title: Wolverine (character)

text: Chris Claremont says that he drew some of his characterization of Wolverine from Conan the Barbarian, declaring that "Wolverine in his essence is a lot closer to Conan than any other Marvel hero we have." He also compared Wolverine to Hulk, because of his tendency to lapse into a "berserker rage" while in close combat. In this state, he lashes out with the intensity and aggression of an enraged animal and is even more resistant to psionic attack. Though he loathes it, he acknowledges that it has saved his life many times, it being most notably useful when he faced the telepathic "Mister X", as X's ability to read his mind and predict his next move in a fight was useless as not even Wolverine knows what he will do next in his berserk state. Despite his apparent ease at taking lives, he mournfully regrets and does not enjoy killing or giving in to his berserker rages. Logan adheres to a firm code of personal honor and morality.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In contrast to his brutish nature, Wolverine is extremely knowledgeable. Due in part to his longer lifespan, he has traveled around the world and amassed extensive knowledge of foreign languages and cultures.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Wolverine is frequently depicted as a gruff loner, often taking leave from the X-Men to deal with personal issues or problems. He is often irreverent and rebellious towards authority figures, though he is a reliable ally and capable leader, and has occasionally displayed a wry, sarcastic sense of humor. He has been a mentor and father figure to several younger women, especially Jubilee, Kitty Pryde and X-23, and has had failed romantic relationships with numerous women (most notably Mariko Yashida). He also had a mutual, but unfulfilled attraction to Jean Grey, leading to arguments with her boyfriend (and later husband), Scott Summers. He also married Viper as part of a debt, then later divorced her. It has also been implied that he and Squirrel Girl had a relationship at some point in the past. Wolverine has had an on-again, off-again romantic relationship with longtime teammate and friend, Storm.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: While Wolverine has been primarily depicted as straight in mainstream Marvel continuity, the character has as of 2020 been depicted in a polyamorous relationship with Jean and Cyclops. Furthermore, "Screen Rant"s Alex Schlesinger has argued that taking into account their history in comics, there is "some precedent set for Wolverine and Nightcrawler to be in an intimate relationship together". The "X-Treme X-Men" (2012 – 2013) series featured an alternate version of Wolverine who was in a relationship with Hercules, and the two characters shared an on-panel kiss in issue #10.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In 2012, ComicsAlliance assembled a panel consisting of various LGBT cartoonists, writers, editors, and journalists, to vote on which comics and characters had the biggest impact on them. As a group, the X-Men came in 13th place, with science fiction author and "Doom Patrol" writer Rachel Pollack stating that "the X-Men's themes are indelibly queer". Wolverine was one of the individual X-Men singled out by many panel members as being of great importance to them, with some of the reasons provided being that he is "inspirational", while for others being their "first crush" as young queer comic readers.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Writing for Bleeding Cool, comics writer and columnist Rich Johnston described Wolverine as a "gay icon amongst many", arguing that this was the case before Hugh Jackman first played the character in the live-action film series. Hannah Collins of "Comic Book Resources" ("CBR") also described Wolverine as a gay icon and argued that his appeal to queer fans is "largely invisible to heterosexual fans". Collins also described Wolverine's muscular physique as similar to that of "the idealized men found [in] 'Bara' manga". "Bara" is genre of Japanese manga focusing on male same-sex love, created primarily by gay men for a gay male audience, and typically features masculine men with varying degrees of muscle, body fat, and body hair.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: "Wolverine" #6 (2003), written by Greg Rucka, features a cover drawn by Esad Ribić. The cover depicts Wolverine sitting on a chair, drinking beer, and staring at Nightcrawler. "Screen Rant" notes how Nightcrawler is depicted in the nude, and that Wolverine is suggestively staring at his penis, with "CBR" also noting that the beer he is holding resembling an erection. According to Rucka, Ribić intentionally made the cover suggestive. Collins described the cover as helping "bring [Wolverine's queer appeal] to mainstream attention".


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the "Age of Apocalypse" story arc, the Wolverine/Logan character is again a member of the X-Men, this time using the code-name Weapon X rather than Wolverine. In this reality the events which saw the character's Adamantium ripped out have never occurred, and it is Magneto that helps him to control his feral rages. Most significantly, Weapon X is missing a hand, cut off by Cyclops (who in turn is missing an eye thanks to Weapon X). The claws on this hand still exist, however, which appear by piercing through the metal stump covering the break. Consistent with the main characterization, this version is also shown to be a loner, his back story presenting him as an unwilling recruit to the X-Men. He and Jean Grey are lovers in this reality.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Also during the arc, there is a separate character named Wolverine, a mutant altered by Dark Beast, who worked as a tracker for Apocalypse.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Later he offered himself to the Celestials to prevent the planet's judgment and was further augmented by the Celestial technology, yet while he had ascended in form and power, his mind had become so twisted to the point of assembling a deadly group of genetically modified warriors known as the Black Legion and sent them to kill Charles Lehnsherr, the infant son of Magneto and Rogue. He also captured his teammate Storm and renamed her as Orordius after using the Celestial technology on her, enslaving and transforming her into a blind seer made of living stone. He also intended to do the same to Jean Grey, by turning her into the Horseman of Death, but his efforts were prevented by the Uncanny X-Force from the Main Reality, who had traveled to the Age of Apocalypse seeking a celestial life seed.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the "Age of X" reality, Wolverine's powers have been virtually lost after he was forced to ingest a mutant 'cure' in order to dispose of it; although his healing factor can stop the cure totally affecting him, it is now so focused on fighting the cure and the adamantium poisoning of his metal skeleton that he cannot fight any more, as any additional strain placed on his system could kill him.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the "" timeline, Wolverine is married to Jean Grey and they are the co-directors of education at Xavier's school for Gifted Youngsters. They also have a daughter named Kate, who is nicknamed "Shine." In this timeline, the superhero Civil War was averted when Charles Xavier proposed self-policing among the super-powered community. The fallout of this decision tore apart Jean and Cyclops, leading to her marriage to Logan.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the alternate version of "Civil War" seen in the "Secret Wars" event, Wolverine is on Captain America's side, as is also a grey version of the Hulk.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the "Onslaught Reborn" mini-series, the Wolverine of Counter-Earth is revealed to have been masquerading as that Earth's version of Hawkeye.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In this alternate reality the X-Men fail to prevent the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly, which results in Sentinels ruling the United States of America by 2013 AD. Mutants fall one by one at the hands of the Sentinels, until only Wolverine, Storm, Colossus and Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) are left. They are confronted by a group of Sentinels and Wolverine lunges at one, ready to slice off the Sentinel's head, but his flesh is burned off by the Sentinel's hand laser. Wolverine seemingly dies and his charred Adamantium skeleton falls onto the ground. Later on in the Earth X: Heralds storyline, Wolverine is revived by X-51's machine.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the seventh issue of this series, Deadpool visits a universe where the wild west still exists. There Wolverine is a bounty hunter looking to make some money by capturing the Deadpool Kid.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: During the "Devil's Reign" storyline, Doctor Octopus formed his Superior Four with a variation of Wolverine who has tentacles with immensely sharp blades on his back. His real name was Otto Howlett and he was experimented on by a variation of Torbert Octavius.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: According to the information in the Earth X miniseries "Paradise X: Heralds", the second child of the Howletts died in childbirth and the Howletts found and adopted an infant member of the Moon Clan, a bestial race which has co-existed with humanity for hundreds of thousands of years. This Clan, which is also dubbed wolf clan, were mortal enemies of the Bear Clan, to which Sabretooth belongs. Supposedly, it is this Moon Tribe child who was named James Howlett and would grow up to become Wolverine explaining the enmity between Wolverine and Sabretooth in this alternative reality.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: It is also revealed that this seemingly divergent sub-species is in fact what the "true" human species would have become if not for the Celestials' intervention and genetic tampering.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the "Earth X" series, Wolverine has married Jean Grey; however, they are now overweight and fit the image of a bickering couple. When the Skull attacks New York, Wolverine refuses to aid Captain America and the other heroes in fighting him. Jean, disgusted, leaves Logan, but not before claiming that she is in fact Madelyne Pryor. The two later reconcile, but have not gotten back together.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Another version of Wolverine, originating from Earth-172, was revealed by Sabretooth to have joined an alternative, more sinister version of Weapon X in the Exiles series. At some point in Weapon X's travels, this version of Wolverine was killed. Like other fallen members of the Exiles and Weapon X, his body was stored in a stasis wall inside the Timebreakers' crystal palace before he was sent home to his own timeline to be cremated by his loved ones.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Issue #85 and #86 followed the adventures of several Wolverines from different timelines gathered in an attempt to stop a mutant known as Brother Mutant, a being with the combined powers of Wolverine, Magneto, Quicksilver, Scarlet Warlock (a male version of the Scarlet Witch) and Mesmero. Different teams of Wolverines were gathered and each fell to the hypnotic powers of Brother Mutant. The last team of Wolverines was composed of Patch, an alternative version of the zombie Wolverine featured in the miniseries Marvel Zombies, Albert & Elsie-Dee, Weapon X, a young James Howlett and the Days of Future Past Logan. When most of this team fell before Brother Mutant's followers, Logan and James Howlett were able to contact the Timebreakers and convinced them to gather the original Exiles to help defeat Brother Mutant.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Numerous other alternative reality versions of Wolverine appear in those issues as well, some of them being hybrids between Wolverine and main Marvel continuity characters (Thing/Wolverine, Hulk/Wolverine, Deadpool/Wolverine, etc.).


