Please note: Background information on the creators and the X-titles 
editorial offices is based on over a decade's worth of interviews, 
articles, and personal questions, and as such is not directly 
attributed here. Now that some of Marvel's staff members are on Usenet, 
they are welcomed to correct and amend any of the answers listed below. 


--- Is Magneto Jewish or Gypsy? Was Joseph Magneto? (+)

It appears that Magneto is Jewish, although his wife Magda likely is a 
gypsy. However, Marvel being Marvel, it's good to set forth the 
evidence. This is a summary of Rivka Jacob's excellent research on the 
topic:

In UXM #150, after Magneto thinks he has killed Kitty, he says: "I 
remember my own childhood ... the gas chambers at Auschwitz, the guards 
joking as they herded my family to their death. As our lives were 
nothing to them, so human lives became nothing to me." Storm is about to 
blast him for "killing" Kitty, and she says, "If you have a deity, 
butcher, pray to it!" Magneto answers, "As a boy, I believed. As a boy, 
I turned my back on god forever." Magneto can't be a political prisoner 
or atheist--he can only be Gypsy or Jewish if his entire family is at
Auschwitz.

In UXM #161, we see for the first and last time Magnus' tattoo from 
Auschwitz. His number is #214782. Xavier says, "That tattoo, Magnus, 
were you ...?" Magnus answers, "Auschwitz. I grew up there." Magnus' 
number is high for someone who was there from the beginning of the camp, 
but it is a standard number, without the A of the 1944 arrivals, or the 
Z of the Gypsies, or the other special classification symbols. Of 
course, the penciller probably didn't know these details... 

In Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Vol. 1, #4, Magneto tells Vision about 
his youth. Pictured is the Auschwitz camp, with guards tormenting 
emaciated prisoners, one of whom displays a prominent and exaggerated 
Star of David on his clothing. In the next panel, however, Magneto sort-
of goes into a fantasy. He says, "But unlike the other victims, I 
possessed the power to fight back." He imagines he's hurling Nazi tanks 
away with magnetic energy. Only Jewish prisoners wore the Star of David.

In UXM #199, Magneto (with Lee Forrester and Kitty Pryde) arrives at the 
National Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC. (It's not really Lee, but 
Mystique, trying to capture Magneto). "Lee" says: "Man's inhumanity to 
man... how easily the race kills." Magneto answers: "Then, Lee, it was 
the Jews. My nightmare has ever been that tomorrow it will be Mutants." 
Why would he say that, if he weren't Jewish? Next, Magneto tells Kitty 
EXACTLY how to address the gathering in order to get information about 
dead or missing family members. Isn't it obvious that he's done this 
before? Why would he address a Jewish Holocaust gathering looking for 
information about his family if his family weren't Jewish? 

In UXM #211, Magneto reacts to the Morlock Massacre out of pure emotion, 
saying, "NO! The horrors of my childhood, born again...only this time, 
Mutants are the victims, instead of Jews." If he weren't Jewish, he 
wouldn't have said Jews, or he would have at least added the name of 
another people targeted by the Nazis.

In New Mutants #49, Magneto dreams of the massacre of his family. Here 
we see for the first time, his family--father, mother, sister--as 
they were gunned down in front of open graves. The family members are 
dressed in middle class urban clothes. No peasant dress, no Gypsy 
clothing. It's Magnus and his family who are out of place. They are 
well-dressed, an urban family in a rural setting. This matches accounts 
of what happened to Czech and German Jewish families who were moved east 
and sometimes removed to woods and rural settings where they were shot.

In the X-Men Classics #12 back-up story, we see the actual scenes of 
Magneto's and Magda's escape from Auschwitz. The war is almost over, and 
it is the winter of 1944-1945. The Gypsy camp was murdered in the gas 
chambers in August 1944. This scene, by Claremont and Bolton, takes 
place on Jan. 20, 1945, two days after the camp was evacuated and the 
death marches began. Some 70 of the Sonderkommando, Jewish prisoners who 
were forced by the Nazis to lead the victims to the gas chamber, haul 
the bodies to the ovens, and burn or bury the dead, were kept to help 
destroy the evidence of the death factory, before they were to be 
killed. Some 200 women from the woman's camp, Jews, were chosen to fill 
in the huge pits where bodies were burned. The SS soldiers sent back on 
Jan. 20th were sent to kill the women. Magneto was saving Magda because 
at that point, he wasn't the target, yet. 

