Captain America

 

Captain America is an American fictional character, a superhero who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (cover-dated March 1941),from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. As of 2007, an estimated 210 million copies of "Captain America" comic books had been sold in 75 countries. For nearly all of the character's publication history, Captain America has been the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a frail young man who was enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an experimental serum, in order to aid the United States government's efforts to win World War II. Captain America wears a costume that bears an American flag motif, and is armed with an indestructible, boomerang-like shield that can both be thrown as a weapon, and defend against others' weapons.

An intentionally patriotic creation who was often depicted fighting the Axis powers of World War II, Captain America was Timely Comics' most popular character during the 1940s wartime period. After the war ended, the character's popularity waned and the comic had been discontinued by 1950 aside from an ill-fated, 1953 revival. Captain America was re-introduced by Marvel Comics during the Silver Age of comics, as an M.I.A soldier retrieved from an iceberg and awakened from suspended animation by the superhero team the Avengers in The Avengers #4 (March 1964). Since then, Captain America has often led the team, as well as starring in his own series.

Steve Rogers was purportedly assassinated in Captain America vol. 5, #25 (March 2007), although he was later revealed to be alive. The comic-book series Captain America continued to be published,with Rogers' former sidekick, James "Bucky" Barnes, having taken up the mantle until Rogers eventually again assumed the role.

 

 

Captain America was the first Marvel Comics character adapted into another medium, with the release of the 1944 movie serial Captain America. Since then, the character has been featured in several other films and television series, including Chris Evans' portrayal in Captain America: The First Avenger, released on July 22, 2011, and The Avengers, released on May 4, 2012. In 2011, Captain America was ranked sixth on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes

 

Captain America #109 (Jan. 1969).
Cover art by Jack Kirby and Syd Shores.

 

 

Publication history

In 1940, writer Joe Simon conceived the idea for Captain America and made a painting of the character in costume. "I wrote the name 'Super American' at the bottom of the page," Simon said in his autobiography. "No, it didn't work. There were too many 'Supers' around. 'Captain America' had a good sound to it. There weren't a lot of captains in comics. It was as easy as that. The boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, a star on our high school basketball team."

Simon recalled in his autobiography that Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman gave him the go-ahead and directed that a Captain America solo comic book series be published as soon as possible. Needing to fill a full comic with primarily one character's stories, Simon did not believe that his regular creative partner, artist Jack Kirby, could handle the workload alone:

 

I didn't have a lot of objections to putting a crew on the first issue.... There were two young artists from Connecticut that had made a strong impression on me. Al Avison and Al Gabriele often worked together and were quite successful in adapting their individual styles to each other. Actually, their work was not too far from [that of] Kirby's. If they worked on it, and if one inker tied the three styles together, I believed the final product would emerge as quite uniform. The two Als were eager to join in on the new Captain America book, but Jack Kirby was visibly upset. 'You're still number one, Jack,' I assured him. 'It's just a matter of a quick deadline for the first issue.'

'I'll make the deadline,' Jack promised. 'I'll pencil it [all] myself and make the deadline.' I hadn't expected this kind of reaction ... but I acceded to Kirby's wishes and, it turned out, was lucky that I did. There might have been two Als, but there was only one Jack Kirby.

I wrote the first Captain America book with penciled lettering right on the drawing boards, with very rough sketches for figures and backgrounds. Kirby did his thing, building the muscular anatomy, adding ideas and pepping up the action as only he could. Then he tightened up the penciled drawings, adding detailed backgrounds, faces and figures

1974 Comic Art Convention program featuring Simon's original sketch of Captain America.

 

Al Liederman would ink that first issue, which was lettered by Simon and Kirby's regular letterer, Howard Ferguson.

Simon said Captain America was a consciously political creation; he and Kirby were morally repulsed by the actions of Nazi Germany in the years leading up to the United States' involvement in World War II and felt war was inevitable: "The opponents to the war were all quite well organized. We wanted to have our say too."

Captain America Comics #1 — cover-dated March 1941 and on sale December 20, 1940,a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, but a full year into World War II — showed the protagonist punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the jaw; it sold nearly one million copies.While most readers responded favorably to the comic, some took objection. Simon noted, "When the first issue came out we got a lot of... threatening letters and hate mail. Some people really opposed what Cap stood for."The threats, which included menacing groups of people loitering out on the street outside of the offices, proved so serious that police protection was posted with New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia personally contacting Simon and Kirby to give his support.

 

 

Though preceded as a "patriotically themed superhero" by MLJ's The Shield, Captain America immediately became the most prominent and enduring of that wave of superheroes introduced in American comic books prior to and during World War II,as evidenced by the unusual move at the time of premiering the character in his own title instead of an anthology title first. This popularity drew the attention and a complaint from MLJ that the character's triangular shield too closely resembled the chest symbol of their Shield character. In response, Goodman had Simon and Kirby create a distinctive round shield for issue 2, which went on to become an iconic element of the character. With his sidekick Bucky, Captain America faced Nazis, Japanese, and other threats to wartime America and the Allies. Stanley Lieber, now better known by his pen name Stan Lee, contributed to the character in issue #3 in the filler text story "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge," which introduced the character's use of his shield as a returning throwing weapon. Captain America soon became Timely's most popular character and even had a fan-club called the "Sentinels of Liberty."

Circulation figures remained close to a million copies per month after the debut issue, which outstripped even the circulation of news magazines such as Time during the period. After the Simon and Kirby team moved to DC Comics in late 1941, having produced Captain America Comics through issue #10 (January 1942), Al Avison and Syd Shores became regular pencillers of the celebrated title, with one generally inking over the other. The character was featured in All Winners Comics #1-19 (Summer 1941 – Fall 1946), Marvel Mystery Comics #80-84 and #86-92, USA Comics #6-17 (Dec. 1942 – Fall 1945), and All Select Comics #1-10 (Fall 1943 – Summer 1946).

In the post-war era, with the popularity of superheroes fading, Captain America led Timely's first superhero team, the All-Winners Squad, in its two published adventures, in All Winners Comics #19 and #21 (Fall–Winter 1946; there was no issue #20). After Bucky was shot and wounded in a 1948 Captain America story, he was succeeded by Captain America's girlfriend, Betsy Ross, who became the superheroine Golden Girl. Captain America Comics ran until issue #73 (July 1949), at which time the series was retitled Captain America's Weird Tales for two issues, with the finale being a horror/suspense anthology issue with no superheroes.

 

 

Atlas Comics attempted to revive its superhero titles when it reintroduced Captain America, along with the original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, in Young Men #24 (Dec. 1953). Billed as "Captain America, Commie Smasher!" Captain America appeared during the next year in Young Men #24-28 and Men's Adventures #27-28, as well as in issues #76-78 of an eponymous title. Atlas' attempted superhero revival was a commercial failure,and the character's title was canceled with Captain America #78 (Sept. 1954).

 

Silver Age revival

In the Human Torch story titled "Captain America" in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963),writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby depicted the brash young Fantastic Four member Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, in an exhibition performance with Captain America, described as a legendary World War II and 1950s superhero who has returned after many years of apparent retirement. The 18-page story ends with this Captain America revealed as an impostor: it was actually the villain the Acrobat, a former circus performer the Torch had defeated in Strange Tales #106, who broke two thieves out of jail, hoping to draw the police away while trying to rob the local bank. Afterward, Storm digs out an old comic book in which Captain America is shown to be Steve Rogers. A caption in the final panel says this story was a test to see if readers would like Captain America to return.

Captain America was then formally reintroduced in The Avengers #4 (March 1964), which explained that in the final days of World War II, he had fallen from an experimental drone plane into the North Atlantic Ocean and spent decades frozen in a block of ice in a state of suspended animation. The hero found a new generation of readers as leader of that superhero team. Following the success of other Marvel characters introduced during the 1960s, Captain America was recast as a hero "haunted by past memories, and trying to adapt to 1960s society."

After then guest-starring in the feature "Iron Man" in Tales of Suspense #58 (Oct. 1964), Captain America gained his own solo feature in that "split book," beginning the following issue. Issue #63 (March 1965), which retold Captain America's origin, through issue #71 (Nov. 1965) was a period feature set during World War II and co-starred Captain America's Golden Age sidekick, Bucky. Kirby drew all but two of the stories in Tales of Suspense, which became Captain America with #100 (April 1968); Gil Kane and John Romita, Sr., each filled in once. Several stories were finished by penciller-inker George Tuska over Kirby layouts, with one finished by Romita Sr. and another by penciller Dick Ayers and inker John Tartaglione. Kirby's regular inkers on the series were Frank Giacoia (as "Frank Ray") and Joe Sinnott, though Don Heck and Golden Age Captain America artist Syd Shores inked one story each. The new title Captain America continued to feature artwork by Kirby, as well as a short run by Jim Steranko, and work by many of the industry's top artists and writers. It was called Captain America and the Falcon from #134 (Feb. 1971) to #222 (June 1978) although the Falcon's name was not on the cover for issues #193, 200, and 216. The 1972-1975 run on the title by writer Steve Englehart and artist Sal Buscema saw the series become one of Marvel's top-sellers. Kirby returned to the series as writer and penciler with issue #193 (Jan. 1975) and remained through #214 (Oct. 1977).

 

 

This series — considered Captain America volume one by comics researchers and historians, following the 1940s Captain America Comics and its 1950s numbering continuation of Tales of Suspense — ended with #454 (Aug. 1996).

 

 

After the Silver Age

This series was almost immediately followed by the 13-issue Captain America vol. 2 (Nov. 1996 – Nov. 1997, part of the "Heroes Reborn" crossover), the 50-issue Captain America vol. 3 (Jan. 1998 – Feb. 2002), the 32-issue Captain America vol. 4 (June 2002 – Dec. 2004), and Captain America vol. 5 (Jan. 2005 – Aug. 2011). Beginning with the 600th overall issue (Aug. 2009), Captain America resumed its original numbering, as if the series numbering had continued uninterrupted after #454.

As part of the aftermath of Marvel Comics' company-crossover storyline "Civil War", Steve Rogers was ostensibly killed in Captain America vol. 5, #25 (March 2007). Series writer Ed Brubaker remarked, "What I found is that all the really hard-core left-wing fans want Cap to be standing out on and giving speeches on the street corner against the George W. Bush administration, and all the really right-wing fans all want him to be over in the streets of Baghdad, punching out Saddam Hussein."The character's co-creator, Joe Simon, remarked, "It's a hell of a time for him to go. We really need him now." Artist Alex Ross designed a slightly revised Captain America costume that former sidekick Bucky Barnes began to wear as the new Captain America in vol. 5, #34 (March 2008).

 

 

The storyline of Rogers' return began in issue #600. Rogers, who was not dead but caroming through time, returned to the present day in the six-issue miniseries Captain America: Reborn (Sept. 2009 – March 2010).

