A few caveats:

This chronology is intended to fill in the *blanks* of Wolverine's career, by presenting dozens of seemingly random strings of information in a reasonably coherent series.  It goes into comparatively few details about his known adventures with Team X and even fewer details about his activities since joining the X-Men, since in both cases these events have been depicted in some detail elsewhere and are verifiably known to have occurred within a given frame of time (the 1960s and "recent years," respectively).  Although this chronology does not cover *every* known fact about Wolverine (It does not, for example, mention that he knows CPR and is a poor gin rummy player), every effort has been made to include all known direct and indirect references to his activities prior to joining the X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men #1.

Some people have arrived at this Chronology through efforts to learn more about Wolverine as seen in the X-Men movie.  Please be advised that the Wolverine of the original Marvel Comics joined the X-Men under quite different circumstances than those seen in the movie, whose story differs from the X-Men's established history in many ways; the X-Men from the movie, including Wolverine, are best regarded as "parallel earth versions" of the characters.  The movie Wolverine shares many traits with the comic book Wolverine, but we have no way of knowing how closely the two's careers parallel, and extremely little was actually revealed about the movie Wolverine's life.  Therefore, some items in this Chronology may contradict information provided in the movie, because they relate to the comic book Wolverine, not the movie Wolverine.  Hopefully, fans of the movie Wolverine, whose own history will doubtlessly be revealed in future sequels, will be able to enjoy the Chronology nevertheless.

Although Wolverine's life can be divided into several rough periods---pre-WW II, WW II, post-WW II, freelance activities, Team X, post-Team X, Department H, X-Men---many references to past events in Wolverine's life are not given any particular timeframe; their placement within this chronology is based upon internal evidence when at all possible, and specifically identified as uncertain when not.  The sequence of certain events within a given period is particularly open to debate.  Despite more recent implications of Wolverine having no memory of much of his life, little in his early appearances can be said to support such a claim (The only such reference preceding Larry Hama's tenure on Wolverine appears to be in X-Men:  Heroes for Hope.), and a rough outline of his activities can actually be established with relative ease:

Stage 0:  previous incarnations.
Stage 1:  from birth to World War I---late 1890s to 1918
Stage 2:  between World War I and World War II---1918-1939
Stage 3:  World War II---1939-1945
Stage 4:  post-war years---late 1940s
Stage 5:  freelance years---the 1950s
Stage 6:  Team X---the 1960s
Stage 7:  unspecified government work, Weapon X Program---1970s to early 1980s
Stage 8:  Department H---1980s to early 1990s
Stage 9:  X-Men---early or mid-1990s to present

It may be that recent re-activation of limited Team X implants caused him to lose previously possessed memories, memories which he later regained.  For the purposes of this chronology, all known flashbacks and recollections of Logan's past activities, except for inconsistent memories of his youth that are inherently false (i.e. a childhood with Sabretooth as his father or a high school prom attended with Silver Fox), will be treated as references to actual events.

Each paragraph is followed by references to the titles and issue numbers from which the included information was taken.  The title currently known as Uncanny X-Men will be referred to as such, regardless of whether it held that exact title at the time of any given issue.  Any references to Classic X-Men should be understood to indicate the second story in a given issue.  All issues of Alpha Flight are from that title's first volume, except for # Minus-1.  Speculative statements are identified as such either within the paragraph or the reference.  The terms "Canadian Intelligence," "Canadian Secret Service," "Canadian Special Services," and "Canadian Special Intelligence Service" are assumed to be more-or-less interchangeable.

This chronology is based solely upon the reading experience of a single individual and makes no pretense at being either infallible or complete.  Additions and arguments are welcomed. Send all comments here.

Untold centuries ago, near Jerusalem, the man-demon Ba'al is seemingly destroyed by a so-called divine warrior known only as the Hand of God.  In recent years, a being claiming to be Ba'al comes into conflict with Logan, whom this Ba'al appears to believe is the reincarnation of the Hand of God.  Although Logan experiences "deja vu" while battling Ba'al, he has no direct memory of any such previous incarnation.
(Ba'al and the Hand of God from Wolverine #13-16.)

On one occasion, Logan dreams about encountering the entity known as Uncegila during the 1840s; since Logan, although long-lived, does not appear to have been born significantly before the dawn of the twentieth century, it might be assumed that this dream's timeframe was a result of Logan's subconscious denial of its reality, but it is at least possible that this chain of events in fact occurred during an earlier incarnation of Logan's soul. It should also be noted that one report claims that on one occasion the Logan of the modern era traveled back in time to the year 1870 to prevent an extraterrestrial invasion in the western United States, but the validity of this report is open to debate.
(Uncegila in the 1840s from Marvel Comics Presents #93-98. 1870 from X-Men: Millenial Visions)
 
 

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

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

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

In about 1904, a young Irish girl named Rose is brought to the Howlett estate to be James's companion; the two children befriend a third youth, "Dog" Logan, son of groundskeeper Thomas Logan.
(Rose and Dog from Wolverine: The Origin #1; year estimated from James Howlett's apparent age of twelve as of #1.)

In about 1907, Thomas and Dog Logan are dismissed from the Howlett estate due to Dog's misconduct, but the two return shortly afterward, Thomas Logan killing John Howlett in the presence of James, Rose, and Elizabeth Howlett. The grief-stricken James, in his mid-teens at this time, extends his mutant claws for the first time, wounding Dog and killing Thomas Logan. Elizabeth becomes hysterical and drives James from the house, and James's grandfather orders James and Rose to leave Alberta by train; as they travel, James's mutant healing factor helps him to recover from his ordeal. The two find refuge at a stone quarry in northern British Columbia, where Rose gives James's name as "Logan" and claims to be his cousin. Within a few months, the rough environment provokes a change in "Logan," causing him to become rougher and more violent, perhaps an indication of his mutation's further development; he takes to hunting in the wild, bringing down game with no more than his claws and an increasingly bestial nature.
(James Howlett takes the name of "Logan" in Wolverine: The Origin #3, and since this is the name that he will use for the rest of his life, he will be referred to as such for the rest of this chronology. Deaths, quarry, etc. from Wolverine: The Origin #2-4.)

In about 1910, after a few years in the quarry community, Logan becomes estranged from Rose when she decides to marry Smitty, the camp's foreman; Logan works off his frustrations in a series of cage fights, and his fighting prowess wins him the nickname of "the Wolverine." Following a fight with Smitty, whom he allows to win and with whom he makes peace, Logan is confronted by his former friend Dog, who has been sent by the ailing elder Howlett to retrieve him but who intends to instead kill him. During his fight with Dog, Logan accidentally kills Rose; horrified, Logan flees the quarry community, into the surrounding woods. Smitty searches for him to no avail; Dog's fate remains unrevealed. It will later be claimed that Logan's healing factor suppresses his painful memories of this incident and others of his youth but, considering that Logan will later demonstrate the ability to successfully retain memories that are at least as traumatic as these, this claim seems questionable; it may be that in later decades Logan's healing factor will, for one reason or another, cease to affect his memories as it allegedly does at this time.
(Dog, Rose's death, and aftermath from Wolverine: The Origin #6. Healing factor's effect on memory from Wolverine #175.)

It is not known how long Logan lives in the wild nor what experiences he undergoes during that time; decades later, Logan will tell a young boy a story about a boy who "had been cast out by his people," to be adopted by a pack of wolverines, but to what extent, if any, this story is based upon Logan's own experiences is unknown. Over the years, Logan's fragmented psyche attempts to restructure his youth with limited success, leaving him with only vague memories of his father and none of his mother. Among Logan's apparently false memories of his childhood are recollections of attending the first grade, where he got "in trouble...for not listenin' to instructions," and of receiving a knife from the effects of his deceased father. It remains unclear at precisely which point Logan lost his accurate memories of the first eighteen or so years of his life, although it appears that knowledge of his superhuman traits passes from his memory almost immediately, but presumably they are definitively erased when he is victimized by the Weapon X Program decades later.
(Story about wolverines from Wolverine #25. Logan's supposed knowledge of his father from Wolverine Limited Series #1; his unfamiliarity with his mother from Marvel Comics Presents #72 and Havok and Wolverine #1. First grade from Marvel Comics Presents #44. Knife from Wolverine #49.)

After an unknown length of time living in the wild, Logan takes up residence in another frontier community in the Canadian Rockies, where white settlers co-exist, sometimes uneasily, with the Native American tribes of the region, including the Blackfoot; decades later, Logan will express uncertainty about whether or not he himself is partially Blackfoot in descent, an impression that may derive from this point in his life. Among the community's residents is a man who will become Logan's deadliest enemy: Victor Creed, although the community knows him only as "Sabretooth." Logan will later recall that Sabretooth had "always helped himself to whatever was mine, challenging me to stop him. Something always held me back. Knew he hated me, hadn't a clue why." It is possible that Sabretooth, himself a mutant with abilities remarkably similar to Logan's (and, according to one account, a member of the Bear Clan, a second tribe of the same bestial race as the Moon Tribe), senses Logan's powers and wishes to maintain "dominance" over him like one wild animal over another, while Logan himself, although as yet unaware of his mutant nature, may subconsciously sense the similarity between them, leading him to restrain himself against someone so like himself. Another resident is a young Native American woman named Silver Fox, with whom Logan soon falls in love; the two homestead a cabin together and live happily for several months; decades later, even after learning of his memory implants, Logan will be confident in the accuracy of memories of knowing Silver Fox during his childhood, implying that such false memories were developed independently of the Team X Project.
        (Logan's uncertainty about potential Blackfoot heritage from Wolverine #34. Sabretooth, Silver Fox, etc. from Wolverine #10. Sabretooth's alleged status as member of Bear Clan from Paradise X #4. It should be noted that some accounts claim that at least some of these events in Logan's life were only memory implants based upon his later association with Sabretooth and Silver Fox in Team X; Logan and Silver Fox may have lived together not at this time but during their years in Team X. Childhood memories of Silver Fox from Wolverine #106.)

On Logan's birthday (or at least in late May, which is when Logan will later believe his birthday to be), Sabretooth brutally attacks Silver Fox, apparently raping her and leaving her for dead; Logan apparently witnesses at least part of this attack, and the experience traumatizes him severely, a trauma that the Team X Project will later use as a basis for many of his memory implants. Enraged, Logan attempts to avenge her by battling Sabretooth, apparently undergoing a berserker rage which he will later remember as perhaps the first one he ever experienced, but the older man defeats Logan after a harsh battle. Unable to bear this defeat, Logan leaves the frontier community, apparently never to return; he will not see his and Silver Fox's cabin home again for nearly a century. As far as is known, the two men will not meet again until both serve in Team X, although it is known that Sabretooth eventually develops the habit of stalking and battling Logan on his birthday as a reminder of this earliest tragedy in their shared history. Logan will later note that he "threw away" his chance to go home years ago, possibly a reference to this incident. Unknown to Logan, Silver Fox is not dead and eventually recovers from the assault. Silver Fox's activities after this remain unknown for decades; when next seen, she appears little older than she is now, suggesting that she found some method of retarding the aging process, a trait that will be shared by many of Logan's subsequent friends and enemies. Decades later, Logan will be reunited with both Sabretooth and Silver Fox in Team X.
(Supposed month of birth from Official Marvel Index to the X-Men Vol. I #5. Sabretooth and Silver Fox from Wolverine #10; additional details from Wolverine #64. "Chance to go home" from Marvel Comics Presents #40. It should be noted that some accounts imply that these events took place not early in Logan's life but during his career with Team X, with details of his recollections altered by implanted memories.)

Venturing into the eastern Rockies, Logan obtains work for the Hudson Bay Company, a British corporation.  Among his co-workers are Crawlface Bob and Du Bois, both of whom are killed by Blackfoot Indians. Venturing into Blackfoot territory himself, Logan encounters the demonic creature known as Uncegila, whom he slays after a pitched battle.  At this time, Logan is already using as personal weapons two steel knives, "Spanish-made and Mexican-forged," which he claims to have received as a gift from "a little gambler from Natchez," whom he evidently encountered either in the frontier town or while working for the Hudson Bay Company; they are the first of many bladed weapons that Logan will wield throughout his long life.  The Blackfoot, impressed by Logan's battle prowess, name him "Skunk-Bear," or "Wolverine"; Logan takes a liking to the name, but, as far as is known, he will not use it again for decades.  These events, Logan's first known encounter with the supernatural, eventually prove so troubling to him that he suppresses them from his conscious memory, unless his inability to recall them can be traced to his time with Team X; decades later, he will recall them in a dream, which his subconscious sets during the 1840s, although the possibility that these events in fact happened not to Logan but to an earlier incarnation of his soul cannot be dismissed.
(Hudson Bay Company, Uncegila, et al from Marvel Comics Presents #93-98.)

