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Attributes

Height: 5'3"

Weight: 195 lbs. (without adamantium), 300 lbs. (with adamantium)

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Black

Features: Fang-like canine teeth, hirsute, unique hairstyle.

Summary

Created By: Len Wein

Real Name: James Howlett

Current Aliases: Logan

Former Aliases: Weapon X, Death, Mutate #9601, Jim Logan, Patch, Canucklehead, Emilio Garra, Weapon Chi, Experiment X, Agent Ten, Canada, Wildboy, Peter Richards, others

Dual Identity: Secret

Current Occupation: Adventurer, instructor

Former Occupation: Bartender, bouncer, spy, government operative, mercenary, soldier, sailor, miner, others

Citizenship: Canada

Legal Status: No criminal record

Place of Birth: Alberta, Canada

Marital Status: Divorced

Known Relatives: Grandfather (deceased); John Howlett Sr. (father, deceased); Elizabeth Howlett (mother, deceased); John Howlett Jr. (brother, allegedly deceased); Viper (ex-wif

Known Confidants: Storm, Nightcrawler, Yukio

Known Allies: Spider-Man, X-Men, New Avengers, Nick Fury, Jubilee, Shadowcat, Alpha Flight

Major Enemies: Sabretooth, Omega Red, Lady Deathstrike, Viper, Ogun, Cyber, Bloodscream, Agent Zero

Usual Bases: Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning, Salem Center, NY

Former Bases: Clan Yashida Compound in Japan, Department H in Canada

Current Groups: X-Men, New Avengers

Former Groups: Horsemen of Apocalypses, Fantastic Four, Secret Defenders, Clan Yashida, Department H, The Flight, Department K, Team X, Weapon X, Devil's Brigade

Education: Unrevealed

Powers & Paraphenalia

Strength Level: Superhuman, can lift (press) between 800 lbs. and 25 tons.

Powers: Healing factor that quickly repairs physical and mental damage, animal keen senses, advanced physical attributes, six retractable claws.

Abilities: Exceptional hand-to-hand combatant; expert in weapons, various vehicles, computer systems, explosives, assassination techniques; fluent in many languages including Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Cheyenne, Lakota and Spanish with some French, Thai and Vietnamese.

Equipment: None.

Weapons: Six retractable adamantium claws that eject from the back of the hands. Also, once possessed the Honor Sword of Clan Yashida.

Limitations: Extensive damage can beat out the speed of Wolverine's healing factor, knocking him out for the count. Though considerable damage would need to be done to him, Wolverine can be killed.

Background

Dog was obsessed with Rose and attacked her, prompting James' father, John, to fire Thomas and evict them immediately. Unknown to everyone, Thomas and James' mother, Elizabeth, had been having an affair and he sought to convince her to leave with him. John interrupted them and Thomas shot him. The emotional trauma caused James' mutant abilities to manifest in the form of six bone claws, which he used to kill Thomas and slash Dog's face, permanently scarring him. Elizabeth became unhinged by the carnage and took her own life.

James suffered a breakdown, but his mutant healing factor apparently not only heals physical scars but emotional ones as well. All memories of those traumatic events soon faded, but the repercussions didn't. James was wanted for murder, so Rose changed his name to Logan and they joined up with a mining colony where the once frail boy grew up to be a man's man. He earned the nickname Wolverine because of his refusal to back down from fights. But it didn't end there; Dog, seeking revenge, tracked down Logan and Rose and they fought, resulting in Logan accidentally killing Rose with his claws. Logan disappeared into the woods, never to be seen for years to come.

Logan eventually turned up in a frontier community in the Canadian Rockies. There, he met a young Native American girl named Silver Fox and they became lovers. Their happiness was soon cut short by another resident of the community; Victor Creed, soon to be known as Sabretooth. He viciously attacked Silver Fox, ripping her throat out on his birthday. Logan tried to avenge her, but Sabretooth easily defeated him. Logan left soon after.

One benefit to Logan's healing factor was the retardation of his aging, letting him remain in his physical prime decades longer than the average person. Because of this, Logan was able to join the Canadian Army and fight in World War I as a member of the Devil's Brigade. When he left, he found himself in China training in martial arts under Ogun, a Japanese samurai and sorcerer. After a brief stint of adventure on the island nation of Madripoor, Logan met up with Captain America during World War II to help him take down the Nazi agent Baron Strucker and The Hand ninja clan. That sparked Logan to rejoin the Canadian Army for the war, assigned to the First Canadian Parachute Battalion as a Corporal.

After the war Logan was recruited into Weapon X, a multinational intelligence operation overseen by the American CIA. He was put in charge of Team X, comprised of himself, his supposedly dead lover Silver Fox, Maverick and his foe Sabretooth. False memory implants to ensure their loyalty despite past affiliations were placed in all their minds, standard operating procedure for Weapon X.

Logan eventually quit and became a spy for Department K, a secret branch of the Canadian government. Weapon X, seeking a guinea pig for their experiments in adamantium bonding, captured Logan and subjected him to the process, coating his entire skeleton and claws with the indestructible metal. They sought to control him with mental programming to make him the perfect assassin, but Logan's berserker fury won out. He fled the compound after almost killing everyone within.

James MacDonald Hudson, soon to be known as Vindicator, found him in the woods in his feral state and brought him back to humanity. Together they formed The Flight, a super-powered team operating within the Canadian Government's Department H. His first public mission for the Department was to capture the Incredible Hulk. The battle became three-way when Logan came between Hulk and his current adversary, the mythological creature known as the Wendigo.

Soon after, Logan was approached by Professor Charles Xavier to join his next generation of X-Men. He was recruiting new mutants to encounter the living island known as Krakoa to rescue his original students. Logan resigned from the Department and joined in their mission. He later stayed on with the X-Men due to his attraction to Jean Grey, aka Marvel Girl.

Despite his new dedication to Xavier's dream of mutant co-existence, Logan still finds time to go off on the odd solo adventure, most notably in his favored Japan or his second home, Madripoor. Logan's animalistic nature gives him a fierce and protective loyalty to those he calls his friends, and those who cross them or him usually regret their mistake. Despite all the trials and tribulations of his life, Wolverine remains the best there is at what he does; and that's not always very nice!

Wolverine and Spider-Man have met on many occasions, notably when they were in Berlin. Spidey was looking for the Hobgoblin, who was using Ned Leeds as a decoy. Wolvie also protected Midtown High School along with the Punisher during the Superhuman Civil War. Peter had revealed his identity to the public, which made his students at the high school potential targets of his enemies. Spider-Man and Wolverine are comrades, but they are not exactly friends. At least Wolverine doesnt have quite as bad a working relationship with Peter as he does with Matthew Murdock.

Thanks To:

The assistance of the Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.

Character Appearances