Alternative versions of Wolverine

In addition to his mainstream incarnation, Wolverine has had been depicted in other fictional universes.

Ultimate Wolverine

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Ultimate Wolverine by Ben & Ray Lai

Wolverine appears in comics published under the Ultimate Marvel banner, particularly Ultimate X-Men. An assassin for Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy, Wolverine is assigned to infiltrate the X-Men and assassinate Professor Xavier. As a member of the X-Men, Wolverine finds acceptance, purpose and love. Wolverine and teammate Jean Grey have a sexual affair, but she leaves him upon discovering his connection to the Brotherhood. Wolverine eventually betrays and attacks Magneto, abandoning his initial mission and joining the X-Men outright.

After Wolverine saves the X-Men from the Weapon X Project, Sabretooth goads him into a fight by burning the project's files on Wolverine, the only record of his past. Jean would later begin a relationship with Cyclops and while Wolverine and Cyclops attend a mission in the Savage Land, Wolverine allows Cyclops to apparently fall to his death. Cyclops survives and returns, shocking the X-Men when he later offers to allow Wolverine to return to the team. After the death of Storm's boyfriend Beast, Wolverine reluctantly begins a relationship with her. While on a date, the couple are attacked by Sabretooth, who claims that his own memories have begun to return and that he knows Wolverine is his father. This was possibly a ruse for Sabretooth to get close enough to get a sample of Wolverine's DNA for Dr Cornelius to clone, a possible origin for Ultimate X-23 or Ultimate Cable.

In the Ultimate X-Men/Ultimates crossover miniseries, Ultimate War, Captain America claimed to have worked with Logan during World War II. According to Cap, prior to the Weapon X project, Wolverine was Corporal James "Lucky Jim" Howlett of the Canadian Air Force. Ultimate War #4 reveals that Wolverine is immune to radar due to the modifications made by Weapon X. He also has a history with the Black Widow, although the nature of this is left unclear; all that is revealed is that she is bitter towards him over it.

In Ultimate X-Men #75, Ultimate Cable reveals a set of Wolverine-like claws, and claims that he doesn't "pop" them for just anyone. He also addresses the character he is speaking to as "Bub." It is revealed in Ultimate X-men #76 that this Cable is a future version of Wolverine that has come back to kill Professor Xavier. He has apparently lost his healing factor over the years, as he is in a stage of advanced age (Not normally possible with his healing factor), as well as sporting a bionic arm. Wolverine has currently left the X-Men to seek out his wife alongside Sabretooth. In Ultimate X-Men #84, Bishop invited Wolverine back to the X-Men and Wolverine accepted.

Ultimate Wolverine makes an appearance in the video game Ultimate Spider-Man, as the first boss faced by Venom.

The most visible difference between Ultimate Wolverine and the Wolverine of mainstream continuity is that Ultimate Wolverine is taller than his mainstream counterpart and has a leaner muscular build. Due to repeated brainwashing, Ultimate Wolverine is largely immune to any attempt to read his mind, which is why Magneto chose him to assassinate Xavier.Also it is very possible that this version of Wolverine does not have any adamantium in his fingers as in Ultimate Spider-man it has been seen that his finger can be cut off and grown back again

He also appears on the wraparound cover of the Ultimate Marvel series Ultimates 3, upcoming as of 2007..

Age of Apocalypse

Logan retains his code name of "Weapon X." In this reality he never had his Adamantium ripped out, and it is Magneto that helps him to control his feral rages. Weapon X was a loner and initially an unwilling recruit to the X-Men. He reconsidered after meeting the team’s telepath, Jean Grey. The two had an instant connection and eventually became lovers.

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Cover to Weapon X #1 (1995), featuring Weapon X and Jean Grey in the Age of Apocalypse. Pencils by Adam Kubert.

Logan trained Magneto’s newer recruits, including Shadowcat. Unbeknown to the rest of the X-Men, Magneto had asked Weapon X to train the girl as an assassin. Weapon X taught Shadowcat everything he knew and even crafted a pair of claws similar to his own for her with Magneto’s help.

One of the main differences between Weapon X and the Earth 616 Wolverine is that Weapon X’s left hand is missing and he has a number of facial tattoos. The hand was blasted off by the Prelate Scott Summers, a villain in this universe, when Weapon X tried to rescue Jean from Mr. Sinister. He succeeded and gouged one of Summers' eyes out in return. Not willing to return to the X-Men, Logan and Jean worked on their own.

After months of guerrilla warfare, they were contacted by Sinister who revealed Apocalypse’s plan to attack the humans in Europe. Logan and Jean delivered this information to the Human High Council and learned of the Council’s plan to launch nuclear missiles on America to stop Apocalypse. Logan supported this plan but Jean did not, for the indiscriminate destruction it would cause. The two confronted each other about it, with Jean coming to believe that Logan would even kill her in order to stop her from possibly warning Apocalypse about the plan. In the end, Jean was killed by the Prelate Alex Summers, but Logan avenged her.