After Rogers' return, Barnes, at Rogers' insistence, continued as Captain America, beginning in the one-shot comic Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield? (Feb. 2010). While Bucky Barnes continued adventuring in the pages of Captain America, Steve Rogers received his own miniseries (Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier) as well as taking on the leadership position in a new Secret Avengers ongoing series.

Spinoff series included Captain America Sentinel of Liberty (Sept. 1998 – Aug. 1999) and Captain America and the Falcon (May 2004 – June 2005). The 1940s Captain America appeared alongside the 1940s Human Torch and Sub-Mariner in the 12-issue miniseries Avengers/Invaders.The 2007 mini-series Captain America: The Chosen, written by David Morrell and penciled by Mitchell Breitweiser, depicts a dying Steve Rogers' final minutes, at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, as his spirit guides James Newman, a young American Marine fighting in Afghanistan. The Chosen is not part of the main Marvel Universe continuity.

The character, first as agent Steve Rogers and later after resuming his identity as Captain America, appeared as a regular character throughout the 2010-2013 Avengers series, from issue #1 (July 2010) through its final issue #34 (January 2013). The character appeared as agent Steve Rogers as a regular character in the 2010-2013 Secret Avengers series, from issue #1 (July 2010) through issue #21 (March 2012); the character made guest appearances as Captain America in issues #21.1, #22-23, #35, and the final issue of the series #37 (March 2013).

 

Marvel stated in May 2011 that Rogers, following the public death of Bucky Barnes in the Fear Itself miniseries, would resume his Captain America identity in a sixth volume of Captain America, by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve McNiven. The Captain America title continued from issue #620 featuring team up stories with Bucky (#620-#628),Hawkeye (#629-#632), Iron Man (#633-635), Namor (#635.1), and Black Widow (#636-#640), and the title ended its print run with issue #640.

Captain America is a regular character in Uncanny Avengers (2012), beginning with issue #1 as part of Marvel NOW!. Captain America vol. 7 was launched in November 2012 with a January 2013 cover date by writer Rick Remender and artist John Romita Jr.

 

Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). Cover art by Joe Simon (inks and pencils) and Jack Kirby (pencils).

 

1940s

Steven Rogers was born July 4, 1922, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, to poor Irish immigrants, Sarah and Joseph Rogers. Joseph Rogers died when Steve was only a child and his mother, Sarah, died of pneumonia while Steve was a teen. By early 1940, before America's entry into World War II, Rogers is a tall but scrawny fine arts student specializing in illustration, and a comic book writer and artist.

Disturbed by the rise of the Third Reich, Rogers attempts to enlist, only to be rejected due to his physically frail body. His resolution allows him to be noticed by U.S. Army General Chester Phillips and "Project: Rebirth." Rogers is used as a test subject for the Super-Soldier project, receiving a special serum made by "Dr. Josef Reinstein", later retroactively changed to a code name for the scientist Abraham Erskine.The name "Erskine" was first used in a Captain America novel The Great Gold Steal by Ted White published by Bantam Books in 1968.

The serum is a success, and transforms the frail Steve Rogers into a perfect specimen—a nearly perfect human being with peak strength, agility, stamina, and intelligence. The success of the program leaves Erskine wondering about replicating the experiment on other human beings.The process itself has been inconsistently detailed: while in the original material Steve Rogers is shown receiving injections of the Super-Serum, when the origin was retold in the 1960s, the Comic Code Authority had already put a veto over graphic description of drug intake and abuse, and thus the Super-Serum was retconned into an oral formula. Later accounts hint at a combination of oral and intravenous treatments with a strenuous training regimen, culminating in the Vita-Ray exposure.

 

 

Erskine refused to write down every crucial element of the treatment, leaving behind a flawed, imperfect knowledge of the needed steps. Thus, when the Nazi spy Heinz Kruger killed him, Erskine's method of creating new Super-Soldiers died as well. Captain America, in his first act after his transformation, avenges Erskine. In the 1941 origin story and in Tales of Suspense #63, Kruger dies when running into machinery but is not killed by Rogers; in the Captain America #109 and #255 revisions, Rogers causes the spy's death by punching him into machinery.

Unable to create new Super-Soldiers, and willing to hide the Project Rebirth fiasco, the American government casts the now-powerful Rogers as a patriotic superhero, able to counter the menace of the Red Skull as a counter-intelligence agent. As such, he's supplied with a patriotic uniform designed by Rogers himself,) a bulletproof shield, a personal side arm, and the codename Captain America, while posing as a clumsy infantry private at Camp Lehigh in Virginia. He forms a friendship with the camp's teenage mascot, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes.

Eventually Barnes learns of Rogers' dual identity and offers to keep the secret if he can become Captain America's sidekick, being trained himself to act as the perfect partner. During their adventures, Franklin D. Roosevelt presents Captain America with a new shield, forged from an alloy of steel and vibranium, fused by an unknown catalyst, so effective that it replaces his own firearm. Throughout World War II, Captain America and Bucky fight the Nazi menace both on their own and as members of the superhero team the Invaders as seen in the 1970s comic of the same name.Captain America battles a number of criminal menaces on American soil, including a wide variety of costumed villains: the Wax Man, the Hangman, the Fang,the Black Talon,and the White Death, among others.

 

 

In late April 1945, during the closing days of World War II, Captain America and Bucky try to stop the villainous Baron Zemo from destroying an experimental drone plane. Zemo launches the plane with an armed explosive on it with Rogers and Barnes in hot pursuit. The pair reach the plane just before take off. When Bucky tries to defuse the bomb, it explodes in mid-air. The young man is believed killed. Rogers is hurled into the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. Neither is found, and both are presumed dead. It is later revealed that neither character actually died.

 

Late 1940s to 1950s

Captain America continued to appear in comics for the next few years changing from World War II-era hero fighting against the Nazis to confronting the United States' newest enemy, Communism. The revival of the character in the mid-1950s was short-lived, and events during that time period are later retconned to show that multiple people operated using the code name to explain the changes in the character. These post World War II successors are listed as William Naslund and Jeffrey Mace.

The last of these other official Captains, William Burnside,was a history graduate enamored with the Captain America mythos, going so far to have his appearance surgically altered to resemble Rogers and legally change his name to "Steve Rogers", becoming the new "1950s Captain America". He self-administered to himself and his pupil James "Jack" Monroe a flawed, incomplete copy of the Super-Serum, which made no mention about the necessary Vita-Ray portion of the treatment. As a result, while Burnside and Monroe became the new Captain America and Bucky, they became violently paranoid, often raving about innocent people being communist sympathizers during the height of the Red Scare of the 1950s. Their insanity forced the U.S. government to place both of them in indefinite cryogenic storage until they could be cured of their mental illness.Monroe would later be cured and assume the Nomad identity.

 

Captain America #180 (Dec. 1974). Captain America becomes "Nomad". Cover art by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia.

 

1960s to 1970s

Years later, the superhero team the Avengers discovers Steve Rogers' body in the North Atlantic, the Captain's uniform under his soldier's fatigues and still carrying his shield. After he revives, they piece together that Rogers had been preserved in a block of ice since 1945, surviving in such a state only because of his enhancements from Operation: Rebirth. The block had begun to melt after the Sub-Mariner, enraged that an Inuit tribe is worshiping the frozen figure, throws it into the ocean.Rogers accepts membership in the Avengers, and although long out of his time, his considerable experience both in individual combat service and his time with the Invaders makes him a valuable asset to the team. He quickly assumes leadership, and has typically returned to that position throughout the team's history.

Captain America is plagued by guilt for having been unable to prevent Bucky's death. Although he takes the young Rick Jones (who closely resembles Bucky) under his tutelage, he refuses for some time to allow Jones to take up the Bucky identity, not wishing to be responsible for another youth's death. Insisting that his hero finally move on from that loss, Jones eventually convinces Rogers to let him don the Bucky costume, but this partnership lasts only a short time; a disguised Red Skull, impersonating Rogers with the help of the Cosmic Cube, drives Jones away.

Rogers reunites with his old war comrade Nick Fury, who is similarly well-preserved due to the "Infinity Formula." As a result, Rogers regularly undertakes missions for the security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. for which Fury is public director. Through Fury, Rogers befriends Sharon Carter, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, with whom he eventually begins a romantic relationship.

 

 

Rogers later meets and trains Sam Wilson, who becomes the superhero the Falcon, the first African-American superhero in mainstream comic books. The characters established an enduring friendship and adventuring partnership, sharing the series title for some time as Captain America and the Falcon. The two later encounter the revived but still insane 1950s Captain America. Although Rogers and the Falcon defeat the faux Rogers and Jack Monroe, Rogers becomes deeply disturbed that he could have suffered his counterpart's fate. During this period, Rogers temporarily gains super strength.

The series dealt with the Marvel Universe's version of the Watergate scandal, making Rogers so uncertain about his role that he abandons his Captain America identity in favor of one called Nomad,emphasizing the word's meaning as "man without a country". During this time, several men unsuccessfully assume the Captain America identity.Rogers eventually re-assumes it after coming to consider that the identity could be a symbol of American ideals and not its government; it's a personal conviction epitomized when he later confronted a corrupt Army officer attempting to manipulate him by appealing to his loyalty, "I'm loyal to nothing, General... except the [American] Dream." Jack Monroe, cured of his mental instability, later takes up the Nomad alias. Sharon Carter is believed to have been killed while under the mind control of Dr. Faustus.

 

Captain America #350 (Feb. 1989). Rogers as "the Captain" vs. John Walker as Captain America. Cover art by Kieron Dwyer and Al Milgrom.

 

1980s to 1990s

 

The 1980s included a run by writer Roger Stern and artist John Byrne. Stern had Steve Rogers consider a run for President of the United States in Captain America #250 (June 1980),an idea originally developed by Roger McKenzie and Don Perlin. Stern, in his capacity as editor of the title, had originally rejected the idea but later changed his mind about the concept.McKenzie and Perlin received credit for the idea on the letters page at Stern's insistence.Stern additionally introduced a new love interest, law student Bernie Rosenthal, in Captain America #248 (Aug. 1980).

Writer J. M. DeMatteis revealed the true face and full origin of the Red Skull in Captain America #298-300, and had Captain America take on Jack Monroe, Nomad, as a partner for a time.It is around this time that the heroes gathered by the Beyonder elect Rogers as leader during their stay on Battleworld in the 1984 miniseries Secret Wars Homophobia was dealt with as Steve Rogers runs into a childhood friend named Arnold Roth who is gay.

 

Mark Gruenwald became the writer of the series with issue #307 (July 1985) and wrote 137 issues for 10 consecutive years from until #443 (Sept. 1995), the most issues by any single author in the character's history. Gruenwald created several new foes, including Crossbones and the Serpent Society. Other Gruenwald characters included Diamondback, Super Patriot, and Demolition Man. Gruenwald explored numerous political and social themes as well, such as extreme idealism when Captain America fights the anti-nationalist terrorist Flag-Smasher; and vigilantism when he hunts the murderous Scourge of the Underworld.

