Daken

Daken is the son of Wolverine and his deceased wife Itsu. Blessed with his dad's Wolverine Claws (although with a twist or two there) and Healing Factor, as well as the added ability to give off pheromones, Daken is a younger, darker and edgier version of his dad. He loves Xanatos Gambits, and seducing people just to prove he can, is apparently Omnisexual (or at least bi-sexual) and smart enough to dupe Norman Osborn and Reed Richards- but still gets his ass handed to him by his father. Speaking of dad, Daken has quite a few daddy issues.

Daken first appeared in "Wolverine Origins" #10 (March, 2007), created by Daniel Way and Steve Dillon. He went on to serve as a member of the Dark Avengers. He gained his own title "Daken: Dark Wolverine" in 2010, which was ongoing until 2011.


 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: Just like his Dad.
 * Affably Evil: Swings between this and Jerkass as it suits his whims or plans or both.
 * Animal-Themed Superbeing: Under his Wolverine guise.
 * Anime Hair: Daken's hair is a literal inversion of his father's. Where Wolverine's hair is big and tall on the sides, but more subdued on the top, Daken rocks a Mohawk on an otherwise bald head.
 * Antagonistic Offspring: Given that he hates his father to the point where he's attempted to usurp Sabretooth's role as his Arch Enemy he definitely counts.
 * Anything That Moves: Daken plays with gender stereotypes like they were jazz songs with no rules. As in the scene where he seduces a female anorexic supermodel by finger feeding her a strawberry she had been afraid to eat, and then flirts with the nebbishy male fashion designer on the same page without stopping for breath. He follows this up by flirting with the Shape Shifter Mystique before the end of the comic.
 * Asexual: Word of God states Daken doesn't actually care for sex, he just uses it as a way to manipulate people.
 * Appropriated Appellation: Daken means mongrel in Japanese and was the name he was taunted with as a child.
 * Badass in a Nice Suit
 * Body Horror: Like his dad, Daken's healing factor means that he tends to get put through the meat grinder on a regular basis.
 * The Berserker: Subverted, people expect this of Daken, given who his dad is, and Daken loves to take advantage of it. In one scene, Daken allows Norman Osborn to think that he has used Daken's temper and hatred for Wolverine to bait him, after which Daken smiles and points out the mistakes in Osborn's cultured facade.
 * "But more importantly, you're MY Wolverine. YOU are Wolverine. Do you know what a hero is?"
 * "You mean...like Spider-Man?"
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Let's see.. he survived his mother's murder (which happened before he was born!), watched his adoptive father commit suicide, and was raised by a hated enemy of his father's. Yup.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Depraved Bisexual: Depraved would be putting it mildly.
 * Distaff Counterpart: His little "sister" X-23.
 * Though if you want to get technical, since she's a clone of Wolverine, she's more like his younger aunt.
 * Technically she budded off of wolvie, she is his "sister".
 * Evil Counterpart: Daken arguably is this to his father.
 * More so to his sister since Wolverine already has a long established evil counterpart. Daken shows how Laura could have turned out(and still might) without any positive guidance in her life.
 * Despite that, they get along quite well, when they don't try to kill each other that is.
 * Face Heel Revolving Door: Don't expect him to stay on anyone's side for more than a day. Why everyone is continually surprised by this is a question best left for the ages.
 * Fantastic Drug: Heat, Daken's new psychotropic addiction. Also while he's drugged, there is a rather neat Art Shift. It is also arguably a MacGuffin since it also negates his Healing Factor.
 * Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: And OH! does he enjoy this.
 * Generation Xerox: In the end he and Skaar don't go along any better than Logan and The Hulk. Much to Wolverine's relief, because he was utterly terrified by the idea of Daken befriending gamma-powered space Conan.
 * Genius Bruiser: Although not the obvious muscle head his dad is, Daken can pull this off pretty well too.
 * Good Thing You Can Heal: He's done his fair share of standing around and letting horrible injuries happen to him for no reason other than this trope.
 * Gray Eyes: When the colorist actually remembers what his eye color his, it's usually depicted as a steely gray. This is done most likely as a contrast to his father's much more warm blue ones.
 * Healing Factor: His dad is Wolverine. Duh.
 * Manipulative Bastard: Oh God, do you want a list of the people he's messed with? He once drove a lover he was messing with to suicide to get rid of any lose ends.
 * Mommy Issues: According to his creators.
 * Mr. Fanservice: If there is a single issue that doesn't involve him not wearing a shirt, being in tight-spandex, or catering to some form of Fetish Fuel, the person who finds it deserves a Marvel No-Prize.
 * Not So Different: Daken says this to Skaar the first time they meet.
 * He also has one of those moments with his Banner who, currently depowered, convinced him he is as much of a killer as him.
 * Issue in question ends with Logan telling Daken that with their relationship as messed as it is, at last it's not as bad as Banner's and Skaar's. Meanwhile Bruce tells his son that at last they're not as bad as Logan and Daken.
 * Later used for a much greater effect on Donna Kiel, an FBI agent who'd been hunting down Daken for the past few issues. Daken tells her that he is fond of her, regarding her as his equal, as well as labeling her a psychopath, like himself.
 * One-Man Army
 * Pet the Dog: Daken loves to invoke and then subvert this trope.
 * To put it more bluntly, this is a character who has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
 * He seems genuinely fond of X-23, who is one of the few people he treats as an equal. He also shows moments of kindness to street kids and children who have suffered rough upbringings.
 * A Real Man Is a Killer: Subverted, not in the killer sense, but in the sense that Daken enjoys playing with gender stereotypes.
 * Reality Is Unrealistic: The part of his origin which involves him as a baby being abandoned on the doorstep of a Japanese couple and taken in by them caused some criticism for using an old plot device that could hardly work in the 20th century. In truth, this happened frequently to children of mixed race who were born right after World War II. Mothers would sometimes leave their children on the doorsteps of sympathetic neighbors in a gamble that they would be taken in.
 * Really 700 Years Old: Like his old man, Daken is older than he looks. Daken appears to be in his mid twenties or so, but was born just after World War II had ended in 1946.
 * Smells Sexy: He has pheromones that let him nudge people's emotions. The pheromones allow him to push people's emotions in many directions, and Daken has been shown to use this to good effect....He just prefers using it to make himself a sex god.
 * The Sociopath
 * Super Senses / The Nose Knows
 * Unobtanium: For a while there, Daken had his claws bonded with metal from the Muramasa Blade which negates healing factor, allowing him to threaten even his dad.
 * Villain Protagonist: As opposed to Dad's Anti-Hero status.
 * Walking Shirtless Scene: To the point of almost once an issue. Lampshaded in one issue when he begins to take off his costume for absolutely no reason whatsoever, seems to think about it, and then continues.
 * Women in Refrigerators: Daken's mother, Itsu, was murdered before he was born. She had almost no personality developed and was mainly a plot excuse to cause Daken and Logan to fight. His mutant healing factor kicked in and his survived long enough to be rescued by Romulus. This led to the only thing approaching a soft spot he has in memory of her.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: This is Daken's go to strategy for human interaction.

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