Daken
Daken is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Daken was the son of Logan and his Japanese wife Itsu when in 1946 his father lived at Jasmine Falls in Japan. Itsu would become pregnant with Logan's child but unknown to the pair they were being watched by Romulus. The ancient Mutant intended to create the perfect servant for his needs in his quest against Wolverine. This saw him hiring the Winter Soldier who was dispatched to kill Itsu whereupon a mysterious man cut open the baby from the mothers womb leaving her body on the floor. (Wolverine v3 #40) The child's inherent healing factor allowed him to survive and he was taken from his mothers dead body. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #5) In the same year, the new born child was placed at the doorstep of a wealthy young traditional Japanese couple who resided in Sendai at the Miyagi Prefecture. He was taken in by Akihira and Natsumi who had long tried to have a child with them adopting the boy as their son who they named Akihiro who was an answer to their prayers. However, the servants and other members of the families in the province saw him a mongrel and secretly called him Daken that was a slur on his obvious mixed heritage. Akihiro would be teased by the other boys in the village as he grew older with this harsh treatment over the years leading to him developing a cold personality that was directed at everyone except his father. During one night, he overheard his mother Natsumi confess to Akihira that she did not love their adopted son and that after long years of trying she had become pregnant. Upon hearing this development, Akihiro began to plot against his adoptive family and within a year after the birth of the baby he became responsible for killing the new born child. He would confess this act to Natsumi and upon learning of this his father Akihira became furious where he disowned Akihiro. However, Akihiro would tell his adoptive father that this was not his true name anyway and that he began to start referring to himself as Daken. Natusmi would suddenly appear at this point and attempt to run him through to kill him. This would lead to Daken instinctively using his Mutant claws and unsheathing them where he slashed at Natsumi thus killing her. Akihira would be unable to force himself to kill his adoptive son and decided to commit suicide. In the aftermath, Romulus would reveal himself to the young Daken and began molding him for the future. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #26)
In 1959, Romulus sent Daken to a boot camp in Canada headed by Frederick Hudson which was the same camp where Wolverine had first trained more than forty years earlier. Daken was also trained by the same man as his father, namely Silas Burr. Burr trained Daken for nine months before Daken disappeared one night. While two search parties were sent out to find him, Daken, at the behest of Romulus, reappeared in the camp and killed every man there before confronting Frederick Hudson and Silas Burr. By 1977, Romulus came to reveal to Daken that his father was still alive but also lied about the circumstances of his birth. Instead, he told Daken that it was Wolverine who had killed Itsu in an attempt to prevent his son from being born and reaching his potential. This lie sowed a seed of vengeance in Daken that Romulus continued to feed in the following decades. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #27) At point, he came to be an ally of the Red Right Hand and aided in their planned vengeance against Wolverine. He would track his father's other children all around the world for years turning them over to the the Red Right Hand and on his advice the criminal organization trained them in order to use them as weapons against Wolverine. Daken knew that they would not stand a chance against Wolverine but having his father killing them would hurt him in the worst way possible. These children would later become collectively known as the Mongrels who wold serve in a long term plot against his father. (Wolverine v4 #14)
Upon learning of his fathers capture by S.H.I.E.L.D., he disguised himself as an agent to infiltrate the facility where he stabbed Dum Dum Dugan and confronted Wolverine for the first time. Daken then slashed Logan across the stomach and left her bleeding on the ground where she promised that they would meet again. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #10) He then eliminated several people he was using in order to prevent anyone from uncovering his location. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #11) His master was displeased at Daken's early confrontation with Wolverine though he simply killed the messenger that came to deliver the message to him. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #12) He came to follow his father into the bank vaults of Brussels when Wolverine looked to recover the Carbonadium Synthesizer. Once there, he snuck upon on Logan and fought him in a bloody battle where Daken showed a greater level of fighting prowess as well as speed. Thus, he was able to wound Wolverine who showed a lack of desire to fight his own son as he thought Daken could be redeemed. Despite his greater experience, Wolverine came to lose the fight but their battle was interrupted by Cyber who had come to challenge Daken. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #13) A fight erupted between the two as Cyber wanted to know about the location of his boss who had betrayed him but Daken refused to cooperate. During the fight, Wolverine recovered and attempted to hold down Cyber but Daken simply departed the scene rather than aid his father in a fight. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #14)