Logan travels into more populated areas of Canada, eventually joining the Army.  Still a part of the British Empire, Canada's armed forces become involved in World War I.  Although, as yet, Logan has not realized that he possesses superhuman powers, his abilities quickly call him to the attention of the authorities, and he is assigned to a special unit of the Canadian military known as the Devil's Brigade; it may be during this period that he first becomes familiar with the uses of explosives and the Fairbourne dagger.  Logan's commanding officer is a superhumanly-strong man known only as Cyber, whom Logan will later recall as "someone I looked up to in my misbegotten youth."  Although a severe disciplinarian who strikes Logan on some occasions, Cyber still commands respect as one of Logan's first teachers.  In this new life, Logan again begins to find love, as he romances a young woman named Janet.  It is possible that he meets American author Ernest Hemingway, an American correspondent during the war, during this period.  Still troubled by his encounter with Uncegila, Logan seeks solace in Christianity; he will later pronounce this effort to be "a mistake."  According to one account, at some point during World War I, Logan encounters a German agent named Eikert; Logan and Eikert will meet again decades later, during World War II.
(Mostly conjecture, a combination of items from Logan's past that do not seem to fit in any other segment of his biography.  Devil's Brigade from Alpha Flight #33.  Explosives and the Fairbourne dagger from Wolverine #106. Cyber as Logan's superior officer from Marvel Comics Presents #88; in Iron Fist #15, after being struck by Iron Fist, Logan notes that he "ain't been hit like that since [he] was a kid," suggesting that he had been struck by a superhuman during his youth.  Janet from Marvel Comics Presents #134. Acquaintance with Ernest Hemingway implied from Wolverine #35.  Logan and religion from Uncanny X-Men #164.  Eikert from the Marvel/Image crossover WildCATs/X-Men:  The Golden Age.)

Under circumstances and for reasons which have yet to be revealed, Cyber murders Janet; Logan does not learn of this until after a battle engagement with the Devil's Brigade.  When confronted, Cyber, beside whom Logan had fought so recently, brutally beats Logan and gouges out one of his eyes, presumably for daring to confront a superior officer in such a manner. Logan's Christian faith does not survive the death of Janet and this experience with Cyber.  His injury at Cyber's hands is the most severe wound that Logan has suffered up to this time.  It will be months before his mutant healing factor regenerates his lost eye; however, still unaware that he is a mutant, Logan simply assumes that his eye, although severely damaged, was not in fact removed.  It will be decades before he realizes the true nature of his healing abilities; presumably, he wears a patch over his eye until it heals, and it may be during this period that he first uses the alias "Patch," a name he will periodically use for the rest of his life. Still a young man, Logan is so shaken by these events that he blocks much of them from his conscious memory, remembering only that he suffered this severe wound "in the war---with the Devil's Brigade"; the experience continues to haunt his dreams for decades until, finally, he confronts Cyber once more and removes one of Cyber's own eyes in repayment.
(Janet's death from Marvel Comics Presents #134; surrounding details conjecture.  Cyber, Logan's lost eye, and nightmares from Marvel Comics Presents #85-92.  His first severe wound and his ignorance of his mutant nature from Alpha Flight #33.)
 
 

In either the later years of or directly after World War I, Logan leaves the army and, taking passage aboard a ship, travels to China, where he meets Chang, a Chinese businessman with whom he shares undisclosed adventures.  Although Logan does not realize it at the time, Chang is an employee of the agency known as Landau, Luckman, and Lake, with which Logan will later become very familiar; in later years, LL&L will expand into interdimensional operations, eventually having operatives on many alien worlds, but the precise nature of their activities during this period is unclear.    It will be many years before Chang feels that Logan is suitably prepared to learn the truth about his employers' activities.  At one point, Logan and Chang are photographed on nineteenth century tintype at a shipyard, although whether the use of this medium should be taken to indicate that the pair had traveled back in time is open to debate.
(China from Marvel Comics Presents #41 et al.  Ship implied by Logan's clothes in Wolverine #113.  Chang and photograph from Wolverine #5. In Wolverine #98, Logan notes that he and Chang "went back a long way" even during his freelance days of the 1950s, suggesting that they first met some time prior to that.  Landau, Luckman, and Lake from Logan:  Path of the Warlord and other sources.)

In Shanghai, Logan first makes the acquaintance of Ogun, a Japanese samurai and sorcerer whom some claim to be immortal, when Logan prevents soldiers under Ogun from assaulting a Chinese mystic and his young westerner pupil, noting that "you don't make war on old men and children"; Logan's comment in this instance may be indicative of some of his experiences with the Devil's Brigade.  Ogun, at this time a Captain in the Japanese Imperial Army, is impressed by Logan and offers to instruct him in the martial arts at the Ogun Ryu Dojo in Kanasawa, Japan, while the unnamed mystic, similarly recognizing Logan's potential, offers to instruct him in "plumbing the mysteries of the universe."  Logan, determined to avoid responsibility after his disastrous stint with the Devil's Brigade, declines both offers, claiming that he has "places to see and things to do."  It may also be in China at this time that Logan meets Adam Destine, a man granted indestructibility and immortality centuries ago; as yet, Logan does not realize that he himself, to some extent, shares these qualities with Destine.  Logan and Destine develop a great respect for each other and share at least one adventure, which culminates in the bombing of a mountain fortress by someone named Chen Yu.  Destine believes Logan to have been killed in the explosion and departs the area, but Logan survives and recovers from his wounds; it will be decades before the two meet again.  It is possible that Ogun and Destine are the first centuries-old individuals that Logan has encountered; they will not be the last.
(Ogun and the mystic from Wolverine #113.  Ogun's supposed immortality from Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #4.  Destine from X-Men/Clan Destine #2.)

Although details are vague, it may be during this period that Logan first encounters two centuries-old sorcerers, the benevolent Gomurr the Ancient and the malevolent Mister Jip.  Gomurr will later comment that Logan has never known how to "respect [his] elders," while Jip will recall Logan as "impetuous"; Logan and Gomurr will meet again years later, after Logan has become skilled in the art of the samurai, while he will encounter Jip as part of an adventure with the X-Men.  It may also be during this time that Logan first meets a man called Black Crane; decades later, Logan will speculate that Black Crane might be a mutant, because he has seen Black Crane do some remarkable things.  According to one account, Logan will later express familiarity with the Cult of Si-Fan, servants of the notorious criminal Fu Manchu, and it may be during this period that he first encounters the Si-Fan and other strange secret societies.  During his Chinese exploits, Logan adopts a carefree, irreverent attitude, but his past sufferings and his various encounters with the supernatural and other unexplained phenomena tear at his veneer of humanity; feeling himself the pawn of forces he does not understand, he eventually assumes a "predator" persona to intimidate those around him.  Logan will later categorize his activities during this period as an effort "to run...an' fight his way beyond the pain," claiming that he "fought his way clear 'cross the world."
(Gomurr the Ancient from Uncanny X-Men #329-330.  Mister Jip from Uncanny X-Men Annual #13.  Black Crane from Uncanny X-Men #363.  Si-Fan from the Marvel/Image crossover WildCATs/X-Men:  The Golden Age.  Logan as predator from Wolverine #126; running from Wolverine '96 Annual.)

After an indeterminate number of years, during which he may or may not have ventured out of Asia, Logan's travels lead him to the island nation of Madripoor, where he meets a woman known only as Seraph, proprietor of the Princess Bar.  Seraph, unimpressed with Logan's attitude, takes him under her wing and helps him deal with the tragedies that life has dealt him thus far; through his friendship with her, Logan learns lessons about responsibility, morality, and grace.  Logan will later credit Seraph with giving him "free will."  Logan makes many other friends on Madripoor, most notably the prostitute Madame Joy, and will eventually become part-owner of the Princess Bar.  Logan learns that Seraph has appointed herself the guardian of Madripoor against the Hand, an ancient order of mystic assassins.  Logan develops a deep devotion to Seraph, and he will fight by her side a number of times over the decades; like Logan, Seraph seems to age little if at all during this period, but the secret of her apparent immortality has yet to be revealed.  Logan, still using the alias "Patch," develops a notable reputation in Madripoor which will linger for decades to come; news clippings of Patch's Madripoorian exploits remain in his possession to this day.
(Madripoor, Seraph, and the Hand from Uncanny X-Men #268 and Wolverine #126-127.  Madame Joy from Wolverine #10.  News clippings from Wolverine #79.)

Driven to reshape his spirit in order to better assist Seraph, yet unable to shake his bestial side alone, Logan remembers Ogun's offer and travels to Japan for the first time; still, in his own words, "a punk kid" when he makes this journey, Logan will eventually come to regard Japan as his second home. Logan spends years studying under Ogun, whom he comes to regard as a father figure. While in Japan, Logan also takes up diving, which gives him a sense of peace he has never before achieved. According to one account, while in Japan at some point in the early 1920s, Logan is instrumental in saving the life of the leader of the Kage Ryu', or Dragon Clan, a society of mystic warriors who have been locked in a secret war with the rival society known as the Kyoto Sohei since the tenth century; as a result of his heroism, Logan is accepted into the Kage Ryu' and serves as its elite soldier, or Montra Warrior, against an opponent from the Kyoto Sohei, a role in which he succeeds and which he will take up anew every twenty-five years.
(Logan's first visit to Japan from Uncanny X-Men #118 and Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #3; second home from Uncanny X-Men #162 and other sources.  Ogun from Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #4-6.  Diving from Marvel Comics Presents #41. Kage Ryu' from the Marvel/Crusade crossover Wolverine/Shi: Dark Night of Judgment.)

A few weeks after beginning his training, Logan observes a battle between Ogun and a band of ninjas hired by crimelord Ugama Hana, one of Ogun's many enemies.  After easily defeating the ninjas and battling Hana, Ogun allows Hana to drive a sword into his chest.  Despite this seemingly fatal wound, Ogun removes the sword from his own chest and mocks Hana's efforts, decapitating him shortly thereafter.  This is the first demonstration of Ogun's true mystic power that Logan witnesses; over the
years he will see Ogun cheat apparent death many times.
(Ugama Hana from Wolverine #169.)

Despite his newfound devotion to martial arts, Logan's wanderlust proves too great a temptation, and he does not complete his samurai training at this time, instead, it would seem, traveling periodically throughout Asia and Europe, apparently using Japan as a home base.  Little is known of these adventures, but it is possible that, at some point during these years, Logan works alongside Irene Adler and "Mr. Raven," an identity which may be an alias of the shapechanging Raven Darkholme; decades later, Adler and Darkholme, as Destiny and Mystique, will found the second Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and clash with Logan and the X-Men many times.  The precise nature of this work is unknown, but in 1936, on behalf of Adler and Raven, Logan aids the time-traveling American mutants Shadowcat and Phoenix, both of whom are Logan's teammates and friends in the X-Men some decades in the future, in their encounter with the ancient entity known as the Shadow King and the German agents Baron Strucker and Geist, all three of whom Logan will clash with in later years.  However, it is possible that it is not the "contemporary" Logan of 1936 who aids the two X-Men on this occasion, but the Logan of several decades in the future, brought back into the past under circumstances that remain unclear, perhaps directly related to the arrival of Shadowcat and Phoenix, which Adler, a precognitive, could easily have foretold.  Interestingly, a verified instance of Logan time-traveling from the future occurs less than a year later; during April of 1937, the Logan of nearly sixty years in the future arrives in northern Spain, where he encounters, among others, Ernest Hemingway and adventurer Eugene Judd, whom Logan will later know as Puck.  A later version of Judd in fact travels back in time with Logan, apparently merging with his past self.  As far as is known, the "contemporary" Logan, whose activities at this time are unknown, never learns of this incursion by his future self; it is possible that, during the years of 1936 and 1937, Logan was involved in some set of circumstances, perhaps under the auspices of Landau, Luckman, and Lake, which rendered this period unusually prone to time travel by his future selves, although this is mere conjecture.  Following these events, apparently after Judd has departed the area, Logan himself sees action in the Spanish Civil War, although no details of his role in the conflict are available; records of his role in the war remain in Logan's possession to this day.
(Adler, Raven, et al from X-Men:  True Friends #2-3.  The possibility that Logan traveled through time to participate in these events is suggested by the fact that he is depicted with his adamantium claws and the knowledge that he is a mutant, both attributes that he allegedly did not receive until decades later; since he recognizes neither Shadowcat nor Phoenix, it seems probable that "this" Logan originated from his years in Canadian Intelligence under Department H.  1937 from Wolverine #35-37. Spanish Civil War from Wolverine #79.)

