Wolverine..

Real Name: James Howlett
Affiliation: X-Men, X-Force II, New Avengers
Previous Affiliations: Secret Defenders, Devil's Brigade, Four Horsemen, First (Alpha) Flight, Leader, Team X / Weapon X Program / C.I.A, Canadian Parachute Battalion
Aliases: Logan, Death III, Patch, Patch W. Logan, Weapon X I, Agent 10, "Canada"
Relatives: Wolverine's Family Tree, Viper (ex-wife)
Alternate-X Versions: Weapon X (AOA), (Mutant X), (DoFP), (Exiles: Sasquatch's World, Nocturne's World, etc.), (Earth X), Hawkeye (Heroes Reborn: Onslaught Reborn), (Ultimate), Cable (Ultimate), (Mangaverse), (Movieverse), (Evolution), (TAS), (WatXM)
Codename Etymology: Pronounced wul-vur-ene [From 1619, the carnivorous mammal, alteration of wolvering (1574), possibly from wolv- stem of "wolf" or from wolver "one who behaves like a wolf" (1593)]
Powers & History: Wolverine has a healing factor that can heal virtually any wound or disease, and also slows his aging. He also has retractable bone claws that extrude from his forearms. His bones and claws are bonded with adamantium, rendering them unbreakable. However, during a fateful battle on Avalon, Magneto pulled all of the adamantium out of Logan's body, leaving Wolverine in massive trauma. The adamantium has since been returned to Logan's body. Finally, Wolverine has enhanced senses or sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. He can file scents in his memory and use them to track other beings from even the slightest traces, and can see and hear things much fainter and from much farther away than normal people.

Logan's past is largely unknown, mostly because many of his memories were altered and faked when he was part of the Weapon X program, the program in which he received the adamantium in the first place. The following is known about his early days: Born over 100 years ago as James Howlett, he was the sickly son of a wealthy landowner, though it is possible that he was actually the result of an affair between his mother and an estate hand named Logan. James's life endured an abrupt change when Mr. Logan was thrown off the estate and came back to accost Mr. Howlett himself. Howlett was shot, and Logan attacked James, whose claws extruded for the first time, killing Logan and slashing his son Dog. James was spirited away by Rose, the governess he had befriended, and taken to a mining operation in Alberta, where she gave him the name Logan. "Logan" grew stronger in the wilderness, and seemed to have blocked his memory of his last days with the Howletts. He stayed with the miners until Rose announced her intention to leave with her boyfriend Smitty, the foreman who had been a surrogate father to Logan. Upset and jealous, Logan did not stand in their way, but when Dog (operating on the elder Howlett's orders) tracked him down and attacked him, he was forced to remember his past and unsheathed his claws. Unfortunately, while he knocked Dog out, Rose was in the way and was impaled on his claws. Logan ran into the woods, and was not seen again for many years.

Very little is known about what happened to Logan between that time and the Weapon X program. Even Logan himself is uncertain about much of this period of his life. It appears that he did have a relationship with Silver Fox that predated the program, and that he met and fought with Captain America and Natasha Romanoff, the girl who would become the Black Widow, against the Nazis in Madripoor before WWII, just prior to his joining the Canadian Army and participating in the assault on Normandy. Probably before the adamantium but possibly after, Logan was also a government Black Ops agent along with Sabretooth, Maverick, Wraith, Silver Fox and Mastodon. Part of the program included various memory implants. As a result, it is difficult to know what events from Logan's past are real, and what are fake.

At some point after this, Logan was captured by the Weapon X program and implanted with his adamantium. His healing factor was also extracted and used to generate an anti-aging serum that was given to the other members of the Weapon X team (some of whom were Logan's partners in the black ops program). After fleeing the Weapon X Program and basically destroying its operations, Logan was pretty feral, but he happened upon Heather and James Hudson on their honeymoon camping trip, and the two took him in. The Hudsons helped Logan reclaim his humanity, although he sometimes relapsed into his "berserker rage." Like Mac (Hudson), Logan became an operative of the Canadian government, and traveled all over the globe. He fought both the Hulk and the Wendigo, and was even slated to lead the original Alpha Flight. However, when Professor Xavier offered Wolverine the chance to join the X-Men, he took it, if only, as he said "to get out from under all the red tape."

Logan became a charter member of the new team, although his rebellious nature and attraction to Jean Grey caused a lot of tension between him and the team leader, Cyclops. Still, his skills made him a valuable asset to the X-Men, especially when he kept surprising his teammates with new ones, such as his ability to read and speak Japanese. Over time, they began to see him as less of a bestial animal-man and as more of a gruff but honorable, fun-loving guy, who would kill if he had to.