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Issue #91-94 shows Wolverine as an agent of HYDRA which he leads together with the Invisible Woman, with whom Logan has a relationship. They also appear in the following New Exiles series, where he is ultimately killed by an alternative version of Shadowcat.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the future of "Future Imperfect", where Earth was decimated by nuclear war and the Hulk had become the insane dictator known as the Maestro, the now-elderly kept Wolverine's skeleton as one of the many mementoes of the age of heroes, his words implying that Wolverine was killed in the nuclear fallout of the two world wars between the present and his time. Rick was later killed when his attempt to defend himself from the Maestro with Captain America's shield caused him to be thrown out of his wheelchair and impaled on the skeleton's claws, the Maestro grimly commenting on the amusing irony of Rick being killed by one relic while defending himself with another.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: From the "Exalted" storyline of "Astonishing X-Men" and "X-Treme X-Men" vol. 2, General Howlett was a general in the army of the British Empire, and viceroy of his world's Canada. Howlett was part of an expedition to the lost city of Shangri-La. There, his skeleton was bonded with the adamantine. However, he was taken from his world by some means when the Saviour came calling. He was held for a time, but escaped with the help of Scott Summers. Now he is a member of a dimension-hopping X-Men team and assisted with hunting down ten evil Xaviers from various alternative timelines in order to save the multiverse. He is in a relationship with his world's Hercules; however, their relationship is considered illicit because the gods of Olympus are not permitted to consort with mortals.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the alternative future of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Wolverine's adamantium skeleton is reanimated and controlled by the brain of Doctor Doom. Additionally, one of the villains appearing in the series, in which Wolverine is still remembered with awe as "the Brood Slayer", is his great-great-granddaughter Rancor, who is obsessed with her ancestor and owns one of his broken off claws. Rancor comes to rule a human colony, which had been founded by Wolverine and other mutants, hundreds of years ago. She came from a long lineage, all claiming rulership by relation to Wolverine. Most were murderous tyrants.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: It is, however, hinted at that Wolverine is still alive. Alluded to by several "shots" of an unrevealed, shadowy individual, which included captions and character comments heightening the suggestion. The character is never revealed, leaving the question of who they were unanswered.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: While it is a strongly held belief that he will live hundreds of years, this suggests Logan has the potential to live for thousands of years, but how it may fit into Marvel canon is unknown.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the "Here Comes Tomorrow"story arc, set 150 years in an alternative future, Wolverine is still alive and part of group fighting against a version of Beast possessed by Sublime. This version of Wolverine is killed when Beast artificially gives himself the powers of the Phoenix Force and turns off Wolverine's healing factor, before beating him to death. This future is averted by Jean Grey.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: This version of Wolverine comes from hundreds of years into the future. He is part of a group called "The Last Defenders", who, led by a future version of Sue Storm, have come back in time to save the last of humanity. This future Logan later briefly encounters his younger self at the future Sue's funeral, telling him, "Don't even ask."


title: Wolverine (character)

text: During the "Fantastic Force" mini-series, Logan briefly leads the team when they find themselves under attack from various enemies summoned by Gaea the living spirit of the Fantastic Force's now barren earth. Due to the abandonment of all life she has been driven insane and attempts to force them back in to their timeline. After several confrontations and fights, Logan elects to stay behind in the future and to aid Gaea in restoring herself by sharing his healing factor. The two are last seen tending to a garden with Gaea pregnant.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: A Wolverine from an unidentified reality is called Hound and is shown to be the loyal pet of the unidentified Dark Phoenix and member of her Berserkers. This version is shown to also have spikes coming out of him. They appeared as members of the Multiversal Masters of Evil. When the group was on Earth-616, Hound accompanied Dark Phoenix and King Killmonger in attacking Echo, Iron Man, and Thor at Asgard even when Dark Phoenix summoned a Berserker that is a Thor from an unidentified reality. They retreated after the Berserker Thor was killed by Thor. The Multiversal Masters of Evil then left Earth-616 to get back to work.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Hound was with the Multiversal Masters of Evil when they attacked an unidentified Earth. Afterwards, Ghost Rider attacked them where he used his Hell Charger to knock down Hound and Kid Thanos.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Hound accompanied the Multiversal Masters of Evil when they returned to Earth-616. After she knocked down some of the Avengers and Prehistoric Avengers, Hound was sent to take out any who are still squirming. He fights the Prehistoric Ghost Rider and is killed by him.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Although another reality, the Wolverine of House of M is the 616 Wolverine, retaining his memories from the old reality, including his untampered past. After the House falls, he retains these memories. The House of M Wolverine was a head operative of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Red Guard, and had an affair with Mystique.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the Marvel Mangaverse reality Wolverine, not Charles Xavier, formed the X-Men (Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Mirage and Jean Grey forming the core of the group, with Rogue living with them).


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Wolverine has one set of long metal claws—most likely adamantium and shaped like katanas on his left hand, and another set, on his right hand, composed of red energy (like Cyclops's optic beams) and shaped like lightsabers. Wolverine has incredible strength. He has white hair (it is later changed to black in the new mangaverse) and a strange tattoo on his face, possibly meant to be the Greek symbol Omega. His uniform is highly reminiscent of that worn by "Dragon Ball" character Vegeta, possibly as homage.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In this reality, he and Cyclops are brothers. Wolverine cost Cyclops one of his eyes, while it is hinted that Cyclops cost Wolverine one of his hands. (This seems to be why one of Wolverine's sets of claws is energy while the other is metal. Throughout this story with the exception of a pair of panels, Wolverine was depicted with two flesh and blood hands, but his right hand had claws of energy, not adamantium. The flesh and blood appearance of both hands continued in the final issue of the first arc of Mangaverse). He is also hinted to have had a relationship with Jean Grey, who had begun to favor Cyclops.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the New Mangaverse, Wolverine is one of the few mutants to survive the Hand/S.H.I.E.L.D. bio-engineered virus targeting mutants thanks to his healing factor. Jean Grey's rejection of him has clearly left him with some issues since he said he had a thing for redheads and flirts with Spider-woman (Mary Jane Watson) in "New Mangaverse #2". It is clear that his advances are unwanted and that Mary Jane is scared of him. When Logan grabs her, Spider-Man becomes angry and tries to fight him but proves to be no match for Wolverine and it is ultimately the Black Cat that stops him. He flirts with the Black Cat throughout the New Mangaverse miniseries, saying "I've always been a sucker for a girl with a nice set of ... CLAWS." It is also hinted that at some point in the past he was Lady Deathstrike's lover.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the New Mangaverse, Wolverine teams up with the Black Cat, Captain America (Carol Danvers), Iron Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman (Mary Jane Watson), and The Torch (Jonatha Storm, Sioux Storm's half sister, this reality's Human Torch) to fight the Hand (some of the organization's more prominent members being Lady Deathstrike, Elektra, Silver Samurai, Sunfire, and a (brainwashed) Sharon Carter).


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In "X-Men Noir", set in the Marvel Noir reality, "Captain" Logan is a heavily scarred bootlegger operating in the New York Chinatown and adept at defending himself with a metallic claw.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: "Wolverine Noir", which presents a different characterization, presents Jim Logan, private investigator along with Dog Logan, whom he claims is his brother.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the alternative Marvel Zombies universe, Wolverine is one of many heroes who become infected by the zombie virus. He is actually infected when both zombies Captain America, and Hawkeye bite him. The virus overwhelms his healing factor, so he can no longer heal from any injury. He, along with other zombies, attempted to slay the Silver Surfer. Wolverine attacks the Surfer but his body is decayed so much that his right arm is torn apart, as his adamantium bones are stronger than his rotting flesh. Eventually Wolverine and the other zombies are successful in killing and eating the Surfer. As a result, he and the others gain the Silver Surfer's cosmic power and wound and devour Galactus, becoming the creatures collectively known as The Galacti.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: The Marvel Zombies attack a Skrull planet, only to encounter the Fantastic Four of the 616 reality - currently consisting of Black Panther, Storm, the Thing and the Human Torch, leaving the Zombies eager to capture the FF and transport back to their reality.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In "Marvel Zombies 2", Wolverine's lost right arm has been replaced with a cybernetic arm with claws. He is loyal to Henry Pym (Giant-Man) and willingly attacks the defecting Spider-Man. When the others realize that the hunger is fading, he initially refuses to let go of a survivor in his grasp until Henry Pym tells him to stop, saying he seemingly loses his hunger. He is one of the last surviving zombies from the zombie Hulk's attack that killed many zombies, and even the last zombies to especially kill the Hulk with his cosmic powers.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: After that, he was teleported to a new world known as Earth 91126 along with the other surviving zombies. During the teleportation, he lost his cosmic powers, and became a regular zombie once more.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Zombie Wolverine also appears in "Marvel Zombies Return." In this Zombie Wolverine kills the human Elektra, Iron Fist (comics) and Shang-Chi, White Tiger, Black Tiger, and many of the Hand, thus recently he was one of the few remaining zombies left.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: He also appears in Japan, and infects another version of himself, though he resists the hunger and angrily kills him, zombie Spider-Man watches the whole thing happen. This reality's Wolverine joined Spider-Man's New Avengers consisting of Spider-Man, Iron Man (James Rhodes), Hulk and himself. He, along with the rest of the zombies are destroyed by the nanite-carried Sandman.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the alternative future known as MC2, Wolverine and Elektra are married and have a daughter named Rina Logan, who inherits her father's healing factor and senses and possesses "psychic claws" which resemble Psylocke's telepathic "psychic knife". She becomes a superheroine called Wild Thing. Wolverine also has a son, Sabreclaw (Hudson Logan), with another woman.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: During the events of "Last Hero Standing", Wolverine is among the heroes kidnapped by Loki as part of his plan to bring about the end of the Age of Heroes.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: This version of Wolverine is a member of the Pack a group consisting of Sabertooth, Wildchild and Logan. All three savage and driven insane by the Weapon X experiments. The three roam the Canadian wilderness very much like a wolf pack.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Old Man Logan is a character depicted in an eight-issue story arc in the "Wolverine" ongoing series by writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven. He debuted in "Wolverine" #66 in June 2008. Set over fifty years in the future on Earth-807128, the entire United States has been overtaken and divided amongst supervillains. Logan lives with his wife Maureen and young children Scotty and Jade on a barren plot of land in Sacramento, California, now part of the territory known as "Hulkland." Logan needs money to pay rent to the landlords of this territory: the hillbilly grandchildren of the Hulk, who are products of years of incestuous procreation originating with Banner and his first cousin She-Hulk. In order to pay the rent, Logan accepts a job from a now-blind Hawkeye: help him navigate east across the country, to the capitol of New Babylon, and deliver a secret and illegal package.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Throughout the story it is said that Logan as "Wolverine" died the day the villains attacked and has refused to pop his claws since, even in a fight. Via flashbacks it is revealed that on the night the world's heroes came under attack by masses of villains, a group consisting of Mr. Sinister, Sabretooth, Doctor Octopus, Omega Red, Bullseye and many others attacked the X-Mansion. Unable to locate his teammates, Wolverine was forced to slaughter the attackers to ensure the safety of the mutant children. As the last attacker was killed, Logan realized that the entire assault was an illusion created by Mysterio, and his perceived enemies were actually his fellow X-Men. This destroyed him emotionally and mentally, and he wandered from the Mansion never to be heard from again, his last action laying his head across train tracks to be run over. Logan notes that while this would never have killed him, it in effect killed "Wolverine" for good.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: The story was concluded in "Giant Size Old Man Logan" (September 2009) with Logan riding off into the sunset, heavily implying that this alternative version of Wolverine is the same character as "The Hooded Man" version, described above.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: After the events of the "Death of Wolverine" story arc, an Old Man Logan from Earth-20923 was brought to serve as a member of the Earth-616 X-Men.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the second issue, a universe is shown where Wolverine is an orphaned kid at Professor X's orphanage for troubled kids. At a dance for the orphanage, along with Emma Frost's, Wolverine, aided by kid versions of Angel and Colossus, gets into a fight with Kidpool (a kid version of Deadpool for whom Wolverine expresses hatred).


