Wolverine

Real Name: Logan

Other Aliases: Patch, Weapon X

Place of Birth: Unknown, possibly Canada

First Appearance: Incredible Hulk #181

Group Affiliations: X-Men (current), CIA operative (former), Weapon X program (former), leader of Alpha Flight (former)

Powers: Wolverine possesses heightened senses, making him able of seeing thing at a maximum distance greater than that of a normal human. His hearing is enhanced in a similar manner, and he is able to recognize people or objects by scents, even if that person or object is hidding. Logan can use is enhanced senses to track anyone, with an impressive degree of success.

Wolverine possesses retractable bone claws in his forearms. At will Wolverine can release these claws through his skin between his knuckles on each hand. The skin between the knuckles tears and bleeds, but bleeding is quickly stopped by his healing factor. The claws are naturally sharp and tougher than normal human bones. The claws allow Wolverine to cut through most types of flesh and natural materials. With his adamantium skeleton, his claws where able to cut through almost any material without without any fear of damage to the bone, since adamantium is indestructable.

Lastly, Wolverine possesses an accelerated healing factor based on his physiology. While most normal humans heal injuries over a long period, Wolverine's healing factor speeds up that natural process. Wolverine's natural healing factor has been advance to the point where he can heal extensive injuries (boken limbs, etc.) in a matter of hours to days. With the healing factor Wolverine can heal from almost any injury. However, the more extensive the injury is, the longer it will take to heal.

Wolverine is, however not an immortal. If his injuries a extensive enough, especially if they result in loss of vital organs, large amount of blood loss, etc. Wolverine can die.

History: Until his first recorded encounter with the greyskinned behemoth called the Hulk as an agent of Canada's Department H, Wolverine's past remains a mystery. Due to extensive memory implants, even his own recollections are suspect: Was he a samurai in Japan? A mercenary operative of the CIA? A "wild man" living of in the Canadian wilderness. At least one of Logan's earlier memories - meeting Captain America during World War II - has been verified as true.

Some time after World War II, Logan was drafted into the Canadian government's Weapon X project by a group of scientists who had been hired to perfect and implement a technique that would graft the indestructable metal called Adamantium to human bone cells. The Adamantium was bonded with Logan's skeleton during a procedure he survived only because of his healing factor. Logan was indoctrinated into the program as an assassin, codename Wolverine.

Following Wolverine's encounter with the Hulk, Canada's Department H placed Wolverine in command of their own band of superhumans, the Alpha Flight. Wolverine aided in the initial phases of the team's creation, but left Department H at the request of Porfessor Charles Xavier to help rescue the original X-Men from the clutches of the island-beeing known as Krakoa.

Wolverine remained with the X-Men, standing in defence of a world on the brink of genetic war, partly because he had fallen for his teammate, Jean Grey. Following an encounter with the mutant assassin Omega Red, Logan began to question his memories. However, his efforts of trying to discover is true identity and past proved fruitless.

During one of the many battles between the mutant terrorist Magneto and the X-Men, the Master of Magnetism tore the Adamantium from Wolverine's body. Logan's extensive injuries from the battle shorted out his healing factor for a time, and he learned that the claws he believed had been a product of the Weapon X project in fact where a natural mutation.

Still without his Adamantium skeleton, Logan was kidnapped by the would-be conqueror Apocalypse, and was forced to fight the savage assassin Sabretooth for the mantle of the Horseman Death. Viewing himself a more merciful candidate than his fellow mutant, Logan fought hard to win the battle. As a result, his skeleton was again laced with Adamantium. Under Apocalypse control, he fought the X-Men ferociously in his Death persona. But with the help of his teammates, he eventually broke free from Apocalypse's control.