Rogers receives a large back-pay reimbursement dating back to his disappearance at the end of World War II, and a government commission orders him to work directly for the U.S. government. Already troubled by the corruption he had encountered with the Nuke incident in New York City,Rogers chooses instead to resign his identity, and then takes the alias of "the Captain". A replacement Captain America, John Walker, struggles to emulate Rogers' ideals until pressure from hidden enemies helps to drive Walker insane. Rogers returns to the Captain America identity  while a recovered Walker becomes the U.S. Agent.

Sometime afterward, Rogers avoids the explosion of a methamphetamine lab, but the drug triggers a chemical reaction in the Super-Soldier serum in his system. To combat the reaction, Rogers has the serum removed from his body, and trains constantly to maintain his physical condition. A retcon later establishes that the serum was not a drug per se, which would have metabolized out of his system, but in fact a virus-like organism that effected a biochemical and genetic change. This additionally explained how arch-nemesis the Red Skull, who at the time inhabited a body cloned from Rogers' cells, has the formula in his body.

Because of his altered biochemistry, Rogers' body begins to deteriorate, and for a time he must wear a powered exoskeleton and is eventually placed again in suspended animation. During this time, he is given a transfusion of blood from the Red Skull, which cures his condition and stabilizes the Super-Soldier virus in his system. Captain America returns both to crime fighting and the Avengers.

 

Following Gruenwald's departure from the series, Mark Waid took over and resurrected Sharon Carter as Cap's love interest. The title was then relaunched under Rob Liefeld as Cap became part of the Heroes Reborn universe for 13 issues before another relaunch restored Waid to the title  in an arc that saw Cap lose his shield for a time using an energy based shield as a temporary replacement. Following Waid's run, Dan Jurgens took over and introduced new foe Protocide, a failed recipient of the Super Soldier serum prior to the experiment that successfully created Rogers

 

 

2000s

In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Rogers reveals his identity to the world and establishes a residence in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, as seen in Captain America vol. 4, #1-7 (June 2002 – Feb. 2003).Following the disbandment of the Avengers in the "Avengers Disassembled" story arc, Rogers, now employed by S.H.I.E.L.D., discovers Bucky is alive, having been saved and deployed by the Soviets as the Winter Soldier. Rogers resumes his on-again, off-again relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter.

In the 2006-2007 company-wide story arc "Civil War", and its anchoring, seven-issue miniseries, Civil War (July 2006 - Jan. 2007), Rogers opposes the new mandatory federal registration of super-powered beings, and leads the underground anti-registration movement. He adopts the alias "Brett Hendrick", a mall security guard. After significant rancor and danger to the public as the two sides clash, Captain America voluntarily surrenders and orders the Anti-Registration forces to stand down.

 

In the story arc "The Death of Captain America", Rogers is indicted on criminal charges for his anti-registration efforts, and in Captain America vol. 5, #25 (April 2007) is shot outside a federal courthouse; taken to a hospital, he is pronounced dead.The assassination, orchestrated by the Red Skull, involves Crossbones as a sniper and Dr. Faustus, who poses as a S.H.I.E.L.D. psychiatrist and gives Carter a hypnotic suggestion to surreptitiously shoot Rogers at close range during the chaos surrounding the sniper shot.

The miniseries Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #1-5 (June–Aug. 2007) follows the stunned superhero community after the apparent assassination. Captain America is purportedly laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, but Tony Stark (Iron Man) and others have actually returned Rogers' body to the Arctic where Rogers had been found years before, and whereupon Namor swore to guard him. In Captain America vol. 5, #30 (Sept. 2007), Stark receives a letter containing Rogers' request that Bucky become the next Captain America, which Bucky agrees to do four issues later. Adopting the original shield, he dons a new costume incorporating a pistol and a knife. The Norse god superhero Thor communicates with what appears to be Rogers' spirit on the first anniversary of Rogers' death, in Thor vol. 3, #11 (Oct. 2008.

 

Steve Rogers' presumed death. Art by Steve Epting

 

Captain America: Reborn #1 (Aug. 2009) reveals that Rogers did not die, and that the gun Sharon Carter had been hypnotized to use had actually caused Rogers to phase in and out of space and time, appearing at events in his lifetime and fighting battles. The Skull returns Rogers to the present, where he takes control of Rogers' mind and body. Rogers eventually regains control, and with help from his allies, defeats the Skull in the fourth and final issues of this miniseries. In the subsequent one-shot comic Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?, Rogers formally grants Bucky his Captain America shield and asks his former sidekick to continue as Captain America. The American President grants Rogers a full pardon for his anti-registration actions.

 

Promotional art for Steve Rogers: Super Soldier #1 (Sept. 2010) by Carlos Pacheco and Tim Townsend.

 

2010s

Following the company-wide "Dark Reign" and "Siege" story arcs, the Steve Rogers character became part of the "Heroic Age" arc.The U.S. president appoints Rogers, in his civilian identity, as head of the nation's security, replacing Norman Osborn. The Superhuman Registration Act is repealed and Rogers reestablishes the superhero team the Avengers, spearheaded by Iron Man, Thor and Bucky as Captain America. In the miniseries Steve Rogers: Super Soldier, he encounters Jacob Erskine, the grandson of Professor Abraham Erskine and the son of Tyler Paxton, one of Rogers' fellow volunteers in the Super-Soldier program. Shortly afterward, Rogers becomes leader of the Secret Avengers, a black-ops superhero team.

During the Fear Itself storyline, Steve Rogers is present when the threat of the Serpent is known. Following the apparent death of Bucky at the hands of Sin (in the form of Skadi), Steve Rogers ends up changing into his Captain America uniform.When the Avengers and the New Avengers are fighting Skadi, the Serpent ends up joining the battle and breaks Captain America's shield with his bare hands.Captain America and the Avengers teams end up forming a militia for a last stand against the forces of the Serpent. When it comes to the final battle, Captain America uses Thor's hammer to fight Skadi until Thor manages to kill the Serpent. In the aftermath of the battle, Iron Man presents him with his reforged shield, now stronger for its uru-infused enhancements despite the scar it bears. It is then revealed that Captain America, Nick Fury, and Black Widow are the only ones who know that Bucky actually survived the fight with Skadi as Bucky resumes his identity as Winter Soldier.

 

 

In the Avengers vs. X-Men story arc, Captain America attempts to apprehend Hope Summers of the X-Men. She is the targeted vessel for the Phoenix Force, a destructive cosmic entity. Captain America believes that this Phoenix Force is too dangerous to entrust in one person and seeks to prevent Hope from having it. Cyclops and the X-Men believe that the Phoenix Force will save their race, and oppose Captain America's wishes. The result is a series of battles that eventually take both teams to the blue area of the moon. The Phoenix Force eventually possesses the five X-Men present, leaving the Avengers at an extreme disadvantage. The Phoenix Five, who become corrupted by the power of the Phoenix, are eventually defeated and scattered, with Cyclops imprisoned for turning the world into a police state and murdering Charles Xavier after being pushed too far, only for him to note that, in the end, he was proven right about the Phoenix's intentions. From there, Captain America proceeds to assemble the Avengers Unity Squad, a new team of Avengers composed of both classic Avengers and X-Men.

In the Age of Ultron limited series wherein Ultron takes over the world, Captain America is one of the few surviving heroes. He is a shattered hero whose spirit is gone and shield is broken. He and the remaining heroes are tasked with coming up with a plan to stop Ultron, which takes them to the Savage Land. Captain America travels to the future with Iron Man, Nick Fury, Red Hulk, Storm and Quicksilver in an attempt to stop Ultron with the use of Doctor Doom's time platform, but are ambushed by Ultron drones and Captain America is decapitated.

 

 

Steve Rogers' physical transformation, from a reprint of Captain America Comics #1 (May 1941). Art by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

 

 

Powers and abilities

Captain America has no superhuman powers, but through the Super-Soldier Serum and "Vita-Ray" treatment, he is transformed and his strength, endurance, agility, speed, reflexes, durability, and healing are at the zenith of natural human potential. Rogers' body regularly replenishes the super-soldier serum; it does not wear off.

The formula enhances all of his metabolic functions and prevents the build-up of fatigue poisons in his muscles, giving him endurance far in excess of an ordinary human being. This accounts for many of his extraordinary feats, including bench pressing 1200 pounds (545 kg) and running a mile (1.6 km) in 73 seconds (49 mph/78 kph). Furthermore, his enhancements are the reason why he was able to survive being frozen in suspended animation for decades. He is highly resistant to hypnosis or gases that could limit his focus. The secrets of creating a super-soldier were lost with the death of its creator, Dr. Abraham Erskine. In the ensuing decades there have been numerous attempts to recreate Erskine's treatment, only to have them end in failure. Even worse, the attempts have instead often created psychopathic supervillains of which Captain America's 1950s imitator and Nuke are the most notorious examples.

 

Rogers' battle experience and training make him an expert tactician and an excellent field commander, with his teammates frequently deferring to his orders in battle. Thor has stated that Rogers is one of the very few humans he will take orders from and follow "through the gates of Hades". Rogers' reflexes and senses are extraordinarily keen. He has blended judo, western boxing, kickboxing, and gymnastics into his own unique fighting style and is a master of multiple martial arts. Years of practice with his near-indestructible shield make him able to aim and throw it with almost unerring accuracy. His skill with his shield is such that he can attack multiple targets in succession with a single throw or even cause a boomerang-like return from a throw to attack an enemy from behind. In canon, he is regarded by other skilled fighters as one of the best hand-to-hand combatants in the Marvel Universe, limited only by his human physique. Although the super-soldier serum is an important part of his strength, Rogers has shown himself still sufficiently capable against stronger opponents, even when the serum has been deactivated reverting him to his pre-Captain America physique.

 

Rogers has vast U.S. military knowledge and is often shown to be familiar with ongoing, classified Defense Department operations. He is an expert in combat strategy, survival, acrobatics, military strategy, piloting, and demolitions. Despite his high profile as one of the world's most popular and recognizable superheroes, Rogers has a broad understanding of the espionage community, largely through his ongoing relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. He is a talented artist, and has worked on the Captain America comic book published in the Marvel universe. Other career fields include commercial arts, teaching high school history, and law enforcement.

Although he lacks superhuman strength, Captain America is one of the few mortal beings who has been deemed worthy enough to wield Thor's hammer Mjolnir.

 

Weapons and equipment

Captain America uses several shields throughout his history, the most prevalent of which is a nigh-indestructible disc-shaped shield made from an experimental alloy of steel and the fictional vibranium.The shield was cast by American metallurgist Dr. Myron MacLain, who was contracted by the U.S. government, from orders of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to create an impenetrable substance to use for tanks during World War II.This alloy was created by accident and never duplicated, although efforts to reverse-engineer it resulted in the discovery of adamantium.

