August 16, 2024 • 35 mins
What makes Wolverine one of Marvel's most enduring and iconic characters? Prepare to uncover the journey of this brooding anti-hero from his humble beginnings in 1974 to his status as a fan-favorite in both comics and film. Join me, Aaron, as we reminisce about Wolverine's intense debut in the X-Men animated series and explore how creators Len Wein and John Romita Sr. crafted his gritty and enigmatic persona. We’ll also unravel the layers of his mysterious past and the evolving depth that has kept fans captivated for decades.
Inspired by the real-life ferocity of the wolverine animal and the stoic demeanor of Clint Eastwood's characters, Wolverine has always been a unique figure in the Marvel universe. In this episode, discover how his Canadian roots, initial appearance in The Incredible Hulk comics, and subsequent rise to fame as a brooding anti-hero added to his compelling nature. We'll discuss his battles, loyalty, and rebellious spirit that set him apart, as well as his stature as one of the shortest but mightiest Marvel superheroes.
From his traumatic involvement in the Weapon X program to his complex emotional battles, Wolverine's character has seen significant evolution. We'll highlight influential storylines like the "Weapon X" series, his solo series starting in 1988, and essential comics recommended by our Fandom Portals Community. Plus, we’ll celebrate Hugh Jackman's iconic portrayal that brought Wolverine to life on the big screen, ensuring his lasting popularity.
Join us for an in-depth look at the allure of Wolverine's character, his psychological complexity, and why he continues to resonate with fans worldwide!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
also presented as that physical presence.
The very first episode that yousee him in where he's
eviscerating Sentinels in Nightof the Sentinels, part 1, season
1, episode 1.
He's tearing these Sentinelsapart, ripping robots limb from
limb.
He's sneaking into variousdifferent government agencies.
He's doing all of the coolthings.
But then at the end of that arcin Night of the Sentinels, part
2, when Morph goes missing,wolverine is one of the most
(00:25):
emotional characters when itcomes to the loss of that
teammate.
So they're kind of playing onthat physicality and that
emotionality.
Once again, welcome to FandomPortal's podcast, where
(00:47):
curiosity meets community incelebration of all things geek.
We build connections on everyepisode by delving into your
favorite fandom questions in thetime it takes you to walk your
beloved dog.
Now, today's episode, ladiesand gentlemen, is a solo episode
hosted by me, aaron.
Now, the question that we arelooking at today for this solo
episode is one that is veryclose to my heart.
(01:08):
Now I want you to pictureyourself on a Saturday morning.
There.
You've got no troubles in theworld.
You walk down into the kitchen,you pour yourself a bowl of
cereal with your favoritepajamas on.
You go into your lounge room,you sit down on the floor, you
turn on the tv and who appearson your tv screen?
But wolverine in the x-menanimated series cartoon.
(01:32):
Now that story is probably veryfamiliar to a lot of listeners
and it's kind of the reason whythis episode kind of was given
life and the like.
The way that we came about thisepisode was because on our
threads we posted a couple ofquestions about people's
favorite Marvel characters andWolverine ranked pretty highly
amongst those characters.
And also, after doing someresearch, we found that for
(01:56):
people over the age of 30 ormillennials, wolverine was the
most popular comic bookcharacter.
He's also very highlyrecognized.
Wolverine was the most popularcomic book character.
He's also very highlyrecognized.
He's maintained this popularityacross a 40-year generation,
across multiple audiences,across multiple types of media.
And it begged the question andmade me wonder why exactly is
(02:16):
this character of Wolverine sopopular amongst the generations
of people?
So by the end of this podcastyou will be able to know exactly
how Marvel turned Wolverineinto a single issue subplot,
into a franchise fan favorite.
You'll be able to know whatmade Wolverine so appealing for
those 45 years to all of itsfans and which iconic storyline
(02:37):
solidified Wolverine'spopularity over the decades of
media.
Now, in the back end of thispodcast, we're actually going to
be recommending some of thetitles that wolverine stars in,
as recommended by our fandomportals community.
So stick around to the end ofthat.
Those details will also be inthe show notes for you to look
at as well.
A big, special thanks to ourfandom portals community for
(02:57):
this one, this episode.
It does come off the back ofyour requests and it also has
quite a bit of information andstatistics based on some of the
comments on our threads andinstagram posts as well.
Let's get started on ourquestion on how did the
character of wolverine get sopopular in the first place?
Okay, so our journey takes usback to 1974, where richard
(03:20):
nixon is stepping down aspresident, abber is taking the
world by storm with waterloo andsteven spielberg is about to
make his directorial debut withthe Sugarland Express.
Amidst all this, anunforgettable character floors
his way into the comic bookworld.
Enter Wolverine, making hisdebut in the Incredible Hulk 180
and 181,.
This ferocious Canadiangovernment agent with floors of
(03:43):
adamantium instantly grabbedreaders' attention.
But we ask the question why?
Now?
My research has broken thisdown into three basic reasons as
to why Wolverine was so popularduring this time, and I think
before we get into those threereasons, we'll talk about some
of the initial impressions thatthe community had on Wolverine
when he was first given to thecomic book readers all those
(04:06):
years ago.
So overall, when readersinitially saw Wolverine, they
saw a gritty, enigmaticcharacter with a mysterious past
and a very fierce demeanor.
He was unpredictable.
His depth as a character wasslowly and gradually revealed
over many, many years and thatsort of led to his appeal as
well.
He's become one of Marvel'smost beloved and endearing
(04:27):
superheroes and he was createdby Len Wein and John Romita Sr,
and those two basically laid thegroundwork for this iconic
character and for hispersonality over the years,
which evolved and expanded uponnumerous different writers and
artists throughout the decadesof his comic book history.
Now the look of Wolverine isdefinitely very identifiable.
(04:48):
He takes lots of inspirationfrom the wildlife obviously
named the Wolverine.
He's got an animalistic natureand fighting style which he drew
from the ferocity of the actualWolverine he is named after.
He also has some cinematicinfluences as well, most notably
the earlier iterations ofWolverine in the comic books
(05:08):
that he appears in.
He takes a lot of inspirationfrom Clint Eastwood, even some
of the lines that is writtenfrom Wolverine are taken or
adjusted directly from someClint Eastwood movies.
Most notably the character ofDirty Harry.
His demeanor and hisno-nonsense approach is two of
the things that was taken fromthat character itself.
(05:30):
Now, another important thingabout Wolverine that you should
know is that he has Canadianroots.
Now, at the time of hisintroduction, the diversity of
characters in the Marveluniverse wasn't there and as a
result of that, marvel decidedto diversify their roster of
superheroes in an attempt tobroaden their international
(05:50):
audience.
Now, obviously, with thesuccess of marvel uk, which was
a uh, a sister company to marvelin the us, they decided to then
branch out into canada byintroducing the wolverine as a
canadian.
Now, as we said, he firstappeared in the Incredible Hulk
comics and that was where wefirst got our introduction to
(06:11):
this character of Wolverine, andthat was all the way back in
the 1970s.
So the first thing that I thinkand what I've researched that
has made Wolverine so popularover these years, is that he
fits a particular characterarchetype.
Now he is the broodinganti-hero and at the time this
was a refreshing change to theboy scout kind of heroes that
(06:33):
were around during the time.
And by his introduction in themid 70s to the time that it was
uh, popularized in the in the1980s.
You can think of lots ofdifferent action movie heroes
that build this archetype.
A lot of the ArnoldSchwarzenegger sort of
characters in movies fit thisarchetype.
It was a robust figure ofmanliness, but at the same time
(06:54):
this archetype had a strongemotional and psychological
damage which made him vulnerableas well.
So it was that pairing of thephysically strong and the
psychologically weakened sort ofcharacter that really drew
people to him when they firstsaw him.
Now, when he was introduced inthe Incredible Hulk comics in
number 180, he only appeared inthe final panel as an adversary,
(07:20):
a Canadian government agenttrying to stop the Hulk.
And then in 181, released inNovember of 1974, he actually
featured in the whole entirecomic book and everybody got to
see him in his finest formsthrough combat and also
obviously displaying those clawsthat he's famous for as well,
(07:44):
with his rebellious and broodingarchetype.
