For better or worse, Wolverine has etched his claws into the annals of popular culture. Wolverine (real name James Howlett, alias Logan) has become one of the most well-known superheroes in the world in the decades after his first full appearance in “The Incredible Hulk” #181 in 1974. Wolverine is a tough guy on the outside, yet below his adamantium claws and healing factor is a good guy. In the past, he’s worn many superhero hats, including those of X-Man, Avenger, and Fantastic Four. But he wasn’t ready for the riskiest profession of all: being a dad.
Wolverine is the adoptive or biological parent to a number of children, including superheroine Kitty Pryde and her younger sister Jubilee. It’s not always easy to tell the clawed kids apart when there are more than a dozen of them spread out over the cosmos. Being a superhero and a parent isn’t easy; some people love Wolverine, while others have tried to murder him. An explanation of Wolverine’s offspring is provided below.
Wolverine or X-23 (Laura Kinney)
Laura Kinney is the most well-known of Wolverine’s offspring and exemplifies his legacy the finest. In 2003, for the third season of “X-Men: Evolution,” Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost created a new character named Laura, who they gave the codename “X-23.” Her initial appearance was in “NYX” #3 in 2004, and her backstory was explored in the “X-23” miniseries the following year.
She is the biological daughter of Wolverine and scientist Sarah Kinney, and the 23rd attempt to clone Wolverine in a project born from the Weapon X program. Laura, a mutant with a healing factor and retractable, adamantium-bonded claws in her hands and feet, has spent her entire life training to be a lethal assassin. Laura, a teenager, managed to escape her kidnappers, but in her panic she killed her own mother, Sarah. Laura, still traumatized by her experiences, at first tried to kill Wolverine, but the two eventually grew close, almost like a father and daughter.
Throughout her years as a superhero, Laura has attended the Xavier School, served on X-Force, and was even Captain Universe for a while. Laura, who is gradually rediscovering her sense of self, has taken on the mantle of Wolverine after Logan’s death and beyond his resurrection, vowing that she will never again be exploited as a weapon. Her identity as Wolverine has made her one of the first elected X-Men on the mutant nation of Krakoa. 2017’s “Logan,” starring Dafne Keen as Laura, joins the animated series, video games, and innumerable comic books in which she has appeared.
Amiko Kobayashi
Amiko Kobayashi is Wolverine’s first child to appear in a Marvel comic book, and she was created by famed X-Men writer Chris Claremont and illustrator John Romita Jr. After a gigantic dragon attacks Tokyo in 1984’s “Uncanny X-Men” #181, Amiko is the only person to survive. To protect her daughter, her mother uses her body as a shield, but she is killed in Wolverine’s arms as he pulls them from the ruins. He assures Amiko’s mother that he would care for the girl, so she allows him to adopt her. Logan’s X-Men work has made him a distant father at best, and she now lives with his lover, the rich and generous Mariko Yashida.
Amiko’s second mother figure, Mariko, passes away, and in “Wolverine” #82 from 1994, she is taken in by Logan’s ninja friend, Yukio. She loves him as the “Good Samurai” who saved her life, but she also resents his frequent absences. Amiko, a courageous and defiant young woman, dates the son of Wolverine’s old enemy, the Silver Samurai, and then finds solace in fighting The Hand alongside Logan and Yukio in “Wolverine” issue #303 from 2012. Amiko has a bright future ahead of her as a superhero because she was raised by a ninja and an X-Man.
Raze
Raze, the hypothetical future timeline offspring of Wolverine and Mystique, made his debut in the “Battle of the Atom” event commemorating the X-50th Men’s anniversary in 2013. Raze has his mother’s shapeshifting ability and his father’s claws, but his early beginnings are unclear beyond the fact that he killed and replaced Mystique. Raze, a sly and immoral mutant, joined forces with his half-brother Charles Xavier II, Mystique’s offspring with Professor X in an alternate timeline.
The brothers came up with a cunning plot to wreak havoc on the timeline: they would pretend to be the X-Men of the future and send a message to the present-day X-Men, telling them to return the original X-Men back to their own time. (Making changes to the past in the present is a tricky business.) The X-Men figured out the Brotherhood’s scheme and ultimately vanquished them. However, Raze and Xavier II were able to forewarn their pre-time-travel versions of themselves and avoid capture by using this information. (Traveling through time is incredibly convoluted.)
The X-Men faced Raze as a recurrent adversary. In the 2014 graphic novel “No More Humans,” published on its own, the antagonist Raze takes control of an experimental dimensional portal, causing the disappearance of every human being on Earth (a fate that is ultimately averted by the Phoenix from another universe). Using time travel once more, in “X-Men: Blue” #20, the original X-Men are impersonated by Raze’s Brotherhood in the year 2018. Magneto prevented the Brotherhood’s escape into the timestream when they were defeated by X-Men from multiple eras, effectively ending their menace.
Torrent
In 1984 and 1985, Marvel Comics published “Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars,” the first company-wide crossover event. The Beyonder, an all-powerful alien creature, kidnaps Earth’s greatest heroes and villains and transports them to the faraway planet Battleworld to battle for his enjoyment in this 12-issue limited series. The protagonists of the series eventually return to Earth, where their lives were before they fought crime on Battleworld.
It’s a “What If?” The question “What if they never left Battleworld?” appears in issue #114 of Volume 1 in 1998. Set 20 years after “Secret Wars,” in this parallel timeline, most heroes and villains have settled down with families and ironically found peace on Battleworld. Kendall Logan is the eldest child of Wolverine and Storm, and while she inherited her mother’s elemental abilities, Kendall is envious of her mother’s bond with her home world. Kendall (codenamed Torrent) is part of the second generation of heroes that gather to stop Malefactor, the son of Doctor Doom and Enchantress, from starting a new war on Battleworld.
