10 Awful Things Wolverine Has Done to Secure His Reputation as Marvel's Darkest Hero
Marvel Comics’ Wolverine is known as The Best There Is at what he does and for more than a few good reasons. Both on his own and with the X-Men, Logan has long been on a road to redemption for the dark deeds of his past.
Unfortunately, even world-famous X-Men and Avengers alumni slip up. And it’s times like these where fans remember that what Wolverine does best isn’t always very nice.
10 Enemy of the State
Wolverine #20-25 by Mark Millar & John Romita, Jr.
Logan is no stranger to being used as a weapon especially after his tortured backstory with Weapon X and Department H, but it was his possession by the Hand that sent him on one of his worst murdering sprees of all time. Lured into a trap and murdered by the Hand only to be resurrected as their shared weapon with Hydra, Wolverine is once again turned into a brainwashed assassin and sent against almost all of Marvel’s biggest heroes.
Aside from tangling with The Fantastic Four and Daredevil, Logan actually does kill other superheroes like Northstar and The Hornet from the Slingers, along with countless S.H.I.EL.D. agents, other security personnel, and nearly the President of the United States. Ultimately, Logan is freed from the clutches of his captors, but the dark deeds he committed on their behalf likely haunt him to this day.
9 Attempted Murder of Scarlet Witch and Wiccan
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade by Allan Heinberg & Jim Cheung
With a long history of violence, Wolverine has always been one of the more pragmatic X-Men who’s always ready to get his hands dirty if he feels the situation demands it, and one such instance occurs during the Young Avengers’ hunt for the Scarlet Witch. Finding the fledgling teen heroes alongside Magneto, grandfather of Wiccan and Speed, Logan makes it clear that he’s willing to kill Wanda if he finds her first – along with the similarly powered Wiccan if he steps out of line.
Issues later, Wolverine attempts to make good at his promise until stopped by the Young Avengers, still seeking vengeance for those Decimated after House of M. While Logan isn’t wrong about how dangerous Wanda can be, attempting to murder her in cold blood – while she’s amnesiac no less – and threatening to do the same to her son due to his potential is still undeniably dark.
8 Siding With The Avengers Over The X-Men
Avengers vs. X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Matt Fraction & more
The ol’ Caknucklehead was already on the outs with Cyclops and the rest of the Utopia team following the events of X-Men: Schism, but his teaming up with the Avengers in their war against the Children of the Atom hit a new low even for him.
While Logan did at least seek to keep his students at the Jean Grey Institute out of the action, more than a few of his X-Men faculty chose to side with their old allies and their larger family as a whole. Wolverine argued that he’d seen Scott going too far and that disaster was inevitable, but all these years later, it more or less reads like Logan was still just mad at his friend and was looking at a chance to spite him, no matter the cost.
7 Punching Out Storm
Uncanny X-Men #215 by Chris Claremont & Alan Davis
Having joined the X-Men together, Storm was initially the only leader that could put Logan in his place, and she was the only person whom Logan would be willing to follow. But they’ve certainly had their low points, and one of their worst moments happens in Uncanny X-Men #215. With the team strained after a previous possession left their cohesion shattered, Ororo makes it clear that Logan is still the person she trusts more than anyone.
But when a senses-addled Logan is tricked into believing a then-thought-to-be-dead Jean Grey was alive and nearby, and he throws Storm off of him with a wild fist that knocks her unconscious. Be it platonic or romantic, Storm and Wolverine have one of the strongest bonds in all X-Men lore, but that’s why even the smallest betrayal hurts.
6 Unknowingly Killing His Children
Wolverine #10-14 by Jason Aaron & Renato Guides
Logan has lived an incredibly long life and known many loves, and as such, he’s also occasionally and unknowingly left behind more than a few children who grew up without a father, but failing to raise his children is far from Wolverine’s only failure as a father. Suffering a revenge scheme by the group called the Red Right Hand – a collective of individuals who blame Logan for directly or indirectly killing their loved ones – Wolverine is forced to face off against a dangerous group of assassins known as the Mongrels.
Deadly though they may be, Logan still makes short work of his foes on his way to the Red Right Hand’s inner sanctum only to find his enemies dead with a pre-recorded video to greet him along with a dossier detailing the identities of the Mongrels as his long-lost children. This revelation shatters Wolverine and it takes him a while to come back, but it’s surely influenced his relationship with the rest of his litter.