He has exhibited this throughmany, many years in his comic
book history, and it was one ofthe first things that audiences
were able to garner from hisbackstory, as he was a character
that was introduced with verylittle background to him.
One particular example is allthe way through the Dark Phoenix
saga, most notably in X-Men 133, which was released in the
(08:08):
1980s, and During this episodeWolverine finds himself locked
in a battle against theformidable Hellfire Club, and
inside a dark and forebodinghalls of this Hellfire Club lair
Wolverine instincts scream withrebellion and he also is
fiercely determined to protectand save his X-Men counterparts,
(08:30):
who have all been captured.
This is one of the very firstissues that Wolverine appears
solo on the cover of a Marvelcomic and it is very, very
valuable today if you can getyour hands on a rated copy of
X-Men 133.
Now, during this issue, you cansee Wolverine basically having
a John Wick or a Taken momentwhere he's taking out lots of
(08:52):
different enemies from theHellfire Club.
He had lots of panels drawnshowing him just eviscerating
his foes, using stealth and alldifferent types of strategy,
cunning and willpower just tooverthrow these oppressors, and
that was probably one of thefirst times that Wolverine
really took center stage in thatmanner.
(09:13):
Beforehand, during the darkphoenix saga, he was very much a
sub sort of character, with thecreators of the, the x-men at
the time really preferring thecharacter of nightcrawler, and
you can kind of see that in theissues leading up to this, with
the, the arc of wolverine or the, the change in roster of x-men
starting in the 90s sort ofissues of the X-Men, but by this
(09:36):
time by 133 they definitelysort of solidified this new team
of X-Men, most notably likeColossus, storm, nightcrawler
and Wolverine, all introduced atthe same time to diversify, as
we said, that um, that roster ofMarvel superheroes into an
international sort of brand,colossus being from Russia,
nightcrawler from germany, stormfrom africa and etc.
(09:58):
But with wolverine he was thenable to go through this hellfire
club all on his own, as aone-man army.
He was ignoring, he would oftenignore the cautious strategies
of his teammates and he wouldkind of go against their, their
ideologies, refused to bow toauthority and he'd combine his
raw determination with hisambition and his loyalty to turn
(10:21):
the tides of battle and itcemented his reputation as a
mutant that kind of followed hisown rules, which cemented his
spot as a, as that, anti-herosort of character.
Wolverine also sort of standsup in the face of overwhelming
odds, which is a very attractivetrait for readers of comic
books, and he reminds us that heis more than just a superhero.
He's kind of like a lone wolfthat refuses to be tamed.
(10:43):
But in the same stance he'llstand up for what he believes in
, whether it's going to hurt himor not.
This is coming off the back ofthe fact that the character
stands at a whopping five foottwo or five foot three.
He's one of the shortest marvelsuperhero characters and that
was intentionally done by thecreators of wolverine.
They were definitely consciousof the fact that he was going to
(11:04):
be a little guy with a bigattitude and that also kind of
really impacted the audiencewhen they read him as well.
He kind of stood out from thebunch as well, being an
adversarial character to Cyclopswith his attraction to Jean and
during this Dark Phoenix sagathat really kind of came about
with the destructive force ofthe Phoenix just sort of tearing
(11:24):
through a lot of the X-Men whenthey were forced to face her,
which came just after thisHellfire arc as well.
Back in the 1980s it was issue137.
It was written by Chrisclaremont and illustrated by
john burn at the time and thissort of unfolding of wolverine's
emotions sort of came to theforefront in prior issues.
He definitely bonded with jeangray and been entangled in
(11:47):
almost like a love triangle withcyclops, which added like a
poignant layer to to hischaracter.
During the storyline of 137,wolverine grapples not only with
gene's transformation into thedark phoenix, but also his
conflicted feelings towardscyclops, who previously he had
been very adversarial towards oruh teammates, but also like
very quippy with him in terms ofquestioning his leadership
(12:10):
decisions.
As it's often stated thatcyclops is a bit of a boy scout
in this sort of regard, andWolverine was the antithesis of
his character in that result aswell and by this time X-Men fans
had read a hundred or so issueswith Cyclops being the
one-dimensional character thathe was and seeing something
completely different or goingagainst that.
That sort of character was veryattractive for them people as
well.
(12:31):
During this Dark Phoenix saga,though at the the climax of this
saga between issue 137 and 138,wolverine definitely shows some
emotional vulnerability, whichwas uh different for a character
with his tough exterior at thetime, which was attractive to
people too, and this sort ofrugged demeanor belays a
profound sense of of loss andregret, and he navigates the
(12:54):
aftermath of Gene's sacrifice ina very raw and emotional way,
and again that, combined withhis physicality, is just a
combination that really stuckwith the fans.
It portrays him as a deeplyemotional being who struggles
with love, who struggles withloss.
He has complex dynamics withinhis internal psychology.
He has complex human and mutantrelationships and it enhances
(13:19):
his character, making him morerelatable and compelling beyond
just the fierce battles.
So he had the cool exterior, hewas a cool character to see and
he was also that emotionallyvulnerable character as well.
So it paired the two reallywell and it was one of the first
times that was donesuccessfully in comic books
during the 1980s.
He's definitely very loyal andprotective as well.
(13:39):
During the mutant massacrestoryline in uncanny x-men 205,
published in 1986, we see hisadamantium claw berserker rage
unleash for his fierce loyaltyof the x-men.
During this, this storyline,deep beneath the streets of new
york, thelocks, a community ofoutcast mutants, face
annihilation at the hands of themerciless Marauders led by Mr
(14:01):
Sinister, these killers.
They showed no mercy as theyhunt down the defenseless
Morlocks, and Wolverine came inalongside Colossus and
Nightcrawler and Shadowcat, alsoknown as Kitty Pryde, with this
adrenaline-pumping, claw-readyjump-into-the-fray-at-any-action
and he was just driven by thisunyielding determination to
protect these mutants.
These Morlocks and if you don'tknow, x-men lore Morlocks are
(14:24):
the mutants that reside belowNew York City and they live
there basically because theywould undergo prosecution by the
general public, because they'rethe kind of mutants that have
physical differences as opposedto ones that they could hide in
plain sight.
So they made their communitydown below the surface and
Wolverine, being loyal to hiskind, went down with the X-Men
(14:44):
to help these guys out after theMarauders were trying to
destroy them.
Basically, the battle duringthese issues was chaotic.
It was brutal and hissharpclaws just tore through a lot of
the marauders with deadlyprecision.
Wolverine actually sufferedsome serious injuries during the
heat of this battle, but hestill refused to retreat and he
stood firm during theseoverwhelming odds.
(15:05):
So over the course of hispublication you saw wolverine
just have these moments where hestood up against overwhelming
forces and it was almost likethose, those climactic scenes at
the end of a lot of story arcswhere the lone hero would stand
against the army and thatoppressive force.
And this was an attractivethought as well, especially
during the 1980s where there wasa lot of sort of talk about
about the end of the Vietnam warbeing in the 1970s and 1975 and
(15:29):
also the long ongoing cold warwith the Soviet Union that ran
all the way up until 1991.
So the little guy standing upagainst the big oppressor was
definitely something that wasgoing right through America at
the time and Wolverine was acharacter that sort of allowed
people to embody that in afictional character.
(15:49):
So to summarize that sort ofpoint, he was definitely
emotionally very complex, but healso had these really awesome
moments through his publicationthat allowed him to seem like he
was really cool in front of thereaders and he was slowly
revealed to the audience, whichbrings us to our next point.
So when he was first revealed,the only thing that people knew
about him was that he was aCanadian operative who had roots
(16:11):
in the government of Canada andhe was part of Canadian
intelligence.
He was asked to then go andtake down the Incredible Hulk.
Through those issues as well,it was revealed that he had a
mutant ability to have hisregenerative healing factor,
which allowed him to rapidlyheal from his injuries and
survive wounds that wouldusually be fatal to normal
(16:32):
humans.
This also allowed him to standfirm in the face of incredible
danger, which made him also oneof the first X-Men to sort of
jump in or do the crazy thing orbe thrown into the fray at a
moment's notice because he wouldheal straight after and fans
kind of kept reading to see whathe would endure, what he would
put up with and what he was ableto withstand as a result of his
(16:52):
healing factor, which was coolto read as well.
