Wolverine's Family Tree — Explained

While Marvel didn't expect Wolverine to become popular, since 1974, the adamantium claw-wielding X-Men character developed an interesting family tree.

Wolverine is the kind of success that few could have planned. He first appeared as a third wheel in a battle between Hulk and the Wendigo. At this period in Marvel history, debuting characters weren't the cream of the crop like in the Silver Age. Not every character was meant to be a blockbuster, and Wolverine definitely felt like someone who might never be seen again. Then Giant-Size X-Men #1 happened and Wolverine was a part of it. The rest is history.

Since 1974, Marvel has built a multi-decade tale about the unkillable mutant. While he spent many of those years alone, Wolverine has a rich family tree. During his man of mystery years, Wolverine's family was only hinted at in the barest terms—basically that they existed—but later years would create what many readers would refer to as the Wolverine Family, a group akin to DC's Batman Family or Flash Family. Wolverine's family tree is very interesting, as much because of how it's developed as what it is.

Origins Of The Species

The earliest days of Wolverine's past were shrouded in mystery, but later years would shine light on them in comics like Origin and Wolverine Origins. The true story of Logan's family tree begins long before his actual family existed, with a mutant named Romulus. Romulus and Wolverine's relationship is complicated, and Romulus seems to be the first of a certain subset of mutant—more animalistic and wolf-life, with super senses, a healing factor, claws, teeth, and sometimes superhuman physical capabilities. Romulus once claimed to be the first of Lupines, a group of mutants that evolved from canines. This was proven to be false, as far as the mutants evolved from canine stuff, but there's no doubt that Romulus was the precursor to a new type of mutant. Romulus would lead to the Logan family by some route over the millennia, and the first members readers ever encounter comes from Uncanny Avengers #7 in a flashback story that sees Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen battle Thor in London in the year 1013. A character introduced in that time period was Folkbern Logan, a pagan who served the English king. Folkbern Logan had the characteristic Logan family look and outlook on life - fighting, drinking, and women were the point of life.

At some point in the 1800s, the wealthy Howlett family took on a groundskeeper, Thomas Logan. Thomas brought his son, a boy named Dog, with him. Thomas would end up having an affair with Elizabeth Howlett and she would get pregnant twice. Because she was a married woman, it was assumed that they were both her husband John's, and the first was even named John Jr. He died as a baby, and James was later born. It's unknown whether Thomas was the father of both sons, but he was definitely James's dad. One fateful night, Thomas would decide to kill James and John and take Elizabeth, setting a sequence of events in motion that would end with his, John, and Elizabeth's deaths, his and Elizabeth's at the hands of James as his mutant powers manifested for the first time. Dog would get a nasty facial scar from James's claws, and would end up working for Mr. Howlett, John's father, eventually hunting James and his nursemaid Rose down.

For a long time, Wolverine's greatest enemy Sabretooth was believed to be a member of Wolverine's family in some way. In the early '90s, he claimed to be Wolverine's father, but this was proven false even before Origin dropped. However, there was speculation that he could have been Dog Logan; the two had similar builds and complexions, but Dog never showed the mutant skills of his brother James, powers that Sabretooth himself had. However, it's also still fair to include Sabretooth in any family tree of Wolverine's, as they're two people whose long association has basically made them into family—albeit family that wants to kill each other. Young Victor Creed was born into a very religious family, and the moment his mutation manifested, they labeled him a devil spawn and locked him up in the basement. Victor eventually broke free and slaughtered his family. Years later, Sabretooth would meet Wolverine in the Canadian outback.

The Children Of Wolverine

Wolverine has changed a lot, and part of that change was having children. As far as anyone knows, Wolverine's first child that seemed planned was Akihiro. After World War II, Wolverine married a Japanese woman named Itsu and took up residence in her home country. This was during his black ops period, and Itsu was targeted by the Winter Soldier and killed. Romulus, who had been watching Wolverine's family, cut young Akihiro from his dead mother's womb and the boy survived. Akihiro was given to a Japanese family to raise, who would sometimes refer to him as "Daken," which means "mongrel" in Japanese, because of his half-Canadian and Japanese heritage. Eventually, Romulus would begin Akihiro's training, honing him into a weapon to use against his father.