At some point during the late 1930s, Logan develops a close attachment to the Romanoff family in Russia, particularly young Natasha Romanova, who comes to call him "little uncle."  Logan's connection to the Romanoffs remains unrevealed, but it may relate to Romanova's natural aptitude for the martial arts, which will later make her a target of the Hand; it is, in fact, possible that at least some of Logan's activities during this period were part of a search for such gifted children undertaken on behalf of either Seraph or Ogun, although this is only conjecture.  Upon reaching adulthood, Romanova will, under circumstances yet to be revealed, be exposed to a process which will retard or arrest her aging process, and she will eventually become the espionage agent known as the Black Widow.  If the archaeologist/adventurer Indiana Jones is in fact a historical figure and not a fictional character, Logan may encounter him during this period; decades later, Logan will be impressed enough by the film "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to watch it at least thirteen times.  It is also possible that Logan spends time wandering alone through an unspecified jungle during this period, although his later references to such adventures may actually refer to Team X-related work in the jungles of Southeast Asia.
(Natasha Romanova from Uncanny X-Men #268.  "Raiders" from Micronauts #37.  Jungle from Marvel Comics Presents #117.)
 
 

With the outbreak of World War II, Logan, as a westerner, is no longer welcome in Japan.  He returns to Madripoor, where he uses his newer skills, including swordsmanship, to aid Seraph against the Hand; Logan's enmity toward the Hand will eventually come to the notice of Stick, leader of the Chaste, a sect of warriors who have opposed the Hand for untold years.  During the summer of 1941, Logan and Seraph work in cooperation with the American adventurer Captain America against the Hand and the Nazi Baron Strucker, rescuing Natasha Romanova from being transformed into a Hand assassin; during the war, Strucker will work with Japanese criminals in the foundation of HYDRA, a worldwide terrorist organization that will play a major if peripheral role in Logan's life and with which he will clash many times.  Although the 1940s are the first recorded period of extreme superhuman activity throughout North America and much of the rest of the world, this is the only known instance in which Logan works alongside one of the several costumed adventurers who were active during this period.  As far as is known, Logan and Captain America do not meet again for decades, when Logan has joined the X-Men and Captain America, his youth preserved by suspended animation, has joined the Avengers; to this day, it remains unclear whether or not Captain America is aware that the X-Man Wolverine is his wartime comrade Logan.
(Stick from Wolverine #100.  Swordsmanship, Captain America, et al from Uncanny X-Men #268.  Strucker and HYDRA from various sources, including Marvel Universe #1-3.)

Eventually, perhaps at the urging of Seraph to embrace responsibilities in his homeland, Logan returns to Canada and again enlists in the Armed Forces.  Achieving the rank of corporal, he is sent to Greece where, under the alias "Canada," he teaches resistance fighters the use of explosives and the Fairbourne dagger, which he himself wields on a number of missions.  By June 6, 1944, Corporal Logan is a member of the First Canadian Parachute Batallion at Ranville, Normandy, where he and other Canadian soldiers parchute behind enemy lines from a burning C-47; Canada's role in the Normandy invasion is featured in the 6/7/44 edition of the Toronto Star, a copy of which Logan retains as a souvenir to this day.  Among the Nazi soldiers that Logan encounters on this mission is Bloodscream, an immortal quasi-vampire whom Logan will encounter again decades later.  Logan's memories of these events will later be adversely affected by the memory implants he receives as a member of Team X, but he eventually regains them.
(Greece from Wolverine #106.  Normandy from Wolverine #34 and #85. Toronto Star from Wolverine #79.  Bloodscream from Wolverine #78.)

It may also be during this period that Logan first meets Nick Fury, a noted American soldier who will, like Logan, go on to become famous in the espionage field.  Like Logan before him, Fury suffers an eye injury during the war, although it will not become permanently debilitating until later years, prompting Logan to call him by the same nickname Logan once used, "Patch."  According to one account, Logan and Fury, not yet injured, are already acquainted when both are part of a joint American-Canadian intelligence operation; on this occasion, Logan is dispatched by Canadian Intelligence to retrieve an arcane scroll from Nazi Germany.  During this mission, he again encounters Eikert, now a Nazi officer, and is briefly drawn into a minor skirmish between two warring races of extraterrestrials. In this account, Logan claims to "have a history" with a being named Kenyan, who is intimately involved in this war, although no details are given.
(Conjecture; although the friendship between Logan and Fury, first mentioned in Marvel Fanfare #24,  is well-established, it has never been made clear when the two first met.  However, when experiencing hallucinations in Uncanny X-Men #252, Logan envisions Fury as an army sergeant, suggesting that the two first met under such circumstances. "Patch" from What If (Volume II) #7.  Canadian Intelligence et al from the Marvel/Image crossover WildCATs/X-Men:  The Golden Age.)

Few other details about Logan's World War II service are known, although he is known to have spent at least one winter below Monte Cassino, in Italy, presumably serving with Allied forces.  Decades later, under the influence of a powerful hallucinogen, Logan will, in a dream, live through the Nazi invasion of an unspecified country, as well as a brief encounter with Adolf Hitler and the cyborg Nazi Geist; it is not known if the events of this dream are based in reality.  Logan will also later speak of the British invasion of Dresden as though he had witnessed the aftermath of that battle, but, again, whether or not this is the case is unknown.
(Monte Cassino from Uncanny X-Men Annual #4.  Nazi dream and Geist from Wolverine #21.  Dresden from Wolverine #61.)
 
 

Following World War II, Logan resigns from the military and again travels to Japan, hoping to participate in the reconstruction of that nation following the collapse of the imperial government.  During this time, in Kyoto, Logan encounters a man named Kimora, who, unknown to Logan, is an extradimensional despot temporarily stranded on Earth; the two men battle, with Logan proving victorious, but, perhaps recalling his moral lessons from Seraph, he does not kill Kimora when given the chance.  The precise circumstances under which the two came into conflict are unknown, but years later Kimora will note that he "once saw in [Logan] a worthy adversary"; it is possible that Ogun played some role in their meeting, but this is only conjecture.  Logan may also meet the young Asano Kimura during this time; years later, Kimura will join the Japanese Secret Service and again encounter Logan, who will eventually categorize him as one of his oldest and best friends.  Although the similarity of the names "Kimora" and "Kimura" is suggestive, no known connection between the two men exists.
(Conjecture, based upon Logan's devotion to Japan.  Kimora from Logan:  Path of the Warlord.  Kimura from Wolverine Limited Series #1 and #3.)

From Japan, Logan travels to China, where the People's Republic is forming; he may also spend some time in Europe.  Logan is deeply troubled by what he sees during the rise of communism in both "Stalin's Russia" and "Mao's China," as some of the most talented citizens of these nations are imprisoned or slain for their refusal to submit to totalitarian rule.  He and Black Crane meet for the last time in decades during this period, and Logan incurs a "blood debt" to Crane which remains unpaid to this day; it may be during this period that Logan was temporarily enslaved by unknown parties, although the timeframe for this experience has not in fact been established, and his freedom may be the "blood debt" he owes to Black Crane. Logan keeps this period of enslavement, like many other aspects of the first half of his life, under great secrecy; years later, not even Carol Danvers, one of his closest friends, will know about it.
(Mostly conjecture.  People's Republic from Uncanny X-Men #363. Stalin and Mao from Daredevil #249.  Blood debt from Deadpool #27. Enslavement from Uncanny X-Men #238.)
 

Discouraged by his failure to positively affect political events in his old stomping grounds, yet having retained a taste for intercontinental travel and adventure, Logan returns to his earlier, carefree attitude and enters freelance intelligence work.  Hoping to earn "some quick and easy bucks," "see the world," and "make a name for [him]self," Logan contacts his friend Chang, who arranges for Landau, Luckman, and Lake to find work for Logan and handle his business affairs, in exchange for Logan's occasional services.  Among Logan's assets during this period is a bank account in Edinburgh, Scotland, which LL&L maintains until recent years.  Operating mostly out of Ottawa and Calgary, Logan establishes a base of freelance clients that includes a number of government operations, including Canadian Intelligence, for whom he does "odd jobs," little realizing that he will one day work full time for that agency; he develops a reputation as "one of the most dangerous free agents ever to rise through the ranks of the intelligence agencies."  Another government employer is an agency known only as "Central"; this may be the American CIA, for which Logan will also later work full-time.  Logan will continue to perform occasional "dirty work" for Central even after joining the X-Men, long after his freelance days are over.  During this phase of his career, Logan often uses a pair of blades as weapons, as he did early in his life.
(Chang and blades from Logan:  Path of the Warlord.  Landau, Luckman, and Lake from Wolverine #98; Edinburgh from Wolverine #79.  Ottawa from Marvel Comics Presents #51; Calgary from Uncanny X-Men #120.  Canadian Intelligence from Classic X-Men #26.  Reputation as a free agent from Captain America Annual #8.  Central from Classic X-Men #25.)

In Calgary, Logan often works with a woman named Cracklin' Rosa, with whom he becomes romantically involved; like Seraph, Rosa is a business owner, proprietor of the Hotel St. Cecil, and Logan becomes her partner in various business enterprises.  Although now over fifty, Logan has retained the physical appearance and vitality of a much younger man, and he will later recall himself as "a wild kid" during these years.  Logan's involvement with Cracklin' Rosa, although never serious, leaves a lasting impression upon him, perhaps because she is, as far as is known, the first woman who has not been killed as a result of his affections toward her. Like Logan himself, Rosa never realizes that Logan has superhuman powers during these years, although she recognizes that he can recover quickly from physical abuse.
(Cracklin' Rosa from Uncanny X-Men #120, Uncanny X-Men #123, and Classic X-Men #26.)

Few details of Logan's freelance years are known. It may be presumed that he again encounters Nick Fury during these years, forging a friendship that continues to this day. Another close friend of Logan's during this period is a woman known only as Charlemagne, with whom he works in various intelligence operations. At some point in their friendship, the two become lovers, and Logan will later consider Charlemagne one of his best friends. Like Logan, Charlemagne ages little if at all over the ensuing decades, although the source of her apparent immortality, like Silver Fox's and Seraph's, is unknown. In addition, one account indicates that Logan again takes up the role of Montra Warrior of the Kage Ryu' at some point during these years, again defeating a Kyoto Sohei opponent.
(Charlemagne from Spider Man Vs. Wolverine #1. Kage Ryu' from the Marvel/Crusade crossover Wolverine/Shi: Dark Night of Judgment.)

At one point during this period, Logan spends a year in Brazil, where he works as a bouncer at the Devil's Grill, owned by Antonio Vargas. In Brazil, Logan apparently continues his freelance activities, with his bar employment as a cover, and he becomes known as "the Man of Harsh Business." It may also be during this period that Logan is active in Mexico, where he frequents what he categorizes as the "rowdiest cantina on the gulf of California"; it is possibly at this time that Logan encounters the Nazi geneticist Arnim Zola, who is known to have operated in Central America following World War II and who will later claim that Logan has "long been a nasty thorn in [his] side."  During his freelance years, Logan also returns to Madripoor on occasion, where Chang maintains a Landau, Luckman, and Lake office in Lowtown; unknown to Logan, LL&L has by now entered the field of interdimensional research, a field that will one day provide the backbone of their business transactions.
(Brazil from Wolverine:  Black Rio.  Mexico from Uncanny X-Men #242. Zola from Wolverine #148. Madripoor and Chang from Wolverine #97.)

On one occasion, Logan accepts an assignment directly for Landau, Luckman, and Lake to arrange transportation and security for Dr. Carling, a scientist who has discovered a method of interdimensional travel, and his daughter, Rose; unknown to Logan, Carling is the scientist responsible for bringing his enemy Kimora into the Earth dimension.  Kimora kidnaps the Carlings in an effort to learn the method by which he may establish large-scale transportation between the Earth dimension and his own; when Logan intervenes, Kimora, deriding his opponent as "a beast in a man's clothing," defeats him in battle and is only prevented from killing him when Chang apparently decapitates Kimora, who in reality manages to return to his own dimension.  Shaken by Chang's apparent act of cold-blooded murder and haunted by Kimora's words, Logan ends his freelance operations.  The precise nature of his next activities are unknown, but he eventually returns to Japan, where, more interested in self-control and inner peace than in martial arts per se, he seeks instruction not from Ogun but from an unnamed sensei in Jasmine Falls, under whose tutelage he spends the next five years or more.  His sparring partner and friend during these years is another student, Miyagi.  In Jasmine Falls, Logan strives to gain control of his violent nature but never quite succeeds; nevertheless, he attains a level of tranquility that has eluded him for years, and he seems prepared to remain in Japan indefinitely.  It may also be during this period in Japan that Logan befriends Bando Suburo, a man who teaches him much about achieving spiritual peace.
(Carling et al from Logan:  Path of the Warlord.  Suburo from Wolverine #26.)

