planned bank robbery. Mystique cut and ran, and despite Logan's protests, her crew was killed by the police. Logan again found himself alone and with a festering hatred for the woman he had come to trust. He continued his own criminal activities for a few years, smuggling bootleg alcohol during Prohibition of the mid-1920s.
By 1932 Logan was in Madripoor again, and Seraph taught him how to be a better assassin. Around this time, Logan started to use his recurrent alias "Patch", if not before. Some time later, Logan remembered Ogun's offer and he went to Japan to better learn self-discipline. There, he spent years under Ogun's tutelage, and Logan regarded him as a surrogate father. Around the mid-1930s, Logan formed a partnership with Raven Darkholme and Irene Adler, two mutant adventurers and lovers. Maybe because of memory alteration, Logan was unaware that the apparently male Raven was Mystique. Later, Logan went into action in Spain during its Civil War. In 1937, Logan, under Romulus' orders, spent two years learning espionage from Taras Romanov, and in turn Logan gave hand-to-hand combat lessons to Natasha Romanoff, Taras' ward. Taras then told Natasha to kill Logan, but Logan instead killed him and allowed Natasha to depart.
World War II
In 1939, when World War II began, Logan returned to the Devil's Brigade, again under Burr's command, although his memories of Burr's crimes were mostly purged. Seraph was like Logan's handler in Madripoor, and she prepared him for more covert missions for Romulus. In the summer of 1941, both she and Logan worked with the US super-soldier Captain America and others in order to sabotage an alliance between the Hand and Baron Strucker, luring the Hand's Jonin, their leader, out of hiding. Natasha Romanoff, now a Romulus operative, wanted to kill the Jonin, but Logan, regretting how he trained her to be an assassin, killed the Jonin himself. Later that same year, Logan, under orders to recruit or kill the Cap, worked with him and Bucky in Tunisia, where Logan met Sgt. Nick Fury. Finally, Logan decided not to kill Captain America, creating a rift between Seraph and himself.
In 1942, Logan participated as a paratrooper for the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, during the Normandy landings on D-Day, as well as the liberation of the Netherlands. Logan may have also been a spy for the Allied Forces and he spent time in the Sobibor Death Camp in Poland, where he psychologically tortured three Nazi commandants by simply never speaking and returning every time they ordered him executed. While at Sobibor, Logan was known as "Prisoner Zero". A year later he surfaced in Newell, California, overseeing inhumane experimentation on Japanese prisoners of war. Even though Logan had been a hardened killer, he was atypically cruel during this period, his personality probably altered by Romulus. In 1945, Logan was captured by Japanese soldiers in Japan, where he was sent to a prison camp in Nagasaki. Logan escaped from his cell along with Lt. Ethan Warren, an American soldier who was also captured, and found refuge and love in a local Japanese girl, named Atsuko. Unfortunately, Lt. Warren, himself a mutant, returned and murdered the girl and the two men fought, until both were caught in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima that destroyed much of the city. Logan survived, but was devastated to lose another woman in his life.
Fathering Daken
After the war ended, Logan sought redemption in Jasmine Falls, Japan, and he studied with Bando Suboro, in order to learn how to be a man and leave his warrior nature behind. Finally at peace since Silver Fox's supposed death, Logan met and fell in love with a local woman, named Itsu Akihiro and they married and conceived a child together, unknown to Logan.
In 1946, while Logan was proving himself worthy of being a father in combat, the demon sword-smith, Muramasa, created an explosion, that caused Logan to accidentally stab a villager with his claws. Logan was banned from the village, but wanted to say good-bye to Itsu. Returning to their self-built home, Logan found Itsu murdered, by Bucky Barnes, now the brainwashed Winter Soldier. Although Barnes ostensibly served the USSR, he was acting under Romulus' orders. Believing their child to be dead, Logan mistakenly blamed Muramasa, who captured and tortured him. When Muramasa's underlings prepared to dispose of Logan, Romulus, or maybe his operative, killed them. Unknown to Logan, Romulus took the child from Itsu's womb, and he was safely born and adopted by a Japanese couple. This child was named Akahiro, but he eventually took the name "Daken", which means "Mongrel". Nine years later Daken fell under the influence of Romulus, and he was told lies that his father despised him and abandoned him, filling Daken with hatred.
CIA and Cold War
Logan resurfaced as a mercenary. It's unknown if he retained his memories of Itsu. Chang arranged for Landau, Luckman and Lake to handle Logan's business affairs and find assignments, and Logan would in exchange do occasional services. He operated most of the times from Ottawa and Calgary, with few exceptions into South America and Madripoor, working for government agencies, and he became one of the deadliest free agents of the intelligence field. Working for the CIA, Logan, indulged in this brutal mission per Romulus' command, helped participate in turning a boy, named Frank Simpson, into the deranged super-soldier, Nuke. In 1953 Frank, growing up watching his alcoholic mother constantly verbally abuse his meek father, was influenced by his babysitter into killing his mother. Meanwhile, as Frank's father drove the babysitter home, she abruptly pulled out his flask and began to drink it and then seduced him. After pulling over into the nearby woods, the couple was interrupted by a police officer, who was revealed to be Logan. Logan asked Frank's father to sit back in his seat and shot the babysitter, with Frank's gun. Logan then suggested that Frank's father had taken advantage of the babysitter, plying her with alcohol and even going so far as to shooting her because she resisted. Frank's father realized the gravity of the situation and, seeing no other way, he shot himself.