Captain America often uses his shield as an offensive throwing weapon. The first instance of Captain America's trademark ricocheting shield-toss occurs in Stan Lee's first comics writing, the two-page text story "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge" in Captain America Comics #3 (May 1941). The legacy of the shield among other comics characters includes the time-traveling mutant superhero Cable telling Captain America that his shield still exists in one of the possible futures; Cable carries it into battle and brandishes it as a symbol.

 

 

When without his trademark shield, Captain America sometimes uses other shields made from less durable metals such as steel, or even a photonic energy shield designed to mimic a vibranium matrix. Rogers, having relinquished his regular shield to Barnes, carried a variant of the energy shield which can be used with either arm, and used to either block attacks or as an improvised offensive weapon able to cut through metal with relative ease. Much like his vibranium shield, the energy shield can be thrown, including ricocheting off multiple surfaces and returning to his hand.

Captain America's uniform is made of a fire-retardant material, and he wears a lightweight, bulletproof "duralumin" scale armor beneath his uniform for added protection. Originally, Rogers' mask was a separate piece of material, but an early engagement had it dislodged, thus almost exposing his identity. To prevent a recurrence of the situation, Rogers modified the mask with connecting material to his uniform, an added benefit of which was extending his armor to cover his previously exposed neck. As a member of the Avengers, Rogers has an Avengers priority card, which serves as a communications device.

 

Captain America has used a custom specialized motorcycle, modified by the S.H.I.E.L.D. weapons laboratory, as well as a custom-built battle van, constructed by the Wakanda Design Group with the ability to change its color for disguise purposes (red, white and blue), and fitted to store and conceal the custom motorcycle in its rear section with a frame that allows Rogers to launch from the vehicle riding it.

 

Enemies

 

Captain America has faced numerous foes in over 70 years of published adventures. Many of his recurring foes embody ideals contrary to the American values Captain America is shown to strive for and believe. Some examples of these opposing values are Nazism (Red Skull, Baron Zemo), Neo-Nazism (Crossbones, Doctor Faustus), technocratic fascism (AIM, Arnim Zola), Communism (Aleksander Lukin), anarchism (Flag Smasher), and international and domestic terrorism (HYDRA).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wolverine

 

 

Wolverine is a fictional character, a superhero who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Born James Howlett and commonly known as Logan, Wolverine is a mutant who possesses animal-keen senses, enhanced physical capabilities, three retracting bone claws on each hand and a healing factor that allows him to recover from virtually any wound, disease or toxin, at an accelerated rate. The healing factor also slows down his aging process, enabling him to live beyond a normal human lifespan. His powerful healing factor enabled the supersoldier program Weapon X to bond the near-indestructible metal alloy adamantium to his skeleton and claws without killing him. He is most often depicted as a member of the X-Men, Alpha Flight, or later the Avengers.

 

The character first appeared in the last panel of The Incredible Hulk #180 (his first full appearance is in issue #181, November 1974) and was created by writer Len Wein and Marvel art director John Romita, Sr., who designed the character, and was first drawn for publication by Herb Trimpe. Wolverine later joined the X-Men's "All New, All Different" roster in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975). X-Men writer Chris Claremont played a significant role in the character's subsequent development, along with artist/writer John Byrne, who insisted on making the character older than the other X-Men. Artist Frank Miller collaborated with Claremont and helped to revise the character with a four-part eponymous limited series from September to December 1982 in which Wolverine's catchphrase, "I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice," debuted.

 

Wolverine was typical of the many tough, anti-authority, antiheroes that emerged in American popular culture after the Vietnam War; his willingness to use deadly force and his brooding nature became standard characteristics for comic book anti-heroes by the end of the 1980s.As a result, the character became the clear favorite for fans of the increasingly popular X-Men franchise. Wolverine has been featured in his own solo comic since 1988 and has been a central character in most X-Men adaptations, including animated television series, video games, and the live-action 20th Century Fox X-Men film series, in which he is portrayed by Hugh Jackman. In May 2008, Wolverine was ranked #1 out of Wizard magazine's Top 200 Comic Book Characters of All Time and was ranked as the 4th Greatest Comic Book Character by Empire magazine in July 2008.On their list of the 100 Greatest Fictional Characters, Fandomania.com ranked Wolverine at #21. In May 2011, Wolverine was ranked 4th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes

 

 

Publication history

Wolverine first appeared in the final "teaser" panel of The Incredible Hulk #180 (cover date October 1974) written by Len Wein and penciled by Herb Trimpe. The character then appeared in a number of advertisements in various Marvel Comics publications before making his first major appearance in The Incredible Hulk #181 (cover date November 1974) again by Wein and Trimpe. John Romita, Sr., designed Wolverine's yellow-and-blue costume. The character's introduction was ambiguous, revealing little beyond his being a superhuman agent of the Canadian government. In these appearances, he does not retract his claws, although Len Wein stated they had always been envisioned as retractable.He appears briefly in the finale to this story in The Incredible Hulk #182.

 

Wolverine's next appearance was in 1975's Giant-Size X-Men #1, written by Wein and penciled by Dave Cockrum, in which Wolverine is recruited for a new squad. Gil Kane illustrated the cover artwork but incorrectly drew Wolverine's mask with larger headpieces. Dave Cockrum liked Kane's accidental alteration (believing it to be similar to Batman's mask) and incorporated it into his own artwork for the actual story. Cockrum was also the first artist to draw Wolverine without his mask, and the distinctive hairstyle became a trademark of the character.

A revival of X-Men followed, beginning with X-Men #94 (August 1975), drawn by Cockrum and written by Chris Claremont. In X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine is initially overshadowed by the other characters, although he does create tension in the team as he is attracted to Cyclops' girlfriend, Jean Grey. As the series progressed, Claremont and Cockrum (who preferred Nightcrawler considered dropping Wolverine from the series; Cockrum's successor, artist John Byrne, championed the character, later explaining, as a Canadian himself, he did not want to see a Canadian character dropped. Byrne created Alpha Flight, a group of Canadian superheroes who try to recapture Wolverine due to the expense their government incurred training him. Later stories gradually establish Wolverine's murky past and unstable nature, which he battles to keep in check. Byrne also designed a new brown-and-tan costume for Wolverine, but retained the distinctive Cockrum cowl.

 

Wolverine made his debut in The Incredible Hulk #181 (November 1974).
Art by Herb Trimpe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following Byrne's departure, Wolverine remained in X-Men. The character's growing popularity led to a solo, four-issue, Wolverine (September – December 1982), by Claremont and Frank Miller, followed by the six-issue Kitty Pryde and Wolverine by Claremont and Al Milgrom (November 1984 – April 1985). Marvel launched an ongoing solo book written by Claremont with art by John Buscema in November 1988. It ran for 189 issues. Larry Hama later took over the series and had an extensive run. Other writers who wrote for the two Wolverine ongoing series include Peter David, Archie Goodwin, Erik Larsen, Frank Tieri, Greg Rucka, and Mark Millar. Many artists have also worked on the series, including John Byrne, Marc Silvestri, Mark Texeira, Adam Kubert, Leinil Francis Yu, Rob Liefeld, Sean Chen, Darick Robertson, John Romita, Jr., and Humberto Ramos. During the 1990s, the character was revealed to have bone claws, after his adamantium is ripped out by Magneto in X-Men #25, which was inspired by a passing joke of Peter David's.

In addition to the Wolverine series and appearances in the various X-Men series, two other storylines expand upon the character's past: "Weapon X", by writer-artist Barry Windsor-Smith, serialized in Marvel Comics Presents #72-84 (1991); and Origin, a six-issue limited series by co-writers Joe Quesada, Paul Jenkins, and Bill Jemas and artist Andy Kubert (November 2001 – July 2002). A second solo series, Wolverine: Origins, written by Daniel Way with art by Steve Dillon, spun off of, and runs concurrently with, the second Wolverine solo series.

 

 

Wolverine's first intended origin

 

Despite suggestions that co-creator Len Wein originally intended for Logan to be a mutated wolverine cub, evolved to humanoid form by the High Evolutionary, Wein denies this:

“

While I readily admit that my original idea was for Wolvie's claws to extend from the backs of his gloves ... I absolutely did not ever intend to make Logan a mutated wolverine. I write stories about human beings, not evolved animals (with apologies for any story I may have written that involved the High Evolutionary). The mutated wolverine thing came about long after I was no longer involved with the book. I'm not certain if the idea was first suggested by Chris Claremont, the late, much-missed Dave Cockrum, or John Byrne when he came aboard as artist, but it most certainly did not start with me.

”

Wein has stated in a conversation with Stan Lee included on the X-Men Origins: Wolverine blu-ray special features that he has read "Ten things you did not know about Wolverine," which states that he was originally intended to be a mutated wolverine cub, and this re-kindled Wein's frustration. He again stated that he had "always known that Wolverine was a mutant."

 

In X-Men #98 (April 1976), a biological analysis of Wolverine suggests that he was in some way different from the other X-Men, and in X-Men #103, Wolverine says he does not believe in leprechauns, to which the leprechaun replies, "Maybe leprechauns don't believe in talkin' wolverines, either."

In an article about the evolution of Wolverine included in a 1986 reprint of The Incredible Hulk #180-181, titled Incredible Hulk and Wolverine, Cockrum is quoted as saying that he considered having the High Evolutionary play a vital role in making Wolverine a human. Writer Wein wanted Wolverine to be the age of a young adult, with superhuman strength and agility similar to Spider-Man. This changed when Wein saw Cockrum's drawing of the unmasked Wolverine as a hairy 40-year-old.Wein originally intended the claws to be retractable and part of Wolverine's gloves, and both gloves and claws would be made of adamantium. Chris Claremont eventually revealed that they were an integrated part of Wolverine's anatomy in X-Men #98 (April 1976). Writer Jeph Loeb used a similar origin for Wolverine in the Marvel continuity, having feral mutants be an evolved lifeform.

 

 

Wolverine's second intended origin

 

John Byrne said in interviews and on his website that he drew a possible face for Wolverine, but then learned that Dave Cockrum had already drawn him unmasked in X-Men #98 (April 1976), long before Byrne's run on the series Later, Byrne used the drawing for the face of Sabretooth, an enemy of the martial artist superhero Iron Fist, whose stories Chris Claremont was writing. Byrne then had the idea of Sabretooth being Wolverine's father. Together, Byrne and Claremont came up with Wolverine being approximately 60 years old and having served in World War II after escaping from Sabretooth, who was approximately 120 years old.The plan had been for Wolverine to have been almost crushed in an accident; he would discover, when attempting to stand for the first time after recovering, that his healing factor does not work on bones, and his legs immediately break. He then spends over a decade in a hospital bed, almost going mad, when the Canadian government approaches him with the idea of replacing his skeleton one bone at a time with adamantium, the claws being a surprise. This origin, too, was never used.