On the X-Men's first visit to Japan, Logan met and fell in love with Mariko Yashida. Although their time together was short, Logan felt so strongly that he returned to Japan a few months later, only to find that Mariko's crimelord father Shingen had returned and had married her off to another minor boss, who was abusing her. Logan challenged Shingen, but Shingen cheated and goaded him into a berserker rage, proving that he was little more than a beast. Bereft of his honor and his love, Logan fell into company with Yukio, an assassin who was hired by Shingen to kill him, but who instead fell in love with her target. Yukio eventually turned on her employer, allowing Logan to kill Mariko's husband and challenge Shingen again. This time Logan killed him, without restorting to his animal rage.

Logan then proposed to Mariko, and the X-Men flew to Japan for the wedding. Unfortunately, Mastermind, who was conductin a vendetta against the X-Men at the time, forced Mariko to break off the engagement. Although she was later freed from his control, she felt that she still could not marry Logan until her father's debts to the Yakuza (Japanese mob) had been paid. Logan remained with the X-Men, but returned to Japan with the team after the first Secret Wars. In that trip, a small dragon who had traveled with Lockheed somehow grew to monstrous size, and began wreaking havoc in Tokyo. Logan saved a woman and her child from a destroyed building, but the woman was critically injured and made Logan promise to care for her child Amiko (Akiko). Logan agreed, and became the child's foster-father, but left her with Mariko.

Later, when Ogun captured Kitty Pryde and turned her into a demon ninja, Logan, who had become very close with her, and was training her in the martial arts, again traveled to Japan to rescue her. He was forced to resort to his berserker rage, but this time it was under control. Wolverine returned to the States, and was a core part of the team until the Mutant Massacre, when he began to mistrust his senses (he had smelled Jean Grey in the Alley and thought she was still dead), and took a leave of absence. Soon, however, Storm tracked him down and asked him to lead the X-Men while she tried to get Forge to restore her powers. Logan accepted, but led the team to Dallas to find Storm when she didn't return. In the ensuing Fall of the Mutants, Wolverine led the X-Men first against Freedom Force, and then with them against the chaos unleashed by the Adversary. He died with his team in Forge's spirit spell, but was resurrected with them by Roma.

When the X-Men subsequently moved to Australia, Logan went with them, but used Gateway's portals to renew his associations on Madripoor. After a while, Logan felt he needed some time alone, and left. He returned to find the team's base abandoned, and was captured by the Reavers and crucified. Luckily, Jubilee, an orphan who had snuck through one of Gateway's portals some weeks before, was able to help his escape the Reavers and get to Madripoor, where they quickly formed a close, almost father-daughter relationship.

While in Madripoor, they encountered Psylocke, who had been transplanted into an Asian body and brainwashed, and freed her from the Mandarin's control. When the X-Men and the New Mutants were captured by Genoshan Magistrates and put on trial, the trio journeyed to that island to try and attempt a rescue, but were themselves captured. Logan's powers were negated by Wipeout, and the injuries he sustained while under the Reavers' tender care nearly killed him without his healing factor. After that ordeal ended and his powers were returned, Wolverine rejoined the X-Men, and eventually became a core member of the Blue Team.

About this time Logan discovered the secret base where he, Sabretooth, Maverick, and the rest were brainwashed, and he encountered the failsafe robot Shiva. That little trip down memory lane made things very difficult for him, because he could no longer tell what was real. Soon after, another big blow came when Mariko was poisoned by a Hand assassin, and Logan was forced to kill her in his arms to prevent her from dying in pain.

Later, when Mastodon's anti-aging factor failed, Logan and the rest of the Weapon X subjects found out more or less which of their memories were real, and which were implants in a battle with the Psi-Borg who had brainwashed them years before. Although it took some adjustment, Logan settled back into his routine as an X-Man. Then, when Magneto returned, Wolverine was part of the strike force that invaded Avalon to stop Magnus once and for all. In the heat of battle, Logan slashed Magneto, who responded with visceral fury, and ripped every ounce of adamantium out of Logan's skeleton. Wolverine barely survived, even after Xavier shut down Magneto's mind. On the way back to Earth in the Blackbird, Wolverine hallucinated while Xavier and Jean tried to keep him telepathically alive. At death's door, Logan was turned back by a vision of the recently deceased Illyana Rasputin, and brought himself back far enough to save jean, who was falling out of the plane.

