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Questions about Wolverine's past in this series

posted 14 years ago by sanddragon939
9 replies | jump to latest

Okay, I've seen very few episodes of this series but I have seen the two dealing with Wolverine's Weapon X past and I'm a bit confused.

Firstly, in the episode 'Stolen Lives' we're told that Wolverine, Mystique and Sabertooth worked together in Team X. At this point of time apparently, Wolverine was known by his real name of 'James Howlett' insofar as the Professor refers to Wolverine as 'James' and Mystique calls him that in flashbacks. But in the comics, by the time Wolverine worked for Team X, he was already called 'Logan'. In fact he lost all memory of his 'James Howlett' identity in childhood owing to the trauma surrounding the manifestation of his powers. Now, even if we ignore the idea that Logan suffered amnesia BEFORE Weapon X (which most adaptations do), it still begs to question-when and how did he adopt the name of 'Logan'?

Also, in 'Past Discretions', we see Wolverine being called 'Weapon X' pre-amnesia and having his adamantium claws before Christopher Nord/Maverick even joins the program. But in most versions, Wolverine's memory was erased after he got his claws and he escaped shortly after the experimentation on him, whereas this series seems to imply he continued to work as a black ops agent for Team X with Sabertooth even after the adamantium bonding. Which brings up the question, why and at what point was his memory erased, if it wasn't after the adamantium bonding?

[–] SilentDues 14 years ago

As near as I can figure, mind you this takes in account Hulk Vs. and the new Avengers cartoon as well, Logan's past in the Wolverine & X-Men universe is made up like:

World War II -- Works with Captain America, as seen in a prequel micro-ep of "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes".

At some point, joins Professor Thorton's Weapon X team, taking on the same code name as the titular team, working with Victor Creed for years.

Some time into the years with Weapon X, meets and falls in love with Raven Darkholme. Seeing the more shifty and dark sides the team was willing to sink to. Decides to escape the HQ complex with Raven, but she gets away without him, though Logan soon manages to also escape offscreen.

Drowning his sorrows of missing the escape with Raven and no longer able to return to Weapon X, Logan leaves a Canada bar drunk, only to stumble into Professor Thorton whom "reacquires" him for Adamantium bonding. Logan's head is shaved and he's forced to under-go the procedure, all this is seen in the Hulk Vs. Wolverine portion of Hulk Vs.

Logan takes quite a long while to heal following the bonding process, bandaged in a medical tube, as seen in a Wolverine & The X-Men flashback. As additionally seen back in Hulk Vs., he finally awakens once his hair has grown all the way back out, chained in a dungeon as he discovers he now has claws that most painfully eject from his hands. Logan is put through mental engineering trials to ensure he can be controlled, eventually being put back on missions with the likes of Sabretooth, Deadpool, and Omega Red, all the while a clone-daughter of him is made via X-23.

(I presume one of these missions was to take out Uriko/Deathstrike's family, most probably by Logan's hands, prompting Uriko to seek vengeance against him alone by later joining Weapon X following Wolverine's last escape)

Logan's last mission is under the command of Sabretooth, where he's ordered to assassinate Maverick and his daughter, all the while control of his faculties is finally coming back to him (apparently without the memories of trying to escape with Raven and being abducted by Thorton). He eventually rebels against the mission, only to be knocked out.

Back in the perspective of what Hulk vs. shows, Logan is taken back to the Weapon X complex for his memories to be completely wiped in hopes of once again being controlled. However this time, he comes back to his complete senses and escapes the complex in a primal and furious rage, though now with a complete blank in regards to his memories. Much like the end of Origins: Wolverine with how he "awakens" into his new clean slate of a life, this is the equivalent point for him in this universe.

Journeys to Japan in running away from whatever he was just put through, soul searching and hoping to remember answers as to who he is. Logan meets Mariko Yashida and falls in love with her, though is shunned after she chooses the Silver Samurai, despite his victory in a battle of combat. He leaves Japan, returning to Canada.

Becoming a member of Department H, Logan embraces the iconic Wolverine costume in his missions for them, ultimately taking up one toughie in particular... taking down the incredible Hulk! This mission leads him to being found by the remaining members of Weapon X, including the now-recruited Deathstrike. Certain portions of his memories come back to him while initially knocked out by them, the earliest of which was the drunken night where Thorton abducted him, the Adamantium bonding process, a couple trials/missions, and his final escape. He subsequently defeats them, Deathstrike and Omega Red being killed by Hulk, whilst the Professor, Sabretooth, and apparently Deadpool barely survive.

(Considering the implying that Hulk ultimately won in his and Wolverine's fight, I like the notion that after this, either Xavier or Rogue found him 'near death' in the snow. If Rogue, then they could get to know each other well, perhaps with her nursing him back to health, before Xavier finds them and offers a place at his mansion. While Rogue goes, Logan stays to think it over, eventually choosing to leave behind Department H and come to Xavier's school)

Logan comes to the Xavier school, though due to Cyclops' intense jealousy, his stay is apparently only in the span of a few days to a couple weeks. Then... the explosion. Wolverine & The X-Men begins.

"You hear what happened to me last night?"
"You got lucky?"
"They put a tracer on me!"

[–] DarthBill 14 years ago

Logan comes to the Xavier school, though due to Cyclops' intense jealousy, his stay is apparently only in the span of a few days to a couple weeks. Then... the explosion. Wolverine & The X-Men begins.

