Wolverine (character)
Wolverine is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in the comic book The Incredible Hulk #180 and is best known as a member of the superhero team the X-Men. Wolverine is the alias of James Howlett, a mutant born in Canada in the late 19th century. He possesses a range of superpowers including highly advanced self-healing abilities, a significantly prolonged lifespan, animal-keen senses, and retractable claws. His skeleton is reinforced with the unbreakable fictional metal adamantium, which he acquired after becoming an unwilling test subject in the Weapon X super soldier program. Wolverine is commonly depicted as a gruff loner susceptible to animalistic "berserker rages" who struggles to reconcile his humanity with his wild nature.
As a member of the X-Men, Wolverine has built strong relationships with many of his teammates, being close friends with Nightcrawler and Storm, with whom he also has an on-again, off-again relationship. He has also harbored feelings for Jean Grey, which has led to clashes with her husband and X-Men leader Cyclops. Across his life, Wolverine has had a son, Daken, his daughter X-23, and been a mentor to Kitty Pryde and Jubilee. His archenemy is fellow mutant and Weapon X participant Sabretooth, with whom he shares similar abilities.
The character was co-created by writer Len Wein and Marvel art director John Romita Sr., with his first published appearance written by Wein and drawn by artist Herb Trimpe. After joining the X-Men in 1975, the character was significantly developed by writer Chris Claremont, artist Dave Cockrum, and artist-writer John Byrne. He gained greater prominence as a standalone character when artist Frank Miller collaborated with Claremont on a four-isue eponymous limited series in 1982, which debuted the character's catchphrase: "I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice." Since 1988, Wolverine has often been featured in ongoing, self-titled series, while also remaining a member of X-Men-related comics. Major Wolverine stories include "Wounded Wolf", "Weapon X", "Enemy of the State", and "Old Man Logan".
Wolverine quickly emerged as the breakout character of the X-Men, and is among the most popular Marvel Comics characters. His willingness to use deadly force and his brooding loner nature became defining attributes of the many comic book antiheroes that emerged in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Wolverine's mental health struggles have often been analyzed by academics and psychologists, cited as part of the character's appeal with audiences.
In addition to his comic appearances, Wolverine has been depicted in a wide range of adapted and spin-off media, including television, video games, and film. Wolverine's first major appearance outside of comics was in X-Men: The Animated Series, voiced by Cal Dodd, which helped popularize the character among the general public; Dodd reprises his role in the revival series X-Men '97. Actor Hugh Jackman has portrayed the character in ten films, beginning with X-Men and most recently in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Publication history
Creation and development
editor-in-chief Roy Thomas wanted to create a Canadian superhero and decided that wolverines were a typical Canadian animal that could inspire such a hero. He asked artist John Romita Sr. and writer Len Wein to devise a character of Canadian origin named Wolverine. Romita designed Wolverine's costume. Wolverine first appeared in the final "teaser" panel of The Incredible Hulk #180, written by Wein and penciled by Herb Trimpe. The character then appeared in a number of advertisements in various Marvel Comics publications before making his first major appearance in The Incredible Hulk #181, again by the Wein–Trimpe team. In 2009, Trimpe said he "distinctly remembers" Romita's sketch and that, according to him, Romita and Wein "sewed the monster together shocked it to life". According to him, Wolverine was initially conceived as a minor character and there were no plans for his continuing popularity. Though sometimes credited as co-creator, Trimpe denied having had any role in Wolverine's creation. The character's introduction was ambiguous, revealing little beyond his being a superhuman agent of the Canadian government. He appears briefly in the following issue's conclusion to the story.Wolverine's next appearance was in Giant-Size X-Men, written by Wein and penciled by Dave Cockrum, in which he is recruited for a new team of X-Men to rescue the original group. Gil Kane illustrated the cover artwork but drew Wolverine's mask with larger headpieces. Cockrum incorporated Kane's alteration into his artwork for the story.
At the time of his initial appearances, basic ideas about Wolverine's abilities and origins remained in development. While some sources indicate that Wein originally intended for Logan to be a mutated wolverine cub, evolved to humanoid form by the High Evolutionary, an established geneticist in the Marvel Universe, Wein has denied this, and suggested that this may have been Cockrum's idea. In an article about the evolution of Wolverine included in Incredible Hulk and Wolverine, a reprint of The Incredible Hulk #180–181, Cockrum confirmed that he considered having the High Evolutionary play a vital role in making Wolverine a human.
