Wolverine’s central conflict has often been one between the external man and the animal caged within; a hyper-violent, hyper-masculine force seeking dominance. Whilst he has often erred towards his respectable, human side, he stands ever at this precipice: and in the alternate universe explored in the 1995 X-Men event Age Of Apocalypse, Logan lets the animal take over.
Where the Wolverine of the prime Marvel universe has, over the years, found ways to temper the beast within, Age of Apocalypse shows us a Wolverine in a world without Xavier, and without his influence. Killed by his time-traveling son Legion, Xavier dies before he gets a chance to form the X-Men. Going by the name Weapon X, Logan would join a team of X-Men assembled by Magneto and, in Xavier’s stead, Jean Grey would be employed as Logan’s psychic keeper.
That Logan inevitably made his way to the X-Men regardless of circumstance is noteworthy, but so too are his reasons for leaving. The connection between Jean Grey and Logan fostered by Magneto to keep the animalistic killer in check would backfire on the leader of these very different X-Men. When Jean is captured by Apocalypse’s acolyte Mister Sinister, Magneto refuses to move to rescue her. This is something Logan cannot abide, and he abandons both leader and X-Men to fight for the woman he loves in Howard Mackie and Ian Churchill's X-Men Chronicles #2.
During his rescue mission, he would come into conflict with an alternate version of Cyclops, a footsoldier of Apocalypse’s empire. In their fight, Cyclops lost an eye, and Weapon X lost a hand. Logan was able to help Jean escape, and his metallic stump hand became one of Age Of Apocalypse’s most lasting images.
Eventually, the rule of Apocalypse would be overthrown. Taking up Magneto’s mantle of leadership, Logan and Jean would return to the X-Men, holding the team together for many of the post-Apocalypse years. When a mysterious spaceship lands on Earth and the X-Men investigate, a very different Logan would emerge. Marking the transition from Weapon X to Weapon Omega, this version of Logan was imbued with the powers of Apocalypse and had become the heir to his tyrannical legacy.
Encountered by the X-Force team from the Marvel Universe in Rick Remender, Mark Brooks, Esad Ribic and Jerome Opena's"Dark Angel Saga" in Uncanny X-Force, Weapon Omega reveals that he had taken the ship’s dread power to save the world. The Celestials had deemed this Earth evolutionarily stagnant, and would otherwise have destroyed it. To save the world from that grim fate, Logan would oversee the genetic culling of billions as this power corrupted him.
This villainous Logan now pursued Jean not out of the care he held for her, but instead in hopes of claiming the power of the Phoenix. With that power, he imagined that he could overthrow the Celestials themselves. With a last kiss, however, Jean managed to slip Weapon Omega a pill that would purge him of the Celestial’s influence.
In the aftermath, Jean harbored no grudge against Logan and desired for him to return to her, but the guilt he felt from his actions as Apocalypse’s heir would weigh heavily. Detaching himself from society, he would spend the rest of his days in atonement, hunting down the loose ends of his own tyranny. Even though he hated what he had done and who he had become, he also recognized how strongly he wanted that power. On a very fundamental level, he was incapable of resisting its allure. The animal within him had been set loose, and this Wolverine would pay the price.