Now, one of the most significantfactors of Wolverine's
character was his adamantiumclaws and again, this was
released very, very slowly,almost drip fed the comic book
reading community so everybodywould tune into the X-Men every
kind of week because they wantedto know more about this
character was doing all thiscool stuff because a lot of the
(17:13):
other characters like Storm andColossus and Nightcrawler that
were revealed at the time theirbackstories were pretty well
fleshed out, but this loner,sort of enigmatic, mysterious
character of Wolverine, therewasn't much known about him at
all.
So you saw that he had theseadamantium claws and at the time
of his, his introduction it wasvery much assumed that those
claws were part of his glovesand they were retractable up and
down through those gloves.
But one of the first revealsthat you kind of see during the
(17:37):
run of the X-Men, after he wasintroduced in X-Men 98, was that
those claws were actually partof his physiology.
They came in and out of hishands and that was just another
wondering point for thecommunity.
As that was revealed that washis mutant ability.
And then that was revealed inX-Men issue 98 that was released
in 1976 and it was alsorevealed during that time that
(17:59):
they were this, this coatedcoated bone claw, and the
coating was obviously theadamantium, this rare and
indestructible material.
Over the years as well, in 1979with X-Men 117, it was revealed
that Wolverine actually had somemilitary background experience,
with slight mentions of thisWeapon X program being puddled
(18:20):
through his history and hispublication and the actual
bonding of the adamantium.
That Weapon X program thateverybody knows he was a part of
didn't actually get fullyfleshed out until the 1990s, in
1991.
Part of didn't actually getfully fleshed out until the
1990s, in 1991, and it wasrevealed in Marvel Presents
issue number 72 to 84.
That issue, weapon X, or that,that small publication, weapon X
(18:42):
, was one of, and still remainsto be one of, the most famous
and exhilarating reads ofWolverine canon to date.
Weapon X was written by BarryWindsor Smith and illustrated by
Sam Keith and the comic issuesort of took on a more sort of
psychedelic aesthetic and thestorytelling perspective takes a
lot from the third person inthe room, I guess you could say
(19:04):
so.
It's taken from the perspectiveof a lot of these scientists
who are observing Wolverine as atest subject.
So these people who are readingthese comics back in the 1970s
and 1980s, when they get to thisissue in 1991, when it starts
to come out, you can really sortof see the wandering and the
slow development of thatcharacter and you kind of for
the first time see whatWolverine went through and it
(19:27):
actually depicts some prettytraumatizing scenes.
There's a torture thatWolverine goes through actually
depicts some pretty traumatizingscenes.
So there's a torture thatWolverine goes through and that
also sort of highlights thepersonality of Wolverine
throughout the earlier issuesthat he's been a part of as well
.
It kind of explains that traumathat he's gone through as well
and it really sort of cementedthe fact that he was incredibly
flawed, whilst beingperceptively perfect with his
(19:49):
healing factor, but obviouslypsychologically damaged as well.
So that slow drip feeding ofWolverine definitely was
accelerated in 1988 whenWolverine was able to get his
solo series and that came offthe back of a series that aired
in September of 1982.
It was the solo issue calledWolverine.
It was written by ChrisClaremont and Frank Miller and
(20:11):
this really established hisorigins in terms of him battling
with his animalistic nature andit showed the emotionality of
Wolverine, sort ofpsychologically processing the
berserker and the rage traits inhim and him coming to terms
with having that part of him andbeing inside of him and it
releasing at a moment's noticeand explore the sort of avenues
(20:31):
of him and it releasing at amoment's notice and explore the
sort of avenues of himcontrolling that and the
consequences that thatanimalistic nature kind of has
on his life.
This is the issue wherewolverine does take some time in
japan and he meets his, hislove interest, mariko, and he
goes to battle with a ninjaorganization known as the hand.
Now he goes to japan to seekand regain his lost honor, uh,
(20:52):
in order to win the hand ofMariko who suffers at the hands
of her tyrannical father and anabusive husband as well.
This storyline also emphasizedWolverine's sympathetic side and
also going to the limits toundergo samurai training in an
attempt to tame his animalinstincts.
This was explored further hisrelationship with Mariko in 1983
(21:22):
in X-Men issue 172 and 173.
And he actually ended upengaging and marrying Mariko
during this time, which alsogave a layer of depth to him as
well.
So Wolverine's origins werefinally 100% revealed all the
way in 2001 and 2002.
Now that's 45 years after hisinitial inception, where readers
of Wolverine had slowly beendrip-fed this backstory of the
(21:45):
character, going from therevelation of his claws being a
part of his anatomy to hishealing factor, to his
relationships, to his ongoingrivalry with Sabretooth during
his solo series in 1988, to histime with Alpha Flight, to his
time in the Weapon X program,all of these things had been
revealed.
But things prior to and hisactual childhood were never
(22:08):
really revealed until theOrigins series, which was a
six-part miniseries released in2001.
It was written by Bill Jemisand Joe Quesadilla, it was
illustrated by Andy Cubitt andit explored Wolverine's full
origin story, revealing toreaders that his name was not in
fact Logan, it is James Howlett.
It explored his childhood inCanada, where he was a sickly
(22:30):
and weakened young man, and histransformation into Wolverine,
where it shed light on hismysterious past.
So because he was so incrediblywell written in terms of the
revelation of his backstory, itallowed readers to really stay
engaged with his character overgenerations of his publication
and those readers that sort oftuned in in 1975 when he was
(22:51):
first introduced into theUncanny X-Men, stuck around and
stuck around until in the 1990sa lot of his backstory was
really fully revealed and healso was a plot device during
this time where any comic bookthat was underselling Wolverine
would be used to upsell thosecomic books through guest
(23:13):
appearances, especially duringthe 80s when Marvel was very
flippant with where they wouldput their characters for a guest
spot, and Wolverine wasdefinitely used in that way to
bolster sales at times as well,wolverine having appeared in
different comic books, not justX-Men and his solo series, but
he also appears in FantasticFour and thegers as well.
So when we did our threadsresearch, a lot of what we've
(23:35):
talked about so far has beencomic book information, and when
we did our threads research, wedid a poll that asked people in
our community how they firstmet wolverine, as I was curious
to see how people of differentages interacted with this
character, having him been along-standing Marvel fixture and
having a 45-year history, and34% of our community actually
(23:56):
said that they first encounteredWolverine in a comic book.
So with that, the most popularway that people had come to meet
Wolverine was actually the sameway that I personally met
Wolverine and 45% of ourcommunity actually did as well,
and it was through the X-Menanimated series cartoon.
Now, it was a very popularseries in the 1990s.
(24:17):
If you haven't seen it thenyou've definitely probably heard
of X-Men 97 at the time of thispodcast recording.
That was a very popular show onDisney Plus.
That was based on the 90scartoon which released in 91, 92
, 93 and that cartoon basicallytakes all the great things about
Wolverine that the comic bookssort of laid foundations for and
(24:38):
they put it into this show thatwas based for kids as well.
So obviously the readers ofthose comic books, the ones that
fell in love with the genre,grew up to work in the industry,
created this cartoon and reallydid the character justice as
well.
So he was also very mysteriousin that cartoon.
He often was considered theloner as well.
(24:58):
He has more solo episodesduring the five-season run of
that show than any othercharacter.
There is lots of time presentedto Wolverine due to his
popularity in the comic booksand he was also presented as
that physical presence.
The very first episode that yousee him in where he's
eviscerating Sentinels in Nightof.
The very first episode that yousee him in where he's
eviscerating Sentinels in Nightof the Sentinels, part 1, season
1, episode 1.
He's tearing these Sentinelsapart, ripping robots limb from
(25:20):
limb, he's sneaking into variousdifferent government agencies.
He's doing all of the coolthings, but then at the end of
that arc in Night of theSentinels, part 2, when Morph
goes missing or allegedly diesoffscreen.
Wolverine is one of the mostemotional characters when it
comes to the loss of thatteammate.
So they're kind of playing onthat physicality and that
(25:41):
emotionality once again,allowing people to see his
amazing abilities but also seehis emotional vulnerability as
well.