Logan's studies with the sensei are interrupted by Chang, who has tracked Logan down to request his assistance in opposing Kimora's efforts to conquer the Earth dimension by wresting the full secrets of interdimensional travel from the captive Carling, who eventually dies from his mistreatment; in the intervening years, Carling has constructed a large interdimensional travel mechanism for Landau, Luckman, and Lake, which intends to use this new technology to play an important role in the "great change" and "certain strife" that some believe will soon sweep the world, apparently a reference to to the sudden outbreak of superhuman activity that will occur within less than four decades.  Chang leads Logan into Kimura's dimension, apparently Logan's first venture into such an environment, where the two, joined by Carling's half-extradimensional daughter Rose, invade Kimora's stronghold. Logan, loathe to resort to brutal force after his years of meditative training, proves adaptable in dealing with the stronghold's non-human defenders, but he only manages to defeat Kimora at the cost of releasing the animal savagery that he has spent the past few years repressing.  Returning to the Earth dimension, Chang offers both Rose and Logan employment with Landau, Luckman, and Lake.  Logan declines, although he admits that he will consider the offer and rethink his way of life.  Rose accepts Chang's offer, becoming an operative with LL&L and eventually heading an office in Hong Kong, where she uses the name "Rose Wu"; whether this is an alias or an indication that Rose married a human at some point is unknown.  Logan and Rose remain friends for many years after these events; it is not clear if they ever worked together on any subsequent missions, although a photograph taken of the two in a futuristic, alien city suggests that they shared at least one additional extradimensional experience.
(Kimora et al from Logan:  Path of the Warlord.  Rose Wu from Uncanny X-Men #257-259.)

Little is known of Logan's subsequent activities as he works to change his own nature, although he apparently resumes his career as a freelance agent.  On one occasion, in Tehran, Iran, Logan, under unknown circumstances, incurs a debt to a man who, after achieving status as a crimelord years later, will use the name "Morrow"; Logan knows him by another name during this period, but that name has not been revealed.  While at this time Logan continues to embrace the moral lessons taught to him in Japan, which he hopes to integrate into his life, "Morrow" is unimpressed, later characterizing Logan as "a murderer...so proud and arrogant in [his] "principles.," a remark suggesting that Logan once again proved incapable of fulling restricting his violent nature.  It will be years before "Morrow" finally calls in the favor owed to him, but over the intervening time he often tantalizes Logan with the knowledge of this debt.  Logan will later note of "Morrow":  "I don't like [him].  I never have.  But he's a man I have to respect."
("Morrow" from Wolverine #25.)

Under circumstances which have yet to be revealed, Logan suffers a severe wound, his most serious since Cyber's attack; it is possible that his survival of this incident is the debt that he owes "Morrow."  He is treated after this injury in Canada by a Dr. Giloski, whom Logan can count on to "keep quiet" due to Giloski's own experience in freelance espionage, and whom Logan will occasionally consult in later years.  Despite his recovery from a wound that would have killed any other man, Logan still does not realize that he is a mutant.  Unknown to Logan, Giloski reports the incident to an intelligence contact, and Logan's name is submitted for consideration in Team X.
(Wound from Alpha Flight #33.  Giloski from Marvel Comics Presents #52.  Team X contact conjecture.)
 
 

Under circumstances which have yet to be revealed, Logan is recruited for Team X, a multi-national intelligence operation overseen by the Black Ops Special Services Section of the American CIA.  The Team X Project, also known as the Weapon X Program, although employing a number of super-agents for various missions, most notably in conflict with the super-agent programs of communist powers, is ultimately intended to selectively suppress those agents's memories and awareness of their super-powers, to be renewed as necessary, or even to control their actions from afar, making them the perfect sleeper agents; memories are also implanted as deemed necessary by the Team X Project's ally Psi-Borg, usually bonding such implants to actual memories of severe trauma.  Although Logan himself remains unaware of his mutant nature, the scientists of the Team X Project recognize his unique age suppression factor and, without his knowledge, isolate it and implant it within other agents; Psi-Borg is also promised such an age-suppression implant in return for his work but for unknown reasons does not receive it, a betrayal that will prompt him to seek vengeance on the members of Team X years later.  Another aspect of the Team X Project is the Shiva Scenario, a contingency in which heavily armored robots will be employed to terminate the agents as necessary; this scenario is evaluated by scientists Dr. Alexander Ryking, Dr. Kurt Marko, and Dr. Brian Xavier.  Sons of the first two men, Hazard and the Juggernaut, will later be numbered among Logan's enemies, while the son of the third, Professor X, will prove to be one of his closest friends and advisors. Unaware of the full nature of Team X's work, and perhaps preferring to work with others after his recent experiences, Logan joins the Team X Project, apparently his first membership in a team unit since his army days.
(Black Ops from Maverick #2.  Memory implants from Wolverine #48 et al; control aspect from Wolverine #166. Psi-Borg from Wolverine #62 et al.  Age suppression factor from Wolverine #50 and #61.  Shiva Scenario from Wolverine #50.  Involvement of Brian Xavier et al from X-Men #13.)

Among the other members of Team X, Logan is surprised to find Sabretooth and shocked to find Silver Fox, whom he had thought long dead; Silver Fox herself, either as a result of trauma or other factors, remembers little of her assault by Sabretooth at this point, and at her instigation Logan, his own memories of the event clouded by the same trauma that the Team X Project will use as the basis for his memory implants, sets aside his enmity for Sabretooth; it is in fact possible that the memories of all three are suppressed by the Team X Project, but this cannot be confirmed.  Neither Logan nor Silver Fox appear to know that, in the intervening years, Sabretooth has become a brutal criminal and murderer many times over. Logan's other Team X colleagues include John Wraith, a.k.a. Kestrel, and Mastodon; Logan's closest friend on the team is Sgt. David North, also known as Maverick, a former West German freedom fighter.  Other Team X operatives are known by the code-names Vole and Wildcat; according to one account, the mutant shapechanger Mystique, under the name of Leni Zauber, also assists Team X on occasion.  Team X's Canadian facility is located in Alberta, Canada, adjacent, oddly enough, to a Blackfoot burial ground.  In the course of his near-decade of service, despite his status as a non-US citizen, Logan eventually reaches the rank of major in the United States Armed Forces under the command of Team X's army liaison, Major Arthur Barrington; perhaps in honor of his past on the frontier, so vividly recalled by Silver Fox, Logan adopts the codename "Wolverine" for what appears to be the first time (aside from his questionable activities during 1936), a name he will use throughout most of the rest of his life.
(Team X's existence is first implied in Wolverine #48 and fleshed out further in later issues.  Silver Fox's role in easing tensions between Logan and Sabretooth conjecture.  Maverick from X-Men #6.  Vole and Wildcat from Wolverine #50.  Mystique from the Marvel/Image crossover Team X/Team 7. Burial ground from Wolverine #52.  Rank of major from Wolverine #50; Barrington from Maverick #2.)

As a member of Team X, Logan is often partnered with Sabretooth, almost as if the Team X Project is testing his ability to put his memories of Sabretooth's previous activities behind him.  In 1963, Logan and Sabretooth are operational in Cuba when Silver Fox betrays them to Cuban soldiers.  Fox's treason may be due to a deviation in her memories of the attack by Sabretooth, leading her to recall the full extent of the attack and to erroneously believe that Logan abandoned her; this may be an extreme reaction to the Team X memory implants, perhaps due to an interaction with the unknown procedure which arrested her aging.  Following this betrayal, Silver Fox becomes a terrorist, clashing with her former teammates on a number of occasions, and eventually rises high within the ranks of HYDRA. The Team X Project, presumably hoping to salvage her services, monitors her activities for some time but finally loses track of her at some point in the 1970s.
(Sabretooth, Cuba, and Silver Fox's betrayal fromWolverine #49; betrayal also from Wolverine #61.  Silver Fox's memory reaction conjecture. Terrorist activities from Wolverine #48-49.  HYDRA et al from Wolverine #50.)

In keeping with US interests of the times, Team X is often dispatched to Cuba and southeast Asia, although details of these missions are sparse; in later years, Logan will prove capable of recognizing the jungles of Vietnam at a glance.  According to one account, the group also ventures into the Sultanate of Numidia in the Middle East, where they encounter a similar team of super-agents sponsored by another government agency.  Logan's Team X activities are often of quite a different nature than his previous freelance work, and thus it remains unclear if he ever encounters, or even clashes with, Nick Fury, Chang, Charlemagne, or other friends during this period.
(Cuba and southeast Asia from Wolverine #61.  Vietnam from Uncanny X-Men #226.  Numidia et al from the Marvel/Image crossover Team X/Team 7.)

In 1968, Logan, with Sabretooth as backup, returns to the USSR when he is dispatched to Tyuratam to sabotage a moon voyage by assassinating the Soviet super-agent Epsilon Red; the mission is called off before Logan can do so, but Sabretooth murders Epsilon Red's wife on a whim.  Logan will meet Epsilon Red again years later.  It is also during this period that Logan, Sabretooth, and Maverick are sent on a joint NATO operation to recover a foreign national in East Germany.  In Logan's final known mission with Team X, he, Sabretooth, Maverick, and John Wraith are again dispatched to East Germany to sabotage a Soviet super-soldier program in Berlin and retrieve an experimental piece of technology known as the carbonadium synthesizer, along with a double agent named Janice.  Team X is confronted by another super-agent, Omega Red, who will later become one of Logan's deadliest enemies.  During their efforts to escape, Sabretooth murders Janice to prevent her lack of field experience from slowing the team's withdrawal.  In the aftermath of the escape, Logan's rapid recovery from the fiasco leads him to finally realize that he is a mutant with enhanced healing abilities and other superhuman powers.  Disturbed by this revelation and unwilling to continue working with the murderous Sabretooth, Logan resigns from Team X. Team X itself disbands shortly thereafter, perhaps due to repercussions from Sabretooth's actions or Logan's resignation; Logan's Team X files are officially rendered dormant on October 5, 1972, although the reason for the time lapse between his resignation and this acknowledgement is unclear.  It will be many years before Logan speaks freely of his Team X years, and his memories of them eventually become vague due to memory tampering both during his membership and afterward; he will claim only that he was a "commando" prior to entering Canadian Intelligence.
(Tyuratam and Epsilon Red from Wolverine #65-68.  NATO from X-Men Unlimited #15 and Maverick #2.  Berlin and Omega Red from X-Men #5-7 and Wolverine #60.  Realization of mutant nature and resignation from X-Men #6. Disbandment from Maverick #2.  October date from Wolverine #50.  "Commando" from Uncanny X-Men #163.)
 
 

Having resigned from Team X but unsure of how to deal with the knowledge that he is a mutant, Logan goes to work for an unnamed branch of the Canadian Defense Ministry, an agency "so secret that not even the Prime Minister knows of its existence" and for which he will work for years; this may be Department K, a special weapons branch of the Canadian government which will at least later be linked to the Weapon X Program and which will employ such super-agents as Deadpool and Kane, but this identification cannot be verified. It is not clear precisely how much time elapses between Logan's resignation from Team X and his recruitment by this unnamed agency, although the closure of his Team X files in 1972 is suggestive.  Operating out of Ottawa, he is partnered with Neil Langram, who, like Logan, is a mutant, although the nature of his superhuman power has never been revealed; it is possible that the mutant nature of both Logan and Langram played some role in their recruitment by this unnamed agency, but this is as yet unverified. As a part of this agency, Logan, eventually reaching the rank of commander, is equipped with false I.D. cards from a wide variety of intelligence agencies, including the Federal Air Marshalls, the KGB, the CIA, the GRU, MI-5, Shin Beth, and the UN Peace-Keeping Force; it may also be during this period that Logan acquires a (presumably) false I.D. as "Jim Logan, Detective" with the Nassau, NY, Police Department, an I.D. which he maintains in recent times. Emerging from Team X's ultra-covert activities, Logan renews his partnership with Cracklin' Rosa on at least one occasion, during which he nearly crosses paths with Interpol agent Sean Cassidy, whom he will meet again in later years; presumably he renews his friendship with Charlemagne as well, although no such reunion has been documented.  Among Logan's civilian friends during this period is a young woman named Rose, who may be Cracklin' Rosa's daughter; when operational in Canada, Logan drives a Lotus-Seven and, despite a personal dislike of guns, carries a Colt 1911A1, although he often prefers to wield a pair of blades as personal weapons, as he did during his freelance days. As he did while a member of Team X, Logan uses the codename "Wolverine."
(Unnamed agency, Langram, et al from Logan:  Secret Society; Department K from Deadpool/Death '98 Annual, among others. Ottawa and false I.D.s from Wolverine #66.  Commander rank and Rose from What If (Volume II) #62.  Nassau from X-Men #74.  Cracklin' Rosa from Classic X-Men #26, which, given Cassidy's presence in the story, evidently took place years after her earlier partnership with Logan.  Lotus-Seven from Wolverine #48; dislike of guns from Wolverine # Minus-1; Colt from Wolverine #76.)

