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Marvel’s Wolverine is the first game since 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine to revolve around the iconic mutant hero. And while that previous game was mostly an adaptation of the movie, this new one tells a completely original story set in the same universe as Insomniac’s Spider-Man games. Just like those Spider-Man games, Marvel’s Wolverine isn’t afraid to make some big alterations to the source material as its ambitious story plays out.
How exactly does the new Wolverine game end? How does it change what we know about Logan from the X-Men comics and movies? How does the game set up a sequel? Let’s break down what we learn and what the big questions are surrounding Marvel’s Wolverine 2.
Wolverine’s Revamped Origin Story
A big part of Wolverine’s appeal as a character is that he’s an enigmatic bad boy with a mysterious past. Little by little, the X-Men comics have filled in the giant gaps in his memories, and the movies have mostly followed their example. But Marvel’s Wolverine is a little different. The game isn’t afraid to change up what we thought we knew about this character.
Over the course of the game, Logan slowly recovers lost memories and pieces together his murky past. Some of the revelations mirror what we know from the comics. His real name is James “Logan” Howlett. He’s been alive since the 1800s and has spent many decades wandering the globe, fighting in wars, and occasionally falling in love.
But beyond those basic details, Insomniac has altered a lot of the fundamentals of Wolverine’s past. For one thing, he doesn’t have any apparent ties to the Weapon X program or the shadowy figure Romulus in this universe. Instead, Wolverine seems to have acquired his adamantium skeleton from Apocalypse. At some point in the 19th century, Logan was recruited by Apocalypse to become the Horseman of Death (we’ll get more into what the Horsemen are in a bit). Apocalypse gave Logan his unbreakable metal claws and poured his dark will into his new servant, making him the ultimate killing machine.
Following that transformation, Wolverine came into conflict with the Japanese ninja cult known as The Hand. The Hand worship a demonic master known as The Beast. In the comics, The Beast is a real being, but in this universe it seems they’re actually worshipping Apocalypse. 100 years in the past. Logan was sent to slaughter The Hand, earning him the nickname “Shinigami” and the undying wrath of Lady Deathstrike.
At some point in the 20th Century, Logan finally broke free from Apocalypse’s influence and continued wandering the globe. However, that malevolent influence remains, and he’s fought a constant battle to prevent his dark side from consuming him ever since.
Jean Grey and the Phoenix
Marvel’s Wolverine chronicles what initially seems to be the first meeting between Logan and Jean Grey. In this universe, the X-Men don’t yet exist, and Jean is part of an underground group of mutants struggling to survive while enemies like Bolivar Trask plot their destruction. Logan and Jean first connect when they both attempt to rescue that group of mutants, and Logan finds himself immediately drawn to the woman he nicknames “Red.”
That setup in itself isn’t a huge change for the franchise. Plenty of incarnations of the X-Men mythos have focused on the mutual attraction between Jean and Logan, though usually Cyclops is there to serve as a rival for Jean’s affections. But the game makes a huge change to that lore by revealing that Logan and Jean are deeply intertwined and share a romantic history dating back many decades.
Essentially, the Wolverine and Jean Grey of the Insomniac universe are eternal lovers, not unlike Hawkman and Hawkgirl in the DC Universe. Logan himself is effectively immortal and unaging. Jean, meanwhile, has the power of the Phoenix and is constantly reincarnated after her death. Every time Jean dies and is reborn, she seems destined to reconnect with Logan.
The secret of Jean’s immortality seems to be her connection to the Phoenix Force. In the comics, the Phoenix is a powerful cosmic entity made of pure psionic energy. It embodies life, creation, and passion, and it’s deeply drawn to Jean. Bonding with the Phoenix amplifies Jean’s psychic powers to the nth degree, and it’s allowed her to cheat death on more than one occasion.
In some versions of the X-Men mythos (like 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand), the Phoenix isn’t a separate entity, but simply a manifestation of Jean’s repressed dark side. It’s unclear what route Insomniac is taking with these games. But either way, the goal seems to be to present Jean as a force of life and creation, while Wolverine, as an agent of Apocalypse, embodies death and destruction. They’re forever linked, always drawn together but doomed to be torn apart.
The Final Battle With Essex
In the absence of Professor X and his X-Men, Marvel’s Wolverine focuses instead on Nathaniel Essex. Essex fills that Xavier-shaped void in Logan’s life. He recruits our hero to join Team X, a strike force that includes fellow mutant killers like Mystique and Sabretooth. Essex even has his own remote mansion not unlike the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. His hope is to provide a safe haven for mutants in a world that hates and fears them.
But for anyone remotely familiar with Essex from other X-Men media (where he normally goes by the moniker Mister Sinister), it should come as no surprise that this character is nowhere near as benevolent as he seems. Essex’s goal is to awaken the millions of dormant mutants who exist across the globe, using an artifact called the Helix Device. That’s the same artifact that originally transformed Logan into Death, and it has a similarly nasty effect on anyone else who’s subjected to its Apocalypse-infused power.
The game eventually reveals that Essex himself isn’t a mutant. Rather, he’s spent the past several centuries harvesting mutant genes and implanting them in his own body, beginning with his poor wife. We also learn that Essex was responsible for Logan’s amnesia. He awakened Logan’s dark side, causing him to kill Jean, and then forced him to relive that act over and over again until Logan’s mind broke.
By the climax of the game, Essex’s heel turn is complete. He implants countless new mutant genes and dons his Mister Sinister armor. His goal is to unleash an army of Sentinels that will awaken the mutant race and make them slaves to his will. Fortunately, Wolverine and Jean manage to stop the Sentinels, and Logan battles his own mentor to the death.