Now Wolverine was voiced by CarlDodd, or Cal Dodd, during this
run of the cartoon and he wasable to capture Wolverine's
character's toughness,vulnerability, humor and just
(26:02):
the complexity of his emotionalrange in such a unique and
amazing way.
His performance not onlybrought Wolverine to life in the
animated series, but it reallycontributed significantly to his
enduring popularity in popularculture.
He was able to give voice tothe catchphrase that everybody
had listened to or, sorry, readover all their years of reading
comic books.
You know he's popularizedcatchphrase.
(26:24):
Like he calls people bub.
The lines that he says from hisfirst solo run, written by
Chris Claremont in 1982, whereit was introduced that he always
says I'm the best there is atwhat I do, but what I do best
isn't very nice.
These all were iterated by CalDodd during the, the animated
series and everybody that.
It's almost like that cartoonseries.
(26:44):
For us, having read those comicbooks, was like when you see an
easter egg in a Marvel MCUmovie.
Now it was just.
You see those things brought tolife for the first time and
you're just amazed that it'shappened on the screen.
And for it to be done in such agruff and visceral way by Cal
Dodd was just absolutely amazingas well.
Wolverine was also popularduring this series because his
(27:05):
personal vendettas werepublicized pretty well.
His emotional battles withSabretooth and his relentless
pursuit of justice against theseenemies was put on screen for
everybody to see.
I think by the sixth episodeWolverine actually so he goes
undercover as a truck driver toinvestigate a string of mutant
disappearances and over thecourse of that episode he
(27:27):
actually finds that a lot ofdifferent villains are kind of
involved and he confronts them,defeats them, and that's just
another one of those momentswhere Wolverine's given the
spotlight to do the thing thatnobody else wants to do.
So obviously the third way thatpeople have interacted with
Wolverine over their years orfrom our threads poll, we found
that 21% of people first metWolverine in the X-Men movie
(27:51):
that was made in the early 2000s.
Now this movie and thecharacter of Wolverine brought
to life by the amazing andAustralian Hugh Jackman is a
favorite of mine.
It was probably one of themovies that I rented the most
from Blockbuster Video when weused to go there and when it
first came out you'd see the TVsin the corner of the video
(28:14):
stores playing the trailers andI just saw Wolverine.
I saw the claws coming out forthe first time and it was on a
live action person and it wasjust something that you had to
follow through and watch.
And Hugh Jackman takes on thatcharacter of Wolverine so
perfectly.
They obviously highlighted hischaracter in the movie as one of
the mains and Hugh Jackman'splayed that role now for a
number of years I think it'sclose to 24 or 25 years and he
(28:36):
he just does a stunning jobthroughout the whole thing with
the people who have viewed hisperformances.
They've also gone and put ontothe big screen some of
everybody's favorite comic bookmoments from wolverine as well,
with his weapon x history beingshown in x-men 2 and the old man
logan storyline beingexemplified in the incredibly
(28:57):
moving piece known as lo.
You can see Wolverine as adisheveled and older version of
himself, dealing with a lifefull of violence and the
consequences that have led tothat life of violence as well,
and it's just a really sort ofmoving piece and a stunning
goodbye to the character ofWolverine prior to him retaking
(29:17):
up the role in 2024 to staralongside Ryan Reynolds in
Deadpool and Wolverine.
But to summarize, over this,wolverine has been extremely
popular over his 45 years forthree main reasons that I've
found.
He was a unique character atthe time, playing that brutish
archetype that we've seenemulated so many more times
since that iteration.
He was emotionally complex andalso physically strong, and he
(29:40):
was relatable to a lot ofdifferent audience members at
the time when he was introducedin the comic books back in the
1970s and 80s.
Secondly, he was slowlyrevealed to the audience members
, his backstory not fullyfleshed out, giving those
writers time to develop thestory that was most poignant for
the character, to allow hismysterious nature to draw
(30:03):
readers in to find out moreabout this character every time
they wanted to find out moreabout Wolverine.
They also used him sparingly tostart with, but then as his
popularity grew and they neededhim in other issues, they used
him in other issues and thatsort of grew the fan base of
Wolverine as well, that sort ofgrew the fan base of Wolverine
as well.
And third and finally,wolverine was part of some of
(30:23):
the most epic storylines inMarvel history.
He also got some really greatmoments during his tenure as an
X-Man and he was just reallyhighlighted through lots of
different mediums as well,whether it be comic book, tv and
movies.
Wolverine was a staple forthese in order to draw that
(30:44):
popular sort of appeal.
So at the start of this podcast,I told you that our threads
community recommended someamazing storylines for you to
dive into if you're a Wolverinefan, and I'm going to go through
them for you right now.
So a lot of these werementioned during the podcast.
So if you're interested in them, here are the exact issues that
you can look at and read to geta really good count of what
(31:04):
Wolverine was like across theyears of his development.
So the first thing that I wouldrecommend, and what was
recommended by our threadscommunity, was the 1980 series,
issue 129 to 138.
It really shows the crux andthe end of that Dark Phoenix
saga where Jason Wingrade of theHellfire Club is infiltrating
Jean Grey psionically.
(31:24):
She's slowly going down thatrabbit hole and moving towards
the Dark Phoenix and Wolverine'srole.
During this powerful sort ofmoment in X-Men, history kind of
highlights his loyalty, hisresilience, his moral complexity
.
He has some really greatmoments as we described in X-Men
133 with the Hellfire Club.
Some really great moments as wedescribed in X-Men 133 with the
Hellfire Club We'll sayevisceration.
(31:45):
The second piece of Wolverinematerial that is recommended by
our Instagram and threadscommunity is the 1982 limited
series that was written by ChrisClaremont and illustrated by
Frank Miller.
We talked about this one.
It was when he was in Japan.
It shows his inner strugglebetween the savage instincts and
his sense of honor.
Definitely go and pick that up.
You can get it as a tradepaperback.
Those links will be in the shownotes below for all of these as
(32:06):
well, guys.
The Weapon X series from MarvelComics presents issue 72 to 84,
written by Barry Windsor Smith.
That was a 1991 production.
It delves into his torturedpast, revealing the brutal
experiments that were done onhim.
You get to see how thatadamantium was secured to his
(32:27):
skeleton and the psychedelicartwork that sort of accompanied
it as well was very much comingout of the 80s into the early
90s, and it's just a reallygreat sort of comic book piece
staple to all Wolverine lovers.
One that I actually haven't readand is going to be homework for
me and I'll probably post onsocial media as well.
My reactions to this isWolverine Enemy of State.
Now, this was made in 2004 and2005,.
Written by Mark Miller,illustrated by John Romita Jr,
(32:50):
who was the son of the creatorof Wolverine, and it shows a
brainwashed Wolverine as he goesup against his allies in the
Marvel Universe, showing hisfight for control against that
manipulation as well.
So looking forward to that readand I'll keep you posted on our
socials, which is also in theshow notes below, to see how
that one turns out as well Veryhighly recommended by our
threads community.
(33:10):
When they found out I hadn'tread it, they definitely ensured
that I did and I will.
The last one that I willrecommend and definitely think
everybody should read is Old manLogan.
That I will recommend anddefinitely think everybody
should read is Old man Logan.
That was written in 2008 to2009 by Mark Miller, again this
time illustrated by SteveMcNiven, and it's the dystopian
future presented in the Loganmovie.
(33:30):
It's the inspiration for thatmovie.
So if you loved the movie Logan, definitely pick up this copy
as well.
Wolverine is retired duringthis and explores those themes
of redemption, of thatconsequence of a life filled
with battles for the characterof Wolverine.
It's definitely something thatyou should pick up if you are a
Wolverine fan and especially ifyou're a fan of Logan.
That has been our episode ofFandom Portals to answer the
(33:54):
question as to why Wolverine isso popular, why that rebel rose
from being that subplotcharacter into one of marvel's
most famous faces.
If you have liked this episode,if you've learned something
from this episode, then pleasedo not hesitate to go into our
show notes and find a wolverinecomic book that you can read
yourself and talk to us about iton our social media, our
(34:16):
threads, our instagram, evenemail us if you have something
that you want to say.
If, if you read something cool,come and talk to us here at
Fandom Portals.