Wolverine's next acknowledged child was born because of his relationship with the mysterious Weapon X project; however, that doesn't account for the many illegitimate children Wolverine had over the years. Wolverine lived a life of heavy drinking, intrigue, and women. He had many children he never met, and they were eventually gathered by the Red Right Hand, a group that was made up of people whose lives Wolverine had ruined. They were eventually used as a weapon against him before he knew they were related to him, so he ended up killing them all. It wasn't until later that the Red Right Hand would reveal that they were his children, and Wolverine ended up slaughtering that group for putting him in a position to kill his own illegitimate children as part of their revenge against him.

That brings the family tree to Laura Kinney. First introduced as X-23 in the early '00s, it was at first said that Laura was a cloned, female version of Wolverine. However, the truth would eventually be revealed. Wolverine's DNA was mixed with the DNA of a Weapon X scientist named Sarah Kinney, and Laura was conceived. The Weapon X Program would make the woman who became Wolverine a killer, grooming her to take her father's place as their premiere assassin. Like Wolverine before her, she broke free and eventually found herself at the X-Mansion after a long journey. Laura would work with her father and eventually took his place when he died, and eventually joined the Krakoan version of the X-Men. They now share the name of Wolverine, and their lives parallel each other in interesting ways.

While Laura was at Weapon X, she herself was cloned multiple times, and the resulting clones were experimented on. These experiments gave them the ability to ignore pain, and they had only one claw on their hand. Meant to work as a group, they were all technically Wolverine's children, but one of them stood out. Gabby Kinney would end up being freed by her sister Laura and became her partner, first taking the name Honey Badger before becoming Scout when she joined the mutant nation of Krakoa. Scout joined the New Mutants, hung out with her family, and made friends with other young mutants since becoming a citizen of the mutant land. Wolverine also had another daughter he only found out about after his return to life named Reine. The daughter of a French witch Wolverine had a relationship with, Reine gained a combination of her father's powers combined with her mother's magic and had parallel adventures to Wolverine's before meeting him.

Finally, Wolverine had several children from alternate universes. There's Jimmy Hudson, the son of the Ultimate Universe version of Wolverine, who was discovered alive after Magneto nearly destroyed the Earth in his attack from Ultimatum. He joined the X-Men and eventually ended up in the 616 universe, joining X-Men Blue, a team made up of the timelost versions of the original X-Men, and Bloodstorm, a refugee from an alternate universe where Storm was a vampire.

Next, there was Raze Darkholme, the alternate future son of Wolverine and Mystique who joined the Brotherhood of Mutants and came back in time to try to get the X-Men to send the original X-Men back to their past while having their own twisted agenda. There's The Age Of Apocalypse version of X-23, Kirika, who was his daughter with Mariko Yashida. These are just the children that fans know about; Wolverine's very long life means there could be many more out there.

A Rather Complicated Family Tree

Wolverine has become a great leader, and the way Marvel uses the character has changed a lot over the years. There was a time when no one even knew to call him Logan; for years after that, that name was basically the only thing fans knew about him. It wasn't until the 21st century that readers learned about his true name—James Howlett—or the beginning of his life in Canada. Marvel rewarded reader loyalty by revealing more and more about his past, and Wolverine actually got a family tree. Following the clues laid by Marvel, the origins of Wolverine's bloodline extend back into the distant past, when Romulus became what is probably the first mutant of Wolverine's "type," for lack of a better word. Romulus was supposedly Roman, meaning that Folkbern Logan's people were probably Roman soldiers in Britain once upon a time, and kept to the old gods of the Romans or perhaps converted to nature-oriented, Druidic traditions, which would actually make sense for a family that produced mutants that were known for their animalistic tendencies.

From there, the Logans made their way to Canada at some point, and that's where young James would be born, setting himself on the path to becoming one of the greats in the superhero community. Wolverine's history took him around the world, fathering many children; some he knew, but many he didn't. That would lead the family into the present day. Wolverine is easily over a century old, perhaps close to two at this point. His family stretches back millennia, though, and have become heroes that have saved the world numerous times over the years. The current Wolverine family, with Logan, Laura, Akihiro, and Gabby working together, has been a great change to the Wolverine mythos, adding something wonderful for fans, and was only possible because Marvel finally unveiled Wolverine's family tree.