Logan's relationships with some of his old enemies are different in the Age of Apocalypse universe, such as Sabretooth being his ally instead of his nemesis. In the recent 2005 mini-series of the Age of Apocalypse, Logan learned from Magneto that Jean is still alive, but mind-controlled by Mr. Sinister. Eventually, the X-Men face Sinister and manage to bring Jean back, and she and Logan become lovers again. Logan also learns that he now has a "daughter" of some-sorts in the form of the X-Man Kirika, who can be compared to X-23. Kirika's mother is revealed to be Mariko Yashida, Logan's former lover.

Counter Earth

In the Onslaught Reborn mini-series, the Wolverine of Counter-Earth is revealed to have been masquerading as that Earth's version of Hawkeye.

Days of Future Past

In this alternate reality the X-Men fail to prevent the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly, which results in Sentinels ruling the United States of America by 2013 AD. Mutants fall one by one at the hands of the Sentinels, until only Wolverine, Storm, Colossus and Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) are left. They are confronted by a group of Sentinels and Wolverine lunges at one, ready to slice off the Sentinel's head, but his flesh is burned off by the Sentinel's hand laser. Wolverine seemingly dies and his charred Adamantium skeleton falls onto the ground. Later on in the Earth X: Heralds storyline, Wolverine is revived by X-51's machine.

Earth X

According to the information in the Earth X miniseries Paradise X: Heralds, the second child of the Howletts died in childbirth and the Howletts found and adopted an infant member of the Moon Clan, a bestial race which has co-existed with humanity for hundreds of thousands of years. This Clan, which is also dubbed wolf clan, were mortal enemies of the Bear Clan, to which Sabretooth belongs. Supposedly, it is this Moon Tribe child who was named James Howlett and would grow up to become Wolverine explaining the enmity between Wolverine and Sabretooth in this alternate reality.

It is also revealed that this seemingly divergent sub-species is in fact what the "true" human species would have become if not for the Celestials' intervention and genetic tampering.

Exiles & Weapon X

Another version of Wolverine, originating from Earth-172, was revealed by Sabretooth to have joined an alternate, more sinister version of Weapon X in the Exiles series. At some point in Weapon X's travels, this version of Wolverine was killed. Like other fallen members of the Exiles and Weapon X, his body was stored in a stasis wall inside the Timebreakers' crystal palace before he was sent home to his own timeline to be cremated by his loved ones.

Issue #85 and #86 followed the adventures of several Wolverines from different timelines gathered in an attempt to stop a mutant known as Brother Mutant, a being with the combined powers of Wolverine, Magneto, Quicksilver, Scarlet Warlock (a male version of the Scarlet Witch) and Mesmero. Different teams of Wolverines were gathered and each fell to the hypnotic powers of Brother Mutant. The last team of Wolverines was comprised of Patch, an alternate version of the zombie Wolverine featured in the miniseries Marvel Zombies, Albert & Elsie-Dee, Weapon X, a young James Howlett and the Days of Future Past Logan. When most of this team fell before Brother Mutant's followers, Logan and James Howlett were able to contact the Timebreakers and convinced them to gather the original Exiles to help defeat Brother Mutant.

Numerous other alternate reality versions of Wolverine appear in those issues as well, some of them being hybrids between Wolverine and main Marvel continuity characters (Thing/Wolverine, Hulk/Wolverine, Deadpool/Wolverine, etc).

Issue #91-94 shows Wolverine as an agent of HYDRA which he leads together with the Invisible Woman, with whom Logan has a relationship.

Guardians of the Galaxy

In the alternate future of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Wolverine's adamantium skeleton is reanimated and controlled by the brain of Doctor Doom. Additionally, one of the villains appearing in the series is Wolverine's great-great-granddaughter Rancor, who is obsessed with her ancestor. Rancor comes to rule a human colony, which had been founded by Wolverine and other mutants, hundreds of years ago. She came from a long lineage, all claiming rulership by relation to Wolverine. Most were murderous tyrants.

House of M

Although another reality, the Wolverine of House of M is the 616 Wolverine, retaining his memories from the old reality, including his untampered past. After the House falls, he retains these memories. The House of M Wolverine was a head operative of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Red Guard, and had an affair with Mystique.

Here Comes Tomorrow

In Here Comes Tomorrow,set 150 years in an alternative future Wolverine is part of group fighting against a version of Beast possesed by Sublime. This version of Wolverine is killed when Beast artificially gives himself the powers of the Phoenix Force and turns off Wolverine's healing factor, before beating him to death. This future is averted by Jean Grey.

