New Wolverine Series Completes Trilogy Revealing His Origin

Marvel announces a new Wolverine series that revisits his past and adds brand-new details to his origin story. In Marvel canon, James Howlett's mutant powers erupt for the first time when he kills his father Thomas and flees into the wilderness, eventually adopting the name Logan. From there, Wolverine's history becomes a long succession of lives, from wanderer to soldier to spy to Team X operative, and eventually the victim of Weapon X, which bonds adamantium to his skeleton and erases much of his memory, cementing Logan as the perpetually angry Wolverine.

Wolverine's early days have as Marvel kept expanding the gaps between Logan's known memories. Early stories deliberately treated his past as a mystery. Later writers added more material, sometimes creating explanations that were subsequently revised or discarded. Romulus is one of the most controversial additions, as he was retroactively inserted as the ancient wolf-like hidden manipulator pulling the strings behind Weapon X, Logan's relationship with Sabretooth, and Itsu's death. Other stories introduced further complications involving Daken, Dog Logan, and competing versions of Logan's family history.

Paul Jenkins and Andy Kubert's Wolverine: Origin gave Marvel's most deliberately mysterious character a concrete childhood. The six-issue 2001-2002 series established James Howlett as Logan's birth name, introduced Rose, Dog, Thomas Logan, and the Howlett family, and it depicted the traumatic circumstances that triggered his mutant abilities and drove him into the wilderness.

Wolverine: Origin III Will Reveal More Key Details About Logan's Past

Wolverine: Origin III - The Dark Age; Written By Paul Jenkins; Art By CAFU

Marvel has officially announced the next part in Paul Jenkins' Wolverine: Origin series, which started twenty-five years ago with the installment that explored Logan's pre-X-Men days in depth. This time, Jenkins teams up with Black Panther: Intergalactic and The Avengers artist Cafu to shine some light into the unknown corners of Wolverine's mysterious past. Wolverine: Origin III - The Dark Age is set to follow the titular mutant hero following his experiences in the two World Wars and prior to his traumatic evolution in the Weapon X program.

Even though he's one of the most popular superheroes of all time and one of the faces of Marvel in the comics and movies, Wolverine's origins aren't as straightforward as Spider-Man's or the Hulk's. A big part of Wolverine's personality and motivations come from his memory loss following Weapon X, which also represents a huge opportunity for false memories, external manipulation, and retcons. Wolverine: Origin III - The Dark Age isn't expected to add any major retcon that fundamentally changes Logan, but it might expand his lore in significant ways that could ripple across the Marvel multiverse.

Wolverine Is One Of Several Marvel Heroes Whose Story Is Never Fully Told

The X-Men Represent Only A Fraction Of Wolverine's Life

Wolverine is synonymous with the X-Men, but by the time he joins Xavier's team in Giant-Size X-Men #1, he has already lived through decades of adventures. Logan's childhood as James Howlett, his years in the wilderness, his relationship with Sabretooth and Silver Fox, his time in Japan, his encounters with Captain America during World War II, his service with Team X, and the Weapon X experiment that gives him his adamantium skeleton still have dozens of untold stories yet to tell. Marvel could set dozens of new miniseries between established events without contradicting Logan's present-day adventures.

Wolverine is hardly alone in having a present-day status that covers only part of an extraordinarily long existence. Thor has spent millennia living through cosmic wars before the modern Marvel era even begins, and he'll probably still be in his prime long after Marvel's present-day generation of heroes has died. The Silver Surfer has similarly spent years traveling the cosmos as Galactus' herald and wandered across worlds and civilizations that Earth-based Marvel stories have barely touched. There must be countless stories like Wolverine: Origin III - The Dark Age hiding in between these characters' gaps.

What do you expect Wolverine: Origin III - The Dark Age to reveal about Wolverine?

Wolverine: Origin III - The Dark Age #1 is available December 16 from Marvel Comics