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the third issue, Deadpool visits an earth where he is a dog and Wolverine is a dog created by Mascara X to hunt and kill Dog Deadpool, the first dog they experimented on. This universe's Wolverine has claws. After the battle he is shot into a pool of acid, his fate is unknown.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Spending his time in a bar, this version of Wolverine threatened his fellow patrons in order to get more to drink, but more often than not was given free drinks by the bartender for showing off his "bone disease", bones that stuck out of the back of his hand. The bartender referred to him as "Canuck."


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the "Spider-Gwen" reality, Logan was a Japanese samurai that was cursed by a witch to continue walking the Earth for as many lives as he has killed. Like his 616 counterpart, his memory is erased after joining the Weapon X program and gaining adamantium claws. He then decides to work for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Black Ops department, where his fellow operatives have nicknamed him "Mr. Murderhands." Spider-Gwen nicknames him Wolverine after body swapping with the Earth 616 X-23 (who had the Wolverine identity at the time). He works closely with Shadowcat, as Kitty feels guilty for using her powers to aid the Weapon X Program.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: "Spider-Man Unlimited" (a comic based on the "Spider-Man Unlimited" animated series) introduces a bestial version of Wolverine in #6. In this continuity, Wolverine is Naoko Yamada-Jones's ex-husband and Shayne's father. Peter first finds a photo of them together, which shows that Wolverine was a decorated soldier. He later runs into Wolverine as Spider-Man and the 2 of them fight, but then stop to talk as they notice a robber kidnapping Naoko. They both follow the robber and manage to easily find him, due to Wolverine's sense of smell. The 2 of them team up to fight the robber, who transforms into a lizard and is revealed to be Chameleon of Counter-Earth. After they defeat him, Wolverine then says that this neighborhood is not his home anymore and gives Spider-Man his medal, which resembles the medal that Naoko's husband wears in the photo, confirming that Wolverine is Shayne's father and Naoko's ex-husband, despite the Spider-Man Unlimited animated series confirming that the Green Goblin of Counter-Earth is Naoko's ex-husband and Shayne's father, leaving the identity of Naoko's ex-husband and Shayne's father unknown.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Ultimate Wolverine is the Wolverine in the Ultimate Marvel universe. Initially, this Wolverine was a member of Magneto's Brotherhood but later changes his mind and joins the "Ultimate X-Men".


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In a recent "What If?" issue, Logan was present when Daken was born and was able to save him from the people who would have raised him in the original course of events, taking him to live in seclusion in the mountains in the hope that he could raise Daken away from the kind of life he has lived himself. However, despite his attempts to ensure privacy by turning Professor X away when he came to recruit Logan to join the X-Men, Logan's attempts to suppress Daken's darker instincts failed when Sabretooth found them, revealing the truth about his father's past to Daken. Leaving his father, Daken became a brutal killer, roaming various cities and killing his opponents, proclaiming that Logan made him what he is by denying him his heritage. Concluding that he will never bring anything good into the world, Logan stabs Daken in the heart with the Muramasa Blade, subsequently impaling himself to end his own dark stain on the world.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Wolverine is a lone survivor of a fatal plane crash. The law seems to think he is responsible for it. A mysterious woman who was a survivor of the plane crash, was eaten by a shark only to be seen by Logan later on television. In the flashbacks, he was a man on his way to the West to find peace within himself. He is also approached by Victor who claims he is the same as Logan and they do not have to be alone anymore. Logan finds a lead leading him to a restaurant in the Roppongi district of Tokyo. He finds out he goes by another alias named Collinsworth. The mysterious woman's name turns out to be Yami. It also seems that he has numerous apartments and buildings in Tokyo as well. In his apartment, he observes some things and opens a safe with claws. It turns out he has a ton of fake identities. As he takes the subway, there is a flashback when a woman approaches him and makes conversation. Turns out Logan is a monk and is Canadian. She asks him to walk her home. Her name is Mariko Yashida. After she leaves, Victor approaches him jokes about how Logan is coming out of his shell and is acting like the Logan he heard about back in Canada. Victor then explains to him that outside of the monastery the country is in chaos. He also explains that guys like him and Logan are in demand because there are no others like them. Victor is working for the Machi-Yako which are helping the Shogunate Clan in their war against the Yashida Clan who, according to him, are rapists and killers. Victors employers are paying him in gold not rice, He attempts to persuade Logan by stating that he will need gold to win over a woman like Mariko. Back in the present, Logan is watching television when the news anchor states that Yami boarded the plane with John Grant, Logan's alias. Logan starts trying to find out why Yami was on the plane. He walks into a bar trying to get some information, only to end up in a bar fight. After some heavy persuasion, he finds out where Yami's family lives. In another flashback, Logan takes up Victor's offer. The two participate in the ongoing feud of the Shogunate and Yashida clans. Victor states that Shingen is hiding in a monastery. Logan is hesitant to fight his brothers. Victor responds: "Who is your true brother"? In the present, Logan arrives at Yami's family house. The father and sister are mourning. Logan explains that he was on the plane with her. Yami's father asks did she die in pain. Logan lies and says it was quick. The father warns Logan to leave the city before it is too late. At this point it is revealed that Logan's flashbacks go back to 150 years ago. As Logan is walking, a citizen warns Logan to run, because he is coming. Logan asks who, and the citizen lifts up his head only to show a grotesque face with his eye hanging out of the socket. The victim answers Logan with "Creed".


title: Wolverine (character)

text: It is also officially in the same continuity as "Punisher MAX", "Foolkiller MAX", the MAX "Fury" titles and "Phantom Eagle MAX" as evidenced in one issue where Wolverine got his adamantium claws from a Las Vegas gangster. Other major differences with this Wolverine from his main Marvel Universe counterpart are that his adamantium claws were from Mickey Gold a Las Vegas gangster instead of his skeleton coated in the material or bone claws and that he became a samurai and monk in the 1860s in feudal-era Japan when meeting Mariko Yashida.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Another alternative reality, in which Logan is a rebellious youth taken in by a dojo in a secluded forest when he was found near dead with amnesia. While his regenerative capabilities and claws are still present, his adamantium laced skeleton is absent. with the help of his friend tammarah he is trying to find her father and along with his past


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In this comic by Tsutomu Nihei, Wolverine is sent into an alternative future, year 2058 (Earth-3071), arriving there by the hand of the humans of that age in need of a weapon to fight against a race of engineered viruses that grow up to be sentient beings, and who can only be destroyed with adamantium.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: As part of Marvel's "The End" series the comic details Wolverine's last adventure. The story depicts Wolverine as an old man living in the Canadian wilderness facing his own mortality. Events depicted within "Wolverine: The End" were subsequently contradicted by other storylines, such as those in "Wolverine" vol. 3 #55, and the 2005 "Decimation" storyline.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In this reality, the Punisher had unknowingly released an unstoppable plague which turns anyone infected into homicidal cannibals after stopping a potential weapons deal involving the Russian Mob.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: A few weeks later, Wolverine and Colossus are horrified after witnessing Spider-Man kill and eat the Rhino. Later during a mission against Hydra with Psylocke, Wolverine holds off the enemy forces while Psylocke attempts to get away, but she is taken by an unknown assailant who leaves her severed arm behind.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Wolverine decides to stay to investigate Psylocke's disappearance and the cause of the growing pandemic, witnessing the horrid acts of violence and cannibalism over the city. He is eventually contacted by the X-Men to help investigate Angel's disappearance after the later was supposed to bring lab equipment for Hank McCoy, who along with Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and T'Challa, are trying to develop a cure for the plague.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: After killing an infected Doctor Octopus, Wolverine finds the Black Bird and an infected Angel, who he is forced to kill. Deducing that the plague may have reached Utopia, Wolverine takes the Black Bird back to Utopia and discovers that all the X-Men have been infected. Unable to save them, Wolverine kills all the X-Men on Utopia.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In an alternative reality continuing writer Chris Claremont's run from "Uncanny X-Men" Wolverine and Jean Grey have begun a secret psychic affair, though Jean remains with Scott for the time being, the professional aspects of the relationship has enough physical subtleties to be recognised by Kitty Pryde. After Nick Fury decrees that The X-Men must work closer with the government, an incensed Logan goes AWOL, but keeps in touch with Jean. Logan is later killed by Storm, who appears to have become evil and turned against the X-Men. His death sends Jean into a temporary coma. When she awakens, an enraged Jean is no longer able nor willing to hide her true feelings for Wolverine. Following the revelation of Storm's involvement in Wolverine's death, Storm is attacked by Shadowcat (who, due to an earlier phasing mishap, has acquired one of Wolverine's adamantium claws in her arm). Storm escapes and is revealed to be working for a shadowy, previously unknown group called "The Consortium". While the X-Men search New York for Storm, another younger version of Storm with short hair appears, and finds Gambit; she implies that she had been kidnapped, with Wolverine having freed her before his death. Around the same time, the older version of Storm is seemingly killed by a team of commandos from the Consortium. In this universe Sabretooth implies, after Wolverine's death, that Logan was his son, and that he wanted revenge on Storm for having killed him.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In the alternative future of "", Wolverine is caring for a disabled Storm and has given up his life as an X-Man. However, after being attacked by a Warskrull, Wolverine and Storm return to the X-Men only to find a crater where the mansion stood. Wolverine along with Rachel Summers, X-23 and a few others were sent to find out what happened to Cable and his team. Wolverine and Jean Grey/Phoenix meet up again. Jean helps Logan break free of the Lady Mastermind and later helps him heal.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: In a dystopic future depicted in the final two issues of "Young X-Men," an aged Logan is one of only four remaining mutants on "Xaviera," a former mutant safe-haven independent state and utopia. Anole, Emma Frost (now calling herself "Diamondheart"), Graymalkin, and an incapacitated and greatly aged Ink. Dust suddenly appears, now greatly changed in her appearance and persona with altered powers. Wolverine firsts catches her scent in the building after a mission causing her to reveal herself. He offers no resistance against her, stating that he cannot promise the same from the others. Asking her why she is "doing this," Dust responds that it is because mutants allowed her to die. Wolverine tells her to "get bent," and she immediately kills him, leaving nothing but his adamantium skeleton.