Marvel Mangaverse

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Cover to New Mangaverse #2, featuring Wolverine and Deathstrike, art by Tommy Ohtsuka.

In the Marvel Mangaverse reality Wolverine, not Charles Xavier, formed the X-men (Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Mirage and Jean Grey forming the core of the group, with Rogue living with them).

Wolverine has one set of long metal claws--most likely adamantium and shaped like katanas on his left hand, and another set, on his right hand, composed of red energy (like Cyclop's optic beams) and shaped like lightsabers. Wolverine has incredible strength (He is clearly stronger than the Spider-Man of the manga reality who is not even superhuman). He has white hair (it is later changed to black in the new mangaverse) and a strange tattoo on his face, possibly meant to be the Greek symbol Omega.

In this reality, he and Cyclops are brothers. Wolverine cost Cyclops one of his eyes, while it is hinted that Cyclops cost Wolverine one of his hands. (This seems to be why one of Wolverine's sets of claws is energy while the other is metal. Throughout this story with the exception of a pair of panels, Wolverine was depicted with two flesh and blood hands, but his right hand had claws of energy, not adamantium. The flesh and blood appearance of both hands continued in the final issue of the first arc of Mangaverse). He is also hinted to have had a relationship with Jean Grey, who had begun to favor Cyclops.

In the New Mangaverse, Wolverine is one of the only mutants to survive the Hand / SHIELD bio-engineered virus targeting mutants thanks to his healing factor. Jean Grey's rejection of him has clearly left him with some issues since he said he had a thing for redheads and flirts with Spider-woman (Mary Jane Watson) in New Mangaverse #2. It is clear that his advances are unwanted and that Mary Jane is scared of him. When Logan grabs her, Spider-man becomes angry and tries to fight him but proves to be no match for Wolverine and it is ultimately the Black Cat that stops him. He flirts with the Black Cat throughout the New Mangaverse miniseries, saying "I've always been a sucker for a girl with a nice set of... CLAWS." It is also hinted that at some point in the past he was Lady Deathstrike's lover. In the New Mangaverse, Wolverine teams up with the Black Cat, Captain America (Carol Danvers), Iron Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman (Mary Jane Watson), and The Torch (Jonatha Storm, Sioux Storm's half sister, this reality's Human Torch) to fight the Hand (some of the organization's more prominent members being Lady Deathstrike, Elektra, Silver Samurai, Sunfire, and a (brainwashed) Sharon Carter).NOTE: (Wolverine's costume somewhat resembles Saiyan battle armor from the hit Manga Dragonball Z.)

Marvel Zombies

In the alternate Marvel Zombies universe, Wolverine is one of many heroes who become infected by the zombie virus. He is infected when Colonel America and Hawkeye bite him on the arms. For reasons unexplained, the virus prevents his healing factor from working. He, along with other zombies, attempt to slay the Silver Surfer. Wolverine attacks the Surfer but his body is decayed so much that his arm is torn apart, as his adamantium bones are a lot stronger than his flesh. Eventually, Wolverine and the other zombies are successful in killing and eating the Surfer. As a result, he and the others gain the Silver Surfer's cosmic power and devours Galactus, becoming one of the creatures collectively known as The Galactus.

Currently, the Marvel Zombies are attacking a Skrull planet, only to encounter the Fantastic Four of this reality- currently consisting of Black Panther, Storm, the Thing and the Human Torch-, leaving the Zombies eager to capture the FF and transport back to their reality. He also appears in Marvel Zombies 2.

MC2

In the alternate future known as MC2, Wolverine and Elektra are married and have a daughter named Rina Logan, who inherits her father's healing factor and senses and possesses "psychic claws" which resemble Psylocke's telepathic "psychic knife". She becomes a superheroine called Wild Thing. Wolverine also has a son, Sabreclaw (Hudson Logan), with another woman.

During the events of Last Hero Standing, Wolverine is among the heroes kidnapped by Loki as part of his plan to bring about the end of the Age of Heroes.

New X-Men vs New Brotherhood

In this comic, Wolverine was part of the X-Men, and the only survivor of the whole team thanks to his healing factor. At the end he thinks that going on solo missions would be better.

Spider-Man Unlimited

Spider-Man Unlimited (a comic based on the Spider-Man Unlimited animated series) introduces a bestial version of Wolverine in #5.

What If?

In an alternate reality, Genesis is successful in his attempt to re-implant Adamantium into Wolverine's skeleton, and Wolverine becomes Apocalypse's Horseman of War. He kills Apocalypse and every single supervillain. War is hunted by superheroes when he begins to kill common criminals. When Wolverine disappears, a superhuman police force called the War Watch forms to protect the public from The Enemy, as Wolverine is now dubbed, while the Wolf Pack, a gang of criminals, becomes a cult of sorts, inspired by Wolverine's violent tendencies. Secretly, Wolverine seeks redemption and calls himself Brother Xavier.