We want to hear from you.
I personally love Wolverine as acharacter.
I fell in love with him as ayoung child and I still love him
to this day.
I cannot wait to go and see himon any sort of media that he's
presented in.
He's a character that is justso complex and just really great
(34:37):
to dive into.
He is written by lots ofdifferent authors and drawn by
lots of different artists, butthey still always capture that
fundamental brilliance thatbrings Wolverine into
everybody's hearts.
He's a great character and Ireally, really hope you guys
enjoy reading some of the thingsthat he is in as well, if you
(34:58):
haven't already.
So that's been me, aaron, hereat Fandom Portals.
I can't wait to see you guysnext week and remember, as
always, we're connecting withrespect here and we will catch
you next week.
Thank you you.
also presented as that physical presence.
The very first episode that yousee him in where he's
eviscerating Sentinels in Nightof the Sentinels, part 1, season
1, episode 1.
He's tearing these Sentinelsapart, ripping robots limb from
limb.
He's sneaking into variousdifferent government agencies.
He's doing all of the coolthings.
But then at the end of that arcin Night of the Sentinels, part
2, when Morph goes missing,wolverine is one of the most
(00:25):
emotional characters when itcomes to the loss of that
teammate.
So they're kind of playing onthat physicality and that
emotionality.
Once again, welcome to FandomPortal's podcast, where
(00:47):
curiosity meets community incelebration of all things geek.
We build connections on everyepisode by delving into your
favorite fandom questions in thetime it takes you to walk your
beloved dog.
Now, today's episode, ladiesand gentlemen, is a solo episode
hosted by me, aaron.
Now, the question that we arelooking at today for this solo
episode is one that is veryclose to my heart.
(01:08):
Now I want you to pictureyourself on a Saturday morning.
There.
You've got no troubles in theworld.
You walk down into the kitchen,you pour yourself a bowl of
cereal with your favoritepajamas on.
You go into your lounge room,you sit down on the floor, you
turn on the tv and who appearson your tv screen?
But wolverine in the x-menanimated series cartoon.
(01:32):
Now that story is probably veryfamiliar to a lot of listeners
and it's kind of the reason whythis episode kind of was given
life and the like.
The way that we came about thisepisode was because on our
threads we posted a couple ofquestions about people's
favorite Marvel characters andWolverine ranked pretty highly
amongst those characters.
And also, after doing someresearch, we found that for
(01:56):
people over the age of 30 ormillennials, wolverine was the
most popular comic bookcharacter.
He's also very highlyrecognized.
Wolverine was the most popularcomic book character.
He's also very highlyrecognized.
He's maintained this popularityacross a 40-year generation,
across multiple audiences,across multiple types of media.
And it begged the question andmade me wonder why exactly is
(02:16):
this character of Wolverine sopopular amongst the generations
of people?
So by the end of this podcastyou will be able to know exactly
how Marvel turned Wolverineinto a single issue subplot,
into a franchise fan favorite.
You'll be able to know whatmade Wolverine so appealing for
those 45 years to all of itsfans and which iconic storyline
(02:37):
solidified Wolverine'spopularity over the decades of
media.
Now, in the back end of thispodcast, we're actually going to
be recommending some of thetitles that wolverine stars in,
as recommended by our fandomportals community.
So stick around to the end ofthat.
Those details will also be inthe show notes for you to look
at as well.
A big, special thanks to ourfandom portals community for
(02:57):
this one, this episode.
It does come off the back ofyour requests and it also has
quite a bit of information andstatistics based on some of the
comments on our threads andinstagram posts as well.
Let's get started on ourquestion on how did the
character of wolverine get sopopular in the first place?
Okay, so our journey takes usback to 1974, where richard
(03:20):
nixon is stepping down aspresident, abber is taking the
world by storm with waterloo andsteven spielberg is about to
make his directorial debut withthe Sugarland Express.
Amidst all this, anunforgettable character floors
his way into the comic bookworld.
Enter Wolverine, making hisdebut in the Incredible Hulk 180
and 181,.
This ferocious Canadiangovernment agent with floors of
(03:43):
adamantium instantly grabbedreaders' attention.
But we ask the question why?
Now?
My research has broken thisdown into three basic reasons as
to why Wolverine was so popularduring this time, and I think
before we get into those threereasons, we'll talk about some
of the initial impressions thatthe community had on Wolverine
when he was first given to thecomic book readers all those
(04:06):
years ago.
So overall, when readersinitially saw Wolverine, they
saw a gritty, enigmaticcharacter with a mysterious past
and a very fierce demeanor.
He was unpredictable.
His depth as a character wasslowly and gradually revealed
over many, many years and thatsort of led to his appeal as
well.
He's become one of Marvel'smost beloved and endearing
(04:27):
superheroes and he was createdby Len Wein and John Romita Sr,
and those two basically laid thegroundwork for this iconic
character and for hispersonality over the years,
which evolved and expanded uponnumerous different writers and
artists throughout the decadesof his comic book history.
Now the look of Wolverine isdefinitely very identifiable.
(04:48):
He takes lots of inspirationfrom the wildlife obviously
named the Wolverine.
He's got an animalistic natureand fighting style which he drew
from the ferocity of the actualWolverine he is named after.
He also has some cinematicinfluences as well, most notably
the earlier iterations ofWolverine in the comic books
(05:08):
that he appears in.
He takes a lot of inspirationfrom Clint Eastwood, even some
of the lines that is writtenfrom Wolverine are taken or
adjusted directly from someClint Eastwood movies.
Most notably the character ofDirty Harry.
His demeanor and hisno-nonsense approach is two of
the things that was taken fromthat character itself.
(05:30):
Now, another important thingabout Wolverine that you should
know is that he has Canadianroots.
Now, at the time of hisintroduction, the diversity of
characters in the Marveluniverse wasn't there and as a
result of that, marvel decidedto diversify their roster of
superheroes in an attempt tobroaden their international
(05:50):
audience.
Now, obviously, with thesuccess of marvel uk, which was
a uh, a sister company to marvelin the us, they decided to then
branch out into canada byintroducing the wolverine as a
canadian.
Now, as we said, he firstappeared in the Incredible Hulk
comics and that was where wefirst got our introduction to
(06:11):
this character of Wolverine, andthat was all the way back in
the 1970s.
So the first thing that I thinkand what I've researched that
has made Wolverine so popularover these years, is that he
fits a particular characterarchetype.
Now he is the broodinganti-hero and at the time this
was a refreshing change to theboy scout kind of heroes that
(06:33):
were around during the time.
And by his introduction in themid 70s to the time that it was
uh, popularized in the in the1980s.
You can think of lots ofdifferent action movie heroes
that build this archetype.
A lot of the ArnoldSchwarzenegger sort of
characters in movies fit thisarchetype.
It was a robust figure ofmanliness, but at the same time
(06:54):
this archetype had a strongemotional and psychological
damage which made him vulnerableas well.
So it was that pairing of thephysically strong and the
psychologically weakened sort ofcharacter that really drew
people to him when they firstsaw him.
Now, when he was introduced inthe Incredible Hulk comics in
number 180, he only appeared inthe final panel as an adversary,
(07:20):
a Canadian government agenttrying to stop the Hulk.
And then in 181, released inNovember of 1974, he actually
featured in the whole entirecomic book and everybody got to
see him in his finest formsthrough combat and also
obviously displaying those clawsthat he's famous for as well,
(07:44):
with his rebellious and broodingarchetype.
He has exhibited this throughmany, many years in his comic
book history, and it was one ofthe first things that audiences
were able to garner from hisbackstory, as he was a character
that was introduced with verylittle background to him.
One particular example is allthe way through the Dark Phoenix
saga, most notably in X-Men 133, which was released in the
(08:08):
1980s, and During this episodeWolverine finds himself locked
in a battle against theformidable Hellfire Club, and
inside a dark and forebodinghalls of this Hellfire Club lair
Wolverine instincts scream withrebellion and he also is
fiercely determined to protectand save his X-Men counterparts,
(08:30):
who have all been captured.
This is one of the very firstissues that Wolverine appears
solo on the cover of a Marvelcomic and it is very, very
valuable today if you can getyour hands on a rated copy of
X-Men 133.