title: Wolverine (character)

text: Wolverine is one of the few X-Men characters appearing in every media adaptation of the "X-Men" franchise, including the 20th Century Fox "X-Men" films, television, computer and video games. Australian actor Hugh Jackman played Wolverine in the "X-Men" films and until December 2021 shared the Guinness World Record of the "longest career as a live-action Marvel superhero" with Patrick Stewart.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: Ticket to Paradise is a 2022 romantic comedy film starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts as a divorced couple who team up to sabotage the impending wedding of their daughter in Bali. The film is directed by Ol Parker and written by Parker and Daniel Pipski, while Kaitlyn Dever, Billie Lourd, Maxime Bouttier, and Lucas Bravo also star.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: "Ticket to Paradise" had its world premiere in Barcelona on September 8, 2022, and was released in the United Kingdom on September 20 and in the United States on October 21, by Universal Pictures and Working Title Films. It has grossed $170 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: David and Georgia Cotton are a formerly married couple who hate each other and regret their marriage, which ended 20 years earlier. Their daughter Lily graduates from law school, and goes on vacation to Bali with her friend and fellow graduate Wren. While snorkeling off the coast, their tour boat leaves them behind, and they are rescued by a young Balinese seaweed farmer named Gede. Lily and Gede hit it off. A month later later, Lily emails David and Georgia to let them know that she and Gede are getting married, and she is staying in Bali permanently, giving up her legal career before it begins. David and Georgia form a truce to try and convince Lily that she is rushing into things and making the same mistake that they had made. Their pilot on the flight to Bali turns out to be Paul, Georgia's boyfriend, who arranged to fly this flight and return to visit Georgia in Bali a few days later, as a surprise.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: David and Georgia give their verbal blessing to Lily and Gede, but secretly plan a "Trojan horse" strategy to sabotage the wedding from within. Their scheme includes stealing the couple's wedding rings, which the couple quickly replaces. Gede immediately suspects David and Georgia, but hides his suspicions from Lily. While carrying out this plan, David and Georgia begin to mend fences with one another. They also get to know Gede and his large extended family and come to see that he really does care for Lily. Paul shows up and surprises Georgia with a series of marriage proposals, the first of which is interrupted by a snake bite at the temple of Tanah Lot, and the second proposal is prevented by an accidental head-butt.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: When Lily discovers the stolen rings, she demands that they get on board with the wedding or go home. She also confronts Gede, who had simultaneously confessed his harbored suspicions toward David and Georgia stealing the rings. David and Georgia realize that they will lose Lily forever if they do not support her decision, and they decide to offer their support. The wedding proceeds in accordance with Balinese custom. As the couple prepares to ceremonially stab a dagger through a pandan-leaf mat to complete the bond of marriage, Gede pauses the wedding ceremony to ask David and Georgia to give their blessing sincerely this time, offering not to go through with it unless they agree. David stands up and says that the couple has their blessing, but that they do not really need it, and if he and Georgia had listened to all of their own detractors (David's friends and Georgia's parents, respectively), they never would have had Lily. However their marriage turned out, they are both happier in a world with Lily in it. Lily and Gede are touched, and they complete the ceremony and get married.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: On the morning of the wedding, Georgia tells Paul that she cannot marry him, and they end their relationship. David and Georgia toy with romance again, even kissing each other once, before pulling away and laughing about it. David, Georgia, and Wren exchange tearful goodbyes with Lily and board a boat to leave. David and Georgia consider their romantic prospects again, debating aloud whether they are too old to feel young again, and when they might return to Bali. In a flash, they both decide to stay, jumping off the boat to return to the dock.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: "Ticket to Paradise" is a co-production between Working Title Films, Smokehouse Pictures, and Red Om Films. Ol Parker and Daniel Pipski wrote the screenplay, and Parker directed. The film was announced by Universal Pictures on February 26, 2021. It reunites actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts after previously working on "Ocean's Eleven" (2001), "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" (2002), "Ocean's Twelve" (2004), and "Money Monster" (2016). "Deadline Hollywood" noted Universal's reluctance to sell the distributor rights to a streaming service in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and said it was "important to those wondering when film studios are going to stop selling pricey star packages to streamers". Billie Lourd joined the cast in March; Kaitlyn Dever was added to the cast in April; and Lucas Bravo was revealed to star in October. Clooney used a Keto-based regimen to lose weight in preparation for his role.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: Principal photography took place in Queensland, Australia, between November 2021 and February 2022. Ole Bratt Birkeland was the cinematographer. The film received a grant of AU$6.4 million (US$4.92 million) from the Australian federal government. Paul Fletcher, the Australian Minister for Communications and the Arts, said the production generated at least 270 jobs and AU$47 million (US$36.2 million) for the local economy. Filming locations included the Whitsunday Islands, the HOTA gallery at the Gold Coast, Brisbane Airport, cane fields near Norwell, Tamborine National Park, Queen's Wharf, Brisbane, Hamilton Island Airport, Carrara Markets, Tangalooma Island Resort on Moreton Island, and the Palm Bay Resort on Long Island. Scene where Georgia and David come to the island was shot on the Kate's cove beach, Haslewood Island. Production was briefly put in hiatus in January 2022 due to the rise of COVID-19 cases in Queensland.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: Universal Pictures released the film theatrically in Australia on September 15, 2022. It was released in the United Kingdom on September 20, 2022, and was released in the United States on October 21, 2022. It was originally set to be released in the US on September 30, 2022. The death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 delayed the film's UK release from September 16 to September 20. The film will stream on Peacock 45 days after its theatrical debut in the US.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: The film was released for VOD platforms on November 8, 2022, followed by a Blu-ray and DVD on December 13, 2022.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: , "Ticket to Paradise" has grossed $67.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $102.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $170.9 million.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: In the United States and Canada, "Ticket to Paradise" was released alongside "Black Adam", and was projected to gross $12–15 million from 3,500 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $6.4 million on its first day, including $1.1 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $16.3 million, finishing second behind "Black Adam". The slight over-performance was attributed to the film skewing to older women amid the release of other titles (including "Black Adam" and "Halloween Ends") being aimed at young men. In its sophomore weekend the film made $10 million, remaining in second, before finishing third place in its third weekend with $8.6 million (dropping 40% and 14%, respectively).


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: The film opened in seven markets ahead of its US release, grossing $800,000 from Spain and $700,000 from Brazil over their opening weekends on September 9–11.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported that filmgoers gave it an 81% overall positive score, with 65% saying that they would definitely recommend it.


title: Ticket to Paradise (2022 film)

text: At the 2022 People's Choice Awards, the film was nominated for Comedy Movie of 2022, and Julia Roberts was nominated for Comedy Movie Star of 2022.


title: Shoebill

text: The shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) also known as the whalebill, whale-headed stork or shoe-billed stork, is a very large long-legged wading bird. It derives its name from its enormous shoe-shaped bill. It has a somewhat stork-like overall form and has previously been classified with the storks in the order Ciconiiformes based on this morphology. However, genetic evidence places it with pelicans and herons in the Pelecaniformes. The adult is mainly grey while the juveniles are more brown. It lives in tropical East Africa in large swamps from South Sudan to Zambia.


title: Shoebill

text: The shoebill may have been known to Ancient Egyptians but was not classified until the 19th century, after skins and eventually live specimens were brought to Europe. John Gould very briefly described it in 1850 from the skin of a specimen collected on the upper White Nile by the English traveller Mansfield Parkyns. Gould provided a more detailed description in the following year. He placed the species in its own genus "Balaeniceps" and coined the binomial name "Balaeniceps rex". The genus name comes from the Latin words "balaena" "whale", and "caput" "head", abbreviated to "-ceps" in compound words. Alternative common names are whalebill, shoe-billed stork and whale-headed stork.


title: Shoebill

text: Traditionally considered as allied with the storks (Ciconiiformes), it was retained there in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy which lumped a massive number of unrelated taxa into their "Ciconiiformes". Based on osteological evidence, the suggestion of a pelecaniform affinity was made in 1957 by Patricia Cottam. Microscopic analysis of eggshell structure by Konstantin Mikhailov in 1995 found that the eggshells of shoebills closely resembled those of other Pelecaniformes in having a covering of thick microglobular material over the crystalline shells. In 2003, the shoebill was again suggested as closer to the pelicans (based on anatomical comparisons) or the herons (based on biochemical evidence). A 2008 DNA study reinforces their membership of the Pelecaniformes.