A few days later, a stunning revelation shocked both Logan and the X-Men: the claws which everyone had thought were pure metal, and not a natural part of Wolverine's body, were actually bone, and were part of his mutation. In addition, the lack of adamantium for his immune system to fight appeared to enhance his mutation, and he became increasingly feral in nature. He left the X-Men to try and heal body and soul, and returned only for Scott and Jean's wedding, and to guard Sabretooth when the X-Men were fighting Legion in Israel. That night, Sabretooth got Logan all riled up, to the point where Logan, believing that Creed would try to kill his friends, plunged a claw through his brain, reducing Creed to the mentality of a child. After that incident, Logan moved out of the Mansion, believing that he was no longer in control.

Some time later, the madman Genesis hoped to re-bond the adamantium to Wolverine's bones and brainwash him into a new Horseman of Death. Logan was captured and hooked into a transfer apparatus, and the procedure was underway when Cannonball, who had followed his teammate to Egypt, was discovered and severely beaten. Seeing that Sam was in trouble, Wolverine consciously accelerated his healing factor to forcibly expel the adamantium, which freed him and killed many of the Dark Riders. Logan finished the rest off by himself, and escaped into the desert. The battle exacted a heavy toll on Logan, however, as his feral nature was exacerbated by his conscious use of power, and he was left as little more than a beast, unable to speak, and guided by instinct. The X-Men came after him, and discovered him in the lair of Ozymandias, from which they rescued him. Slowly, Logan began to reclaim his humanity, so that by the time Onslaught appeared, he was in almost complete control of his faculties.

Wolverine was also helped by the assassin Elektra, whose mentor Stick had exhorted her to get Logan "back on the path." At this time, Logan moved to SoHo for a while, to get back to the people, and be in a freer environment that gelled more with his feral nature. After being captured by Operation: Zero Tolerance, Logan returned to the Mansion, and tried to help some of the new X-Men adjust. When Scott and Jean left the team, Scott asked Logan to take charge of the school, which he did, for a short time, until the recent return of Professor X. Then, when Magneto resurfaced, all of Wolverine's old ferocity returned, spurred by the memory of the pain Magnus put him through, although he refused to admit it. After Joseph's self-sacrifice and the ceding of Genosha to Magneto, Logan really went ballistic and began plotting an assassination attempt. However, during a mission to stop Juggernaut in another dimension, Wolverine merged with Xavier's astral form and the two came to better understand each other and reach a sort of detente.

After returning from the Skrull Homeworld, though, Logan kept saying that he thought Xavier was losing it. Eventually the Professor disbanded the X-Men, even rejecting Logan's offer to stay. Logan still joined up with the team that formed to help the Mannites, who were being hunted by Death III. Unfortunately, to save the Mannites, Logan sacrificed his life. His death sent shockwaves rippling through all the X-Teams, but the commotion was quickly replaced by confusion when the dead Logan was revealed to be a Skrull! Even worse, during a raid by the X-Men on a Skrull lair, they found out that Death III was really the true Logan!

It was soon revealed that Logan was captured and replaced by the Skrulls when the X-Men returned a week early from their eight-year trip back to Earth from the Skrull world. The Skrulls attacked the X-Men's ship, sending all of the mutants into stasis again as the impostor infiltrated their ranks. Wolverine was handed over to Apocalypse, who forced him to fight the adamantium-laced Sabretooth. Logan was losing until Creed told him why they were fighting: the winner would become Apocalypse's next Horseman. Logan realized that if he lost, Creed would become a destructive force that no one could ever stop, becuase he would relish his role and never fight it. So Logan pulled out all the stops and kicked Sabretooth's butt, figuring that he might eventually be able to break Apocalypse's brainwashing. The adamantium was then siphoned out of Creed's body and put back into Logan's, making him as indestructible as ever. Then, after Death spirited Mikhail Rasputin away to his master, and set a bomb in the Mansion, a group of X-Men took off after him to stop him. Pursuing him through the tunnels, they confronted and attacked him while Psylocke used Cerebro to peel away his brainwashing. Eventually they succeeded, and Death III was no more.

Logan returned to the X-Men basically healed from his ordeal just in time to become human thanks to the High Evolutionary's de-mutating beam. His adamantium began to poison him, but he refused to take away his friends' chances at normal lives by complaining, so he avoided them.

Following the restoration of all mutant powers, Logan rejoined the team, and was asked to stay behind as a contact point when some of his friends left to pursue Destiny's diaries. He has flitted between the two field teams, while incurring his share of problems outside of the X-Men's sphere, including run-ins with S.H.I.E.L.D, Mauvais, and Mr. X. The former was actually orchestrated by the revived Weapon X program, and during the second encounter with the latter, Wolverine managed to get enough leverage on Viper to force her to divorce him.

