Wolverine

As popular as the X-Man formerly known as Weapon X is among his fan base, no one can deny that Wolverine has been an epic jerk pretty often on the page. Some of his infractions have been on the minor scale and for those, an eye-roll suffices as acknowledgement. No one ever said the wild-haired mutant with a healing factor and adamantium claws was a peach and nobody expects him to mind his manners. It is when his terrible temper, wild berserker instincts and blind jealousy take over that we need to call him out on his heinous behavior and beast-like brutality which, let's be honest, does come in handy against a villain.

Everyone has their off moments, but Canucklehead has, arguably, more than most. Some instances may have been beyond his control due to a spell or weird story line, but in many cases Wolvie's bad choices were his own to make. Whether they had merit or not, whether he had full mental faculties or not, here are 15 Time Wolverine Was A Jerk.

15. Skipping Jean Grey's Wedding

Jean Grey Scott Summers Wedding

Not attending the wedding of one of the supposed loves of his life may not seem like a big deal compared to the other items on this list, but Logan did not just flake out when it came to the wedding of Scott Summers and Jean Grey. Although he was nearby, he chose to skip out due to his own wounded ego and jealousy over Grey choosing Summers instead of Wolverine himself. Had he truly loved Grey, he would have put his own pride aside to join her in the celebration of the happiest day of her life, even if only to make a brief appearance.

To be fair, Logan did write Jean a letter to tell her he would not be at the wedding. He also wasn't a member of the team at the time, yet when Sabretooth thought about crashing the wedding to create some havoc, Wolverine attacked him from behind and wrote, "Don't even think about it," in the snow, proving he was actually nearby even if his letter indicated that he wouldn't be.

14. Kidnapping and Conditioning Nuke

Nuke

When he was a black ops member of the United States and Canadian government, Logan was responsible for many questionable actions. One of the worst of these was the of the kidnapping and conditioning of Frank Simpson, also known as Weapon VII, or Nuke. A different version of the character, called Will Simpson, appears on Netflix's Jessica Jones. Subtlety is never a word used to describe Wolverine. When he was given the order to mold Nuke into a mindless killing machine by the U.S. government, he psychological abused and tortured the man into a ruthless killer.

Although Frank Simpson had a terrible childhood and was tricked into murdering his own mother, Wolverine swept in and kidnapped him to make him a part of the supersoldier project, which only made his life worse. When Logan tortured Nuke, he even branded Nuke's face with the famous American flag that he is known for. Years later, Frank came a-calling to enact some revenge on Wolverine for his handiwork.

13. Getting Trashy

Trashy Wolverine

During the Earth X series, Wolverine lost any chance he had of being voted the Coolest X-Man of 1999. The dystopian comic not only saw Logan marry Madelyne Pryor, whom he believed to be Jean Grey, but it also featured him as a rotund, beer-drinking hillbilly. He actually wore a t-shirt that read, "I'm with Stupid" and asked Madelyne (calling her Jeannie) to get him beer while he drank and watched TV. He is balding, ancient-looking and crass, reminding "Jean" that she chose him over Cyclops so he must be a winner. He is also drunk, which his healing power should have been able to prevent, and discovers that he is related to Moon-Boy, of all people.

As Pryor walks out on him, she reveals that she is not his beloved Jeannie but her clone, something that Logan had either been too drunk or too much of a jerk to deduce on his own.

12. Killing Daken

Wolverine Killing Daken

While growing up, Wolverine's son, Daken, had a distorted view regarding the lack of a paternal figure in his life. He assumed Logan had abandoned his son when in reality, Wolverine simply had no idea he existed after his mother, Itsu, was murdered by the Winter Soldier. Daken had survived the attack through his inherited mutant healing factor and been kidnapped by Romulus. Growing up unloved and resentful made Daken a bad seed who murdered his adopted baby brother, then killed his adopted mother after his claws, courtesy of his father's genetics, manifested for the first time. From then on he had no conscience, but given the leniency that has often been bestowed upon villains like Sabretooth (whose head Logan did eventually decapitate), killing his son was a pretty cold move from Wolverine, even if Daken did torture him while disguised as a SHIELD agent once.

After drowning his son, Wolverine might have imagined the kind of life they could have had if he had been able to raise Daken himself, but that does not change that he killed him instead of simply restraining him somewhere.

