Contains minor spoilers for Defenders Beyond #2!
The mutant brawler shadowy organization Weapon X. However, Logan's newly revealed connection to a cosmic archetype suggests that it was always his destiny to be condemned to a cycle of violence, and could even hint that despite his best efforts, he'll never be able to escape it.
With razor-sharp claws and animalistic instincts, Wolverine has always struggled with the temptation to commit violence, but the ways in which Weapon X enhanced his body and assaulted his mind left him in a near feral state that he's spent the rest of his life learning to harness and control. Much of Logan's early suffering was orchestrated by Romulus, a hidden puppet master who takes an interest in 'Lupine' mutants, but it turns out that all the manipulations and abuse Wolverine suffered may have been due to his connection to a cosmic being named "Of-Violence."
In Defenders #4 (from Al Ewing and Javier Rodríguez), Doctor Strange's team traveled back in time to the Fourth Cosmos - an earlier, less developed iteration of Marvel's main reality. This world was populated by primal avatars, described as living ideas within the cosmic mind of the universe. For example, two beings named Of-Past and Of-Future (who look like Captain America and Iron Man respectively) are locked in Marvel's secret first Civil War, expressing how these ideas exist in constant opposition. Each archetype is a concept that later, more sophisticated versions of reality (including the modern Marvel Universe) will draw on for meaning. In Defenders Beyond #2 (also from Ewing and Rodriguez), Marvel provides the names of these archetypes, as well as the heroes and villains who embody them in Marvel's current reality. The hairy, sword-limbed being from Defenders #4 is revealed as "Of-Violence" - basically the universe's first draft of the idea that would later become Wolverine.
The visual similarities between Wolverine and Of-Violence are obvious, as the shaggy-haired beast resembles Logan, especially as he's generally depicted right after escaping Weapon X. This is disturbing, since Of-Violence existed in a version of reality long before Logan, suggesting the path of Wolverine's life has been guided by his connection to this archetype. It's not yet completely clear how thoroughly cosmic archetypes influence the more complex heroes who now embody them, but it seems that either Logan was always destined to become an expression of Of-Violence, or else at some point he stepped onto a path that attuned him to its influence.
It's clear that the cosmic archetypes are in many ways the blueprints for the heroes who exist in Marvel's current realities, though the relationship isn't one-to-one. For example, it's stated that Punisher and Ghost Rider are both expressions of the cosmic archetype Of-Vengeance - both beings obsessed with retribution and who are identified through skull iconography. This suggests that at the very least, the cosmic archetypes charted the path for certain heroes, dictating aspects of how their lives would go. The fact that Wolverine is tied to a cosmic expression of violence suggests that his origin and even his body were shaped according to this primal idea, and his future may be too. If Wolverine was created to the blueprint of a being totally defined by violence, can he ever really live in peace?
Ewing and Rodriguez's exploration of the prior versions of Marvel's reality are truly fascinating, peeling back the layers of the fictional universe's deepest lore while also offering metatextual commentary (after all, it's unlikely Marvel will ever choose to permanently retire Wolverine as a character, meaning he'll likely be stuck fighting forever.) It's possible more will be shared about the primal avatars and exactly how much they've influenced Marvel's modern heroes in the future, but for now, it appears that Wolverine is cosmically bound to the metaphysical concept of "Of-Violence," suggesting he really is doomed to a life of brutality and pain, perhaps until his final days.