In New Mutants #61, Magneto thinks to himself, "An ill wind is coming... 
they are registering mutants... like they once registered my people in 
Poland...! Who knows what horrors await us." Only the Jews were forced 
to wear armbands with the Star of David on them, and registered before 
being forced into ghettos in Poland (beginning at the end of 1939). 
Young Magnus, who was already at Auschwitz by 1942, would only have 
experienced the Jewish people in Poland (including German Jews who had 
already been deported there in the first months of the War) being 
registered. 

In X-Factor Annual #4, Doom challenges Magneto to a duel of wills, with 
a helmet that pulls out unpleasant memories and torments the wearer. 
Magneto takes his turn--Doom describes what he sees, "...after the 
ignoble defeat of the Nazis in Germany, you and the woman Magda you 
rescued, fled the prison camp Auschwitz, in Poland." Doom confirms that 
Magnus and Magda "fled" or escaped Auschwitz before liberation and after 
the Gypsy camp was murdered. 

In Uncanny #274, Magneto recalls his life in Auschwitz: "Zaladane has no 
such compunction. And I hear the echo of Der Fuhrer's voice in the radio 
of memory, smell the awful stench of the sick and dying as the cattle 
cars brought the comdemned to Auschwitz. I wear red, the color of blood, 
in tribute to their lost lives. And the harder I try to cast it aside, 
to find a gentler path... the more irresistibly I'm drawn back. I should 
have died myself with those I loved. Instead, I carted the bodies by the 
hundreds, by the thousands... from the death house to the crematorium... 
and the ashes to the burial ground. Asking now what I could not then... 
why was I spared?!" This is what the Sonderkommando did. This is 
fundamental to the history of the Holocaust, to the history of Nazi 
Germany--making the *Jews* the ones who had to do all the dirty work in 
the death camps. 

In X-Factor #92, an Acolyte says, "You've seen this place Havok! You've 
seen the sentinels! You tell me... where's the sense in letting the 
flatscans do to the mutants what Hitler did to the Jews?..." The 
Acolytes have done research on Magneto; they worship him. This one says 
"the Jews" as a parallel metaphor. Why say that, if Magneto isn't 
Jewish? 

Now comes the infamous X-Men Unlimited #2. In that issue, Gabrielle 
Haller stated definitively that Magneto was a Gypsy of Sinte descent. 
However, nearly everything that Gabrielle Haller says about Magneto's 
history, including the claim he is a "Sinte Gypsy," is false. For 
example, Danzig was not annexed. It was a Free City, under League of 
Nations protection, that voted itself a Nazi government and welcomed the 
Nazi troops in like liberators. Gauleiter Forster, the extremely anti-
Semitic Nazi leader of Danzig ordered all the remaining Jews of Danzig 
to be kicked out of the city in 1939, not the Gypsies. Auschwitz wasn't 
opened as a Polish political prisoner camp until the summer of 1940, not 
1939. The Gypsies were sent to German municipal camps, in Germany and 
the Greater Reich, as early as 1933. But they were not sent to Auschwitz 
from Germany until 1943. The only people who were in a work camp in 
Auschwitz before it opened were 300 Jews from the town of Auschwitz who 
were forced to transform a collection of horse stables and army barracks 
into the Polish prisoner camp. (Fabian Nicieza wrote Magneto as a Gypsy 
at the request of editors Kelly Corvese and Bob Harras, so don't blame 
Fabian!)

In X-Men #40, which takes place in Israel, Legion pulls out Magneto's 
memories. One can see a picture of young Magnus with older male 
prisoners, standing behind and below a high, barred window. This is an 
accurate portrayal of the quarters of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz I. 
At Auschwitz I, only the Sonderkommando (other than prisoners awaiting 
execution) were kept in isolated basement cells, the windows of which 
were high, barred, and as seen from the outside, half-below ground 
level. And why is Magneto in Israel anyway? Why would a Gypsy go to 
Israel when at least 30,000 Gypsies lived in Germany in the late 1960s 
and early 1970s? And many more Romany formed a thriving community in 
Paris. Why go to Israel to "find himself" or find his "soul"?  Any Jew 
can emigrate to Israel, under the Law of Return. All Magneto had to do 
was show them the tattoo on his arm, and he was home. Furthermore, 
Magnus at this time had forged papers, that identified him as "Erik 
Magnus Lehnsherr." He could have immigrated to any country in the world, 
including the United States! If he were a Gypsy, and didn't want to 
self-identify as such, why not go to America? The Romany today deeply 
resent the focus on Israel, and the support Israel enjoys among nations 
of the Western world, while the Gypsies continue to be persecuted and 
ignored.  