11. Taunting The Punisher

Wolverine and the Punisher

Viciously poking fun at villains during a fighting sequence is something that a lot of heroes do, but making fun of other heroes is generally frowned upon. Some banter can be fun, but to call out another hero's sexuality is in very bad taste. In Wolverine issue #186, Wolverine finds some magazines that feature bodybuilders and toss them at Frank Castle during a fight, calling him gay in a pretty hateful manner. Given the mutual respect the pair have demonstrated for each other when they were able to work amicably with one another, it was a very unexpected, low moment for Wolverine. They have had their disagreements, but the uncouth comments were just uncalled for.

Granted, Castle had done some pretty awful things to Logan, including running him over with a steamroller, but Wolvie could've just kept beating the crap out of Castle instead of being such a jerk while he did it.

10. Being a Deadbeat Dad

Wolverine 3: Weapon X title rumored

Yes, he did not know about Daken. Logan did not know about most of his kids the world over. But did he think he could just notch up his bedpost without consequences around the globe? As many women as he took to bed, he should have expected plenty of progeny running around with his trademark bad hair and even worse tempers. Take Gahch, for example. Wolverine sleeps with the Tribe of Fire leader in the Savage Lands during Wolverine: Jungle Adventure. She later gives birth to their baby, Erista, completely without his knowledge. Is she supposed to call him up to let him know? The responsibility for children continually falls on the lovers of many heroes, completely changing their lives while the heroes continue on with their own child-free adventures. It is about time for the worst dads in comics to step up to the plate.

If Wolverine cannot keep it in his pants or bother to check up on his many children, he should at least make friends with the Trojan Man.

9. Wife Stealing

Wolverine and Jean

Wolverine does not only have a thing for the ladies. He has a thing for ladies who are taken, especially when they have red hair. He has openly lusted after Jean Grey, even when she rebuffs his advances, as well as Mary Jane Watson, who is Peter Parker's girlfriend. Logan's advances on Grey gave him the appearance of a petulant baby-man as he thew temper tantrums over not getting to have his way--with her. He even continued to pursue her once they were married, which is just a jerk thing to do. When he comes onto MJ, it is evident on her face how uncomfortable his attention makes her. It turns out that Logan may seek out redheads due to his feelings for his first love, Rose, whom he had accidentally killed.

Although Logan and Jean do end up together in some universes, that does not make his pursuant of the telepath right in other circumstances, particularly when she asks him to stop.

8. Coercing Mary Jane Into Sex

Wolverine and Spider-Man

Wolverine took his interest in Mary Jane Watson to a more sinister level when he raped her using Peter Parker's body. While some argue that it was two teens having consensual sex in Ultimate Spider-Man issues #66 and 67, the fact of the matter is that Wolverine and Parker swapped bodies, leaving Logan to do as he pleased with MJ while posing as Parker. Using Parker's body to seduce Mary Jane was one of the worst moves Wolverine has made and he knew it. The purely evil look on his face while she kisses and snuggles up to his body demonstrates his awareness of the wrongness of what is about to occur. Later, when Cyclops asks about how high school was, Wolverine gives him a devilish look that indicates he has no regrets, either. A grown man was inside Parker's body while it went after a teenage MJ Watson.

He could have easily taken the high road when MJ kissed him, but instead he chose to take advantage of the situation and MJ herself. The body-swapping itself actually occurred as a punishment from Jean Grey, who grew tired of Logan hitting on her. There is also a strong possibility that Logan committed statutory rape with Squirrel Girl.

7. Killing the X-Men

Old Man Logan Dead X-Men

It may have only run for eight issues, but the Wolverine: Old Man Logan story line is one of the most brutal alternate histories in the entire Marvel universe. In it, Logan is one of the few surviving superheroes in a world taken over by villains. He has sworn off using his adamantium claws for the good of mankind, and when it is revealed why, X-Men fans around the world practically fainted: Wolverine had last used his claws to murder all of the X-Men. Although it was under a spell cast by Mysterio revealed in Wolverine's painful flashbacks, Logan believed the X-Mansion to be under attack by 40 villains.

Although it is an understatement to say that this one of the biggest jerk moments of Wolverine's life, it was a complete accident. His grief over the incident was so overwhelming that he unsuccessfully attempted suicide before writing off his claws.

6. Becoming an Evil Dictator

Wolverine Weapon X Age of Apocalypse X Men Marvel Comics

During the Age of Apocalypse, things went topsy-turvey on the X-front. Rogue ended up married to Magneto, Scott Summers and his brother, Alex, worked for Sinister and Wolverine became an all-powerful, evil dictator. It did not start out that way, though. Wolverine was first a member of a mutant force working to eliminate Sinister from power to restore peace and justice. Known as Weapon X throughout the Age of Apocalypse series, Logan became Weapon Omega, an even worse leader than Sinister when his mind was corrupted by aliens. He announced that he was Sinister's successor, killing yet another one of his children, his daughter with Mariko, Kirika, in the process. Once in power, he oppressed citizens, deemed the demise of humans as an "invigorating" action and tried to create an "elite" race where all weaklings were culled out. He even destroyed the last city of humans

Wolverine as Hitler, everyone.