Logan continued his espionage work, becoming a favorite of both America's and Canada's secret services, even teaming up with Ben Grimm (later known as the Thing) to participate in a Cold War-era government mission. When guarding Michael Carling, a scientist, for Landau, Luckman and Lake, Logan fought Kimora, who was after Carling's expertise in large-scale transportation between Earth and Kageumbra, his home dimension. Kimora defeated Logan, and even called him a beast in a man's clothing; however, Chang seemingly decapitated Kimora after this. Logan retired for a while, returning to Jasmine Falls and spending years there seeking his lost tranquility, until Chang found him and asked for his help to prevent Kimora from conquering Earth via Carling's technology. They both traveled to Kageumbra, where Logan and Kimora fought once again. Logan relied this time upon meditative training and berserker rage, and he hurled Kimora into a dimension-travelling device, which he destroyed. Again on Earth, Chang offered Logan a position with Landau, Luckman and Lake, but Logan declined.
During his time into the CIA, Wolverine had also allegedly participated in strikes against three African leaders, stating on records and information of the Mbangawi rode by the Doctor Crocodile.
The Team X Project/Weapon X Program
By 1961, Logan, known as Wolverine now, joined the Weapon X Project, part of the Weapon Plus Program, which had been created to fight the mutant menace. Nevertheless, Weapon X only used mutants as superhuman operatives on international tasks. He was then placed on the Black Ops squad run by the CIA, called Team X, with Sabretooth and Silver Fox (it's unknown if they remembered their past history at this point), Maverick, Kestrel and Mastodon. During this time, Logan and the others received memory implants via staged scenarios, telepathic manipulation by Aldo Ferro, and other technology. Weapon X also duplicated Wolverine's healing factor and implanted it in Team X, slowing their aging processes. In 1963 Silver Fox betrayed Wolverine and Sabretooth to enemy soldiers, and she fled Weapon X.
In 1968, Wolverine was shot with Carbonadium bullets, which slowed his healing factor so that Weapon X or Romulus could know how to kill him. The bullets were removed, but he awoke earlier than expected, and he regained his memories for the first time in years, because they hadn't been altered yet. Logan tried to keep the secret, and he rendezvoused with Team X in Berlin, East Germany. The team retrieved experimental Carbonadium technology and Janice Hollenbeck, a double agent. However, Sabretooth, apparently aware Wolverine had regained his memories, killed Janice to reinforce Wolverine's conditioning about innocents dying when he overstepped Romulus' boundaries. He quit Team X, but fell back under Romulus' influence, turning to atypically sadistic activities. On that same year, while in Vietnam as a Russian adviser, Logan tortured and brainwashed Frank Simpson, now a soldier, into becoming a murderous madman, known as Nuke.
By 1972, Wolverine joined Department K, a secret Canadian Defense Ministry branch with ties to Weapon X. Based in Ottawa, he partnered with Neil Langram and worked with Nick Fury, now a high-ranking CIA agent, and with Richard and Mary Parker. Years later, Langram was sought as an operative by the Hellfire Club, but he refused, and he was then slain by Sabretooth, hired as a mercenary. Wolverine and Carol Danvers, a young US spy, investigated and confronted Sabretooth at the Club's Canadian facility. Sabretooth told Wolverine details of the Club's intent to guide a war between mutants and humans. Sabretooth then bombed the facility, but he, Wolverine and Danvers survived. A troubled Wolverine turned to drugs and alcohol, and he was dismissed from Department K after accidentally shooting a fellow agent. Disgusted with himself, he planned to lose himself in the Yukon.
But before leaving Canada, while in his Lotus Seven, Logan was pumped full of Thorazine, beaten, and kidnapped, by a group of armed men from the Weapon X Project, possibly under Romulus' orders. The man known only as the Professor, Dr. Abraham Cornelius, and Dr. Carol Hines began to examine Logan, while he floated in a containment tank. Logan's skeleton, including his claws, was bonded with the indestructible metal known as Adamantium, making it unbreakable, and his personality was buried beneath the most intense brainwashing he had ever undergone. While in the tank, Logan was put under deep hypnosis, telling him that he was not a man or individual, and being a man disgusted him. The Project wanted Logan to believe that he was an obedient animal and that individuality lead to suffering and death. Reduced to a near-mindless state, Logan was forced by Weapon X to slaughter every inhabitant of the small town Roanoke as a test. Logan proved too difficult for the Weapon X Program to control and, after many years, he broke free of the programming, fell into a berserker fury and escaped the facility, with the help of the Winter Soldier, killing nearly everyone except for the Professor, Dr. Cornelius, Dr. Hines, and Malcolm Colcord, who later became the Director of a new Weapon X Program. Wolverine's healing factor was probably exhausted by his ordeal, since over the next few years he healed more slowly than ever before.
Driven into savagery by the experiment, Logan wandered the forests of the Canadian Rockies for months, living in a feral state, ironically, not far from the place of his birth. It was during this period Logan saved the life of a creature, known as a Hunter in Darkness, one of a race of feral beings apparently mystical in origin. A psychic link of some sort was established between the two, to resurface in later years. On occasion, Logan's human personality surfaced, to the extent that, years later, he was able to recall pleasant experiences in these woods. Years after this experience, Logan's memories of much of his past would remain clouded, as a result of the Weapon X experiment and additional false memories during the procedure as well.