 

 

Fictional character biography

As shown in the 2001–2002 miniseries Origin, Wolverine was born as James Howlett in Alberta, Canada, in the late 1880s, to rich farm owners John and Elizabeth Howlett. As the Origin miniseries insinuates and the Wolverine Goes to Hell story fully reveals, however, he is actually the illegitimate son of the Howlett's groundskeeper, Thomas Logan. After being thrown off of the Howlett's property for violent actions perpetrated by his other son, named simply Dog, Thomas returns to the Howlett manor and kills John Howlett. In retaliation, young James kills Thomas with bone claws that emerge from the back of his hands and is cast out by his mother (who then kills herself).His grandfather sends him away with his childhood companion, Rose (who closely resembles Jean Grey). The character grows into manhood on a mining colony in the Yukon Territory, adopting the name "Logan." After accidentally killing Rose with his claws, Logan leaves the colony and lives for a time in the wilderness among wolves until returning to civilization, residing with the Blackfoot Indians. Following the death of his Blackfoot lover, Silver Fox, at the hands of Sabretooth, he is ushered into the Canadian military during World War I. Logan then spends some time in Madripoor, before settling in Japan, where he marries Itsu and has a son, Daken.

 

During World War II, Logan teams up with Captain America and continues a career as a soldier-of-fortune/adventurer. He then serves with the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion during D-Day, and the CIA, before being recruited by Team X, a black ops unit.

As a member of Team X, Logan is given false memory implants. He continues on the team, until he is able to break free of the mental control and joins the Canadian Defense Ministry. Logan is subsequently kidnapped by the Weapon X program, where he remains captive and experimented on, until he escapes, as shown in Barry Windsor-Smith's "Weapon X" storyline which ran in Marvel Comics Presents. It is during his imprisonment by Weapon X that he has unbreakable adamantium forcibly fused onto his bones.

Logan is eventually discovered by James and Heather Hudson, who help him recover his humanity. Following his recovery, Logan, this time under the supervision of Department H, once again works as an intelligence operative for the Canadian government. Logan becomes Wolverine, one of Canada's first superheroes. In his first mission, he is dispatched to stop the destruction caused by a brawl between the Hulk and the Wendigo.

 

Later on, Professor Charles Xavier recruits Wolverine to a new team of X-Men. Disillusioned with his Canadian intelligence work and intrigued by Xavier's offer, Logan resigns from Department H. It was later revealed, however, that Professor X had wiped Logan's memories and forced him to join the X-Men after Wolverine was sent to assassinate Xavier

 

 

 

Wolverine first uses his claws in Origin #2.
Art by Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In X-Men #25 (1993), at the culmination of the "Fatal Attractions" crossover, the supervillain Magneto forcibly removes the adamantium from Wolverine's skeleton. This massive trauma causes his healing factor to burn out and also leads to the discovery that his claws are actually bone. Wolverine leaves the X-Men for a time, embarking on a series of adventures during which his healing factor returns, greatly increased in speed and efficiency (due to the fact that the adamantium in his bones used a considerable amount of his healing factor on a constant basis). It is also realised at this time that Wolverine constantly mutates (unlike other mutants) and that the adamantium slowed his mutation to a halt. His natural abilities such as healing factor and animalistic senses increase slowly over time. Feral by nature, Wolverine's mutation process will eventually cause him to degenerate physically into a more primitive, bestial state. After his return to the X-Men, Cable's son Genesis kidnaps Wolverine and attempts to re-bond adamantium to his skeleton. This is unsuccessful and causes Wolverine's mutation to accelerate out of control. He is temporarily changed into a semi-sentient beast-like form in which he gains greater physical power than ever before, at the price of part of his humanity. Eventually, the villain Apocalypse captures Wolverine, brainwashes him into becoming the Horseman Death, and successfully re-bonds adamantium to his skeleton. Wolverine overcomes Apocalypse's programming and returns to the X-Men.

In 2005, author Brian Michael Bendis had Wolverine join the Avengers. After the miniseries House of M, Wolverine regains his memories and prepares to seek out and enact vengeance on those who wronged him. In Wolverine: Origins, the character's second solo series, Wolverine discovers that he has a son named Daken, who has been brainwashed and made a living weapon by the villain Romulus, the man behind Wolverine's own brainwashing. Wolverine then makes it his mission to rescue Daken and stop Romulus from manipulating or harming anyone again.

 

During the events of the Messiah Complex storyline, Cyclops orders Wolverine to reform X-Force. Since then, Wolverine and the team (initially consisting of X-23, Warpath, and Wolfsbane) have starred in a new monthly title. The team was also featured in the "Messiah War" storyline, a sequel to Messiah Complex. After the events of Second Coming, Cyclops ends the X-Force program, but Wolverine continues a new X-Force team in secrecy with Angel/Archangel, Psylocke, Deadpool and Fantomex.

In 2008, writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven explored a possible future for Wolverine in an eight-issue story arc entitled "Old Man Logan" that debuted with Wolverine #66. Millar, the writer for the story, said, "It's The Dark Knight Returns for Wolverine, essentially. The big, wide, show-stopping series that plays around with the most popular Marvel character of the last forty years, a dystopian vision of the Marvel Universe and a unique look at their futures. The heroes have gone, the villains have won and we're two generations away from the Marvel we know."

In X-Men #5, it is revealed that in order for Wolverine to fully infiltrate the ranks of the vampires that were attacking Utopia at the behest of Dracula's son (when Wolverine thought the vampire virus had simply bested his healing factor), Cyclops has to infect him with nanites that are capable of shutting off Wolverine's healing factor. Cyclops can activate them by merely clicking a button on a remote control device he carries with him at all times.

 

 

Wolverine Goes to Hell

"The Red Right Hand" is a group of people who have been wronged by Wolverine and have sworn revenge on him. They trick him into trying to save his recent girlfriend Melita Garner (who was Mystique in disguise) and then trap him in a mystical circle to send him straight to Hell. While he is in Hell, a group of demons possess Wolverine's body. The demons then attack Wraith while he is at church, then they attack Colossus. The Red Right Hand then start to kill off people that Wolverine knows, like the Silver Samurai. While in Hell, Wolverine finally confronts his biological father, Thomas Logan. He is reunited as well with various people he has either killed or died because of him, both foes (led by Sabretooth) and friends. Wolverine manages to escape from Hell with the help of Melita, Daimon Hellstrom, and the Ghost Rider. However, his body is still possessed by the demons. The X-Men find out that Wolverine is possessed and decide that he should die to protect humankind, believing Wolverine would prefer to die rather than kill innocents. Wolverine is attacked on all sides by fighting the demons that still possess him and the X-Men that want him killed. He subsequently tracks down the Red Right Hand and kills their team of killers, the Mongrels. Wolverine fights his way through them only to find that the Red Right Hand's members have all committed suicide, while a pre-recorded message reveals that the Mongrels were all his illegitimate children. Unable to seek vengeance, Logan drags his children to the graves of their mothers before abandoning the world altogether. Broken and depressed, Wolverine secludes himself in the frozen wilderness and travels with a pack of wolves, eating little scraps of what's left of their kills. Poachers find the pack and capture any wolves that are young enough to fight. Wolverine goes to find his pack and kills the poachers. As he debates going back to the wild and hiding in deeper seclusion, he finds injured children who the poachers were using to fight wolves for sport. Wolverine returns the children to their families only to be found by Melita and his allies who convince him to come back to civilization. Sometime afterwards, the events of Fear Itself and before Schism take place

 

 

Schism

At the beginning of the events of Schism, Cyclops thanks Wolverine for always being there for him as they seem to finally have come to a mutually spoken and understood respect for each other after years of fighting and rivalry. While at a conference for weapon control, Kid Omega (Quentin Quire) launches a psychic terrorist attack on the ambassadors present. In response, Sentinels are deployed at the conference and are disposed of by Cyclops and Wolverine. Due to growing fears of mutant threat, countries around the world begin to mobilize their Sentinel forces. As Cyclops begins to deploy X-Men around the globe to deal with the threat, Wolverine returns to Utopia to find Hope Summers and the Lights waiting for their combat training lesson. After insulting Hope's team and realizing that Idie is losing her childhood, Wolverine asks Kitty Pryde to make him a doll to give to Idie. Wolverine gives the doll to Idie and eats ice cream with her while news reports of Sentinel activity play and tensions build around Utopia. Sometime after, Kid Omega shows up on Utopia. Wolverine tries to attack Kid Omega when Cyclops stops him. While Cyclops sends a team of some of his most powerful X-Men, as well as some of the island students, to a local mutant museum exhibit as a "show of force," Wolverine goes to a local bar to sulk in his aggravation with the current situation. The new Hellfire Club attacks the exhibit and incapacitate all senior X-Men present. As Wolverine rushes to the museum to help from the bar and Cyclops flies in from Utopia, Idie asks if she should kill the Hellfire Club to help. While Wolverine protests against it profusely, Cyclops tells Idie to do what she feels is right. Idie kills almost every Hellfire Club member left to save her friends and mentors. Wolverine pops his claws at Cyclops in anger that he used a child to save the day, but restrains himself when he realizes what he is doing.

 

From the wreckage of the museum, a sentinel begins to form. While Wolverine tries to stop the sentinel from maturing, he is thrown into the ocean. Shortly after, Wolverine swims on to Utopia and tells the mutant children that they need to leave. Cyclops tells the students to fight together and that they can beat the sentinel, but Wolverine objects to using children to fight battles. Cyclops doesn't listen and begins to prepare the students for combat. Shortly after Wolverine returns with a detonator to blow up Utopia and orders all remaining people on the island to evacuate. Cyclops and Wolverine's frustration with each other come to a head when Cyclops brings up Jean Grey saying that she never loved Wolverine and always feared him. Wolverine replies "And if she were here right now, who do you think she would be more frightened of?" The two fight each other in a rage while being attacked by the sentinel and as Wolverine claws into Cyclops visor, the students reappear on the battlefield to help them fight the sentinel. In the morning, Cyclops and Wolverine stand victorious with the students all living, but Wolverine cannot continue watching Cyclops use children as soldiers to fight these battles. Wolverine announces his departure from Utopia and indicates he will take any mutant on the island who wants to leave with him. While Wolverine does not leave as an enemy of Cyclops and his X-Men, he makes clear he wants both sides to stay out of the others business.

Wolverine returns to Westchester, New York to open a new school, the "Jean Grey School for Higher Learning."

 

 

Regenesis

After the Schism, around half of all the mutants on Utopia accompany Wolverine to Westchester to be a part of the new school. He appoints himself as the headmaster, Kitty Pryde as the co-headmistress, Hank McCoy as the vice-principal, and various other characters such as Rogue, Cannonball, Iceman, Rachel Grey, and Gambit are appointed as the school's staff. Even Toad is appointed, as a janitor. The first issue focuses on the state education board visiting to approve of their school application. As Logan and Kitty give the delegation a tour, Kade Kilgore shows up and tells Logan that he is the one who caused the Schism and he will destroy all that Logan has worked to build up. Wolverine founded the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, spending all the fortune that he had amassed over the years upon it. On its first day it was assaulted by the new Hellfire Club, whom had been a major force in causing the Schism of the X-Men. Wolverine made it clear that he didn't want to lose any of the kids and fought as hard as he could against the Frankenstein Monsters whom Iceman defeated by making Ice clones of himself. Then, they were attacked by the Hellfire Club, that were in possession of a spawn of the original Krakoa. Kid Omega who wanted to prove himself to Broo, Idie and Kid Gladiator who told him they never heard of him, reasoned with Krakoa who then joined Wolverine's X-Men.

