Times have been tough for Wolverine over the past few years. The The Avengers have become the face of the company, with the aid of the Disney corporation. As the film rights to the X-Men still belong to 20th Century Fox, their importance has been downplayed in the comics. The age of the mutants has finally ended. It has been replaced by the age of "metahumans that are legally distinct from mutants."
Wolverine is about to enter a new era of uncertainty. Hugh Jackman has had his final outing as the character (in Logan), meaning that a new actor will likely take over the role in future X-Men movies. In honour of Jackman's seventeen years of history with the character, we are here today to look at the life of one of Marvel's greatest characters. From his creator's quest for cash to the true meaning of his name.
Here are 20 Things You Never Knew About Wolverine!
20. Wolverine's Creator Barely Makes Any Money From The Character
As many fans know, Wolverine did not debut in the pages of an X-Men comic; he actually started out as an enemy of the Hulk. Wolverine first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #180, when the Hulk crossed over into Canada, and the two ended up in a three-way battle with the Wendigo.
Wolverine was created by Len Wein, who wrote the two issues of The Incredible Hulk where he first appeared. Wolverine would later the X-Men, where he would achieve mainstream success. He would become a major merchandise seller for Marvel, and appear in numerous cartoons and video games.
So how much did Len Wein make from Wolverine? $350 for the issues where he first appeared... and that was it until The Wolverine was released. This was due to the fact that Marvel automatically owns all the rights to any character that appears in their comics. It was due to these contract issues that many of Marvel's biggest names left the company in the early '90s and formed Image Comics.
19. The Other Wolverine...
Hugh Jackman has played Wolverine in nine movies to date. The first time he played the role was in the original X-Men movie, which was released seventeen years ago. That is a long time to play any single character, and it is a tribute to Jackman's professionalism that he never gave up the role, even after some of the terrible entries in the series. It will be a long time before another actor leaves such an impression on the character.
While Hugh Jackman is known for playing Wolverine on the big screen, there is another actor who has also played the character on numerous occasions. Steve Blum has played Wolverine in at least twenty different projects, ranging from video games, theme park attractions and various animated series. He has even been nominated for BTVA awards, due to his excellent portrayal of Wolverine.
Basically, Steve Blum is to Wolverine what Mark Hamill is to the Joker.
18. He Might Be An Actual Wolerine (The Animal)
Wolverine's true origins used to be one of the big mysteries surrounding the character. It was established that he had no memories of his life before he was found by the Hudson family. As time went on, numerous clues concerning Wolverine's life were revealed. He fought in several major conflicts as a soldier, including the second World War. Wolverine had his skeleton coated with adamantium, as part of the Weapon X program, before he escaped and lost his memory. Wolverine's true backstory was revealed in 2001, in a series called Origin. His real name is James Howlett and he actually grew up as a spoilt rich kid.
While Wolverine has been established as being a mutant, this wasn't always going to be the case. At one point, Chris Claremont wanted to change his species. Wolverine was going to be an actual wolverine (the animal), that had been genetically altered by the High Evolutionary to resemble a humn. A few subtle clues about his true heritage were mentioned in early issues of Uncanny X-Men. This storyline was denied by Stan Lee himself.
17. Wolverine Defeated Lobo With The Power Of Democracy!
There is a misconception that DC and Marvel comics are rivals. This is not the case. The two companies have done numerous crossovers with each other over the years. These mostly involved team-ups of heroes vs villains (like Captain America ing forces to fight the Joker and Red Skull).
In 1996, DC and Marvel announced plans for a crossover series that would pit their characters against each other. The results of each fight would be decided via a fan vote. Wolverine was intended to fight Lobo.
Wolverine is a badass character to be sure, but Lobo can go toe-to-toe with Superman. Lobo should have absolutely destroyed Wolverine. The fan vote was overwhelmingly in Wolverine's favour, however, as he is the more popular character. When the fight between the two characters started, it immediately went behind a bar, with Wolverine emerging the victor. The fight wasn't shown, as the writers couldn't think of a way to have Wolverine realistically beat Lobo.
16. The Anita Blake Crossover Cover
Spider-Man is considered to be Marvel's most popular character. Wolverine was the 2nd most popular character for a long time (especially in the '90s), though that is likely no longer the case, due to the Marvel Cinematic Universe bringing The Avengers into mainstream success. During the height of Wolverine's popularity, it was not unusual for him to appear in several different comic books a month. He was even a member of both the New Avengers and the X-Men at once. As such, Wolverine used to appear on a lot of the covers of Marvel's comics.
