James Howlett

"I'm the best there is at what I do... but what I do best isn't very nice."

- Wolverine

James Howlett, also known as Wolverine and Logan is a mutant. Wolverine was the second known mutant born, after his half-brother Sabretooth. He has a number of animalistic mutations. These include three retractable razor sharp claws on each hand, and heightened senses, which allow him to track people through scent and sound. He also has superhuman strength. Additionally, Wolverine possesses a healing ability which allows him to rapidly heal and recover from almost any injury in astonishingly short times. Adamantium has been surgically bonded to his entire skeleton, including his claws, making him nearly indestructible. Wolverine is a brutal and sometimes feral hand-to-hand combatant often having berserk rages, he also has experience fighting in multiple wars and cage-fights.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Prologue
James "Jimmy" Howlett was born in 1832 (181 years old as of 2013).

In 1845, there was a dispute in James' father's estate. Victor Creed and his father were visiting. James heard a gunshot and ran down to see what had happened. His father had been shot. Bone claws slowly emerged from in between his knuckles. In a wild rage he screamed and attacked the man who shot his father with his newly discovered claws, James killed the man, who as he died, revealed to James that he was his real father. James ran away, but Victor caught up with him and vowed that since they were brothers, they would look out for each other no matter what.

Over the next 120 years, James and Victor fight for the United States in the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War with Victor until Victor assaulted and killed an officer with James rushing to his aid, claws out. They were soon put before a firing squad. James took the name Logan.

X-Men: First Class
"Go Fuck yourself."

- Wolverine

In 1962, between participating in WWII and Vietnam War, Logan was among the small number of mutants that young Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr detected with the first use of Cerebro. These mutants would make the first X-Men team to counter the evil Hellfire Club. They first come across Logan in a bar, they introduce themselves, but before they can even say another word, he dismisses them with a simple "Go fuck yourselves." So they leave him alone.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
"For six years I've been here, no one knew me. And then you show up, and the next day she's dead!"

- Wolverine

After a firing squad can't kill them for decapitating a senior officer, William Stryker asks them to join a special team he's putting together, of mutants.

The team starts to search for a mysterious rock. They attack a compound and discover that the rock fell from the sky as a meteor. The team attacks the village, but Logan stops them.

He quits the team and walks off into the stormy night. Six years later, as the team starts being killed off by Victor, he is a living as a lumberjack with a girlfriend named Kayla. She tells him a story about the moon and her partner, whose name meant "Wolverine".

Stryker eventually comes to Wolverine to defend his country yet again, but he answers that he is Canadian and drives away.

One day, while Logan is working, Kayla is killed by Victor, and as he rushes to her body, he is too late for any kind of rescue. He howls into the sky in anger.

He finds Victor in a bar and the two lunge for each other. After a brutal fight, Victor snaps off Logan's bone claws on his left hand. When he arrives at the Medical room in Stryker's hospital, he is healed. He wakes up and finds Stryker who tells him he can help James get revenge of Victor with an experiment that will hurt more than any man's been hurt. Logan agrees.

Logan asks for new dog tags with the name "Wolverine" on them. Stryker binds Logan's bones with Adamantium, and he flat lines after the procedure. After a few moments, he awakes and attacks the facility after Stryker orders his memories erased. Logan runs until he finds a barn, and hides in it.

The family who lives at the farm takes him in and gives him clothes. The elderly man gives Logan a jacket and tells him that he can take his motorcycle for a spin, but he and his wife are killed by Agent Zero. The barn is bombed as Logan escapes with the bike. After a long and daring chase, Logan attacks Zero's helicopter and takes it down.

As Zero makes a comment about all the innocent people who have died, Logan slashes the fuel tanks, spilling them on the ground and eventually causing the helicopter to explode. Zero is heard screaming just before his death.

Logan tries to find two of the remaining members of his team and finds John Wraith and The Blob. He beats the Blob in a boxing match with him and then interrogates him until he is told about a Cajun thief called "Gambit".

Logan finds Gambit in New Orleans and asks him about Stryker's island where they keep Mutants for Stryker's new project, the Weapon XI.

Logan is attacked by Gambit and then Victor. Enraged, Logan is about to kill Victor when Gambit interrupts, and Victor escapes. Logan fights with Gambit and wins, eventually ordering him to take him to the island.

