All Of Wolverine's Children Explained
Wolverine is one hero who has left his claw marks in pop culture history. In the decades since his first full appearance in "The Incredible Hulk" #181 in 1974, Wolverine (born James Howlett, also known as Logan) has starred in countless comic books, films, cartoons, and video games, becoming one of the most popular superheroes in the world. Sporting unbreakable adamantium claws and a regenerative healing factor, Wolverine hides a noble heart underneath his gruff exterior. He has been an X-Man, an Avenger, and even a member of the Fantastic Four. But none of those roles could prepare him for the most dangerous job of all: parenthood.
While Wolverine has been a father figure for young superheroes like Kitty Pryde and Jubilee, he has had several children of his own via cloning, adoption, or occasionally, the old-fashioned way. With over a dozen children scattered across the multiverse, it can be difficult to tell the clawed kiddies apart. Some love Wolverine, while others have tried to kill him — but no one said being a superhero and a dad was easy. Here are all of Wolverine's children explained.
Wolverine or X-23 (Laura Kinney)
The best-known of Wolverine's children, who best embodies his legacy, is Laura Kinney. Introduced with the codename "X-23," Laura was created by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost for the third season of "X-Men: Evolution" in 2003. She made her first Marvel Comics appearance in "NYX" #3 in 2004, with her history revealed in the "X-23" miniseries in 2005.
Laura is the 23rd attempt to clone Wolverine in a project spawned from the Weapon X program and is the biological daughter of Wolverine and scientist Sarah Kinney. Raised from birth to be an assassin, Laura uses her mutant powers (including a healing factor and retractable, adamantium-bonded claws in her hands and feet) with deadly efficiency. The teenage Laura escaped her captors but accidentally killed her mother, Sarah, while driven into a frenzy. Traumatized by her experiences, Laura initially sought to kill Wolverine, but the two inevitably bonded as father and daughter.
In her years as a hero, Laura has been a student at the Xavier Institute, a member of X-Force, and was even briefly Captain Universe. Gradually regaining her personhood, Laura has vowed to never again be used as a weapon, taking on the mantle of Wolverine after Logan's death and beyond his resurrection. As Wolverine, she is one of the first elected X-Men on the mutant nation of Krakoa. In addition to an animated series, video games, and countless comic books, Laura appears in the live-action film "Logan" in 2017, played by Dafne Keen.
Amiko Kobayashi
Created by legendary X-Men scribe Chris Claremont and artist John Romita Jr., Amiko Kobayashi is chronologically Wolverine's first child to appear in a Marvel comic book. In "Uncanny X-Men" #181 in 1984, Amiko is the survivor of a giant dragon attack in Tokyo. Her mother shields her from falling rubble with her body but dies in Wolverine's arms as he pulls the pair from the wreckage. Promising Amiko's mother that he will look after her, he adopts the girl as his own. Unfortunately, his adventures with the X-Men make Logan a distant father at best, and she lives with his lover, the wealthy and kind-hearted Mariko Yashida.
Amiko loses her second mother-figure when Mariko dies, and she is taken in by Logan's friend, the ninja Yukio, in "Wolverine" #82 in 1994. She has a complicated relationship with her father, sometimes praising him as the "Good Samurai" who saved her life and sometimes resenting his frequent absences. A brave and rebellious girl, Amiko briefly dates the son of Wolverine's old enemy, the Silver Samurai; she later soothes her heartbreak by fighting The Hand alongside Logan and Yukio in 2012's "Wolverine" #303. Raised by a ninja and an X-Man, Amiko is a superhero-in-training with a promising future.
Raze
Introduced in the "Battle of the Atom" event celebrating the X-Men's 50th anniversary in 2013, Raze is the son of Wolverine and Mystique from a possible future timeline. Raze inherited his father's claws and his mother's shapeshifting ability, but his earliest origins are unknown, save that at some point, he killed and replaced Mystique. The wily and amoral Raze formed a new Brotherhood of Mutants alongside his half-brother Charles Xavier II, Mystique's alternate-universe son with Professor X.
