The dysfunctional old saying goes that girls love bad boys, and pop culture’s been happy to run with that loads of times. If it’s true, then gruff mutant antiheroes must be irresistible.
During the 1980s, Wolverine helped set the template for brooding and occasionally deadly comic book antiheroes, but that doesn’t mean his love life hasn’t been surprisingly active. In fact, it’s a crucial part of the mutant, otherwise known as Logan’s make-up. Many of Wolverine’s love affairs meet a tragic end. No wonder he’s Marvel’s furry ball of loner rage.
In the pages of Marvel Comics, Wolverine’s been around since the late 19th century, so there’s been plenty of time to start some incredible affairs. He’s struck up some surprising relationships, exacerbated by obligatory future realities and alternate timelines.
Keeping it in the team
Jean Grey is a legendary love of Wolverine’s life. Logan fell head over heels as soon as they met, and he realized she was already engaged to Cyclops. Early lust fell away to deep love, which, thanks to Jean’s unique situation, makes her one of the few loves Wolverine’s watched die more than once.
Jean hasn’t been the only mutant object of Logan’s affections. He’s also had relationships with Storm, Mystique, Domino, and, unsettlingly, Rogue. There’s even the suggestion he once had something going on with Squirrel Girl.
Eastern promise
The comics have dug into the many years Wolverine spent in Japan, a country where he fell in love with several women, including the love of his life.
Mariko is the woman who stole Wolverine’s heart like no other. Their relationship was marked by a deep love and a profound tragedy, undoubtedly ranking as his most tragic and impactful relationship. Of course, Mariko died, but it was at Logan’s claws this time. When she was forced into becoming the Yakuza head of her family, Clan Yashida, her plans to marry Logan were continually disrupted until they were abruptly ended. Poisoned by assassins of the Hand, Mariko begged Wolverine to end her suffering. That act of mercy haunted Wolverine forever more.
That wasn’t Logan’s only dalliance in the Clan Yashida, though. On one trip to Japan, he fell for the assassin Yukio. She wouldn’t last as a lover, but became an ally — not bad for a clan that mainly served up tragedy and sworn enemy, Silver Samurai.
The grizzled mutant’s racked up a fair number of deep loves over the years, but has he ever committed?
Wolverine’s wives
Yes, Wolverine has been married in the comics — although it might not be quite how you expect. Wolverine has been married a few times in alternate realities, and yes, that’s a double plural.
In the Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows timeline (Earth-18119), Wolverine married Jean Grey. The pair had a daughter after her relationship with Scott Summers broke down when Civil War was averted.
Elektra and Wolverine have been known to scrap and ally on Earth-616, but in the Marvel Comics 2 (Earth-982), the pair married and had a daughter — Wild Thing, who possessed powers similar to her father.
Mark Millar’s future reality Old Man Logan saw the aging Wolverine more grizzled than ever, but contentedly married to Maureen. In this reality, Logan found a degree of happiness that led him to hang up his claws and stay home with his wife and children. Naturally, it ended in tragedy, with Logan bursting back to avenge his family’s destruction.
In the What If..? story If Wolverine Had Married Mariko however, their happiness as clan heads was stopped in its tracks by Kingpin and his united Yakuza. It was destiny that Mariko wouldn’t survive, although this time, she was ended by the betrayal of an old enemy-turned-ally.
It’s hard to describe Wolverine as luckier in love in alternate realities, as those relationships tend to end the same way. But it’s also not true that Logan is always the alternate husband and never the Earth-616 groom.
Just after WW2, Wolverine’s marriage to a Japanese woman called Itsu has been described as the happiest moment of his life. She was typically killed (by the Winter Soldier), and her unborn son was taken. The child, Daken, was raised without Wolverine’s knowledge to become, in true comic book fashion, a sworn enemy of his father.
Wolverine does have one wife in mainstream Marvel Comics continuity who survived the relationship, although she’s tellingly an ex-wife. Viper, AKA Madame Hydra, once brainwashed Wolverine’s female acquaintances into capturing him for her. She bargained that having Logan as a husband would bring her the necessary respectability to take the throne of Madripoor. Wolverine couldn’t ignore her reminder that he owed an old debt to their mentor Seraph, but after Viper became the ruling princess of Madripoor, having seen off the Hand and Hydra, Wolverine divorced her.
Wolverine’s long life isn’t over yet, so there’s plenty of time for Wolverine to find new loves. Being Logan, though, don’t expect them to end well.