Wolverine, with everyone in the school, confronted the Hellfire Club and he made it clear to them to stay away from his school. As the Hellfire Club members were leaving, Krakoa almost attacked them but Logan stopped him as he had a better idea on how to deal with them. The next day Matt Murdock told Kade Kilgore that he was being sued by Wolverine for the sum of 879 million dollars for the damage he had done to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning and if he didn't pay they would take control of his company. As the school was being rebuilt, Logan was informed that Krakoa was glad they allowed him to stay and Logan found it good to have a school ground that could fight back

 

 

Avengers vs. X-Men

When the Phoenix Force returned to Earth, Wolverine sided with the Avengers and went with them to Utopia to take Hope Summers into custody (as they suspected her of being the Phoenix Force's intended host). Wolverine found this particularly difficult to do as he was forced to fight those he once thought of as family.

Cyclops arrived at the Jean Grey School in order to try and convince Wolverine to switch sides and become part of the X-Men once more. Wolverine was infuriated, saying Cyclops didn't get to decide who was and wasn't part of the X-Men and that Cyclops had betrayed every thing the X-Men stood for.

After Hope's escape, Wolverine accompanies her to the Blue Area of the Moon. She promises to let Wolverine kill her if she is unable to control the Phoenix Force; her only request is that she gets the chance to control it. However, Wolverine betrays her by summoning the Avengers. The Phoenix Force begins to bond with Hope, at which point she admits that she cannot contain it. She asks Wolverine to kill her, but he is prevented from doing so by Cyclops. Eventually, the Phoenix Force possesses the X-Men present on the moon, who then return to Earth, leaving Wolverine and the Avengers injured on the Blue Area of the Moon

 

 

Uncanny Avengers

After Avengers vs X-Men, Wolverine gave a eulogy at the funeral of Professor X, where he admitted that he wanted to kill Cyclops. He visits Cyclops after Captain America persuades him to do so

 

Powers and abilities

Wolverine is a mutant with a number of both natural and artificial improvements to his physiology. His primary mutant power is an accelerated healing process, typically referred to as his mutant healing factor, that regenerates damaged or destroyed tissues of his body far beyond the capabilities of an ordinary human. This power facilitated the artificial improvements he was subjected to under the Weapon X program (in later comics called the Weapon Plus program), in which his skeleton was reinforced with the virtually indestructible metal adamantium.

Depictions of the speed and extent of injury to which Wolverine can heal vary. Originally, this was portrayed as accelerated healing of minor wounds, but writers have steadily increased this ability over the years. After several years, Wolverine's healing factor was depicted as healing severe wounds within a matter of days or hours. Other writers went on to increase Wolverine's healing factor to the point that it could fully regenerate nearly any damaged or destroyed bodily tissues within seconds.Among the more extreme depictions of Wolverine's healing factor include fully healing after being caught near the center of an atomic explosion and the total regeneration of his soft body tissue, within a matter of minutes, after having it incinerated from his skeleton. An explanation is given in a recent mini-series starring Wolverine for the increase of his healing powers. In the series, Wolverine is referred to as an "adaptive self-healer" after undergoing numerous traumatic injuries to test the efficiency of his healing factor. Wolverine has endured so much trauma, and so frequently, that his healing factor has adapted, becoming faster and more efficient to cope with increasing levels of trauma. It has been stated in the Xavier Protocols, a series of profiles created by Xavier that lists the strengths and weaknesses of the X-Men, that Wolverine's healing factor is increased to "incredible levels" and theorizes that the only way to stop him is to decapitate him and remove his head from the vicinity of his body. It's possible for the efficiency of his healing powers to be suppressed. For example, if an object composed of carbonadium is inserted and remains lodged within his body, his healing powers are slowed dramatically though they are not fully suppressed. His healing factor can also be greatly suppressed by the Muramasa blade, a katana of mystic origins that can inflict wounds that nullify superhuman healing factors. His healing factor also dramatically slows his aging process, allowing him to live beyond the normal lifespan of a human. Despite being born in the late 19th century, he has the appearance and vitality of a man in his physical prime. It is unknown exactly how greatly his healing factor extends his life expectancy. Though he now has all of his memories, his healing abilities can provide increased recovery from psychological trauma by suppressing memories in which he experiences profound distress. In addition to accelerated healing of physical traumas, Wolverine's healing factor makes him extraordinarily resistant to diseases, drugs, and toxins. However, he can still suffer the immediate effects of such substances in massive quantities; he has been shown to become intoxicated after significant amounts of alcohol, and has been incapacitated on several occasions with large amounts of powerful drugs and poisons; S.H.I.E.L.D. once managed to keep Wolverine anesthetized by constantly pumping eighty milliliters of anesthetic a minute into his system.

 

Although his body heals, the healing factor does not suppress the pain he endures while injured.Wolverine also admits to feeling phantom pains for weeks or months after healing from his injuries. He does not enjoy being hurt and sometimes has to work himself up for situations where extreme pain is certain. Wolverine, on occasion, has deliberately injured himself or allowed himself to be injured for varying reasons, including freeing himself from capture, intimidation, strategy, or simply indulging his feral nature.

Wolverine's mutation also consists of animal-like adaptations of his body, including pronounced, and sharp fang-like canines and three retractable claws housed within each forearm. While originally depicted as bionic implants created by the Weapon X program, the claws are later revealed to be a natural part of his body. The claws are not made of keratin, as claws tend to be in the animal kingdom, but extremely dense bone. With their adamantium coating, the claws can cut substances as durable as most metals, wood, and some varieties of stone. They can also be used to block attacks or projectiles, as well as dig into surfaces allowing Wolverine to climb structures.Wolverine's hands do not have openings for the claws to move through: they cut through his flesh every time he extrudes them, with occasional references implying that he feels a brief moment of slight pain in his hands when he unsheathes them.

 

On more than one occasion, Wolverine's entire skeleton, including his claws, has been molecularly infused with adamantium. Due to their coating, his claws can cut almost any known solid material. The only known exceptions are adamantium itself and Captain America's shield, which is made out of an iron-vibranium alloy. Vibranium alone is not comparable in terms of durability with adamantium, seeing as Colossus has broken it. Wolverine's ability to slice completely through a substance depends upon both the amount of force he can exert and the thickness of the substance. The adamantium also weights his blows, increasing the effectiveness of his offensive capabilities. However, this also makes him exceptionally susceptible to magnetic based attacks.Also, while the adamantium is in his body his healing factor must work constantly to prevent the metal poisoning from killing him, with the result that his ability to heal is slightly lessened compared to what he would be capable of normally.

 

Wolverine's healing factor also affects a number of his physical attributes by increasing them to superhuman levels. His stamina is sufficiently heightened to the point he can exert himself for numerous hours, even after exposure to powerful tranquilizers. Wolverine's agility and reflexes are also enhanced to levels that are beyond the physical limits of the finest human athlete. Due to his healing factor's constant regenerative qualities, he can push his muscles beyond the limits of the human body without injury. This, coupled by the constant demand placed on his muscles by over one hundred pounds of adamantium, grants him some degree of superhuman strength. Since the presence of the adamantium negates the natural structural limits of his bones, he can lift or move weight that would otherwise damage a human skeleton. He has been depicted breaking steel chains, lifting several men above his head with one arm and throwing them through a wall and lifting Ursa Major (in grizzly bear form) over his head before tossing him across a room.

It was recently revealed that, when Wolverine is injured so seriously that his body actually dies before his healing factor can repair the damage, he returns to life by fighting with Azrael, the Angel of Death, while trapped in Purgatory, due to Wolverine defeating Azrael in combat in the real world during the First World War. However, after Wolverine's soul was damaged following his resurrection and brainwashing by the Hand, he made a new deal with Azrael to repair the damage that had been done to his soul that negated their previous arrangement, with the result that, the next time Wolverine sustains death-inducing injuries, he will remain dead, and his healing factor has apparently been slightly weakened in the process.

 

Wolverine's senses of sight, smell, and hearing are all superhumanly acute. He can see with perfect clarity at greater distances than an ordinary human, even in near-total darkness. His hearing is enhanced in a similar manner, allowing him to both hear sounds ordinary humans cannot and also hear to greater distances. Wolverine is able to use his sense of smell to track targets by scent, even if the scent has been eroded somewhat over time by natural factors. This sense also allows him to identify shapeshifting mutants despite other forms they may take. He is also able to use his senses of smell and hearing, through concentration, as a type of natural lie detector, such as detecting a faint change in a person's heartbeat and scent due to perspiration when a lie is told.

Due to a combination of his healing factor and high level psionic shields implanted by Professor Xavier, Wolverine's mind is highly resistant to telepathic assault and probing. Wolverine's mind also possesses what he refers to as "mental scar tissue" created by all of the traumatic events over the course of his life. It acts as a type of natural defense, even against a psychic as powerful as Emma Frost

 

 

Skills and personality

During his time in Japan and other countries, Wolverine becomes a master of virtually all forms of martial arts and is experienced in virtually every fighting style on Earth. He is proficient with most weaponry, including firearms, though he is partial to bladed weapons. He has demonstrated sufficient skills to defeat the likes of Shang-Chi and Captain America in single combat. He also has a wide knowledge of the body and pressure points. He is also an accomplished pilot and highly skilled in the field of espionage and covert operations.
 

Wolverine will sometimes lapse into a "berserker rage" while in close combat. In this state he lashes out with the intensity and aggression of an enraged animal and is even more resistant to psionic attack. Though he loathes it, he acknowledges that it has saved his life many times, it being most notably useful when he faced the telepathic 'Mister X', as X's ability to read his mind and predict his next move in a fight was useless in a berserk state as not even Wolverine knows what he will do next in this state. Despite his apparent ease at taking lives, he does not enjoy killing or giving in to his berserker rages. Logan adheres to a firm code of personal honor and morality.
 

In contrast to his brutish nature, Wolverine is extremely knowledgeable. Due to his increased lifespan, he has traveled around the world and amassed extensive knowledge of foreign languages and cultures. He is fluent in English, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Cheyenne, Spanish, Arabic, and Lakota; he also has some knowledge of French, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, German, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, Hindi, and Persian. When Forge monitors Wolverine's vitals during a Danger Room training session, he calls Logan's physical and mental state "equivalent of an Olympic-level gymnast performing a gold medal routine while simultaneously beating four chess computers in his head." Much to Professor Xavier's disapproval, Wolverine is also a heavy drinker and smoker - his healing powers negate the long term effects of alcohol and tobacco and allow him to indulge in prolonged binges.
 