5 Ditching His Adopted Daughter
Wolverine #82 by Larry Hamma, Adam Kubert, & Bob McLeod
Despite his reputation as a gruff loner, Wolverine is well known for his habitual status as a mentor and surrogate father to many X-Men, particularly to young girls like Kitty Pryde, Jubilee, and Rogue. Unfortunately, those same fatherly instincts didn’t translate to his literal adopted daughter, Amiko Kobayashi. Vowing to take the young child in after the death of her mother in Uncanny X-Men #181 by Chris Claremont, John Romita, Jr. and Dan Green, Logan fostered the girl with his great love, Mariko Yashida, in whose care he left the girl upon returning to his adventures with the X-Men.
Following Mariko’s death, Logan allows the girl to be placed in foster care, only reuniting with her after learning of her mistreatment at the hands of her foster family. Ultimately, Logan once again leaves Amiko, this time with his old friend, the ronin known as Yukio, who’s done her best to raise and protect her – despite the occasional schemes of Wolverine’s foes.
4 Trying to Kill Rachel Summers
Uncanny X-Men #207 by Chris Claremont, John Romita, Jr. and Dan Green
Both under his own free will and under the influence of others, Wolverine has killed a lot of people over the years, but his reaction to Rachel Summers’ attempt at killing the immortal mutant witch, Selene, is incredibly hypocritical. Having been pulled into Rachel’s nightmares as a boogeyman out to get her, Logan learns of her plan to revenge herself upon the eldritch External.
Tracking her to the Hellfire Club, Wolverine intervenes just in time to interrupt a Phoenix-possessed Rachel’s revenge, arguing that the X-Men must be better than simple killers. Unfortunately, when Phoenix says that the only way she’ll stop is if he kills her, Logan takes her at her word and stabs her through the chest. This leads to a greater collision between the X-Men, the Hellfire Club, and Nimrod, but it’s also the greatest instance of Logan’s hypocrisy considering all those he’s killed on behalf of the X-Men.
3 Creating Nuke
Wolverine: Origins #2-4 by Daniel Way & Steve Dillon
Wolverine’s mysterious and checkered past has always been one of the most fascinating aspects of the character, but after the events of House of M, Logan’s resurfaced memories of his previous life highlighted the animal he truly was underneath. Arguably his worst deed prior to his memory loss and quest for redemption was his involvement in the creation of Nuke, a rogue super solider who’s tangled with the likes of Captain America and Daredevil countless times.
Grooming Nuke as a weapon from a young age, the morally bankrupt James Howlett took part in a scheme that resulted in the suicide of Nuke’s father and Nuke’s own murder of his mother, and Logan himself even killed the young boy’s babysitter before bringing young Frank Simpson in. Years later, during the Vietnam Wat, Logan acted as a “dog handler,” torturing Simpson to insanity and forging him into the living weapon fans know today.
2 Reforming X-Force
Uncanny X-Force #4 by Rick Remender & Jerome Opeña
After Utopia’s resident black ops unit is shut down by Cyclops in X-Men: Second Coming #2 by Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, Greg Land, and more, Logan reinitiates the program without Summers’ approval, leading his new, more Uncanny X-Force in their titular series to take out threats no other mutants can. For their first mission, they set to take out a reborn Apocalypse only to discover that the new En Sabah Nur is only a child.
To his credit, Logan did argue for the rescue and redemption of the young mutant child, only to be disobeyed by Fantomex who shoots the youth through the head. The young Apocalypse is later resurrected via cloning by Fantomex, but that doesn’t change the fact that Wolverine’s X-Force murdered a child, and when confronted by his actions later, Logan didn’t shy away from it.
1 Murdering Akihiro
Uncanny X-Force #34 by Rick Remender & Phil Noto
Clearly, Wolverine is far from the perfect father, but his darkest moment came when he finally had to face down with his son, Akihiro, once and for all. Having put together a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants including Mystique, Sabretooth, the Shadow King, and more, Akihro has Logan completely backed into a corner and nearly succeeds in drowning him.
Forced to go head-to-head one last time, Wolverine and the future Hellverine come at each other with everything they have as the battle only ends once Logan has drowned his boy in a shallow puddle. Grief-stricken and haunted, Wolverine soon disbands his Uncanny X-Force. And though he and Akihiro have since repaired their clearly strained relationship, Logan’s intentional murder of his own son remains the darkest moment for Marvel Comics’ Wolverine.