Department H
Wandering the woods, Logan was eventually discovered by Heather and James "Mac" Hudson, a young couple honeymooning in the Rockies, whom he attacked, only to be shot by Hudson, whom neither knew was Wolverine's cousin from his maternal Hudson line. While he recovered, Logan regained enough of his human persona to be horrified at his claws, believing them to be artificial implants. Recovering his mental faculties with the Hudson's help, Logan became a member of Canada's Department H, the superhuman-oriented government agency James Hudson founded. Sometime later, Wolverine consulted Adamantium expert Myron MacLain, and he was targeted by Sabretooth and, under Silver Fox's leadership, Hydra. Wolverine was aided by Nick Fury, Carol Danvers and Natasha Romanoff, now the Russian super-spy Black Widow. Even though Wolverine and his allies triumphed, his full memories remained unrestored, and he didn't recognize former friends or enemies. Logan eventually regained memories of Burr, Seraph, Captain America and other parts of his life, but due to Weapon X intervention and his healing factor, some areas were left blank, like his life with Itsu and much of his Team X service. Logan also underwent ongoing intense psychotherapy to help him control his berserker rages. As a Department H operative, he returned to espionage and served primarily in Siberia and the Western Pacific, like Asia's Pacific Rim and its adjacent islands, including Japan. He accepted deadly and brutal assignments that no other agent would, and he soon rose to Captain in the Canadian Armed Forces. Eventually, Romulus or his proxies contacted Wolverine, who received secret orders to facilitate Romulus' interests even while on Department H missions.
After the Fantastic Four's debut, Hudson steered the Department H's resources to form a super-team sponsored by the government. He nominated Wolverine for leadership of this team, which was called the Flight. Contemplating the wisdom of this move, Wolverine temporarily returned to Madripoor to reunite with Seraph. He helped her and Viper, her new student, against Sabretooth, probably a case of infighting in Romulus' forces. Seraph sacrificed her life for Wolverine, but before dying, she made him promise to help Viper in the future. Seraph's heroism influenced Wolverine to agree to Hudson's proposal, although he also continued espionage missions abroad.
When a 40th century time-traveler called D'von Kray invaded Canada trying to hunt fellow time-traveler Cable, Wolverine captured Kray and turned him over to Department H. Hudson hoped Kray's technology could empower super-agents, but Kray soon escaped and resumed tracking Cable, pursued by Wolverine. Kray was defeated by Wolverine and Cable, and Cable became a mercenary whom Wolverine encountered during select missions. After this, Wolverine worked with CIA agent Rick Stoner to retrieve one of Hudson's prototype empowered-armor suits, stolen by Hydra. Meanwhile, Hudson subjected William Nowlan, a convicted murderer, to experimental procedures to manifest superhuman powers. Wolverine, maybe remembering his Weapon X experimentation, warned Hudson that Nowlan, now called Bedlam, might prove uncontrollable. His prediction accurate, Wolverine assisted Hudson in placing the insane Bedlam in suspended animation. Months after the Avengers' debut, Wolverine recruited Canadian Detective Sean Bernard to be a member of the Flight. As Groundhog, Bernard wore Hudson's Guardian armor. Some weeks later, the criminal Egghead led superhuman mercenaries to extort funds from Canada, threatening via a nuclear warhead. Wolverine led Flight trainees against Egghead and his minions, and even though the mission succeeded, trainee Saint Elmo died, Groundhog resigned, and some other trainees proved unsuited for such missions. Hudson, taking notice of this, divided the Flight into three divisions of increasing proficiency: Gamma Flight, Beta Flight and Alpha Flight.
Later, on an espionage assignment, Wolverine went to Vladivostok, Russia, where he worked with Nick Fury before him being appointed director of SHIELD. While Alpha Flight's preparation continued, Wolverine traveled to Japan to seek Ogun's advice, but he found out that Ogun had surrendered himself to dark magic and he was now an assassin, a role into which he intended to enslave Wolverine. Escaping this situation and deeply disturbed, Wolverine vowed to never return to Japan.
As Wolverine prepared to publicly debut as a super hero, he was kidnapped by the Leader, as were Hercules and Karkas, all of whom the Leader intended to use against the Hulk. Wolverine and the other prisoners escaped, but coincidentally the Hulk arrived in Canada shortly before Wolverine. The Canadian military mobilized to fight the Hulk, but Wolverine received orders from Romulus to attract an unidentified party's attention by fighting the Hulk. Wolverine started a battle with the Hulk and a Wendigo. Wolverine's speed and maneuverability proved to be a match for the two plodding powerhouses, but after realizing Hulk was a more formidable opponent, he changed tactics. Teaming up with Hulk to take out the Wendigo, Hulk threw the Wendigo into a patch of trees and Wolverine then delivered the finishing blow. The Hulk and Wolverine kept on fighting, and as Hulk had by now grown so enraged that Wolverine's adamantium claws failed to penetrate Hulk's skin, the Hulk emerged victorious and Hulk abandoned the unconscious Wolverine, unaware of his healing factor. The defeated Wolverine returned to Department H. Still slated to take leadership of Alpha Flight, Wolverine spent weeks completing some espionage missions, even when various factors made him increasingly troubled by his service to Department H.
Joining the X-Men
During his leadership of Alpha Flight, Wolverine was approached by Charles Xavier, attracted by his fight with the Hulk (as Romulus expected), who was looking for mutants to help his students, the X-Men, to escape from the island-being known as Krakoa. Wolverine resigned from Department H to accompany Professor Xavier and rescue the captured X-Men. Wolverine, under Romulus instructions, tried to assassinate Xavier, but he broke Romulus' hold on Wolverine by blocking the effects of his programming. Neither man knew their enemy's identity at the time. After Krakoa was defeated, Wolverine decided to stay with the X-Men, at the School for Gifted Youngsters, with fellow new recruits Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Thunderbird, and Banshee, as the original members left to pursue a normal life.
Logan remained with the X-Men for quite some time, but a rivalry grew between him and Cyclops, one of the reasons being that he had fallen for Scott's girlfriend, telekinetic telepath Jean Grey, who soon rejoined the group. Despite decades of hard-earned cynicism and at first skeptical of Xavier's hope for mutant and human coexistence, Wolverine began to respect his ideals, determination and goals, and grew to be a loyal and trusted member of the X-Men. Wolverine also developed a strong friendship with Nightcrawler.