Logan and Gambit arrive at the island by plane, where Logan has to leap out into the water and clash with the waves, skipping across them until he reaches the island.

There, he finds Stryker, who tells him about Deadpool and that Kayla wasn't really killed. Eventually Victor arrives and engages in a clash with Logan. When Logan has the chance to decapitate him, Kayla talks him out of it and he spares him.

Kayla tells Logan that her sister is being held captive on the island, and he agrees to help her and the other Mutants. After freeing them, he is stopped by the now Active Deadpool. They clash as the Mutants flee.

Wolverine faces Deadpool alone and eventually climbs one of the nuclear reactors, with Deadpool following him. Wolverine puts forth his best effort, but is pinned down. Just as Deadpool is about to decapitate him, (at the command of Stryker), Victor shoves him off Logan, with both of them falling into the reactor, but Victor catches Logan, explaining the only reason he saved him was so he could kill him himself.

Logan and Victor eventually end up back to back with Deadpool teleporting in front of each of them back and forth, eventually they catch him and stab him, but he teleports across the reactor.

Logan is fired upon by Deadpool's laser eyes and falls over the edge of the reactor as Victor is caught jumping at Deadpool. Logan climbs back onto the reactor and just as Deadpool is blasting Victor into the ground, Logan runs, jumps and slashes Deadpool through the neck. Logan kicks Deadpool into the nuclear reactor, his head falling off as he tumbles below, with the lasers still firing.

Logan helps Victor out of the hole and tells him they're done, with nothing being changed. Victor tells him that brothers always look out for each other, and jumps off the reactor. As the reactor starts to tumble, Logan follows, collapsing as he lands.

The reactor falls apart, with a piece about to land on Logan, but Gambit saves him and asks him if he missed him.

Gambit and Logan briefly talk and split up, with Gambit going to help the children and Logan attending to Kayla. He carries her a few steps before Stryker shoots him in the back. In a feral rage, he turns and sprints at Stryker, eventually jumping after him.

As he is in mid leap, Wolverine is shot in the head by Stryker with Adamantium bullets, and falls to the ground, unconscious, and losing his memory. As Stryker is about to finish killing Kayla, she grabs his ankle and tells him to walk until his feet bleed, and keep walking. As Logan awakes, he has forgotten Gambit and even Kayla as he sees her corpse. He shuts her eyes, and after Gambit asks if he knows her, he replies with a short "No".

Wolverine is then seen drinking at a bar in Japan. The bartender asks if he is drinking to forget; Wolverine replies that he's actually drinking to remember.

X-Men
"Hey, bub, I'm not finished with you yet."

- Wolverine

Logan is introduced as a cigar-smoking lone wolf who wanders from place-to-place in Canada where he fights people in cage fights to make money, taking advantage of the enhanced durability that his Adamantium skeleton and healing factor grant him. Later in the bar, he is confronted by Marie, who changed her name to Rogue as she had put her boyfriend into a coma while kissing him and hence, ran away from Mississippi. It is here that she sees Wolverine's retractable Adamantium claws, when the latter engages in a fight. When he is about to leave in his truck, Rogue introduces herself to him and asks if she can come along. At first he declines, but changes his mind and takes her with him.

On their way, his truck is attacked Sabretooth (a further mutated Victor Creed). Wolverine tries to battle with him, but is knocked out. Before Sabretooth can do any further damage, he is stopped and chased away by two members of the X-Men - Cyclops and Storm, who rescue both Wolverine and Rogue and bring them to the X-Mansion.

When Dr. Jean Grey tries to treat Wolverine, he regains consciousness and immediately looks for an exit. He finds out that there are mutants like him there who are trying to control their unnatural abilities under the tutelage of Professor Charles Xavier. Professor X convinces Wolverine to stay with them and become an X-Man, as he could get an opportunity to learn more about his forgotten past. Wolverine reluctantly agrees and stays.

