The identity of Wolverine (and Dog Logan as a red herring) was supposed to be a twist in “Origin.” Issue #2 ends with a full panel page of James screaming as his claws drip blood, shocking readers that this little runt is now on track to become the hard-edged killer they know as Wolverine. Like Darth Vader being Luke Skywalker’s father in “Star Wars,” this isn’t much of a twist these days — especially for comic readers of my generation, who were introduced to “X-Men” after Wolverine’s history was revealed.

Wikipedia lists Wolverine’s real name as “James Howlett,” spoiling any surprise if you read that before “Origin.” The reviled “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” also loosely adapted “Origin” in its first five minutes — though it skips right to the part where James unsheathes his claws and kills Thomas Logan, without any of the comic’s build-up. The movie also combines Dog with Wolverine’s arch-enemy, Victor Creed/Sabretooth, which is honestly some nifty streamlining. (Although it does raise the question: why is Sabretooth’s name “Creed” if his father’s was “Logan”?)

In the 2005 comic “House of M” (by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel), after the Scarlet Witch tangles up and straightens out reality, Wolverine regains all of his lost memories, and the mystery of Logan is officially put to bed. In the 2010 arc “Wolverine Goes To Hell” (by Jason Aaron and Renato Guedes), the final unfriendly face Logan meets in the underworld is his father, who tells Wolverine he’s proud of him for making “Logan” a name to be feared.

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Wolverine rejects his approval, but Thomas promises they’ll be seeing each other again soon enough. The conflict in Wolverine’s heart has always been between man and beast — who would’ve thought that his human name was the one that carried his berserker spirit?