When the X-Men traveled to Agarashima, Japan, the first time for Wolverine since breaking with Ogun, he met Lady Mariko Yashida and aided her cousin, former X-Man Sunfire, in battling Moses Magnum. Romantically interested in her, but unable to requite his love, Wolverine fell in love with Lady Mariko, heir to an extremely powerful Yakuza family in Tokyo. Initially frightened, Mariko was soon set at ease by Wolverine, who was attracted to her gentle demeanor, and both fell in love. The X-Men departed, but they were diverted to Calgary, Alberta where they battled James Hudson, now calling himself Vindicator, aided by Alpha Flight, who wanted to arrest their former would-be leader. Wolverine surrendered to the Canadian team, but somehow escaped and returned to the mansion with his team.
After Wolverine and Nightcrawler sneaked into the Hellfire Club, the Phoenix fell under Mastermind and the Hellfire Club's control and transformed into the Black Queen. After the X-Men battled the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle, Phoenix underwent another transformation into the Dark Phoenix and soared through the universe, where she devoured an entire star and the five billion inhabitants of one of its planets. When Phoenix returned to Earth, she threatened to kill everyone, but Professor Xavier was able to keep Phoenix under control and helped her will herself back to normal. The X-Men were then teleported away by the Shi'ar. The Shi'ar Empire had witnessed Dark Phoenix consuming the star and the X-Men were forced to battle with the Imperial Guard over Phoenix's fate. The battle triggered her transformation into Dark Phoenix once more. Phoenix understood that she would never be able to fully control the dark hunger inside and sacrificed herself on the moon.
Wolverine later made the first change to his costume and journeyed to Canada to make things right with Alpha Flight and Department H, accompanied by Nightcrawler. Together with Alpha Flight, they battled a Wendigo. Logan grew closer to his friends and even dared Nightcrawler to walk down the main street of Salem Center undisguised, in his natural shape and took the underage Colossus to bars. Logan also aided Spider-Man in battling Mentallo. Later, the Brood retaliated by implanting embryos in all of the X-Men, but Logan's healing factor and Storm's new connection to an Acanti saved them all. The X-Men returned home to battle the Brood Queen that was inside of Professor Xavier and saved his life by transplanting his mind into a cloned body.
After the X-Men watched a televised debate, between Professor X and Reverend William Stryker, they received news that Cyclops, Storm, and the Professor had died in a car accident. While investigating the scene of the accident, the X-Men were attacked, by the Purifiers, and rescued, by Magneto. After capturing their attackers, the X-Men and Magneto tortured them for information and rescued Kitty, who was being pursued by Purifiers. After arriving at Stryker's base, the X-Men and Magneto rescued Cyclops and Storm and Magneto resuscitated them. Professor X was taken to Madison Square Garden, where he was attached to a machine that, using his brainpower, would kill all living mutants. Magneto, with his psi-shielded helmet, was able to distract the Professor enough for the X-Men to destroy the machine. Televised, Cyclops entered into a debate with Stryker about his actions and Stryker pulled a gun, attempting to kill Kitty. Before he could fire, Stryker was shot-down, by a police officer. Later at the mansion, Professor admitted that Magneto was right and began to accept his offer to join, until Scott stopped him and stated that he believed in the Professor's dream and will see it come true. Following Storm, Kitty, and Colossus, the X-Men battled Dracula again, this time, Logan was bitten by Dracula and attacked Cyclops until Rachel van Helsing destroyed Dracula. Logan stopped Storm from assisting Rachel in suicide, per Rachel's request, stating that killing was his profession and while embracing her, drove a wooden steak through her heart.
Engaged to Mariko
After investigating the return of his letters to Mariko, Logan learned that she had been married to an abusive husband, Noburo Hideki. Logan intended to kill her husband, but was then drugged and challenged to a duel of wooden swords by Mariko's father, Lord Shingen. During the duel, Logan was soundly beaten and humiliated in front Mariko, due to the poisoning and Shingen using deadly pressure points. Logan then threw the sword and unsheathed his claws, only to be beaten more and revered as an "animal cast in a semblance of human form", for using deadly force in a non-lethal duel. With this act, Logan had dishonored himself to Mariko and was cast into the streets, where he was rescued by Yukio, later his close friend and sometimes lover. After being attacked by the Hand, Yukio manipulated Logan into helping her, which lead to further embarrassment in front of Mariko. Upon realizing his deceit, Logan took the fight directly to Shingen. After Yukio killed Mariko's husband, Wolverine was forced to kill Lady Mariko's father, Lord Shingen, in a duel. Afterward, Mariko gave Logan the Clan Yashida Masamune sword, stating he was worthy. Forged 800 years ago by the supreme sword-smith Masamune, the sacred blade represented everything that was best and most noble in the family and the samurai, the lord�s champion, who wielded it. With the deaths of her father and husband, Mariko was named head of Clan Yashida. Logan stayed with her, and they later announced their engagement.
Before the wedding service, Viper and Silver Samurai poisoned the X-Men and battled Logan over control of Clan Yashida, from Mariko. At first enraged at seeing Rogue had joined the X-Men, Logan gained her respect after she saved the life of Mariko, by jumping in front of a shot from Viper intended for her. Mariko and Logan became estranged, due to the honor customs of her family, as well as the manipulations of the villain Mastermind, and Logan returned the Masamune sword to her. After the X-Men defeated Mastermind, Mariko returned the honor sword to him and stated that she had to break her Clan�s criminal connections. Mariko felt that she could not marry Wolverine until she did this. The X-Men again battled with Mastermind, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and the Morlocks.