In Astonishing X-Men #3, Magneto says, "Long before Xavier died... 
before this point of divergence... I stood by helplessly as millions of 
my people were led to slaughter in the name of 'genetic purity.'" The 
AOA is a divergent timeline, starting from the same events as in our 
own timeline. 250,000 to 500,000 Gypsies were murdered (possibly as many 
as 750,000). Millions of Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles during the 
course of the invasions, and in political violence, and in acts of pure 
murder, were exterminated. But only the European Jews were "led to the 
slaughter" in the millions because of one man's racial beliefs. 

In X-Men #72, we learn that the name *Erik Lehnsherr* (revealed by 
Gabrielle Haller in X-Men Unlimited #2 to be Magneto's real name) is 
fake, and so Haller's assertion that Magneto is a *Sinte* Gypsy was 
based on false and forged identity papers. Basically, Magneto needed the 
fake Sinte identity to have a better chance of success on his search for 
Magda (who *was* a Gypsy) after she had run away from him. Magneto, 
speaking with Georg Odekirk, the man who forged the papers, says, "Do 
you remember what you promised me the night I came to you, torn and 
filthy, nearly a quarter century ago? I was searching for my beloved 
MAGDA, determined not to lose her as I had lost so many others in the 
fire that engulfed all of Europe during my childhood. The authorities 
were in pursuit of me for the "crime" of avenging my daughter's murder. 
I was willing to deny who I was... everything that my family died for... 
so that I could find one woman... so that I would not be caged AGAIN. 
The Erik Lehnsherr fabrication was a convenient means of ensuring that. 
You swore that the forged papers were FLAWLESS, that your skills were 
unsurpassed... but now, you have proven to be a liability. Your work has 
been called into queston by my enemies, and they will trace Erik 
Lehnsherr the Sinte BACK to you." Odekirk protests, "That is impossible! 
That forgery was impeccable! My work is..." Magneto answers: "It was not 
ENOUGH! You gave birth to Erik Lehnsherr, Odekirk. And tonight, you have 
killed him. My secrets shall die with him. All that remains now... is 
MAGNUS." Only the Jews and Gypsies were targeted as entire peoples, and 
killed for no reason other than they were Jews and Gypsies. Magnus was 
either one, or the other. Since in X-Men #72 it is revealed that he is 
NOT a Gypsy, we must conclude he was born a Jew. 

More recent issues have supported the retcon of the Magneto-as-Gypsy 
retcon that appeared in X-Men Unlimited #2. In X-Men #111, Trish Tilby 
calls Magneto the "rumored son of Israel." Furthermore, in X-Men #112, 
Scott Summers describes Magneto as a Jew: "It's ironic, really. Magneto 
lost his family in a Nazi death camp, persecuted just because they were 
Jewish for the crime of being 'different.' Fifty-odd years later ... and 
this time he's the monster. It's his army prepared to cleanse the Earth 
of a race they've decided isn't worthy to continue. he's become what 
he's always hated." It would be unlikely that the writers and editors of 
the comics would include references to Magneto as Jewish unless they 
were envisioning him as such. Outside canon, Magneto is described as 
Jewish in the 1996-97 "Mutant Empire" trilogy of novels by Christopher 
Golden.

If you want more details, including scans of relevant passages and 
images, visit the "Magneto FAQs and Background Info" section of Alara's 
Magneto Page at http://www.alara.net/xbooks/mag/faq.html.

As for the Joseph/Magneto cloning issue, Terrafamilia helps us out: To 
be a stickler for detail-- Joseph was emphatically stated to *not* be a 
clone. A copy, yes, but not a clone. Astra, a previously unknown 
character retconned to having been an original member of the Brotherhood 
of Evil Mutants, replicated Magneto using various and sundry bits of 
highly advanced alien tech she had snatched over the years during her 
travels through the galaxy (she's a high power intradimensional portal 
style teleporter). Basically, she sent Magneto through a molecular 
transporter type system and made a copy, which she altered to be younger 
and more pliable. Unfortunately Magneto escaped during his and Joseph's 
first encounter, so Joseph had time to develop a mind of his own while 
he was supposed to be tracking down his quarry.  Joseph's dead now, 
having sacrificed himself for some reason or another.

As for Magneto's existence... Magneto was stabbed by Wolverine in X-MEN 
#113.  In NEW X-MEN #115, he appeared in a wheelchair, sitting in a 
building in Hammer Bay as it was crushed by a Sentinel.  He was presumed 
dead as of that issue, until being revealed as Xorn in New X-Men #146.


