Professor Andre Thorton (real name Truett Hudson; also known as The Professor) is a character in Marvel Comics, an enemy of Wolverine.

Biography

In 1972, nearly twenty years before Logan was romantically involved and abducted with Silver Fox at Windsor snow lodge, Professor Thorton experimented on numerous mutants including Sabretooth and Mastodon. He hired Carol Hines as his assistant and the scientist Abraham Cornelius. His experiments on Wolverine are responsible for his adamantium-laced skeleton. He is also connected to the creation of Alpha Flight on to developing super-soldiers for the US government. During the adamantium-lacing process, the physical trauma causes Wolverine to regress to violent animal behavior, prone to attacking anyone who comes near. At one point, Thorton's mysterious "master" takes control of Wolverine and has him attack everyone in the facility, cutting off Professor Thorton's right hand and killing him. Though an ending scene clarifies to the reader that this was a virtual reality simulation of an escape attempt by Wolverine, in later appearances Thorton has a metal hook in place of his right hand.

Years later, Professor Thorton and Carol Hines lure Wolverine into an abandoned warehouse in Canada which was once the secret location for the Weapon X program. Codenamed Project X, Wolverine discovers Weapon X was funded by the CIA and sheltered in Canada. Professor Thorton activates a robotic android named Shiva, which is programmed to destroy all of Project X's test subjects, starting with Wolverine. Silver Fox (who works for another secret organization called HYDRA) is revealed to be behind the entire plan, and steps forward to interrogate Thorton at gunpoint. He tries to grab the gun from Silver Fox, and she shoots him fatally.

It was shown that Romulus was in control of Weapon X and gave orders to Truett both observing Wolverine as he was unconscious. Although it is stated that Romulus had known Logan in a past life, it is unclear if he knew of Logan while he was young and living at the Howlett estate if this he did then he would have known of Truett's connection to Logan.