The siblings devised an elaborate plan to disrupt the timestream: They would go back in time and, posing as the future X-Men, order the present-day X-Men to send the then-time-displaced original X-Men back to their past. (Time travel: It's complicated.) The X-Men discovered the ruse and defeated the Brotherhood. However, with their knowledge of future events, Raze and Xavier II were able to warn their earlier, pre-time travel selves and elude capture. (Time travel: it's extremely complicated.)
Raze was a recurring foe for the X-Men. In the stand-alone graphic novel "No More Humans" in 2014, Raze hijacked an experimental dimensional gate, leading to the instantaneous disappearance of every human being on Earth (eventually undone by another world's Phoenix). Utilizing time travel again, Raze's Brotherhood impersonated the original X-Men while they were in the future of "X-Men: Blue" #20 in 2018. Defeated by the X-Men of several different eras, the Brotherhood's escape into the timestream was stopped by Magneto, who, it was implied, ended their threat permanently.
Torrent
"Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars," which ran from 1984 to 1985, holds a special place in Marvel Comics history as the first company-wide crossover event. The 12-issue limited series follows Earth's greatest heroes and villains after the Beyonder, an all-powerful alien being, kidnaps and transports them to the distant planet Battleworld to fight for his entertainment. At the end of the series, the superheroes leave Battleworld and resume their lives on Earth.
"What If?" Vol. 1 #114 in 1998 asks the question, "What if they never left Battleworld?" In this alternate version of events, set 20 years after "Secret Wars," most heroes and villains have settled down and had families, living ironically peaceful lives on Battleworld. Kendall Logan is the oldest child of Storm and Wolverine; while she shares her mother's elemental powers, Kendall envies Storm's connection to her home planet. When Malefactor, son of Doctor Doom and Enchantress, starts a new war on Battleworld, the second generation of heroes assembles to stop him, with Kendall (codenamed Torrent) among them.
The young heroes return to their parents' home planet, only to discover that, in the absence of heroes like the X-Men and the Avengers, mutant-hunting Sentinels rule the skies. Torrent's Avengers vowed to fight on, but aside from cameos in the 1998-1999 "Avengers Forever" limited series, their further adventures are so far unknown.
Erista
For Wolverine, what happens in the Savage Land, stays in the Savage Land. In "Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure" #1 in 1989, written by Walter Simonson and illustrated by "Hellboy" creator Mike Mignola, the clawed Canadian follows a clue left behind by a dead cyborg to the Savage Land, a prehistoric jungle hidden in Antarctica. He encounters the indigenous Tribe of Fire and wins respect (and affection) from the warrior Gahck after he defeats her in combat. The story culminates in Wolverine's discovery of a secret lab built by the mutant supervillain Apocalypse, where his robot servant experiments on captured Tribe of Fire warriors. Wolverine destroys the lab and returns to the outside world, leaving Gahck behind, but not alone.
"The Jungle Adventure" ends with a panel of Gahck holding her infant son, implied to be Wolverine's child. It took over a decade for the baby's paternity to be confirmed, however, in "The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: X-Men 2004," which also gave him the name Erista. Though Erista has never met his father and hasn't appeared since "The Jungle Adventure," can any child of Wolverine stay hidden forever?
Brian and Mari Logan
One of the most unusual X-Men comics of the 1990s, "Mutant X," which ran from 1998 to 2001, starred Cyclops' brother and X-Factor leader Havok as a man flung out of time and space. Caught in the blast of an exploding time machine, Havok switches places with his counterpart in another reality, waking up in a world where his wife is the Goblin Queen, Storm is a vampire, and Wolverine lives in the forests of the Pacific Northwest as part of a "pack" with Sabretooth and Wild Child.