When the young heroes go back to the planet where their parents were born, they find that Sentinels, which hunt mutants like the X-Men and the Avengers do, have control of the airspace. However, other from brief appearances in the 1998–1999 “Avengers Forever” limited series, nothing little is known about the whereabouts of Torrent’s Avengers after their promise to continue fighting.
Erista
If something happens in the Savage Land, Wolverine doesn’t want to hear about it. A clue left behind by a dead cyborg leads the clawed Canadian hero Wolverine (Walter Simonson) to the Savage Land, a prehistoric jungle hidden in Antarctica, in issue #1 of “Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure” (1989) written by Simonson and illustrated by Mike Mignola, who also created the character of Hellboy). After facing and defeating the Tribe of Fire’s resident warrior Gahck, he earns her respect (and affection). In the end, Wolverine uncovers mutant supervillain Apocalypse’s secret lab, where the villain’s robot servant is conducting experiments on captive warriors from the Tribe of Fire. After killing off the lab’s inhabitants, Wolverine departs to the outside world, where he leaves Gahck behind, but not alone.
At the end of “The Jungle Adventure,” Gahck is shown carrying what is presumably Wolverine’s son. It took over a decade, but in “The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: X-Men 2004,” the baby’s paternity was finally revealed, along with the name Erista. Can any child of Wolverine remain hidden forever, even if Erista has never met his father and hasn’t surfaced since “The Jungle Adventure”?
Brian and Mari Logan
Havok, the brother of Cyclops and the leader of the X-Factor, was the protagonist of “Mutant X,” one of the most out-there X-Men books of the 1990s, which lasted from 1998 to 2001. When Havok and his alternate universe self are caught in the explosion of a time machine, they switch bodies and wake up in a world where his wife is the Goblin Queen, Storm is a vampire, and Wolverine is part of a “pack” that includes Sabretooth and Wild Child and lives in the Pacific Northwest’s forested regions.
Wolverine’s kids, Brian and Mari Logan, make their debut in “Mutant X” #28 from 2000. Before the cruel tests of the Weapon X program turned him feral, Logan in this timeline was married to Mariko Yashida and the couple had children. After coming to, Logan goes back to the cabin he and his wife had shared and is temporarily reunited with Mari before a vengeful Sabretooth abducts them. The children of Logan have a very little role in the story, acting as captives for their father to free before “Mutant X” finished a few issues later with issue #32.
Wild Thing
The superhero codename “Wild Thing” suggests that The Troggs might be Rina Logan’s favorite band. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Rina’s parents are the X-Wolverine Men’s and the Greek assassin Elektra. In the MC2 Universe, where Wild Thing lives, the Marvel heroes have aged and started families, giving rise to a new crop of heroines like May Parker/Spider-Girl.
Despite coming from a family with a history of violence, Rina seems like any other high school student who spends her free time at the mall. In her first appearance, “J2” #5 from 1999, Wild Thing shows that she has inherited both her father’s healing factor and his savagery by impulsively hunting down J2 because he is the son of her father’s old rival, the Juggernaut. The psychic claws that emerge from Wild Thing’s hands are a fusion of her mother’s sai weapons and her father’s claws, and their combined power is terrifying. Despite being a loner at heart, Wild Thing joins the MC2 heroes to battle Loki in the 2005 “Last Hero Standing” miniseries, proving her mettle as a hero.
Sabreclaw
Hudson Logan, aka Sabreclaw, is Wild Thing’s half-brother and also a slasher in the MC2 Universe. Wolverine’s offspring, Sabreclaw, looks and acts more like Wolverine’s archenemy Sabretooth than he does like his own father. In his first issue of “J2” in 1999, Sabreclaw reunites with his younger sister after leaving her for dead on a mountainside as a “message” to Logan.
Sabreclaw, a member of the Revengers and the Savage Six, is known for his explosive anger and savage behavior, and he has clashed with the heroes of the MC2 comic titles on multiple occasions. But the inherent decency that ran in his family was difficult to change. When the heroes of Earth faced out against Galactus in the five-part miniseries “Last Hero Standing,” Sabreclaw defected from the Revengers and joined the Avengers. In “Avengers Next” issues 1-5 from 2006-2007, Sabreclaw helped the team defeat Loki’s evil children with his razor-sharp claws, superhuman strength, and healing factor.
Daken
Daken is the most tenacious thorn (or is that claw?) in Wolverine’s side. Daken, the son of Wolverine and his wife Itsu, first appeared in “Wolverine: Origins” #10, written by Daniel Way and illustrated by Steve Dillon in 2007. They were a wartime Japanese couple until Itsu was assassinated by the brainwashed Winter Soldier, and Romulus abducted their child. Originally named Akihiro, but given the pejorative name “Daken” (“mongrel”) by Romulus, the little kid eventually turned into a cold-blooded killer.
To go along with his regenerative abilities and retractable claws, Akihiro also possesses the mutant power of pheromone control, which grants him the ability to influence the moods of others around him. When Akihiro finally met his father, he vowed to destroy his heritage by becoming a member of Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers under the name “Wolverine” and attempting to establish a criminal empire in Madripoor. In “Uncanny X-Force” #34 from 2012, after numerous confrontations and betrayals, Logan seemingly dies fighting Daken, only to resurrect shortly thereafter.
Akihiro is openly bisexual, and he has had serious relationships with both the mutant Somnus and the ex-Alpha Flight member Aurora. Although it seemed impossible, Akihiro has managed to make peace with his father and draw closer to his sisters, Laura Kinney and Scout. Akirhiro joined X-Factor Investigations in order to start over in the mutant nation of Krakoa, and he now works with Kate Pryde and the Marauders to keep his mutant brethren safe.