title: Shoebill

text: So far, two fossilized relatives of the shoebill have been described: "Goliathia" from the early Oligocene of Egypt and "Paludavis" from the Early Miocene of the same country. It has been suggested that the enigmatic African fossil bird "Eremopezus" was a relative too, but the evidence for that is unconfirmed. All that is known of "Eremopezus" is that it was a very large, probably flightless bird with a flexible foot, allowing it to handle either vegetation or prey.


title: Shoebill

text: The shoebill is a tall bird, with a typical height range of and some specimens reaching as much as . Length from tail to beak can range from and wingspan is . Weight has reportedly ranged from . A male will weigh on average around and is larger than a typical female of . The signature feature of the species is its huge, bulbous bill, which is straw-coloured with erratic greyish markings. The exposed culmen (or the measurement along the top of the upper mandible) is , the third longest bill among extant birds after pelicans and large storks, and can outrival the pelicans in bill circumference, especially if the bill is considered as the hard, bony keratin portion. As in the pelicans, the upper mandible is strongly keeled, ending in a sharp nail. The dark coloured legs are fairly long, with a tarsus length of . The shoebill's feet are exceptionally large, with the middle toe reaching in length, likely assisting the species in its ability to stand on aquatic vegetation while hunting. The neck is relatively shorter and thicker than other long-legged wading birds such as herons and cranes. The wings are broad, with a wing chord length of , and well-adapted to soaring.


title: Shoebill

text: The plumage of adult birds is blue-grey with darker slaty-grey flight feathers. The breast presents some elongated feathers, which have dark shafts. The juvenile has a similar plumage colour, but is a darker grey with a brown tinge. When they are first born, shoebills have a more modestly-sized bill, which is initially silvery-grey. The bill becomes more noticeably large when the chicks are 23 days old and becomes well developed by 43 days.


title: Shoebill

text: The shoebill is normally silent, but they perform bill-clattering displays at the nest. When engaging in these displays, adult birds have also been noted to utter a cow-like "moo" as well as high-pitched whines. Both nestlings and adults engage in bill-clattering during the nesting season as a means of communication. When young are begging for food, they call out with a sound uncannily like human hiccups. In one case, a flying adult bird was heard uttering hoarse croaks, apparently as a sign of aggression at a nearby marabou stork ("Leptoptilos crumeniferus").


title: Shoebill

text: Its wings are held flat while soaring and, as in the pelicans and the storks of the genus "Leptoptilos", the shoebill flies with its neck retracted. Its flapping rate, at an estimated 150 flaps per minute, is one of the slowest of any bird, with the exception of the larger stork species. The pattern is alternating flapping and gliding cycles of approximately seven seconds each, putting its gliding distance somewhere between the larger storks and the Andean condor ("Vultur gryphus"). When flushed, shoebills usually try to fly no more than . Long flights of the shoebill are rare, and only a few flights beyond its minimum foraging distance of have been recorded.


title: Shoebill

text: The shoebill is distributed in freshwater swamps of central tropical Africa, from southern Sudan and South Sudan through parts of eastern Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, western Tanzania and northern Zambia. The species is most numerous in the West Nile sub-region and South Sudan (especially the Sudd, a main stronghold for the species); it is also significant in wetlands of Uganda and western Tanzania. More isolated records have been reported of shoebills in Kenya, the Central African Republic, northern Cameroon, south-western Ethiopia, Malawi. Vagrant strays to the Okavango Basin, Botswana and the upper Congo River have also been sighted. The distribution of this species seems to largely coincide with that of papyrus and lungfish. They are often found in areas of flood plain interspersed with undisturbed papyrus and reedbeds. When shoebill storks are in an area with deep water, a bed of floating vegetation is a requirement. They are also found where there is poorly oxygenated water. This causes the fish living in the water to surface for air more often, increasing the likelihood a shoebill stork will successfully capture it. The shoebill is non-migratory with limited seasonal movements due to habitat changes, food availability and disturbance by humans.


title: Shoebill

text: Petroglyphs from Oued Djerat, eastern Algeria, show that the shoebill occurred during the Early Holocene much more to the north, in the wetlands that covered the present-day Sahara Desert at that time.


title: Shoebill

text: The shoebill occurs in extensive, dense freshwater marshes. Almost all wetlands that attract the species have undisturbed "Cyperus papyrus" and reed beds of "Phragmites" and "Typha". Although their distribution largely seems to correspond with the distribution of papyrus in central Africa, the species seems to avoid pure papyrus swamps and is often attracted to areas with mixed vegetation. More rarely, the species has been seen foraging in rice fields and flooded plantations.


title: Shoebill

text: The shoebill is noted for its slow movements and tendency to stay still for long periods, resulting in descriptions of the species as "statue-like". They are quite sensitive to human disturbance and may abandon their nests if flushed by humans. However, while foraging, if dense vegetation stands between it and humans, this wader can be fairly tame. The shoebill is attracted to poorly oxygenated waters such as swamps, marshes and bogs where fish frequently surface to breathe. They also seem to exhibit migratory behaviors based upon differences in the surface water level. Immature shoebills abandon nesting sites which increased in the surface water level whereas adult shoebills abandon nesting sites which decreased in surface water level. It is suggested that both adult and immature shoebills prefer nesting sites with similar surface water levels. Exceptionally for a bird this large, the shoebill often stands and perches on floating vegetation, making them appear somewhat like a giant jacana, although the similarly sized and occasionally sympatric Goliath heron ("Ardea goliath") is also known to stand on aquatic vegetation. Shoebills, being solitary, forage at or more from one another even where relatively densely populated. This species stalks its prey patiently, in a slow and lurking fashion. While hunting, the shoebill strides very slowly and is frequently motionless. Unlike some other large waders, this species hunts entirely using vision and is not known to engage in tactile hunting. When prey is spotted, it launches a quick violent strike. However, depending on the size of the prey, handling time after the strike can exceed 10 minutes. Around 60% of strikes yield prey. Frequently water and vegetation is snatched up during the strike and is spilled out from the edges of the mandibles. The activity of hippopotamus may inadvertently benefit the shoebill, as submerged hippos occasionally force fish to the surface.


title: Shoebill

text: The solitary nature of shoebills extends to their breeding habits. Nests typically occur at less than three nests per square kilometre, unlike herons, cormorants, pelicans and storks which predominantly nest in colonies. The breeding pair of shoebills vigorously defends a territory of from conspecifics. In the extreme north and south of the species' range, nesting starts right after the rains end. In more central regions of the range, it may nest near the end of the wet season in order for the eggs to hatch around the beginning of the following wet season. Both parents engage in building the nest on a floating platform after clearing out an area of approximately across. The large, flattish nesting platform is often partially submerged in water and can be as much as deep. The nest itself is about wide. Both the nest and platform are made of aquatic vegetation. From one to three white eggs are laid. These eggs measure high by and weigh around . Incubation lasts for approximately 30 days. Both parents actively brood, shade, guard and feed the nestling, though the females are perhaps slightly more attentive. Shoebills use their mandibles to cool their eggs with water during days with high temperatures around 30-33°C. They fill their mandible once, swallow the water, and fill another mandible full of water before proceeding back to their nest where they pour out the water and regurgitate the previously swallowed water onto both the nest and eggs. Food items are regurgitated whole from the gullet straight into the bill of the young. Shoebills rarely raise more than one chick but will hatch more. The younger chicks usually die and are intended as "back-ups" in case the eldest chick dies or is weak. Fledging is reached at around 105 days and the young birds can fly well by 112 days. However, they are still fed for possibly a month or more after this. It will take the young shoebills three years before they become fully sexually mature.


title: Shoebill

text: Shoebills are elusive when nesting, so cameras must be placed to observe them from afar to collect behavioral data. There is an advantage for birds that are early breeders, as the chicks are tended for a longer period.


title: Shoebill

text: Shoebills are largely piscivorous but are assured predators of a considerable range of wetland vertebrates. Preferred prey species have reportedly included marbled lungfish ("Protopterus aethiopicus"), African lungfish ("Protopterus annectens"), and Senegal bichir ("Polypterus senegalus") and various "Tilapia" species and catfish, the latter mainly in the genus "Clarias". Other prey eaten by this species has included frogs, water snakes, Nile monitors ("Varanus niloticus") and baby crocodiles. More rarely, small turtles, snails, rodents and small waterfowl have reportedly been eaten.


title: Shoebill

text: Given its sharp-edged beak, huge bill, and wide gape, the shoebill can hunt large prey, often targeting prey bigger than is taken by other large wading birds. In the Bangweulu Swamps of Zambia, fish eaten by this species are commonly in the range of . The main prey items fed to young by the parents were the catfish "Clarias gariepinus",(syn. "C. mossambicus") and water snakes. In Uganda, lungfish and catfish were mainly fed to the young. Larger lungfish and catfish were taken in Malagarasi wetlands in western Tanzania. In this study, fish around were quite frequently taken and the largest fish caught by the shoebill was 99cm long. fish exceeding 60cm were usually cut into sections and swallowed at intervals. The entire process from scooping to swallowing ranged from 2 to 30 minutes depending on prey size. However, these large prey are relatively hard to handle and often targeted by African fish eagle ("Haliaeetus vocifer"), which frequently steal large wading bird's prey. Snakes preyed upon are commonly from long.


title: Shoebill

text: This species is considered to be one of the five most desirable birds in Africa by birdwatchers. They are docile with humans and show no threatening behavior. Researchers were able to observe a bird on its nest at a close distance – within . Shoebills are often kept in zoos, but breeding is rarely reported. Shoebills have bred successfully at the Pairi Daiza in Belgium and at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo in Florida.


title: Shoebill

text: The population is estimated at between and individuals, the majority of which live in swamps in South Sudan, Uganda, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia. There is also a viable population in the Malagarasi wetlands in Tanzania. BirdLife International has classified it as Vulnerable with the main threats being habitat destruction, disturbance and hunting. The bird is listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Habitat destruction and degradation, hunting, disturbance and illegal capture are all contributing factors to the decline of this species. Agriculture cultivation and pasture for cattle have also caused significant habitat loss. Indigenous communities that surround Shoebill habitats capture their eggs and chicks for human consumption and for trade. Frequent fires in southern Sudan and deliberate fires for grazing access contribute to habitat loss. Lastly, swamps in Sudan are being drained for construction of a nearby canal that allows for artificial control of nearby waterways.