At times, Logan uses the alias "Agent Ten," perhaps in memory of his work wth Team X, "X" being the Roman numeral for "10."  As Agent Ten, Logan works in cooperation with a US organization known only as "the Agency," overseen by his old friend Nick Fury; although the two have presumably shared many adventures prior to this period, this is the first recorded example of their work together.  On at least one occasion, Logan also works with Richard and Mary Parker, married government agents who, months after their first meeting with Logan, have a son, Peter, who will eventually become the noted super-hero Spider-Man, whom Logan will encounter on many occasions.  It will be over sixteen years before Fury goes on to head the international espionage agency known as SHIELD.
(Agent Ten, the Agency, and the Parkers from Untold Tales of Spider-Man # Minus-1.)

At one point, Logan is given a special assignment to investigate corruption on the Canadian docks.  In the course of this undercover investigation, he encounters the sorcerer Abdul Alhazred, who is involved in the illegal activities.  Despite his many decades of adventure, Logan remains relatively inexperienced in dealing with the supernatural and proves no match for Alhazred's magic, and the experience leaves him deeply shaken. Years later, the mere sight of the mark of Abdul Alhazred will prove so inherently frightening to even Logan's bestial persona that the shock of it will snap him back to humanity when temporarily out of control.
(Abdul Alhazred from Marvel Comics Presents #154.  Logan's subsequent reaction to the sight of his mark from Marvel Comics Presents #63.)

On another mission, Logan travels to the USSR to accompany the defecting scientist Dimitri Suhkarov and his young daughter Viktoria from Soviet territory.  Doctor Suhkarov is murdered by the Russian agent Volk, but Logan is successful in bringing Viktoria Suhkarov to Canada; Logan will be a close friend to Suhkarov as she grows up, and she herself will eventually work for the Canadian Secret Service.
(Suhkarovs and Volk from Wolverine '97 Annual.)

At some point during his years of service, Logan's superiors in the unnamed agency offer him the opportunity to become a cyborg, his already heightened skills and senses to be augmented further by cybernetic implants. Logan is intrigued by the notion but ultimately decides against it, little realizing that, years later, he will be subject to a similar procedure against his will.
(Brush with cyborg nature from Uncanny X-Men #132.  It is presumed that this offer was made during Logan's years with the unnamed agency, if not earlier, since he would almost certainly never have considered it in the aftermath of his transformation by the Weapon X Program.)

At some point during this period, while on a government mission in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Logan finds himself in indirect conflict with adventurer Eugene Judd, who, like Logan, was involved in the Spanish Civil War. Like Logan, Judd is a man born many decades ago whose aging has been greatly retarded, in his case via his possession by a demonic sorcerer called Razer; coincidentally, Logan himself will later be proven to have risked a similar fate through his relationship with Ogun. Judd, whose possession by Razer shortly after the Spanish Civil War resulted in his physical transformation into a dwarf, has a reputation as a deadly freelance operative during this period, and although the two, on opposite sides during this occasion, do not actually meet, Logan deduces his adversary's identity and confirms it years later, when the two meet on friendly terms; Judd will later feel flattered that Logan "could recognize [his] signature in the midst of all that mess." It is also during these years, toward the end of his service with the unnamed agency, that Logan first meets Carol Danvers, a young American operative, who, although still in her teens, serves in a branch of American intelligence, possibly Air Force Intelligence; inexperienced when she and Logan first meet in the field, she quickly becomes an expert agent, working with both Logan and his partner Langram on a number of occasions, and Logan will count her as one of his closest friends for the rest of his life.
(Maracaibo and Judd from Alpha Flight #16-17.  Danvers from Logan: Shadow Society; her status as AFI agent when she first met Logan from Uncanny X-Men #133, although, given the questionability of precisely how much of their career together either Logan or Danvers remembers, designating her as AFI at this point may be inaccurate.  Chronological placement of Logan's work with Danvers, at this phase of his career and in later ones, is made  particularly questionable by the fact that she is one of the comparatively few of his pre-X-Men allies who (so far as is known) ages normally and the fact that, given that she remains active today as the Avenger Warbird, the years of her adolescence cannot easily be designated.)

Langram is approached by representatives of the Hellfire Club, an international elite organization whose highest ranking membership, the Inner Circle, has recently been infiltrated by mutants who, under the leadership of Sebastian Shaw, intend to purge the Circle of non-superhuman members and form a mutant army to achieve further power, goals whose realization he will not approach until years later.  Although superhuman beings, including mutants, have existed for millennia and been periodically active in the public eye throughout the world since at least World War I, the general public still has little understanding of the true nature of mutantkind, and Shaw intends to prevent the spread of such knowledge to the public until his plans are fully formulated.  Langram turns down the Hellfire Club's offer and ultimately decides to publicly reveal their activities, but is subsequently slain by Sabretooth, who, apparently having become a freelance agent following the disbandment of Team X, is on this occasion working for the Hellfire Club.  Prior to his death, Langram had been slated to assist Danvers in a Canada-based operation, and Logan is dispatched to replace him in this assignment.  Learning of Langram's death, and dissatisfied with the Canadian government's procedures in the matter, Logan and Danvers launch their own investigation.

Seeking information, they break into a Defense Ministry facility known as Department H, a special government branch that, at this stage of its development, even Logan knows nothing about, little realizing that he will later spend years as one of its operatives; among Department H's operations is the "Mutant Agenda," apparently a multi-national project in which Canada, the U.S., and perhaps other nations are cooperating with the Hellfire Club to form teams of mutant operatives, although Logan does not realize any of this at the time.  Department H's information leads Logan and Danvers to Dr. Perry Edwards, an American author who has published a book, "The Shadow Society," correctly theorizing that the U.S. government is concealing the existence of superhuman mutants "in order to exploit them for their own purposes."  Edwards's information leads the two to the Hellfire Club, where Logan in turn receives a lead to the club's Canadian installation; although this installation, apparently a holding facility for uncooperative mutants, is presumed to be a part of Shaw's operation, it may in fact be managed, covertly or otherwise, by Shaw's fellow Inner Circle member Edward Buckman, an anti-mutant fanatic who will later cooperate with Steven Lang in the construction of the third known series of anti-mutant robots known as the Sentinels.  Edwards, whose information, although incomplete, has led him to also be targeted by the Hellfire Club, is slain shortly afterward by Sabretooth, who then proceeds to Canada himself, where, under Shaw's orders, he slays two of Logan's fellow Canadian operatives---Sidney Hallorman and a man known only as Malcolm, both of whom were apparently involved in the Mutant Agenda---as well as three unidentified American operatives, apparently due to Shaw's concern that the activities of Logan and Danvers would otherwise expose the Hellfire Club's activities.

Confronting Logan in battle, Sabretooth reveals some of the details of the operation which Logan and Danvers have become involved in, noting that both Logan and Langram had been selected for contact by yet another party, "some farm team down in the states," seeking to form a team of mutants; although it cannot be confirmed, this may be a reference to Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, whose founder, Professor Charles Xavier, will organize the team of mutant heroes known as the X-Men within less than five years.  Following Shaw's orders to "clean up" the operation, Sabretooth detonates a bomb which destroys the Canadian installation, although he, Logan, and Danvers all survive; it is not known if the unseen mutants presumed to be held at the installation were evacuated prior to its destruction, nor, if not, whether any of them survived the explosion.  In the aftermath of these events, Danvers, hoping to expose the mutant conspiracy, prepares to bring the matter to the attention of Senator Robert Kelly, who will years later become a noted anti-mutant legislator, motivated by his fear of the damage that mutants can inflict upon society; the outcome of Danvers's plans has never been revealed.
(Langram et al from Logan:  Shadow Society.  Additional Hellfire Club information from Classic X-Men #47, among other sources; Buckman's possible involvement conjecture.)

Following these events, Logan becomes obsessed with his own mutant nature, which he comes to realize has played a far more important role in his past successes than he had previously believed; disillusioned with himself and more troubled than he cares to admit by recent events, he turns to drugs and alcohol, perhaps in an effort to test the extent of his healing factor.  Sabretooth's prediction of a war between mutant factions preys upon his mind, but Logan's reports of the alleged mutant conspiracy are dismissed by his superiors, who apparently begin to distrust him as a paranoid; it is not clear if any of Logan's superiors were in fact involved in the Mutant Agenda themselves.  Ultimately, Logan is dismissed from the unnamed agency for accidentally shooting a fellow agent at the firing range.  Disgusted, Logan "ties some loose ends" in his civilian life and prepares to travel to the Yukon in an effort to "get away...from...what's comin'," presumably the predicted mutant strife.
(Obsession with mutant nature, dismissal for shooting, and desire for isolation from Marvel Comics Presents #72; Yukon also from Logan: Shadow Society.  Drugs and alcohol from article in Comics Scene #18; alcohol also mentioned in Wolverine #66.  Reaction of superiors from Logan:  Shadow Society.)

Per the specific instructions of an individual whose identity remains a mystery, Logan is kidnapped by agents of the Weapon X Program, apparently an outgrowth of the Team X Project. Logan's bones, including his claws (whose existence has apparently remained unknown to him throughout his life), are bonded with the indestructible metal known as adamantium, making them unbreakable; they will retain this status for many years. This adamantium bonding process was apparently stolen by the Weapon X Program from the Japanese scientist known as Lord Dark Wind. Work in this field has also been done by American scientist Dr. Ronald Rankin, whose son Calvin will, years later, develop superhuman powers and become known as the Mimic; whether or not Rankin is directly involved in the experiment upon Logan is unknown. Years later, upon being confronted by his fellow X-Man Archangel after the latter has been surgically altered by the immortal mutant Apocalypse, Logan will sense something "familiar---pain" in Archangel's scent, suggesting that technology created by Apocalypse was also involved in Logan's own transformation; curiously, Logan will sense no such familiarity when visiting a lair of Apocalypse himself, and a later allegation that Apocalypse was directly responsible for Wolverine's transformation appears to be misinformation. At this time the Weapon X Program is supposedly a joint US/Canadian operation, although some evidence indicates that it is being manipulated by an outside source, apparently the same individual who chose Logan as a subject.
(Weapon X Program from Marvel Comics Presents #72-84.  Lord Dark Wind, Hudson, and adamantium from Alpha Flight #34.  Rankin from Marvel Comics Presents #61.  Archangel from Uncanny X-Men #242; Apocalypse from Wolverine:  The Jungle Adventure and X-Men: Declassified #1.)

Although the head of Logan's experiment, known only as the Professor, is alleged to have previously worked on the Team X Project during Logan's tenure, he and his staff remain unaware of Logan's mutant nature until unexpected developments in the procedure make it evident:  Logan's claws manifest for what is apparently the first time in his life.  Logan proves too difficult for the Weapon X Program to control, and he eventually escapes, devastating the Weapon X facility.  Driven into savagery by the experiment, Logan wanders the forests of the Canadian Rockies for months, living in a feral state, ironically, not far from the place of his birth; it will be many years before he fully regains his memories of his earlier life. During this period, Logan saves 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 is established between the two, to resurface in later years.  On occasion, Logan's human personality surfaces to the extent that, years later, he is able to recall pleasant experiences in these woods. Years after this experience, Logan's memories of much of his past will remain clouded as a result of the Weapon X experiment, and it is possible that he received additional false memories during the procedure as well.  As for the Weapon X Program, at least some of its resources are apparently absorbed into Canada's Department H, whose head, James Hudson, also comes into possession of notes on Lord Dark Wind's bonding process; others are apparently absorbed by Department K, but the precise interconnections of Canada's various superhuman-related agencies remain unclear to this day.  In later years, the Program will also be revived by the American government under the supervision of a man known only as the Director, a survivor of Logan's rampage at the Weapon X facility.
(Professor and Team X from Wolverine #64 et al.  Canadian Rockies from X-Men:  Heroes for Hope and several other sources.  Hunter in Darkness from Wolverine #34; psychic link from Wolverine #84.  Good memories from Marvel Comics Presents #130. Weapon X Program's current status from Wolverine #166.)