Weeks later, the X-Men battled a giant dragon when they were teleported to Japan. Unable to save a dying woman, Wolverine vowed to protect her daughter, Amiko Kobayashi. Logan initially left Amiko in the care of Mariko and the X-Men next battled Selene. Amiko would eventually become Wolverine's foster daughter.
Kitty Pryde and Wolverine
Following a distress call from teammate Kitty Pryde, Wolverine traveled to Japan. Kitty was then captured and put under the mental control of Ogun. Ogun mentally controlled her, transforming her body and soul as he had originally intended to do to Wolverine. After arriving in Japan, Kitty was sent to kill Wolverine and injured him greatly, but with help from Yukio, she was restored. Wolverine undertook a crash program to teach Kitty's body, just as Ogun had taught her mind, to become skillful enough in the Japanese martial arts to contend against Ogun and to help her overcome his evil. Kitty went to face Ogun herself, who was attempting to kill Mariko and Amiko to punish Wolverine. After being defeated by Ogun, he offered Kitty, calling herself Shadowcat, to join him or die. At that time, Wolverine came to her rescue. Sadly, Wolverine was also overwhelmed and the two of them sat helplessly at Ogun's mercy. In a turn of events, Kitty informed Wolverine that she was scared until he arrived and when he apologized, she stated that she did not want an apology, but life. At that moment, Wolverine turned the battle and defeated Ogun and Kitty regained her innocence that Ogun had taken. After killing Ogun, although his spirit survived, Logan and Kitty became very close friends, with her as a near-foster daughter to him.
Later, Logan was attacked by Lady Deathstrike and her first Reavers and he was aided by Katie Power. Unable to heal on his own, Wolverine was taken by the X-Men to the Morlock Healer and his teammate Phoenix attempted to telekinetically heal him. Rachel opened her mind to Wolverine's and, soon after, Rachel decided to kill Selene for her attack when she first arrived in the mainstream timeline. Wolverine, mentally sensing Rachel's intentions, stabbed Rachel in the chest to prevent her from vengefully murdering Selene.
The X-Men attempted to rescue the Morlocks after the Marauders began to indiscriminately massacre them and, after the team was defeated, Wolverine was charged with staying behind and bringing a prisoner, where he faced Victor Creed, now calling himself Sabretooth.
Logan assisted Captain America to defeat Overrider and his adamantium coated robot TESS-1, who were attempting to fire all of America's nuclear missiles and send them into the sea. Due to Wolverine's disrespect and brash methods, Captain America stated that the X-Men better not ever get tired of him, because the Avengers would never have him.
Wolverine and Storm investigated the recently bombed home of Sara Bailey and Logan sensed Scott Summers (Cyclops) and, the thought dead, Jean Grey (Marvel Girl), which sent him into a berserker rage as he began to search for the woman he secretly loved.
On the anniversary of his wedding to Mariko, the team was abducted by Horde, to use as his lackeys to retrieve the Crystal of Ultimate Vision, of which he wore a shard on his forehead. The X-Men were sent to the Citadel of Light and Shadow, where the crystal was hidden. As the X-Men progressed through it, the citadel created illusions of each of their most powerful desires. Only Wolverine, Storm, and Psylocke were able to resist. Wolverine reached the Crystal and Horde cut him down and removed his heart as a trophy. However, a lone drop of Logan's blood splattered on the Crystal, which gave out enough energy for Wolverine to be restored. Empowered to godhood, Wolverine plucked the crystal shard from Horde's forehead and the tyrant quickly aged and crumbled to dust within seconds. Wolverine rejected the god-like power and returned the X-Men and their friends home, ensuring that the human race would be able to evolve to it's full potential.
After the deaths of ex-KGB agents all over Manhattan, Logan was reminded of an old freelance operative from the Cold War, Charlemagne. The last time Logan had seen Charlie, she was working in West Berlin. It was a mission that Logan had protested, but Charlie insisted and her handler double-crossed her. Charlie called for Logan's help and he understood that it was serious. After fifty Soviet operatives couldn't take them down, they sent in KGB agents that had been undercover for years and Wolverine's berserker rage finished them all. After the slaughter, all that was left was a little heart shaped pendant. After leaving the X-Men in a time of need, Logan traveled to Potsdammer Platz, West Berlin, where two KGB agents blew their cover by killing muggers and Charlemagne killed them while Logan's back was turned.
While in Kurfurstendamm, Logan got the scent of Spider-Man in civilian clothing and deciphered his secret identity. Logan warned Spider-Man to stay away from Berlin and forget about Charlemagne, but when Spider-Man returned to his hotel, KGB agents killed Ned Leeds and were asking his involvement. Logan arrived and killed all of the agents and again warned Spider-Man to leave. Logan tracked Charlie to a steel mill just outside of East Berlin and the two stay together for a while. When the couple went to dinner at The Ganymed on Friedrich Strasse, Spider-Man arrived to inform them that everyone in the restaurant was an agent wanting to kill Charlie, a fact that Charlemagne and Wolverine already knew, and a gunfight broke-out. After loosing Charlie in the fight, Wolverine and Spider-Man attempted to track her down, by getting to her marks before she did, but were always one step behind. After the pair split, Charlemagne called Wolverine to a Soviet cemetery at Teptow and he understood that she wanted him to end her life, so that the Soviets wouldn't have the chance to torture her. After flinching, Wolverine pulled too much and Charlemagne was bleeding to death. At that time, Spider-Man arrived and attempted to stop Logan from killing her. A brutal fight broke out between the two. While on top of Spider-Man, Wolverine stated Spider-Man would have to use all his strength to break Wolverine's neck, while he would just have to lash out his claws to kill Spider-Man. At that time, a government chopper arrived and the two split. In the confusion, Charlemagne snuck up on Spider-Man, aware that he was tense, and he gave a punch of super strength, killing her. Charlie died in Wolverine's arms and the agents left. After giving Spider-Man a fake passport, the pair returned home.