title: Alhamdulillah

text: Alhamdulillah (, "") is an Arabic phrase meaning "praise be to God", sometimes translated as "thank God". This phrase is called Tahmid (). A longer variant of the phrase is "al-ḥamdu l-illāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn" (), meaning "all praise is due to God, Lord of all the worlds", second verse of Surah Fatihah.


title: Alhamdulillah

text: The phrase is frequently used by Muslims of every background due to its centrality in the texts of the Quran and Hadith, the words of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Its meaning and in-depth explanation have been the subject of much exegesis. It is also commonly used by non-Muslim speakers of the Arabic language.


title: Alhamdulillah

text: The phrase is first found in the second verse of the first sura of the Qur'an (Al-Fatiha). So frequently do Muslims and Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians invoke this phrase that the quadriliteral verb "hamdala" (), "to say al-ḥamdu li-llāh" was coined, and the derived noun "ḥamdala" is used as a name for this phrase.


title: Alhamdulillah

text: The triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D (), meaning "praise", can also be found in the names Muhammad, Mahmud, Hamid and Ahmad, among others.


title: Alhamdulillah

text: the Messenger of God (ﷺ) said: “The best remembrance is: ‘there is none worthy of worship except Allah (Lā ilāha illallāh)’ and the best supplication is: ‘All praise is due to Allah (Al-ḥamdulillāh).’”


title: Alhamdulillah

text: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Any matter of importance which is not begun with Al-hamdu lillah (praise be to Allah) remains defective."


title: Alhamdulillah

text: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Allah is pleased with His slave who says: 'Al-hamdu lillah (praise be to Allah)' when he takes a morsel of food and drinks a draught of water."


title: Eric Stoltz

text: Eric Cameron Stoltz (born September 30, 1961) is an American actor, director and producer. He played the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film "Mask", which earned him the nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, and has appeared in a wide variety of films from mainstream ones including "Some Kind of Wonderful" to independent films such as "Pulp Fiction", "Killing Zoe" and "Kicking and Screaming". He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in "Pulp Fiction". In 2010, he portrayed Daniel Graystone in the science fiction television series "Caprica" and became a regular director on the television series "Glee".


title: Eric Stoltz

text: Stoltz was born in Whittier, California, the son of Evelyn (née Vawter), a violinist and schoolteacher and Jack Stoltz, an elementary school teacher. He has two sisters, Catherine, an opera singer, and Susan, a writer.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: Stoltz was raised in both American Samoa and Santa Barbara, California. He attended the University of Southern California, but dropped out after his junior year. He moved to New York in 1981 and studied acting with Stella Adler and Peggy Feury.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: In the 1970s, Stoltz joined a repertory company that performed ten plays at the Edinburgh Festival. He returned to the United States in 1979, when he entered USC as a drama student, but subsequently dropped out to pursue film and television roles.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: In 1978, he was cast as Steve Benson in the television adaptation of Erma Bombeck's "The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank".


title: Eric Stoltz

text: Director Cameron Crowe and Stoltz became friends while making Stoltz's first feature film, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982), which Crowe wrote and in which Stoltz had a minor role. According to Stoltz, Crowe promised Stoltz a role in all of his future films.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: He appeared in each of Crowe's next four films, "The Wild Life" (1984), "Say Anything..." (1989), "Singles" (1992) and "Jerry Maguire" (1996).


title: Eric Stoltz

text: In 1985, Stoltz garnered attention with a Golden Globe nomination starring as Rocky Dennis in "Mask". Among other roles in the 1980s, he appeared in the 1987 film "Some Kind of Wonderful", written and produced by John Hughes.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: Stoltz was originally cast as Marty McFly in "Back to the Future". His view of the movie clashed, however, with that of the director, Robert Zemeckis. While the film was to become an action-comedy (and box office smash hit), Stoltz had read the script from a more serious angle, apparently focusing on the tragic consequences of going back to live a life that was not one's own. Five weeks into shooting the film, Zemeckis replaced Stoltz with Michael J. Fox. This highly unusual move required buy-in from his own studio, reshooting much of the film, as well as an agreement from the producers of television's "Family Ties", which had earlier refused to allow Fox to play the role because it would interfere with shooting the TV show; the deal allowed Fox to shoot the movie around his television schedule.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: During the 1990s, Stoltz went back and forth between stage, film and television, appearing in studio and independent films such as "The Waterdance" (1992), "Pulp Fiction" (1994), "Grace Of My Heart" (1996) and "Anaconda" (1997).


title: Eric Stoltz

text: During the 1990s, Stoltz produced the films "Bodies, Rest & Motion" (1993), "Sleep with Me" (1994) and "Mr. Jealousy" (1997).


title: Eric Stoltz

text: He continued to appear on the New York stage, both on Broadway ("Three Sisters", "Two Shakespearean Actors", "Arms and the Man", " Our Town") and off-Broadway ("The Importance of Being Earnest", "The Glass Menagerie", "Sly Fox"). He was nominated for a Tony Award as Featured Actor for his performance as George Gibbs in the 1989 Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town".


title: Eric Stoltz

text: A performance of this production was featured on "Great Performances: Live from Lincoln Center", which received a 1989 Emmy nomination.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: On television, he had a recurring role as Helen Hunt's character's ex-boyfriend on "Mad About You" (five episodes, 1994–1998), spent a year on "Chicago Hope" (1994) and did some television and cable films such as "Inside" (1996) (directed by Arthur Penn) and "The Passion of Ayn Rand" (1999), with Helen Mirren. Stoltz received the Indie Sup(Y)port Award at the 1998 Los Angeles Film Festival.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: During the first part of the 2000s, he starred with Gillian Anderson in "The House of Mirth" (2000), based on the novel by Edith Wharton. From 2001 to 2002, he had a recurring role as the English teacher-poet August Dimitri in ABC's "Once and Again", wherein Julia Whelan's character, a teenager, fell in love with his character. He directed an episode of the show in 2002.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: In 2003, he played his first leading TV role in "Out of Order", which was canceled after five episodes. In 2004, he appeared in "The Butterfly Effect" as a child molester; the following year, he guest-starred in the NBC sitcom "Will & Grace" as Debra Messing's love interest. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his direction of the cable movie "My Horrible Year!" (2001). He also directed a short film entitled "The Bulls" as well as the highest rated episode of "Law & Order" in 2005, entitled "Tombstone". He appeared in the music video of The Residents' "Give It to Someone Else", featured on "The Commercial DVD".


title: Eric Stoltz

text: He has contributed essays to the books "City Secrets--New York" as well as "Life Interrupted" by Spalding Gray and appears on the children's CD "Philadelphia Chickens".


title: Eric Stoltz

text: Beginning in 2007, Stoltz directed episodes of the drama series "Quarterlife", which began airing as webisodes and were then picked up to air on the NBC network in 2008. Stoltz played a serial killer in need of medical attention in three episodes of the fifth season of "Grey's Anatomy". He has also directed two episodes of "Grey's Anatomy".


title: Eric Stoltz

text: Stoltz starred as Daniel Graystone, inventor of the Cylons, in the science fiction television series "Caprica", a prequel set 58 years before the "Battlestar Galactica" series.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: He became a regular director of "Glee", directing a total of 12 episodes, including "Nationals", in which the Glee club finally wins the championship.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: In 2011 Stoltz was seen back on the silver screen with the film "Fort McCoy"; he earned accolades for his leading role as a conflicted barber of German heritage forced to suppress his American patriotism after moving his family to a post–World War II military base housing a German POW camp.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: Starting in 2014, Stoltz became the producing director of the CBS political drama series "Madam Secretary". The following year he became one of its four executive producers, alongside Morgan Freeman and Barbara Hall and has directed more than 10 episodes, as well as starring alongside Téa Leoni in several episodes as her brother, Will Adams.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: Stoltz met Bridget Fonda in 1986 and they began dating in 1990. The relationship ended after eight years.


title: Eric Stoltz

text: In 2005 Stoltz married Bernadette Moley, a singer and former animator for Disney who migrated to the United States from Ireland.


title: Rory Culkin

text: Rory Hugh Culkin (born July 21, 1989) is an American actor who is known for his roles in "Scream 4", "Lords of Chaos", "You Can Count on Me", "Columbus", and M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs". He is the younger brother of actors Macaulay Culkin and Kieran Culkin.


title: Rory Culkin

text: Rory Hugh Culkin was born July 21, 1989 in New York City, the youngest of seven children born to Christopher Cornelius "Kit" Culkin, a former Broadway stage actor, and Patricia Brentrup, a native of North Dakota who met Kit in 1974 while working as a road traffic controller in Sundance, Wyoming. Culkin's siblings include Shane ( 1976), Dakota (1979–2008), Macaulay ( 1980), Kieran ( 1982), Quinn ( 1984), and Christian ( 1987). He also had a paternal half-sister, Jennifer (born 1970), who died in 2000. Culkin's paternal aunt is actress Bonnie Bedelia.


title: Rory Culkin

text: Culkin began acting by playing alongside his elder brothers, among them Macaulay and Kieran, often as the younger versions of their characters. He first appeared in a photograph as a baby in "The Good Son", then as Young Richie in "Ri¢hie Ri¢h" (Richie being played by his brother Macaulay) and in 2002, played 10-year-old Igby in "Igby Goes Down" (17-year-old Igby was played by his older brother Kieran).


title: Rory Culkin

text: Culkin's breakthrough role was in "You Can Count on Me", opposite Laura Linney, a role for which he received much praise and a Young Artist Award. Since then, Culkin has appeared in numerous films, "Signs" being the most famous, in which he starred alongside Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix.


title: Rory Culkin

text: As a teenager, Rory started moving into more independent films, such as "The Chumscrubber", "Hick" and "Down in the Valley". He took a leading role in "Mean Creek", a 2004 independent film about a group of teenagers that plan revenge on a bully. The entire youth cast won an Independent Spirit Award for this film.