--- What is the Hellfire Club? Who are its members? (+)

The Hellfire Club is a direct homage / tribute to the 1960s UK Avengers 
show with Patrick MacNee and Diana Rigg. In an episode called "A Touch 
of Brimstone", Steed and Mrs. Peel face a top secret political group 
which named itself after the legendary 18th-century secret society. The 
members of the "Inner Circle" all wear period costumes, and at one 
point Mrs. Peel assumes the role of "the Queen of Sin", wearing a black 
leather costume that's the image of the White Queen. (That's also why 
the White Queen has the first name Emma--it's an homage to "Emma Peel".)
John Byrne has admitted using it as an inspiration, since it was one of 
his favorite action/advenute shows growing up. Hellfire Clubs did exist
in the real world, but they were usually "gentlemen's" clubs of the 18th
century dealing as upper-class brothels. The best-known characters were 
based on popular actors: In the X-Men Companion II (Fantagraphics Books, 
1982), Byrne says that Sebastian Shaw was based on Robert Shaw, Harry 
Leland was Orson Wells, Donald Pierce was Donald Sutherland, and Jason 
Wyngarde is Peter Wyngarde.

Anyway, in Marvel Comics, there have been many different incarnations of
the American Hellfire Club / Inner Circle, as well as numerous 
international clubs. The HC members tend to be mutants who want to rule 
the world through a combination of raw power and subtle political and 
financial maneuvers. Membership is passed down to one's offspring, so 
people like Warren Worthington III (Angel) and Brian Braddock (Captain 
Britain) are members of the club. The club first appeared at the start 
of the Dark Phoenix Saga in Uncanny X-Men.

According to Ultimate X-Men (the coffee-table book, not the text-story
collection or the comic series of the same name), the American branch 
of the Hellfire Club was founded in the 1770s by "wealthy trading 
company owner Sir Patrick Clemens and his mistress, Diana Knight" who 
emigrated from Britain to New York City. The Hellfire Club mini-series
reveals that the American club members were loyalists who battled the 
Captain America of the American Revolution. The mini-series also gives 
some background on Sebastian Shaw, showing how he transformed the Inner 
Circle of wealth and privelege to an Inner Circle of mutants.

The backup story of Classic X-Men #7 introduces the reader to the 
previous leaders of the club, namely White King Edward Buckman and his 
White Queen, Paris Seville. According to OHOTMUDE, Shaw had up until 
then risen to Black Bishop. On the same New Year's Eve when Jean Grey
became the Phoenix, Buckman was telling Sebastian Shaw what a fine Black 
King he'd make. However, this was just a ruse to put Shaw in a false 
sense of security, since Buckman and Paris actually intended to kill all 
mutants, including Shaw and his four associates: Emma Frost, Harry 
Leland, Tessa and Lourdes Chantel. In the fight that ensued, Lourdes 
Chantel (Shaw's lover, a teleporter) was killed. Retribution was quick 
to follow; under Emma Frost's telepathic control Buckman shot all of the
members of the Council of the Chosen before Shaw snapped his neck. Shaw 
then took control of the Club, and renamed the Council the "Inner 
Circle." 

The club was formally introduced to X-Men readers during the Dark 
Phoenix Saga. The Inner Circle was lead by Sebastian Shaw (the Black 
King) and telepath Emma Frost (the White Queen). Shaw's assistant was 
Tessa, an extremely intelligent human who later joined the X-Men as 
Sage (where she displayed newly-found telepathic powers). The Black 
Bishop was Harry Leland, who could manipulate mass. The White Bishop was 
Donald Pierce, a cyborg who wanted to become White King. Mastermind, who 
disguised himself in order to lure Phoenix into the club as its Black 
Queen, was an applicant for Inner Circle membership. 

The Hellfire Club appeared again in Marvel Graphic Novel #4, which 
introduced the New Mutants. Pierce worked against Xavier in recruiting 
Cannonball, but Tessa realized that Pierce was a threat to the Inner 
Circle, and promised to deal with him. (Pierce was later seen in full 
cyborg mode leading the Reavers in the Australian Outback era of 
Uncanny. Donald Pierce returned in the Domino mini-series and later 
turned up during the Ladronn issues of Cable.)

Years later, around the time of Uncanny #180-190, Selene became the new 
Black Queen, after she was introduced by her agent/worshipper Frederick 
von Roehm, (the Black Rook). Selene was a type of vampire, and she'd 
appeared in New Mutants. Around the same time, Emanuel Da Costa (father 
of New Mutant Roberto DaCosta) was recruited to become the White Rook.
Issues of Uncanny also revealed that Emma Frost was training her own set 
of younger mutants, the Hellions, who went up against the X-Men before 
becoming a longtime rival of the New Mutants.