Later, Mystique, impersonating as Bobby Drake, tells Rogue to leave as "she is a danger to everybody else". This is actually a trick to lure Rogue out of the X-Mansion, so that she could be used by Magneto to control a machine that could turn all humans into mutants. When Wolverine finds out about Rogue's absence he convinces her to return to Professor X's school but the pair are intercepted by Magneto who kidnaps Rogue. Wolverine, along with Jean, Cyclops and Storm, head to the Statue of Liberty where Magneto is operating his plan. In the process, Wolverine encounters Mystique and stabs her, virtually killing her, but she survives. He is also challenged by Sabretooth and they both engage in a fight atop the Statue of Liberty. Cyclops intervenes and knocks Sabretooth off the Statue with an optic blast. Wolverine gets carried to the Statue's torch on wind created by Storm, he frees Rogue from Magneto, and gives her his powers so she can heal. They return to the X-Mansion. Professor X gives Wolverine a hint for the search of his past as promised, directing him to a mysterious Alkali Lake. Wolverine then leaves the mansion on Cyclops' motorbike heading to Alkali Lake.

X2: X-Men United
"If you want to shoot me, then shoot me!"

- Wolverine

Wolverine finally discovers the Alkali Lake, but only finds an old and deserted factory, giving no clue about his forgotten past. He is disappointed and returns to the X-Mansion after a call from Professor X.

Upon returning, Wolverine is given the responsibility to look after the mutant children in the mansion in Professor X's absence, who plans to visit Magneto in his "plastic prison" with Cyclops to discover what information he had given to William Stryker. Jean Grey and Storm also leave in search of Nightcrawler, who was found guilty of attacking the President of the United States. While the Professor is interrogating Magneto, he learns that Magneto had leaked all the information about the X-Mansion and the Cerebro to Stryker. Professor X is later kidnapped along with Cyclops by Stryker's forces.

Back in the X-Mansion, at night, Wolverine has nightmares of his involvement in the mysterious Weapon X program, and decides to walk around the mansion, where he starts chatting with Iceman. But all of a sudden, Stryker along with his military troops, invades the mansion and starts to the look for the Cerebro. Wolverine takes out many of the soldiers, and saves the mutant children. He tells Colossus, Bobby, Rogue and Pyro to leave. As Wolverine is about to escape too, he is confronted by William Stryker, whose presence provokes more forgotten memories in his mind. But he shakes out of it, and leaves with the remaining X-Men in a car for Boston to Bobby's house. Meanwhile, Stryker finds the Cerebro and steals it.

When Storm, Jean and Nightcrawler, learn of the attack on the X-Mansion from Wolverine, they head towards Boston in the X-Jet to recruit the X-Men from Bobby's house. During the X-Men's journey, Magneto and Mystique, who helped the former to escape from his prison, offer their help to the X-Men in bringing down William Stryker, who, as revealed by Magneto, was planning to use Professor X and his handling of the Cerebro to kill all the mutants on Earth. He also reveals Stryker's base of operations to be the Alkali Lake. The X-Men agree to form the alliance.

At the Alkali Lake, Jean finds that Stryker's base was underground. Mystique, impersonating Wolverine, infiltrates the base and tricks Stryker's troops into opening a gateway for the X-Men to enter. There, Wolverine decides to explore the base all by himself and he comes across a laboratory where he sees his claws' scratch marks on the walls. Now, he starts remembering what happened to him and how he was experimented upon with the Adamantium. William Stryker arrives and clears Wolverine's doubts, revealing that he had created the "animal within Wolverine". When Wolverine is about to get his hands on him, Stryker introduces another mutant with Adamantium skeleton and claws, Lady Deathstrike, who battles Wolverine but is disabled by him. Wolverine trails Stryker, while the X-Men rescue Cyclops, Professor X and the kidnapped mutant children.

After the destruction of his base, Stryker tries to flee in his helicopter but is caught by Wolverine and interrogated. Stryker refuses to cooperate and is pinned by Wolverine, who leaves him to be drowned in the flood water. As the X-Men leave, Jean sacrifices herself to protect them from the flood. Wolverine and Cyclops mourn her death. Wolverine, hiding his love for Jean, tells Cyclops that Jean had always loved him. Logan later informed Scott that Jean had chosen to be with the latter.

X-Men: The Last Stand
"I'm the only one who can stop her."

- Wolverine

Sensing trouble, Professor Charles Xavier sends Wolverine and Storm to investigate. When they arrive, the two X-Men encounter telekinetically floating rocks, Cyclops' glasses, and an unconscious Jean.