title: Rory Culkin

text: Since his Young Artist Award win for "You Can Count on Me", Culkin has received three more nominations. He had a guest role in the "" episode "Manic", and in the episode "Azoth the Avenger Is a Friend of Mine" of "The Twilight Zone" alongside Patrick Warburton. In May 2010, Culkin was cast for the slasher film "Scream 4", which was released on April 15, 2011. Culkin was cast as Euronymous in the biographical film "Lords of Chaos" which tells the story about the events of the Norwegian black metal scene and the band Mayhem.


title: Rory Culkin

text: In 2018, Culkin married cinematographer Sarah Scrivener in New Orleans, Louisiana. The wedding was officiated by Paul Heyman on the eve of WrestleMania 34.


title: Damascus

text: Damascus ( , ; Arabic: , ) is the capital of Syria, the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth holiest city in Islam. Colloquially known in Syria as () and titled the "City of Jasmine" ( ), Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world. The city had an estimated population of 2,503,000 in 2022.


title: Damascus

text: In southwestern Syria, Damascus is the center of a large metropolitan area. Its population in 2004 was estimated to be 2.7 million people. Embedded on the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau above sea level, Damascus experiences a dry climate because of the rain shadow effect. The Barada River flows through Damascus.


title: Damascus

text: Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. First settled in the 3rd millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad. Damascus saw its importance decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Today, it is the seat of the central government of Syria. , eight years into the Syrian Civil War, Damascus was named the least livable city out of 140 global cities in the Global Liveability Ranking.


title: Damascus

text: The name of Damascus first appeared in the geographical list of Thutmose III as () in the 15th century BC.


title: Damascus

text: The etymology of the ancient name is uncertain. It is attested as () in Akkadian, () in Egyptian, () in Old Aramaic and () in Biblical Hebrew. A number of Akkadian spellings are found in the Amarna letters, from the 14th century BC: (), (), and ().


title: Damascus

text: Later Aramaic spellings of the name often include an intrusive "resh" (letter "r"), perhaps influenced by the root , meaning "dwelling". Thus, the English and Latin name of the city is , which was imported from Greek and originated from the Qumranic (), and () in Syriac", meaning "a well-watered land".


title: Damascus

text: In Arabic, the city is called Dimashq ( ). The city is also known as by the citizens of Damascus, of Syria and other Arab neighbors and Turkey (). is an Arabic term for "Levant" and for "Syria"; the latter, and particularly the historical region of Syria, is called ( / "land of the Levant"). The latter term etymologically means "land of the left-hand side" or "the north", as someone in the Hijaz facing east, oriented to the sunrise, will find the north to the left. This is contrasted with the name of Yemen ( ), correspondingly meaning "the right-hand side" or "the south". The variation ('), of the more typical (), is also attested in Old South Arabian, (), with the same semantic development.


title: Damascus

text: Damascus was built in a strategic site on a plateau above sea level and about inland from the Mediterranean, sheltered by the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, supplied with water by the Barada River, and at a crossroads between trade routes: the north–south route connecting Egypt with Asia Minor, and the east–west cross-desert route connecting Lebanon with the Euphrates river valley. The Anti-Lebanon Mountains mark the border between Syria and Lebanon. The range has peaks of over and blocks precipitation from the Mediterranean sea, so that the region of Damascus is sometimes subject to droughts. However, in ancient times this was mitigated by the Barada River, which originates from mountain streams fed by melting snow. Damascus is surrounded by the Ghouta, irrigated farmland where many vegetables, cereals and fruits have been farmed since ancient times. Maps of Roman Syria indicate that the Barada river emptied into a lake of some size east of Damascus. Today it is called Bahira Atayba, the hesitant lake, because in years of severe drought it does not even exist.


title: Damascus

text: The old city of Damascus, enclosed by the city walls, lies on the south bank of the river Barada which is almost dry ( left). To the south-east, north and north-east it is surrounded by suburban areas whose history stretches back to the Middle Ages: Midan in the south-west, Sarouja and Imara in the north and north-west. These neighborhoods originally arose on roads leading out of the city, near the tombs of religious figures. In the 19th century outlying villages developed on the slopes of Jabal Qasioun, overlooking the city, already the site of the al-Salihiyah neighborhood centered on the important shrine of medieval Andalusian Sheikh and philosopher Ibn Arabi. These new neighborhoods were initially settled by Kurdish soldiery and Muslim refugees from the European regions of the Ottoman Empire which had fallen under Christian rule. Thus they were known as "al-Akrad" "(the Kurds)" and "al-Muhajirin" "(the migrants)". They lay north of the old city.


title: Damascus

text: From the late 19th century on, a modern administrative and commercial center began to spring up to the west of the old city, around the Barada, centered on the area known as al-Marjeh or "the meadow". Al-Marjeh soon became the name of what was initially the central square of modern Damascus, with the city hall in it. The courts of justice, post office and railway station stood on higher ground slightly to the south. A Europeanized residential quarter soon began to be built on the road leading between al-Marjeh and al-Salihiyah. The commercial and administrative center of the new city gradually shifted northwards slightly towards this area.


title: Damascus

text: In the 20th century, newer suburbs developed north of the Barada, and to some extent to the south, invading the Ghouta oasis. In 1956–1957, the new neighborhood of Yarmouk became a second home to thousands of Palestinian refugees. City planners preferred to preserve the Ghouta as far as possible, and in the later 20th century some of the main areas of development were to the north, in the western Mezzeh neighborhood and most recently along the Barada valley in Dummar in the north west and on the slopes of the mountains at Barzeh in the north-east. Poorer areas, often built without official approval, have mostly developed south of the main city.


title: Damascus

text: Damascus used to be surrounded by an oasis, the Ghouta region (), watered by the Barada river. The Fijeh spring, west along the Barada valley, used to provide the city with drinking water and various sources to the west are tapped by water contractors. The flow of the Barada dropped with the rapid expansion of housing and industry in the city and it is almost dry. The lower aquifers are polluted by the city's runoff from heavily used roads, industry and sewage.


title: Damascus

text: Damascus has a cool arid climate ("BWk") in the Köppen-Geiger system, due to the rain shadow effect of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and the prevailing ocean currents. Summers are prolonged, dry and hot with less humidity. Winters are cool and somewhat rainy; snowfall is infrequent. Autumn is brief and mild, but has the most drastic temperature change, unlike spring where the transition to summer is more gradual and steady. Annual rainfall is around , occurring from October to May.


title: Damascus

text: Carbon-14 dating at Tell Ramad, on the outskirts of Damascus, suggests that the site may have been occupied since the second half of the seventh millennium BC, possibly around 6300 BC. However, evidence of settlement in the wider Barada basin dating back to 9000 BC exists, although no large-scale settlement was present within Damascus' walls until the second millennium BC.


title: Damascus

text: Some of the earliest Egyptian records are from the 1350 BC Amarna letters, when Damascus (called "Dimasqu") was ruled by king Biryawaza. The Damascus region, as well as the rest of Syria, became a battleground circa 1260 BC, between the Hittites from the north and the Egyptians from the south, ending with a signed treaty between Hattusili and Ramesses II where the former handed over control of the Damascus area to Ramesses II in 1259 BC. The arrival of the Sea Peoples, around 1200 BC, marked the end of the Bronze Age in the region and brought about new development of warfare. Damascus was only a peripheral part of this picture, which mostly affected the larger population centers of ancient Syria. However, these events contributed to the development of Damascus as a new influential center that emerged with the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.


title: Damascus

text: Damascus is mentioned in Genesis 14:15 as existing at the time of the War of the Kings. According to the 1st-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in his twenty-one volume "Antiquities of the Jews", Damascus (along with Trachonitis), was founded by Uz, the son of Aram. In Antiquities i. 7, Josephus reports:


title: Damascus

text: Nicolaus of Damascus, in the fourth book of his History, says thus: "Abraham reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldeans: but, after a long time, he got him up, and removed from that country also, with his people, and went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land of Judea, and this when his posterity were become a multitude; as to which posterity of his, we relate their history in another work. Now the name of Abraham is even still famous in the country of Damascus; and there is shown a village named from him, The Habitation of Abraham.


title: Damascus

text: Damascus is first documented as an important city during the arrival of the Aramaeans, a Semitic people, in the 11th century BC. By the start of the first millennium BC, several Aramaic kingdoms were formed, as Aramaeans abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and formed federated tribal states. One of these kingdoms was Aram-Damascus, centered on its capital Damascus. The Aramaeans who entered the city without battle, adopted the name "Dimashqu" for their new home. Noticing the agricultural potential of the still-undeveloped and sparsely populated area, they established the water distribution system of Damascus by constructing canals and tunnels which maximized the efficiency of the river Barada. The same network was later improved by the Romans and the Umayyads, and still forms the basis of the water system of the old part of the city today. The Aramaeans initially turned Damascus into an outpost of a loose federation of Aramaean tribes, known as Aram-Zobah, based in the Beqaa Valley.


title: Damascus

text: The city would gain pre-eminence in southern Syria when Ezron, the claimant to Aram-Zobah's throne who was denied kingship of the federation, fled Beqaa and captured Damascus by force in 965 BC. Ezron overthrew the city's tribal governor and founded the independent entity of Aram-Damascus. As this new state expanded south, it prevented the Kingdom of Israel from spreading north and the two kingdoms soon clashed as they both sought to dominate trading hegemony in the east. Under Ezron's grandson, Ben-Hadad I (880–841 BC), and his successor Hazael, Damascus annexed Bashan (modern-day Hauran region), and went on the offensive with Israel. This conflict continued until the early 8th century BC when Ben-Hadad II was captured by Israel after unsuccessfully besieging Samaria. As a result, he granted Israel trading rights in Damascus.


