Get ready to learn about Wolverine, the popular character in the Marvel universe who has stolen the show for you, and a troubled past that sees decades of bloody history all in attributes of the character. But before finishing all of the upcoming Marvel films including Deadpool 3, there is one character whose backstory needs to be completed first, and that is Wolverine! Here’s the great perspective on this story.
The Origins of Wolverine (James Howlett)
The tale of Wolverine starts in 1845 when a boy named James Howlett goes through an emotional and traumatic experience. His mutation activates, which causes him to grow bone claws, when he sees his dad getting killed. Reasoning that he was pushed out of rage, James goes ahead to kill his father’s murderer only to realize it’s Thomas Logan, who is truly his biological thinker. Being in this state of awareness and having lost his mother’s nurturing care, James runs away.
While on the run, he encounters his half-brother Victor Creed, who is a mutant as well. They were both involved in the US Civil War, World War I, and World War 2, spanning over 128 years. Due to their healing factors, they are practically immortal but with the passage of time, it is Victor who grows more aggressive and loses control.
Weapon X Program and the Birth of Wolverine
In 1945, Wolverine is captured by the Japanese army and survives the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki while rescuing an officer Ikirō Yashida, who later features significantly in his narration.
Advancing into 1962 Logan meets first the mutant variants with a western tone that is the Professor X and the Magneto who is already strategizing to be the face of the first X-Men team (X-Men: First Class). But Logan declines their offer as well and prefers to be on his own.
In Vietnam, in 1970, during the Vietnam War, Victor’s violence became so unmanageable that it cost the death sentence of both brothers. Given their enhanced healing factors, they survived and caught the attention of Major William Stryker who adds them to Team X, a cadre of mutants for Lord’s unsanctioned and uncouth missions. Frustrated by the disregard the group showed toward human lives, Logan walks away from the group.
Years later, it was a cold Canadian afternoon, and Logan was living a peaceful life with his girlfriend Kayla before Victor murdered her. Stryker deceives Logan into joining the Weapons X Program where Wolverines skeleton is fused with adamantium. After realizing the extent of Stryker’s betrayal, Logan flees swearing revenge.
Wolverine’s Role in the X-Men
Eventually, Logan becomes a member of the X-Men—under the leadership of Professor X—an organization formed to safeguard both the mutants and humanity. However, he has to endure his former adversaries such as Victor, Sabretooth now, and face newly introduced risks such as Stryker’s experiment who debuts as Deadpool.
Jean Grey is in Wolverine’s path in this universe wherein Jean Grey bears the Phoenix Force, an ultimate cosmic entity, which turns her into a near insane woman. When Jean loses control, it falls on Wolverine to take her life in order to stop further casualties, which symbolically breaks him.
Logan’s Journey to Japan
Logan admires the beauty of the dew drunk woods as he broods over his phantom of Jean Grey. Throughout the fight, Logan comes face to face with Ichiro Yashida in Japan who eventually wants to remove him from this world. However, Nearing his end, Logan devastates Ichiro and executioner refuses his life bartering offer.
The Apocalypse and Alternate Futures
By the year 2023, the world has become a wasteland. Almost all the mutants have been hunted down by the fearsome Sentinels. Logan’s mission is to alter events so that the Sentinel Program is never devised. Successfully going back in time, Wolverine changes the course of events in the time where Jean Grey was dead. The alteration of timelines, however, brings about different problems.
In the year 2029, Wolverine is no longer in his prime; the constant addiction to Adamantium has poisoned him, and his once terrific healing factor is gone. The much feared amphogenic creatures known as the mutants are almost extinct, because of the tragic event where the ‘real’ Professor X lost control of his powers. Logan comes across Laura (X-23), a mutant child who was made using his DNA. Along with her, he fights the now grown X-24, a murderous Wolverine twin. At the end of the fight, Logan dies in order to protect their only hope, Laura and the rest of the young mutants.
Wolverine’s Legacy
The film Logan (2017) signaled the curtain call on the character’s era. But because of the multiverse on the Marvel universe, there are other versions of Wolverine that could be used. Deadpool 3 intends to investigate such a variant, providing an interesting new touch to the character’s legacy.
Conclusion
The journey defined by Wolverine is one that narrates total commitment, history of struggle and instances of selflessness. From his rough and troublesome starts to the heroic end, Logan is the one figure of the marvel universe that cannot be overlooked. As we await his appearance in the future films, his character is a perfect representation of why fans can’t get enough of this character.