During the 30th anniversary of Wolverine's debut, Marvel ran a promotion where every one of their comics had a variant cover that featured Wolverine. One series that had a Wolverine cover was Anita Blake. This was a comic book adaptation of a series of Buffy/Twilight-style novels, where a non-descript yet somehow simultaneously beautiful woman goes on dates with a range of handsome monsters. Wolverine appeared on one of the covers, which also included a note saying "Wolverine does not Appear in this issue".
15. The Smoking Ban
Wolverine used to be one of the biggest smokers in all of Marvel comics. This was actually unusual, as most superheroes don't smoke, as their series are usually geared towards being sold to children. Wolverine was often shown smoking cigars in the various X-Men comic books, and later, the movie series. This was kept to the comics & movies, with no smoking being shown in the animated series or video games. It could be argued that it is fine for Wolverine to smoke, as his healing factor would prevent any long term damage.
This all changed in 2001 when Marvel's editor-in-chief imposed a company-wide smoking ban on all characters. Joe Quesada was the man responsible for this ruling, as he had lost a grandfather to lung cancer. As such, Wolverine finally gave up on his cigars. This also became a retroactive change, as old covers that depicted Wolverine smoking would have the cigar edited out.
14. The Australian Wolverine
The X-Men arcade game is still loved by many fans to this day. It is a beat-em-up game, where you play as a member of the X-Men, as they fight their way through hordes of Sentinels. You can also play X-Men with your friends and team up to defeat Magneto and his cronies. Some versions of the arcade machine even allowed for six players at once!
What most fans of the game don't realise is that the arcade version of X-Men was based on a pilot episode for a cartoon that wasn't picked up. It was called X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, and it focused on a teenage Kitty Pryde, as she ed the second generation of the team. This episode can easily be found online. In Pryde of the X-Men, Wolverine had a thick Australian accent, despite the fact that he is Canadian in the comic books.
Wolverine's Aussie accent would later go on to become unintentional foreshadowing, as he would go on to be portrayed by an Australian man in the X-Men movie series.
13. Wolverine The Misfit
Hugh Jackman has played Wolverine in nine movies. He will most likely forever be associated with the character. This goes both ways, as the next actor to play Wolverine will have to live up to the standard set by Jackman's performance.
While Hugh Jackman was the first man to be cast as Wolverine in the movies, he was not the original choice to play the character. According to various sources, the first choice to play Wolverine was Dougray Scott. Jackman had to replace him at the last minute, as Scott was working on Mission Impossible 2 and couldn't get out of it in time in order to do X-Men.
Along with Dougray Scott and Hugh Jackman, another man was approached for the role. Glenn Danzig was also asked if he was interested in playing Wolverine. Danzig refused the role and has gone out of his way to criticise Hugh Jackman's performance of the character.
12. Wolverine: Apocalypse
One of the many complaints about X-Men: Apocalypse involves Wolverine's presence in the movie. Several of the X-Men are kidnapped by the forces of William Stryker. They are pursued by Cyclops, Jean Grey and Nightcrawler, who attempt to free them. While exploring Stryker's base, they just happen to come across Wolverine in a cage. They free him and use his rampage as a distraction to free the captured of the X-Men. While Wolverine's killing spree is certainly entertaining, it does feel very forced. The whole segment seems like they forgot that they needed to add Hugh Jackman to the film, so they stuck him in at the last minute.
This was not always meant to be the case. During development of the film, Wolverine was intended to have a much bigger role in the story. He was originally going to take over as the leader of the young of the X-Men and train them for battle. This storyline was removed, as the creators felt that it took away from Mystique's role in the film.
11. Wolverine Loves Hercules
Wolverine has had several love interests over the years. The main one is Mariko Yashida, whom Logan first met in Japan. The two fell in love, even though Mariko's family opposed the relationship. Mariko managed to take control of her clan but was killed by The Hand before Wolverine could save her.
Along with Mario, Wolverine has long held a deep attraction to Jean Grey, though that was unrequited. In alternate universes & timelines, Wolverine has been in relationships with women like Mystique, Red Sonja and Storm.
One of the most well-known alternate versions of Wolverine appeared in the pages of X-Treme X-Men. This version of the character is bisexual and is in a relationship with Hercules. The two of them kissing in the pages of X-Treme X-Men #10 actually made its way onto several news sites. Hercules is confirmed to be bisexual in the regular Marvel continuity, which has lead to speculation that Wolverine is too.