The Abridged History of Wolverine, Pt 2-Joining the X-Men
Previously, on Wolverine, we talked at length about the origins of the man, which many consider to be the face of the X-Men. From the night his powers first awakened, Logan’s life has been a hard one. He’s had to endure pain, loss, and death in ways that few people can imagine, and it seems like that might never change. Then one day, a certain Mutant Professor enters his life to offer him an opportunity to be part of something greater. Not just a team, but a family.
Logan Finally Finds a Family
So, after beginning to work for Department H, Wolverine got put into the field. His first mission: take down the Incredible Hulk. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned, as he found the Hulk battling a cursed monster called a Wendigo, but that’s a story for another day. What matters is that Logan wasn’t able to actually beat the Hulk, but he did attract someone else’s attention.
Enter Charles Xavier, founder and leader of the X-Men. The original team had been captured and held captive on the island of Krakoa, forcing Xavier to look for new Mutants to join and mount a rescue. Thus, when he gave Wolverine the chance to walk away from the shadowy forces that had been controlling him, he took it. But as much as wanted to, this wouldn’t be the last time he would hear from his past.
As a lone wolf, joining a team like the X-Men wasn’t an easy fit for Wolverine. After they got back from Krakoa, he proved to be very rude and abrasive towards everyone, especially Cyclops. It didn’t help that he took interest in Jean Grey, despite her already dating Cylcops.
He’s Not as Gruff as You Would Think
Those early days weren’t the best for Logan, but as time passed, he started to open up to his teammates and show a different side to him. Nowhere was this better shown than with the then-youngest member of the team, Kitty Pryde. When Kitty traveled to Japan to help her father out of trouble, she was brainwashed by the demon ninja, Ogun, an old mentor of Logan himself. When Wolverine came to Japan to find Kitty, she tried to kill him, but managed to overcome the brainwashing. In return, Logan helped her come to terms with the trauma she endured. Even without all his memories, he remembered enough to know how rough his life was. With his help, they overcame Ogun, and Logan became a big brother to the young hero.
The protective streak doesn’t end there. At another time when the X-Men were believed dead and scattered across the world and he’s crucified in the Australian Outback, he wounds up being saved by another young Mutant. A street urchin named Jubilee. The two travel the world for a time, once again showcasing how protective Wolverine could be. It looked like life was finally looking up for Logan!
Even More Trauma
But despite how much better it had gotten, Wolverine’s life took another turn for the worse. During a mission to fight Magneto, the Mutant master of magnetism did something terrible. He used his powers to rip the adamantium off of Logan’s skeleton. It was so bad, his healing factor burnt itself out to keep him alive.
Logan wasn’t the same afterwards. Without his adamantium, he re-learned that his claws were bone in nature. But while his healing factor returned slightly stronger, the whole thing left him shaken. Thus, he went on a journey of self-discovery…and also the mutation was making him go feral again. But then, the supervillain Apocalypse captured him and re-bonded the metal to his bones so he could make him his newest servant. Thankfully, the X-Men snapped him out of it, and he returned to his found family.
Even though Logan was content with the X-Men, he still don’t know much about his past. He had started to retrace everything and what Weapon X did to him, but his memory was full of fake recollections and implants. It looked like he might never learn the full story.
Then came the House of M.
Logan Remembers Everything
I talked about the House of M in my covering of the Scarlet Witch years ago. However, what matters here is that her plan to keep the heroes complacent by giving them their heart’s desires backfired with Wolverine. Because all Logan ever wanted was to remember who he was, he remembered everything about his past, including the original timeline. That led him to start the process of getting enough heroes to remember so they could set things right.
And when the House of M eventually came to an end, and reality returned to normal, Logan woke and remembered it all. All the memories he had lost came flooding back to him. He kept them and his powers!
Which meant that everyone that had been messing with Logan’s life would now fear for their lives.
In our next and final post, we will be covering Wolverine’s quest to settle his past as he uncovers things he didn’t know about, including the man who was responsible for messing with him most of his life.