Wandering the woods, Logan is eventually discovered by James and Heather Hudson, a young couple honeymooning in the Rockies, who return him to Canadian society and are instrumental in his eventual recovery.  Some months prior to this, Hudson, at the assignment of the Prime Minister himself, was appointed head of Department H, a special superhuman resources project of the Canadian Ministry of Defense, whose facilities Logan broke into mere months ago and which will, ironically, be at least partially combined with the Weapon X Program within months more; however, despite speculation to the contrary, Hudson played no direct role in Logan's experiment.  At this time, Department H is conducting research in several fields of superhuman study but as yet has no clear direction, and Logan is one of Hudson's first recruits for the operation.  As Logan slowly recovers from his ordeal, he lives with the Hudsons for some time, and he is present when Heather Hudson's parents, objecting to their daughter's elopement, confront her at the Hudson residence; Logan is also present when the Hudsons renew their vows in a Catholic ceremony months after their first, less formal marriage, an event which is temporarily delayed when a Cosmic Ray Collector developed by Department H overloads.  In the course of this disaster, the retired super-hero called Chinook is horribly mutated and driven mad by the cosmic rays; Logan and Hudson, the latter using a prototype of the battlesuit he will later wear as Guardian, halt Chinook's rampage, apparently at the cost of his life.  Logan and the Hudsons are assisted on this occasion by Eugene Judd, whom Logan, still suffering from memory loss, does not recognize as his near-adversary of years before; following Logan's resignation in later years, Judd will join Department H under the name "Puck."
(Hudsons from Alpha Flight #33 and other sources, including Uncanny X-Men #140.  Timeframe from Alpha Flight (second story) #3.  Heather's parents from Alpha Flight #47; second wedding and Chinook from Alpha Flight # Minus-1.)

Early during this period, Logan, seeking more information on the experiment to which he was subjected, travels to the US, where he consults adamantium expert Dr. Myron MacLain; Logan is flown on this occasion by pilot Ben Grimm, who will later serve alongside Logan on an American intelligence mission and who will in less than three years be transformed by cosmic rays into the superhuman powerhouse known as the Thing. Following a consultation with MacLain, Logan is targeted both by Sabretooth, although whether on behalf of the Hellfire Club or other parties is unclear, and by HYDRA, under the command of Silver Fox; he is aided against his assailants by several former allies: CIA agent Nick Fury; Carol Danvers, working alongside Fury with the CIA on this occasion; and Natasha Romanova, who has gone to work for the USSR under the codename of the Black Widow. Apparently, this marks Romanova's first meeting with Logan since her childhood, for she does not appear to recognize him (although this could be subterfuge on her part). Logan, still suffering from memory loss, recognizes none of his former allies. Inexplicably, Danvers appears to have no memories of her previous work with Logan, either; whether this is subterfuge on her part or an indication that she, too, has undergone memory alteration (either by her own government employees upon approaching Senator Kelly or, perhaps, by agents of the Hellfire Club in the aftermath of her previous adventure with Logan) remains unknown.
(MacLain et al from Wolverine # Minus-1.  Marvel editor Jason Liebeg has admitted that the discrepancy of Danvers's memories was in fact due to an unfamiliarity with Logan:  Shadow Society on the part of the Wolverine # Minus-1 creative team.)

Following his recovery, Logan, this time under the supervision of Department H, again goes to work for Canadian Intelligence, where he is given "dirty, brutal, necessary assignments no one else would touch."  In this new phase of his life as an agent of the Canadian government, Logan serves primarily in Siberia and the Western Pacific, notably the Pacific Rim of Asia and the islands along that coast, including his old stomping grounds of Japan.  Logan masters various languages of the Orient during this period, and he is also specifically taught Russian, although he never achieves the same level of skill in it as in other languages.  Years later, Logan will note that, as both a wartime soldier and a secret agent, he earned many medals and commendations; since his full memories of his time with Team X will not re-surface until some time after he makes this remark, it is presumably during this period that he earns some of these commendations. During the first few years of this period of his Canadian service, he will use only the alias "Weapon X," perhaps in subconscious recall of his Team X days.  Having already attained the ranks of Major and Commander in other agencies, Logan eventually attains the rank of Captain in the Canadian Armed Forces during this period.
(Assignments from Uncanny X-Men #140.  Siberia and the Western Pacific from Classic X-Men #10 and Wolverine Saga #1.  Languages from Wolverine Saga #1; Russian from Wolverine and Nick Fury:  Scorpio Rising and Uncanny X-Men #268.  Medals and commendations from Uncanny X-Men #140.  Rank of captain from Uncanny X-Men #120 and #158.)

One of Logan's first missions as Weapon X takes him to Iraq, where Iraqi militants, supported by mercenaries, have taken over an American embassy; Canadian citizens---including a Canadian nun---are among the hostages, and the Canadian government sends Logan to support Delta Force, a special team of US government operatives. Logan assists in re-taking the embassy, killing at least one of the Iraqis. The nun, who had been violently abused by one of the mercenaries, Bruno Malone, dies shortly afterward; before dying, she asks Logan to avenge her sufferings. Logan is prepared to act upon this vow of vengeance immediately, but apparently his new responsibilities as an agent of Department H prevent him from doing so, since he will later claim that he "got...busy" immediately following the Iraqi mission. Logan does not forget his vow, however, and he will fulfill it years later, after he has assumed the costumed identity of Wolverine. As part of another early mission for Department H, the full extent of which has yet to be revealed, Logan joins forces with Ben Grimm and Carol Danvers on a special mission into Russian territory, under the orders of Colonel Nick Fury and with information provided by industrialist Tony Stark, who, like Grimm, will within a few years begin a career in super-heroics, in his case as the armored hero known as Iron Man; on this occasion, for reasons which remain unclear, Fury deliberately pretends to have no previous experience with Logan, and Danvers continues to demonstrate no recollection of her own work with him. In the course of this mission, Logan refrains from using his adamantium claws, although whether this is due to inexperience, subterfuge, or simple whim is uncertain. Still suffering from memory loss and recurring berserker rages, Logan goes through a period of adjustment to his new role and condition, and it may be during this period that he incurs several debts to fellow Canadian Intelligence agent Jack Oonuk, who possibly covers for him with the authorities.
(Iraq from Wolverine #9.  Grimm, Danvers, et al from Before the Fantastic Four:  Ben Grimm and Logan #1-3. Oonuk from Punisher War Zone #19.)

On one mission for the Canadian government, Logan spends four months in Hong Kong, a place that he has presumably visited often in the past, where he finds himself in conflict with the organized crime unit known as the Triads; he also encounters the noted assassin McLeish, known as the White Ghost, whom he will meet again years later.  It may also be during this period that Logan first meets a woman named Linn Chow, to whose aid he will go in later years.
(Hong Kong, Triads, and McLeish from Wolverine #119-121.  Linn Chow from Marvel Comics Presents #40.)

Three years into Hudson's directorship of Department H, over two years after Logan was found by the Hudsons, the Fantastic Four, the first verified public team of super-heroes in several years, debuts to worldwide acclaim.  Inspired by this, Hudson elects to orient Department H toward the formation of a government-sponsored Canadian super-team that will operate in the public eye; Logan is Hudson's first recruit, and Hudson in fact nominates him for the eventual leadership of this team, which, in its early stages of development, is known as "the Flight."  In preparation for his career as a publicly-known super-hero, Logan is outfitted with a distinctive yellow-and-blue costume.
(Initial planning of Alpha Flight from Alpha Flight (second story) #3.  Logan as Hudson's first recruit from Alpha Flight #52 and other sources.)

Logan, contemplating the wisdom of this new career, returns to Madripoor, the site of some of his earliest heroic activities, for what may be the first time since his freelance years and spends some months there, where he is reunited with his old friend Seraph.  Seraph introduces Logan to another pupil of hers, Viper, who is, as Logan once was, a freelance espionage agent, although, presumably unknown to the others, Viper's activities are usually terroristic in nature, and, by coincidence, among her clientele is HYDRA, in whose ranks she will eventually rise high.  Like Logan and Seraph, Viper, born prior to World War II, ages very slowly; in Viper's case, this is due to a pact she made with the Elder God known as Chthon decades ago, during her youth in war-torn Europe.  During this time, Logan and Viper assist Seraph in her ongoing activities against the Hand, and this appears to be the earliest instance in which Logan wears his yellow-and-blue costume in battle; on one occasion, Seraph and Viper risk their lives to rescue Logan from Sabretooth, who may have been working with the Hand at this time.  It is possible that Seraph is in fact slain during these events, but this is as yet unclear.  This incident marks Logan's last visit to Madripoor until recent years.  Moved by Seraph's example of heroism, Logan returns to Canada, agreeing to work with the Flight and eventually become its leader, although he continues to divide his time between Canada-based Flight training and espionage missions abroad; to mark this transition in his life, he renews the use of the alias "Wolverine" from his earlier activities.  As for Viper, she and Logan will periodically clash after he has joined the X-Men, until the two eventually marry for the sake of maintaining peace between criminal factions.
(Seraph, Viper et al from Wolverine #126.  Last visit to Madripoor from Marvel Comics Presents #1.)

To better prepare for his eventual role as Flight leader, Logan receives intensive psychotherapy, including hypnotism and drug therapy, to help him control his berserker rages; this process in fact appears to have begun shortly after his initial recovery from his ordeal in the Weapon X Program, if not during his service with the unnamed intelligence agency.  As a part of this therapy, which he will intermittently receive throughout his career with Department H, Logan apparently spends time in asylums in the United States; at least one of these facilities is operated as part of an American prison, which Logan will later claim houses "the biggest bunch of hardened criminals you could find...the lowest of the low."
(Psychotherapy from Uncanny X-Men #96.  Asylums from Marvel Comics Presents #44.  Prison from Marvel Team-Up #117.)

Despite Hudson's plans for a Canadian super-team, at this time Logan remains his only candidate, and Logan lingers in Canada for months while Hudson continues his search for other suitable candidates.  While on leave following his Madripoor exploits, Logan is recalled to duty to confront D'Von Kray, a Canaanite warrior from the fortieth century in pursuit of the mutant time-traveller known as Cable, who himself has only recently arrived in the twentieth century; wearing his yellow-and-blue costume on a Canada-based mission for the first time, Logan battles and defeats Kray, who is taken into custody by Department H, only to escape soon afterward and track Cable to New York City in the United States, with Logan in pursuit. Following Kray's defeat and recapture, Logan and Cable briefly meet for the first time; despite their shared efforts in battling Kray, the meeting is not a friendly one.  Some time after this, Cable becomes active as a mercenary and leader of the team of operatives known as the Wild Pack or the Six Pack, and, over the next few years, he and Logan periodically re-encounter each other and develop a less-than-friendly rivalry, although they will later work together under the aegis of the X-Men.
(Logan as sole recruit from Alpha Flight #52.  Cable from Wolverine/Cable:  Guts and Glory, New Mutants #94, and other sources.)

Still active in Canada at this point as an agent of Canadian Special Services, Logan is partnered with Colonel Rick Stoner of the CIA to retrieve a prototype of Hudson's original Guardian armor, stolen from the US/Canadian research facility Am/Can by HYDRA; although Hudson used a reconstruction of this prototype in his earlier adventure against Chinook and will later use a far more advanced model, presumably this earlier model remained in Am/Can's custody due to legal technicalities.  On this occasion, Logan, apparently in order to distance his espionage efforts from his role as super-hero, does not wear his costume into battle and refrains from using his claws, instead relying on a large dagger in battle, much as he did during World War II. Shortly after this, Stoner is recruited as head of the newly formed international espionage agency known as SHIELD; some months later, Stoner suffers fatal wounds in a battle with HYDRA, and the SHIELD directorship falls to Logan's old ally Nick Fury.
(Stoner et al from Fury one-shot #1; although Logan's appearance and actions seem to indicate that this story took place prior to his transformation by the Weapon X Program, Iron Man is already active as of this story, and Iron Man did not debut until months after the formation of the Fantastic Four, which, as noted, occurred nearly three years after Logan's transformation.)

Under pressure to produce additional super-agents, Hudson subjects a convicted murderer, offered amnesty, to an experimental process designed to manifest any latent superhuman powers.  Logan is leery of the idea, and he warns Hudson that the convict, who will later become known as Bedlam, may prove uncontrollable; he will be proven right some years later.  Disturbed by Hudson's revelation, Logan elects to return to his intelligence operations, although he will remain on call for the Flight as necessary; over the next few months, Hudson, having placed his experiments with Bedlam temporarily on hold, recruits nearly a half-dozen other superhumans as potential Flight members, whom Logan trains in combat at select intervals. While dividing his time between the Flight and espionage, Logan shares few details of the latter work with the Hudsons; it is only years after this period that Heather Hudson even learns that Logan speaks Japanese.
(Bedlam from Alpha Flight #52.  Japanese from Alpha Flight #34.)

