Decades ago, Itsu the pregnant, Japanese wife of James Howlett was killed by the brainwashed KGB assassin the Winter Soldier (James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes). Unbeknownst to Howlett, his unborn baby survived. The baby's survival was thought to be possible by his inherited mutant healing factor. The child was later abducted by the Winter Soldier. Eventually known as Daken, Howlett's son underwent training as an assassin. Recently, mutant telepath Emma Frost revealed to Wolverine that his son was alive and full of hate for him. Preparing for the inevitable confrontation with Daken, Wolverine sought the only weapon that could negate his son's healing factor, the Carbonadium Synthesizer ("C-Synth"), held by the Black Widow (Natasha Romanova). After a failed attempt to obtain the C-Synth in Brussels, Wolverine was captured by SHIELD. Promised that he could someday confront Wolverine on open ground, Daken infiltrated a SHIELD facility in Berlin to confront his parent. Finally face to face with his helpless, captive father, Daken eviscerated him, but stopped short of killing him. Daken returned to a student flat where he had been staying with an American girlfriend. Toying with her emotions, he allowed her to catch him "seducing" a strange gentleman whom he later savagely killed for his passport. Anticipating her every subsequent move, Daken secretly poisoned her wine with sleeping pills, and killed her purely for his own amusement.
Miss Sinister was recruited by mutant businessman Sebastian Shaw to unlock the memories of Daken; however, they faced opposition from Wolverine and Charles Xavier and were easily defeated. Miss Sinister later sought to manipulate Daken by implanting false memories of a shared life with her; however he saw through her falsehood and stabbed her in the abdomen with his claws. Her survival from the wounds remains unknown. During the events that were named the Dark Reign, Daken joined Norman Osborn's team of Avengers and X-Men.