In Wein's original conception, Wolverine was a young adult, and his claws were retractable and part of his gloves, with both made of adamantium. Romita said that he always envisioned the claws as retractable, explaining: "When I make a design, I want it to be practical and functional. I thought, 'If a man has claws like that, how does he scratch his nose or tie his shoelaces?'" Wein recollects that Cockrum first suggested that the claws were installed in Wolverine's forearms. Romita established Wolverine's short stature, deciding that he would be 5 foot, 3 inches, reflecting the small size of wolverines.
1970s
Following Giant-Size X-Men, the X-Men comic was revived with issue #94, drawn by Cockrum and written by Chris Claremont. Wolverine is initially overshadowed by the other characters, although he creates tension in the team as he is attracted to Cyclops' girlfriend, Jean Grey. As the series progressed, Claremont considered dropping Wolverine from the comic; Cockrum's successor, artist John Byrne, championed the character, later explaining that as a Canadian himself he did not want to see the only Canadian character dropped. Byrne modeled his rendition of Wolverine on actor Paul D'Amato, who played Dr. Hook in the sports film Slap Shot. Cockrum introduced another costume for Wolverine in the final issue of his run, but it was dropped at the start of Byrne's run because he found it difficult to draw.Wolverine was first drawn without his mask in X-Men #98 ; his distinctive hairstyle became one of his trademarks. The same issue also established that Wolverine's claws are an integrated part of his anatomy. X-Men #100 introduces the "fastball special", a combat maneuver in which the super-strong Colossus throws Wolverine at a distance as if he were a projectile weapon; this tactic recurs in many future battles. Stories of the late 1970s establish Wolverine's murky past and unstable nature, which he battles to keep in check. Wolverine's name was revealed as "Logan" in X-Men #103 ; Claremont drew inspiration from Canada's Mount Logan, liking "the idea the tallest mountain being the name of the shortest character". Beginning with X-Men #107, Wolverine began wearing a new brown-and-tan costume. X-Men #116 first introduces Wolverine's healing factor, and issue #124 first suggests that he has a reinforced skeleton. The same year, Wolverine appeared in his first solo story, "At the Sign of the Lion", published in the UK in Marvel Comic #335.
1980s
In the last years of Byrne's collaboration with Claremont, Wolverine played a pivotal role in "The Dark Phoenix Saga" and "Days of Future Past" story arcs. In these years, Byrne designed a new brown-and-tan costume for the character. Following Byrne's departure in 1981, Wolverine remained a prominent character in Uncanny X-Men throughout the decade. Wolverine's appearance and characterization were influenced by the film roles of Clint Eastwood, particularly the Revisionist Western antihero films featuring the Man with No Name and the 1971 neo-noir detective film Dirty Harry.The character's growing popularity led to a four-issue solo series, Wolverine, by Claremont and Frank Miller. Elliott Serrano, a comic writer and commentator, argues that this series was particularly significant in establishing the character's popularity, asserting that "before Claremont and Miller created the Wolverine series, Logan wasn't a key figure, but the creation of this series is when Wolverine became Marvel's Batman." The Claremont and Miller miniseries introduced Wolverine's connection to traditional Japanese culture and his identity as a masterless samurai. The first issue begins with a statement that became Wolverine's catchphrase: "I'm the best there is at what I do but what I do isn't very nice." The mini-series was followed by the six-issue Kitty Pryde and Wolverine by Claremont and Al Milgrom.
Barry Windsor-Smith, who had come to prominence illustrating Marvel's Conan the Barbarian series, collaborated with Claremont for the "Wounded Wolf" story that was published as Uncanny X-Men #205, focusing entirely on Wolverine. The story introduced a new adversary for Wolverine, Lady Deathstrike. The "Mutant Massacre" story arc of 1986 brought Sabretooth into conflict with the X-Men and particularly Wolverine. Byrne had previously designed Sabretooth as an enemy of the martial artist superhero Iron Fist in Iron Fist #14, written by Claremont. Sabretooth's face was based on a preliminary and unused drawing Byrne had proposed for Wolverine; he became Wolverine's archenemy. Marvel launched an ongoing Wolverine title written by Claremont with art by John Buscema in November 1988. In the late 1980s, Wolverine featured in self-contained crossover stories with two other characters: Spider-Man, in Spider-Man versus Wolverine, by Christopher Priest and M.D. Bright, and Nick Fury, in Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection, written by Archie Goodwin with art by Howard Chaykin.