BIOGRAPHY - Page 18
Wolverine was in need of some serious downtime, but the next few days didn’t provide the opportunity. Norman Osborn led an ill-advised siege on Asgard and lost control of the Initiative. Captain America returned from the grave and became America’s new top cop, cancelling the Superhuman Registration Act. Wolverine was called back into action by his friends in the formerly renegade Avengers, and helped capture Count Nefaria and some straggler super-villains from the siege of Asgard. [New Avengers Finale #1] The X-Men also tracked the nanites released during the Predator X attack weeks prior, and Wolverine led Psylocke and Colossus to New York where they confronted Lobe and the Sublime Corporation. With the downloaded intelligence on the X-Men derived from the nanites, Lobe’s team may have defeated the X-Men if not for the arrival of Weapon XIII, aka Fantomex. Fantomex joined forces with Logan’s team and was adopted into the X-Men. They returned to Utopia just in time to witness Magneto’s good faith gesture in returning Kitty Pryde from space. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #520-522]
Only days later, Cable and Hope rematerialized in the present. Cyclops dispatched Wolverine and a squad of X-Men to recover them before any of their enemies noticed, but it was too late. Bastion locked onto their position and various agents of his Human Council were already in the field. During the skirmish that followed, X-Force’s secret slipped out, highlighted by X-23's brutal killing of one of their foes. The rest of the X-Men learned that Cyclops and Wolverine had been operating a covert kill squad under their noses. Nightcrawler in particular was furious but Cyclops ordered him to keep his concerns to himself until the mission was completed. That moment never came. In the frantic effort to get Hope to safety, Kurt took the final leg of the mission alone, successfully returning Hope to Utopia. However, he paid the ultimate price and was mortally wounded protecting her from Bastion himself.
Logan was furious over Kurt’s death. Their last words to each other had been harsh, as the peaceful Nightcrawler had no love for X-Force. Logan took his anger out on Hope and Cable at first, lamenting that they had better be worth it. As Bastion’s campaign entered its next stage, he unleashed a horde of Nimrod Sentinels from the future on San Francisco. Wolverine and X-Force were tagged for a mission into the future to stop the Nimrods at their source. Logan, X-23, and the others only made their way home when Cable surrendered to the T-O virus in his system and opened the doorway for them, dying in the process. In the end it was Hope – filled with rage over Nathan’s death and manifesting her powers for the first time – who destroyed Bastion and the last of his Nimrods, bringing an end to the struggle. [Second Coming crossover]
In the aftermath, Wolverine found himself on a new path. The truth about X-Force rippled through Utopia, and most of the old guard denounced the idea completely. Logan and Ororo’s friendship may have been permanently damaged, as she was horrified at how he involved Rahne, Jimmy, and the others. Logan conceded that involving the kids was a mistake, but he remained convinced of X-Force’s mission. In fact, he was convinced that if he had killed more, Kurt might still be alive. It was a surprise, then, when Cyclops came to Wolverine and told him X-Force was disbanded. With Hope back in the present, new mutant lights manifesting on Cerebra, and Captain America replacing Norman Osborn in control of America’s super-heroes, it was a brand new day. Scott hoped to put the killing behind him. Logan openly accepted Scott’s decision, but in private he believed mutantkind still needed X-Force. And so, Wolverine and Archangel assembled Psylocke, Deadpool, and Fantomex in secret to continue X-Force’s mission to eliminate any and all threats to the X-Men and mutants at large. No more making killers of those who couldn’t handle it, though. Indeed, Logan not only removed X-23 from X-Force, he asked her to leave Utopia altogether. Logan reasoned that Laura could never find her own place in the world so long as someone was around to give her orders. In order to make her learn to be her own person, he insisted she spend time alone finding out what life meant to her. [X-Men: Second Coming #2]
With five new mutant signatures popping up on Cerebra, Cyclops dispatched the X-Men across the globe to monitor their development. They soon discovered the neo-mutants could not manifest properly until they made contact with Hope, whose power triggered their powers. Wolverine and Cyclops were monitoring the last “light” in Tokyo when his powers went haywire, prompting a massive battle until Hope brought him under control. Back at Utopia, an enhanced feral neo-mutant named Teon Macik challenged Logan for dominance, in order to prove he was the alpha male. Logan nonchalantly accepted the challenge, and fought with Teon until they tumbled into the ocean around the island. When they emerged from the waters, Wolverine was the clear winner, and Teon meekly offered Logan a fish he caught during their struggle. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #526-527, Generation Hope #1-4]