Xavier explains that the majority of Jean's power is seated in her unconscious mind and that, as a result, her powers are largely fueled by instinct, and not under her complete control. In fact, when Jean was a little girl she was so powerful that he had to put telepathic blocks on her mind to help keep her powers under control. Her bottled up powers manifested themselves as an id-like alternate personality called the "Phoenix" — a purely instinctual creature, ruled only by its own violent desires.

Wolverine is disgusted to learn that Xavier has kept Jean in check telepathically, but when Jean awakens, he realizes she is not the Jean Grey he knew. Wolverine asks about Cyclops, but she cannot remember and fears she killed him. Jean pleads with Wolverine to kill her before she harms anybody else, but when he refuses, the Phoenix surfaces and telekinetically slams Wolverine into a wall. She then flees to her childhood home. Magneto, also aware that Jean's powers are loose, meets Xavier at Jean's house. The two men vie for Jean's loyalty until the Phoenix resurfaces, unleashing her devastating power. Furious at being caged within Jean's subconscious for twenty years, she destroys her family's house, disintegrates Xavier, and leaves with Magneto.

Following the losses of Xavier, Cyclops, and Rogue (who decides to take the mutant cure), the X-Men regroup and confront Magneto's army, which is attacking the pharmaceutical company's laboratory on Alcatraz Island. During the battle, Katherine Pryde leaves to save Leech and at the end of the battle,Henry McCoy injects Magneto with the cure, nullifying his mutant powers. After this, Wolverine nearly coaxes Jean back to sanity. However, soldiers arrive and fire upon Jean. The Phoenix quickly emerges and begins to disintegrate everything and everyone around her, vaporizing the soldiers. While the other X-Men flee to safety, Wolverine fights his way to Jean, relying upon his healing abilities to save him from her destructive power. Momentarily gaining control, Jean begs Wolverine to save her. Telling Jean he loves her, Wolverine reluctantly kills her with his claws.

Despite all he had lost, Logan remained at the school.

The Wolverine
To be added

X-Men: Days of Future Past
To be added

Powers

 * Instantaneous Regeneration: Wolverine possesses a "healing factor" which allows him to rapidly heal and recover from almost any injury in astonishingly short times and with great efficiency. Depending on the severity of the injury, Wolverine can completely heal within a matter of seconds to a matter of hours. Wolverine's healing factor is in fact so powerful that the only real way to kill him is to cut off his head (although that would be impossible due to the Adamantium bonded to his entire skeleton structure). In fact, it allowed him to stand up to and walk through a disintegrating telekinetic blast emanating from Phoenix. The same power when employed by Phoenix had completely disintegrated various other beings and it was only due to his healing factor restoring his cells at the same rate that they were getting ripped away by Phoenix that he was capable of surviving under those conditions.
 * Retarded Aging Process: In addition, his healing factor has prolonged his aging process, if not stopped it altogether. It is why despite the fact that he is well over 179 years old, he still possesses the physical condition of an man in his 30s' who engages in intensive physical exercise.
 * Adamantium Retractable Laced Bone Claws and Skeleton: Wolverine also possesses three retractable razor sharp bone claws on each hand. These claws and his entire skeleton have been surgically bonded with Adamantium making him indestructible. This operation was organized and performed by William Stryker and the Weapon X Program. The Adamantium benefits him as it grants him increased durability but has the drawback of making him more vulnerable to opponents with magnetically or metal-control based powers such as Magneto. The Adamantium allows his claws to tear through any substance.
 * Superhuman Strength: Wolverine is also superhumanly strong, both as an effect of his mutation (a la his regeneration) and as a result of carrying the intense extra weight of the adamantium bonded to his skeleton around as body mass he has an increased striking strength and most likely lifting strength as well, as he was able to fling a "mercenary" at the end each set of claws into the air at least 10 feet.
 * Superhuman Speed: Is able to run faster than 30 mph. When sensing Victor was near and going after Kayla, he was able leave from his job site and reach her car in a minute.
 * Superhuman Endurance: Thanks to his regenerative powers, Wolverine's fatigue toxins are halted for hours, allowing him to engage in physical activity for far longer than a normal human can.
 * Superhuman Reflexes: Has greater reflexes than a normal human.
 * Superhuman Agility: Has greater agility than that of a normal human. He had climb a large tree in Magneto's camp to avoid some of the mutants there and leap off the tree with a backwards flip and land on his feet.
 * Insulated Weather Adaptation: Wolverine's body is highly resistant to certain elemental extremes, particularly cold, to the extent that he can sleep nude in subarctic conditions with no apparent injury.
 * Enhanced Senses: Wolverine possesses animalistic enhanced senses and is -capable of tracking people through scent alone as well as detect their presence within a large area through scent and sound. All of Wolverine's senses are increased to extremely high levels although it is unknown if this extends to his senses of taste and touch.