But just before meeting his end, Essex blasts Logan with a concentrated dose of Helix energy. That fully reactivates the Shinigami within. Barely maintaining control over his bloodlust, Wolverine begs Jean to use her Phoenix power to burn all traces of Death out of his mind. Jean worries there will be nothing left of him in the aftermath, but Logan reminds her that he’ll still have her.
Jean does as requested. Unfortunately, that once again renders Logan an amnesiac. Death is gone, but so are all the memories Logan fought so hard to recover. Even his memories of Jean have been burnt away. As Jean reunites with her friends and works to begin rebuilding in the ruins of Madripoor’s Lowtown, Logan opts to leave and seek out the truth about his life. No sooner have these star-crossed lovers been reunited than they’re broken apart again.
The Horsemen of Apocalypse
Much like the Marvel’s Spider-Man games, Marvel’s Wolverine includes a few juicy tidbits for those who stick around after the credits and complete the endgame content. The game features a post-credits scene which reveals that Sabretooth survived his final battle with Wolverine in Madripoor. Victor is drawn to a remote temple by a mysterious voice in his head. That voice turns out to be Apocalypse himself.
Apocalypse makes it clear that he intends to recruit Sabretooth to be his new agent of destruction. As Death, Wolverine has run his course. But Apocalypse doesn’t want another Death. This time, he wants a War, and Sabretooth is just the man to carry that burden.
This scene makes it clear that Sabretooth will return in the sequel to Marvel’s Wolverine (whether that ultimately takes the form of Wolverine 2 or a full-fledged X-Men game). Expect the series to dig deeper into the Logan/Victor rivalry and the threat posed by Apocalypse.
A quick Marvel history lesson is in order. Apocalypse himself is one of Earth’s oldest and most powerful mutants. His already immense strength was augmented by Celestial technology, allowing him to manipulate his body’s mass and shape at will. But Apocalypse is usually accompanied by four Horsemen - Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death. Each of these Horsemen is a mutant Apocalypse has handpicked to serve as his emissary and transformed to become deadlier and more powerful. In the comics, numerous X-Men have served as Apocalypse’s Horsemen at one point or another, including Archangel, Gambit, and Wolverine himself.
The Insomniac universe is a bit different in that Apocalypse seems to focus on one Horseman at a time. For decades, he was content to turn Wolverine loose as Death and savor the blood that flowed. But now that Apocalypse seems prepared to emerge from his long slumber, he’s turned his attention to War. That seems like a very foreboding way to set the stage for the next Wolverine game.
Wolverine’s Final Memory
In addition to that post-credits scene, Marvel’s Wolverine also saves one nugget for the very end. Players who complete all of the nightmare trials are treated to one last mission that unlocks a final memory for Logan.
This memory is set 75 years in the past. Jean, who now seems to recall her entire, centuries-long history with Logan, reveals that she once burned the Shinigami out of Logan’s mind to save him from Apocalypse. Despite losing his memories then, too, he pursued her across the world and throughout her many lives.
This memory is meant to be a comforting reminder that Logan has endured memory loss in the past, and that hasn’t stopped him from finding happiness with Jean again. This suggests that the two characters will again be drawn together in the sequel.
Though if we had to guess, it seems very likely that Insomniac will throw Cyclops into the mix to complicate the love affair between Jean and Logan. Perhaps Jean will encounter Scott Summers during her rebuilding efforts, with Scott being one of the many mutants awakened by Essex’s actions. In Logan’s absence, she may find new love from an unexpected source. Perhaps she’ll even be recruited into the X-Men by the time Logan tracks her down again.
Speaking of which…
Where Are Professor Xavier and the X-Men?
The most noteworthy thing about Insomniac’s Marvel Universe is that it has no X-Men. This world has a veteran Spider-Man, the Avengers, and even heroes like Daredevil and Doctor Strange, but no actual X-Men. For now, it has to make do with Wolverine and Team X.
So why aren’t the X-Men around yet? What is Charles Xavier up to if not pursuing his dream of peaceful human/mutant coexistence? We have to assume the culprit here is the relatively low mutant population in Insomniac’s Marvel Universe. Essex and his team are horrified to learn from Trask’s files that only about 10,000 mutants exist across the entire world, far short of the millions they were expecting. Instead, there are many people like Essex’s right-hand man Walter, those who carry a dormant mutant gene but display no powers.
It’s entirely possible that Xavier and/or some of our other favorite X-Men characters are part of that group. They may be blissfully unaware of their mutant heritage. If so, Essex’s Sentinel attacks may serve as a rude awakening for them. Even if a version of Charles Xavier with full psychic powers already exists in this world, it may not be until seeing the destruction in Japan that he fully recognizes the need for a team of mutant heroes.
Basically, Insomniac is building towards the X-Men, they just aren’t there yet. Based on files from a 2023 data leak, it would seem that the developer has plans for a full trilogy of games. Next up is a direct Marvel’s Wolverine sequel, followed by a full-fledged X-Men game. We don’t know how much those plans might have changed in the years since, but it seems safe to assume we’ll eventually see a proper team of X-Men in this universe. Based on how well Marvel’s Wolverine is selling, Sony will surely want to strike while the adamantium is hot.
Do you like the changes Insomniac made to Wolverine’s origin story? What are your theories about where the sequels are headed? Let us know what you think in the comments.
For more, check out IGN's review of Marvel's Wolverine and learn why we're getting tired of Insomniac's approach to Marvel villains.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
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