The Superhero Mega-thread

I want to point out the fact that one abusive man—Thomas Logan—destroyed his own family and the pleasant wealthy family he worked for. It seems John Howlett believed James was his own son, but really he was the son of the groundskeeper Thomas Logan. That's a really nasty betrayal—and how complicit was Elizabeth? She either had sex with Thomas and lied to her husband about whose baby it was, or Thomas raped her, in which case she still lied to her husband and her son. Or she and her husband (and everybody else involved) lied to their son.

I hope I'm not messing this all up—doubtless I'd get more details from watching the movie or reading the comic books. I'm just conjecturing based on a synopsis. But it's hard to see any innocent way these events went down where John Howlett and little James weren't lied to and betrayed by people they trusted and relied on. And as a result of it, they're all dead now except for the two boys.

But there's something else revealed here—the two boys are both offspring of Thomas Logan, and they have very different personalities. James is decent and friendly and trusting, whereas Dog starts off morose and withdrawn and becomes nasty and abusive, just like his father. It shows that upbringing makes a big difference. They both had the same tainted DNA in them, but grew up different. So different that one is a superhero (who struggles with anger issues, admittedly) and the other a really nasty supervillain who hates him and has dedicated his life to destroying him.

I believe mythology is filled with tales of pairs of brothers, one good and one evil. Rather like Abel and Caine of Biblical fame.

So already, in 2001, we have the idea that the mutant powers can be activated by abuse. This is very close to the concept of the Netflix Marvel shows, where trauma caused the superpowers, in the form of experimentation done by some secret agency. So the trauma and the powers are inextricably linked, and the powers respesent the trauma. In fact, even in Weapon X, from 1991, Logan is subjected to intense torture designed to turn him into a living weapon that can be controlled, and though he already had manifested the mutant abilities, they were greatly strengthened and focused through the abuse. It's what awakened the berserker rage in him, what turned him into a wild feral beast.

And, to fit this in with the idea of superheroes having dual personalities, it's very clear in Weapon X that he develops a frightening shadow-self during the torture, that he tries to run from and hide from, but it always seems to be just behind him, and he fears at any moment it will possess him and be inside of him, where he can never escape from it. That's his beast nature, or rather the beast-self that was born thanks to the torture. Afterwards his humanity returns, but when he gets angry the beast emerges and takes total control, to the extent that the rational human being is totally subsumed. He flies into a red fury where he loses control completely and will kill and destroy almost indiscriminately. I believe the idea is that when this happens he struggles to stay as human as possible, but the angrier he gets (like the Hulk) the more he loses control.

Ok, here's the dope on Logan's childhood:

The setting is the 1880's in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada, on the large estate of the wealthy Howlett family:

• John Howlett—father of little James
• James Howlett—(Logan, to become Wolverine)
• Elizabeth Howlett—his mother
• Thomas Logan—the groundskeeper—a cruel, abusive degenerate
• Dog—Thomas' son, to become Sabertooth

John Howlett is a kind and compassionate father, while his wife Elizabeth is withdrawn and morose. James himself is friendly and outgoing despite some health problems. The family was devastated by the death of their first son John jr in a miscarriage. Mother Elizabeth was institutionalized for some time and returned a somber, haunted ghost of her former self. Dog is a tormented, passive whipping-boy for his cruel father's problems.

It's hinted that James and Dog are actually half-brothers, and that James is actually the illegitimate son of Thomas Logan. Dog is frequently abused and beaten by his father, and grows to become much like him—nasty and mean, and to blame his problems on his nice friend James, rather than on its true source. The mother, Elizabeth, is shown to have the scars of a claw attack on her back, that she always tries to keep hidden.

After some bad shenannigans, groundskeeper Thomas Logan and his son Dog are expelled from the property, but they return with shotguns, and Thomas shoots John (the father). This is the point when little James' bone-claws first emerge in his rage, and he howls like a wild creature and attacks Dog and his father Thomas. He tries to punch Thomas, but the claws were extended and he ended up stabbing him fatally in the gut.

The mother, Elizabeth, screams "Not again!" slaps James, and calls him a monster. Then she picks up the shotgun and kills herself.

I got this from a synopsis in the Wolverine book, and it isn't explained how she got the incriminating claws marks on her back, but I suspect they were caused by Dog, who, as Sabertooth, can extend his fingernails into viscious long claws similar to Wolverine's.

I'm going by the comic book version, which may be somewhat different from the movie. In fact, here's the comic if anyone wants to check it out:

• Wolverine: Origin Issue #1 @ readcomiconline.net

That's the first of six issues. To see the rest there's a little box at the top of the page where you can choose which issue and whether to show only one page at a time or all pages. Oh, there's also a Next box at the bottom of each issue. The art looks strangely cartoonish, and Logan (under his real name James Howlett) and his brother look a lot like Little Lord Fauntleroy and Huckleberry Finn.

And here's the story of how he got the adamantium bonded to his bones and his claws—written, penciled, inked and colored by Barry Windsor-Smith, one of my favorite comic book artists:

​

• Weapon X Gallery Edition @ readcomiconline.net

One of the high water marks in comic book history. I'll come back in with the relevant info in a bit, about Logan's childhood trauma.