When Storm left to regain her powers, Wolverine led the X-Men and rescued Madelyn Pryor-Summers, Cyclops' wife that he had abandoned to a coma, from the Marauders. At this time, Logan aided Dazzler, O.Z. Chase, and Henry Gyrich with a drug dealing mutant, Valdimir Zaitsev. Tracking Storm, the X-Men arrived at Forge's Eagle Plaza, in Dallas, Texas, where they were attacked by the Freedom Force. After the initial battle, a rift opened in the sky of Dallas and a chaos ensued of different weather patterns right next to each other and beings and creatures from the past appearing and attacking. The X-Men and Freedom Force formed a temporary alliance with each other to save the citizens of Dallas, until Colossus, recently recovered, decided to enter Eagle Plaza. After gaining access into the Starlight Citadel, the X-Men battled the Adversary and, after Rogue absorbed his power and opened a portal to seal him in, gave their life to imprison the Adversary, with a spell used from Forge. However, the Omniversal Guardian, named Roma, restored the X-Men to life and freed the Adversary, under the notion that there could be no order without chaos. The events had been broadcast over a live television news feed and the world believed the heroes to be dead. After being resurrected, the X-Men decided to use the opportunity to go underground and keep their rebirth secret.
The X-Men resurfaced in Australia, where they defeated the Reavers, who were holding Jess�n Hoan as a hostage. They released Jess�n and claimed their base and teleporter, Gateway, a mute, mutant aborigine with the ability to create gates with his bull roarer. Roma appeared and presented them with the Siege Perilous, a gem that created a portal which granted any person who walked through it judgment and a new chance at life, with a new career, home, and so forth and had magically made them invisible to any sort of mechanical perception. Around this time, Logan ordered a new armor costume for Psylocke from Landau, Luckman & Lake.
Patch
After finding Dave Chapel in the desert tortured and dying from exposure, Wolverine returned to Madripoor, perhaps the first time since Seraph's death, to the Princess Bar, and saved O'Donnell from thugs of a crime boss, Roche, while searching for "the Tiger". While at the bar, Logan realized that he was being watched and confronted the woman, who turned-out to be Jess�n Hoan. After a brief battle with Jess�n, Wolverine was beaten by Sapphire Styx and Razor-Fist and delivered to Roche. After surviving torture from Inquisitor, Wolverine escaped and was brutally attacked by Razor-Fist, who stabbed him in his throat and torso and left him for dead. Wolverine was rescued from a harbor and looked after by Jess�n. After healing, Wolverine began wearing an eye patch, to keep the resurrection of the X-Men a secret, and learned that Jess�n was in-fact Tyger Tiger and vowed to aid her in over-throwing Roche and taking his place as the Madripoor crime lord. After defeating Razor-Fist, Wolverine and Tyger Tiger rescued O'Donnell, killed Roche, and Wolverine declared that he would become Tyger's conscience to remind her that if she became like Roche, he would come for her. After declaring that he was to be called Patch while in Madripoor, Tyger responded that he had won her heart and the two kissed.
While rescuing an agent of Mariko's, Kojima Noburo, Logan killed Banapur Khan and his pirates and found-out about the Cult of the Black Blade's quest to steal the Muramasa Blade, a blade that all who wielded were possessed by it's demonic essence, except for the one warrior destined to be it's true master. Returning to Madripoor, Logan saved Lindsay McCabe, who he met while the X-Men lived in San Francisco with Jessica Drew, but didn't recognize him, due to his Patch identity. After intentionally holding back in a fight with the Silver Samurai, Patch chased Jessica, who had been corrupted by the sword, through the streets of Madripoor, until he caught the blade with his bare hands and defeated her, claiming the sword. Holding the sword, a voice came from within the Black Blade, telling Patch that he and the Blade were destined to be one. The blade transformed Patch's clothing to a leather ninja outfit and he attempted to sacrifice Jessica. Patch was tracked to the Cult's hide-out and Lindsay stopped him from killing Jessica, by snipping him in the head. After fighting the Silver Samurai, Patch fought the influence of the blade and the Samurai left with the sword.
The X-Men next investigated a Brood Star-shark Havok had found and tracked the source to Harry Palmer, who was unaware he was infected and had made an entire cr�che of mutant hosts. The X-Men were too conflicted with killing the human hosts and Wolverine was captured and implanted with an embryo again. Once again, Logan's healing factor fought-off the transformation in-time for him to kill Temptress, freeing Psylocke, and kill Harry, ending the Brood threat. Following Storm, who abruptly left in the middle of the night, the X-Men tracked her to the Savage Land. Upon arrival, the Savage Land was scorched and barren and the X-Men battled Garrok, in the armor of Terminus. After the initial battle, Longshot was lost and Wolverine followed him to another dimension. Storm's Cameo Crystal opened a portal to M'Rinn's dimension, where the Fall People escaped to. Together with M'Rinn's people, the High Evolutionary, and the Fall People, the X-Men separated Garokk from Terminus and, with his sacrifice, restored the Savage Land. After Maddie went missing, the X-Men battled the Press Gang and Genoshan Magistrates, where Logan and Rogue were captured and taken to Genosha. While in captivity, Logan and Rogue were stripped of their powers, by Wipeout and contained, until Rogue escaped and rescued Logan. Logan and Rogue followed Phillip Moreau to the Mutates' camp, until they were attacked and the X-Men arrived to rescue them.