Wolverine is frequently depicted as a gruff loner, often taking leave from the X-Men to deal with personal issues or problems. He is often irreverent and rebellious towards authority figures, though he is a reliable ally and capable leader. He has been a mentor and father figure to several younger women, especially Jubilee, Rogue, Kitty Pryde and X-23, and has had romantic relationships with numerous women (most notably Mariko Yashida), as well as a mutual, but unfulfilled attraction to Jean Grey, leading to jealous run-ins with her boyfriend (and later husband), Scott Summers. He also married Viper as part of a debt,and then later divorced her. When Squirrel Girl is hired as a nanny for the daughter of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, Wolverine reveals that he and Squirrel Girl had a relationship at some point in the past, and she uses his given name, James, indicating she knew him at some point when he was aware of his birth name. According to Wolverine, the relationship ended with the two agreeing never to see each other again, but Squirrel Girl stated she hopes they "can be professional" during her tenure as nanny
 

 

In other media

Wolverine is one of the very few X-Men characters to be included in every media adaptation of the X-Men franchise, including film, television, and computer and video games, and he has also starred in his own video games (e.g., X2: Wolverine's Revenge and X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

Marvel Animation has completed the first and only season of the animated series, Wolverine and the X-Men, in which Wolverine leads the X-Men while Charles Xavier and Jean Grey are missing. The series aired the full first season in Canada and the U.S. (aired on Nickelodeon's Nicktoons channel). An anime series based on Wolverine began airing on January 7, 2011 as part of a 4-part collaboration between Marvel Animation and Madhouse called Marvel Anime.
 

20th Century Fox, in association with Marvel Studios, released an X-Men spin-off movie based on Wolverine, titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which stars Hugh Jackman returning as the title character. Gavin Hood directed the film, which was released in North America on May 1, 2009, and in Australia, the United Kingdom, and France on April 29, 2009. Troye Mellet plays the young Wolverine. The film chronicles Wolverine's metamorphosis from a sickly child in 19th century Canada discovering he is a mutant to his time in the army with his half-brother Victor Creed/Sabretooth, and then explores how they gradually came to be enemies. William Stryker and Victor Creed are the main antagonists in the film and are played by Danny Huston and Liev Schreiber, respectively. Another film went into development in 2009.Titled The Wolverine, the film will be based around Wolverine's exploits in Japan and will be modeled after Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's 1982 limited series on the character. It is not stated to be a sequel, but rather a standalone story from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Jackman has an uncredited cameo as Wolverine in the 2011 prequel film X-Men: First Class, in which he is nearly recruited by Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr into the X-Men in a brief bar scene, but simply snaps "go fuck yourself" without even looking the men in the face.

In the game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Wolverine stars as one of the four main heroes, with the others being Spider-Man, Captain America, and Thor. He is also a playable character in the games X-Men Legends, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, and many others. (See List of X-Men video games for more details.)
 

Wolverine appears in the Spider-Woman motion comics. In this series, he is voiced by Jeffrey Hedquist.

 

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

 

Wolverine appears alongside the other X-Men in the episode "A Firestar Is Born" of the animated series, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends played by voice-actor Neil Ross
 

 

Pryde of the X-Men

He also appears in the 1989 animated television pilot X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men. Neil Ross reprises the character in both episodes, using an apparent Australian accent. This was due to the actor and director misunderstanding a line in the script. In the original script Wolverine calls the Australian mutant Pyro "dingo", and rather than take that as an odd Australian slur, they assumed Wolverine to be Australian
 

 

Marvel animated universe

Cathal J. Dodd voice-acts as Wolverine in the 1990s X-Men animated television series, the Marvel vs. Capcom series of fighting games, two episodes of the Spider-Man animated series, and the X-Men Cartoon Maker PC game. Masashi Ebara voiced the character in the Japanese dub. He used the aliases "Logan" and "John Logan" in the series.

Wolverine is nearly taken straight from the comics. Though he never kills his opponents, it has been implied several times that he would if the other X-Men were not there to hold him back. He dons the classic yellow and blue costume from the comics. Wolverine is also in love with Jean Grey, who is Cyclops's girlfriend for most of the series. This and Cyclops's decision to leave Morph and Beast behind following an attack from the Sentinels led to Wolverine feeling a great resentment for the X-Men leader. Wolverine remembers very little about his past. One difference from the comic version is that Wolverine actually sees the claws when they first come out his hands.
 

 

X-Men: Evolution

In the 2000–2003 animated television series X-Men: Evolution, Wolverine, a man whose past is shrouded in mystery, provides the teenaged X-Men with battle training and creates conflict among his younger teammates. Voice-actor Scott McNeil portrays him.

This version of Wolverine doesn't have a romantic interest in Jean Grey, largely due to the age gap between the two. While this is normally not a problem for the hundred-year-old plus Wolverine in the comics, Jean was technically a legal minor for at least part of the first season of the show (she was around 17 at that time on the show), and the writers likely did not want to portray such a relationship to avoid censorship issues, a problem which does not exist in the comics as both are over the age of majority and of consent. Wolverine is an acting teacher at Xavier's institute, specifically in combat and survival techniques, but his gruff nature and soldier-minded concepts of training garner very little enthusiasm for his sessions from the younger students. His training as a ninja is hinted at in "Rogue Recruit", when he dons a nightsuit during a demonstration session for Kitty Pryde.
 

Wolverine, along with Storm and Beast, is an old friend of Xavier and takes a surrogate father role to the students much as Xavier does, specifically with Kitty Pryde, Rogue, and Nightcrawler. He shows a very protective side of himself when confronted with the story of the background of X-23, his clone who is introduced to the world in the third season. He also has ties to Magneto in this series, having saved Magneto as a child from the concentration camps in World War II, although the two of them are enemies throughout the entirety of the series, Magneto refuses to take an opportunity to kill Wolverine, Rogue, and Nightcrawler in the episode "Operation Rebirth" due to a debt he feels he owes to Wolverine for said rescue.

For most of the series Wolverine wears an orange and black costume reminiscent of his second, tan X-Men suit. Late in the series, he adopts a more realistic costume close in design to his Ultimate uniform

 

Wolverine and the X-Men

Wolverine and the X-Men is the newest cartoon for the X-Men franchise, with Steven Blum playing the lead role. After an attack on the school and the disappearance of Xavier and Jean Grey, the X-Men disassemble. However, Wolverine begins taking a slightly uncharacteristic role in rebuilding the team, and with Beast investigating the attack on the school. After recruiting Iceman, Shadowcat, Forge, Beast, Cyclops, Storm and reluctantly agreeing to take on Emma Frost as their resident telepath, Logan leads the team in search for Xavier. After finding their mentor who is left in a coma-like state, they receive a message from Xavier in the future, informing the team that Logan continues to take leadership of the team, over Cyclops (who now suffers from depression over the loss of Jean, and cannot lead). This is the first series to mention Wolverine's birth name of "James", which he was called by Mystique.

 

 

The Super Hero Squad Show

For the seventh time, Steve Blum voices Wolverine again for the The Super Hero Squad Show series on Cartoon Network as a member of the squad. This version of him is more kid friendly, although still tough and violent. He used to attend Xavier's School for Higher Learning, known as Mutant High in this universe, but never obtained his diploma due to the Shi'ar invasion. Captain Canada appears in episode 11, "O, Captain, My Captain!". Tired of all he can take with the Super Hero Squad, Wolverine joins up with the international All-Captains Squad (consisting of Captain America, Captain Australia, Captain Brazil, Captain Britain, and Captain Liechtenstein) as Captain Canada where he helps them fight Plantman in the Amazon

 

Black Panther

Wolverine appears in Black Panther voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.
 

 

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Wolverine appears during a flashback scene of episode 14 of the prequel micro-series to the animated series, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Logan fights alongside Captain America and other heroes as a Howling Commandos soldier in World War II. He is referred to as Howlett, which corresponds with his birth name of James Howlett. He is again voiced by Steven Blum.

Wolverine makes an initial cameo appearance in Season Two of the show - along with Beast and Cyclops - in The Avengers episode "Infiltration" on one of the photos of known superbeings pondered over by Nick Fury, who is trying to determine which heroes he can now turn to in the upcoming Skrull invasion.

Wolverine also appears in the "New Avengers" episode. He appears in his astonishing costume and is never unmasked. In the episode, he joins forces with Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, War Machine and the Thing to fight Kang.

Marvel Anime: Wolverine
As part of a four-series collaboration between the Japanese Madhouse animation house and Marvel, Wolverine starred in a twelve-episode anime series that premiered in Japan on Animax and in the United States on G4 in 2011. The series will focus on him going to Japan to investigate A.I.M. Logan also appears during episode 4 of the Iron Man portion of the collaboration. He is voiced by Rikiya Koyama in the Japanese version and Milo Ventimiglia in the English dubbed version

Spider-Woman motion comics
Wolverine appears in the Spider-Woman motion comics. In this series, he is voiced by Jeffrey Hedquist


Marvel Anime: X-Men
Wolverine makes his next Marvel Anime appearance here, along with his fellow X-Men. Steven Blum reprises the role of Wolverine in the English version, along with familiar voice actors from Wolverine and the X-Men.

Ultimate Spider-Man
The Ultimate version of Wolverine appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man, again voiced by Steven Blum. In this version he sports his mainstream-version brown and yellow costume, rather than his Ultimate costume

Films

Many actors were considered for playing the part of Wolverine in a film adaptation of X-Men. At one point in the 1990s, Glenn Danzig was approached to play Wolverine in ad hoc committee X-Men film, because he bore a slight resemblance to the character, as well as being the same height as Wolverine, and very muscular. However, he had to decline, because the shooting for the film would have forced him to put a halt to touring with his band for nine months.

Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-Men movies, spoke to a number of actors about the role. He says Russell Crowe was too exhausted after playing a similar role in Gladiator; that the role didn't appeal to Edward Norton (Norton was also considered for fellow Marvel villain the Green Goblin in Spider-Man which he didn't play and would later be cast as fellow Marvel hero Hulk for the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk); Fox themselves ruled out Mel Gibson as being too expensive. In 1999, SFX magazine spoke to Keanu Reeves, who told the publication he didn't feel he was right for the role.

Eventually, Dougray Scott was cast as Wolverine, but shooting on Mission: Impossible II overran. Hugh Jackman became his replacement, and went on to play Wolverine in all the X-Men films: X-Men, X2: X-Men United, and X-Men: The Last Stand. When it was first announced, it was considered a highly controversial move, as Hugh Jackman was not only known solely for his musical theater career, but the fact that he was simply too tall for the role (Jackman being 6'3", the comic-book version of Wolverine being approximately 5'3"). Despite these divergences though, Jackman's actual performance was incredibly well-received, becoming one of highlights of the series and launching his career into super-stardom. He played this role again for a prequel film revealing more on Wolverine's origins titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He also has a brief cameo in X-Men: First Class.