Despite bonding with Teon, Logan was deliberately stand-offish with Hope. Looked upon as a savior by most of Utopia’s populace, Hope found herself more comfortable with the pragmatic Logan. After all, Wolverine and X-Force were the first mutants she ever met besides Nathan, and with her father gone she wanted to spend time with familiar faces. Wolverine pointedly kept his distance from her, however, even though he leapt into action alone to save her from the Crimson Commando. Hope eventually called Logan on his behavior, and wanted to know why he was being that way with her. Wolverine confessed that Hope’s destiny had two options, only one of them good. If it turned out to be the second option, Logan knew the killing strike would fall on his shoulders. He wanted to keep his emotional distance from Hope so that it would be easier if the time came. [Generation Hope #5, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #539]
When Captain America first returned from the dead, he and Logan went on a cross-continental pub crawl to celebrate. During the inebriation, Rogers complimented Logan on remaining with the Avengers after he died. Although they didn’t always get along, the Captain respected Wolverine for helping to hold the team together. [Wolverine: Weapon X #11] Sure enough, when Steve Rogers unilaterally reformed the Avengers rosters after the siege of Asgard, he invited Logan to join his primary team at Avengers Tower in Manhattan. [Avengers (4th series) #1] When the team needed an expert in time and inter-dimensional travel, it was Wolverine who sponsored Noh-Varr of the Kree to join the group and lend his expertise. [Avengers (4th series) #2] Wolverine also chose to work with a second team of Avengers led by Luke Cage, who operated from the old Avengers Mansion in Manhattan. In their first mission, Logan acted as the physical avatar for a spiritual battle with Agamotto of the Vishanti, in defense of the entire Earth dimension. [New Avengers (2nd series) #1-6]
San Francisco soon came under invasion again, but this time by vampires. Xarus, son of Dracula and newly crowned king of all vampires, decided to inaugurate his throne by conquering mutantkind. His initial gamut was a suicide bomber vampire who exploded in the middle of a San Francisco café, infecting everyone present with a vampiric virus, including a visiting Jubilee. When Jubilation succumbed to the virus’s call and fled Utopia to meet her new masters, Cyclops sent Wolverine out to rescue her. Jubilee had already been turned by the time Logan found her, however, and she caught him off-guard long enough to bite him as well. Wolverine transformed into a vampire and became Xarus’s newest general and advisor for the assault on Utopia. [X-Men (3rd series) #1-3]
Xarus eagerly launched an all-out assault on Utopia, using Wolverine to lead the charge. The vampiric Wolverine confronted Cyclops face-to-face, gloating about his newfound power. At which point, Cyclops calmly pulled out a remote trigger device, pushed a button, and dropped Logan to his knees. In preparation for the vampire outbreak, Dr. Nemesis had sampled Logan’s blood to test his healing factor against the virus. Unknown to Wolverine, though, he also injected nanobot inhibitors into Logan’s bloodstream that neutralized his healing factor. Cyclops planned ahead for Wolverine’s capture, allowed him to be turned temporarily, and then shut down the nanobots at the perfect moment to reverse the transformation entirely. With their general switching sides, the tide turned against the vampire forces. Wolverine led the X-Men right back to Xarus’s doorstep, and the vampire invasion was finished. Unfortunately, Jubilee’s transformation was not as easily reversed, and she remained incarcerated on Utopia until a more permanent solution could be found. [X-Men (3rd series) #4-6] Kavita Rao came up with a formula using Wolverine’s blood to feed Jubilee, so that his healing factor neutralized the more aggressive and anti-social aspects of her vampirism. It was a rough transition, but a combination of tough love and real love from Logan helped Jubilee adjust to her status. [Wolverine & Jubilee #1-4]