Abilities

 * Excellent Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Wolverine is also an excellent hand-to-hand combatant with experience fighting against various cage-fighters and being in the U.S. military for over 120 years and surviving four different wars. He is probably second only to Mystique.
 * Excellent Stealthiness: Wolverine was able to sneak around a the Xavier institute with a lot of "mercenaries" armed with night vision goggles and guns, being shot only once and sneak around Magneto's base camp, and while being attacked by several mutants, still didn't alert the full force of the Brotherhood of Mutants and was able to slip among them after defeating the small group of mutants.
 * Great Motorcyclist: Wolverine was able to ride Cyclop's motorcycle very fast down a winding road very easily.

If he ever regains his memories, he would probably rediscover his skills as a soldier, reaching the rank of Captain before he lost his memories and thereby, possessing an number of skills that is standard to all Special Forces soldiers.

Relationships

 * Jean Grey - Crush.
 * Silver Fox - Lover.
 * Rogue - Friend.
 * Sabretooth - Half brother and Ally turned Enemy.
 * Cyclops - Teammate, friend, and love rival.
 * Deadpool - Former Ally.
 * Storm - Teammate and friend
 * Iceman - Teammate and friend
 * Colossus - Teammate, thrower in The Last Stand, and Friend
 * Magneto - Enemy
 * Brotherhood of Mutants - Enemies
 * Stryker - Former Boss turned Enemy
 * John Wraith - Former Team X teammate turned Ally
 * Fred Dukes - Former Team X teammate
 * Agent Zero - Former Team X teammate turned enemy
 * Lady Deathstrike - Enemy
 * Gambit - Enemy turned Ally
 * Mystique - Enemy
 * Pyro - Teammate and friend turned enemy
 * Kitty Pryde - Teammate and friend
 * Beast - Friend and Teammate

Appearances/Actors

 * Canon (7 films)
 * X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Hugh Jackman and Troye Sivan (young)
 * X-Men: First Class - Hugh Jackman
 * X-Men (First appearance) - Hugh Jackman
 * X2: X-Men United - Hugh Jackman
 * X-Men: The Last Stand - Hugh Jackman
 * The Wolverine - Hugh Jackman
 * X-Men: Days of Future Past - Hugh Jackman

Behind the scenes

 * Dougray Scott was originally cast as Wolverine, but was forced to pull out of the project due to scheduling conflicts with Mission: Impossible II.
 * On the last scene of X2 Hugh Jackman had to wear a wig because he had long hair for Van Helsing.
 * Hugh Jackman's name was uncredited in X-Men: First Class.

Trivia

 * When Wolverine complains about the leather costumes, Cyclops replies with "What do you prefer, yellow spandex?", a reference to Wolverine's costume in the comics.
 * Wolverine made a cameo in X-Men: First Class.
 * An alternate scene of X-Men: The Last Stand shows that Wolverine has returned to Alberta, Canada and continued his lonely life, even meeting the barman from the first film.
 * He is one of two characters to appear in all of the X-Men films, the other is Charles Xavier. However, he is the only character who has been played by the same actor in every film.
 * In the X-Men film series, Wolverine's accelerated healing powers are never referred to as a "mutant healing factor".

Quotes

 * "Go fuck yourselves" - X-Men: First Class
 * "I'm the best there is at what I do but what I do best isn't very nice." - X-Men Origins: Wolverine
 * "In my whole life I felt like an animal, I ignored my instincts, I knew what I really am, but it will never happen again". - X-Men Origins: Wolverine
 * "I didn't call him blob, I said bub." - X-Men Origins: Wolverine
 * "My whole life I felt like an animal. Then she came along." - X-Men Origins: Wolverine
 * "Hey, bub, I'm not finished with you yet." - X-Men
 * "You came to the wrong house, bub." - X2: X-Men United
 * "Did he just call me boy?" - X-Men: The Last Stand

Gallery
Images in chronological order of the film timeline: