1910 – 1920
World War One was a horrid time for everyone, and it just so happen to occur as James was enlisting in the Canadian Armed Forces. At the time England still held dominion over Canada, and they drew heavily from the Canadian forces. James was among them.
At the time James’ ability as a mutant was secret, but he displayed an uncanny ability to get in and out of sticky situations that others wouldn’t even attempt. He was able to infiltrate many enemy installations, yet even with cover blown he would somehow return to base with the information relatively unscathed. Because of this, most of the War was spent serving allied special forces.
This was also James’ first true exposure to the world of spies. As a man who was able to get in to places few others would even attempt he soon came to the attention of the counter intelligence divisions. They began to send James in ahead, as a sort of advanced recon. His job would often be to go in to an area, ahead of allied forces and get the lay of the land.
During one point in the War, he actually served as a double agent. Working for Germany as an inquisitor, while secretly aiding captives to escape. It was during this assignment that James met another mutant for the first time, Silas Burr, whom James would aide in escaping.
As it turned out, Silas was the head of a special forces unit called “Devil’s Brigade,” and he would offer James a position in his squad. Unfortunately for James, Silas was not the figure that he seemed to be. Over the course of the remainder of the war, serving as part of Devil’s Brigade, James was forced to circumvent Silas’ orders many times. Silas would often go to any means to complete his orders, including burning a schoolhouse full of children to the ground in order to flush out a single spy. James would eventually report this behavior to his superiors and get Silas put on trial for his atrocities. Silas was sentenced to death, but somehow managed to escape captivity during an attack on the base where his trial was held. He was assumed dead for the remainder of the war.
Following the end of World War One there would be a brief stint of downtime. James had begun to settle down, once more in Canada, with a young woman from Devil’s Brigade by the name of Janet. As punishment for his death sentence, Silas killed Janet in cold blood. In the ensuing battle between them James maimed Silas. Cutting his arms and legs off with an axe, then leaving him for dead in the Canadian wilderness.
With Janet dead, there was nothing holding James in Canada anymore. So it was time to move on and James was smart enough to know that he couldn’t start anew as ‘James Howlett.’ He simply had too much history. He put his training from the war to work for the first time and assumed a new identity for the first time. Drawing upon his past he chose the name ‘Logan‘ for his new identity. Then picked up stakes and moved to the United States where he would undertake a new life and career as a bank robber and smuggler.