The Complete Timeline Of Wolverine In The X-Men Movie Universe The 20th Century Fox X-Men timeline is nothing if not messy, which makes this kind of exercise a bit difficult to undertake. Alas, Hugh Jackman is Wolverine and appeared as the character in movies for nearly two decades, so it is worth running through what his version of Logan went through over the years. For brevity’s sake, we’re going to ignore the “original” timeline vs. “revised” timeline distinction and kind of just roll with the punches. James Howlett isn’t your run-of-the-mill mutant, but he ended up being the face of the franchise for 17 years. So grab some cheap beer and a few cigars… we’re running through Wolverine’s timeline in the X-Men movie universe. 1832: James Howlett is Born In The Northwest Territories Of Canada Logan was born as James Howlett in the Northwest Territories of Canada in 1832. Wolverine is so old that when he was born in the Northwest Territories of Canada, they weren’t even known as the Northwest Territories of Canada. The man is older than the Canadian government itself! Comic book fans think of Wolverine as being from Canada… but this film version is technically not from a country at all. The first 13 years of Logan’s life went by without incident, though that would quickly change on the fateful night when he learned of his mutation. 1845: James Howlett’s Mutation Manifests When He Stabs Thomas Logan For Shooting His Father Photo: X-Men Origins Wolverine / 20th Century Fox The incident where Logan discovered his mutation would be a formative moment in his life for two very different reasons. First, because said mutation made him different from nearly every other person on the planet in a time where being different was extremely dangerous, much more so than today. Second, because he ended up discovering the man he thought was his father wasn’t actually his father. No, Logan’s real father was his mother’s lover, Thomas Logan. You know, the man who shot his adoptive father? Yeah, Logan didn’t take that too well and ended up stabbing his real father to death with his bone claws. Clearly, comic book movies are for children! 1861-1865: Logan And Victor Creed Fight For The Union In The Civil War When Logan ran away from home after, you know, stabbing his father to death, his half-brother, Victor Creed, went with him. Why did the team who brought X-Men Origins: Wolverine to the big screen want to make Sabretooth and Wolverine brothers? No clue! But that is what happened, and the pair would spend the next 100+ years fighting on the most famous battlefields in the history of Western civilization. That includes fighting against slavery with the Union during the American Civil War. Say what you want about Victor Creed, he ended up on the correct side of that particular fight. 1914-1918: Logan And Victor Fight On The Western Front In WWI Photo: X-Men Origins Wolverine / 20th Century Fox Wolverine and Sabretooth went where the fighting was, no matter how intense, which ended up taking them to the trenches of WWI. When you can head to the main theater in one of the deadliest conflicts in human history, you’ve just gotta do it. It only makes sense. The 400-mile-long stretch of land in Belgium and France saw warfare for over four years and millions upon millions of deaths during that period of time. Logan’s murderous ways were nothing but a blip on the radar in that kind of bloodshed. 1944: Logan And Victor Take Part In D-Day After the horrors of the American Civil War and WWI, Victor and Logan sign up for WWII. And since the creators of X-Men Origins: Wolverine needed some iconic imagery to insert their comic book characters into during the opening credits of the film, they had the brothers join in on D-Day. The Normandy landing operations of June 6, 1944, have gone down in infamy in the decades following WWII’s end. The harrowing opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan only furthered the beach landing’s imprint into the minds of people across the globe. Logan and Victor were there, too! 1945: Logan Saves Ichirō Yashida During The Bombing Of Nagasaki Photo: The Wolverine / 20th Century Fox Logan certainly seems to have gotten around in some of the most important moments in warfare history, at least as far as the 19th and 20th centuries are concerned. Not only was Wolverine on the Western Front in WWI and present for D-Day at Normandy, but he was also in Nagasaki when the American military dropped the A-bomb on the unsuspecting city. He managed to save Ichirō Yashida, a young Japanese officer, while he was imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp when the bomb destroyed everything in sight. Would Logan have actually managed to fully save Yashida from the blast in real life? Probably not, but it makes for an interesting introduction between the two characters.
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