After the defeat of Nimrod in Central Park, the Hellfire Club 
disappeared from Uncanny, but continued to appear in The New Mutants, 
where Frost, Shaw, and Selene pitted The Hellions against Xavier's 
students. The two teams interacted on a number of occassions.
During this time, Magneto served as headmaster of Xavier's school. 
In one memorable story (after the Beyonder killed and resurrected them) 
the New Mutants became Hellions (and therefore wards of the Hellfire 
Club). Magneto was named to the position of White King. He and Storm 
shared the title for a while, and Magneto called himself the Grey King 
after Shaw was booted out of the club (circa New Mutants #75).

The Hellfire Club underwent a number of dramatic changes in the 1990s. 
In Uncanny #281, the Hellions were killed and Emma Frost was put into a 
coma (she woke in Uncanny #314). Soon after, Sebatian Shaw was 
overthrown by Shinobi Shaw, who was supposed to be Sebastian's son, but 
had mass / intangibility powers more like those of Harry Leland. 
Shinobi replaced the entire Inner Circle (some with members of The 
Upstarts) and this new Circle is what stands in X-Men Annual #3. The 
"upstart" Inner Circle was composed of Shinobi Shaw (Black King), 
Benazir Kaur, Reeva Payge, and Benedict Kine (White King). It's only 
assumed that the aforementioned ladies held the rank of queen. Circa 
Uncanny #319, Shinobi attempted to bring Storm, Psylocke, and Angel in 
as members of the Inner Circle, but they refused.

The Club next appeared in Generation X's first annual. Emma Frost's loss 
of the Hellions caused her to align with Xavier and train his new team. 
This resulted in her abandoning her position in the Club, though she was 
still known as the White Queen. Her younger sister, Cordelia, tried to 
insinuate herself into Shinobi's Hellfire Club, but she was refused 
entry. 

After Onslaught, Sebastian Shaw was finally able to overthrow his son. 
Selene returned to the Club as well, bringing with her Trevor Fitzroy 
and X-Man's Madelyne Pryor. Madelyne eventually double-crossed Selene 
and sought to supplant her as the Black Queen. Issues of X-Man indicated 
that Madelyne assumed the title for a short time, and Sebastian Shaw 
called her "my queen." This version of the Inner Circle did not last 
very long, though. Madelyne soon left to follow Nate Grey (and was again 
replaced by Selene) while Fitzroy sent himself to the future as the 
Chronomancer (see Bishop: The Last X-Man #1). Tessa also announced that 
she was no longer in the employ of Shaw, and later aligned herself with 
the X-Men. At one point, Emma's sister Adrienne Frost announced that she 
was the new White Queen (circa Generation X #62) but she was never seen 
in that role.

Club membership was readjusted once more beginning with Fantastic Four 
Annual '99, which established that Black Queen Selene was running the 
club with the demon Blackheart (Mephisto's son) as her Black King. 
Selene later showed up in X-Force, where she converted Roberto DaCosta 
into an HC member. Berto should have inherited his father's White Rook 
position, but he's apparently the Black Rook. No current White Hellfire 
Club members are confirmed as such.

As if that wasn't enough, there have been quite a few stories mentioning 
the (presumably original) London branch of the Hellfire Club. Beginning 
in Excalibur #92, Warren Ellis mentioned the London branch. It was 
connected to the American Club by name and occassional association, 
but the London Club had distanced itself enough that Shinobi Shaw 
convinced Brian Braddock (Captain Britain) to enter the London Club and 
act as informant for whatever plan was brewing. The London Club used the 
colors Red and White for its Inner Circle, as opposed to the Black and 
White of the New York Club. During the Excalibur run leading up to issue 
#100, Brian planned to enter as the Red Bishop (since his father had 
apparently held that position), but he ended up becoming its Black Rook. 

The Red King was an Indian man we'd never seen before, and the Black 
King was likewise a new character. The Red Queen was sorceress Margali 
Szardos, better known as Amanda Sefton's mom and Nightcrawler's adoptive 
mother. The Black Queen, named Emma Steed, was a psionic skinner who 
looked very much like the Damask character that appeared in the Age of 
Apocalypse storyline. (She was also the spitting image of Diana Rigg, 
who played Emma Peel in the classic Avengers episode mentioned above.) 
The Red Rook, Scribe, was a recorder of sorts, whose body was being used 
by Mountjoy, a refugee from Bishop's timeline. She had powers of 
intangibility, superior strength, and agility, which may have come from 
Mountjoy instead of from her own ability. (It should be noted that 
Mountjoy was a refugee from Bishop's future who was revealled to have 
snuck through Fitzroy's gateway while riding another criminal.  Bishop 
became aware of his prescence in the mainstream timeline present and 
pursued him in theBishop Limited series by Ostrander and Pacheco).