The way those last flashbacks got rushed together, it looked like that little meltdown all happened in the span of one night.

But anyhow, if Logan was really only there for a few days (or a few weeks) at most, that just makes him becoming leader even more ridiculous. If he'd been with the team for a few years I could kind of see it but only a few days to a few weeks?

[–] sanddragon939 14 years ago

Yeah, I think its more likely he had been with the X-men for a couple of years at the very least.

That said, the timeline is pretty comprehensive and does serve to reconcile the Hulk vs. short with this series. You seem to have come up with a good explanation for why Logan had his claws before his amnesia...but what you haven't been able to explain is when and how he adopted the name 'Logan', if he was known as James as recently as his Team X days.

[–] SilentDues 14 years ago

but what you haven't been able to explain is when and how he adopted the name 'Logan', if he was known as James as recently as his Team X days.

I just assume that, like at the end of Origins: Wolverine, he learned the names Logan & Wolverine from his dog-tags (maybe they were stashed in his tights during his depicted break-out in Hulk Vs.?).

"You hear what happened to me last night?"
"You got lucky?"
"They put a tracer on me!"

[–] sanddragon939 14 years ago

Yeah, but I'm talking about how he adopted the name 'Logan' in the first place if he remembered his true identity of 'James Howlett'.

As explained in the ORIGINS series, James suffered from amnesia as a teenager when his powers first manifested and so he forgot his identity as James and was given the false identity of Logan by Rose, the woman he was on the run with. But since, he evidently remembered being James during his Team X days, where the hell did he get the Logan name from and why did he use it?

Also, I just realised that as great as your attempt to reconcile Hulk vs. with the series is, the simple fact that Logan does not remember anything about Weapon X or Sabertooth in 'Stolen Lives' whereas he rediscovered them post-amnesia in the chronologically earlier Hulk vs. short is kinda a major contradiction.

[–] roman-erlich 13 years ago

Another hint towards the fact that the timeline in "Wolverine and the X-Men" is rushed is the conversation between Rogue and Wolverine in the 1st. Episode and the line she throws at him later ("Nobody follows a leader who's never there") showing that Rogue and Wolverine (and apparently the other X-Men) were used to Wolverine wandering off all the time (As he intended to do in the beginning of the first episode)- other then depicted in Cyclops' Flashbacks. I always thought that Wolverine's background was one of the biggest - sorry, definitely the biggest - goofs of the show.

[–] sanddragon939 13 years ago

To be fair to this show, X-men TAS messed up Wolverine's background even MORE.

SPOILERS

An early episode (the one he met Alpha Flight in I think) showed him undergoing the adamantium bonding process and escaping from the Weapon X compound immediately before wandering through the forests and being found by the Hudsons. The implication is that he clearly remembers the adamantium bonding and his escape (there is no mention of memory loss at all). He later joins Department H and is given the Wolverine costume and identity.

Then there is another episode which depicts a flashback of Wolverine fighting Omega Red alongside Maverick '25 years ago'...cept that Wolverine is depicted as having both his costume and his claws (whereas in the comic book story, he had neither at the time when he worked with Maverick in Team X).

To confuse it further, there is later an episode which depicts Logan, before he had the costume or the claws, on a Team X mission with Maverick, when he gets captured by Weapon X and undergoes the adamantium bonding.

And finally, the episode 'Weapon X, Lies and Videotape' contradicts pretty much everything else...by depicting flashbacks of Logan being abducted by Weapon X at a bar, of his working with Team X alongside Sabertooth and Maverick and fighting Omega Red BEFORE he had claws, and that his memories were tampered with AFTER the bonding (unlike previous depictions where he simply escaped immediately after the bonding).

To be fair to the TAS though, back in the 90's, Wolverine's backstory still wasn't completely clear in the comics and was being revealed bit by bit, so the writers of the series could be forgiven for inconsistencies. Wolverine and the X-men unfortunately, has no excuse.

[–] SilentDues 13 years ago

To be fair to this show, X-men TAS messed up Wolverine's background even MORE.

SPOILERS

An early episode (the one he met Alpha Flight in I think) showed him undergoing the adamantium bonding process and escaping from the Weapon X compound immediately before wandering through the forests and being found by the Hudsons. The implication is that he clearly remembers the adamantium bonding and his escape (there is no mention of memory loss at all). He later joins Department H and is given the Wolverine costume and identity.

X-Men 1 and the live-action film franchise as a whole is what came up with Logan having total mind-wipe amnesia, which is what Wolverine & The X-Men picked up on. Prior to the first movie in 2000, in the comics and of course in the 90s cartoon, Logan still remembered his past as far back as his service in World War II. The main hitch was he had fake memories entwined within his mind, like two versions of his capture by Professor Oyama (Thorton in the comics and this series) and the artificial home with Silverfox. Him remembering his past in the 90s series, like not having claws prior to the adamantium bonding, isn't so much a goof as it simply pre-dates a popular retcon.

"Just tell the minister, I'm gonna be a few minutes late". *Cue John Williams' Superman theme*

[–] sanddragon939 13 years ago

You're right of course.

I suppose the idea of making Wolverine a complete amnesiac has a certain appeal in that it keeps things simple (as opposed to the 'memory implants' and stuff) and adds further to the tragedy of the character.