Fictional Obituary: James “Logan” Howlett / Wolverine, Marvel Comics (Spoilers)

Fictional Obituary: James “Logan” Howlett / Wolverine, Marvel Comics (Spoilers) James Howlett, known to his friends as Logan and to the wider world as Wolverine, has died in Paradise Valley, Nevada, while preventing further human experimentation at a laboratory operated by Dr. Abraham Cornelius. He was encased in adamantium after breaking the apparatus being used on the captives. Having recently lost his healing ability, he could not survive. His life spanned more than a century. Born in Alberta, Canada, in the late nineteenth century, Logan spent much of his early life far from the teams and schools with which he would eventually be associated. Family tragedy drove him from his childhood home. He worked, traveled and fought under different names, building a history that would later become difficult even for him to reconstruct. His mutant abilities included heightened senses, retractable claws and an extraordinary capacity to recover from injury. That healing also slowed his aging, allowing him to outlive people and places that had once formed the center of his life. The Weapon X program subjected him to experiments that bonded adamantium to his skeleton. The procedure made him more dangerous, but the injuries done to him extended beyond his body. Manipulated memories and years of exploitation left him struggling to recover his past and decide what he would do with the life that remained. After serving the Canadian government, Logan joined the X-Men at the invitation of Charles Xavier. He became one of the team's most dependable fighters, although rarely its easiest colleague. He was blunt, stubborn and prepared to use lethal force when others would not. His work also took him into the Avengers and covert operations whose consequences followed him long after the missions ended. Those who knew him outside combat saw a wider life. He developed close friendships with teammates including Ororo Munroe, Kurt Wagner and Piotr Rasputin. Japan became an important home to him, and his relationship with Mariko Yashida remained one of the great attachments of his life. Her death was among the losses he carried through the years that followed. Logan also became a mentor to younger mutants, including Kitty Pryde and Jubilee. He helped Laura Kinney, who had likewise been raised and used as a weapon, find a place among people who could offer her another kind of life. Eventually, he helped establish the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning and served as its headmaster. The responsibilities of teaching and protecting children became a substantial part of his later years. His last journey began with a bounty placed on him after the loss of his healing factor. The search took him through familiar territory and old enemies before leading him to Cornelius, one of the men involved in the experiments that had changed his own body. At the Nevada laboratory, Logan found others facing a similar procedure. He stopped the adamantium from being forced into them, taking the metal over his own body instead. Before it hardened completely, he ensured the captives were safe and pursued Cornelius. He died outside the facility, looking toward the setting sun. Among those he leaves behind are his son, Akihiro, also known as Daken; Laura Kinney; generations of students; and friends in the X-Men and Avengers. Many had known him simply as Logan, the man who could be difficult to live with and difficult to imagine living without.