Wolverine has become one of the most popular superheroes ever. The character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #181 and could have been forgotten if it wasn’t for co-creator Len Wein putting the character in Giant-Size X-Men #1, and we all know what happened next. Wolverine became the breakout star of the X-Men, and has become one of the most overexposed characters in the history of the comic medium. Wolverine vaulted over Marvel heroes like Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor — characters that are considered to be Marvel’s version of DC’s Trinity — and joined the rarefied air of characters like Spider-Man, Superman, and Batman at the top of the popularity pyramid. Wolverine has stayed there ever since, and there’s a good reason for that — Wolverine is Marvel’s greatest hero, the gold standard when it comes to the Marvel method of creating superheroes.
Wolverine has starred in some excellent stories over the last 50 years. No character is perfect; even the greatest characters have some bad stories under their belt and Wolverine is no different. However, looking at the history of Wolverine reveals a character that does something that A-list characters rarely do — grow and change. Wolverine is a character unlike any other superhero out there in many ways, and he’s changed comics throughout his existence.
To understand the point I’m trying to make, we have to look at Spider-Man. Spider-Man is the character that truly laid out what a Marvel-style hero could be. Spider-Man was relatable to readers, having many of their same problems, and got to grow as a character in the compressed timeline of the Marvel Universe. Readers watched Spider-Man grow and mature (well, up until “One More Day”), and this changed the way superheroes worked. Marvel revolutionized superhero comics with this style of character storytelling. Back to Wolverine. Wolverine isn’t exactly like Spider-Man — none of us are immortal mass murderers with metal on our skeleton who have been made into weapons — but all of us understand the animal inside of us. All of us fought against our worst natures in order to do the right thing. All of us are loyal to the people we love, and all of us try to use our experiences to teach the next generation how to survive. Spider-Man was poor and sad, and so were the readers. However, while the events of our lives don’t match Wolverine’s (and if they do, I really hope you’re suing Marvel), we understand the struggles of the character on a level where we don’t understand the struggles of characters like Thor or Iron Man or Batman or Jean Grey. We understand who Wolverine is on an visceral level, and that’s very important.
Wolverine also has grown as a character, much like the readers. One of the problems with comics is the static nature of the characters. Superheroes can only grow so much, because Marvel and DC want the characters to appeal to the widest audience, and the widest audience only knows the basics. If that was the case with Wolverine, we’d still have the surly loner with a heart of gold. Instead, we have a character who goes far beyond what he once was. Wolverine is a leader, a team player, someone who has moved past the pains of his life. Wolverine used to sass Cyclops and Storm (mostly Cyclops, with Storm it was mostly good-natured ribbing), but he’s become Cyclops and Storm. Wolverine was accepted as an Avenger by Captain America himself, something that Cap specifically said would never happen. Wolverine has lost his adamantium and healing factor at different times, having to deal with the loss of the things that everyone knows. Wolverine is no longer a character on a hair trigger, but a person mostly in control of themselves. This is the promise of Marvel’s type of superheroes and Wolverine is actually the poster boy for it. Sure, Spider-Man is often thought of as the most Marvel hero of them all, but really, how different is Spider-Man now from how he used to be? Wolverine, on the other hand, is a very different character from where he was.
Wolverine was the first in a new generation of superhero, the anti-hero. Wolverine changed the way people looked at superheroes, bringing an edge to comics that was often missing. Sure, one can argue that edginess has been taken way too far, but Wolverine was an example of superheroes evolving into something that they hadn’t been before. Wolverine is one of the reasons why Marvel has been able to stay so popular for so long. They took a huge chance with the character, creating a more violent and surly character than was common, and it paid dividends. Thinking about it from that perspective, it makes sense that Wolverine is the ultimate Marvel hero. He’s everything that Marvel does well in a nutshell.
When I connected with Wolverine, the character appealed to me immediately because I could identify with aspects of the character. As I dived deeper, I found a character who loved intensely and who lost those loves. Later, I was a surly mouthy teenager, just like Wolverine. As I got older, I felt like Wolverine changed with me, coming to terms with his past, and using it to become a better person than he was before. This is something that I think a lot of fans experience with Wolverine. While Wolverine has been somewhat regressed as a character at times — for example, the current Wolverine feels like a more wild ’90s version of the character — he’s still also defined by the changes made to the character. That’s the glory of Wolverine.
Wolverine has become one of the most popular superheroes ever. The character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #181 and could have been forgotten if it wasn’t for co-creator Len Wein putting the character in Giant-Size X-Men #1, and we all know what happened next. Wolverine became the breakout star of the X-Men, and has Read More