"Mutant X" #28 in 2000 introduces Wolverine's two young children, Brian and Mari Logan. In this universe, Logan was happily married to Mariko Yashida and had children before the brutal experiments of the Weapon X program drove him into a feral state. Regaining his senses, Logan returns to the cabin he shared with his wife and is briefly reunited with Mari, but a revenge-seeking Sabretooth kidnaps his family. The Logan children are extremely minor characters, serving only as convenient hostages for their father to rescue before "Mutant X" ended a few months later with issue #32.
Wild Thing
It's a reasonable guess that Rina Logan's favorite band is The Troggs — how else do you explain a superhero codename like "Wild Thing"? Well, it doesn't hurt that Rina has the X-Man Wolverine and the Greek assassin Elektra for parents. Wild Thing resides in the MC2 Universe, a reality where Marvel's superheroes aged and had families, producing a second generation of heroes, including May Parker, aka Spider-Girl.
Surprisingly, given her parents' violent pasts, Rina is a typical teenage girl, attending high school and hanging out at the local mall. Unfortunately, Wild Thing has inherited her father's ferocity along with his healing factor — in "J2" #5 in 1999, her first appearance, she impulsively hunts down J2 because he's the son of her father's old enemy, the Juggernaut. Wild Thing's powers also include psychic claws that manifest from her hands in a form combining her mother's sai weapons with her father's claws. A loner at heart, Wild Thing turns down an invitation to join Jubilee's X-People in "J2" #11, but she later joins the MC2 heroes to fight Loki in the 2005 "Last Hero Standing" miniseries, proving her mettle as a hero.
Sabreclaw
Also slashing his way across the MC2 Universe is Wild Thing's half-brother, Hudson Logan, aka Sabreclaw. Despite being Wolverine's son, Sabreclaw more closely resembles his father's longtime nemesis Sabretooth in name, size, and personality. Sabreclaw also has an intense rivalry with his younger sister; his debut issue, "J2" #8 in 1999, is the siblings' first reunion since he left her injured on a mountainside as a "message" to Logan.
Hot-tempered and animalistic, Sabreclaw had several run-ins with the heroes of the MC2 comic titles as a member of both the Revengers and the Savage Six. His family's innate goodness proved hard to shake, however. Over the course of the five-issue "Last Hero Standing" miniseries, as the Earth's heroes faced the threat of Galactus, Sabreclaw left the Revengers and fought alongside the Avengers. With his razor-sharp claws, superhuman strength, and healing factor, Sabreclaw aided the team in the fight against Loki's evil offspring in "Avengers Next" 1-5 from 2006 to 2007.
Daken
Among all Wolverine's children, Daken is the most persistent thorn (or is that claw?) in his side. Debuting in "Wolverine: Origins" #10 in 2007 by Daniel Way and Steve Dillon, Daken is the son of Wolverine and his wife, Itsu. The couple lived in postwar Japan until the brainwashed Winter Soldier murdered Itsu and the supervillain Romulus stole her child from her body. Named Akihiro but called the derogatory term "Daken" ("mongrel"), the boy became a ruthless killer under Romulus' influence.
Alongside his healing factor and retractable claws, Akihiro has the mutant power of pheromone control, which allows him to manipulate the emotions of others. Eventually meeting his father face-to-face, Akihiro sought to destroy his legacy; he joined Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers as "Wolverine" and attempted to lead a criminal empire in Madripoor. After multiple battles and betrayals, Logan fights Daken to the death in "Uncanny X-Force" #34 in 2012, though he soon returns.
Openly bisexual, Akihiro has had significant romantic relationships with the mutant Somnus and former Alpha Flight member Aurora. Akihiro may always be a problem child, but against impossible odds, he has reconciled with his father and become close to his sisters, Laura Kinney and Scout. Pursuing a new beginning on the mutant nation of Krakoa, Akirhiro joined X-Factor Investigations and is currently protecting his fellow mutants with Kate Pryde's Marauders.