Excalibur #100 revealed that the London Hellfire Club and black ops 
organization Black Air had bribed their way into the pockets of many 
important politicians. The Club attempted to utilise the powers of a 
demon trapped under London to cause enough chaos that they and their 
agents in Black Air could seize power. They kidnapped Excalibur member 
Douglock to use as a sort of power conduit, but unfortunately they'd 
underestimated the power of the demon and pretty much drove themselves 
mad. The Black King and Red King ended up dead, while Red Queen Margali 
was snatched into Hell / Limbo by Belasco (see the Soulsword question), 
and the Black Queen escaped to parts unknown. The Red Rook, Scribe, 
eventually showed up in X-Man #23, where she later battled Madelyne.

The London Club also made an appearance, via flashback, in a story 
involving Cable (circa Cable #49). "The Hellfire Hunt" had Cable chase 
Donald Pierce and Sebastian Shaw across the Atlantic to prevent them 
from stealing Apocalypse's technology. On the flight there, he and Irene 
Merryweather read the diary of a previous Union Jack who had battled the 
Club in his day. The story also involved the Harbinger, a creation of 
Apocalypse (see CABLE #50). These events referenced the events of The 
Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix. That story--the origin of 
Sinister--revealed an alliance between Apocalypse and the London Club of 
1889. The Hellfire Club planned to increase strife around the world, 
making the world ready for Apocalypse's eventual return.

Obviously, the Hellfire Club and its Inner Circle have deep roots in 
the Marvel Universe. In addition to the London and New York branches, 
there are apparently chapters of the Hellfire Club in Moscow, Rio de 
Janeiro, Tokyo, Venice, and Hong Kong. Jamie Braddock, Brian Braddock, 
and Betsy Braddock all had membership through their father, who was a 
member of the London Inner Circle. Warren Worthington III had membership 
through his father, and his girlfriend Candy Southern was also a member. 
Howard Stark, Iron Man's father, was a member, as was Senator Robert 
Kelly (see Uncanny #247). The Hellfire Club mini-series indicates that 
the Greys (Jean's parents) probably are members as well.


--- What is the relationship between Wolverine and Sabretooth supposed 
    to be?

Once upon a time, this was one of the big Unanswered Questions in the
X-titles. Of course, once upon a time Bernard the poet was a recurring 
character in X-Men as well. Dig those groovy rhymes!

Wolverine and Sabretooth were originally designed, most likely by John 
Byrne once he got his hands on them, to be son and father, respectively. 
Nothing was ever made of this, besides the usual murky hints behind the 
scenes. As time went by the relative popularity of Wolverine versus the 
great obscurity of Sabretooth (up until recently, he was still a second-
string villain found working for no-name crime bosses in Spider-Man 
titles) made such a revelation rather silly in the eyes of Marvel, so 
they just shifted the whole thing over to them both just having some 
sort of relationship in the past, but of an unspecified sort.

Recently, Wolverine and Sabretooth have been revealed simply to be 
former secret agents who worked on the same team with other mysterious 
mutants such as Maverick. A blood test performed by some considerate 
S.H.I.E.L.D. medical technicians in Wolverine #42 finally gave us a 
definite answer: they aren't related by blood at all. Sabretooth once 
believed himself to be Logan's father, but that was merely a vestige of 
the Weapon X's memory implant procedures.


--- Does Wolverine have any real memories, anyway? How about real bones?

Apparently, almost all of Wolverine's memories are constructs, thanks to
the ever-dependable Weapon X program and the demands of Marvel writers. 
What he had as his original skeleton has become even more of a muddled 
pile of murk thanks to the Fatal Attractions storyline. A brief synopsis 
of what was once known to be true will be attempted here, but as 
discussions on racmx have shown, this question is a retcon in action, 
and even Wolverine fans are still confused over the whole affair. Those 
of us who are just neutral bystanders will have to be content with what 
follows, and leave the heavy arguments to the knowledgable Wolvie sages 
on racmx.

IN THE BEGINNING, like, pre-X-Men (Hulk #181), even, Wolverine was just
designed to be a spunky teenager working for the Canadian government, 
who had claws stuck in his gloves. One gets the opinion that perhaps 
there were some slight budgetary problems in the Canadian Secret Service 
at the time. There was a suggested subplot which would reveal him to be 
a "super-evolved" real wolverine, made into human form by the High 
Evolutionary, but that was never followed up on.