Dark Wolverine
After the Secret Invasion, Norman Osborn was hailed a hero for killing the alien queen Veranke leading to him replacing Tony Stark in the role of national security. Director Osborn of H.A.M.M.E.R. then sought to create a replacement team of Avengers and wanted Daken to be on this team. Thus, he tracked the Mutant and met him at a diner where he said that he wanted to recruit Daken to join the ranks of the Dark Avengers. (Dark Avengers v1 #1)
Following repeated failed attempts to kill the Punisher, Norman Osborn sent Daken and a platoon of H.A.M.M.E.R. troops to complete this mission. After a bloody round of hand-to-hand combat, Daken dismembered and decapitated Castle before kicking his remains from a rooftop. Castle's body parts were collected and spirited away by Moloids seemingly operating under the protection of Man-Thing. Castle's body was put back together and revived as FrankenCastle. (Dark Reign: The List - Punisher v1 #1)
After learning of Skaar, the son of the Hulk, Daken sought him out to recruit him to the Avengers, believing that having a "kindred spirit" on the team would be helpful. Daken used his pheromones to calm Skaar down, reverting him to his human form. Now a child again, Skaar asked Daken to kill him due to guilt over the destruction he had caused back home, but Wolverine and Banner intervened. The two father-son teams battled, but the fight was stopped when Banner threatened to kill Wolverine, prompting Daken to back off. (Incredible Hulk v1 #603)
Daken kept consolidating his power in Madripoor by having the heads of the several criminal organizations remaining on the Island recognize him as their leader. All agreed except one old man: Tan Kim Seng. After meeting him, Tan Kim Seng dismissed Daken, telling him all he was capable of was destruction and imitating his father. After killing the old man and becoming the indisputable ruler of Madripoor, Daken was still shaken by the old man's words and decided to prove him wrong. To that end he broke into Avengers Tower in order to see his father. Daken bid his father farewell, in an effort to leave his old grudge behind and start a new life. Daken then left Madripoor and went to Los Angeles to build a new life for himself away from his father's shadow. (Daken: Dark Wolverine v1 #9.1)
Daken's actions in Madripoor made the island fall into chaos and during his rule several criminal ventures such as child prostitution, gun running, slavery, and drugs ran rampant again on an unbelievable scale which would later force Tyger Tiger to allow ivory trade in order to put an end to those criminal activities. (Savage Wolverine v1 #12)
The goal of Daken and the Brotherhood was to torture Evan long enough for him to become the new Apocalypse, then to use the Shadow King to mess with his mind in order to force Evan to destroy the Jean Grey School, to kill all the students, to kill all of Logan's friends and then blame X-Force for everything. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #34) To that end Daken and Sabretooth then decided to take Evan to the farm where he grew up but while Evan jumped out of the car and tried to warn his parents to get out but found them both killed by Sabretooth and Daken. Evan attacked them but refrained from killing them, refusing to become like them. They commended him on his control before revealing that they did not really kill his parents because they never existed in the first place. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #31) Due to the betrayal of Earth-295's Nightcrawler, Wolverine was captured by Daken's new Brotherhood. Daken tied his father up and began taunting Logan with insults and telling a likely apocryphal account of his youth. Logan attempted a dialogue and apologized to his son for failing him, but Daken had no interest in hearing it. Daken then trapped him in a drowning chamber, as the only way to kill Wolverine is to deprive his brain of oxygen. He forced Evan to watch Wolverine drown at the same time he punched and screamed at Evan, trying to make him get angry. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #33)
Though dead, his body was recovered by the Apocalypse Twins who used the power of the Death Seed to resurrect him and make Daken one of the Horsemen of Death. (Uncanny Avengers v1 #9)
Wolverines
Learning of his father's death, Daken went to an auction in Madripoor that was selling the remains of his father. He killed everybody present at the auction except Viper, Mystique, and Agent Kim. The last of these he kept live in order to pass on a message which was that Daken would kill anyone seeking any piece of his father's remains. Daken later went to Okinawa with a priest and buried his father's body there. (Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy v1 #5)
He came to be kidnapped alongside Mystique, Sabretooth, X-23, and Lady Deathstrike, and Elixir by Shogun after his father's death. (Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy v1 #1) Shogun came to threaten them with the hypnotic 'control words' in order to force them into helping him find the adamantium-petrified body of Wolverine in the burnt-down Paradise facility. Before they could leave on this mission, however, they were attacked by Siphon who killed Elixir and drained Daken's healing factor, leaving it non-functional. Despite that, they proceeded with the mission where Daken kept his inability to heal a secret from their impromptu teammates. They encountered and fought the Wrecking Crew who had been hired by Mister Sinister to claim Wolverine's body. He and X-23 managed to fin the body when Mister Sinister appeared who ended up ripping an eye and