Kouen
With the possible exception of Spider-Man, no superhero has been cloned more times than Wolverine, who had a small "clone saga" of his own in "Savage Wolverine" #9-11 in 2013. Written and illustrated by acclaimed comic creator Jock, this three-issue storyline features the first appearance of Kouen, a young Wolverine clone. The story begins with Wolverine being unceremoniously dropped on an alien planet by an unknown enemy. Having studied and copied Wolverine in a scheme to create a "better" race, the enemy sends the child to kill him; however, he quickly falls under Wolverine's protection as a surrogate son, whom he names Kouen.
Like his "father," Kouen has three retractable claws on each hand and a healing factor; Wolverine grimly suspects that the adamantium bonded to the boy's still-growing skeleton will eventually kill him. After slaying his creator, Kouen chooses to destroy his fellow "imperfect" clones sleeping in stasis to prevent further pain and exploitation. Kouen is last seen beside Wolverine, planning to hijack an incoming spaceship to take them back to Earth. His current status is unknown, but whether he's alive or dead, one hopes that Kouen has found the peace that often eludes Wolverine's children.
Kirika Yashida
Kirika Yashida is the daughter of Logan and Mariko Yashida in the "Age of Apocalypse," a dark and dystopian alternate timeline in which the murder of Charles Xavier leads to Apocalypse conquering the world. A major comic crossover event in 1995, "Age of Apocalypse" was followed 10 years later with a miniseries by Chris Bachalo and C.B. Cebulski (writing as "Akira Yoshida"). First appearing in "Age of Apocalypse" #1 in 2005, Kirika was experimented on by the mad geneticist Sinister until Magneto's X-Men discovered her in a pod labeled "X-23." Kirika's claws and tracking abilities indicated a connection to Logan (called Weapon X), but Kirkia could not remember if she was actually his child or a clone.
After having Magneto bond adamantium to her claws, Kirika hunted down Weapon X and convinced him to return to the X-Men for a mission that would reunite him with his wife, Jean Grey. A mental probe from Psylocke restored Kirika's memories, and she was relieved to know her mother and father.
In "Uncanny X-Force" #12 in 2011, Wolverine from the mainstream Marvel Universe traveled to the Age of Apocalypse reality and met Kirika. Wolverine was impressed by her strength and spirit, but tragically, he did not know her very long. During a mission, Kirika was slain by her own father, an evil and corrupted Weapon X. Wolverine was left to mourn the "daughter" he never had.
Jimmy Hudson (Ultimate Universe)
The Ultimate Universe was an imprint created by Marvel Comics in 2001 to introduce modernized versions of heroes like the X-Men and Spider-Man unhampered by decades of continuity. In this universe, mutants were not the result of human evolution but rather a mutated genome released by the Weapon X project's experiments on Wolverine — making Wolverine, in a sense, the father of all mutants.
He conceived a son with Magneto's wife, Magda, making Jimmy the half-brother of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Jimmy never knew his father; introduced in "Ultimate X" #1 in 2010, he met Kitty Pryde, who gave him a holographic message from the late Wolverine and encouraged him to unleash his bone claws for the first time.
Jimmy had several adventures with the Ultimate X-Men but crossed over into the Earth-616 Marvel Universe after a cataclysmic incursion with his world. Jimmy joined the original X-Men in "X-Men: Blue" #5 in 2017, and he slid into the familiar role of the mysterious loner who comes between Jean Grey and Cyclops. (It runs in the family.) During the alien Poison Hive's invasion of Earth in "Venomized" #3 in 2018, Jimmy was bonded to a Venom-like symbiote and assimilated by a Poison to gain their combined abilities. The Poisoned Jimmy survived the Poison Hive's destruction, and Jean sensed that Jimmy's consciousness was still inside, battling for control. Hudson has been missing since the end of "X-Men: Blue," but he is still out there, fighting his dark half.