Wolverine and Archangel’s X-Force squad had their first mission when Deadpool located the Clan Akkaba preparing a resurrection ritual for Apocalypse. Logan and Warren had concerns about each other, as they had both acted as one of Apocalypse’s Horsemen in the past, and Warren was experiencing a resurgence of his Death persona. They used their roles as “co-captains” to watch each other’s backs and prepare for the worst. X-Force tracked Apocalypse’s Ship to the Blue Area of the Moon, and engaged his Final Horsemen in battle while they attempted to breach his stronghold. The team was shocked to discover Apocalypse had been resurrected as a seemingly innocent child this time, being indoctrinated by Clan Akkaba in his own dogma to serve as the future ruler of mutantkind. Wolverine and Archangel were reluctantly prepared to go forward with their assassination mission, but Psylocke outright refused to allow them to kill a child, and fought back against her teammates. Logan and Warren each made it past Betsy and had the opportunity to execute the boy, but relented at the last minute. Logan was in the process of suggesting they take the boy with them and teach him under Xavier’s dream when Fantomex calmly drew his pistol and shot the young En Sabah Nur in the head, killing him instantly. In a state of shock, the team left the Blue Area without another word and returned home. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #1-4]
When Wiccan of the Young Avengers began actively searching for his assumed mother, the Scarlet Witch, Wolverine and the adult Avengers became concerned about his quest. Logan still maintained his opinion from the House of M meetings that Wanda was too dangerous to live, and the Decimation only solidified his belief that she needed to be brought to justice for her crimes against mutants. The debate got out of control when Magneto arrived to meet his “grandsons”, Wiccan and Speed, and spirited them away from the Avengers to search for Wanda. Wanda was located in the care of Doctor Doom, and a struggle broke out between the X-Men, Avengers, Young Avengers and Doom to decide what would be done with the Scarlet Witch. In the end, it was ruled that Wanda was under the influence of Doom and the Life Force when she initiated the Decimation. Wolverine and the X-Men still blamed her for the tragedy, but no longer sought to bring her to mutant justice. [Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #1-9]
One evening, Logan was meeting Melita for a date when she was apparently snatched by thugs. They lured Wolverine into the site of an arcane ritual, where the leader of the Red Right Hand cast an incantation that sent Logan’s soul down into the depths of Hell. His last sight on earth was Melita morphing into the sneering form of Mystique, complicit in the attack for revenge on Logan. The Red Right Hand was an organization of people who blamed Wolverine for the loss of their loved ones (accurately or otherwise), and had devoted their lives to ultimate vengeance. While the Devil tortured Logan’s soul, his body roamed the earth possessed by demons and attacking Logan’s friends. Demon Wolverine and the soldiers of the Red Right Hand went after John Wraith, Maverick, the Silver Samurai, Tyger Tiger and the Princess Bar, Yukio and Amiko, the Sons of the Tiger and more, all in the name of causing Logan pain.
Logan eventually defeated the Devil, and claimed the sword of Hell with the unlikely help of Puck and his own father, Thomas Logan. Back in reality, Mystique had a change of heart when she learned the full depths of the Red Right Hand’s plan for Logan, and contacted the Ghost Riders and exorcist Daimon Hellstrom to purge Logan’s body of the demons. Logan’s soul returned to Earth, and began to battle on the spiritual plane to defeat the demons infesting his mind. With the help of Emma Frost, Melita, and several other friends who entered his mind, Logan drove the entities from his body and soul. [Wolverine (4th series) #1-8]
Wolverine was beside himself with rage over the Red Right Hand’s attack, and immediately went after them. He tracked Mystique as his only lead to the group, and refused to listen to her half-hearted apologies and warning about the Hand’s ultimate goal. Logan didn’t want to hear anything more from Mystique, and after learning the location of the Red Right Hand’s leadership, he stabbed her through the chest and left her dead on the streets. [Wolverine (4th series) #9]
Down in Mexico, Wolverine found the Red Right Hand’s compound and began to cut his way through their enforcers, a quintet called the Mongrels. In a series of personal battles, he brutally murdered all five Mongrels before advancing on the last door that hid the group’s inner circle. Once inside, however, Logan found the leaders had already committed mass suicide, ingesting poison drinks to cheat him of his vengeance. The old man in charge of the Red Right Hand also left Logan a video message and personnel records that crystallized their final revenge. The true insidious nature of the Red Right Hand’s plot was revealed in those pages: the Mongrels had all been Logan’s children. Forgotten bastards from one night stands or women plastered over by his memory implants. The Hand located and trained the Mongrels, only to intentionally set them up to die. Sending Wolverine to Hell was only a taunt designed to make him too angry to think twice about carving his way through anyone between him and the Hand. [Wolverine (4th series) #10-13]