5. Murdering His Own Parents

Wolverine Killing Parents

In his miniseries Origin, Wolverine's backstory is finally revealed and, while not surprising, it is a doozy. Although born to affluent parents, his father was actually the family's groundskeeper. One night, when the groundskeeper drunkenly approached Logan's father and shot him, the mutant's powers manifested for the first time. He then murdered both of his parents in a berserker rage. Fleeing from the scene with his friend Rose, he was stopped by his half-brother. During the conflict, Logan stabbed Rose as well, thereby killing everyone who had ever loved him.

These accidental deaths were not the fault of Logan, but they set up a lifetime of death surrounding the mutant. His lovers and wives would all be at risk of being murdered while his own children were largely killed by his own hand. He also developed his feral personality as a result, turning to the woods to live among the wolves.

4. Eating the Human Race

Zombie Wolverine

When it comes to Marvel Zombies, just about anything goes. The five-issue series deals with several superheroes being infected with a zombie virus that makes them into cannibals who do not care as much about the human race as they did in previous comics, except as a food source. Wolverine as a zombie does not differ from just about any other zombie out there: he eats a bunch of people with his fellow zombies, like the Hulk and Iron Man. Some mutants, like Magneto, fail to escape the former superheroes turned zombies, also turning into snacks for the team. Once humanity is pretty much wiped out, they take to space to keep eating whatever living things they find. In the last scene of the series, an alien race appears to be horrified as they see the approaching zombies stalking them.

The good thing about this time Wolverine was a jerk is that it doesn't really count. It is pretty much a Marvel crackfic for fun.

3. Killing Children

Wolverine and Kids

When Wolverine is not killing his own children, he is turning his adamantium on other peoples' kids. Although he is often thinking of saving lives when contemplating child homicide, he is an even bigger jerk for considering murder when other alternatives are in place. Like when he killed his son, Daken, he would rather wipe out the risk entirely than take a chance of having to battle it again in the future. Some of the most notable children he has considered killing include Hope Summers in Avengers vs. X-Men #2 due to her potentially lethal Phoenix powers; her dad, Cyclops, as a teen in the past to prevent a future that may or may not occur in All-New X-Men #5; and Apocalypse's child clone in Uncanny X-Force #5. Perhaps the most unforgettable occurence was in Ultimate X-Men #41 when he killed a teen mutant who accidentally killed a group of people. Given how many people are listed on Wolvie's "I Accidentally Murdered Them" dance card, he might have shown a little more leniency.

Some X-Men are child advocates. Wolverine is a child death advocate.

2. Leaving Cyclops for Dead

Wolverine Attacking Cyclops

In Ultimate X-Men #29, Scott Summers fell partway into a pit in the Savage Lands. It is not a life and death situation, since he has both Kitty Pryde and Wolverine there to assist him. Wolverine, however, peeked around to make certain no one was watching before he shoved Cyclops all the way down into the chasm and left him for dead. Logan even sucker-punched Cyclops as the beam-blazing mutant thanked him, saying that Professor X was right about them being able to work together with all of this differences and history. Wolverine growls, "Guess again" as he pushes him down the pit out of jealousy over Jean Grey, a move that is anything but heroic.

Cyclops nearly dies in the ordeal, staying alive for 26 days before the Brotherhood finds him. Wolverine seems to suffer no guilt over his actions at all this time, making it one of his top jerk moments.

1. Murdering His Own Children

Wolverine Killing His Children

In addition to Daken, Wolverine has murdered several of his children. In Wolverine Volume 4, he sought revenge on the group of villains who cast a spell on him to send him to hell. The group, the Red Right Hand, was just a group of humans, but they had one thing in common: they had all been wronged by Wolverine for some reason or another and decided to take action against him. He was able to take out each of the members' mutant bodyguards, but the members themselves took poison before he could savagely attack them as well. After the attack, Wolverine learned that all of the bodyguards that he had killed were his own children.

Logan's guilt was especially heavy and he again attempted suicide multiple times, but his healing factor would not let him die. It took help from both the X-Men and the Avengers to help him return to some semblance of normalcy.