As an operative of the Canadian Secret Service, Logan cooperates with intelligence agents from many other nations.  Foremost among these is his old friend Carol Danvers, still with USAF Intelligence; Logan works frequently with both Danvers and her partner in USAFI, Michael Rossi, on "some pretty hairy capers," some of them in Saigon, Vietnam, and Tokyo, Japan, where Danvers teaches Logan how to play poker.  At some point during these years, Logan and Danvers become romantically involved.  When working with Logan, Danvers uses the codename "Ace," while Logan resurrects his former alias of "Patch."  On occasion, Danvers also calls Logan by the affectionate nickname of "Wildboy."  It is not known if, during this time, either Logan or Danvers ever regain their memories of their previous exploits together.
(Danvers and Rossi from Uncanny X-Men #154.  Poker and romance with Danvers from Marvel Fanfare #24.  "Ace" and "Patch" from Uncanny X-Men #238; "Wildboy" from Uncanny X-Men #236.)

While in Japan, Logan also works extensively with Asano Kimura of the Japanese Secret Service, whom he may have met decades earlier as a youth.  Kimura develops a great respect for Logan, whom he will later characterize as "more truly Japanese than any westerner I have ever known." During his time in Japan, Logan occasionally observes Japanese government efforts against various gigantic monstrous creatures, many of them prehistoric life-forms released from natural suspended animation, which periodically attack populated areas and which much of the rest of the world mistakenly believes to be fictitious.  It is not known if Logan ever directly participates in such operations.  In Japan, Logan, pleased to be able to renew old ties, continues his samurai studies under Ogun and others; years later, martial artist Yuji Watanabe will claim that he and Logan have "several mutual acquaintances," although the two do not meet during these years.  It may also be during this time that Logan renews his acquaintance with Gomurr the Ancient; other acquaintances of Logan's from these years, fellow intelligence agents, include Irish Interpol agent Sean Cassidy, Clive Reston of the British MI-6, and Jack Bascomb of the American CIA.  As an agent of the Canadian Special Intelligence Service, Logan's direct CIA liaison is Henry Peter Gyrich, who will later go on to be involved in the US government's mutant-control operation Project:  Wideawake.  Presumably Logan renews his friendship with Nick Fury during this period as well.
(Kimura from Wolverine Limited Series #1.  Japanese anti-monster activities from Uncanny X-Men #181.  Reality of Japanese "movie monsters" established in Godzilla #2.  Watanabe from Marvel Comics Presents #67; Cassidy from Wolverine #141; Reston from X-Men #62; Bascomb from Wolverine #19; Gyrich from Uncanny X-Men #228.)

At times, Logan accompanies Danvers and Rossi to the US.  He visits Chelsea, NY, on occasion, and it would seem that at some point during this period he meets NYC government official Tarkington Brown, who will serve as an informant for Logan on occasion.  For a time, under the aegis of the Canadian military, Logan is stationed at Valhalla Base, part of the NORAD defense system; at some point during this stage of his life, while visiting the Hudsons in Canada, he suffers from a berserker rage and nearly kills them, and this event may take place during this period, since he is wearing a military uniform at the time.  Another American colleague of Logan's, whom he may have met prior to this period, is an unnamed superhuman, who, like Logan, holds the rank of captain; years later, when this man has lost his super-powers and fathered a daughter who manifests powerful mutant abilities, Logan will arrange false identities for them in Kansas, where they will live under the name "Beck."  According to one account, during these years Logan even has a longterm residence in San Francisco, CA, which he shares with a young woman named Sung Li; according to this account, Sung Li's relationship with Logan is ultimately intended to manipulate him into destroying a mystic artifact, which he does in the company of another adventurer.  It may also be during this period that Logan undertakes an assignment in Houston, TX, in which at least some intelligence agencies will later believe him to have been killed.  About a decade later, an American intelligence operative named Roberts will claim to have worked with Logan in "Frank's division" on a mission in which they "shared the trenches"; however, Logan will have no recollection of this mission, and since Roberts is, like Logan, a victim of memory implants, in his case by the US government operation known only as the Project (which may or may not be identical to the Team X Project), it is unclear whether or not this claim is based in reality.
(Chelsea from Classic X-Men #10.  Brown from Daredevil #196. Valhalla Base from Uncanny X-Men #94-95.  Hudsons from Uncanny X-Men #147.  "Beck" from Marvel Comics Presents #50.  San Francisco, Sung Li, et al from the Marvel/Image crossover Deathblow and Wolverine #1-2.  Houston from Havok and Wolverine #1.  Roberts from Marvel Comics Presents #109.)

Some months after the debut of the American super-team known as the Avengers, Logan recruits Canadian Detective Sean Benard for the Flight; Benard is assigned the use of the Guardian armor, which he uses under the codename "Groundhog."  Over a month later, the American criminal known as Egghead leads a team of super-powered mercenaries in an operation to blackmail Canada through the use of a nuclear warhead.  As Wolverine, Logan leads a team of Flight trainees---Snowbird, Smart Alec, St. Elmo, Stitch, and Groundhog---against Egghead's forces; although Logan has periodically trained with the Flight over the past several months, this appears to be his first public appearance as a Canadian super-hero since his clashes with D'Von Kray.  Although the mission is a success, St. Elmo perishes, Groundhog resigns, and other members prove themselves as yet unsuited for such missions.  Based upon this lack of preparation, Hudson will eventually divide the Flight into three divisions of increasing efficiency:  Gamma, Beta, and Alpha, with Alpha Flight as the finalized public super-team.
(Groundhog, Egghead, et al from Alpha Flight Special #1.)

At some point during these years, while stationed in Canada with the Flight, Logan has an affair with fellow member Narya, the half-goddess known as Snowbird.  Unlike Logan, who is far older than he looks, Narya, although an adult in appearance, is chronologically and emotionally a child, far younger than she looks; the relationship ends badly.  Among the other Flight trainees with whom Logan periodically works is Gamma Flight's Wild Child, a young man who was mutated by the Secret Empire using DNA from the superhuman mercenary Wyre, whom Logan had encountered at some point in the past. Logan, recognizing an inherent berserker nature similar to his own, advises against Wild Child's inclusion in the super-hero program, but Wild Child will remain until the program's cessation and, eventually, master his rages to join one of the various incarnations of Alpha Flight.  Logan himself will recruit a future Alpha Flight member during these years:  Jeanne-Marie Beaubier, later known as Aurora.  Few other details of Logan's activities with Alpha Flight are known; he apparently spends most of these years abroad on various intelligence assignments, returning to Canada and Department H only on occasion.  Despite Department H's secrecy, Logan maintains some contacts outside the organization, including a young RCMP named Lightfoot; at times Logan joins Lightfoot on hunting expeditions, although it is known that Logan refuses to kill for sport, preferring to track game in order to hone his skills only.
(Affair with Snowbird inferred from dialogue in Uncanny X-Men #140. Wild Child from Marvel Comics Presents #51; Logan refers to Wild Child's "old man" as someone who, like Wild Child and himself, has had to struggle to control a bestial rage; this implies that Wild Child is in fact the son of Sabretooth, but this suggestion is later abandoned, and presumably the "old man" to whom Logan refers is Wyre.  Wild Child's origin from Alpha Flight #118; Logan's earlier encounter with Wyre conjecture.  Aurora from Alpha Flight (second story) #9. Lightfoot from Codename: Genetix #1; hunting habits from Uncanny X-Men #109 and Marvel Team-Up #117.)

While tracking a terrorist assassin from Canada to Australia, Logan meets David Nanjiwarra of ASIO, an Australian intelligence agency.  When the two are stranded together in the Australian outback, Nanjiwarra helps Logan to survive long enough to reach civilization.  Logan learns that Nanjiwarra, a descendant of native Australians, is disenchanted with ASIO work due to Australian prejudice, and Logan recommends that he seek work with SHIELD, which at this time is still in the process of organization.   At some point during these years, in Vladivostok, USSR, Logan again encounters Nick Fury; soon afterward, Fury is appointed to the directorship of SHIELD, and the two will not meet again for years.  Logan himself apparently works directly with SHIELD on a few occasions during his Department H career; he is issued SHIELD identification for a time, although he is apparently never officially inducted into the organization, and, years later, he will have some familiarity with the layout of the SHIELD Orbital Platform after it has fallen into the possession of the anti-mutant Project Armageddon.
(Australia and Nanjiwarra from Wolverine/Nick Fury:  The Scorpio Connection.    Vladivostok from Marvel Fanfare #24.  SHIELD I.D. from Wolverine #50.  SHIELD Orbital Platform from Uncanny X-Men #100.)

Five years after the Iraqi mission, over three years after first assuming the costumed identity of Wolverine, Logan hunts down the mercenaries who helped take control of the US embassy and, over a period of days, kills all of them save for Malone, who commits suicide rather than give Logan the satisfaction of killing him.  This is one of only three occasions in which Logan is known to wear his yellow-and-blue costume on a mission away from Alpha Flight, and he deliberately implies that he is no longer working for the Canadian government, although, of course, this is not the case.
(Malone from Wolverine #9.)

At some point during his intelligence operations abroad, Logan encounters Wade Wilson, the mercenary known as Deadpool; like Logan, Deadpool is a product of the Weapon X Program, apparently during its Department K incarnation, possessing a healing factor that was apparently derived from Logan's own.  It is possible that Logan had previously encountered Wilson prior to the mercenary's assumption of a costumed identity, but this cannot be confirmed; Logan will later characterize his dealings with Deadpool as a part of his life that he would prefer "never sees the light of day."  It may also be during this period that Logan encounters the centuries-old occult mercenary known as Terror, Inc.  Logan dislikes dealing with him, perhaps seeing in Terror's cynicism a reflection of what he himself might become later in his long life.
(Deadpool from Deadpool #27.  Terror, Inc., from Wolverine #58.)

During these years, as the super-villain population steadily grows, Logan apparently encounters a number of mutant criminals, including Mystique, Mesmero, and Magneto, although his encounter with the latter is brief; there is also some reason to believe that he clashes with the subterranean ruler called the Mole Man and with Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, during this period, if not earlier, although his later seeming familiarity with these men may relate only to encounters with them during his years with the X-Men. It is possible that he encounters the cyborg CIA operative known as Bushwacker during this period as well, an encounter that must surely have driven home to Logan how narrowly he avoided assuming such a role as Bushwacker's. Such incidents, along with his discouraging encounters with Deadpool and Terror, Inc., may play a cumulative role in Logan's decision to accept the role of Alpha Flight leader, as he comes to recognize the necessity of such a super-team. It may also be at this time, if not earlier, that Logan clashes with superhuman Soviet operative Vladimir Zaitsev; although having earlier worn his yellow-and-blue costume even in the field abroad, on this occasion Logan wears a brown-and-orange costume, presumably to prevent his actions on this occasion from being linked to his eventual public image as leader of Alpha Flight. Logan will wear this alternate costume again years later.
(Mostly conjecture; Logan's conversation with Mystique in Wolverine #51 seems based on a closer familiarity than would be inferred from their previous recorded encounters, although this may be attributable to his alleged work with her in Team X or even during the 1930s. Logan seems to already have some knowledge of Mesmero in Uncanny X-Men #111 and of Magneto during their first recorded encounter in Uncanny X-Men #104, but his behavior throughout his early months with the X-Men indicates that he has little familiarity with the level of superhuman power exercised by their enemies. Implicit familiarity with Kingpin from Iron Fist/Wolverine #1; implicit familiarity with the Mole Man from Wolverine #157; implicit familiarity with Bushwacker from Daredevil #249. Zaitsev and brown-and-orange costume from Uncanny X-Men #228.)

By this time, certain parties in SHIELD, concerned by the potential threat posed by the growing number of superhumans, begin to train select SHIELD agents for the express purpose of engaging such superhumans in combat.  One group of such agents, specifically trained to defeat the Avengers and led by Sgt. Harry "Hardcase" Malone, becomes known as the Harriers, and they apparently encounter Logan during this period, perhaps several times; it is possible that Logan and Hardcase have additional history as well.  Years later, the Harriers will become mercenaries after SHIELD temporarily disbands.
(Harriers from Uncanny X-Men #261.  Hardcase from Wolverine #139 and other sources.)