The Mongrels
The Mongrels are one of the darkest chapters in the long, violent saga of Wolverine's life. Created by Jason Aaron and Renato Guedes, the five Mongrels — Shadowstalker, Fire Knives, Saw Fist, Cannon Foot, and their leader, Gunhawk — were a group of ninja-trained assassins introduced in "Wolverine" Vol. 4 #1 in 2010. The Mongrels were Wolverine's illegitimate children, born from his various relationships over the decades without his knowledge. Gathered together by their half-brother Daken, the Mongrels were employed by a mysterious organization called the Red Right Hand that had a vendetta against Wolverine.
The Mongrels first made themselves known by attempting to kill Logan's then-girlfriend Melita Garner at her workplace and attacking his frequent hangout, the Princess Bar, in Madripoor. Tracking down the Red Right Hand, Wolverine fought the Mongrels one by one, killing them after they refused to stand down.
In "Wolverine" Vol. 4 #14, the Red Right Hand revealed the Mongrels' true identities to Wolverine and that they never intended for the Mongrels to kill him. Every member of the Red Right Hand was the survivor of someone Wolverine directly or indirectly killed, and by forcing him to kill his children, they could make him experience that same suffering. Devastated, Wolverine personally buried the Mongrels at their mothers' gravesites. It is unclear if the Mongrels ever knew of their connection to Wolverine, making their short, brutal lives even more tragic.
Jade and Scotty Logan
Scotty and Jade are the children of "Old Man Logan," a grizzled, gray-haired Wolverine of the far future who has outlived the X-Men and whose much-tested healing factor is finally waning. The Western-influenced "Old Man Logan" storyline by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven served as an inspiration for the 2013 film "Logan" (per Complex), though the existence of Scotty and Jade (and their final fate) is a key difference between the two.
Introduced in "Wolverine" Vol. 3 #66 in 2008, Scotty and Jade grew up on a farm in the wastelands of the United States, where most superheroes are dead. Logan and his wife, Maureen, have kept his past a secret from their children, who lead normal if hardscrabble lives (Jade plays with dolls while Scotty wields a shotgun). Desperately in need of rent money to pay off the barbaric Hulk Gang, Logan goes on a mission with Hawkeye, leaving his family alone and unprotected. Several misadventures later, in "Wolverine" #72, Logan returns with the money to find Jade, Scotty, and Maureen all dead, slaughtered by the Hulks out of boredom.
Like their interdimensional half-siblings Mari and Brian, Jade and Scotty serve the story not as fully rounded characters but as tools to drive the plot (and Wolverine's bloody vengeance) forward.
Bruce Banner Jr.
After the deaths of Jade and Scotty, Old Man Logan became a father for the third time when he adopted Bruce Banner Jr. Baby Bruce is the youngest son of the elderly "Pappy" Banner, whose descendants had become depraved and cannibalistic after decades of radiation poisoning and inbreeding. Logan avenged his family in "Giant-Size Wolverine: Old Man Logan" #1 in 2009, slaughtering the Hulk Gang and taking the baby with him on his travels through the wasteland. In "Wastelanders: Wolverine" in 2021, the elderly hero worries Bruce will grow up to be a monster, but Logan is relieved when the already super-strong Bruce defends his new "Daddy" against Pappy Hulk, now a disembodied head powering an adamantium mecha suit.
In adulthood, Banner Jr. joins the New Defenders alongside his adopted father, who has taken a new identity as The Hooded Man in "Fantastic Force" Vol. 2 #1 in 2009. As their world faces ecological devastation, the New Defenders defeat Galactus, turning his body into a God Ship and traveling back in time to the mainstream Marvel Universe of Earth-616 to resettle their world's survivors. The Fantastic Four convince Banner and his allies to live on the man-made planet Nu World, hoping to avoid a refugee crisis, though Nu World is later destroyed by Earth-616's Galactus. Banner Jr. and his people are last seen in "Fantastic Four" #609 in 2012, fixing the God Ship to travel "like the sailors of old" through time, back to rebuild their world.
