This is the latest in a series (of indefinite length and regularity) of pieces looking at particular odd/strange/interesting instances of retroactively connecting different comic book characters (for instance, Uncanny X-Men #268 retroactively established that Wolverine knew both Captain America and the Black Widow from World War II). Here is an archive of all of the past pieces.

Today is the second of a two-part look at some of Wolverine's early espionage connections. The first one, Carol Danvers, is here.

In the aforementioned Carol Danvers edition, I explained how Chris Claremont introduced the idea that Wolverine and Carol Danvers had once worked with each other but then expanded it so that they were REALLY good friends in an issue of Marvel Fanfare. In that same exact story, Claremont gave us the first real meeting between Wolverine and the Thing (they presumably had briefly crossed paths together before this point during the Contest of Champions and that time that the Thing boxed the Champion for the fate of the world) and the Thing is unfamiliar with him...

By the by, as a quick aside, Carol Danvers taught Wolverine how to play poker? For serious? What an odd decision by Claremont there.

So that was the case for the next decade and a half. They interacted with each other, including playing a number of poker games, but no talk was given to them knowing each other at all before Carol introduced Wolverine to the Thing.

That is, until 1998's Wolverine Minus 1, that is!

In that issue, Larry Hama established that Grimm and Logan had met many years earlier...

And in 2000, Hama even wrote a mini-series where they go on a secret mission together! And not just them, but, of course, Carol Danvers!

I imagine that their past together has sort of gone into the realm of "things we just don't talk about." Especially since you'd figure it would have come up before Wolverine stabbed him in the face (the display piece).

If YOU have a sugggestion for a future edition of Foundationed Deep, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com!