On an unspecified mission in the Soviet Union, Carol Danvers is captured by the KGB and sentenced to Lubyanka Prison in the USSR.  Logan, Michael Rossi, and possibly others disobey direct orders and break into Lubyanka to free her.  During the mission, Rossi is apparently slain, and the other members of the team abandon the effort, leaving Logan to smuggle Danvers out of the USSR alone, despite her insistence that he abandon her to save himself.  Following these events, Danvers, despite her youth, is recruited as Security Chief for Cape Canaveral, becoming, in her twenties, the youngest person ever to hold the position; it is in this role that she will meet the Kree warrior known as Captain Marvel, whose involvement with her will change her life dramatically.  She and Logan will not meet again for years.  As for Rossi, he is later learned to have survived, although, as far as is known, Danvers is never informed of this; whether or not Logan is aware of it is unclear.  Rossi will eventually work in cooperation with Professor Charles Xavier, a man who will play an important role in Logan's own life.  With his friend and lover out of the intelligence field, Logan has less reason to remain in it himself, and it may be at this point that he decides to accomodate Hudson and quit field work altogether, to assume full-time leadership of Alpha Flight.
(Lubyanka mission from Marvel Fanfare #24 and Uncanny X-Men #163, #236, and #251.  Danvers's post at Cape Canaveral from Marvel Fanfare #24 and her earliest published appearances, beginning in Marvel Super-Heroes #13.  Rossi's alleged death from Uncanny X-Men #182; his work with Xavier from New Mutants #2.)

As Alpha Flight's preparations for public activity continue, Logan, still considering the life of a full-time super-hero, seeks the advice of his longtime sensei Ogun in Japan.  Logan is shocked to learn that Ogun, who has taught him so much about honor and moral codes over the years, has given himself over to the darker forces of the Ninjitsu magic he practices, becoming an assassin and evil magician and ultimately intending to psionically enslave Logan to his will, a fate that Ogun will later force upon Logan's fellow X-Man Shadowcat.  Deeply disturbed by this meeting, Logan vows to never return to Japan, and he and Ogun will not meet again for years.  Logan returns to Canada and, symbolizing his break with his former mentor, discards the bladed weapons he has used on occasion; accepting his fate, he exclusively uses his adamantium claws from now on.  Logan will not wield a sword again for years.
(Break with Ogun from Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #4-6.  Intention to never return to Japan from Uncanny X-Men #118.  Sword from Wolverine Limited Series #1.)

Eager to avoid thoughts of his confrontation with Ogun, Logan prepares to make his debut as a Canada-based publicly known super-agent and is dispatched to disrupt terrorist activities in Ontario; however, James Hudson informs him that the "assignment," Logan's first public Canada-based mission since the Flight battled Egghead's forces years earlier, is actually a test developed by Department H to observe Logan's reactions in battle. During the course of this test, Logan is teleported to the New Mexico headquarters of the mutated genius known as the Leader, as are the Greek demigod Hercules and the Deviant Karkas, all of whom the Leader intends to use to capture the American mutate known as the Hulk.  Logan escapes the Leader's restraints and frees his fellow captives, although the Leader flees from the debacle.  By coincidence, the Hulk himself arrives in Canada shortly before Logan's return; the Canadian military mobilizes to oppose the Hulk, but Logan requests to be given the opportunity first.  In this genuine assignment,  Logan meets both the Hulk and the Wendigo, a human mutated into a monstrous mystic form, in battle; Department H had previously received reports of the Wendigo's activities but dismissed them as fabrications. Despite his best efforts, Logan fails in this mission, although he remains the prime candidate for leadership of Alpha Flight; shortly afterward, he leaves Canada once more, "doin' [his] "James Bond" number" and completing his current roster of international assignments.

One of his final missions abroad is over the Berlin Wall, in communist territory.  On this occasion, Logan, as Wolverine (in his yellow-and-blue costume), works with his old friend and lover Charlemagne; although it seems probable that he and Charlemagne have worked together on a number of occasions during his Department H stint, no record of such adventures exists.  It will be the last time the two see each other until recent times, when Charlemagne, hunted by various intelligence agencies, arranges for Logan to participate in her own death.  During Logan's last months as an intelligence operative abroad, Alpha Flight is organized into what will become its final form, and he is expected to take over leadership of the team upon his return; among its members are Logan's own protege Aurora, as well as Shaman and, the last recruit, Sasquatch, who, as Michael Twoyoungmen and Walter Langkowski, had worked with Logan during his earlier years with the Flight.
("Terrorists," Leader, et al from Wolverine #144.  Hulk and Wendigo from Incredible Hulk #180-181.  Period out of Canada from Uncanny X-Men #139.  Berlin Wall from Spider-Man Vs. Wolverine #1.  Alpha Flight from Uncanny X-Men #120.  Twoyoungmen and Langkowski from Alpha Flight Special #1.)

Upon his return to Canada, Logan assists James Hudson in containing Bedlam, who has resisted all efforts to control him and is finally placed in a state of suspended animation.  Logan draws no satisfaction from being proven correct about Bedlam; his disillusionment with Hudson over this incident leads him to question the wisdom of continuing to work for Department H in any capacity.  Moreover, Logan begins to realize that he has developed an unacknowledged attraction to Heather Hudson, an inappropriate feeling that further complicates his current situation.  These issues, among others, will play a role in Logan's ultimate decision to resign from Department H.
(Bedlam from Alpha Flight #53.  Feelings for Heather Hudson from Alpha Flight #33)

The American team of mutants, the X-Men, are captured by the sentient island Krakoa, and X-Men founder Charles Xavier seeks out other mutants to aid him in their rescue.  While most of these are younger mutants whom Xavier had previously been considering for X-Men membership, Logan, of whom Xavier has presumably learned through his own government contacts, is another potential recruit; neither Logan nor Xavier know that Xavier's father, Dr. Brian Xavier, played a role in the development of aspects of the Team X Project.  Disillusioned with his Canadian intelligence work, interested in resuming the free agent's life which he has not led for nearly thirty years, and intrigued by Xavier's offer, Logan resigns from Department H; leadership of Alpha Flight will fall to James Hudson, who, using a more sophisticated version of his battlesuit which has been in development since shortly after Department H's foundation, will use the codenames Weapon Alpha, although the codenames of "Vindicator" and "Guardian" have been previously suggested and will in fact both be used by Hudson in later years. The higher echelons of Department H resent Logan's resignation, and Hudson and other members of Alpha Flight will be dispatched at least twice in unsuccessful efforts to force Logan to return to Department H; eventually, Department H accepts the situation, and Logan's Canadian national military records are sealed until 2026.  Logan and the other new X-Men successfully rescue the previous team with no loss of life, marking the beginning of a new period in Logan's life; at this time, Logan has been in psychotherapy for ten years, some of it pre-dating his involvement with Alpha Flight, but he will later claim that little if any progress has made in helping him control his berserker rages.
(X-Men et al from Giant-Size X-Men #1.  Early development of battlesuit and "Vindicator" from Deadpool/Death '98 Annual; "Guardian" from Alpha Flight #12, at the time of Hudson's initial debut in his new battlesuit.  Department H efforts from Uncanny X-Men #109 and #120.  2026 from Venom:  Tooth and Claw #3.  Ten years from Uncanny X-Men #96.)

Although Logan quickly becomes more comfortable with the freelance nature of the X-Men's activities, he is slow in adjusting to the different standards by which his new team operates, and it will be several months before he even reveals his name to his fellow X-Men; to this day, few of them know much about his previous activities.  Among the stronger attachments Logan forms is an immediate friendship with the young German mutant Kurt Wagner, Nightcrawler, who may remind Logan of Maverick, and a strong attraction to Jean Grey, Marvel Girl.  Logan's Interpol acquaintance Sean Cassidy, now known as the Banshee, is also among the new X-Men, although Cassidy apparently does not recognize Logan from his intelligence days for some time.
(Name revealed in Uncanny X-Men #139.  Nightcrawler from Classic X-Men #4 and Marvel Girl from Classic X-Men #1, both among other sources.)

Although Logan has been to New York City before, his membership in the X-Men marks the first time he has ever had occasion to spend much time there, and he spends weeks exploring the city.  During one such venture, he encounters Sabretooth for what may be the first time since their clash in Madripoor, when Sabretooth renews his habit of attacking Logan on the anniversary of Silver Fox's apparent death; as far as is known, the two will not meet again for years more, when Sabretooth, acting as a member of the Marauders, participates in the slaughter of the subterranean mutant community known as the Morlocks.
(Exploration of New York and Sabretooth from Classic X-Men #10.)

Logan's career as an X-Man is the best documented period of his life to date.  Early in Logan's tenure with the X-Men, Marvel Girl, unknown to any of her teammates, is replaced by a cosmic entity called the Phoenix; the X-Men believe that Phoenix is in fact Marvel Girl, her powers greatly enhanced, and even Logan's heightened senses are fooled.  It is during these early years of his career as an X-Man that Logan first travels to the Savage Land, a prehistoric jungle hidden deep in the Antarctic Circle; Logan takes an immediate liking to the place and will return there on a number of adventures.  It is also during this time Logan, in the course of his adventures with the X-Men, returns to Japan for the first time since his break with Ogun many months ago, where meets Mariko Yashida, a young Japanese woman who is the daughter of noted crimelord Shingen.  Logan and Mariko soon fall in love, and their relationship gives Logan an excuse to again visit the land that he has loved for so long.
(Phoenix from Uncanny X-Men #100-101.  Savage Land from Uncanny X-Men #114.  Yashida from Uncanny X-Men #118.)

Several months after replacing Marvel Girl, the Phoenix apparently perishes; it will be years before Logan and the other X-Men learn that the Phoenix was not, in fact, Jean Grey.  Sobered by the loss, Logan takes to wearing the brown-and-orange costume that he once wore to battle Zaitsev, perhaps to serve as a reminder that his role as super-hero is no less dangerous than his previous one as government agent; Logan will wear this alternate costume for years before returning to his more familiar yellow-and-blue one.  Shortly after this change, Logan elects to resolve his difficulties with Department H and, accompanied by Nightcrawler, briefly returns to Canada, where, alongside Alpha Flight, they battle the Wendigo. At this time, Logan and Hudson satisfy their differences, and Logan's resignation is finally accepted; ironically, shortly after this, Department H discontinues its super-hero program altogether, although it will be periodically revived in later years.
(Phoenix from Uncanny X-Men #137.  Brown-and-orange costume from Uncanny X-Men #139.  Alpha Flight et al from Uncanny X-Men #139-140.)

During a later trip to Japan, Logan first meets the woman known as Yukio, a free-spirited adventurer who has much in common with Logan's earlier persona; Logan also briefly clashes with the Hand for the first known time since initially assuming the identity of Wolverine, although, perhaps initially mistrusting Yukio, he feigns an unfamiliarity with the organization.  Despite an immediate attraction to Yukio, Logan becomes engaged to Mariko Yashida, although the marriage is called off because Yashida feels obliged to break her family's criminal ties before marrying Logan.  While again visiting Japan not long afterward, in the aftermath of an adventure in space with the X-Men, Logan, assisting in rescue operations when Japan is attacked by an alien dragon who accompanied the X-Men from space, rescues a young girl named Akiko, of whom he will later become guardian.  Months later, one of Logan's fellow X-Men, Shadowcat, travels to Japan alone and is victimized by Logan's sensei Ogun, whom Logan must confront to free his friend from demonic influences.  Ogun will return on several occasions to plague Logan again.
(Yukio and the Hand from Wolverine Limited Series #2.  Engagement from Wolverine Limited Series #4.  Cancelled wedding from Uncanny X-Men #173.  Akiko from Uncanny X-Men #181.  Ogun from Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #1-6, among other sources.)

Following an adventure in which the X-Men, including Logan, are believed by the general public to have been slain, Logan, made introspective by the experience, begins spending more time away from the team, taking up his old wanderings and becoming involved in adventures that do not involve his fellow X-Men.  He again visits Madripoor, Hong Kong, and other places of his earlier life, becoming romantically involved with the Madripoorian crimelord Tyger Tiger, although this relationship, as with Cracklin' Rosa decades earlier, never grows serious.  Briefly rendered amnesiac in the course of one adventure, he finds contentment for the first time in decades on the island of Rumika, although this tranquil existence is soon interrupted; it is possible that his brief amnesia on this occasion is a factor which triggers the Team X memory implants and suppressions which he received years ago.  He also spends months living in the Savage Land, during which time, unknown to him, he fathers the child of a Savage Land native named Gahck; although Logan has known the love of many women throughout his century or so of life, only Gahck is known to have borne his child.  Some time later, Mariko Yashida is poisoned, and, obeying her request for a death without suffering, Logan kills the woman he has loved more than any other. Logan's heroic activities, both with the X-Men and alone, continue to this day, and several alternate futures reveal that Logan will remain a heroic figure throughout the years to come.
(Madripoor, Hong Kong, et al from various issues of Marvel Comics Presents and Wolverine.  Rumika from Wolverine #28.  Gahck and Logan's child from Wolverine:  The Jungle Adventure.  Yashida's death from Wolverine #57. Various potential futures depicted in Uncanny X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, J2, and other sources.)

Back to the Annotations page