Later, Havok tracked the Marauders in the Alley, and the X-Men ambushed them. The Marauders fled and, as the X-Men gave chase, they found themselves also battling a demonic invasion of New York, slowly becoming demonic themselves. Wolverine recognized familiar scents and the X-Men confronted X-Factor, the original X-Men, harassing Madelyne and her baby. After Logan forcibly kissed Jean, Madelyne instigated a battle between the X-Men and X-Factor, having the X-Men under her demonic influence and believing that X-Factor was attempting to kidnap Nathan Summers, her and Scott's child. After the demon, N'Astirh, attacked, the X-Men and X-Factor combined efforts to defeat him, assuming that he was controlling Madelyne, calling herself the Goblin Queen, and Havok, calling himself the Goblin Prince.
At that moment, Marvel Girl was captured, by Maddie, and another battle was instigated between the X-Men and X-Factor. The Goblin Queen attempted to sacrifice baby Nathan atop the Empire State Building to permanently open a gateway between Earth and the demonic Limbo. The Goblin Queen locked herself, Nathan, and Jean inside a psionic barrier. Both the X-Men and X-Factor's combined efforts seemed to be futile in an effort to break through the telekinetic bubble. The invasion was thwarted after Madelyne committed suicide in combat with Jean, attempting to kill everyone in her power, but the X-Men and X-Factor protected each other while Jean protected Nathan Christopher. After Madelyne's death, Jean began to scream in pain and Storm ordered Psylocke to take Scott and the X-Men into her mind, where Mr. Sinister was attempting to erase all of Jean's memories, until Jean defeated him on the Astral Plane. Following Mr. Sinister's psychic trail, Marvel Girl tracked him to the School for Gifted Youngsters and the X-Men and X-Factor were ambushed by the Marauders. While interrogating Malice/Polaris, Mr. Sinister destroyed the school. While the X-Men and X-Factor battled Sinister and Malice, Wolverine defeated Sabretooth and Sinister attempted to claim Marvel Girl, but Cyclops seemingly killed Sinister with an unchecked optic blast.
Attempting to comfort Havok after the recent loss of both the women he loved, Wolverine suggested that the men of the X-Men go to a bar in Sydney, taking the idea from Dazzler who took all of the women out. While at the bar, the four X-Men stopped an alien invasion of the many aliens in the Conquest. Shortly after, Wolverine and Havok were vacationing in Mexico and saved a woman from terrorist attackers. The woman was actually Scarlett McKenzie and was working for the Russian scientist, Dr. Neutron (Meltdown), who wanted to use Havok as a means to absorb the entire energy of a breaking down atom reactor and transmute it into himself. Scarlett gave Alex Summers false information that terrorists were trying to sabotage the plant and when he ventured into the heart of the reactor, he found it shortly before reaching critical limit. The timely arrival of Wolverine prevented a full disaster and after Logan killed the scientist, Alex redirected the nuclear radiation into space. For Alex's sake, Logan kept Scarlett�s betrayal secret, as he was still trying to get over the back-plotting of Madelyne.
At this time, Logan left the X-Men, with no explanation and returned to Madripoor. After following the scents of suspects for a murder case, Patch ran into Karma, of the New Mutants, working for her uncle, who was attempting to overthrow Tyger Tiger, and made an uneasy ally with Police Chief Tai. After informing Tyger that he would not assassinate or kidnap for her, Patch and Tyger were beaten, by Roughouse and Bloodsport, and rescued, by Karma. Patch left Tyger with Jessica, Lindsay, and Chang (who was killed by Roughouse and Bloodsport), while he destroyed General Nguyen Ngoc Coy's opium supplies, where he encountered the Harriers. After disrupting Coy's drug activities, Patch took the fight directly to Coy and battled and defeated Roughouse and Bloodsport, while rescuing Lindsay, Jessica, and Tyger. Patch had General Coy at his mercy, until Prince Baran intervened and, thanks to Lindsay, considered them all honored guests of his. The Prince offered that Tyger and General Coy worked together, to stop a power vacuum and war-zone in Madripoor and Patch convinced Tyger to accept.
Next, Patch began his quest to save Karma from her uncle's service, but was sidetracked when he learned that disrupting General Coy's drug activities planted a target on the General's head and Karma needed him to help her find her missing brother and sister. Patch accompanied Xi'an Coy Manh to the airport to witness the arrival of Joe Fixit, who Patch smelled right away and recognized as the Hulk. Patch went-on to use Joe to disrupt General Coy's drug and slave operations. Later, Police Chief Tai informed Patch that he was aware the Patch and Wolverine were one and the same. Remembering his first "birthday gift" from Creed, Patch saved a couple from being mugged and was later targeted, by the thugs. After escaping an attempted hit, Patch tracked them to the Princess Bar, only to find them dead and a note from Creed reading "Nobody kills you but me - especially today".
Patch returned to San Fransisco with Jessica, when Archie Corrigan asked for help with his mentally unbalanced brother, Burt Corrigan, who was in danger of losing his inheritance. While at the trail, Burt burst through the window, dressed as Indiana Jones, screaming that he needed help from Ba'al.