title: Damascus

text: Another possible reason for the treaty between Aram-Damascus and Israel was the common threat of the Neo-Assyrian Empire which was attempting to expand into the Mediterranean coast. In 853 BC, King Hadadezer of Damascus led a Levantine coalition, that included forces from the northern Aram-Hamath kingdom and troops supplied by King Ahab of Israel, in the Battle of Qarqar against the Neo-Assyrian army. Aram-Damascus came out victorious, temporarily preventing the Assyrians from encroaching into Syria. However, after Hadadzezer was killed by his successor, Hazael, the Levantine alliance collapsed. Aram-Damascus attempted to invade Israel, but was interrupted by the renewed Assyrian invasion. Hazael ordered a retreat to the walled part of Damascus while the Assyrians plundered the remainder of the kingdom. Unable to enter the city, they declared their supremacy in the Hauran and Beqa'a valleys.


title: Damascus

text: By the 8th century BC, Damascus was practically engulfed by the Assyrians and entered a Dark Age. Nonetheless, it remained the economic and cultural center of the Near East as well as the Arameaen resistance. In 727, a revolt took place in the city, but was put down by Assyrian forces. After Assyria led by Tiglath-Pileser III went on a wide-scale campaign of quelling revolts throughout Syria, Damascus became totally subjugated by their rule. A positive effect of this was stability for the city and benefits from the spice and incense trade with Arabia. In 694 BC, the town was called "Šaʾimerišu" (Akkadian: 𒐼𒄿𒈨𒊑𒋙𒌋) and its governor was named "Ilu-issīya". However, Assyrian authority was dwindling by 609–605 BC, and Syria-Palestine was falling into the orbit of Pharaoh Necho II's Egypt. In 572 BC, all of Syria had been conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonians, but the status of Damascus under Babylon is relatively unknown.


title: Damascus

text: Damascus was conquered by Alexander the Great. After the death of Alexander in 323 BC, Damascus became the site of a struggle between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires. The control of the city passed frequently from one empire to the other. Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander's generals, made Antioch the capital of his vast empire, which led to the decline of Damascus' importance compared with new Seleucid cities such as Latakia in the north. Later, Demetrius III Philopator rebuilt the city according to the Greek hippodamian system and renamed it "Demetrias".


title: Damascus

text: In 64 BC, the Roman general Pompey annexed the western part of Syria. The Romans occupied Damascus and subsequently incorporated it into the league of ten cities known as the Decapolis which themselves were incorporated into the province of Syria and granted autonomy.


title: Damascus

text: The city of Damascus was entirely redesigned by the Romans after Pompey conquered the region. Still today the Old Town of Damascus retains the rectangular shape of the Roman city, with its two main axes: the Decumanus Maximus (east-west; known today as the "Via Recta") and the Cardo (north-south), the Decumanus being about twice as long. The Romans built a monumental gate which still survives at the eastern end of Decumanus Maximus. The gate originally had three arches: the central arch was for chariots while the side arches were for pedestrians.


title: Damascus

text: In 23 BC, Herod the Great was given lands controlled by Zenodorus by Caesar Augustus and some scholars believe that Herod was also granted control of Damascus as well. The control of Damascus reverted to Syria either upon the death of Herod the Great or was part of the lands given to Herod Philip which were given to Syria with his death in 33/34 AD.


title: Damascus

text: It is speculated that control of Damascus was gained by Aretas IV Philopatris of Nabatea between the death of Herod Philip in 33/34 AD and the death of Aretas in 40 AD but there is substantial evidence against Aretas controlling the city before 37 AD and many reasons why it could not have been a gift from Caligula between 37 and 40 AD. In fact, all these theories stem not from any actual evidence outside the New Testament but rather "a certain understanding of 2 Corinthians 11:32" and in reality "neither from archaeological evidence, secular-historical sources, nor New Testament texts can Nabatean sovereignty over Damascus in the first century AD be proven." Roman emperor Trajan who annexed the Nabataean Kingdom, creating the province of Arabia Petraea, had previously been in Damascus, as his father Marcus Ulpius Traianus served as governor of Syria from 73 to 74 AD, where he met the Nabatean architect and engineer, Apollodorus of Damascus, who joined him in Rome when he was a consul in 91 AD, and later built several monuments during the 2nd century AD.


title: Damascus

text: Damascus became a metropolis by the beginning of the 2nd century and in 222 it was upgraded to a "colonia" by the Emperor Septimius Severus. During the "Pax Romana", Damascus and the Roman province of Syria in general began to prosper. Damascus's importance as a caravan city was evident with the trade routes from southern Arabia, Palmyra, Petra, and the silk routes from China all converging on it. The city satisfied the Roman demands for eastern luxuries. Circa 125 AD the Roman emperor Hadrian promoted the city of Damascus to "Metropolis of Coele-Syria".


title: Damascus

text: Little remains of the architecture of the Romans, but the town planning of the old city did have a lasting effect. The Roman architects brought together the Greek and Aramaean foundations of the city and fused them into a new layout measuring approximately , surrounded by a city wall. The city wall contained seven gates, but only the eastern gate, Bab Sharqi, remains from the Roman period. Roman Damascus lies mostly at depths of up to below the modern city.


title: Damascus

text: The old borough of Bab Tuma was developed at the end of the Roman/Byzantine era by the local Eastern Orthodox community. According to the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Paul and Saint Thomas both lived in that neighborhood. Roman Catholic historians also consider Bab Tuma to be the birthplace of several Popes such as John V and Gregory III. Accordingly, there was a community of Jewish Christians who converted to Christianity with the advent of Saint Paul's proselytisation.


title: Damascus

text: During the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, the city was besieged and captured by Shahrbaraz in 613, along with a large number of Byzantine troops as prisoners, and was in Sasanian hands until near the end of the war.


title: Damascus

text: Muhammad's first indirect interaction with the people of Damascus was when he sent a letter, through his companion Shiya ibn Wahab, to Harith ibn Abi Shamir, the king of Damascus. In his letter, Muhammad stated: "Peace be upon him who follows true guidance. Be informed that my religion shall prevail everywhere. You should accept Islam, and whatever under your command shall remain yours."


title: Damascus

text: After most of the Syrian countryside was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate during the reign of Caliph Umar (), Damascus itself was conquered by the Arab Muslim general Khalid ibn al-Walid in August-September 634 CE. His army had previously attempted to capture the city in April 634, but without success. With Damascus now in Muslim-Arab hands, the Byzantines, alarmed at the loss of their most prestigious city in the Near East, had decided to wrest back control of it. Under Emperor Heraclius, the Byzantines fielded an army superior to that of the Rashidun in manpower. They advanced into southern Syria during the spring of 636 and consequently Khalid ibn al-Walid's forces withdrew from Damascus to prepare for renewed confrontation. In August, the two sides met along the Yarmouk River where they fought a major battle which ended in a decisive Muslim victory, solidifying Muslim rule in Syria and Palestine. While the Muslims administered the city, the population of Damascus remained mostly Christian—Eastern Orthodox and Monophysite—with a growing community of Muslims from Mecca, Medina, and the Syrian Desert. The governor assigned to the city which had been chosen as the capital of Islamic Syria was Mu'awiya I.


title: Damascus

text: Following the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali's death in 661, Mu'awiya was chosen as the caliph of the expanding Islamic empire. Because of the vast amounts of assets his clan, the Umayyads, owned in the city and because of its traditional economic and social links with the Hijaz as well as the Christian Arab tribes of the region, Mu'awiya established Damascus as the capital of the entire Caliphate. With the ascension of Caliph Abd al-Malik in 685, an Islamic coinage system was introduced and all of the surplus revenue of the Caliphate's provinces were forwarded to the treasury of Damascus. Arabic was also established as the official language, giving the Muslim minority of the city an advantage over the Aramaic-speaking Christians in administrative affairs.


title: Damascus

text: Abd al-Malik's successor, al-Walid initiated construction of the Grand Mosque of Damascus (known as the Umayyad Mosque) in 706. The site originally had been the Christian Cathedral of St. John and the Muslims maintained the building's dedication to John the Baptist. By 715, the mosque was complete. Al-Walid died that same year and he was succeeded at first by Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik and then by Umar II, who each ruled for brief periods before the reign of Hisham in 724. With these successions, the status of Damascus was gradually weakening as Suleiman had chosen Ramla as his residence and later Hisham chose Resafa. Following the murder of the latter in 743, the Caliphate of the Umayyads—which by then stretched from Spain to India— was crumbling as a result of widespread revolts. During the reign of Marwan II in 744, the capital of the empire was relocated to Harran in the northern Jazira region.


title: Damascus

text: On 25 August 750, the Abbasids, having already beaten the Umayyads in the Battle of the Zab in Iraq, conquered Damascus after facing little resistance. With the heralding of the Abbasid Caliphate, Damascus became eclipsed and subordinated by Baghdad, the new Islamic capital. Within the first six months of Abbasid rule, revolts began erupting in the city, albeit too isolated and unfocused to present a viable threat. Nonetheless, the last of the prominent Umayyads were executed, the traditional officials of Damascus ostracised, and army generals from the city were dismissed. Afterwards, the Umayyad family cemetery was desecrated and the city walls were torn down, reducing Damascus into a provincial town of little importance. It roughly disappeared from written records for the next century and the only significant improvement of the city was the Abbasid-built treasury dome in the Umayyad Mosque in 789. In 811, distant remnants of the Umayyad dynasty staged a strong uprising in Damascus that was eventually put down.


title: Damascus

text: Ahmad ibn Tulun, a dissenting Turkish governor appointed by the Abbasids, conquered Syria, including Damascus, from his overlords in 878–79. In an act of respect for the previous Umayyad rulers, he erected a shrine on the site of Mu'awiya's grave in the city. Tulunid rule of Damascus was brief, lasting only until 906 before being replaced by the Qarmatians who were adherents of Shia Islam. Due to their inability to control the vast amount of land they occupied, the Qarmatians withdrew from Damascus and a new dynasty, the Ikhshidids, took control of the city. They maintained the independence of Damascus from the Arab Hamdanid dynasty of Aleppo and the Baghdad-based Abbasids until 967. A period of instability in the city followed, with a Qarmatian raid in 968, a Byzantine raid in 970, and increasing pressures from the Fatimids in the south and the Hamdanids in the north.