Now, during this issue, you cansee Wolverine basically having
a John Wick or a Taken momentwhere he's taking out lots of
(08:52):
different enemies from theHellfire Club.
He had lots of panels drawnshowing him just eviscerating
his foes, using stealth and alldifferent types of strategy,
cunning and willpower just tooverthrow these oppressors, and
that was probably one of thefirst times that Wolverine
really took center stage in thatmanner.
(09:13):
Beforehand, during the darkphoenix saga, he was very much a
sub sort of character, with thecreators of the, the x-men at
the time really preferring thecharacter of nightcrawler, and
you can kind of see that in theissues leading up to this, with
the, the arc of wolverine or the, the change in roster of x-men
starting in the 90s sort ofissues of the X-Men, but by this
(09:36):
time by 133 they definitelysort of solidified this new team
of X-Men, most notably likeColossus, storm, nightcrawler
and Wolverine, all introduced atthe same time to diversify, as
we said, that um, that roster ofMarvel superheroes into an
international sort of brand,colossus being from Russia,
nightcrawler from germany, stormfrom africa and etc.
(09:58):
But with wolverine he was thenable to go through this hellfire
club all on his own, as aone-man army.
He was ignoring, he would oftenignore the cautious strategies
of his teammates and he wouldkind of go against their, their
ideologies, refused to bow toauthority and he'd combine his
raw determination with hisambition and his loyalty to turn
(10:21):
the tides of battle and itcemented his reputation as a
mutant that kind of followed hisown rules, which cemented his
spot as a, as that, anti-herosort of character.
Wolverine also sort of standsup in the face of overwhelming
odds, which is a very attractivetrait for readers of comic
books, and he reminds us that heis more than just a superhero.
He's kind of like a lone wolfthat refuses to be tamed.
(10:43):
But in the same stance he'llstand up for what he believes in
, whether it's going to hurt himor not.
This is coming off the back ofthe fact that the character
stands at a whopping five foottwo or five foot three.
He's one of the shortest marvelsuperhero characters and that
was intentionally done by thecreators of wolverine.
They were definitely consciousof the fact that he was going to
(11:04):
be a little guy with a bigattitude and that also kind of
really impacted the audiencewhen they read him as well.
He kind of stood out from thebunch as well, being an
adversarial character to Cyclopswith his attraction to Jean and
during this Dark Phoenix sagathat really kind of came about
with the destructive force ofthe Phoenix just sort of tearing
(11:24):
through a lot of the X-Men whenthey were forced to face her,
which came just after thisHellfire arc as well.
Back in the 1980s it was issue137.
It was written by Chrisclaremont and illustrated by
john burn at the time and thissort of unfolding of wolverine's
emotions sort of came to theforefront in prior issues.
He definitely bonded with jeangray and been entangled in
(11:47):
almost like a love triangle withcyclops, which added like a
poignant layer to to hischaracter.
During the storyline of 137,wolverine grapples not only with
gene's transformation into thedark phoenix, but also his
conflicted feelings towardscyclops, who previously he had
been very adversarial towards oruh teammates, but also like
very quippy with him in terms ofquestioning his leadership
(12:10):
decisions.
As it's often stated thatcyclops is a bit of a boy scout
in this sort of regard, andWolverine was the antithesis of
his character in that result aswell and by this time X-Men fans
had read a hundred or so issueswith Cyclops being the
one-dimensional character thathe was and seeing something
completely different or goingagainst that.
That sort of character was veryattractive for them people as
well.
(12:31):
During this Dark Phoenix saga,though at the the climax of this
saga between issue 137 and 138,wolverine definitely shows some
emotional vulnerability, whichwas uh different for a character
with his tough exterior at thetime, which was attractive to
people too, and this sort ofrugged demeanor belays a
profound sense of of loss andregret, and he navigates the
(12:54):
aftermath of Gene's sacrifice ina very raw and emotional way,
and again that, combined withhis physicality, is just a
combination that really stuckwith the fans.
It portrays him as a deeplyemotional being who struggles
with love, who struggles withloss.
He has complex dynamics withinhis internal psychology.
He has complex human and mutantrelationships and it enhances
(13:19):
his character, making him morerelatable and compelling beyond
just the fierce battles.
So he had the cool exterior, hewas a cool character to see and
he was also that emotionallyvulnerable character as well.
So it paired the two reallywell and it was one of the first
times that was donesuccessfully in comic books
during the 1980s.
He's definitely very loyal andprotective as well.
(13:39):
During the mutant massacrestoryline in uncanny x-men 205,
published in 1986, we see hisadamantium claw berserker rage
unleash for his fierce loyaltyof the x-men.
During this, this storyline,deep beneath the streets of new
york, thelocks, a community ofoutcast mutants, face
annihilation at the hands of themerciless Marauders led by Mr
(14:01):
Sinister, these killers.
They showed no mercy as theyhunt down the defenseless
Morlocks, and Wolverine came inalongside Colossus and
Nightcrawler and Shadowcat, alsoknown as Kitty Pryde, with this
adrenaline-pumping, claw-readyjump-into-the-fray-at-any-action
and he was just driven by thisunyielding determination to
protect these mutants.
These Morlocks and if you don'tknow, x-men lore Morlocks are
(14:24):
the mutants that reside belowNew York City and they live
there basically because theywould undergo prosecution by the
general public, because they'rethe kind of mutants that have
physical differences as opposedto ones that they could hide in
plain sight.
So they made their communitydown below the surface and
Wolverine, being loyal to hiskind, went down with the X-Men
(14:44):
to help these guys out after theMarauders were trying to
destroy them.
Basically, the battle duringthese issues was chaotic.
It was brutal and hissharpclaws just tore through a lot of
the marauders with deadlyprecision.
Wolverine actually sufferedsome serious injuries during the
heat of this battle, but hestill refused to retreat and he
stood firm during theseoverwhelming odds.
(15:05):
So over the course of hispublication you saw wolverine
just have these moments where hestood up against overwhelming
forces and it was almost likethose, those climactic scenes at
the end of a lot of story arcswhere the lone hero would stand
against the army and thatoppressive force.
And this was an attractivethought as well, especially
during the 1980s where there wasa lot of sort of talk about
about the end of the Vietnam warbeing in the 1970s and 1975 and
(15:29):
also the long ongoing cold warwith the Soviet Union that ran
all the way up until 1991.
So the little guy standing upagainst the big oppressor was
definitely something that wasgoing right through America at
the time and Wolverine was acharacter that sort of allowed
people to embody that in afictional character.
(15:49):
So to summarize that sort ofpoint, he was definitely
emotionally very complex, but healso had these really awesome
moments through his publicationthat allowed him to seem like he
was really cool in front of thereaders and he was slowly
revealed to the audience, whichbrings us to our next point.
So when he was first revealed,the only thing that people knew
about him was that he was aCanadian operative who had roots
(16:11):
in the government of Canada andhe was part of Canadian
intelligence.
He was asked to then go andtake down the Incredible Hulk.
Through those issues as well,it was revealed that he had a
mutant ability to have hisregenerative healing factor,
which allowed him to rapidlyheal from his injuries and
survive wounds that wouldusually be fatal to normal
(16:32):
humans.
This also allowed him to standfirm in the face of incredible
danger, which made him also oneof the first X-Men to sort of
jump in or do the crazy thing orbe thrown into the fray at a
moment's notice because he wouldheal straight after and fans
kind of kept reading to see whathe would endure, what he would
put up with and what he was ableto withstand as a result of his
(16:52):
healing factor, which was coolto read as well.
Now, one of the most significantfactors of Wolverine's
character was his adamantiumclaws and again, this was
released very, very slowly,almost drip fed the comic book
reading community so everybodywould tune into the X-Men every
kind of week because they wantedto know more about this
character was doing all thiscool stuff because a lot of the
(17:13):
other characters like Storm andColossus and Nightcrawler that
were revealed at the time theirbackstories were pretty well
fleshed out, but this loner,sort of enigmatic, mysterious
character of Wolverine, therewasn't much known about him at
all.
So you saw that he had theseadamantium claws and at the time
of his, his introduction it wasvery much assumed that those
claws were part of his glovesand they were retractable up and
down through those gloves.