arm from Daken after which Essex escaped with Logan's remains. (Wolverines v1 #1) Daken was horribly injured and thrashing around as Sinister escaped with Logan’s body, forcing Junk to use his Sleep word just to get him under control. On the Changeling ship, Sharp used a Regen Serum made by Dr. Cornelius that he found in the wreckage to stabilize and save Daken, against Ogun's wishes. Daken remained infirmed on the ship as the others made plans to continue their mission by stealing Wolverine's body back from Mister Sinister. A small dose of Regen serum culled from Paradise gave Daken a jolt of healing factor enough to stabilize him, but he was greatly humbled by his wounds. (Wolverines v1 #2) However, their mission was a failure and Wolverine's body was recovered by the X-Men. (Wolverines v1 #6) Later, Fang who was a member of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard that befriended Wolverine years prior arrived at the scene. He came to easily defeat the Wolverines and kidnapped them one by one, taking them on adventures, both teaching them important lessons but also causing them great pain and duress, as revenge for them causing Wolverine so much grief. In the case of Daken, he came to take the son of Wolverine to the Asgardian realm of Jotunheim. (Wolverines v1 #8) He took Daken hunting Frost Giants in Jotunheim and convinced one of the dim-witted giants that Daken was the father who abandoned him. Despite lacking his healing factor, Daken managed to gain the upper hand and tried to kill the giant, only for Fang to save it. Daken barely survived the fight, and Fang’s trick forced him to confront the futility of holding a grudge against Logan for not being there for him as a father. Fang spoke to Daken, touching on his obsession with gaining revenge on his father, even briefly restoring Daken's lost arm and eye. Just as Daken believed that his lost limbs had been restored, Fang snatched them away, as part of punishing him for what he had done to his father. (Wolverines v1 #9)
His healing factor managed to slowly regrow his lost arm thus restoring it. He was among the allies that Doctor Strange brought to Roosevelt Island after an alien virus was killing the population where Daken said he came to help Laura Kinney. (All-New Wolverine v1 #21)
Briar Raleigh would meet up with Daken in Barcelona with the proposition of becoming Magneto's ally. As a gesture of good will, she gifted him on Magneto's behalf a set of adamantium daishō swords. (X-Men: Blue v1 #24)
House of X
Through unknown means, Daken was restored back to normal and operated in the world once more. After the establishment of the nation of Krakoa, Daken was one of many Mutants that came to reside on the living island that was the home of their people. (House of X v1 #5) In this time, he seemingly had reconciled with his father Wolverine and engaged in family bonding exercises with him alongside Gabby. (X-Force v6 #9) He later came to be recruited by Northstar to investigate the mysterious death of his sister Aurora. Through the Resurrection Protocols, deceased Mutants could be restored though the nature of their death meant that the queue was long if the death was ambiguous. Northstar then requested the Quiet Council of Krakoa authorise the creation of X-Factor Investigations that would determine cause of death and help streamline the resurrection process through the Five. Daken came to be recruited as part of the new team despite a shaky start with the team residing at their headquarters called the Boneyard. (X-Factor v4 #1)
Overview
Personality and attributes
For a time, he had the name of Akihiro which was given to him by his adoptive father who he was named after though the servants noted the child's mixed heritage where they called him a 'daken'. This led to him eventually adopting the name for himself and he started to call himself Daken by the time his adoptive parents had died. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #26)
He was shown to be bisexual as he had relationships with both men and women. In one case, he made a woman fall in love with him so that he could use her residence as a place to stay whilst also having an affair with a man who he murdered. He intentionally had the woman he was with see him kissing a man in order to break her though he said it was nothing personal as he simply wished to remove any trace of himself from others. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #11)
Daken was shown to be cold and manipulative with him capable of murdering others. He also removed any individual that could lead to his discovery. According to him, he was destined to be the inheritor of the Earth and thought little of ordinary humans. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #11) In a fight, he was known to trick enemies to distract them to allow him to get the first strike against a foe. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #14) He was not above killing even children such as when he lulled Skaar to transforming to his human guise thus making him vulnerable to being killed. (Incredible Hulk v1 #603)
He claimed to not understand the need for wearing a mask with him stating that his costume was the clothes he wore everyday. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #13)