Now, when Wolverine was put into the X-Men, Chris Claremont decided that
since he was in the X-Men, he needed to have a mutant power. 
Furthermore, he didn't like the idea of having the adamantium claws just 
part of the gloves, as then "anyone who could get the gloves could be 
Wolverine." So, he revealed that the claws are actually housed in 
Wolvie's arms.

Eventually, we find out that all of Wolverine's skeleton is bonded with
adamantium. Adamantium is the hardest known non-magical substance in the
Marvel Universe, capable of ignoring point-blank nuclear strikes. Chris 
Claremont also revealed that Wolverine was much older than he'd 
originally been planned to be. Wolverine's vaunted healing factor wasn't 
mentioned in the stories until UXM #142, although it was first shown in 
the UXM issue in the mid 110's when Wolverine got his arm chomped on by 
a dinosaur.

Time passes. We learn that Wolverine may have gotten his adamantium from 
the Canadian special weapons project, Project X. There is a good clue 
out that the adamantium bonding process was stolen for Project X from 
Lord Darkwind, a Japanese nobleman who performed the same sort of 
operation on Bullseye, a nonpowered assassin and foe of Daredevil's. 
Lord Darkwind's daughter, Lady Deathstrike, has been hunting Wolverine 
for years to kill him, since him having that skeleton is an insult to 
the heritage of her father. The process was either stolen by or for 
James Hudson, head of the Alpha Flight project, which was responsible 
for the superpowered protection of the Canadian provinces and interests.

Then comes the Weapon X storyline (MCP #72-84). Wolverine, who up to 
this point is thought to just be a fast-healing mutant of indeterminate 
age, is now revealed to apparently have had some form of natural "bone 
claws" where his metal ones ended up, because when they were filling him 
full of adamantium, that's where a bunch of it pooled up (sounds more 
like a scientist was skipping on quality control, but, hey, it's 
comics).

The idea of the Weapon X project was that it would create all these
super-soldiers, and then release them back into the general public with 
no memory of who they were as "sleepers." So they wouldn't remember 
their experiences at the Weapon X facilities, they were all programmed 
with false memories. To help keep watch over this odd idea, a computer 
program named Shiva was written, who could take over one in an almost 
endless series of robots to hunt down and destroy any Weapon X soldier 
who, somehow, showed signs of remembering who he really was. Currently, 
Wolvie has fooled Shiva into thinking it killed him.

So, with that added to the muddle, we then get the unusual Fatal 
Attractions crossover, where Magneto pulled the adamantium off of 
Wolvie's bones through his skin pores (X-Men #25). So, Wolvie (aside 
from hurting real, real bad) was growing new bone claws because he 
originally had bone claws (and they got covered in adamantium), and 
Magneto removed the original ones.

The lastest addition to this saga is that the adamantium was preventing 
his mutation from expanding any further. In this case, that meant his 
turning into pure animal, with the unbearably heightened senses and 
uncontrollable instincts (Wolverine #92).

The memories problem was repaired by Epsilon Red (by the same people who
brought you Omega Red).

As of Wolverine #100, we have a new incarnation of Wolverine. To Larry
Hama's credit, Wolverine did get his adamantium back. For a few panels. 
Then Wolverine rejected it and lost what was left of his mind. The 
current version is now a mutant who can withstand almost any amount of 
physical abuse. Elektra took it upon herself (Wolverine #101) to help 
Logan return to humanity, and it mostly worked.

To make matters worse, Sabretooth had been the recipient of Wolverine's 
old adamantium. The stuff was then ripped out of Sabretooth and given
back to Wolverine by Apocalypse, who made Wolverine his horseman Death
for a short time. Wolverine #145 displayed the moment in a flashback, 
but the first appearance with the metal back was as Death in Astonishing 
X-Men Vol. 2 #1. 


--- Who was Wolverine before he was Wolverine? Does he even have a 
    real name? (+)

In 2001, a new miniseries was created by Joe Quesada, Bill Jemas, and 
Paul Jenkins, penciled by Andy Kubert and digitally painted by Richard 
Isanove.  Creatively named "Origin," the book was set in Alberta and 
British Columbia, Canada, and was supposed to tie up a lot of loose ends 
about Wolverine's origins. We'll summarize the important parts for you, 
so you don't have to spend dozens of dollars trying to buy the darned 
thing.