Shine
Wolverine, Jean Grey, and Cyclops are one of pop culture's most iconic love triangles, with a saga spanning decades of comic books and playing a significant role in the 1992 "X-Men" animated series as well as the 20th Century Fox "X-Men" film franchise. Jean Grey is undoubtedly one of the most important women in Wolverine's life, with the trio recently entering an open relationship on Krakoa (per CBR). But only one series has depicted a world where Wolverine and Jean are married and have a child, and surprisingly, it isn't even an X-Men comic.
"Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows" is a 2016-2018 comic series set in an alternate universe where Peter Parker and his wife Mary Jane Watson, as the heroes Spider-Man and Spinneret, raise their superpowered daughter Annie aka Spiderling. In "Renew Your Vows" #6, Peter and Mary Jane consider enrolling Annie at the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, where they meet Logan and Jean's toddler, Kate Howlett, whom they call Shine.
Annie takes a shine to, well, Shine, but the two are captured when Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants attack the X-Mansion. Luckily, Shine's mutant power of light projection helps save the day. After an eight-year time skip, the Spider-Family revisits the X-Men in "Renew Your Vows" #23, and an older Kate is shown with greater mastery of her light powers, helping her parents in a battle against Mister Sinister.
Reine du Rien
Reine du Rien ("Queen of Nothing" in French) is a new star in the Marvel Universe, debuting in "Marvel Comics Presents" Vol. 3 #5 in 2019. Created by Charles Soule and Paulo Siqueira, Rien is the culmination of Wolverine's entanglement with multiple generations of the magical D'Arqueness family. Logan encountered Rien's grandmother, Marie D'Arqueness, in World War II when she was captured by the Nazis and forced to summon a demon called "the Truth" via sorcery. Marie sent the demon to Hell at the cost of her life; she warned that it would reappear every 10 years and asked Logan to protect her daughter Sylvie.
Wolverine fought the Truth every decade alongside the now-adult Sylvie, with the two eventually having a one-night stand. Sylvie was compelled by Clan D'Arqueness to conceive a child with Logan so that Rien would inherit both magical abilities and a healing factor (with the bonus of glowing bone claws) and become the ultimate weapon against the Truth. Decades later, Rien finally met her father, and she journeyed into Hell to destroy the demon once and for all. Opening a portal to the past, she brought the Truth back to the night Marie summoned it. Tricking the two versions of the Truth into fighting each other in a magical paradox, Rien changed her future and was free to determine her own fate. "Marvel Comics Presents" #9 ends with Rien joyfully introducing herself to her father for the "first" time.
Scout
While dark, ominous clouds seem to follow Wolverine's family members wherever they go, Scout is a welcome ray of sunshine. Her joyful tenacity is hard-won, however — Gabby is the youngest of several "sisters" cloned from Laura Kinney by Alchemax Genetics. Trained to be an assassin, Gabby is the only sister to manifest Laura's mutant healing factor and bone claws. Created for "All-New Wolverine" #2 in 2015 by Tom Taylor, David Navarrot, and David López, Gabby escapes Alchemax and finds sanctuary with Laura after the death and imprisonment of her remaining sisters, Zelda and Bellona.
Nicknamed "Honey Badger" in "X-Men: Wolverine" #28, Gabby has adventures with heroes as wildly different as Squirrel Girl and Deadpool, becoming an official X-Man when she joins Jean Grey's team in "X-Men: Red" #1 in 2018.
Taking care of Gabby — as well as Jonathan, their genetically-engineered pet Wolverine — affects Laura deeply, as she fills the role of mentor that Logan did for her and other young heroes. Now codenamed "Scout," Gabby trains with the New Mutants on Krakoa. Gabby is murdered while investigating the Shadow King, calling into question Krakoa's rules on resurrecting mutant clones, though she is soon reborn and helps defeat the psychic supervillain. In 2022's "The X Lives and Deaths of Wolverine" event, Scout fights alongside Logan, Laura, and Akihiro, proving that the family that snikts together, stays together.