However, Sabretooth and the revamped Weapon X program each had their designs on Logan, and for the last few months have been wreaking havoc with his life. Sabretooth hired Omega Red and Lady Deathstrike to assault Logan's closest friends, including the brutal crippling of Yukio and the abduction of Amiko. Creed then used a Weapon X device powered by Leech to stip Logan of his powers, and lured Logan to Las Vegas and then to the original Weapon X facility, where Logan defeated Creed, but was apparently killed in the process and his body confiscated by Weapon X. Though Creed had intimated that the Weapon X program had Logan's missing memories, it was a ruse, and the "Logan Files" were empty.

Sometime after the X-Mansion was rebuilt, Wolverine was lured into finding the missing son of a Japanese acquaintance, and was ambushed by the Gorgon, who had taken over leadership of the Hand and most of HYDRA. Logan was killed and then resurrected by the Hand's dark arts, brainwashed and sent to kill various small-time villains. He also stole a disc with many of Reed Richards's inventions and ideas, and distracted Daredevil while the Gorgon took out Elektra. Finally, he infiltrated the X-Mansion with an invisibility device and forced Marvel Girl III into Cerebra to kill the President. Rachel managed to deconstruct Wolverine's bomb and he was finally subdued by the X-Men and Captain America, but not before killing Northstar (who was later resurrected by the Hand).

Logan was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. and put through a looping virtual scenario to deprogram him, but before it was completely finished HYDRA attacked with all the resurrected villains, as well as Northstar and Elektra and destroyed the Helicarrier. Logan survived the crash with a number of agents, and set out to kill all those responsible. He used a re-programmed Sentinel to destroy the evil mutants in the Dawn of the White Light death cult and remanded Northstar to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, then made his way through to the Hand's headquarters where he was captured and set to be killed by Elektra. However, Elektra was in deep cover and freed Logan and the two decimated the Hand. Returning to S.H.I.E.L.D. with Elektra's inside info, Wolverine led an attack on the Gorgon himself, but the villain was too fast and escaped after learning Nick Fury's hospital location from Elektra. Wolverine followed and fought the Gorgon, but was overwhelmed. At the last instant the Gorgon tried to turn Wolverine to stone with his eyes, but Wolverine popped his claws and reflected the Gorgon's power back at him.

In the House of M reality warp, Logan was never captured by Weapon X, so his memories were intact. He joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and was trained by Nick Fury to a squad leader. Logan hated Fury, until the latter was supposedly blown up in a planned explosion. Wolverine then led the Red Guard, elite S.H.I.E.L.D. division, and began a relationship with Mystique. At some point Logan was rewarded by Magneto with the lacing of his bones with adamantium. However, Logan was depressed following the mutants' victory and turned to drugs and alcohol. On one of their missions, Logan and Mystique were ambushed by human terrorists at a state reception in Mexico, and Logan went looking for Fury, whom he assumed was behind the ambush and the subsequent theft of a Sentinel. Wolverine found a hologram of Fury in the chop shop with the Sentinel parts, but it was a setup, and he never found Fury himself, since it was really Mystique, who wanted to give Logan a purpose in life by rekindling his ire towards the humans.

Shortly afterwards (probably not long after the reality warp truly started, as the above was likely an implanted memory) Wolverine's healing factor apparently kicked in and restored his memory of his true past, and he jumped off the Helicarrier in the middle of the air over New York City. After recovering from the landing, Wolverine was found by Cloak, who teleported him to Cage and the Human Resistance, whereupon he was shot by Hawkeye, disabling his S.H.I.E.L.D. homing device. Recovering, Logan learned more about what had happened, and then narrowly escaped a Sentinel attack, as Hawkeye had not gotten to the tracker quickly enough.

Wolverine led the humans and Layla Miller (the girl with the ability to snap people out of the memory warp) to Emma Frost, and they in turn went waking up all the heroes they could find. Wolverine was then part of the assault on Genosha, but had no significant input before the Scarlet Witch reversed the warp and most mutant powers.

Following the House of M, Wolverine retained his powers, as well as all of his original memories, as if he had never been mind-wiped by Weapon X. He appeared to understand the depths to which he had been and was still being manipulated, and set out to stop the plans of his former masters. This brought him into conflict with the Secret Service, Captain America and his fellow X-Men. He found the red Muramasa sword, which was apparently made of carbonadium, the only element that could retard his healing factor. After discovering he had a son, he gave the sword to Cyclops in case he ever needed to be taken down.