SMITTY

Real Name: Brendan Smith

Identity/Class: Human (19th century)

Occupation: Miner, former sailor

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Cookie (employee), James Howlett (later Wolverine), Rose O'Hara

Enemies: Cookie

Known Relatives: Unidentified father

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Formerly mobile throughout the world, later a quarry in Coalville in British Columbia, Canada

First Appearance: Wolverine: The Origin#3 (January, 2002)

Powers/Abilities: Smitty was a pretty good hand-to-hand combatant.

History: (The Wolverine Files) - Smitty was a Christian and 34 years old, and thus born 1869.

(Wolverine: The Origin#4) (fb) - In the late 1800's, Smitty was once a sailor and sailed around the world. Eventually, after his father died, he became the director of a camp where the workers in a nearby quarry lived in British Columbia.

(Wolverine: The Origin#3) - James Howlett (who would grow up to become Wolverine nearly a century later), and his companion Rose came to the quarry which Smitty ran for refuge (they were wanted for murder they didn't commit). Smitty "welcomed" all the new recruits by strictly telling them the rules: they worked and their salaries would be food and shelter. They worked or starved. He saw James, who was a young boy at the time, and needed some convincing from Rose to let him work there.

(Wolverine: The Origin#4) - Later on, when James was being assaulted by Cookie, Smitty showed up and saved James by simply telling Smitty to lay off. 

Over the next two years, he got very friendly with Rose.

James got assaulted by Cookie again, and this time Smitty intervened physically, by beating up Cookie and threatening him. 

(Wolverine: The Origin#5) - After Cookie sabotaged the dynamite to explode way too soon in an attempt to kill James, Smitty dug in the rubble of the mine tirelessly looking for survivors. 

Later, Smitty and Rose became engaged to be married. 

(Wolverine: The Origin#6) - This upset James very much, since he had been Rose's companion for years and was in love with her. Smitty wanted to leave the quarry and start a new life with Rose, but he couldn't afford to get train tickets. To get the money, he entered a series of fights inside a steel cage in which the winner would get $200. James also signed up for a chance to fight Smitty. Smitty made it all the way to the finals where he had to face James. James was handling Smitty easily until Smitty convinced him that if he really loved Rose he wouldn't stand between them. James threw the fight, and Smitty got the money.

After Rose's accidental death, Smitty wandered into the forest calling after James saying he couldn't get through it on his own. However, it was no use, and James disappeared into the forest, where he emerged decades later as...Wolverine!

(The Wolverine Files) - During the aftermath of the battle between James and Dog, RCMP Constable Buck Frobisher takes a statement from Smitty.

Comments: Created by Paul Jenkins and Andy Kubert

Smitty is the one whom Wolverine got the word "bub" from. 

I cannot recommend this book enough.

Thanks to Wolfram Bane who pointed out that Smitty was called Mr. Smith by Rose in Origin#5. Also thanks to him for the information from Mike W. Barr's Wolverine Files (April, 2009), which was published by Gallery Books. The Wolverine Files included Smitty's first name and year of birth.

PROFILE BY STUNNER

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with:

• Smitts, Bob - U-Men, died, tissues harvested by other members --X-Men II#136

images: (without ads)
Wolverine: The Origin#3, p20, pan4 (main image)