But one of the first revealsthat you kind of see during the
(17:37):
run of the X-Men, after he wasintroduced in X-Men 98, was that
those claws were actually partof his physiology.
They came in and out of hishands and that was just another
wondering point for thecommunity.
As that was revealed that washis mutant ability.
And then that was revealed inX-Men issue 98 that was released
in 1976 and it was alsorevealed during that time that
(17:59):
they were this, this coatedcoated bone claw, and the
coating was obviously theadamantium, this rare and
indestructible material.
Over the years as well, in 1979with X-Men 117, it was revealed
that Wolverine actually had somemilitary background experience,
with slight mentions of thisWeapon X program being puddled
(18:20):
through his history and hispublication and the actual
bonding of the adamantium.
That Weapon X program thateverybody knows he was a part of
didn't actually get fullyfleshed out until the 1990s, in
1991.
Part of didn't actually getfully fleshed out until the
1990s, in 1991, and it wasrevealed in Marvel Presents
issue number 72 to 84.
That issue, weapon X, or that,that small publication, weapon X
(18:42):
, was one of, and still remainsto be one of, the most famous
and exhilarating reads ofWolverine canon to date.
Weapon X was written by BarryWindsor Smith and illustrated by
Sam Keith and the comic issuesort of took on a more sort of
psychedelic aesthetic and thestorytelling perspective takes a
lot from the third person inthe room, I guess you could say
(19:04):
so.
It's taken from the perspectiveof a lot of these scientists
who are observing Wolverine as atest subject.
So these people who are readingthese comics back in the 1970s
and 1980s, when they get to thisissue in 1991, when it starts
to come out, you can really sortof see the wandering and the
slow development of thatcharacter and you kind of for
the first time see whatWolverine went through and it
(19:27):
actually depicts some prettytraumatizing scenes.
There's a torture thatWolverine goes through actually
depicts some pretty traumatizingscenes.
So there's a torture thatWolverine goes through and that
also sort of highlights thepersonality of Wolverine
throughout the earlier issuesthat he's been a part of as well
.
It kind of explains that traumathat he's gone through as well
and it really sort of cementedthe fact that he was incredibly
flawed, whilst beingperceptively perfect with his
(19:49):
healing factor, but obviouslypsychologically damaged as well.
So that slow drip feeding ofWolverine definitely was
accelerated in 1988 whenWolverine was able to get his
solo series and that came offthe back of a series that aired
in September of 1982.
It was the solo issue calledWolverine.
It was written by ChrisClaremont and Frank Miller and
(20:11):
this really established hisorigins in terms of him battling
with his animalistic nature andit showed the emotionality of
Wolverine, sort ofpsychologically processing the
berserker and the rage traits inhim and him coming to terms
with having that part of him andbeing inside of him and it
releasing at a moment's noticeand explore the sort of avenues
(20:31):
of him and it releasing at amoment's notice and explore the
sort of avenues of himcontrolling that and the
consequences that thatanimalistic nature kind of has
on his life.
This is the issue wherewolverine does take some time in
japan and he meets his, hislove interest, mariko, and he
goes to battle with a ninjaorganization known as the hand.
Now he goes to japan to seekand regain his lost honor, uh,
(20:52):
in order to win the hand ofMariko who suffers at the hands
of her tyrannical father and anabusive husband as well.
This storyline also emphasizedWolverine's sympathetic side and
also going to the limits toundergo samurai training in an
attempt to tame his animalinstincts.
This was explored further hisrelationship with Mariko in 1983
(21:22):
in X-Men issue 172 and 173.
And he actually ended upengaging and marrying Mariko
during this time, which alsogave a layer of depth to him as
well.
So Wolverine's origins werefinally 100% revealed all the
way in 2001 and 2002.
Now that's 45 years after hisinitial inception, where readers
of Wolverine had slowly beendrip-fed this backstory of the
(21:45):
character, going from therevelation of his claws being a
part of his anatomy to hishealing factor, to his
relationships, to his ongoingrivalry with Sabretooth during
his solo series in 1988, to histime with Alpha Flight, to his
time in the Weapon X program,all of these things had been
revealed.
But things prior to and hisactual childhood were never
(22:08):
really revealed until theOrigins series, which was a
six-part miniseries released in2001.
It was written by Bill Jemisand Joe Quesadilla, it was
illustrated by Andy Cubitt andit explored Wolverine's full
origin story, revealing toreaders that his name was not in
fact Logan, it is James Howlett.
It explored his childhood inCanada, where he was a sickly
(22:30):
and weakened young man, and histransformation into Wolverine,
where it shed light on hismysterious past.
So because he was so incrediblywell written in terms of the
revelation of his backstory, itallowed readers to really stay
engaged with his character overgenerations of his publication
and those readers that sort oftuned in in 1975 when he was
(22:51):
first introduced into theUncanny X-Men, stuck around and
stuck around until in the 1990sa lot of his backstory was
really fully revealed and healso was a plot device during
this time where any comic bookthat was underselling Wolverine
would be used to upsell thosecomic books through guest
(23:13):
appearances, especially duringthe 80s when Marvel was very
flippant with where they wouldput their characters for a guest
spot, and Wolverine wasdefinitely used in that way to
bolster sales at times as well,wolverine having appeared in
different comic books, not justX-Men and his solo series, but
he also appears in FantasticFour and thegers as well.
So when we did our threadsresearch, a lot of what we've
(23:35):
talked about so far has beencomic book information, and when
we did our threads research, wedid a poll that asked people in
our community how they firstmet wolverine, as I was curious
to see how people of differentages interacted with this
character, having him been along-standing Marvel fixture and
having a 45-year history, and34% of our community actually
(23:56):
said that they first encounteredWolverine in a comic book.
So with that, the most popularway that people had come to meet
Wolverine was actually the sameway that I personally met
Wolverine and 45% of ourcommunity actually did as well,
and it was through the X-Menanimated series cartoon.
Now, it was a very popularseries in the 1990s.
(24:17):
If you haven't seen it thenyou've definitely probably heard
of X-Men 97 at the time of thispodcast recording.
That was a very popular show onDisney Plus.
That was based on the 90scartoon which released in 91, 92
, 93 and that cartoon basicallytakes all the great things about
Wolverine that the comic bookssort of laid foundations for and
(24:38):
they put it into this show thatwas based for kids as well.
So obviously the readers ofthose comic books, the ones that
fell in love with the genre,grew up to work in the industry,
created this cartoon and reallydid the character justice as
well.
So he was also very mysteriousin that cartoon.
He often was considered theloner as well.
(24:58):
He has more solo episodesduring the five-season run of
that show than any othercharacter.
There is lots of time presentedto Wolverine due to his
popularity in the comic booksand he was also presented as
that physical presence.
The very first episode that yousee him in where he's
eviscerating Sentinels in Nightof.
The very first episode that yousee him in where he's
eviscerating Sentinels in Nightof the Sentinels, part 1, season
1, episode 1.
He's tearing these Sentinelsapart, ripping robots limb from
(25:20):
limb, he's sneaking into variousdifferent government agencies.
He's doing all of the coolthings, but then at the end of
that arc in Night of theSentinels, part 2, when Morph
goes missing or allegedly diesoffscreen.
Wolverine is one of the mostemotional characters when it
comes to the loss of thatteammate.
So they're kind of playing onthat physicality and that
(25:41):
emotionality once again,allowing people to see his
amazing abilities but also seehis emotional vulnerability as
well.
Now Wolverine was voiced by CarlDodd, or Cal Dodd, during this
run of the cartoon and he wasable to capture Wolverine's
character's toughness,vulnerability, humor and just
(26:02):
the complexity of his emotionalrange in such a unique and
amazing way.
His performance not onlybrought Wolverine to life in the
animated series, but it reallycontributed significantly to his
enduring popularity in popularculture.
He was able to give voice tothe catchphrase that everybody
had listened to or, sorry, readover all their years of reading
comic books.
You know he's popularizedcatchphrase.
(26:24):
Like he calls people bub.
The lines that he says from hisfirst solo run, written by
Chris Claremont in 1982, whereit was introduced that he always
says I'm the best there is atwhat I do, but what I do best
isn't very nice.