 

X-Men (2000)

 

At the beginning of X-Men, Logan / Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is introduced as a Canadian cage fighter, taking advantage of his adamantium skeleton. He is confronted by a young runaway named Marie, who later becomes Rogue (Anna Paquin). It is here that she sees Wolverine's retractable adamantium-laced claws, when the latter engages in a fight. When he is about to leave in his truck, Rogue introduces herself to him and asks if she can come along. At first, he refuses, but later he relents and takes her with him.

On their way, their truck is attacked by Sabretooth (Tyler Mane). Wolverine tries to battle with him, but is knocked out. Before Sabretooth can do any further damage, he is stopped and chased away by two other mysterious mutants, Cyclops (James Marsden) and Storm (Halle Berry), who rescue both Wolverine and Rogue and bring them to the X-Mansion.

When Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Jannsen) tries to treat Wolverine, he comes to his senses and immediately starts exploring the place. He finds out that there are mutants like him there who were trying to control their unnatural abilities under the tutelage of Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). Professor X convinces Wolverine to stay with them and become an X-Man, as he could get an opportunity to learn more about his forgotten past. Wolverine agrees and stays. A rivalry immediately forms between Cyclops and Wolverine as the latter romantically flirts relentlessly with Jean, the girlfriend of Cyclops.

Later, Mystique (Rebecca Romijn), impersonating Bobby Drake / Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), tells Rogue to leave the place as "she is a danger to everybody else". This was actually a trick to lure Rogue out of the X-Mansion, so that she could be used by Magneto (Ian McKellen) in the success of a machine that could turn all humans into mutants. When Wolverine finds out about Rogue's absence, he along with the X-Men reach the Statue of Liberty where Magneto is operating on his plans. In the process, Wolverine encounters Mystique and stabs her, virtually killing her, but she survives. He is also challenged by Sabretooth and they both engage in a fight, but Cyclops knocks Sabretooth off the Statue and he crashes into a boat below. In the end, Wolverine frees Rogue from the machine after Cyclops takes out Magneto, but she appears to be dead. Wolverine suffers life-threatening injuries when he intentionally makes contact with Rogue, allowing her to absorb his mutant regeenrative healing factor in order to recover. After awakening in the mansion and recovering from his vast injuries, he declares his sincere amorous feelings for a reticent Jean. As a reward of his victory along with the X-Men, Professor X gives Wolverine a hint for the search of his past, directing him to a mysterious Alkali Lake. Prior to his departure, Wolverine leaves his dog-tag necklace with Rogue, promising that "I'll be back for this". At the end of the film, Wolverine is seen leaving the mansion on Scott's (Cyclops) bike towards his destination.

 

X2 x-men united

 

 

In X2: X-Men United, continuing his search that he started at the end of X-Men, Wolverine finally discovers the Alkali Lake, but only finds an old and deserted factory, giving no clue about his forgotten past. He is disappointed and returns to the X-Mansion after a call from Professor X.

Upon returning, Wolverine is given the responsibility to look after the mutant children in the mansion in Professor X's absence, who plans to visit Magneto in his "plastic prison" with Cyclops to discover what information had he given to William Stryker (Brian Cox). Jean Grey and Storm also leave in search of Nightcrawler (Alan Cummings), who was found guilty of attacking the President of the United States. When the Professor is interrogating Magneto, he learns that Magneto had been drugged to leak all the information about the X-Mansion and the Cerebro to Stryker. Moreover, Professor X is later kidnapped along with Cyclops by Stryker's forces.

Back in the X-Mansion, at night, Wolverine has nightmares of his involvement in the mysterious Weapon X program, and decides to walk around the mansion, where he starts chatting with Bobby / Iceman. But all of a sudden, Stryker along with his military troops, invades the mansion and starts to the look for the Cerebro. Wolverine kills many of the soldiers, and saves the mutant children. He asks Colossus / Piotr Rasputin (Daniel Cudmore), Bobby, Rogue and Pyro / John Allerdyce (Aaron Stanford) to leave. And as Wolverine is about to escape too, he is confronted by William Stryker, whose presence strikes more forgotten memories in his mind. But he shakes out of it, and leaves with the remaining X-Men in a car for Boston to Bobby's house. Meanwhile, Stryker finds the Cerebro and steals it.

When Storm and Jean, along with Nightcrawler, learn of the attack on the X-Mansion from Wolverine, they head towards Boston in the X-Jet to recruit the X-Men from Bobby's house. During the X-Men's journey, Magneto and Mystique, who helped the former to escape from his prison, offer their help to the X-Men in bringing down William Stryker, who, as revealed by Magneto, was planning to use Professor X and his handling of the Cerebro to kill all the mutants on Earth. He also reveals Stryker's base of operations to be the Alkali Lake. The X-Men agree to form the alliance. Wolverine later kisses Jean, but is rejected by her as she tells him that she loves Scott. Mystique, seeing this exchange, takes advantage of Wolverine's love for Jean and approaches him in his tent, disguised as Jean, but Wolverine quickly discerns that she is an imposter(by the wound on her stomach made by Wolverine's claws in the first film) and rejects her.

At the Alkali Lake, Jean finds that Stryker's base was underground. Mystique, impersonating Wolverine, infiltrates the base and tricks Stryker's troops to open a gateway for the X-Men to enter. There, Wolverine decides to explore the base all by himself and he comes across a laboratory where he sees his claws' scratch marks on the walls. Now, he starts remembering what happened to him and how he was experimented upon with the adamantium. William Stryker arrives and clears Wolverine's doubts, revealing that he had created the "animal within Wolverine". When Wolverine is about to get his hands on him, Stryker introduces another mutant with adamantium skeleton and claws, Lady Deathstrike / Yuriko Oyama (Kelly Hu), who gets the better of Wolverine in a fight until he injects an overdose of liquid adamantium into her body. Wolverine trails Styker while the other X-Men rescue Cyclops, Professor X and the kidnapped mutant children.

After the destruction of his base, Stryker tries to flee in his helicopter but is caught by Wolverine and interrogated. Stryker refuses to cooperate and is pinned by Wolverine, who leaves him to be drowned in the flood water. When the X-Men are about to leave, Jean sacrifices herself by protecting them from the flood. Wolverine and Cyclops mourn her death. In the end of the film, Wolverine, hiding his love for Jean, informs Cyclops that Jean had chosen to be with Scott.

X-Men: The Last Stand

 

 

Wolverine returns in X-Men: The Last Stand. He once again stands against Magneto and his Brotherhood, apparently now more comfortable in his role as an X-Man and a hero, but he is conflicted with the decision of whether or not to kill Jean Grey, who is being influenced by her dual personality, the Phoenix.

He goes to Magneto's hideout to get Jean. He is confronted by Spike whom he kills with his claws. After listening to Magneto's speech to hundreds of his mutant army and their plans to kill Jimmy, the mutant that the "mutant cure" originated from, he decides to convince Jean to return with the X-Men. After a brief confrontation with Magneto, Wolverine tells Beast, Storm and others about Magneto's plans and they decide to stop him.

In the climax, on the Alcatraz Island With the help of Colossus and a Fastball Special, he distracts Magneto, allowing Beast to inject him with the cure, curing him. Finally, when Jean,(possessed by the almighty Phoenix Force) goes on a violently destructive rampage, he goes towards her, relying on his rapid, regenerative healing abilities to save himself from being dismembered by Jean's vastly strengthened and magnified psisonic powers which were now working at sub-atomic power level. Finally, he decides to go against his decisions and stabs Jean with his claws after confessing his deep, strong romantic love for her.

 

 

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

 

 

20th Century Fox set Gavin Hood to direct Hugh Jackman in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, an "X-Men" spinoff that was written by David Benioff and Skip Woods. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which began production in November 2007 for a May 1, 2009 release, was produced by Lauren Shuler-Donner, Ralph Winter, Jackman and his Seed Productions partner John Palermo. Using several resources that include the Marvel Comics lore, along with the more recent Weapon X graphic novels, Wolverine mixes action with an origin story about how Logan emerged from a barbaric experiment as an indestructible mutant with retractable razor-sharp claws.

This story begins with Wolverine's childhood as James Howlett, his powers activating in 1845 after witnessing the death of his father at the hands of Thomas Logan, who reveals that he is James' biological father only after the grief-stricken James has impaled him with his new claws. Fleeing with his half-brother Victor, the two spend the next several decades operating as soldiers in various wars (where their mutant abilities offered an edge in battle, allowing the brothers to survive from time to time) until Vietnam when they are recruited by now-Major William Stryker for a special team (consisting of Logan, Stryker, Victor, teleporter John Wraith, super-strong Fred Dukes, marksman David North (a.k.a. Agent Zero), electricity manipulator Chris Bradley and swordsman/martial artist Wade Wilson) after Victor kills their commanding officer, but James leaves the team after realizing how willing the other members are to kill innocent people to achieve their goals.

Moving on to become a lumberjack with a woman called Kayla Silverfox, James - now going by the name of his real father, Logan - is lured back to Stryker after the apparently rogue Victor kills Kayla, prompting him to agree to Stryker's offer to enhance his skeleton with adamantium to give him the strength to kill Victor- choosing the name 'Wolverine' from a tale Kayla told him about a spirit that was tricked into being parted forever from his lover the Moon-, only to flee when he learns that Stryker intends to erase his memories and use his DNA as part of another experiment. Escaping the labs and eliminating the first wave of pursuers- along with his former teammate Agent Zero- Wolverine tracks down teammates John Wraith and Fred Dukes, learning from both of an island facility where Stryker keeps mutants prisoner. Finding the facility with the aid of Gambit- the only mutant alive to escape it-, Wolverine is horrified to learn that Kayla was actually an agent of Stryker's all along and her death was faked, but is spurred back into action when he learns that she did genuinely love him. Freeing the mutant prisoners- including Kayla's sister Emma and Wolverine's future ally Scott Summers-, Wolverine confronts the newly activated 'Weapon XI'- his former teammate and friend Wade Wilson now Deadpool, his mouth now sealed shut and artificially granted multiple mutant powers-, finally defeating him with the aid of Victor, who vows that only he gets to kill Wolverine.

Before Wolverine can leave with Kayla, however, Stryker shoots Wolverine in the head with adamantium bullets, subsequently departing after Kayla orders him to leave using her power of persuasion. When Wolverine regains consciousness, his injuries have healed but the damage to his brain has seemingly permanently destroyed his memories, subsequently departing the island to seek his own way.

X-Men: First Class

 

 

Jackman reprises his role as Wolverine in a cameo in X-Men: First Class, another origin film set in the 1960s about the beginnings of the X-Men. Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr find Wolverine via Cerebro and introduce themselves to him at a bar, but he rudely dismisses them, although he looks back at them thoughtfully as they leave the bar.