When the X-Men temporarily relocated to the Australian Outback, Wolverine took the runaway mutant Jubilee under his wing, after she saved his life from an attack by Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers. Jubilee eventually became like a daughter to him, much like Kitty before. While based in Australia, a man would ask Wolverine to go to the Savage Land, where he encountered a tribe of humans. Arriving in a lightweight plane, the tribe believed him a god, with the exception of Gahck, the tribe's female chieftain. Gahck challenged Wolverine to combat, and once it was established that he wasn't a god, he offered to help their hunting parties. Logan subsequently started a relationship with Gahck. When members of the tribe were captured, Wolverine discovered that a robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex would attack the tribe and take their members to a secret base. Wolverine discovered that experiments were performed on the tribe members by Apocalypse, and after freeing himself and the captured Gahck, he battled Apocalypse, though it turned out to be a robot. In the Apocalypse robot's lab, Logan learned that Apocalypse was the man who had told him to journey to the Savage Land. Wolverine then left, not realizing that he had fathered a son with Gahck named Erista.
After the X-Men returned to America, Wolverine began wearing his original blue and gold uniform again. Greatly troubled by his lost memories, Wolverine investigated the abandoned Weapon X facility in Canada where he had been transformed years before. There, he inadvertently activated the artificial intelligence Shiva, which was designed to kill rogue Team X members. Wolverine also became much darker, as he learned many of his memories were implants.
Wolverine returned to Japan, where Clan Yashida was besieged by internal dispute and attacking Hand ninjas. Silver Fox, still with Hydra, observed the proceedings and cooperated with Matsu'o Tsurayaba, the Hand leader, to poison Mariko. Faced with a slow, painful death, Mariko asked Wolverine to end her life quickly and mercifully. Wolverine reluctantly complied. This changed Wolverine's character significantly, making him even more disciplined and emotionally distant. Wolverine then vowed to Matsu'o that on each and every one of his birthdays he would slice off a body part until there was nothing of him left.
Shortly after Mariko's death, he investigated with Team X survivors Sabretooth and Silver Fox, after the alumnus Mastodon died from reversal of his age suppression factor. Wolverine was shocked to learn that Silver Fox was still alive. To his surprise, Silver Fox despised him for something she believed he had done. Tracing Mastodon's death to Aldo Ferro, now Psi-Borg, they were overwhelmed by his illusions, and Sabretooth, under Psi-Borg's control, killed Silver Fox, before Wolverine could figure out what she believed he had done. Ferro himself died soon afterward.
After his encounter with the mutant assassin Omega Red, Logan began to question the memories he possessed, but his searches to find his true identity and memories proved fruitless. Logan possessed memories of being a samurai in Japan, a mercenary operative for the CIA, and a "wild man" in the Canadian wilderness. He also had remembered romances with Mariko and Silver Fox. Wolverine suffered a mental breakdown which stemmed from the deaths of Mariko and Silver Fox and Weapon X's mental tampering.
Due to extensive memory implants given to Logan through the Weapon X Project, any or all of these memories are suspect. Logan has at least one memory of meeting Captain America in World War II while he was in the Canadian Army which has been verified as true.
Magneto's Revenge
During an encounter with Magneto on his space station called Avalon, Wolverine slashed Magneto with his claws. Magneto retaliated, using his powers of the magnetic field to tear the adamantium out of Wolverine's skeleton, causing extensive injuries. These injuries overloaded Wolverine's healing factor for a time, and Logan also discovered that the claws that he believed a result of the Weapon X program were in fact part of his actual bone structure due to his mutation. Around this time Professor Xavier, Beast, and Heather Hudson conducted experiments on Wolverine. These showed that Logan's mutation was actually ongoing, and whilst his healing factor and senses would accelerate it would also cost him his humanity- for it would slowly change him into a bestial, wild, animal-like creature. It also turned out that the presence of the adamantium slowed his mutation process down, his healing factor treated it like a foreign substance in the body and tried constantly to expel it.
As a result of his injuries, Logan left the X-Men for a time. He visited Muir Island at the request of Kitty Pryde, and was also attacked by Cyber. During the Phalanx invasion, Logan and Cable were asked by Professor Xavier to find and rescue the captured X-Men. They joined with Cyclops and Jean Grey, returning from their honeymoon (and secretly the future), and freed their teammates in Tibet.
Later, Logan was kidnapped by Tyler Dayspring, calling himself Genesis, who wanted to make Wolverine one of his new Horsemen of Apocalypse. Genesis had acquired adamantium by destroying the body of the mercenary known as Cyber, and had planned to recreate the bonding process used on Logan years ago. This time, however, Logan's body rejected the adamantium, and he regressed for a time to a feral-like state. Logan slowly regained his lucidity with help from ninja Elektra Natchios, and rejoined the X-Men. Some months later, Viper invoked Logan's promise to Seraph many years before. Wolverine married Viper, giving her the status to become ruler of Madripoor.
Horseman of Apocalypse
Logan was subsequently kidnapped by the would-be conqueror Apocalypse and forced to fight the savage assassin Sabretooth for the mantle of the Horseman Death. Knowing that he might be able to resist Apocalypse's programming and that Sabretooth would be a very dangerous villain with the support of Apocalypse, Logan fought and defeated his nemesis. As a result, Apocalypse succeeded where Genesis had failed, re-bonding Adamantium to Wolverine's skeleton. Meanwhile, one of a Skrulls faction allied with Apocalypse impersonated Wolverine while in the X-Men, but he was slain by the actual Wolverine. Under the control of Apocalypse, Wolverine fought the X-Men ferociously in his Death persona. But with the help of his teammates, he eventually broke free from Apocalypse's control and returned to the X-Men.
Weapon Plus
Wolverine returned to Madripoor to battle Ogun, now a possessing spirit, and Viper divorced him, freeing him from her debt. Some time after this, Malcolm Colcord, a survivor of Wolverine's rampage in Weapon X years before, revived Weapon X and Wolverine's ties to it, controlling him as an assassin. Wolverine escaped from Colcord's control, and with Cyclops and Fantomex, a fellow Weapon Plus experimentee, they penetrated the World, Weapon Plus' bas