Issue #1 used misdirection, and convinced many readers that Dog, the 
beaten and abused son of lowlife groundskeeper Thomas Logan, was 
Wolverine. Origin #2, however, revealed that Wolverine was James Howlett, 
the weak child of an aristocrat, James Howlett, who was a gentle and soft 
man, and his wife Elizabeth, who has been sequestered in the mansion ever 
since the death of her first son, John. It's likely that Elizabeth 
Howlett had an affair with Thomas Logan, and that James is actually their 
son, since Thomas sneaks into the mansion in issue #2 to take Elizabeth 
away with him, and she doesn't protest too much. Either way, Thomas Logan 
ends up dead when James pops his claws. Something odd happened with his 
dead older brother, though--John Logan died at age twelve, apparently 
after an illness, and Mrs. Howlett says something to the effect of "ohh 
... Not *again*. Not *you*, James" in Origin #3. Apparently she's seen 
*somebody* pop claws before. It's too much for her, so she kills herself 
with a rifle. When the news is brought to Grandpa Howlett, he asks Dog 
what happened... and Dog lies and says that Rose had a gun.

After Grandpa Howlett forces Rose and James to leave the Howlett home, 
Rose takes James by train to British Columbia to work in a quarry. Since 
James is in a daze from the appearance of his claws, and they need to 
hide their identities due to James' killing of Thomas Logan, Rose gives 
the foreman the name of "Logan" for James. (The foreman, Smitty, is 
where Logan picks up his characteristic use of "bub.") After working 
lower-class jobs for a long while, Logan becomes stronger, following an 
internal "urge" to learn how to track animals. As of issue #4, he 
prefers the name "Logan" instead of James. He doesn't know what happened 
in Alberta (apparently his mind is blocking the memories), and though 
Rose wants to talk with him about it, he won't listen. She writes an 
account of it in her narrative diary, hoping that he'll learn the truth 
from the diary someday. Logan still seems to remember his claws, though, 
and after two years at the camp, he pops them out again.

In Origin #5, Rose becomes interested in Smitty. Smitty ends up giving 
Logan a book about Japanese Samurai fighters, presumably leading to his 
interest in that culture. At the end of the issue, Grandpa Howlett talks 
of letting "the fear of what happened to his brother" cloud his 
judgement, and sends a messenger to find James and Rose--except that the 
messenger is Dog, Thomas Logan's son from issue #1. In issue #6, there's 
a cage match in which Logan is called "the Wolverine." He throws a fight 
against Smitty, who was in the cage matches to earn money so that he and 
fiancee Rose could leave the quarry. When Dog appears and fights Logan, 
Logan remembers that Dog is actually the one who killed his father, not 
him. Rose tries to stop them; popping his claws, Logan accidentally 
kills Rose. He then runs off into the Canadian wilderness, leaving Dog 
and Smitty behind.

Apparently it's all true, because Xavier's freaky sister Cassandra Nova 
called Wolverine both "Mr. Logan" and "James" in NXM #126.

At the WizardWorld 2002 Comicon Quesada spoke for a while about Origin. 
The story didn't tell much about Wolverine's origin, they said, because 
the people at Marvel have planned a sequel. "Bill [Jemas] wants to do it 
tomorrow," said Quesada, "but I want to let 'Origin' sit a while." So 
who knows when we'll find out the details of how Wolverine went from 
teenage quarry worker to Weapon X agent.

And, just to clear things up: Dog is not Sabretooth. Really.


--- Wolverine can regularly regenerate himself from a drop of blood,
    right?

Only if you only reread one annual.

In Uncanny X-Men Annual #11, the X-Men get involved in this very 
symbolic quest to determine the worthiness of the entire human race, and 
all that other light afternoon sort of entertainment. In the end, only 
Wolverine is left to strive for the goal, this immensely powerful alien 
god-gem gadget thingee. Unfortunately for Wolverine, the alien Horde is 
right behind him, and slaughters the poor mutant--but not before a 
single drop of Wolvie's blood lands on the immensely powerful alien god-
gem which super-cosmically charges the superpowers of that blood to 
regrow an entire Wolverine, adamantium bones and all. In short, don't 
try this at home, kids, at least not without an immensely powerful alien 
god-gem of your own.

The simplest evidence against Wolverine having this amount of 
regenerative ability, however, is that in the numerous issues with no 
alien god-gems in sight that Wolverine gets pounded in, none of the 
blood he's leaked so copiously over everything has ever grown into 
another Wolverine.



*** Continued in Part 7 ***


   Compilation Copyright 2000-2003 by Katharine E. Hahn
   SEND ADDITIONS / CHANGES / DEAD LINKS / MOVED LINKS / UPDATES TO:  
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-- 
Kate the Short * http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/