These all were iterated by CalDodd during the, the animated
series and everybody that.
It's almost like that cartoonseries.
(26:44):
For us, having read those comicbooks, was like when you see an
easter egg in a Marvel MCUmovie.
Now it was just.
You see those things brought tolife for the first time and
you're just amazed that it'shappened on the screen.
And for it to be done in such agruff and visceral way by Cal
Dodd was just absolutely amazingas well.
Wolverine was also popularduring this series because his
(27:05):
personal vendettas werepublicized pretty well.
His emotional battles withSabretooth and his relentless
pursuit of justice against theseenemies was put on screen for
everybody to see.
I think by the sixth episodeWolverine actually so he goes
undercover as a truck driver toinvestigate a string of mutant
disappearances and over thecourse of that episode he
(27:27):
actually finds that a lot ofdifferent villains are kind of
involved and he confronts them,defeats them, and that's just
another one of those momentswhere Wolverine's given the
spotlight to do the thing thatnobody else wants to do.
So obviously the third way thatpeople have interacted with
Wolverine over their years orfrom our threads poll, we found
that 21% of people first metWolverine in the X-Men movie
(27:51):
that was made in the early 2000s.
Now this movie and thecharacter of Wolverine brought
to life by the amazing andAustralian Hugh Jackman is a
favorite of mine.
It was probably one of themovies that I rented the most
from Blockbuster Video when weused to go there and when it
first came out you'd see the TVsin the corner of the video
(28:14):
stores playing the trailers andI just saw Wolverine.
I saw the claws coming out forthe first time and it was on a
live action person and it wasjust something that you had to
follow through and watch.
And Hugh Jackman takes on thatcharacter of Wolverine so
perfectly.
They obviously highlighted hischaracter in the movie as one of
the mains and Hugh Jackman'splayed that role now for a
number of years I think it'sclose to 24 or 25 years and he
(28:36):
he just does a stunning jobthroughout the whole thing with
the people who have viewed hisperformances.
They've also gone and put ontothe big screen some of
everybody's favorite comic bookmoments from wolverine as well,
with his weapon x history beingshown in x-men 2 and the old man
logan storyline beingexemplified in the incredibly
(28:57):
moving piece known as lo.
You can see Wolverine as adisheveled and older version of
himself, dealing with a lifefull of violence and the
consequences that have led tothat life of violence as well,
and it's just a really sort ofmoving piece and a stunning
goodbye to the character ofWolverine prior to him retaking
(29:17):
up the role in 2024 to staralongside Ryan Reynolds in
Deadpool and Wolverine.
But to summarize, over this,wolverine has been extremely
popular over his 45 years forthree main reasons that I've
found.
He was a unique character atthe time, playing that brutish
archetype that we've seenemulated so many more times
since that iteration.
He was emotionally complex andalso physically strong, and he
(29:40):
was relatable to a lot ofdifferent audience members at
the time when he was introducedin the comic books back in the
1970s and 80s.
Secondly, he was slowlyrevealed to the audience members
, his backstory not fullyfleshed out, giving those
writers time to develop thestory that was most poignant for
the character, to allow hismysterious nature to draw
(30:03):
readers in to find out moreabout this character every time
they wanted to find out moreabout Wolverine.
They also used him sparingly tostart with, but then as his
popularity grew and they neededhim in other issues, they used
him in other issues and thatsort of grew the fan base of
Wolverine as well, that sort ofgrew the fan base of Wolverine
as well.
And third and finally,wolverine was part of some of
(30:23):
the most epic storylines inMarvel history.
He also got some really greatmoments during his tenure as an
X-Man and he was just reallyhighlighted through lots of
different mediums as well,whether it be comic book, tv and
movies.
Wolverine was a staple forthese in order to draw that
(30:44):
popular sort of appeal.
So at the start of this podcast,I told you that our threads
community recommended someamazing storylines for you to
dive into if you're a Wolverinefan, and I'm going to go through
them for you right now.
So a lot of these werementioned during the podcast.
So if you're interested in them, here are the exact issues that
you can look at and read to geta really good count of what
(31:04):
Wolverine was like across theyears of his development.
So the first thing that I wouldrecommend, and what was
recommended by our threadscommunity, was the 1980 series,
issue 129 to 138.
It really shows the crux andthe end of that Dark Phoenix
saga where Jason Wingrade of theHellfire Club is infiltrating
Jean Grey psionically.
(31:24):
She's slowly going down thatrabbit hole and moving towards
the Dark Phoenix and Wolverine'srole.
During this powerful sort ofmoment in X-Men, history kind of
highlights his loyalty, hisresilience, his moral complexity
.
He has some really greatmoments as we described in X-Men
133 with the Hellfire Club.
Some really great moments as wedescribed in X-Men 133 with the
Hellfire Club We'll sayevisceration.
(31:45):
The second piece of Wolverinematerial that is recommended by
our Instagram and threadscommunity is the 1982 limited
series that was written by ChrisClaremont and illustrated by
Frank Miller.
We talked about this one.
It was when he was in Japan.
It shows his inner strugglebetween the savage instincts and
his sense of honor.
Definitely go and pick that up.
You can get it as a tradepaperback.
Those links will be in the shownotes below for all of these as
(32:06):
well, guys.
The Weapon X series from MarvelComics presents issue 72 to 84,
written by Barry Windsor Smith.
That was a 1991 production.
It delves into his torturedpast, revealing the brutal
experiments that were done onhim.
You get to see how thatadamantium was secured to his
(32:27):
skeleton and the psychedelicartwork that sort of accompanied
it as well was very much comingout of the 80s into the early
90s, and it's just a reallygreat sort of comic book piece
staple to all Wolverine lovers.
One that I actually haven't readand is going to be homework for
me and I'll probably post onsocial media as well.
My reactions to this isWolverine Enemy of State.
Now, this was made in 2004 and2005,.
Written by Mark Miller,illustrated by John Romita Jr,
(32:50):
who was the son of the creatorof Wolverine, and it shows a
brainwashed Wolverine as he goesup against his allies in the
Marvel Universe, showing hisfight for control against that
manipulation as well.
So looking forward to that readand I'll keep you posted on our
socials, which is also in theshow notes below, to see how
that one turns out as well Veryhighly recommended by our
threads community.
(33:10):
When they found out I hadn'tread it, they definitely ensured
that I did and I will.
The last one that I willrecommend and definitely think
everybody should read is Old manLogan.
That I will recommend anddefinitely think everybody
should read is Old man Logan.
That was written in 2008 to2009 by Mark Miller, again this
time illustrated by SteveMcNiven, and it's the dystopian
future presented in the Loganmovie.
(33:30):
It's the inspiration for thatmovie.
So if you loved the movie Logan, definitely pick up this copy
as well.
Wolverine is retired duringthis and explores those themes
of redemption, of thatconsequence of a life filled
with battles for the characterof Wolverine.
It's definitely something thatyou should pick up if you are a
Wolverine fan and especially ifyou're a fan of Logan.
That has been our episode ofFandom Portals to answer the
(33:54):
question as to why Wolverine isso popular, why that rebel rose
from being that subplotcharacter into one of marvel's
most famous faces.
If you have liked this episode,if you've learned something
from this episode, then pleasedo not hesitate to go into our
show notes and find a wolverinecomic book that you can read
yourself and talk to us about iton our social media, our
(34:16):
threads, our instagram, evenemail us if you have something
that you want to say.
If, if you read something cool,come and talk to us here at
Fandom Portals.
We want to hear from you.
I personally love Wolverine as acharacter.
I fell in love with him as ayoung child and I still love him
to this day.
I cannot wait to go and see himon any sort of media that he's
presented in.
He's a character that is justso complex and just really great
(34:37):
to dive into.
He is written by lots ofdifferent authors and drawn by
lots of different artists, butthey still always capture that
fundamental brilliance thatbrings Wolverine into
everybody's hearts.
He's a great character and Ireally, really hope you guys
enjoy reading some of the thingsthat he is in as well, if you
(34:58):
haven't already.
So that's been me, aaron, hereat Fandom Portals.
I can't wait to see you guysnext week and remember, as
always, we're connecting withrespect here and we will catch
you next week.
Thank you you.
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