In What If? #74, Wolverine also becomes lord of the Vampires while battling Dracula. Only Frank Castle, the Punisher, can vanquish these undead beasts.

Wolverine: The End

In this non-canon series by writer Paul Jenkins and artist Claudio Castellini purporting to be Wolverine's last adventure, Logan is an old man living in the Canadian wilderness making a modest living selling animal pelts. His only friend is a sixty-one year old man called George, who has been delivering Logan's groceries since he was a child. Though Logan has aged incredibly slowly, it seems that the long, long years have finally started to catch up with him. Though still faster than a normal man, he isn't as fast as he used to be and has trouble keeping up with the animals he hunts due to arthritis in his hands. His claws no longer work properly and one of them has even been broken off. Logan knows that, despite his healing factor, he will die soon. He doubts his own sanity and his memories, including the Weapon X program. This doubt is exacerbated by the spirit of Professor X, who lives on (in diminished capacity) in Logan's mind.

One day, Wolverine is invited to the funeral of Victor Creed, also known as Sabretooth. After denouncing Sabretooth's faith in God as a fear of death, Wolverine receives a letter from Creed's attorney. He has George drive him to an ancient and destitute mansion in Alberta. After quickly walking through the mansion, George notices that a crest above the fireplace is the same as on the letter given to him by Creed. Wolverine finds the grave of John Howlett and a book entitled Ghosts of Japan: Lost Rituals of the Kanaguri. Someone had left the book on the grave earlier that day, knowing that Wolverine had lived both in Japan and in that region of Alberta. Paranoid, Wolverine goes to a port on the West Coast and stows away on a ship headed for Japan. Before he leaves, he has George go back to his home, asking him to check a stack of magazines in his cabin, saying "one of them ain't right. It ain't...me, if ya follow".

While working as a galley assistant on the voyage to Japan, Logan reads Lost Rituals of the Kanaguri, and learns that it is a factual account of a supposedly extinct evil Shinto sect. When he arrives at his destination, he breaks up a Kanaguri ritual. He asks the participants if they are working for Weapon X. The leader of the group declares his allegiance to the White Ghost, before being killed by a shadowy figure. Logan follows the figure up the mountain, where he is attacked and left for dead. Just before Logan passes out, the White Ghost says, "I could have killed you, old man. Any time in the last two hundred years, I could have killed you."

Back in Canada, George sifts through the magazines. Among Popular Mechanics and Custom Bikes, he finds an issue of Wine Lover. George recognizes the title is an anagram of "Wolverine". A note in the magazine gives George the login information to access Logan's computer. George finds instructions from Wolverine and is given the location of a large amount of cash, which he is to use to purchase a list of items. He is told to keep whatever money is left over as a tip (a joke that refers to a conversation in the first issue of the series, in which George complains that in fifty years of grocery deliveries, Logan has never given him a tip).

In Japan, Logan awakes. He discovers that the White Ghost is none other than John Howlett Jr., his brother, presumed dead during Logan's childhood. He is a mutant, with Logan's claws and healing factor, but also the power of invisibility and intangibility (similar to Shadowcat). He used these in a successful career as a spy, which in combination with his share of the Howlett fortune, has made him rich. He became involved in the Weapon X program and watched Logan all through his life. He promises to tell Logan everything as soon as he completes his scheme: to teleport an atomic weapon into the atmosphere over Las Vegas. With this act, the American economy will collapse, and mutants will ascend in the resulting chaos. They struggle, falling out of a window. As they land, John is impaled on Logan's claws. With his dying breath, he tells Logan he's sorry that he doesn't have enough time to tell him about Rose. John dies in Logan's arms, just as Japanese attack helicopters arrive with orders to destroy the compound and all its occupants, Logan included.

Wolverine: Snikt!

In this comic by Tsutomu Nihei, Wolverine is sent into an alternate future, arriving there by the hand of the humans of that age in need for a weapon to fight against a race of engineered viruses that grow up to be sentient beings, and who can only be destroyed with adamantium. Though whether this is the future of the Marvel universe or whether it is a crossover into another universe is not completely made clear. This is mainly because Marvel has so many alternate futures and universes, making it difficult to place this particular world within them.

X-Men: The End

In the alternate future of X-Men: The End, Wolverine is caring for a crippled Storm and has given up his life as an X-Man. However after being attacked by a Warskrull, Wolverine and Storm return to the X-Men only to find a crater where the mansion stood. Wolverine along with Rachel Summers, X-23 and a few others were sent to find out what happened to Cable and his team. Wolverine and Jean Grey/Phoenix meet up again. Jean helps Logan break free of the Lady Mastermind and later helps him heal. They are shown as lovers (at least in their minds) and very much in love.