His mother Itsus name meant 'Peace' but there was no peace in Daken. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #26) According to Logan, Daken was beautiful like his mother on the outside but on the inside he was more like Wolverine. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #11) He came to consider that his father was weak and disgusted with him due to this perceived quality. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #10) Though he was his biological son, Daken refused to accept Wolverine as his father with him instead saying that the honour belonged to someone else. He refused to believe he was like his father and rejected giving into his anger where he would fall into a berserker rage. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #13) On one occasion, he made a deal so that Wolverine would not die though stated that this was not because he cared for him but rather because he did not want someone else to kill his father. (Incredible Hulk v1 #603)
After his birth, he was left in the care of a rich Japanese couple where he was adopted by Akihira and Natsumi. The pair believed the boy was an answer to their prayers as they had long wanted a child. His adoptive father was noted to had loved the boy but his wife in the years afterwards claimed that she had no love in her heart for Akihiro. In fact, she believed that the boy was cursed and that this curse had been brought to their house as she had noticed that they were happy when their adoptive child was happy whilst they were angry when Akihiro was angry. Natsumi by this point was pregnant and gave birth to her own child with Daken murdering the infant as a rival and unworthy of living. This resulted in Natsumi in a rage attempting to kill Akihiro and his bone claws first manifested with him killing his adoptive mother. His loving father was unable to bear this event leading to him killing himself as a result. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #26)
Whilst on Krakoa, he was noted to had been attracted to Jeanne-Marie and came to be romantically involved with her. (X-Factor v4 #7)
Powers and abilities
Similar to his father, he had bone claws with two erupting from the top of his hand between the fingers which he could use to slash and eviscerate a target. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #11) A third claw emerged from the wrist which he hid in order to ambush an opponent with them. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #13) Unlike his father, he lacked an Adamantium-coated skeleton which meant he could be killed in a fight. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #14)
An aspect of his body was that he produced no scent which made it difficult for his father to track him. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #11)
He had said though that he did not control people but rather simply enhanced already existing emotions. (X-Factor v4 #7)
Similar to his father, he was born with a healing factor and this allowed him to survive the traumatic nature of his birth. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #5)
It was known that Daken was trained by Cyber with him being a more skilled fighter than his mentor and faster than him. (Wolverine: Origins v1 #14)
Notes
- Daken was created by Daniel Way and Steve Dillon where he made his first appearance in Wolverine Origins v1 #10 (March, 2007).
- He was identified as Daken in Wolverine: Origins v1 #12 (May, 2007).
- Daniel Way commented in an interview Daken, "He [Logan] has finally taken control of his destiny. The tragedy of this, though, is that Daken is walking the exact same path that Logan did—how can he, Logan, convince his son to change his ways without being hypocritical? It’s something that he’s trying to figure out as he goes. For once, he’s thinking about the future instead of the past."
- On CBR, writer Brian Michael Bendis commented on the character when he became a Dark Avenger, "Daken is one of the best things to come out of ‘Origins,’ and what better way to piss off his father? He’s an iconic and legacy character attached to a number of cool things in the Marvel Universe, but he really hasn’t had a lot of face time with it. So we can really roll up our sleeves and see what we’ve got there and help create a character. I’m not taking anything away from Daniel Way, his creator, but I am saying once a character gets rolling it’s interesting to see him interacting with different types of characters. You take him out of the Wolverine book to see what he’s made of. It’s much like with Wolverine, when you took him out of ‘Hulk’ [where he first appeared], he became something else."
- Matt Fraction said in an interview, "He [Daken] loves the cameras and the attention. He can't enough of them because he knows they're allowing him to rub Wolverine's nose in it. It's sweet when he pretends to be an Avenger but man it's even sweeter when he's pretending to be an X-Man. He knows he's making his dad's blood boil."
- Writer Marjorie Liu in an interview noted, "He's [Daken]] slightly psychotic, highly intelligent, very manipulative, and has daddy issues."
Alternate Versions
In other media
Video games
- In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Daken who was also referenced as the Dark Wolverine appeared as a card power-up in the fighting video game.
- In Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Daken appeared in the setting of the Facebook video game. He was shown in Spec-Ops #12 dressed as Wolverine when Dell Rusk formed the Dark Avengers.
- In Marvel: War of Heroes, Daken appeared as a playable card in the video game.
- In X-Men: Battle of the Atom, Daken appeared as a card present in the iOS video card game.
Appearances
- Wolverine: Origins v1: (2007)
- Dark Avengers v1:
- Incredible Hulk v1:
- Dark Wolverine v1:
- Daken: Dark Wolverine v1:
- Uncanny X-Force v1:
- Uncanny Avengers v1:
- Wolverines v1:
- All-New Wolverine v1:
- X-Men: Blue v1:
- Hunt for Wolverine: Claws of the Killer v1:
- House of X v1:
- X-Factor 4:
- Marauders v2:
External Link
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